.・゜゜・——— I AM NOT A WOMAN I'M A GOD !
STRANGER
"REGINA STOP SCOFFING DOWN ALL the pop tarts and get your ass to school!"
Regina's mother's loud voice was heard from the living room as the brunette crammed strawberry pop tarts in her mouth like it was her death row meal. She had quickly learned that a lighter was considered a weapon and ever since her discovery of her Telumkinesis powers, she used it to her advantage and cooked and baked very thing in sight with just whisper of order. However, she had to quickly learn to control her powers when she accidentally transfigured her anger management therapist's roller pen into an explosive device which almost killed him when he asked her about her feelings over her brother.
Her Telumkinesis was more than what she thought it was. During the battle against the Titans army during summer she had managed to manipulate an enemies' electric sword and controlled it to blow up on its owner. During one of her hang outs with Annabeth shortly after leaving camp she accidentally set off a mini plague at a hospital when visiting Annabeth's little brother who broke his leg. Annabeth came up with the solution that she could not only manipulate physical weapons, but biological ones too like illnesses and disease. It was later confirmed that she could also manipulate chemical weaponry when she changed a canister of helium into tear gas.
Annabeth and Regina spent the rest of their small break between camp and the start of school hanging out and figuring out Regina's powers. With Annabeth's mother being the Goddess of War and battle strategy, she was more helpful than she let on. She helped Regina control herself and helped her understand the extent of her powers. Regina figured she had most of it handled, but Annabeth reminded her that there was still more to learn. But she assumed that they had the rest of their years to make sense of it.
"Cmon, Gigi," Regina's mother, Delilah huffed as she jogged into the kitchen with car keys circling around her pinky finger. Today she was dressed casual: a sage green oversized jumper which had the words 'there is no earth without art' printed on the front, some white flared jeans and a leaf printed silk scarf wrapped around her high ponytail. Her champagne blonde bangs curled against her bleach blonde eyebrows and she wore gold hoop earrings in her elfish ears. Her cheeks were painted red courtesy of the Mac blush Regina bought her for her birthday the other day. She looked gorgeous, as she always did. "You ready to go?"
Regina grimaced sheepishly. "Sorry, Ma. Oliver is taking me to school today. He got a new car and he's been pretty desperate to show me." Regina told her mother as she quickly brushed the knots out of her brown hair.
Her mother raised a blonde brow. "Oliver? Since when were you two back together?"
Regina shrugged as she hauled her backpack over her shoulder, adjusting the belt that hung around her wide leg jeans. She was wearing her signature black combat boots and a very oversized ebony leather jacket that was decorated with silver spikes on the shoulders and a flaming skull on the back. She was an Ares kid. Go figure. "Well, we never really broke up."
"Did you not tell him anything ... ?" Her mother asked with a small confused frown on her pink tinted lips.
"No, and neither will you, Ma." Regina said with a glare. "I know you love to gossip."
"It's not gossip if it's true," the blonde murmured as she bit into a digestive biscuit, but didn't say anything else as she waved her daughter a small goodbye before continuing her daily watch of the nature channel in the room next to them.
A loud car horn beep was heard and Regina looked out of the window to see a familiar set of soft light brown hair and a cherry red car parked against the sidewalk. That was Regina's cue. She shouted goodbye to her mother, who just responded with "don't blow anything up this time!"
Making her way down her porch steps she looked up and saw her boyfriend, Oliver Taylor, waving at her from the driver's seat. His hair was longer and his face was more structured since she last saw him at the start of summer. The last time they talked was over the phone a week ago where they discussed what had happened and Regina had explained that it was because Kelli went crazy and Regina was just an innocent bystander. She also selfishly put the blame on Percy and Rachel and told Oliver that they started it all, and he believed her. He asked her where she has been all summer, and she told him that her mother wanted her to go to camp with no service or wifi to get more 'in touch with reality'. Regina quickly learned that Oliver was very gullible.
"Hey, babe." He smiled as he planted a kiss on Regina's lips, brushing her hair back behind her shoulders. She gave him a quick smile then joined him in the car, hauling herself into the passenger seat. He turned up the music and blues started to play, to which Regina tried not to physically grimace to. She remembered when her and Percy made fun of people who listened to blues music. She felt a small ache in her heart.
"You alright?" He said as he began to drive down the street, joining the crowd of other cars. He placed his hand on her thigh and Regina refrained from moving her leg away. It was not the hand she wished was touching her leg. She replied to him with a small nod, enough to convince him, but it wasn't ever hard to convince him she was okay. Sometimes she reckoned her didn't even actually care.
OOO
RETURNING TO GOODE HIGH SCHOOL was bittersweet. She was welcomed by her friends she didn't know she missed and was back in her rightful place as the head of sports and their basketball team's captain. It turned out someone had defended Regina to the head master mister Blofis, so she got let off with a warning. Besides, they couldn't lose her. She upholded their reputation in sports.
After her first two lessons of maths, she had break where she quickly learned that her old best friend Mila had transferred to another school. She was down a mortal friend, which made her miss her demigod friend Annabeth. Regina missed Tyson too, the last she saw of him was when he showed up at her house with a carved bronze constellation necklace after she told him that she loved astrology. He told her he studied the stars and carved out the pattern of the Aries constellation. Regina almost cried when he gave it to her.
She played with her Aries necklace around her neck as she walked down the school's halls during the change from break to sociology, her boyfriend's arm draped over her shoulders lazily. He was talking and laughing with his football teammates, discussing strategies and what they were going to eat after their big game. Being football boys, their favourite thing to do was annoy other people by throwing their belongings football style, which was something that they did frequently to Regina.
Oliver's friend Ryan, who was the center, snatched Regina's metal waterbottle out from her hands and shouted to her, "go long!"
With an agitated groan, Regina shook Oliver's arm off of her as he cackled at his immature friend, and she ran forward with her back turned to the people in front of her and her arms stretched out, trying to run quick enough to catch it in her hands. With a jump, she clasped her hands around the bottle and fell back, expecting to land on her feet. But the floor didn't catch her and instead and crashed against a body, which caught her off guard completely as she fell to the floor on her side, grunting in irritation.
"Look where you're going, douche ba-" she sneered as she shook the life back into the arm she landed on, looking up at whoever she bumped into, but when she saw who it was, her breath caught in her throat.
She had never been a lucky person.
Her jade green eyes met with an ocean green pair and immediately all her memories and past feelings came flooding back to her. She thought about the war and she thought about the Labyrinth. She remembered her almost dying then she remembered him saving her life. And she remembered their kiss.
"Hey, why don't you look where you're going." Oliver decided to pipe up as he helped Regina up off of the floor, immediately wrapping his hand around her waist for support. He glared at Percy who easily got up himself but stood beside a girl with curly red hair. Rachel Elizabeth Dare.
Percy rolled his eyes. "Why don't you look where you're going. You know there's other people in this hallway, right?."
He didn't look any different from when she had last saw him, only that he was finally getting taller. He had the same messy black hair and the same bushy eyebrows. It made Regina's cheeks blush a little at the sight of him.
Rachel was putting two and two together then opened her big mouth, "Regina?"
Regina gritted her teeth as she felt Oliver's eyes on her. Some kids had paused to watch the scene, as Oliver's football mates looked the two freshmen up and down like they were their first target. She had hoped that Oliver didn't notice Regina's reaction to seeing Percy. She didn't need him knowing what had happened during summer.
"Babe," he said which made Percy shift his glance towards them. "Do you know these freshmen?"
She felt like she heard Janus's taunting voice in her ears. Choose. He whispered. It's them or him. Them or him. Choose.
"No, Oliver. I have no idea who these losers are." She said sternly as she avoided their gaze, leaning into Oliver. "Next time just get out the way, alright?"
And when the couple shoved past Percy and Rachel, Regina could feel Percy's eyes on her. Then she remembered it was him who had stopped talking to her, and it was him who refused to acknowledge her existence. She owed him nothing.
As far as she was concerned, Percy Jackson was a stranger.
ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀs ɴᴏᴛᴇ
So ... this was the prologue!! Just to set it up, this is based I guess slightly less than a month from leaving camp in August. Their quest finished in the start of July. School starts in September. So hopefully you get picture.
I was really debating on what to do about Oliver and Regina ... and I thought I wanted to be messy so I did this don't hate me your girl just loves drama.
Percy and Regina really said from strangers to friends to lovers to strangers again 🤧
Also Tyson and Regina besties confirmed?? I love their friendship and I can't wait to explore it more.
Can't wait to write the rest!! Stay tuned :)