"Sit up straight, Percy," my mother states with a hand on my shoulder and back, straightening it for me. "First impressions are important." She attempts to slick down my hair, running her fingers through my wild hair.
I pout as I continue to sit while she positioned me.
"Do I have to go to school?"
"Yes. It's not summer, you know," my mom says still attempting to fix my appearance.
"Why can't we pretend it is?" I say batting at her hands that were currently at my shirt trying to smooth it out. "Mom!" I hiss in embarrassment as students walk past us on their way to their classes.
"Sorry, baby. I just worry sometimes," she states. "And though you're very lucky that Paul was nice enough to give you a recommendation into this school, you still have to convince the Principal, but he'll love you. I'm sure of it."
Just as she finishes her statement, the door to the principal's office opens and a student walks out.
"Thanks you, Mr. Morita. I promise I won't do it again!" the heavy set boy exclaims. Just as he's about to go off to his class, Mr. Morita grabs his sleeve.
"Would you wait out here for a moment, Ned?"
"Yes, sir," he says all too happily, plopping down on one of the plastic chairs. Anything not to go back to class, I guess.
That's understandable.
"You know the phone policy, Mr. Leeds."
"Yep." He states peppily, sitting obediently in the chair. The principal just hums and turns his attention to us.
"Please, come in." He ushers the both of us into his office. He takes a seat behind his desk and my mom and I take seats in front. I wiggle around a little to get settled in. "So, tell me about yourself Percy."
"Uh... well, what do you want to know?"
"Tell me about what kind of student you are. What makes you deserve a place in this school. As you know, this is a top school in New York and many students and teachers fought to be in this building."
I gulp visibly. "I... well, I can tell you that I probably wouldn't have been able to come to this school had I got in by conventional means, but I swear if I get the chance to attend here, I will work really hard. I've always had a few issues with school, mainly because of my dyslexia and ADHD, but I will try my absolute hardest to do everything that is asked of me to the best of my ability, sir."
He sits quietly for a moment, seemingly lost in internal conversation. His conflicted expression morphs into one of resolve as he focuses back on us.
"Ok then, Percy." The principal smiles and reaches his hand out for me to shake. I accept his hand and hopefully he doesn't realize how clammy my hands are. He offers his hand to my mother as well, which she also accepts.
"Well, may I be the first to welcome you to Midtown highschool Percy. That is, should you choose to attend here."
My mother jumped in before I could say anything, "He would be so grateful to attend here should he be given the chance!" thankfully she didn't add, "This is the only school that was willing to accept him."
Mr. Morita smiles widely, "Well, we'd be glad to have him as well. If you'd speak with me for a little while and sign a few forms, I'm going to send Percy to take a peek around the school with Ned! We wouldn't want him to be bored to death with forms and such."
Smiling with relief, my mother gives me a little blow kiss and mouths, 'be safe' or maybe it was 'don't get into trouble or I will hurt you, child'. Which, either way, was said with a motherly expression so I know to take it to heart.
As I exit the stuffy office, I look around and see Ned on his phone, only for him to whip it out of sight and look up wide-eyed.
"Oh, thank god it's just you," he sighs. He takes his phone out from its hiding place and stuffs it more securely in his backpack. He swiftly gets up, swinging his backpack over his shoulder.
"Hey, I'm Percy," I introduce holding out my hand. He takes my hand and gives it a quick shake then drops it.
"Cool name! Will you be going to school here?" As an afterthought, he says, "Oh, and I'm Ned by the way."
"Yeah, I'll be a student here starting as soon as possible I guess..."
"So uh... did Mr. Morita mention why I was still out here?"
"Oh yeah! He was hoping you'd give me a tour of the school," I state, just remembering why I was out here.
"Oh yeah, man. That makes sense. Okay well, uh, follow me I guess. What do you want to see first?" He started trotting down the hallway at a leisurely pace.
"Dunno. What's there to see here?"
"There's so much to see! I mean, if you're into that kinda stuff, afterall it is still school, but this is a great facility. I guess I'll just walk you around and point out whatever we pass?"
"Sounds great."
I look around the school, sort of in awe of the modernness. Most other schools around the five boroughs had been around for decades at least. This facility seemed pretty new.
"So to the left is where we have shop class, and to the right, there are some science classrooms," he points out for me.
We continue along our tour, passing the gymnasium, weight room, music room, humanities classrooms, science labs, and the auditorium. As we walk we make light conversation and I learn that Ned is quite the nerd, and I can't help but wonder what he had done to end up in the principal's office.
As we pass the lunch room, the bell blares, signaling the end of the period and students begin to flood the halls.
A voice suddenly shouts behind us, "Ned! You won't believe what just happened!"
A smile instantly lights up Ned's face. "Hey, Peter! What's up? I'm just showing the new student around school!" We both turn around to see a tall good looking brunette coming our way.
Is this guy single?
"Oh cool! Hey, man I'm... —oh shit." Peter's outstretched hand goes limp at the sight of me, his eyes narrowing as he looks me over with distrustful eyes.
I mean, I know I'm drop dead gorgeous, but my beauty doesn't call for a reaction like that. I feel my eyebrows raise before I can tell them not to.
"I'm Percy," I state crossing my arms with one eyebrow cocked. He seems to come to his senses with a squeak before giving a small wave.
"I know— I mean, uh, nice to meet you. Uh... —Ned, can I talk to you for a sec?"
Ned looks back and forth between us and says, "Sure. Is that ok with you, Percy?"
"Fine," I state almost questioningly. As the pair walks off I add to no one in particular, "I'll just stand here in the middle of the hallway, I guess."
From the direction in which they disappeared to, I hear Ned yelp, "...wait what?!" But just about everything else is drowned out by the swarm of students trying to get to their next classes. They soon bustle back over to me, Ned looking a lot more giddy than earlier. Peter looks kind of conflicted as he faces me where I rest against the lockers. Ned stands next to me as we wait for the people passing by to end.
My face is shoved into Peter's chest before I can even register what the heck happened. His hands make a loud thwack! against the lockers as his hands break his fall. My hands come up to protect my face but end up sandwiched somewhere between his stomach and my chest. I feel tensed muscles rippling underneath my clenched fists. Breathing in tightly, his scent flows in through my nose, reminding me somewhat nostalgically of a dream I'd had.
Without getting up, Peter yells over his shoulder at a passing student, "Really, Flash? Real mature."
"Uh... Peter?" I question, poking his chest that was still pressed against my red face and chest.
He seems to realize the position we had been put in and pushes off of the lockers swiftly, clearing his throat with a flushed face. His brown eyes meet mine for a brief second before flitting away swiftly. In that brief second I see conflict and another emotion I don't quite understand floating around in his eyes.
"I-I gotta—" Peter clears his throat, "I gotta get to class now, you guys." He kinda backs away awkwardly with a little wave before rushing off. I watch him run off to his next class with his hair flopping with every large stride. Peter rounds a corner, vanishing from my sight.
Ned is smiling cheekily when I turn to him again. I raise an eyebrow in response. He shakes himself out of whatever happy trance he was in, physically throttling himself, which I find hilarious.
"So where to next Mr. Tour Guide?" I ask jokingly.
"Well, I've pretty much taken you everywhere," he frowns with a conflicted look on his face before it lights up again. "Oh! I haven't taken you to the pool yet!"
We walk through the twisting hallways before going down a stairwell that takes us to the basement. I sense a large body of water before I see it and know that we are approaching the pool. Ned opens the door for me and I step through with a muttered thank you. When we walk into the pool room, it's entirely empty. The smell of chlorine overtakes my senses and I have to resist the temptation to just jump straight into the pool. Afterall, I couldn't alienate Ned that fast. I would make him like me first before I began to give him reasons to not to like me.
Even though I could stop myself from jumping in like a crazy person, I couldn't help but calmly walk up to the water and run my hands through the velvety softness of the water, greeting my friend with a soft caress. The water seems to ripple happily and moves against my hand.
"This is going to sound crazy, but the water looks like it likes you," Ned says, breaking the serene silence. I jerk my hands away in surprise and nod to him sheepishly.
"That does sound crazy," I reply stonily, staring straight into his eyes. He laughs nervously before standing straight from where he was crouched.
I swear I hear the water say, goodbye, Percy.
I stand up with him and we silently make our way back to the office. When we get back, my mom and Mr. Morita are just exiting his office. She smiles and shakes his hand again. Seeing us, he smiles and waves before heading back into his office.
My mom runs over to me and Ned.
She all but shouts, "Percy! You are officially a student at Midtown High!" My mouth falls open in surprise and I face Ned whose face has broken into a wide smile.
"Really? Oh my god!" I revel in the elating feeling and kinda jump around excitedly.
"That's awesome, man!" Ned claps me on the back. "I'm gonna get going to class now. See you Monday?" I nod slightly.
My mom interjects, "Yes, he will be starting next Monday. It was very nice of you to show Percy around...?"
"Edward Leeds," Ned supplies. He tacks on, "But most of my friends call me Ned."
"Well, thank you, Ned and it's nice to meet you. I'm Percy's mother, Sally Jackson."
"Oh! No problem, Mrs. Jackson! It was my pleasure! Nice to meet you as well," He says happily. His face alights as he remembers something, "Oh, hey! Percy can I have your phone number?" I smile slightly at his question, glad I didn't scare him away. My mother smiles as well.
I accept his phone when he hands it to me and put in my number as he does the same with my phone.
"Ok! Well, bye, Percy! It was awesome meeting you! Bye, Mrs. Jackson!" He trots off to his next class and disappears from our line of sight.
"Ready to go home, baby?" My mom asks slinging her arm around my shoulders.
I take one last look around my new school. "Yeah, I'm ready. Let's get going."
As we exit the school, my mom questions me, "How was the tour? Anything interesting happen? Any hot guys?" My face heats unbearably at her embarrassing questions.
"Oh my god, mom! No! Ewwww," I reply with my hands on my face. She smirks.
"I can always count on the fact that I can embarrass you, honey. Thank you for that." She gives me a tight hug and we continue on our way home.
___________________________
Holy Cheese. It's been a while, you guys. I'm so sorry for the wait. I hope Percy and Peter meeting was enough to sate you Petercy shippers for now. It was totally awesome hearing from you guys about what you wanted to see, so thank you for the awesome input. (Sorry if it wasn't used in this chapter. I'll try to include it elsewhere. Maybe.)
I don't know how good I'll be about being consistent because I've been really really busy lately, but I promise I won't give up on this book.
Please continue to vote and comment because it really means a lot! Love you guys!
~ P.S.BROOKLYN