High School For Percy

Swim Team

Alice's POV

It had been four months or so since the start of school, and swim team was supposed to start up soon. I loved being on the swim team. Sure, there were the pretentious idiots who thought they were owed every woman's affections by merely existing, but there were some genuinely nice people on the team. The world had too few of those to let an opportunity like this pass.

Time lapse to lunch.

"Hey, Alice! Hurry up before Percy eats all the pizza!" hollered Ferris in a joking way as Percy grappled for another slice. He'd been a nice addition to our group of misfits and scallywags. Don't tell anyone I said that, they might think it's okay to say the same. My only problem with the guy was something that I had begun to call the "Doom and Gloom" side of Percy Jackson. I didn't do well with other people's emotions. Especially when they obviously came from a place of great remorse. In fact, the first real conversation that I'd had with the guy was trying to push the dark cloud away. He seemed to appreciate that. Still, you could catch him waiting for a ride from one of his parents after school. His hood pulled low, hiding in the shadows, a slump in his shoulders from carrying the weight of the world.

I half-jogged over to the crusty old picnic table. Ever the woman to shock an audience, I hopped onto the table and took a couple of steps to grab a slice of pizza before sitting on my spot on the bench. Percy turned to me with a look of mock offense as the other two tried to get over the fact that I'd just walked over the table. 

"Does my entrance bother you?" I directed towards the pizza hogger. He laughed in that way he does that was almost normal but sounded like he knew it might be the last time he would ever make that sound.

"No, you took my pizza. I love your boots, by the way, please bring them closer to trampling everything," he mocked. The last part dripped in so much sarcasm Siri would notice. I raised my eyebrows at him as Ayah and Ferris watched us like an intense tennis match.

"Their Gucci," I joked and lifted one onto the table. They weren't Gucci. Just some old combat boots that I had acquired on one of my not-so-legal adventures.

"I can tell, top flight." He shoved a slice of pizza into his mouth. The way he looked away, it was like he suddenly remembered he had forgotten something, but he couldn't completely remember it. 

"What are you doing after school today? We were thinking of doing a study group," prompted Ferris. I hesitated, there was something after school...what was it.

"Sorry, I can't, I have swim team tryouts after school," I recalled.

"That's what it was!" Percy put down what was left of his pizza. "Where is that exactly?"

"You're trying out for swim team?" wondered Ayah. She took another bite of her apple as she waited for him to answer.

"Yeah."

"You any good?" she joked. 

"My girlfriend seems to think so, and she's always right, so I guess I am." He shrugged so matter of factly that it was offputting. He had complete and utter trust in what she said. What's that like?

"Is she the one who told you to try out?" Ayah asked.

"Yeah, she said it'd be good for me to do something since..." His hands started fidgeting slightly and he looked at nothing in particular for a moment as he reassessed what he was going to say.

"Since what?" Ayah pushed. She had leaned forward slightly and wore a look of both concern and curiosity. Percy seemed like he had just woken up from a dream. Like he had just remembered not to get comfortable, that people couldn't be trusted, to hide whatever it is that happened. He straightened in his seat.