solangelocuddles:

ofswordsandpens:

Ok so I already head canon that Percy is sort of this enigma at school because he disappears for months on end, has been expelled from multiple previous schools, has weird scars and a tattoo, rarely talks in class, has a brooding resting face and looks like a trouble maker, and is just kinda known as this intimidating guy (but is super friendly if you actually talk to him) etc etc etc.

But I was rereading the Lightning Thief and it suddenly occurred to me that Percy could possibly have this huge rep as someone you definitely don’t want on your shit list and is seen as highly highly intimidating because now all I can imagine is some kid at his high school going “You know, Percy Jackson sounds really really familiar” and looking his name up on google or something and-

“Oh wow he was that kid that went missing with his mom a couple years ago”

“And there was nation wide man-hunt for them and he was all over the news”

“And… he fought a bus driver for control of a bus and… basically just caused this mile-long pile up to get away from his captor… who then exploded the bus”

“…And then this guy exploded the Gateway Arch. The Gateway Arch.”

“And holy shit this kid finally got away from this psycho after having a shotgun-to-rifle gun battle in Los Angelos which ended in this huge explosion that destroyed five police cars oh my god”

“and hE WAS TWELVE”

“WHAT”

I can imagine someone asking him about this and him being 500% done and just saying something like ‘go big or go home’ bc that’s the kind of sarcastic lil shit he is

---

FINE i wrote it and it is at least mediocre in quality, more below the cut

“Hey, Sophie?” Ms. Velasquez asked after
the bell rang for lunch. “Could you stay here a second?”

Sophie paused from packing up her
notebooks and pencils, doing some quick mental math. She needed to go in for
the physics problem set, but she could afford a few minutes for her favorite
teacher. “What’s up?” she asked, walking over to Ms. Velasquez’s desk.

“I was wondering if you’d be willing to do
some tutoring for me,” Ms. Velasquez asked.

Immediately, Sophie’s brain flicked back
to her planner and its calendar. Tutoring would cut into her already-scarce
free time, pulling her attention away from debate team and studying for the AP
exams and her after-school job, but Ms. Velasquez was her favorite teacher.
English was her favorite subject. She was also a horrendous overachiever (see
also- debate team, APs, job). “Sure,” Sophie said.

Ms. Velasquez smiled, relieved. “Thank you
so much, Sophie, this will really be a tremendous help. I’ll make sure your
hours get counted towards your service requirement for graduation, I promise.”

“What will you need me to do?” Sophie
asked.

“If you could commit to staying an hour
after school a few days a week- as many as you can- I have a student with some
special needs who needs some extra support. Help him with the reading, with
crafting essays, whatever assignments we’re working on. He’s starting the year
just now, a month late, so he’s already pretty behind. Is that all okay?” Ms.
Velasquez asked.

Sophie was a softy for a sob story. “Of
course,” she said, already chalking off Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday
afternoons as likely candidates. She turned back to her things to finish
packing them up, then realized she’d missed a major detail. “What’s his name?
The guy I’ll be tutoring?”

Ms. Velasquez’s mouth thinned to a line. “Percy
Jackson.”

Percy Jackson was a myth—nay, a legend at Goode High School, ever since
he went missing over winter break last year. Mr. Blofis, Sophie’s English
teacher last year, had banned all of the students from talking about it, on account
of Percy Jackson being his stepson. Naturally, this made everyone start talking
about Percy Jackson immediately, and
the rumors had quickly flown out of control.

At least, that’s what Sophie had thought,
before she made the mistake of Googling him.

He’d been expelled from six different
schools.

He and his mom had both gone missing when
he was twelve.

He blew up a bus and the Gateway Arch, plus was briefly suspected
of blowing up their own damn high school a few years later.

He fought his kidnapper shotgun-to-rifle. When he was twelve!

He skipped out of classes all the time
with really flimsy excuses, including that one time he bailed on a final exam because his poodle showed up
in the middle of it.

Sophie and Percy Jackson weren’t exactly
in the same social circle, because Sophie was a tryhard nerd and Percy Jackson
was Percy Jackson, but they had gone
to the same school for several years. She’d seen him around. They had bio
together freshman year. She didn’t doubt any of the news reports, not for a
second, because Percy Jackson was the most weirdly intense high school kid she’d
ever met. Sure, he could sometimes be a jokey, dopey jock, but the rest of the
time- she didn’t know. It was something in his eyes, and the scars on his hands
and arms, and the sensitivity of his startle reflex.

To sum up- Sophie was terrified of Percy
Jackson. With good reason.

She showed up for their first day of
tutoring with a binder clutched protectively over her chest and a can of pepper
spray shoved in her pocket. Just in case. She pulled out her copy of Hamlet
(the play they were currently studying in English), nodded at Ms. Velasquez who
was typing away at her desk, and waited.

Percy Jackson came in in the middle of his
own personal hurricane maybe three minutes later, juggling papers and pens and
books and backpack as he made his way to the seat across from her. “Sorry I’m
late,” he said, collapsing into the chair. “It’s been crazy. I’m here, Ms. V!”

“I see that, Percy,” she replied. “This is
Sophie, your tutor. Sophie, you remember Percy, right?”

“Yes,” Sophie said, sticking out her hand.
“Hi.”

Percy nods, shaking her hand. “Hi. We had
science together, right? Back a while?”

“Yeah,” Sophie said, because that was one
of the things that viscerally freaked her out when he disappeared last year. It
wasn’t just some kid who’d gone missing. It was Mr. Blofis’s stepson. It was
the guy in her freshman bio class who couldn’t sit still.

He blew out a long, deep breath, then
pulled Hamlet to the top of the pile of papers in front of him. “Shakespeare.
Not my strong suit.”

“Yeah, it can be kind of hard to get
through,” Sophie said. “We’re on Act 3, in class. Have you started it yet?”

He shook his head. “No. I, um- I’m really far
behind.”

He didn’t look like the kind of guy who’d
blow things up and fight off a kidnapper with his own gun and be a
person-of-interest in the disappearance of his first stepfather. He just looked
lost and kind of sad.

And Sophie was a softy for a sob story. “It’s
not so hard if you hear it said aloud,” she explained, opening her copy of
Hamlet. “Here…”

Somehow, without entirely knowing how she
did it, Sophie made it through the full hour of tutoring, helping Percy
Freaking Jackson understand Shakespeare. In fact, she didn’t realize it was
over until she heard an unfamiliar voice call, “Percy? Percy?!”

“Hang on,” Percy says to her with a
frankly heart-melting smile, then stands and strides across the room towards
the voice.

Sophie looks up to see a pretty blonde
girl literally throwing herself into Percy Jackson’s arms, eyes slightly wild. “You
said you’d be outside at four o’clock sharp.”

“My tutoring session ran late,” Percy
said. “I’m sorry.”

“I just-“ the girl cut herself off.

“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

She knew she was interrupting, but Sophie
couldn’t help herself. Percy Jackson was the
subject of gossip ever since he came back, and many people had referenced the
heretofore-unconfirmed rumor of a girlfriend. Sophie could get proof. “Hi,” she said, “I’m Sophie.”

The blonde pulled herself away and was
immediately completely composed. Sophie was impressed. “I’m Annabeth,” she
said. “Thanks for helping him out. Gives me some time off.”

“Let me just finish up here, and I’ll meet
you out front in a little bit,” Percy said to Annabeth. “If I’m not out in five
minutes, you can judo-flip me again.”

Annabeth nodded once, slowly. “Five
minutes.” She checked her watch. “I’m starting that now.”

“Four minute and forty-five seconds,”
Percy said. “Promise.”

Annabeth nodded again, then left the room.

“She seems nice,” Sophie said as Percy
stooped to pick up his things.

He laughed. “You can say she’s a little
scary. She’s intense. It’s been, um.” Something breaks in his eyes, and he’s no
longer the easygoing guy laughing at the dick jokes she pointed out in the
first half of Hamlet. He looks scared and scary, backed into a corner and ready
to fight his way out. “This was a rough summer for both of us.”

She wasn’t sure what to say to that, in
light of Percy Jackson suddenly looking more like a soldier with PTSD than a
high school student. “I- I’m really sorry,” Sophie said.

“Thanks for not asking,” Percy said. “I
know the rumors have got to be crazy but you didn’t ask, and- thank you.”

“Of course,” Sophie said.

He smiled, but it wasn’t as easy as it
was. He was putting on a good face, playing the role people expected of him. “Gotta
go catch up with the girlfriend before she decides she actually will judo-flip
me again,” he said. “Thanks again. See you on Thursday?”

“Yeah, Thursday,” Sophie said, and watched
Percy Jackson trot on out the door.

After that, Sophie dedicated herself
entirely to her new job- shutting the rumor mill the hell down about that poor boy. She had no idea what happened over the
past year, no idea what fuckery he went through when he was twelve, but clearly, it had left some scars. He didn’t
need a pack of idiotic high school students picking at them. During their
tutoring sessions, they talked about English, and nothing more.

Every time, he never failed to thank her.

[[Canonically, Percy gets home from his
Hera-induced insanity after August 1. However, he’s still planning on
graduating high school on time, with Annabeth. So somehow, homeboy had to make up a full semester of missing school,
out of thin air. In my mind, the school figured out some sort of
special-edition summer school for him that ran through August and September,
making him late to this year of school.
Is this practical? Probably not. Is this dramatically interesting and funny?
Yes. Ergo, Percy Jackson would have mysteriously disappeared “last year”, both
in calendar years and academic years.]]