Memories

Momma's Boy

Mostly, the first part of class went successfully and Nico, Annabeth and I just watched in boredom from the back of the class. Nico was snoring with his head against my shoulder and Annabeth, while glaring at the group who had taunted me, was interrogating me.

"Percy, why didn't you tell me you were being bullied?" She shook her head and looked at me sadly. "I remember punching someone for teasing you at one of your schools, but I never knew it was this bad."

"I've been bullied all my life- this wasn't exactly anything new," I shrugged. "Besides, I had only known you a few months at this point; I couldn't exactly whine about my life to you."

"That's just dumb. You know you could have talked to me."

"I guess I just didn't exactly have a great experience with friends," I told her. "Really, Grover was my only friend before camp."

"Why not?" She clasped my hand in hers. "Why didn't you make friends, I mean."

"I was always the new kid, so I never bothered trying to make friends," I said. "With my ADHD and dyslexia, I was a target for bullies, so I found that my best option was to just stay hidden in the background. My plan worked most of the time- be invisible and if you're approached seem indifferent and show that they don't bother you- but in this school, the bullies liked a challenge."

I shifted my attention back to the class. It had only been fifteen minutes into math class and the group at the back of the classroom were already begging the other version of me to give them his attention. They were throwing spit-balls, tossing balls of paper at the back of his head, shooting paper airplanes over his head so that they landed on his desk with insults written on the sides. Those middle schoolers were a massive cause of deforestation on their own.

Unfortunately, I've never really understood math, so instead of paying attention I was pretty sure Percy was visualising Camp Half Blood. He was ignoring the balls of paper, just letting them tap him harmlessly before clattering to the floor.

Annabeth stood and walked over to the younger me to look at the words on the paper. I jumped up to follow her, sending a startled Nico sprawling to the floor.

She knelt down next to Percy and peered up into his face. She recoiled slightly when she saw the sadness in his sea green eyes. "No wonder you always say you hate school."

Picking up the pieces of paper that were scattered around the desk, she started to read out the insults and names on the paper, "Momma's boy", "Daddy issues", "Loner", "Outcast." Finally, she turned to me, "They did this every day?"

"Mostly." I take the insults from their hands and throw them onto the desk of the kid sitting next to me.

Both younger Percy and me whipped around when we heard a girl's voice from the back of the classroom: "Percy knows the answer, miss. He was telling me all about this earlier!"

Layla winked at Percy with a smug smile as the teacher called on him.

The young teacher said, "Okay then, Jackson. Will you please explain how to answer this style of question? You can use the pen and come up to the board."

Instead of doing as he was told, Percy protested, "Sir, I think I'd prefer it if Layla explained it. She did say that I'd taught her how to answer this kind of question, so I think it'd be good for her to practise it."

"What a brilliant idea, Percy!" The teacher clapped his hands together in excitement. "Miss Tullsey, if you wouldn't mind coming up to the board then."

Layla scowled, the attempted death-look ruining the delicate features of her face. As she walked past Percy's desk, she hissed, "You are so dead, Jackson."

"Pleasure doing business with you," Percy retorted.

As he sauntered over to join us, Nico let out a sharp bark of amused laughter, "Serves the little cagna right."

"Nico, watch your language," Annabeth scolded.

"Yeah," I agreed. "I was pretty good at holding my own. Oh, and if you're going to insult them, can you please do it in English so that I understand what you're saying."

"Qualunque cosa," Nico muttered. "Non so come Annabeth mette in su con voi!"

Annabeth just laughed while I looked at Nico in confusion. Despite assuming it was some sort of insult, I said, "I have no idea what you just said, but I'm going to take it as a compliment."

"Chió che un idiota."

"I think that one was definitely an insult, Seaweed Brain," grinned Annabeth.

"Unfortunately," I rolled my eyes at them.

"Looks like we're moving on," Nico announced. I look around to see that he was right.

The classroom faded into the mist and the scene once again turned black.