Jason POV
"Hey, Jason, will you be sitting with me and my friends today?" Piper asked. Piper was my girlfriend of 8 months now, and we were pretty serious.
I loved her very much.
"Err, I kinda promised the boys that I'd eat with them today," I said earnestly.
Piper sighed. "Why again can't your friends just sit at my lunch table with my friends?"
Honestly, she made a good point.
"You know why, Piper. A lot of them don't get along," I said.
"You're right. Percy and Annabeth practically despise each other. Hazel, Leo, and Frank are so awkward with each other. And, don't even get me started on Rachel."
"Yeah," I said even though I wanted to spend more time with her. After all, I wanted to eat lunch with my girlfriend every day.
Piper gently wrapped her arms around my body. I kissed her on the forehead.
"You know what, why don't we try to bring our groups together today?" I asked.
"Yes, let's do it. I'll ask you're friends so that they can't say no," Piper said with a smile. I agreed with Piper because Piper had a way of getting people to do stuff. It was like her voice had power over other people.
We walked into the cafeteria, and Piper managed to convince my friends to join her table. My friends glared at me as they walked over to Piper's table. Of course, they couldn't say no to Piper because that would've been very awkward.
"Wait, hold, why are they here?" Annabeth and Thalia asked as they approached the now crowded lunch table.
Percy groaned as Annabeth and he exchanged glares.
The lunch was awkward, to say the least. We talked amongst ourselves, and surprisingly, most of our friends were getting along, but there were a few snags.
The biggest snag was that Rachel decided not to join us.
Percy had to exchange between our table and Rachel's cheer table every couple of minutes. Sometimes, I wondered why Percy even dated Rachel, but of course, I couldn't actually say that to him.
On the bright side, Annabeth got to finish her interview with Percy for the school newspaper's sports highlights.
By the end of lunch, Percy was sitting at the table rubbing his forehead.
"Hey, Percy, are you okay?" I asked with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine, but my head is killing me," he responded.
Percy was rubbing his forehead firmly with his palms and fingers. His eyes kept scrunching as to blind back the pain. It looked like a really bad headache. He had a headache this morning too, and it didn't seem to go away.
"You should go to the nurse, bro."
"I did. She gave me some medication, but it didn't really do anything," Percy said as he massaged his temple.
The headache must've been really bad if Percy actually went to the nurse.
"Percy, maybe you should go to the hospital," I said firmly.
"Jason, I think I'll be fine. If it doesn't get better tonight, then I'll go."
"Are you sure?" I asked.
Percy cracked a weak smile. "Yes, mom, I promise," he said teasingly.
I nodded as I stared at Percy. Some of my friends gave me slack about being too much of a rule-follower. However, if Percy wasn't feeling good, he had to get it checked out.
Hopefully, it was just a long headache.
***
Percy POV
My head was killing me. The headache started yesterday, and it only got worse. It was like my head was pounding from the inside.
Swimming practice actually helped soothe my head, but the effects were very short-lived. As soon as I got out of the water, the headache returned.
"Jackson, I need to talk to you," Coach Hedge said boldly.
I was alone at the Goode High Pool. I was the only one from our school that qualified for States, so I was the only swimming athlete that had to train.
"Yes, Coach," I acknowledged.
"Your performance today was subpar. You need to get your head in the game," he shouted.
"I- I know, Coach. Um, I'm just distracted today," I said.
"Well, snap out of it, Jackson. You're going to have to work very hard and perform you're very best if you want to do well," he said seriously.
"I know, Coach," I said.
As soon as he left, my hand started massaging my forehead again. Ugh, maybe I really should go to the hospital.
However, by the time I got home, the headache had lessened. It didn't go away, but I was feeling much better.
"Hey, honey, how are you feeling?" my mom asked.
"Actually, I'm feeling much better, mom. I think that I was just sick or something," I said earnestly.
At the time, I didn't know that I was being lulled into a false sense of security.
"Okay, that's good, Percy. You're working on your homework, right?" she asked seriously.
I chuckled. "Yes, mother."
I wasn't the best student, so I promised my mom earlier this year that I would work on my grades. Honestly, I was relying on swimming to get into college, but I also had to work on my academics according to my mom.
She laughed as she left the room.
My phone rang, and I quickly answered.
"Hey, babe," Rachel whispered into the phone. I smiled at my girlfriend's tactics.
A lot of people thought of Rachel as the cliche cheerleader, but I believed that she was more than that. As such, I wanted to give her a shot at a serious relationship. We were still in a relatively new relationship, though.
"Hey, Rachel, what's up?" I asked.
"You know, my parents aren't home tonight," she said slyly.
"Yeah, and," I said teasingly.
"I was wondering if you could come over, Percy."
Honestly, I was very tempted to go over to Rachel's. We had a fairly physical relationship, so I really wanted to go over. However, I rejected the idea.
I should probably get some rest and finish all my pending homework.
"I wish I could, Rachel. However, I have a lot of stuff to do tonight," I said.
"Are you seriously saying no to sex, Percy," she asked seriously.
"Rachel, I have to stay home with my family tonight. I have obligations," I lied. Sometimes, my girlfriend could get extremely dramatic.
"Fine, Percy, I'll be at home alone, then," she snapped before hanging up.
I sighed as I set my phone down. That one was going to come back and bite me in the butt later. Meh, whatever. I continued to do my work before going to bed.
My head was still pounding, but my body was too exhausted. I quickly fell asleep.
***
My alarm blared loudly.
I groaned in annoyance as my hand slammed the alarm clock. I wanted to fall back asleep, but my mother's shout forced me to wake up.
I sluggishly made my way to my bathroom.
I rubbed my eyes sleepily before turning to my bathroom sink and mirror.
Suddenly, I froze.
Oh my god. My eyes were red, and my eyelids were swollen. The whole visual around my eyes was gross, and I could barely open my eyes. It looked horrible.
"Paul," I shouted. "Mom, mom, Paul."
"Something's wrong, Paul," I continued to shout for help.
***
Paul Blofis POV
"Doctor, please, what is going on?" I asked. Sally was close to crying as she held Percy's hand. Percy was sitting in the hospital bed.
His eyes looked really swollen and red. Percy could barely open his eyelids.
Multiple doctors were performing examinations as the nurses prepped Percy for a necessary surgery.
"Paul and Sally, your son has a bacterial meningitis infection around his sinuses and optic chiasm. He needs surgery immediately to remove the infection," Dr. Solace explained.
"Is he going to be okay, doctor," Sally asked desperately.
I started to walk over to my wife and son. Percy had already wrapped his arm around his mother.
"Mom, I'm going to be fine," he said trying to reassure his mother.
"We're going to do everything we can, but we have to be quick," Dr. Solace said firmly.
All three of us nodded. I turned towards Percy with sadness. The top half of his face looked so bad because of the infection. He was barely recognizable, and I could see the pain in his eyes and the tension on his face.
I gently patted his shoulder. "Percy, you're going to be okay," I said firmly.
He nodded with a weak smile. "Yeah."
The doctors left to prepare for the surgery. Pretty soon, the nurses came and started to wheel Percy to the operating room.
"Wait, Percy, I love you, honey," Sally said as she took his hand one more time.
My arms were gently around Sally for support.
"Mom, I'm going to be fine," Percy said as he embraced his mom. His eyes were almost closed due to the swelling.
"Percy, you have to take off your necklace," the nurse said softly.
Percy simply nodded before removing his necklace. It was simply a black string chain connected to a trident pendant. Percy kissed the trident softly before handing it to Sally.
"I love you, Percy. You're going to be fine," Sally said as she kissed his forehead.
Sally and I watched with conflicted emotions as the nurses wheeled our son away from us. Tears welled in my eyes as I prayed. Percy had to be okay.
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This is chapter 2 of Blind Swimmer. I hope you all are enjoying this story. I'm honestly not sure how this story is going. I'm conflicted, so let me know what you guys think. But, I'll continue writing this for now.
Also, I'll be putting in a lot of different chapter POVs in this story, so I hope you guys like that.
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