Deeper Than Appearances (A Percy Jackson and Twilight Crossover)

Chapter 2

Percy stares at Alice across the table. He doesn't know quite what to say because he doesn't really know why she's talking to him. Finally he shakes the offered hand and says "Percy."

Alice nods as if that tells her all she needs to know. "Where are you from Percy?"

"Manhattan..." he says hesitantly. Her bubbly personality almost scares him. They're at school for gods' sakes, how happy can she possibly be about that? Not only that, but the only people Percy knows that are that happy are usually there to screw with his life a bit by either trying to kill him in some way or messing with his love life.

"Wow. Really? I would have guessed California." She says and smiles brightly. Yeah, she has to want to kill him right?

He shrugs. "I've been there only a couple times and didn't get much sun while I was.... Did you grow up around here?"

"Oh no," She breaths. "We moved here at the start of high school."

"Doesn't the rain bother you?" he asks with a raised eyebrow.

Alice shakes her head. "No not at all. It's actually not bad once you get used to it."

"Oh," is all Percy says as he props his head up on his hand and looks out the window. It's raining just as it has been since he got here and he can here the droplets pitter patter against the glass. 

Alice cocks her head to the side. "You don't like it here?"

"It's not that," he says with a sigh and turns back to look at her. "It's just that I already miss the sun and I've only been here a few days. I grew up with sunshine. I don't know if I can adjust to not having in that easily."

They lapse into silence and someone else from Alice's table comes over. He's the blonde haired one that has been practically attached at the hip with her every time Percy has seen them. The new arrival just sits there and sort of glares at Percy. The demigod doesn't give indication that it bothers him, though he honestly wishes the guy would just say something.

Finally Percy leans back in his chair. "Maybe you should get back. I think your friends miss you."

Alice spares a glance at her table before looking back at Percy. "Why don't you come sit with us?"

"Huh?" Percy says. The blonde looks equally surprised.

"Yeah, come on." And she's pulling him up before he can protest. He grabs the bag of homemade cookies as she yanks him over to her table. She pulls over and extra chair and pushes him down in it so that he's sitting between the two other guys. She and the blonde sit down in their own spots.

"Hey," the guy to his right says. He's bulkier than the others with close cropped brown hair. He looks like the ideal football player and high school jock. And go figure, at his side is a very pretty blonde. "My name's Emmett." Percy shakes the offered hand.

"His name's Percy," Alice pipes up from across the table. "He's from Manhattan."

Alice goes around the table introducing everyone. The blonde with Emmett is Rosalie. Alice's companion is Jasper. The other guy with windswept brown hair is Edward and the girl with the brown hair and brown eyes huddled at his side is Bella. They all look slightly uncomfortable with his arrival though none of them say it out loud, even if Jasper looks like he wants to.

Emmett turns to him. "So, do you play any sports?"

Percy shakes his head. "No. I suck at them."

"You're kidding," Emmett says in a disbelieving tone. He's looking Percy up and down. Tall, lean and chalked full of firm muscle. His body practically screams athlete.

Again Percy shakes his head. "I think the last thing I played that even resembled a sport was dodge ball and well.... let's just say it didn't go too well?"

"Oh come on, even if your side lost I bet you were good at it," Emmett prompts.

"We blew up the gym," Percy deadpans. Emmett's eyes widen. "Well actually we only blew a couple holes in it but you get the idea."  

The rest of the table is also staring at him wide eyed. He shrugs and grabs another cookie out of his bag. None of them are eating, but he doesn't care. He'll probably skip dinner tonight with the excuse that he had a large lunch. His mom will know he's lying, but hopefully won't push too much. She knows he doesn't have much of a stomach for food anymore. After the war, after all that bloodshed.

"It's blue," Rosalie exclaims.

Percy smiles. "Yeah I love blue food."

"Does it taste like blueberry or something?" Emmett asks.

"No, it's just a normal cookie," the black haired teen responds.

Alice leans forward. "Why's it blue then?"

Percy's grin widens a little. "It's kind of a joke between me and my mom, though I guess it's taken on a life of its own since then. My mom's ex-husband once tried to say that there wasn't a such thing as blue food so my mom started going out of her way to buy and bake everything blue. Even after Gabe... uh left, we still do it."

Everyone shrugs. After a while they seem to be engrossed in their own little conversations and Percy once again feels like an outsider. He tosses what remains of his cookie into the bag and takes out some stuff from camp. Since the camps have made peace, Percy's has to do a lot of paperwork and make a lot of decisions. It seems he's become something of a leader at both camps and his easy retirement with Annabeth in New Rome will have to wait.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Alice says as he signs another paper.

He looks up. "Uh... I did."

She shakes her head. "No you didn't. You've only had a couple cookies."

He shrugs. "I'm not hungry." 

"You're so thin though," Alice says with genuine worry.

Percy looks back down at the papers before him. He's not that thin is he? He looks up and sighs. "I guess I'm a little hungry."

 Alice seems happy with this response because she claps her hands together with a large smile. "Now that's more like it."

Percy didn't bring money with him, but they seem okay with that. Alice buys his lunch and she makes sure he has a more than full plate. He feels awkward eating in front of all of them and offers the rest of his mom's cookies. They all seem rather please with this arrangement once they get a taste.

Just as everyone is finishing, the bell rings and it's off to class. Percy has English and he hopes Paul is generous enough to not assign homework like the rest of his teachers. Turns out he has the class with Edward and Bella. He walks with them to class more by default than by choice. 

He takes a seat in the back and they sit more towards the middle. While he doesn't mind Alice and he thinks he can bear Emmett, he isn't sure about the rest of the group. Especially Edward and Jasper. The blonde wouldn't stop glaring at him all through lunch and Edward keeps shooting him these curious glances like he knows something about Percy that no one else does. It's... unnerving to say the least.

He'll at least be satisfied if he can finish the day in peace and go home to rest. He doesn't feel so good after shoving down all that food.

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A/N

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