AN: I saw some comments on the last chapter about how excited people are for Percy to meet Harry. THAT IS NOT IN THIS CHAPTER. It will happen eventually, I promise, but Harry is away at Hogwarts right now. I also know absolutely nothing about wrestling, so the structure of the meet is based off of swim meets.

The morning of the wrestling meet, I was so nervous I almost didn't get out of bed. Despite Dudley's confidence in me, I sincerely doubted that I would do well. Never in my life had I been part of a schools official sports team, so not only was I anxious about my own performance, but also what the team would think if I was the reason our school didn't do well? And then, on top of all that, I was also meeting Dudley's parents today. His parents, who were supposedly obsessed with being 'normal,' and who would probably dislike me for things out of my control-- my hair, my skin, my American-ness, my lack of parents.

This was gonna be a nightmare.

Alex and Henry were still asleep, as were most of the orphanages inhabitants. It was the weekend, afterall. Taking one last deep breath to calm my nerves, I quietly climbed out of bed. I had packed my bag for the meet the night before, just cause I knew I would be way too tired and preoccupied to do it in the morning. My wrestling singlet--maroon and orange, horrid and ugly, not to mention uncomfortable,  just like day-to-day Smelting's uniform-- was washed and packed. Dudley said that I didn't have to show up wearing it, as there would be plenty of time to change between arriving and my first match. I also had packed my very own 'Smelting's Wrestling Team' sweatshirt and sweatpants (meant to wear over our singlets during downtime), deodorant, a sweat towel and the lunch Madame Wool had prepared for me the night before.

Smelting's wasn't the school hosting the meet, which meant that I couldn't walk. Madame Wool wasn't able to drive me, but she did give me some cash to pay for a taxi. Taking the taxi alone wasn't a new experience for me, but it was never something I enjoyed. Something about being trapped in a car with a stranger unsettled me. This was one of the times where I wished I had a tube pass, but I didn't really travel enough for one to be considered necessary, and the nearest station was still a pretty long walk away. Luckily the cab ride wasn't too long, and my driver was friendly enough. I thanked them for the ride, and clambered out in front of the hosting school, Stonewall High. It was a public school, and according to Dudley it was a bit of a dump. He seemed to think this gave our wrestling team a leg up in the competition, but I knew from firsthand experience that public school kids could be fierce. (Alexander and Henry, I'm looking at you.)

I arrived ten-ish minutes before the whole team was supposed to meet up, and I couldn't check in or go to Smelting's assigned area until Mr. Vilgar was here to supervise, so I just stood to the side and looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of my teammates. The room was crowded with teams from a bunch of different schools, and parents, siblings, friends. Meet organizers milled about, wearing safety vests over dull gray shirts. Looking around the building, I guessed that gray must be Stonewall High's school color. Yikes. It felt like I was standing there forever, until eventually I saw Piers, which was a bit surprising, as he wasn't part of the wrestling team.

"Hey Piers!" He turned when he heard my shout, and smiled as he made his way over to me. He clapped me on the shoulder when he got close, and started steering me in the direction of the check-in table.

"Percy! Good morning! Where's the team at? I biked over to cheer you guys on, is Big D here yet?"

I was a bit taken aback by his energy and excitement, but he also wasn't the one competing, so he didn't have to deal with nervous energy dampening the mood. Seeing his familiar face and upbeat demeanor helped sooth my own tension, and I responded,

"Yeah, good morning to you too. I don't know where anyone is, I've just been waiting and looking for Coach Vilgar. I didn't know you lived in the area!"

"Oh yeah," Piers responded, still guiding me through the now dense crowd by my shoulder, "Dud and I both live pretty close. His cousin was meant to attend Stonewall, actually. It's only a 20ish minute walk." I had no idea where Piers was leading me, and I wasn't sure he knew either. I honestly didn't care, but I was surprised to hear Piers mention Dudley's cousin. I knew that he had one, so that wasn't what was surprising, but for some reason the cousin seemed to be a taboo topic. He had only been mentioned a total of 2 times in the month that I had known Dudley, three if we're including what Piers just said. All I've been able to figure out, is that his cousin was at the zoo on Dudley's birthday when the snake got loose, and he was apparently very introverted. I once asked Dudley what his cousin's name was and I was just met with a dangerous glare that was reminiscent of Dudley's time as a bully. The only difference was that underneath the glare there seemed to be a bit of guilt. I let it drop.

Piers didn't seem to realize that he had mentioned the taboo topic, so despite my curiosity I didn't acknowledge it.

"Huh, interesting. I guess I didn't realize you two were neighbors. Oh! Is that Smeltings over there?"

I had caught a flash of maroon and orange somewhere in the crowd, and it was a unique enough color combination that I was pretty confident it had to have been someone from Smeltings. Piers must have agreed, cause he turned and headed in the direction I had pointed, still yanking me around by my shoulder.

Sure enough, we had found the team. Piers finally let go of me, and Mr. Vilgar waved as I joined the group. Dudley wasn't there yet, but pretty much everyone else on the team was. Piers gave me a quick fist bump before heading over to the entrance. I assumed that he planned to watch for Dudley to point him in the right direction once he got here. I only half-listened as Mr. Vilgar went over the schedule and expectations for the day. It didn't seem too complicated, I just had to remember to hit the warm-up mat before actually heading to my matches. As my weight and age category didn't have many people, I would only have 2 matches, maybe 3 if I advanced, which I hoped I would. I was pretty sure that everyone else on the team would have 4 or 5 matches, and I tried not to feel too jealous. Even though the many weeks of training had allowed me to put on some muscle weight, I was still noticeable light for my age. Dudley said my 'sad, little, orphan-diet' was probably not very high in protein, and after I had pointed out his diet might have a little too much of everything, he had laughed and started giving me some of his extra food during lunch.

Mr. Vilgar was done with his whole spiel about the meet today, and everyone started heading towards the team check-in desk. Dudley still wasn't here, but I was sure Piers would be able to send him in the right direction. After Mr. Vilgar had checked us all in, we made our way out of the still-crowded entry, down a few hallways, and into a small-ish gym with bleachers and seating wet up around three different make-shift wrestling arenas. Stonewall's gym was definitely smaller, older, and overall just less impressive than our own gym back at Smelting's. Some of the guys on the team looked around in disgust, which was a bit dramatic, in my opinion. Sure, this gym wasn't super fancy, but it was pretty good for a public school.

We made our way over to the area meant for teams, and found Smelting's assigned area. I set my stuff down and sat down. Mr. Vilgar was walking around and handing everybody a schedule of the day. When I got mine, I saw that my first match wouldn't be for at least 2 hours. Great. Even team- warmups wouldn't start for another 15 minutes. I had been warned by various teammates that wrestling meets were a lot of sitting around and waiting, and that I should bring video games or something to entertain myself. That was easy for everyone else to say, but as an orphan, I didn't have any video games. I had considered bringing a book, but since I was dyslexic, it would probably just end up giving me a headache.

"Yo Perc, scooch over,"

I was startled out of my boredom-induced stupor by a familiar voice, and looked up to see Dudley. I started making space next to me for him to sit, while asking,

"Big D! Finally dude, what took you so long?"

He just grunted in response, and plopped down next to me. I stared at him as I waited for an actual answer, and after a minute he sighed.

"It's not a big deal, but my parents were being weird about meeting you, and there was a bit of an argument, but we figured it out."

I felt a flood of cold guilt. Dudley was late because his family was fighting about me? Not good for my mental stability. Dudley must have seen the constipated look on my face, cause he rolled his eyes and continued.

"Don't stress about it Percy, it's not a big deal. I guess I never mentioned that you were an orphan, so it they were surprised when I mentioned it this morning, but they got over it."

His reassurance wasn't actually very reassuring. Literally everything I had been told about his parents made them sound like bizarre, somewhat nasty, people. What kind of normalcy-obsessed, orphan hating, subtle racists was I gonna be having dinner with tonight? Was I even going to be able to get through the meal without making such a bad impression that Dudley was forever banned from talking to me? At least Dudley and Piers were gonna be there too. They had known me long enough at this point to know when I needed to be shut up for the sake of my own sanity.

"You should come meet them after warm-ups,"

It took me a second to process what Dudley had just said. Then, I stared at him as if he had grown a second head. He stared back with a look of faint amusement. I blinked, and he broke into laughter. After collecting himself, he said,

"Seriously though, after we finish stretching and running drills, we can find Piers and then find my parents."

"Yeah, no, sure, of course." I tried to sound like that plan was one that I liked, but I think my voice being 3 octaves higher than normal might have given away my reluctance. Dudley said something about 'getting it over with' or whatever, but I was distracted Mr. Vilgar shouting that we would start team warmups in 3 minutes, now that everyone was here, so please get ready. I wasn't wearing my wrestling singlet yet, and neither was Dudley. We shared a look before clambering to our feet, darting out of the gymnasium to go change.

1930 words! This was chapter turned out longer than I thought, and we didn't even get to the good part. Patience my children, soon, I promise. I hope y'all enjoy! I love seeing everyone comment, it's always so fun to see what you guys think.