One week later - 1st Month (January)

It had been a long week for the two soon-to-be parents. They'd stayed home from school with the blessing of their parents, trying to sort everything out and come up with a game plan. Percy and Artemis felt the disappointment of their parents weighing down on them.

As Artemis stood in front of her mirror, on the first day of school that she'd be attending since they found out, she found herself biting her lip nervously. She was wearing her usual getup, a t-shirt and jeans, but she wondered if that was a wise choice. They hadn't told any of their friends, since they really didn't have the time to so far, so basically no one at school knew aside from the school itself.

She would be allowed to use the bathroom during class, no questions asked, and she would be free from all gym periods so to not damage the baby. She was also temporarily removed from the high school cheerleading team, which did make her quite sad. Percy was on the football team, and she loved having front row seats to see her boyfriend get beaten up, not that that happened often. Aphrodite did assure her that since the due date was late August-early September, then Artemis could join halfway through the season once she got her energy back. Otherwise she'd be almost guaranteed a spot in senior year.

But that was the future, now was the present, and Artemis was worried about her appearance. It had scarcely been a month since the baby was conceived, but Artemis' usually slim body was less curvy. It was hardly noticeable, but Artemis felt like a whale already. She knew it was probably just pregnancy hormones, but she felt really paranoid about her size, worrying that people would notice.

That was the thing she was worried about, people noticing. There was a plan that she would attend school for the first three months of pregnancy, then around the start of the second trimester she would stay home. Percy would bring home her schoolwork and she would spend lots of time a day on the internet using online learning sites, so that her grades wouldn't fall. Percy would visit her if not every day, then every other day, so he could be with her during her time of pain. That was the plan that had so far been drawn up.

Basically it'd be three months of oversized shirts to quell her anxiety.

Artemis breathed deeply, then went downstairs to have her breakfast. She was keeping it simple, Fruit Loops. Apollo was the only other one in the room, and he smiled at her like an idiot. "Hey, lil sis! All chipper and ready for school?" He asked, making Artemis scowl.

Apollo was always like this. All teasing and mocking, quick to falsely call her younger, because he's upset that he's the second youngest sibling before Dionysus. Yes, he was less happy when Percy was around, especially recently, but this was definitely his default mood.

"I'm older." Artemis grumbled, which seemed to be the usual response to whatever Apollo said, since whatever Apollo said usually began with 'Hey, lil sis.'

The morning went by fairly quickly, which was mainly due to Artemis' silent thinking. The clock rolled by, and Apollo eventually stood up from his spot on the couch. "You ridin' with me today, sis?" He asked, cracking his knuckles. Artemis nodded, as she hadn't texted Percy to pick her up, so he was her last option.

The car ride to school was short, with little traffic and Apollo's flash car that Zeus spoiled him with being slightly faster than most. Apollo almost drifted into the school car park, making Artemis tense up and grab the sides of her seat to stop herself from flying out the window. She half-heartedly glared at him for his reckless actions, which was met with his usual blinding pearly-white smile.

The twins left the car, and while Apollo locked it, Artemis looked around for any of her friends. She spotted familiar brown and blonde hair over in the distance, which she recognized as her friends Piper and Jason. When they saw her, she was approached and immediately interrogated.

"Artemis! Where have you been? Were you sick?" Piper set off, and Artemis had to literally shush her to get her to stop. "Something came up and I was busy. We'll tell you later." She told them, and Jason raised an eyebrow. "We?"

"Hey guys." Percy appeared out of nowhere, perfect timing considering Jason's previous question. They all greeted him, and Artemis gave him a small silent hug of affection. She had never been much for PDA, at least not for making out and kissing. When in public, she preferred to just hug and if she felt daring, hold hands. Percy wasn't much the same. He liked to pull her close and kiss her on the cheek in front of their friends, which never failed to make her face flare up like the Australian bush.

He and Jason fist-bumped, and he hugged Piper, obviously with not as much affection as he did Artemis. "Where's everyone else?" The Jackson boy asked, which was met by Jason and Piper shrugging. "Leo and Caly are probably making out, Frank and Hazel are probably picking flowers and I have no idea where Nico could possibly have gotten to." Jason answered, but their chat was cut off by the school bell, signaling that they should be heading to class.

Percy turned to Artemis, smiling. "We got history first, c'mon." He said, waving his hand for her to follow. She did so with a small burst of speed as they hurried off down the hall. Artemis stuck close to him, still very anxious about her new state.

Both Artemis and Percy thought history was very boring. They were learning something about the Peloponnesian War. Percy wondered to himself who in this modern world actually cared about the Ancient Greeks. The only parts he liked were the cool moments like Kronos eating his kids.

The only thing of note that happened during the entire period was the elderly teacher giving Artemis a sympathetic look. She couldn't tell how she felt about that.

Their next period was much better. Their English teacher, who also happened to be Percy's stepfather, Mr Blofis, was always entertaining during English class. He also made a point to help his students with their work, knowing that every teenager struggled with school work, unless they were nerds.

He reached the two at the back and leaned over Percy's work to check it out. "How you doing, lovebirds?" He smirked, making the two of them blush. The man pointed to a line on Percy's worksheet, not saying anything but letting Percy know there was something wrong with it. Percy stared at it with squinted eyes in confusion for a few seconds before he took his pen and crossed out whatever he wrote, thinking up what he'd write in it's place.

Paul went to check Artemis' work. "You alright?" He asked, checking in on her. Artemis nodded, sitting back and letting him check her work. That was something she liked about Paul. He didn't look at you like you were a dying dog, he asked if you were fine and then looked to see if you fucked up your spelling.

Gym was next, which she also shared with Percy. Fun fact, she only had two classes without Percy. Maths and French. Percy had failed both, but Maths was compulsory so he got put in a different class with Leo and Piper.

The gym teacher, a short man with an even shorter temperature named Coach Hedge, knew of Artemis' condition, so he offered to give her some small activities to do in the next room. There wasn't any written work for gym, since it was gym, so he legitimately took some crosswords and coloring-in pages off of the internet for her. Basically, it was either a study period or a crayon period.

Artemis chose the crayon.

She felt pretty proud of her works by the end of the period, but quickly realised that she'd be doing a lot more studying in gym than coloring this year. She burned through five pages: some sort of indian flower design, Optimus Prime, what seemed to be Mario vs Sonic, Minecraft and a map of the world. She'd managed to stay in the lines.

Artemis sighed, knowing that this was gonna be a long 9 months.