daylight | percy jackson

who tf is andy?

SOCIAL STUDIES was not Percy's strong suit. The class sat in silence as they worked on drawing latitude/longitudinal maps, the teacher tapping her pen each second as if trying to make him go crazy. It was working. 

He opened his notebook, the blue paper cover flipping over easily. Inside he stared at the photo - a picture of Aria and Mrs Roberts, their smiles wide, their cheeks full. Percy realised that it was a little weird to have a photo of his sworn enemy and a random old lady that he had never met in his school book, but the way that Aria smiled had made him smile too. 

He only kept the photo because he didn't have the heart to throw it out. That was the only reason. 

Percy wished that Aria, Grover and Annabeth were there with him. He struggled to get along with mortal friends, their relentless taunts and borderline bullying casting a dent in Percy's pride. He missed having someone to talk to about...godly things. He hadn't talked to Aria or Annabeth in weeks, their last Iris call being a run down of how Annabeth's home life was going. He had also been having strange dreams about Grover, and he desperately wanted to talk to Aria about it. Her being the daughter of Apollo and all that, she was good at visions. He wondered if she had the same dreams. 

Percy was about to close his notebook when Matt Sloan reached over and ripped the photo out of the rings. 

"Hey!" Percy protested. 

Sloan checked out the picture, his eyes going straight to Aria. His eyes got wide. "No way, Jackson. Who is that? Is she your-"

Percy felt his ears get hot. "Give it back!"

Sloan handed the photo to his friends who snickered at the image. Their grubby hands began to rip the photo, attempting to turn it into spit wads. They were new kids who must have been visiting, because they were all wearing those HI! MY NAME IS: tags from the office. Percy noticed they also had a weird sense of humour, as all of their name tags were filled out with odd names like: MARROW SUCKER, SKULL EATER, and JOE BOB. Sometimes Percy was embarrassed to be a teenage boy. 

"These guys are moving here next year," Sloan bragged, like that was supposed to make Percy run for his life. "I bet they can pay the tuition, too, unlike your stupid little friend."

Percy balled his hands up at his sides in barely contained anger. He rolled his shoulders, and spoke through gritted teeth, "He's not stupid."

"You're such a loser, Jackson. Good thing I'm gonna put you out of your misery next period."

Percy fumed at the use of his last name. He only allowed one person to call him that. 

Sloan and his huge buddies chewed up the photo, and Percy had to fight back the urge to pulverise them. However he tried to calm down as he remembered Chiron's strict orders to never fight mortals, no matter how mean, or annoying. Percy thought it was a stupid rule. 

The bell rang. 

As Percy and his friend Tyson were leaving class, Percy swore he heard a girl's voice whisper his name. 

He glanced anxiously around the locker area, but nobody was paying him any form of attention.