How it all started... But in High School

She's Not Like Other Girls

It's been a few months since the shooting. Thalia had rushed to my house when she heard about the shooting. She was more shaken up than we were and we were there.  We had many funerals. Everyone from our school went to each one, even if we didn't have a personal connection to them. Even if they had done bad things or were shunned because they were different. We didn't care about those things at that moment, not even the small minded people who couldn't accept anyone different than them. 

Our school was huge and dysfunctional, but we mourned every single loss together. We learned things from each other that we had never known. We had lost so many people who were close to us. 

Silena was best friends with a girl named Clarisse LaRue. We all knew her. She was one of the strongest people in our school. She was protective over the one's she cared about, but there was no way anybody could mistake her kindness to her loved ones as a weakness. If she wanted to, she could easily break every bone in anybody's body. But she never went that far. We learned she had a boyfriend named Chris. He had a depression and some other sort of mental illness, but Clarisse nursed him back to health.

Silena and Beckendorf had back to back funerals. Silena's was on a Friday, and Beckendorf's was on a Saturday. We mourned their losses and we celebrated their best moments. Thalia had shown up to Silena’s funeral. 

Me, Rachel, and Clarisse all made speeches for Silena (including her family members, but that goes without saying). We talked about how caring and kind she was with everyone. The way she took care of animals that made her loved by all of them. The way we could all trust her with our problems and she would give us perfect advice. We let everyone know how incredible Silena Beauregard was. 

At Beckendorf's funeral Percy, Grover, and his family made speeches. Percy talked about his favorite memories with him whenever Percy was at a swim meet, or whenever Beckendorf had football practice. Grover talked about meeting him and being in awe at how a person could be so caring, smart, and athletic. They were both stunned at meeting someone who was just perfect. They talked about them sticking together through the ups and downs. Constant support between them and complete trust. Of course, there were some close breakdowns during the speeches. 

About 3 months after, me and Percy were getting ready to transfer to Goode. We had to say goodbye to some of our friends that we wouldn't see on the daily anymore. By "some of our school friends" I mean Grover and Rachel. We may have been pretty known in the school, but we only had a few real friends. What made it worse was that Rachel would be transferring to an all girls private school and Grover would be moving to California. So me and Percy would basically be on our own. 

Thalia had arranged for her brother Jason to give us a tour of the school an hour before everyone started to arrive and help us with whatever we needed. We walked to the school entrance when a boy when striking blue eyes and blonde hair approached us. 

“Hey I’m Jason. You must be Thalia’s friends, Annabeth and Percy right?” We nodded. “Alright then come on, I’ll show you around” He said. He first took us to the principal's office to get our schedule. I had two AP classes, AP Physics and AP Studio Art 3-D Design. I had history and latin with Percy. 

“Oh look, you have english and chorus with Piper.” He said with a gleam in his eye as he read my schedule. His blue eyes sparkled and his cheeks turned the slightest pink as he said the name “Piper”. Percy must’ve noticed this too because he looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I nodded with a knowing smile. 

“You like her.” Percy stated, with a smirk. Jason started blushing furiously as he stumbled on his words. Me and Percy both laughed at how bad he was at denying his crush. 

“WHAT?! No! I- I don’t! You don’t- I don’t. Shut up” He said with a slight frown and a tomato red blush. I rolled my eyes jokingly and squeezed Percy’s hand. 

“Yeah ok. Sure. Can we meet this ‘Piper’ after the tour?” I asked, gesturing for him to begin the tour. His smile widened at the mention of seeing Piper. Due to this he gave us the tour quite quickly. I caught some of the classrooms, the other ones were a blur. When the tour was over we were at the entrance again and students were starting to enter the school. I must’ve looked as nervous as I felt, because Percy kissed my forehead and gave me a reassuring look.

“We’re in this together, Wise Girl.” Percy said as he squeezed my hand for about the hundredth time that day. I smiled and nodded. 

All of a sudden this girl with chocolate brown hair, cut in a choppy manner, with tan skin and eyes that seemed to change color approached us. She was a beautiful girl and she looked very kind. 

“Hey Sparky” She said as she snuck up on Jason. He jumped a little and turned around. “Sup Pipes.” He said, blushing a bit. They talked for a bit and then Jason introduced me and Percy. He explained the shooting and us being friends with his sister. She understood all of this and had heard about the shooting. She then asked Jason and Percy if she could talk to me privately. 

I started preparing myself for the “stay away from my boyfriend” talk, but instead she gave me advice. 

“You should stay away from this girl Drew and her little group of Barbies” She said as we walked in front of random lockers. “Who are they?” I asked. 

“You’ll know when you see them. They’re kind of hard to miss” She said vaguely. “Well what’s so bad about them?” I asked not really taking it seriously. 

“Well Drew believes that she can force people to do whatever she wants them to. She insults and belittles whoever she wants. She acts like she’s the Queen Bee” Piper explained with disgust. “The others are just her little minions. They’re just obsessed with makeup and their looks. Not me. I’m not like them. I despise those things.” She explained opening a locker that I assumed must be hers.

The "other Barbies" didn't sound so bad to me. It seemed like Piper only hated them for enjoying girly things. It didn't exactly seem right that she judged them only because of that. I listened to everything she said until we met back with the others. She was kind but she kept giving me “not like other girls” vibes and I didn't like that bit. 

When we started walking to where the boys were, I saw Percy talking to a beautiful girl. She had a pale complexion with caramel hair and dark eyes. Percy looked awkward and a bit red. While she talked and laughed.

“Who’s that?” I asked Piper, a bit concerned. 

“That’s Calypso”