Behind Closed Doors

Chapter 3

The two boys made their way to their respective first periods. Having a block schedule, they only had 4 classes a day. Both of their first blocks were English. Percy personally hated this particular class. Having dyslexia made it exceedingly difficult to understand what was going on most of the time.

Grover, on the other hand, loved English. It was one of the few classes Juniper was also in. He spent most of the time fawning over her. He sat a couple seats to the left of her. The teacher was droning on about the american dream. Juniper was taking notes, aimlessly playing with her hair.

"Isn't she just...perfect," Grover sighed. Percy looked over at him. He stopped tapping his pen.

"If you like her so much, why don't you talk to her during lunch? Maybe ask her out for coffee or something?" he asked. Grover blushed beat red.

"I-I could never do that," Grover mumbled.

"What's the worst that can happen?" Percy responded. "She say no?" Grover nodded quickly.

"If never talk to her, there is a 100% chance it'll never happen."

"Since when could you do math?" Grover asked.

"Don't change the subject," Percy said, indignantly. They both chuckled. The teacher coughed slightly, bringing the two boys attention back up front.

"How would you describe the American Dream, Mr. Jackson?" She asked, crossing her arms. Percy stared at her with a blank expression on his face. "I thought so. Pay attention, you two." A few people chuckled around the classroom. Grover went back to staring at his crush, hopelessly in love.

Percy glanced over and shook his head. He went back to tapping his pen. He spaced out, ignoring what the teacher was saying. He didn't care about the lesson. Who needed to learn this stuff anyway. Percy always felt like he wasn't going to live past 18. He never saw a reason to pay attention in school. If his fate was anything like his mother's, well, school would be meaningless.

The bell rang. Percy quickly wiped his face, covering any evidence he had been crying. Subconsciously, his mind wandered back to his mother. He had to be careful with that. People at Goode always looked for the weakness in people. Percy couldn't afford to be seen as a target to anymore people than he already was.

Percy poked Grover's face, getting his attention. "Dude, class is over." Grover stood up. He grabbed his backpack.

"An hour and a half, then you can talk to her," Percy said smiling. Grover smiled, butterflies gathering in his stomach. After throwing his backpack onto his back he grabbed his crutches and walked with Percy throughout the halls. They were both trying to figure out if they had homework.

Not paying attention, Percy ran into a brick wall. Well not really. Looking up, Percy saw dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. He almost looked nice, the only thing that ruined it was the large scar running down his face.

"Watch it, Jackson," He growled. Grover looked away. Percy nodded. The two went on there way, leaving tension surrounding the pair. Suddenly, they were not so chatty anymore. Because of how crowded the hallway was, Luke decided to not pick a fight. He always made sure there was no way he could get caught.

"I'm going to go to class," Grover said as he scurried off towards his class. Percy really wasn't sure what his class was this period. All he knew was it was something to get him out of PE. Percy sighed and headed towards the gym. He made a habit of never dressing down. This annoyed the teacher, but after a while, he quit saying something about it, realizing how useless it was.

Percy sat on the bleachers waiting for the rest of the class came in. People slowly filed in, taking seats near their friends. This meant Percy sat alone. He didn't mind. He was used to keeping to himself. The group of people in front of him were talking loudly. 

"She is totally into me," a Hispanic boy said.

"Leo, how do you know she is into you? Did she give any kind of signs?" The blonde asked.

"Not directly," Leo responded. "But how could she not be into me? I am the  Leo Valdez." He grinned. The blonde shook his head, laughing. At that moment, the gym teacher walked in. He gave a quick scan of the room to get a general idea of how many people came to class.

"All right, line up!" he called. Everyone got up and lined up in alphabetical order. He walked down the line and marked down who was absent. Coach Kemper then signaled for everyone to start warm-ups.

Percy was lightly jogging around the gym, along with everyone else. After a few minutes, someone ran into Percy and they both went sprawling. Percy groaned and rolled over onto his stomach to push himself up. 

Leo laid on the ground laughing still. He hopped up and held his hand out to Percy. The older didn't notice. He had his eyes closed, clutching his ribs. Leo's elbow had landed on a large bruise. 

"You all good?" Leo asked, his hand dropping a little. Percy gave a small nod, and pushed himself to his feet. "Are you sure?" 

"I'm all good," Percy said, quietly. A small crowd of people formed. Someone walked up to Leo and smacked him on the back of the head. 

"Ow, what was that for, Hazel?" Leo asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"I told you, you would hurt someone if you ran backwards. You didn't pay attention." Hazel responded. 

"I got hurt too," Leo complained. Hazel stared at him blank faced. She crossed her arms. "You're right. I'm sor-" Leo turned to apologize and the other teen, only to find he wasn't there. 

Heyo~ Author here!

Sorry this took so long to come out, I've been really busy at home with packing and what not. I was hoping to get this chapter out a lot quicker than I actually did. I'm sorry.