I woke up in my bed, with my pajamas on, even though I didn't remember changing into them. My alarm was going off.  Alexander and Oliver were still sleeping, so I silenced my alarm quickly.  I had school today, so I had to get ready. I was one of the earliest risers in the orphanage, so no one else was awake. That was okay with me though, because sometimes I just needed quite. Right now was one of those times. I needed to think about my dream. Maybe dream. Maybe. I'm not even sure if it was a dream or not. I climbed out of bed and stretched my arms. I was used to having weird dreams that felt too realistic. When I tried talking about it with Olivia she told me that it was not normal. She also told me that it's not normal for me not to remember anything before the age of nine. I've kind of just accepted the fact that I'm not normal. Most orphans aren't, but me even more so than others. I walked over to the window and peered out into the street. It looked the exact same as it had the night before. Though, I guess a man standing on the street wouldn't really change the appearance of the street. So I guess that was no help with deciphering whether or not it was a dream. I sighed and went to get ready. My mental state didn't affect whether or not I had to go to school, unfortunately.

I got my uniform out of the closet where I hung it the night before. Luckily, it wasn't wrinkled. I got dressed, knickerbockers and all.

The sun had barely risen, and was casting a warm red glow over the streets. There was morning dew hanging in the air, and the streets were about as quiet as London streets could be.

As you might have guessed, I was walking to school. I lived close enough that it wasn't a problem. If we got a lotto snow later, it would be a problem, but right now I didn't mind. It was a little chilly outside, but still comfortable. As I walked, I realized I forgot to eat breakfast. Oh well, I was probably too distracted by my dream thingy.

The moment the dream crossed my mind, the wind started blowing a little harder, and it smelled like the sea. I was deeply unsettled. I had smelled the sea before because of our annual orphanage  trip to the seaside, but this breeze smelled more personal. Almost as if it was calling me, and me specifically. Instantly, I knew this had something to do with me dream, only now I knew it wasnt so much a dream as it was a vision. I would have really appreciated it if I could sit down and think, but I had ended up at school. I could have sworn that the walk was supposed to be longer. Not that I'm complaining. I might not mind walking to school, but that doesn't automatically mean I love it.

School started in about fifteen minutes, but because I had showed up late yesterday, I didn't quite know the way to my first class. I glanced across the schoolyard instead of facing my problem. I didn't really want to go to the office and ask for help. That's too embarrassing. So instead, I decided I would follow Dudley. He was the only student I really recognized off the top of my head, and I knew he was in all of my classes. Yeah, I'm aware that I'm pushing my nonexistent luck. I know that Dudley hates me, and probably wants to give mr a good punch across the face, but whatever. I'm more likely to get kicked out of school for not showing up to my classes than I am for annoying Dudley. Probably. I'll probably end up expelled anyways. I always get expelled in the end.  I spot Dudley immediately. He was very easy to spot for three reasons. One, he was huge. Two, students moved out of his way like it had been practiced. And three, he was beating someone up.

So, he really truly was a bully.  School started in about ten minutes now, but I thought that that would still probably be enough time for Dudley to really hurt the kid. So, be being the nice, wonderful, kind, and thoughtful person I am, I decided to step in. I dashed across the school yard and stepped into the ring everyone had created around Dudley. I felt the crowd tense, because, as already established, kids did not stand up against Dudley very often.

"Ay Dudders. Pick on someone your own size. Oh wait..."

Yes, I'm  aware that I shouldn't make fun of someone's weight, but it was one of the quickest and 100% guaranteed way to get his attention off the kid he was beating up, and onto me. And yes, I also know that getting his attention was a really stupid decision.

Dudley turned as the crowd gasped.

"What did you say new kid?" He growled. I rolled my eyes.

"First of all, I'm not new kid. My name is Percy. And anyways, I was new yesterday, but I'm not new today. Second of all, you know you can't just beat people up right? It's really quite rude. So uh, how about you stop?" I tried my very best to make it sound like an order and not a question, and even though I didn't necessarily fail, it still sounded a lot like a question.

"Who do you think you—" he started toward me, but I didn't let him get any farther,

"I'm going to have to stop you there. You need to show me to class."

Dudley blinked and stuttered,

"I showed you to class yesterday." I nodded.

"Yeah thanks for that. I don't have the way memorized yet, so uh, lead the way."

Honestly I'm surprised it worked. Short term memory much? He turned and walked into the building, as I followed him. The crowd was shocked. I looked for the kid who had gotten beaten up. There were a few people helping him. Our eyes met and he mouthed 'thank you'. I just winked, turned and followed Dudley. After a minute or so, Dudley said something,

"You have to find your own way too second period."

"Okay, sure." He blinked in what I assumed was confusion. He was probably surprised that I wasn't arguing but, contrary to popular belief, I don't really enjoy picking fights. Yeah sure I'll fight if I have to, but I really truly try my best not to start fights.

Let's just say that it's not really my forte.

Apparently, yesterday I missed all of first period, which was language arts. When we walked into the class, I immediately peeled up. This class was one of those classrooms. One of the ones where the teacher tries to make it really open and free and comfortable. There were bean bags, spinning chairs, stools, and a bucket of blankets. The teacher was a rather small woman. She was older, but still beautiful. Her eyes were warm brown, and her hair wasn't quite gray yet, but it was on its way. I guessed that it was once a light caramel color. I noticed a wedding ring. I only noticed it because it was rather big and caught the light really well. When she saw me walk in with Dudley
she smiled,

"Hello, you must be our new student, Perseus Jackson. I'm Mrs. Elidavé-McGonagall. Most students just call me Mrs. Elidavé."

"It's very nice to meet you. Um, I usually go by Percy."  Her smile widened.

"You can sit down wherever you want. That's one of the perks of showing up early." I looked at her and raised my eyebrows,

"No assigned seats?" She nodded wisely and said,

"I like to see who hooded to sit where before making my seating chart." I smiled and walked across the room, and flopped myself into a beanbag. Dudley has sat down at what I assumed was his normal spot in a normal chair at the very back of the class. Everything this kid did just proved he was a troublemaker. I mean, sitting in the back of the classroom is like where the top notch troublemakers sit. I smiled at my own internal monologue.

More students started showing up to class. Most of them looked quite surprised at the fact that Dudley was already there. I guess he was usually tardy. Jesus, this kid was a real piece of work.

The bell rang, signaling the official start of the school day. Mrs. Elidavé went to the front of the class and begin,

"Yesterday you guys introduced yourself and we did some icebreakers. Today I have a brief introduction to myself, and then we will see how well you remember your classmates. This is important because if we want a safe, creative learning environment, we need to learn to trust each other."  I snuck a glance over at Dudley, expecting him to be annoyed and rude. I was right. He was rolling his eyes and bouncing his pencil on his desk. I looked back to Mrs. Elidavé. She had pulled up a powerpoint presentation.

"I am an only child, however, I was the go to neighborhood babysitter, and I always loved children. I grew up in Godric's Hollow, which is a quaint little town, about an hour north of here." She clicked to the next slide. "This is my wife, Minerva, and our cat Artemis. We technically have two cats, the other one is Athena, but she is an outdoor cat." While she said this she had a certain smile, almost as if she wasnt really sharing the whole truth. Whatever, it was up to Mrs. Elidavé on what she wanted to share. I glanced around the room to see if anyone had picked up on this odd behavior.

Instead I was hit with a chilling wave of homophobia. Half the room were showing visible signs of disgust at the picture of Mrs. Elidavé's photos of her and her wife. I sighed. Most rich people schools were homophobic, but that didn't mean I wasn't hopeful. I wondered what parents would do if they knew that their kids were being taught by a gay.

I decided right there that Mrs. Elidavé was my favorite teacher. Not only was she kind and thoughtful, she was also really brave. She definitely knew that this school is homophobic, yet she still outed herself. Good for her. It sucks that she had to work in a toxic environment, but she seemed happy, and there's not much me, a mere student, can do.

Class went on. No one really remembered anything about their classmates, so we went around the room and shared our favorite color, in hopes of learning more, and maybe triggering the memory of someone. I said my favorite color was the color of my left eye, and that proceeded to take up 7 minutes of class time, because everyone was arguing over what the color of my eye is. It proved to be particularly frustrating because my eye color tends to shift with my mood, so the more amused I got, the brighter my eyes were. Yes, yes, I know that shifting eye color is not normal, Olivia has already told me.

Anyways, first hour is a good class. Nearly everyone there complimented my eyes, so, I'm happy. The only one who didn't compliment my eyes at all as Dudley. I expected that though. He was very predictable. Usually, bullies are.

Second hour was the same as yesterday. We talked more about the parts of the cell. Mr. Casallas called on Dudley to answer a question, and he looked to me. Gave him the answer, but apparently my answer was wrong, so, needless to say, Dudley got mad. It wasn't purposeful, I just am not particularly good at science. Or math. Or language arts. Or just life in general.

Third period was gym. We ran laps around the gym while the teacher yelled at us to go faster. Dudley tried to trip me when I lapped him for the third time, but that was really the only interesting thing that happened. After class, the gym teacher, Mr. Vilgar asked me to sign up for track and field. I guess I impressed him with my running skills. The thing is, I don't even like running. I've never trained of practiced running, yet I'm still inhumanly fast. I denied his offer, but told him that I might change my mind. That seemed to satisfy him, and I hurried off to lunch.

I decided to be daring and sit with Dudley during lunch. I didn't have lunch money, so I just sat down at his table. His looked at me and said,

"You know we aren't friends right?"

I just nodded with what I hoped was a nonchalant face. All his bully- buddies snickered. Dudley was taken aback for a moment, than regained his senses.

"Give me your lunch money."

"I don't have any man. I honestly would, but like.." I shrugged and lay my head down on the table.I heard dudley grunt in frustration and felt a surge of satisfaction. I was really pissing him off, but in a way that really confused him. Dudley just went back to eating his lunch. I glanced up and made accidental eye contact with Pier, one of dudley's main posse members. He nodded at me, as if saying, 'cool, cool, you're okay.' I raised my eyebrows at him and tuned out of reality until lunch was over.

After lunch was homeroom. It was one of the only classes I didn't have with Dudley. Pier was in my homeroom though. Somehow, he got there before me, even though I left the cafeteria a good five minutes before him. When I walked in, he waved me over. I was quite surprised, because usually the friends of bullies also like to bully me. In my mind, nodding approval, and consenting me to seat next to him were to very different levels of friendship. Nodding is more like, I probably won't beat you up. Sitting next to each other is like, I'm impressed and I want to let to know you better. I walked over and sat by him. He immediately stuck his hand out towards me,

"Piers Polkiss. Pleasure." I took his hand and gave it a firm shake, replying,

"Percy Jackson. The pleasures all mine." I didn't quite mean it sincerely, but I didn't not mean it, so, you know. Perhaps. He let go of my hand and said,

"Dudley hates you." I nodded, but Piers continued, "but, the thing is, you are really amusing, so you have my approval. Just be careful. Dudley has a temper."  I let out a bark of a laugh,

"Really? I hadn't noticed."

Pier smiled and thumped his hand on my back. I was shocked by the sudden friendship. I wasn't complaining though. Pier was nice, to me at least, and with him, it seems like I might have a chance at being Dudley's friend.  I'm aware that that sounds like a really weird goal, but if I gain friendship with the school's main bully, then soon enough, the school won't have a main bully. If you catch my drift.

After homeroom was social studies. I was seated right next to Dudley, and he was quite annoying. He copied off my notes the entire time. The jokes on him though, my dyslexia makes my writing incomprehensible. Heck, even I can't understand my notes.

Sixth period is world language, otherwise known as Spanish one. It's the only language Smeltings offers. I don't understand Spanish, but nobody in my class seems to, so, I guess we'll all fail together. Apparently, Dudley chose another elective though, because he wasn't in this class with me

Seventh and final period is math. I'm in algebra one. Dudley is in pre-algebra, but they are taught together for whatever reason. The room is split down the middle, Pre-algebra on one side, and Algebra on the other, but it's the same teacher teaching both sides. It gets rather hectic during work time, because Mr. Huklm is teaching Pre-algebra while we do our worksheet. We don't have to work with the Pre algebra students, though Mr. Huklm says that later in the year, our classes might combine for 'Socratic seminars'. Other than those, I don't have to talk to Dudley.

As I walked out of the building and across the school yard, I decided that school this year seemed pretty manageable. I didn't think it was going to be such a bad year.

Word count is 2790. It's about eleven pages long. I think it turned out well, considering how I had to rewrite it 5 times.