Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I was running late. My mom had called 15 minutes ago to remind me that for some ludicrous reason freshmen orientation was today: June 2nd. My relaxing summer day spent inside ignoring everyone was cut short by a stupid too early in the year school event. It wasn’t like I would even learn anything new about the school, anyway.

All four of my older siblings had gone or were still going to Goode High School, so it’s no surprise I’m going there too. My siblings that were still in high school, the twins: Elise and Elijah, told me all about the school, but I knew we would have different experiences. I’m a more reserved person as opposed to the twins, and I wasn’t even sure anyone going into 9th grade knew my name.

But I found my way through the city, speeding down the sidewalk and dodging pedestrians. The last thing I wanted to do was arrive late and have to walk into a full but pin-drop silent gym. So I sped down an ally and across a street, almost getting hit by a car. Finally, I arrived at the side-entrance that I knew all too well as the quickest way to leave after one of my older sister’s concerts. As I suspected I was technically late, but the last of the students were still filing into the gym so I joined them and sat on the bleachers as close to the exit as possible. When this cringe-worthy orientation was over I fully intended to get the hell out of dodge.

After the marching band rendition of “The Impression That I Get” I lost interest in what the speakers were saying, instead focused on the cheerleaders off to the side in their cute purple and white outfits getting ready to come on stage. That’s when I heard talking a few rows above me. Looking for a distraction, I glanced behind me to see a guy with black hair turned to face a girl with frizzy red hair and large beautiful green eyes. They were whispering harshly, and then the girl yelped when she glanced at the stage. I looked back, only to see two cheerleaders that I didn’t recognize step up and introduce themselves. When I turned around the two kids had left their seats and brushed past me hastily to the exit. Something wasn’t right, there was a strange feeling in the air and I didn’t like it at all. I waited until no teachers were watching and bolted out the doors into the empty hallway.

I couldn’t have been far behind them, but they were nowhere to be found. I wandered up and down the hallway, glancing in the classrooms, but to no avail. Then, as I rounded a corner, I crashed into someone with a clang, knocking them to the floor.

“Sorry..so sorry, I uuhh,” The words poured out of my mouth. It was the cheerleaders from the stage and they were shockingly beautiful this close. The girl I’d knocked over had deep brown hair and empty dark eyes, her friend was blonde with icy-blue eyes that caused my blood to run cold.

I remained there gaping at them, not in control of my own actions. They were so attractive that I was absolutely awestruck. Time crept on slowly. The blue-eyed girl eased the other one up, murmuring something like, “clueless mortal” but I must have misheard.

The first girl appeared to notice my silence and find it amusing because she smirked and stood very close to me. So close I could smell her perfume and read the small cursive name stitched into her outfit: “Kelli”. She tapped my arm, and I felt like my heart was going to explode, but the second girl seemed rushed.

“Kelli, “she said, “she’s no value to us… “she inhaled sharply, “he went this way, “she said, pointing down the hall.

I was still frozen, heart still thrashing to get out of my chest as they strode down the hallway in the direction she’d pointed. Once they were out of sight I felt my body relax and I was left really confused. I tried to recall what they looked like, but it was a blur. What had she called me?

I proceeded down the hallway in the opposite way the girls had gone. Students and teachers were starting to exit the gym, to find their lockers and such. That’s when I heard a crash. It was coming from behind me. By the time I got there, things were on fire. The door to the band room was ablaze and someone pulled the fire alarm. This was the first of many very eventful days at Goode.

Chapter Text

The first day of high school was arduous enough without worrying about weird shit happening. The incident of months prior still puzzled me to no end, and I wasn’t entirely certain it had really happened. Was it bad food poisoning? Too many paint fumes? I wasn’t sure.

I stared into the mirror in our apartment’s bathroom. School always brought out the self-loathing impulses inside me. I knew in the end it didn’t matter, but I tied back my hair back and went to get dressed.  I put on jeans and a lightweight blue sweatshirt. My sister Elise, whom I share a room with, had tried to get me to dress up, but I preferred to look like me, not my sister. 

I was quiet during the drive to school, somewhere in my mind lost deep in thought. My sister, who was driving, broke the silence.

“Leigh, are you all right?” she sounded concerned. She had a way of knowing when something was awry.

“Yeah, I’m good... just nerves,” I smiled weakly, but it was a lot more than that causing my silence.

From the passenger’s seat, Elijah chided, “Yeah sure, just nerves, what is it?” 

“Nothing.”

He turned to look at me and raised his eyebrows. I looked away. I love Elise and Elijah, but sometimes they were downright pushy. Nevertheless, they were right, something was wrong, but it wasn't their problem, it was mine.

At school the twins and I went our separate ways, they headed to the mostly junior part of the building and me to the freshman area. There I got my schedule and was directed towards my 1st-hour class which happened to be art.

After multiple wrong turns and running into some equally confused kids I found my class. The young teacher shook my hand and introduced herself as Ms. Jury, she seemed nice enough as she showed me to my seat. 

Once I sat down, I started taking things out of my backpack, that’s when I noticed her walk in. The redhead from orientation. I watched her as she shook Ms. Jury’s hand and smiled warmly as she reached her seat two rows in front of me. I realized I was gawking, so I fidgeted with the corner of my schedule until class started. 

Class was pretty much what you’d expect from the first day, a tour of the room, rules, and a syllabus. One thing I did not expect was towards the end of the hour for Ms. Jury to announce a get-to-know-you activity.

She started putting us in groups before I even knew what was happening. I ended up with four other kids, including the red-headed girl. She sat down to the left of me with our knees practically touching. I had it bad, I decided.

Once everyone in the class was separated into circles and quieted down, Ms. Jury explained, “Tell your group your name and a fact or something about yourself”

The boy to my right spoke up right away, “My name is Adriel Pérez and my favorite class is English.”

He looked to the guy to his right, who wasn’t paying attention, and nudged him. The boy stirred, “Umm, yeah my name is Alex Lee, umm I….,” he looked to the pencil in his hand, “I like drawing”

My thoughts had drifted to the girl sitting to my left, she hadn’t gone yet, but I was desperately curious to know her name.

Then, as if God answered my prayers, she started to speak.

“My name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare,” she glanced around the circle and smiled, “a fact about me is that I made a friend over the summer.”

Rachel. That was a pretty name. wait.. a friend? What kind of friend?

Before I could think too much Rachel turned to me, “your turn,” she smiled and I swear she could see right through me. My throat went dry and I quickly looked around the group.

“Umm, my name is Leigh.. Beckett, sorry, what do I say?”

“A fact about yourself,” Rachel didn’t sound annoyed, just helpful. I struggled to think of the fact I'd thought up and looked down at my shoes.

“Oh yeah, i..um I’ve got five siblings”

Adriel piped up, “Wow that’s a lot of siblings, I’ve got one little sister, and half the time I feel like I’m gonna kill her”

“Yeah well I've only got one younger sibling, she’s 3”

“Do you have any that go to this school?” Rachel asked

“Yeah two in their junior year”

“Cool”

The last girl in our group spoke, she had pink hair and blue eyes, “My name is Ester Lewis and I like to build sets”

“Like in theatre?” Rachel asked

“Yeah”

“Alex, are you getting any of this?” Adriel asked jokingly

“huh,” Alex perked up, “what?”

“That answers your question,” Rachel said

We all, excluding Alex, broke into laughter.

We all talked back and forth until the bell rang. I was probably smiling a bit too much but it was nice to talk to friendly people. Rachel seemed chill and seemed to have really artsy vibes, but maybe that was just the art room rubbing off on her. 

I really had to chill out with the thinking about her though and focus on school. After all, it was the first day of school, time for learning people's names, and my way around the school not developing a soul-consuming crush on a girl I just met.

I checked my schedule. Ugh Algebra l, “great”.

It wasn’t so bad. The Algebra teacher, Mr. Edwards, seemed strict, but my new acquaintance Adriel Pérez was in there and sat next to me. We didn't do any fun activities in that class, but Adriel cracked joked when he could, and before I knew it we were on to our next classes.  

I didn't know anyone in Biology, but that was okay. I’d been a real loner all middle school so I wasn't used to talking to so many people. When the bell rang I found my next class quickly. This room had windows with a view of the New York street below. I sat toward the back of the room in a desk by a window.

Pedestrians walked briskly on the sidewalk and cars moved along at a snail’s pace down the street. I was getting hungry, I’d forgotten to eat breakfast this morning. I figured a lot of these people were heading to lunch, it was around that time. Lost in my yearnings for lunch, someone tapped my shoulder and I nearly fell out of my chair. It was Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

“Hey, do you mind if I sit here?”

“Uh, yeah sure, you can sit. Sorry, I was uh-”

“-lost in thought”

“Yeah, sorry I do that”

“Don’t apologize for thinking, I do it all the time. So you’re Leigh right?”

“Yep, and you’re Rachel”

“Yep,” she grinned

I cocked my head to the side, “What?”

“Oh sorry, I’m just not so good at introductions”

“You’re better than me and besides didn’t we technically meet earlier.”

“Yeah, but we were in a group, so it doesn’t count.”

“You ..uh.. sound so sure”

“Yeah, that's sort of my thing: overconfidence,” she stuck out her hand to shake mine. 

As she energetically shook my hand, all I could think was that if I was interviewing her, she would’ve got the job for sure.

World History was pretty boring, Rachel had taken to her notebook and the teacher had a monotone voice and lectured the whole time. All I could do to pass the time, without seeming creepy and staring at Rachel, was look out the window and watch the city. 

Eventually, the bell rang, as I was getting up I noticed what Rachel had been drawing. It was me, in all my frizzy-hair glory looking out the window.

“That’s pretty good,” I said

“Oh sorry, I meant to ask, but I was bored”

“No it’s fine,” I assured her, “I’m pretty sure we were all bored”

“Yeah,” she said looking around the room at the kids, “well it's time for lunch, do you wanna sit with me and my friend?”

“Yeah, I don’t really know many people”

We walked to the cafeteria talking and then I got in line by the kitchen. It was a bit confusing because of the crowds of teenagers, but I managed to get a slice of pizza, some apple slices, and a blue gatorade, healthy I know .

I walked out of the crowd with my food and immediately saw Rachel waving at me from across the cafeteria. I walked across, careful not to bump into anyone or trip over chair legs.

“Hey, Leigh! Sit right here,” she gestured to the chair next to her. It was a small table with one other empty chair. I sat down.

“So, you said you had siblings at this school, do they have this lunch shift?”

“Not sure”

I looked around until I saw a familiar mop of black hair, Elijah sitting on a table. He was throwing grapes into his mouth and kind of making a scene, next to him was Elise looking mildly embarrassed. 

I pointed to my siblings, Rachel followed and giggled as my brother missed one.

“Are they twins?”

“Yeah, Elise and Elijah”

We laughed as we watched my brother gather more of a crowd as people tossed grapes at him. After a minute or so a teacher came around and shooed the spectators away and had my brother clean up the grapes.

Behind me came a voice, “aww, it was just getting good!”

I turned to see the black-haired boy from orientation sitting in the previously empty seat. He looked different up close, his black hair had a poorly covered up grey streak, his striking blue-green eyes looked too tired to be the same age as me, but despite that he was handsome and wore a grin.

Rachel seemed surprised, ”When did you get here?”

He feigned hurt, “You didn’t notice me?”

“Well usually you announce yourself by doing something dumb”

“Hey”

Rachel stuck out her tongue jokingly

“Who’s this?” The guy turned his gaze to me and I got that feeling again. Something wasn’t right or maybe I was crazy.

“I’m Leigh,” I said, trying to cover up my thoughts in case he could read minds. I instinctively reached out to shake his hand.

“Oh, you shake hands”

“Sorry Rachel got me in the habit”

“oh,” he shook my hand, “I’m Percy”

“Percy Jackson,” Rachel chimed in.

I looked at Rachel, “see, I’m worse than you at introductions”

“Debatable.”

“Do they sell those back there?” Percy’s eyes were fixed on my blue Gatorade

“Yeah”

“Cool, I’ll be back,” he sped off toward the kitchen, leaving his sandwich and apple slices.

“What was that?” I asked

“He has a problem, he loves blue food”

“Why?”

“Not sure, oh by the way you can eat his apples, he won't notice”, she smiled and started moving his apple slices into her lunch box.

We sat there for about 10 minutes, talking about school and eating. It occurred to me I should ask about whatever the hell happened at orientation; I was like 95% sure they had something to do with the fire, but talking to Rachel was nice and I didn’t want to ruin it. Rachel finished her food before me and took her sketch pad out of her bag. I saw the drawing of me and blushed, I turned my head and hoped she hadn’t noticed. She flipped to a blank page and started drawing again. I finished my lunch then looked around.

“What happened to Percy”, he’d been gone far too long.

Without looking up she said, “Oh, I wouldn’t worry, he gets distracted a lot, he's got ADHD”

Somehow that didn’t assure me, “okay... What's having ADHD mean?” I felt stupid, but it never hurts to ask questions about what you don’t understand.

She looked over at me, “Well it means sometimes he’s impulsive and forgetful. Like now, he probably got distracted or something, but don’t worry he’ll be back around.” She didn’t sound mad or anything, I could tell she and Percy were good friends.

“Oh okay, thank-”

“Rachel!” a girl’s voice screeched behind me, I whipped around to see a blonde girl, probably a sophomore, walking towards us.

“Oh,” Rachel said, “I gotta go, art club, I forgot”

I was obviously a little dismayed that she had to leave early and I must have shown it, because while grabbing her stuff she said, “It’s okay, Percy will be back, he’s nice, don’t worry,” I was about to ask how the hell she was already in the Art club, but she hurried off to join the girl.

As soon as she was out of sight, that was of course when I saw Percy walking back towards me. He looked sort of worn, but was smiling and holding a blue Gatorade.

“Where did Rachel go?” he asked

“Art club”

“Figures, do you mind if I sit with you?”

“Be my guest, I think your food is getting cold though”

He sat down across from me and started hurriedly eating his sandwich. I looked him over; he appeared more disheveled; he had a cut on his arm, that I don’t think he noticed, and his grey streak had fallen down into his face. I wondered if he had gotten into a fight, but he didn’t say anything, so I didn’t mention it. Instead, my thoughts drifted to Rachel, so I asked what was on my mind.

“Are you guys dating?”

Percy choked on his Gatorade, “umm, who?”

“Rachel?” I asked flatly, “are you two.. uh, dating?”

Percy was blushing, “no...uh, we’re just friends”

“Oh okay, sorry I just thou- was wondering, since you guys.. seem close”

“No, it's not like that, we've just been through a lot together”

I was about to ask what he meant, but just then the bell rang.

Chapter Text

The cafeteria turned into a muddled swarm of kids hurrying to the exits.

“So what class do you have next?” Percy asked me as we took our things and walked to the trash bins.

“Hmm, one sec,” I pulled my folded-up schedule from the back pocket of my jeans and read aloud, “umm English with Mr.…. Blofis?”

Percy grinned mischievously as we discarded our trays then responded, “I’ve got that class too, Mr. Blofis is a cool guy”

“Do you know where his room is?” I asked slowly, a little weirded out by Percy.

“Yes, follow me,”

Percy looked genuinely delighted as he led me through the halls. I’d have guessed he really loved English class if he hadn’t made that remark about Mr. Blofis being a “cool guy”.

“So how do you know-”

Percy yanked me into a studentless classroom and across the room to the teacher’s desk.

“Paul!”

The teacher sitting at his desk looked up. He had graying black hair, was wearing a brown jacket, and smiled warmly when he saw Percy.

“Percy, how are you?“

“I’m great!” he held up his drink, “I got a blue gatorade, and I met Rachel’s friend Leigh,“ he pointed to me. Did Percy really think I was Rachel’s friend?

Paul studied me and asked, “Is Leigh a,” his voice wavered,” camp-friend?“

Percy glanced at me, then back at Paul, “nah“

I had no idea what that meant but there were more pressing questions, “So, how do you know each other?”

Percy smiled even wider, “Paul-,” Percy cleared his throat, “-Mr. Blofis is my mom’s fiance, they are getting married in February.”

“Oh, that’s great, nice to meet you Mr. Blofis“

Three girls came into the classroom and Mr. Blofis told the students they could sit anywhere; I decided to find a seat in the back. Percy chatted with Paul for a few minutes as the class filled. Nobody sat next to me though, so Percy took the seat when the bell rang.

Mr. Blofis stood up and gave the general first-day spiel about fire exits and procedures. Once he got past the boring stuff that we’d all heard before he went over the units we’d be studying for the year.

“Next week we’ll all be knee-deep in theme statements, but we’re going to spend our first day getting to know each other with these questionnaires,” Mr. Blofis held up a stack of papers I saw Percy look to me out of the corner of my eye, “get into groups of two or three and I’ll pass these out,” Mr. Blofis then made his way around acknowledging each group, taking attendance, and asking how to pronounce names.

Percy leaned over and in a sarcastic sort of voice asked, “Soooo, you wanna be in my group?”

“Yeah,” I said, I was glad he asked, so I didn’t have to.

“Awesome,” right as he said that Mr. Blofis appeared with our questionnaires

“You two are a group, I’m assuming,”

“Yep,” Percy said with a smile. He really seemed to like his soon-to-be step-dad.

“Nice, here you go Perce,” Mr. Blofis handed him his paper, “you’ve got 20 minutes,”

As he walked away Percy asked, “so, do you wanna go first?” I picked up my paper off the desk.

“Okay,” I said with an odd stroke of confidence, “I’m going to assume I know nothing”

“Works for me”

“First name?”

“Perseus.”

“What?”

“Yeah, that's my name, it's spelled P-e-r-s-e-u-s”

 I wrote it down. He was giving me a look that said I shouldn’t ask but I did, “Isn’t that a myth, like in Greek mythology?”

“Yeah, a myth,” he paused for a moment, “in the myth, he's a son of Zeus. He’s the one who originally killed Medusa.”

I got that uneasy feeling again, he seemed older when he’d spoken and something in the way he’d said the names… But he seemed self-conscious about his name so I said, “Thats cool, I just figured your name was just Percy”

He smiled, “next question?”

Going for a joke I said, “Your last name is still Jackson isn’t it?”

“Yep, J-a-c--”

I cut him off, “My spelling isn’t that bad. ‘k-s-o-n’ right?”

“Yeah, sorry my spelling is so awful I underestimate everyone else’s ability,” he said this in a strangely dramatic way that almost made me laugh

“Okay. moving on.”

“When is your birthday?”

“August 18th”

“Oh cool, happy late birthday,”

“thanks”

 I wrote his birthday down without looking at him, “and you’ll be how old at your next birthday?”

“Sixteen,” his voice sounded different, full of dread.

“Are you worried about driving?”

“Something like that, next question”

I obliged, “Favorite color?”

“Blue,” he said immediately

“Favorite food?”

He thought for a second then said slowly, ”Blue food…”

I laughed, I didn’t know what to think about this kid, he’d kinda scare me, but then he’d say something funny and ridiculous.

“Do you have any pets?”

“Yeah, kinda”

”What are they”

“Blackjack, he’s a…. fish”

I couldn’t tell if he was being entirely serious, but I wrote down ‘Blackjack the fish’ and moved on.

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“Yes”

“Do they have names?”

“Tyson, my younger half-brother,” he thought some more then said, “I’ve got some other half-siblings, but they’re well… estranged.”

“Oh, sorry about that”

“No no, it's all good, we’ve just had issues in the past”

I wanted so badly to know the story behind whatever those issues were, but I don't think Percy would tell me if I asked.

“What's your favorite subject?”

“Umm, I’m not really sure”

“Are you an English and History sort of person or a science and math person?”

“Umm,” he grinned, “neither really, you can just put lunch”

“Okay”

I was about to read the next question, but Percy cut me off, “My turn?”

He’d seemed to be getting kind of antsy the more questions I asked so I figured it'd be okay, “We’ll come back to yours though, right?”

“Yeah,” he responded, smiling at me, and I was suddenly really grateful to have met such a friendly person on my first day.

-------------------

  We’d finished each other’s questionnaires pretty quick after that with time to spare. The one slow down had been that he was worried about his spelling again. So he handed over the paper he’d filled out for me.

I mumbled as I spell-checked, “Leigh Beckett... October… Fourteen….red…”, I glanced at Percy, “yep, it all looks right.”

Percy punched the air, “Hell yeah”

I grinned. He was certainly an energetic dude; he never even sat entirely still. I could almost sense the ‘problem child’ energy that I was sure got him in trouble with a lot of teachers.

The rest of class moved pretty quickly. Mr. Blofis talked a moment more, then let the students talk till the bell. Percy told me about the cake his mom had made for his birthday and continued to be charming even as he jokingly acted superior for being two months older than me. As I went to my next class, I was elated. Percy had said, “see you later” with a smile as we parted ways and I felt assured that perhaps I’d made a friend today, or maybe even two.