Poseidon
I was called into the school for Percy. And I figured maybe an injury or something of that sort. He hasn't gotten in trouble for school in like 3 or 4 years.
I kept tabs, I'm not that bad of a dad.
The police were here, and there was also an ambulance here. Which freaked me out, because I thought he did something to himself. He goes to therapy for a reason, right? He hates therapy, I learned that pretty quick, but he goes nevertheless.
I hurried inside and there was a police officer asking Percy about something or another and he going on and on about it. And then the medical team was checking on Patrick, who was Paul's kid. The school was trying to get ahold of Sally, and it was a huge mess. Somebody was also interesting Paul.
It was chaos.
"Um, hi," I introduced myself, walking up to who I assumed was the principal. "I was called in for Percy. I'm his dad. What happened?"
Mind you, Bianca and Alex were here, too. And like 10 other kids. Just waiting. Rachel Dare, too. She was nice, said hi to me.
I like Rachel. I'm glad her and Percy are friends.
"Hello, Mr. Jackson," the principal said, which sounded kind of weird to me. "I'm Brandon Thomas, the principal here. Do you have a minute? Percy should be done here shortly, only a few more minutes, I suppose."
"Of course."
He invited me into his office and had me sit down, along with the Dean and the school councilor.
Sitting down, I understood why Percy hated this. I felt like I was in trouble.
I haven't done anything but introduce myself to the principal and say hi to Rachel.
"Your son is a well behaved student, Mr. Jackson." The Dean told me. "There was a mishap at his freshman orientation, but that's the only time he's ever had to visit me. And I assume you know all of this. He isn't the smartest student, but from what I've heard, he does try and he isn't failing anything right now. But there's been an alleged issue between him and our English teacher, Paul Blofis. Have you ever met Paul?"
I thought about it, because Percy has told me a lot about it. It slowly got worse over the years. But he told me.
"Yes, once." I answered their question, recalling Percy's birthday. "It was quick. I was going to drop off a present for Percy's birthday and Paul had been there and we introduced ourselves, and I borrowed Percy for just a couple minutes before leaving. That was all I saw of him. Percys told me about him, though. Not too much. It got worse over the years. Sally has told me about him, too. And again, as time went on, it got worse."
They were taking note of what I was saying, which made sense. Sally and Percy both told me about the abuse. Sally just never had the nerve to report it, and nobody would ever believe Percy. Until now, I'm guessing.
Now that something is finally being done about it.
They had me tell them what I knew about him and what Percy and Sally have told me and it was a lot of information that I had to tell them. But within 10 minutes, I was out of there and Sally was just waiting. Percy was still going in his questioning.
"Poseidon," Sally said, sounding happy I was here. "Oh my, what's going on? I got seven calls from the school, I didn't see it until my break."
"Yeah," I assured him. "Percy finally snapped and exposed Paul for everything he's done. And it took three people for Percy not to try and kill Paul."
Once Percy was done with the police, the principal talked to him and, as Sally was being interviewed by the police, I was called in for him.
Percy smiled, figuring he'd be in trouble with me.
"Hi, Dad..." He said. "I'm not going to jail."
"I'm not mad," I promised as I sat down next to him. "Nico will probably be more upset about it than us. I'm assuming this is about if you're getting expelled or not."
"Percy isn't going to be expelled." The principal told me. "None of these kids are. But he will have to pay for the medical bills for Paul, if there are any. That harm would have been caused by Percy. But because it ties into the idea of self defense and after everything Paul has done, Percy's record will remain clean."
So he's not in trouble.
Once Sally was done with the police, she was brought in here and they told us what this meeting was actually about. Now that the situation of Paul was being taken care of.
This was about Percy going to college.
"Now, we know that you haven't really thought about college that much," the councilor told Percy. "you've told me before that your goal is to graduate high school and if you don't make it to college, you'd be okay with that for now. Have you applied anywhere?"
"Um, no, not really." Percy told her, and he shrugged. "Why?"
"We received a call earlier today," the principal explained to the three of us. "It was the head of Stanford University. He said that, as one of the best high school swimmers in the country, Stanford would give Percy a full scholarship up to his Master's degree, if he swam for them and kept up how he was swimming. You have until the end of the week to take the offer. If he didn't hear back by the end of the week, he'll assume you aren't interested."
