Nico's POV

It was Thursday today, and I was waiting at Percy's locker, as usual, but when he came, he seemed more confident. He showed off recent scars on his wrists, and shouldered his bag. His head held high, challenging anyone who dared approach him. He still looked like his usual, scrawny self, but he changed over night. Yesterday, he was ditching class and head low, now, he is the opposite.

"Damn, what happened to you?" I asked, doing a whistle. Percy laughed, but not his usually quiet laugh that he had in public, he had his laugh where we were in private

"I don't know. I feel like things might finally start going my way." He said with the biggest smile ever. His teeth were pure white, not a stain or a piece of food stuck in between his teeth. He seemed almost flawless, he showed off his scars with more confidence then he probably should have had, his only flaw was the rundown clothes that he had, all of his clothes were rundown.

"Well, I think they might as well. Come on, we got math." I smiled at him. He was finally starting to see the good in things. Although I saw the broken look in his eyes. 'Only once one is broken, may they gain true confidence.' I remembered someone saying that. I don't know if I read it in a textbook or something, but I knew it. Was Percy broken? If so, what happened last night? He looked worse than he ever had. I have to get a doctor or something to check Percy to make sure he is alright.

The day flew buy, and it was lunch. Yesterday, this is when everything went downhill, but he didn't seem unnerved, if anything, he acted as if nothing happened. I was proud of Percy. No, I don't like him, so don't think I do.

"If it isn't Jackson." Jared laughed, shoving Percy a bit. Percy raised his eyebrow, as if asking 'what the fuck are ya doing?' And I had to stop myself from laughing. Suddenly, Percy shoved Jared back.

"If you are going to shove someone, expect to get it returned." Percy shrugged casually, tossing a piece of salad at Jared. I heard many people go like 'ooooh' and 'damnnn'. Percy didn't seem to care. He and I continued to walk away.

"Jackson thinks he's so tough. Come on Jackass. Fight me." Jared said. Percy rolled his eyes, but I gave him a look. I told him to do it, to knock some sense into the football player.

"Alright then, fuck boy. Fight me. You will be shocked." He said, cracking his knuckles. Oh I hope Jared knows how boney Percy's knuckles are, they hurt! Just when Jared was going to through the first punch, a teacher walked in, probably because he heard a bunch of students cheering Jared on.

"Perseus and Jared! Principals office! Now!" He shouted. He was one of the strictest teachers in the school, and it was just their luck that he had to come in. Annabeth walked up to me, watching as the events transpired.

"You encouraged him to fight Jared, didn't you?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. I could only nod. Like I knew he was going to do it, okay, yeah, I knew he was totally going to do it.

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Percy's POV
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So, I was going to die. I shouldn't have gotten confident, because now I have detention, and I knew that some days I would have to skip for work or to get Gabe his stuff. He hasn't asked lately, he has been leaving a lot lately, probably got his hands on some illegal drug and was selling it for more than he should.

"Now, why don't you tell me why you fought?" Mrs. Smith asked with a raised eyebrow. Mrs, Smith is our principal, and despises me, because she is friends with Gabe. I knew I was screwed. She was already on his side.

"He challenged me to fight him, so of course I was going to try and break his nose." I said sarcastically. She sent me a deadly glare, which I gladly returned. I think Jared realized how much she hated me, because he used that to his advantage.

"He challenged me to fight, and then he started calling me a faggot, then he threw the first punch after I told him I didn't want to fight." Jared lied smoothly. I bit my tongue so hard that I started tasting blood. I was picking at my fresh cuts, and they were starting to bleed slightly.

"Is this true Jackson? Am I going to have to talk to your father again?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Step father. And you might as well, because you just want to sleep with him again." I rolled my eyes. I placed my feet on her desk, and she tried shoving my feet off, but it was pointless. I looked sideways and saw that Jared's eyes were wide.

"You bastard!" She screamed at me, but shut her mouth, realizing there was another person in the room. She smiled as if nothing happened. She cleared her throat, "Jared, you may leave. I need to have a few weird with Perseus myself." She said, sending a glare towards Jared, who was in a rush to get out of her sight.

"You just hate me? Don't ya?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Jared was long gone, sprinting away towards the cafeteria no doubt to hang out with his friends and spread rumours about me.

"You nearly got me in trouble! I could have lost my job!" She shouted at me angrily. I could only roll my eyes. There were windows every where. She was to afraid to lose her job.

"You're going to lose your job if you keep drinking while doing it." I scoffed after smelling her booze. I also saw a pack of cigars on her desk. This was ridiculous. The only thing I feared was her actually calling Gabe and him having to walk into the school while incredibly drunk.

I picked up her phone from the desk, and tossed it around her hand casually, and I knew the hidden threat, she would call Gabe if I didn't do what she said.

"If you don't want your father to have to pick you up, then you will listen to what I have to say." She growled dangerously, her fingers leaning over the call button. I hated that she had more power over me than I originally thought.

"Fine. What do you expect from me? Pull some money out of my empty wallet, along with detention? Me to purposely get myself into juvie?" I asked with a raised eyes. I kept my body as far away from her as I could, if Gabe was close with her, she was a person that I should be careful with.

"I was you to get me something. Ya see, there was a ring I wanted from a store, but it costs me more money than my pay grade provides. I just need you to steal it, and get the detention. If you get caught by police, you get caught, you don't, you don't. Along with 5 weeks of detention on Wednesday's and Friday's." She explained. I was nervous. I haven't stolen much before. At least I don't have detention on school days. I better not get caught.

"What does this ring look like? Where is it? High security?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. I had to get the details, or else my mission with go down in flames, literally. She slid over a picture, no wonder she wanted it. It had a beautiful ruby in the centre of it with diamonds surrounds rest of the front side of the band. It must've costed tens of thousands. On the back of the page, it had the details of where it is, but not of what times the guards switch or what. I was a bit nervous when it said that it was in a mall.

I walked out of the office, surely now next class has started and Mrs. Smith hadn't even bothered to write me a note to say that I was held behind. Although I bet the teachers wouldn't care. Did she want the ring tomorrow? I have work tomorrow and it doesn't help that I need to do an extra shift at the gas station, because we got renovations and now we have a built in restaurant. It truly sucks. Not I have to work from 4 to about 8:30, and then 9 to 11. Then I would only be getting 4 hours of sleep.

"Mr. Jackson. Nice that you finally joined us." My teacher Miss Williams scoffed at me, but hid it behind her mask of kindness. She despises me, mainly because I called her class 'unworthy of the school curriculum.' It's art, drawing. I cannot draw what so ever, despite the many protests I get.