Two Worlds

Grace Johnson

My name is Grace Johnson. Never heard of me? Not surprising. I have average grades, average looks, average everything... the only notable thing about me was my best friend Annabeth Chase.

Yeah, you heard me right. Was.

My dad got offered a job in New York, so now my entire family is being dragged across the country so I can come halfway through my senior year at some school called Goode.

Today was my first day, and let's just say I wasn't used to being the new kid.

"Hey," I caught the attention of my locker neighbor, tapping the mop of black hair on his shoulder. "Do you have any idea where Mr. Barnes class- is." My breath hitched as he turned around, the most beautiful boy I had ever seen staring at me with big, green eyes.

"Oh yeah! I have him first period too," the hunk gave a lopsided grin that made me speechless. "how about we go together?"

"U-uhuh." I managed to mutter sounding like an absolute idiot. Luckily, the mystery boy didn't seem to notice.

"I'm Percy Jackson. I'm captain of the swim team and my stepdad is the English teacher here. You probably have him on your schedule? Paul Blofis?"

I looked over the list of classes before finding the name.

"Yeah, 8th period."

"Me too!"

The rest of the day I stuck close to Percy, our schedules being almost identical. But eventually that day turned into a few weeks, and I couldn't help but notice he grabbed a lot of girls' attention, but didn't pay them much notice.

Of course I wanted a shot with him, but after a couple of weeks I decided to test the waters.

"So, Percy, why did you turn down Sama? She's the most popular girl here. Beautiful, nice, athletic, smart... the full package. Why would you pass that up?"

He immediately answered, no hesitation in his voice.

"She's not my wise girl."

I wasn't sure just what that meant, but I decided to drop the subject. It looked like I had some investigating to do.

- • - • - • - • - • - • -

A few months later the school year was beginning to draw to a close, but a lot of things still didn't make sense.

Percy was still my best friend, and he was still rejecting girls left and right with no explanation.

I had heard rumors about him having a girlfriend, but he had never mentioned one. And he told me everything.

Maybe it was just a made up excuse to get people to back off, but still, it didn't add up. He was my best friend and it felt like he was hiding something from me.

Of course, I still didn't want to just be best friends. With every rejection my hopes rised, wondering if he had a special girl in mind.

And by special girl, I meant me.

"Hey!" Percy greeted.

"Hi." I smiled in reply.

"So we have some... guests... coming to town tonight. Some friends I haven't seen for a while. I was going to invite Jack and Kayden," the other boys in our little friend group, "but I was wondering if you might want to come too. I would love to introduce you to them."

"Sounds great!"

"Awesome. Be there at 7?"

I nodded. It would be the perfect time to admit my feelings, ask him out. I knew he had to feel the same way, he was just always so kind to me and his smile widened whenever I came near.