Seeing in Color

Twelve

Percy

It was the second week of school, and I was already done with homework.

Well, not literally, but I was sick of it. It had been a rough couple of weeks at school. Thalia wasn't interested in the things I liked to do in my spare time, so I rarely saw her after she dropped me off for the day. Her friends were all girls with strange hobbies like archery, taking walks through the forest, and gymnastics. Not my idea of fun; failing miserably at notching an arrow, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and becoming completely lost, or painful body cramps after attempting a back-flip (which I can do, by the way, but I choose not to).

I also didn't have many friends.

There was only Grover at the beginning of high school, but he had moved away a few months before summer.

And don't get me started with Rachel.

So every day after school was out and practice was over, I spent the rest of the day doing my homework, scrolling through social media, and laying on my bed in boredom, staring at the ceiling and wondering if life could get any more boring. At least, that's what I do when my mom is home and my stepdad is out gambling or working. On nights when he was home, I hid in my room and locked the door. You don't want to know what happens when that man gets drunk and angry.

Today was just like any normal day in the life of Percy Jackson. My cousin picked me up in her tiny, beat up Chrysler with the broken handle on the passenger's door, so I crawled into my seat from the back. All my teachers droned on and on about boring or complicated subjects, their words going in one ear and out the other. All my classmates ignored me, and Mrs. Scotts had to ask a kid to be my science partner for an experiment. As I was headed to the lunchroom the janitor with three missing teeth smiled and waved at me. He does this to a few kids that get ignored, and I always try and wave back or go up and say hi. His name was Bob, and he was the nicest person to me at school.

I didn't pay attention as I was walking past the library door after saying hi to Bob and that's when I ran into the most beautiful girl in existence.

Literally.

"Seriously?" The girl spat, half a dozen books crashing to the floor. A few opened and spilled notes across the hallway.

"I-I'm so so-sorry!" I rarely stuttered, but in this case, it was expected. "I-I didn't s-see you there." My reflexes kicked in, and so did my chivalry, and I knelt and collected some of the notes and closed the books. The girl knelt down and helped me, and I that's when I looked up and recognized her.

"Well, maybe you would have if you watched where you-" Annabeth Chase looked up with a glare, her steely gray eyes stone-cold like she was about to kill me, but a flicker of recognition flashed across her face. She stood with her mouth open, like a fish gasping for breath. A thick shade of red took to her cheeks, so either she was blushing, or she was embarrassed for yelling at me. Maybe both. I'm sure my cheeks were just as red.

I rose to my feet and forgot to hand her the books, so we stood there for a solid ten seconds before either of us recovered.

"Oh," Annabeth stuck a strand of wavy blonde hair behind her pierced ear, staring at her gray Converse. "It's you."

"I'm sorry," I gulped, hoping that this tense moment would pass quickly. Her gray eyes flickered back up to my face and I tried my best to stare back at her without blushing any darker.

"No, no, it's fine." She laughed. "I was just too caught up in a fictional world to see the real one."

I laughed too, handing her the stack of books. "I can tell you still love reading."