More Than You Know (Oneshots)

Hidden Talents

Percy POV

"Please, please, please! Come on, Percy! Let's go!" Piper begged, grabbing onto my arm and yanking me into the direction of the camp border. Piper loved to surf and, after I found out I had a natural ability because of my father, we created a friendship with the basis of surfing. "It's too cold out to go out to the ocean and I've always wanted to learn!"

"I haven't done it in years, Pipes. I probably don't even remember how!"

"Come on, how do you un-learn how to skateboard?" she asked. And there you have it. The little Miss movie star daughter Piper McLean wanted to ask the lowly apartment New York City boy how to skateboard.

"Should I be offended you're stereotyping me with all of the other city boys and calling me a skater?"

"Well, you are, aren't you?" she questioned. I just sighed.

"... Well, technically yes—" I responded, and she whooped out loud in joy.

"So there you have it! Let's go!" she exclaimed. I finally gave up and decided to go out with her. I quickly ran back to my cabin to tell Annabeth where I was going (Hey! She may think I was getting kidnapped again!) and got into the Delphi Strawberry Service van with Piper and had Argus drive us over to my apartment. We kept my old skateboard in storage, so I quickly ran to my apartment, grabbed the skateboard, and walked over to my usual rink.

I had bittersweet memories of this place.

Skateboarding had always been the best thing I had ever done as a kid. It gave me a break from school and it honestly felt like the one thing that I was genuinely really good at. We were too poor to enroll in any sports outside of school and, because of my grades, I wasn't allowed to do sports in school. Skateboarding was like the one, free thing that I could do that I really enjoyed.

"Okay, place your feet here," I started to say, before continuing on and on with instructions. I told her how to position herself and move before I let her actually try it on her own. I held Piper's hands as she originally went, because she was wobbling like crazy, but she soon got the hang of it.

We were there for about an hour and a half before Piper got tired and wanted a break. I was just sitting on the bench, waiting for her to be done. I had bought a small cup of ice cream from the cart a little bit down the block so I was just enjoying that.

"You done?" I asked her, as she walked back over to me, board in hand.

"Yeah, it was super fun!" Piper replied, taking a seat next to me. "Are you sure you don't want to have a go? It's such a shame that we came all the way here and you won't even ride!"

I didn't say anything and I just thought about it. I wasn't even sure if I actually did want to ride. Or if I ever wanted to do it again. Riding was my escape. It was my escape from school. My escape from home.

It feels weird just riding "for fun".

"Sure, I guess I'll go," I decided, telling myself that I'll probably die soon as a demigod so I should probably suck in all the cool stuff of life while I can.

I grabbed the skateboard from her hand and started testing myself on the rink before I got comfortable again. I started to do all these cool tricks and jump moves that I remembered from muscle memory and just had the time of my life, honestly. This was actually really fun.

I forgot how much I had enjoyed the little things like this.

I did my thing for a while before I finally decided it was time to go. It wasn't safe for us to stay this long outside of camp anyway, especially with both of our godly parents being pretty powerful.

We were both talking and chattering our way through the streets as we walked back to the designated area where Argus said that he would pick us up.

"So why were you so hesitant to skate in the first place? You're really, really good at it!" Piper asked me.

"I'm honestly not sure. I've always loved skateboarding as a kid. I spent a lot of time looking up how to do these cool tricks and everything. But, when school and home just got hard, skateboarding became a freedom for me. It felt weird to skateboard again without that pressure? I guess? Does that make sense?"

She was quiet for a few seconds before speaking up.

"Sure, that makes sense Percy, but what did you mean pressure at school and home?"

Now it was my turn for silence.

"I've never always been the most popular kid in the room. Hades, people only started liking me at camp because I helped fight in the wars. At school, I was always the kid with ADHD and Dyslexia. I was practically a genetically designed target for bullying. And, well, as for home, I needed another thing to blame the marks on my skin on instead of the fat, drunk, angry man that stayed on the living room couch."

"Percy, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to push you like this if I had known you had such bad memories associated with it," Piper apologized sincerely. I just smiled and nodded.

"It's okay Pipes, there's no way you would have known."

There's a lot of things I'd rather keep hidden now.