The New Avenger

People

Percy's POV:

When I agreed to school I had no idea what I was signing up for. Now, I'd consider myself a pretty strong guy. I don't scare easily. In the past to think of school was to think of past wrongs. Of injury's that had hurt, of cruelty's that proved how inhuman humanity really is. I guess I thought that after all this time, after everything that'd happened to me I'd be immune to petty taunts. But I'm not.  Stab wounds, that I can handle. The little jabs with words from mortals though- well they hurt.

All day people whispered. It got worse once Lily added her two cents. Apparently I have "anger issues" and am "mentally unbalanced". Although they might be just a tiny little bit true I don't find it enjoyable to have the entire school think I'm insane on the first morning. And by no fault of my own. Standing up for Peter, that was the right thing to do. Looking on the bright side (See, I'm optimistic!) at least I now have someone willing to eat lunch with me. Hopefully Peter's friends don't mind having the schools new nut case sitting with them. 

"Um, hi Percy," Peter walks up, rather awkwardly.

"Hi." I respond.

"I was wondering if you were still planning on sitting with me?"

"If your friends will take the schools new nut case then I'd be honored." I smirk like my reputation doesn't bother me, like my words are just jokes, not really my thoughts. My lie is so good I almost convince myself.

"My little group is already on Lily's bad list. I wouldn't worry about it." Peter gives me a little grin, relief showing on his face. Then he tenses. "Um, we don't really eat in the lunch room because, well, um, we just don't really, I don't know, we just don't really fit in there. But if you'd rather sit there then I can introduce you to my science partner, she's nice and you can sit with her. Because I know people like to sit in the lunch room and it doesn't matter if you don't want to sit somewhere else."

"Where do you eat?" Honestly, I would be more than pleased to avoid the lunch room. However I would rather not eat in say, the library. 

"I'm on a robotics team so we normally just meet up in the robotics room."

"Oh." I pause, trying not to be disappointed, because teams are exclusive and I'm just the new kid with a bad attitude, "So since I'm not on the team I can't come. It doesn't matter. You can introduce me to that person from science. Its fine."

"No! That's not what I meant. I just figured you wouldn't want to hang out with the super nerds. And if anyone complains you can join the robotics team."

"Come on, you really think I'm smart enough to make some fancy robot thingamabob?"

"Its not as hard as it looks." He opens a door and motions me inside.

The room is small, with a large table with seemingly random items on it. The other counter tops look like something exploded on it, they're so covered in robot parts. A small window looks out over the parking lot. The smell of spaghetti and chips is in the air. 

"Hey Peter." An Indian girl with untamed black hair that falls into her face smiles slightly. Her face is small and dark though mostly covered by her hair and glasses. What I can see is covered in acne. Every article of clothing she's wearing is black, all the way to her large black boots.  "Oh, um, you brought a friend." She pushes her hair out of her face.

"This is Percy." He motions to me, "Its his first day but he's already on Lily's bad side." Peter grins at the group.

"Good for you!" A sturdy boy with a slightly tan complexion smiles at me rather nervously, like I might bite. His hands rub together, almost like a nervous tick. "Normally it takes at least a day before she passes judgment."

"You say that and yet there are two concrete cases giving evidence on the contrary, DJ." A tall blond girl with bright purple streaks in her hair rolls her eyes at the brown haired boy. Her voice layered with a slight accent that I can't identify. She has big, round blue eyes that seem to be issuing a challenge, underneath that though you can tell she's guarding herself, though against what I couldn't tell. "I'm Joy. Its nice to meet you, Percy." The girl, Joy, extends her hand to me.  I take her hand tentatively and we shake. She grins, like its not at all strange for two high-schoolers to be shaking hands. "I'm new here as well. Recently moved from the UK. I just love the school, everyone is so nice. All the kids are so thoughtful and kind. You're going to love New York." The sarcasm oozes from her words.   

"Thank you for your kind introduction Joy." A tiny boy with an Afro rolls his eyes. The moment he speaks Joy stiffens. The tension is palpable in the room. For a moment an icy silence ensues. The two glare at everything except each other. "Sorry Joy." He mutters. That surprises me. Even though the guy seems like a cheerful little ball of (freshman) energy he doesn't seem like the type to back down easily. "I'm Josiah." He mutters then backs away.

There's another boy standing in the corner. He's tall, not as tall as Joy, but tall. Short, straight almost back hair is cut to just past his ears. Just looking at him makes him blush, his ears turning bright red. Glasses partially obscure his face. He is Asian and when you look awkward up in the picture of him. 

"That's Matt." Joy saves him from having to speak.

"Um, hi." I smile, more to the room than to any individual person. I realize I don't know the name of the girl who spoke first, "Whats your name?" I point to her.

"Radi." She replies and turns away. A brief silence ensues. 

"Percy thinks he's not smart enough for a robotic club." Peter announces, causing me to blush. Laughs fill the room. Well one laugh, to be specific.

"If I'm smart enough to do it you'll be fine." Joy breaks back into spasms of laughter, "You might not be as smart as DJ or Peter but trust me, you'll be plenty smart enough."

"Joy, we both know you're smarter than me. So by extension Percy will be too." Radi smirks.

"My grades are worse than your's" 

"Yeah well, that's only because you've only been in this school system this year and you skip class as often as you possibly can."

"That's not true!" 

"Yeah, its not like you missed every class last Friday." Radi says dryly. 

"That was totally legal!" Joy squeaks in indignation. My eyebrows rise in surprise, I wouldn't have pegged Joy for a truant. 

"You still missed class all day."

"How did you legally skip class all day?" I'm actually curious and slightly impressed.

"I had a very important debate competition on Saturday and all the administration are desperate for trophy's." She gives me an innocent look. 

"Oh." I give her an impressed look, there aren't many people who can get teachers to let them leave class all day, "So what do you guys actually do in robotics?"

"We build robots." DJ smirks.

"Very descriptive."

"In short- I'm the main programmer, Joy fixes my programs, Peter runs them over and over again and tells everyone whats wrong with them and Joy fixes them again. Matt and Josiah are the hardware guys, they build the robot and the extensions and stuff. Radi is game master, which means she know all the rules and such." 

"OK. So hypothetically if I were to join the team what would my job be?"

"Depends what you're good at." 

And that's when I know that I'm going to join. Because they're the first people all day that didn't look at me like something under a microscope. Because they're not upset that I made the queen bee angry. Because they seem like they're actually nice people, the first I've met all day. 

A/N

I swear the OC's won't play a big part in the grand scheme of things! Don't hate me!