The Jacksons (completed): Book 2 - Percy Jackson Fanfiction

~ Chapter Three: NERO

Chapter Three

NERO

I was having one hell of a day.

First, my phone was playing up after Ethan Parker - my twin sister Esme's crush - had thrown it against the cafeteria wall last week, so my alarm went off at half past four this morning. Then, I was too nervous to settle back to sleep. Ethan and the boys told me that I had to be at school for 8:20 for a little 'party'. I'd heard of these kind of 'parties' - ones that involve blankets and iron fists and a baseball bat.

So I got dressed, paced my room for about an hour before hearing Mum get up for work at 5:30. She popped her head in for a 'little chat'.

"You okay, sweetheart?" she'd asked.

"I'm fine, Mum, just tired."

She frowned. "You went to bed at nine last night, Percy tells me. Anything up?"

She sat on my bed and looked expectantly at me for an answer. It'd be hard to fob her off, she's always been able to sense things like that, but I had to try.

"Felt a bit sick," I lied.

"That's what your father said. You're not coming down with something, are you, Nero?"

I'd shaken my head and said I was gonna try to get some more sleep. Mum took one glance at me in my school uniform, sighed, kissed me goodbye and went.

I nipped downstairs for breakfast. Dad came in, yawning and scratching his head. He looks good for thirty-two. I look a lot like him, with black hair and sea-green eyes and that cheeky chappy look of a skateboarder. I love skateboarding. But at school, because I'm bulied by Ethan Parker and the rest of those boneheaded twits, I don't have confidence. I pretend to love my schoolwork. I pretend to be a geek. I pretend to be the guy who doesn't want friends or like girls.

That's not true. Because there is, well... this one girl.

Her name is Alessandria. She's this really pretty Asian girl in most of my classes and I sit with her in French. She's got cocoa-brown smooth skin and big chocolatey eyes and shiny sleek black hair. Not like Thalia - I'll come to her in a minute - but Alessandria's is a long, straight curtain that smells of elderflower and raspberries and...

Well, you get the idea. She's beautiful. And way out of my league.

Plus, she's dating Ethan. Did Esme tell you that? I bet she didn't.

So the girl of my dreams is in love with my bully. Life's messed up, isn't it?

Anyway, Dad barely noticed me, so I reckon he was sleepwalking. When Dad's up late, he sleepwalks. He marks papers, even though he's not a teacher, not a proper one. He leads several activities at a year-round camp somewhere near Manhattan, and works with a guy called Kieron. Mum and Dad are always calling him a 'stubborn old horse' and 'a wild teacher'. I'd love to meet him. Beats Mrs Clarkson and every other teacher I've had any day.

Because I'm ADHD and dyslexic. I've got Mum's brains and I'm seriously clever, not to brag, but I have to work double what everyone else does. I don't have a mobile phone because I don't have a social life, and I don't use MSN or any other messaging websites, so my time is spent with my head in a book.

Enough of my rubbish life.

I got to school early and ran round the bins. I think Esme followed me, though it's all a bit of a blur. I can remember clambering over the wire fence and walking across the field, scared out of my wits, to see Ethan Parker and the other seven boys with - as I expected - weapons.

A tartan picnic blanket, a cricket bat, and I think Ethan was holding a knife.

Then all I remember was waking up, seeing a few people, being put on a bed, arguing with Esme and then...