The next morning was a new level of sore I didn't know you could reach. My muscles clenched when I moved, and as soon as I tried to stretch them out, pain shot through the spot into my brain.

I hauled myself up, feeling my eyes blackout from the dark spots that appeared in my vision. I held onto the nearest wall for a second, getting my bearings. Then I walked to the closet. Pulling out a random shirt and my black hoodie, I pulled out some black jeans and checked my bandages.

Most of them were bled through, but I hoped that they wouldn't open too soon. I quietly walked across the hallway to the bathroom and closed the door. Leaving my hair as it is, I unwrapped the bandages carefully.

Pulling the sticky bandages off my body and threw them in the trash. Then starting the shower, I hopped in. I winced as the cold water beat on my back. Slowly turning into a warm massage as my muscles relaxed under the warm water.

I quickly washed my body, being weary of all my injuries, and dried off. Then I reapplied the bandages and threw on the clothes I brought with me.

Stepping carefully out of the restroom, I ran into my bedroom to grab the house key and my math notebook and then sprinted to the front door. I was almost out when a foot out of nowhere tripped me.

I bit my tongue as I almost said, "I can do that just fine without your help, thank you."

I couldn't be late to school; it'd make life that much worse.

Gabe stood over me as I tried standing up. I staggered to my feet and took a deep breath. He smacked me across the face, and my face snapped to the side from the blow.

"What do you say?"

My mind raced. I don't say anything in the mornings; I just run out before Gabe wakes up. I tried to rack my brain for anything that he would want me to say. I guess I really am stupid; I can't even figure this out.

"Um, I'm going to school. Bye?" I guessed. I had no idea; I just hoped he would let me go soon.

Gabe looked at me with a scowl and smacked me in the same spot. "NO! You will say what I told you yesterday," he growled," Say it, I'm a stupid, weak, worthless piece of shit."

I gulped. I knew it was true, but admitting it and thinking it is entirely different. I took a deep breath, say it, get to school, easy.

"I-I'm a stupid," I took a breath my voice was getting shaky and couldn't stop it," weak, w-worthless piece of shit,"

Gabe seemed to get angrier, but I said calmly," There I said it, I have to go, or I'll be late,"

He seemed to get even angrier but nodded curtly before grabbing my left shoulder roughly as I turned to leave," But remember, this stunt right here will make bring you more trouble. Count on it,"

He let go, and I bit back a yelp as he shoved me towards the door. I wretched it open and ran down the stairs, almost falling a few times. I managed to make it to school as the warning bell rang. Hurrying, I ran to my locker, the bruises from last night's kicks acting up in my shins, making them cry out.

I quickly ran to my first period; thank the gods, it was math. Never thought I would say that, but it was the only notebook I had with me.

I opened the door and quickly sat down right as the beginning bell rang.

I gave a sigh of relief and tried to catch my breath from running through the school while pain shot through every nerve I had.

Mrs.Velma started teaching, and I tried to pay attention. I really did, but then she said something about the number three, and it got me thinking. Did the people of ancient History think about how they couldn't find a good symbol for three? And since three has two es in it, they decided to flip the capital E to make a three. Is that what they did? I'll have to ask Mr.Brunner.

The bell sounded, making me flinch. I looked around and found the lesson over. Shit. I guess it makes sense that I need a tutor.

I gathered my notebook and rushed to my locker, exchanging it for my Bio notebook. I ran to Bio. Thankfully no one clotheslined me today, and I got to class safely. Unfortunately, I forgot to do and bring the homework Annabeth had given me the day before.

Cursing under my breath, I had to tell Mrs.Rachel I forgot to do the homework. Though I promised I'd turn it in tomorrow. I'd have to get Annabeth to help me.

I turned to the front of the class but everything just passed in a blur. It was freaking me out. First math is over in a few minutes. Biology doesn't even register. Even History isn't keeping my attention; English has always been a no show for me. But what was scaring me the most was the number of bullies and jocks around me.

There were none.

Sure, they did their usual stuff at History, but they didn't excessively try to sabotage me. The clothesline thing didn't happen today, not that it was a regular occurrence, just that it was odd it didn't happen twice, especially from the look of pleasure on Jock #1 and #2 faces of seeing me unable to breathe.

I was honestly ready for ten people to jump me after school and leave me choking on my own blood in an alleyway, never to be seen again.

But hey, today might be one of those days that the jocks are distracted. What they would be distracted by, I have no idea.

I spent lunch in the usual janitor's closet switching between humming and singing Hard Sometimes by Ruel.

I almost nodded off asleep, but then the bell rang. I scooped up my notebook and walked out of the janitor's closet and into French class. French passed quickly, it always does when he asks every student the same question and no one but a handful of people actually know how to answer.

Fortunately, I understood him and answered, so when he had to reteach the words, I got to daydream without too much on my mind.

Unfortunately, the bell woke me up from being half-asleep.

I shook the drowsiness from my head as I stood up and ran to my locker. Switching my notebook for my music, I ran to the classroom. I stepped into the class and walked straight to the drum set, not making eye contact or acknowledging anyone in the room.

When I got to the drums, I relaxed. I set up the Offspring song and closed my eyes. Feeling the beat and notes in my head, I slowly played them out. Then I started getting more in tempo. With each mistake I made, I played slow to correct it. Each time I played it right, I tried again and again at the same tempo, then when I deemed good enough, I rose the tempo. By the end of the class period, I had almost mastered the new song. The bell signified the end of class, but this time I heard it and headed out.

I stuffed my stuff into my locker and went to change. PE was never my thing, but now we have to get back to the personal fitness tests. The teacher made us run a mile in under twelve minutes and then had us do sit-ups, push-ups, and any other workouts ending in 'ups' till the period was over.

Sweaty and tired, I took an unusually long time at the water fountain after changing. Then I turned, what I didn't expect was a fist. I staggered back as my face exploded in old and new pain. My hand flew up to my nose and came down with blood.

I was really annoyed—first a beating, now a broken nose. I almost want to scream at the jocks to up their game. All they do is give me inconveniences; I almost want to get a broken arm or need a visit to the hospital.

I kept all my stupid thoughts to myself and pushed past the angry guy. He probably just wanted a drink at the fountain, and I was taking too long.

"Hey! Stay away from my girlfriend!" I stopped. I turned. Then I answered with the most intelligible answer known to humankind.

"Huh?"

"Don't, Huh? Me! You know who I'm talking about!" he was fuming, and I knew that if I didn't figure it out, I would get pummeled.

"Look, man, the only girl I know is Annabeth, and I'm really sorry if she's your girlfriend, but she is my tutor for math, and it's mandatory. I don't know what to say, but I won't make a move on her if that's what you're worried about," I started rambling, and when I stopped, he just looked ready to laugh.

"Aww, man, should've seen the look on your face!" he slowly started cracking up.

"Uhh, what?" if this was a joke, did he really have to give me a nosebleed. I don't think my nose is broken.

"Dude, I was just messing with you to make sure that you wouldn't take advantage of one of my best friends," that explanation didn't really help much. But he didn't seem like a bad guy, so I guess it's cool.

"Oh, I'm Jason, by the way,"

" Uhh, Percy," hey just a casual introduction, you punch me in the face, make a joke out of it and then explain your reasons while introducing yourself. Completely civil.

"Well, good luck with that tutoring session, gotta go," with that, he ran down the hall. I sighed. If all of Annabeth's friends were like this, I wasn't sure if I could survive being in a room with them.

I walked over to my locker, still clutching my bleeding nose. Opening the locker with my left hand took skill I didn't possess, so it took a few minutes to get it open.

I grabbed my math notebook and my bio homework. Slowly berating myself for taking so long at my locker. Annabeth was probably annoyed I was taking so long.

I sighed as I walked into the nearest restroom. Grabbing some paper towels, I stuffed them under my nose and waited a few moments. I slowly brought my hand down. Seeing that there wasn't much blood on the paper towel, I threw it away.

I washed the blood off my hands and started the trek across the school to the library. I stopped in front of the doors. Annabeth probably left; I'm over ten minutes late. Why did I bother to come? She'll probably take back wanting me to stay over for dinner, and I'll have gotten my mom's hopes up for nothing. Besides, what would she want with a worthless piece of garbage anyway?

I took a deep breath; there was always a chance she was in there.

Shoving all my thoughts aside, I opened the door quietly and entered the library. There were a few kids at the tables, a few looking for books, and some doing some kind of weird craft they had.

I scoured the library looking for Annabeth. I found her in a small alcove over by the mystery section; she was reading. I'm not sure what book, but it was pretty thick.

"Hey Annabeth, sorry I'm late" I tried my best to be quiet, but with the weird quiet tension in the air, it felt like I was yelling. I winced as the words left my mouth.

She didn't notice my words, though, so I guess that was a good sign I wasn't too loud. Taking a deep breath, I walked over to her and tapped her shoulder.

She jumped a bit, and after a few seconds, her head snapped towards me. I quickly backed up, almost falling back into the bookshelf. I saw her slowly close the book, marking her spot.

"Sorry about scaring you and being late" I quickly apologized and waited for her to storm off or to go back to reading her book, ignoring me.

But weirdly enough, she didn't. She just smiled softly at me and said," No worries, Percy, my friends tell me that whenever I read, I tend to shut the world out,"

I nodded towards her and stepped warily towards the table in between two armchairs.

"Um, I know you're helping me with math, but, um, can you help me with bio too?"

My hand scratched my neck as I refused to make eye-contact with her.

"Sure, it's no problem" My head snapped to her, surprised, she didn't mind? I was late, and I'm giving her more work, not to mention it's not mandatory. Why?

"Why do you look so surprised? Of course, I'd help you," she gave me another soft smile, which almost made me grin at her. But I suppressed it; no sense getting my hopes up that she would want to stay in contact after the quiz in two weeks.

She made her way over to my side of the table and helped me with the more recent math lesson.

"Oh, by the way, I'm not sure if this would help, but maybe if you associate a band with a subject, you may be able to train your mind into focusing on what you are doing. I don't know if this will work, but it's all I got for right now."

That could work. I mean, if I hear a specific song, I may feel inspired to do work. I'm not sure if my brain can be trained to do that, though.

I shrugged, and so we decided on a few different artists to play while doing math. Quietly I hummed to the song playing from Annabeth's phone as I tried to solve a problem.

Annabeth was doing her own homework as she waited for me to finish the problem. After circling my answer, I moved my paper towards her. She looked up from what she was writing and brought the paper closer. After a few seconds, I started fiddling with my pencil. My brain slowly went off into nowhere. Then I heard a rustle of paper and saw the math problem I was working on in front of me.

"That one needs a bit of work. I circled where you multiplied wrong so you can watch out for it in the future."

I nodded to her and went to the next problem. Eventually, we switched to biology, and she was in the middle of giving me an explanation when the music stopped momentarily. Then it came back on.

Frowning, Annabeth picked up her phone and looked at the notification. Her eyes grew wide as she looked at the time, "Shit! Helen gave me a time to be home, and I completely forgot. I'm sorry I have to go, Percy. See you tomorrow."

With that, she gathered up her notebooks and almost ran out of the library.