Chapter Text
It was weird once Percy got back from camp after his quest with Annabeth and Grover to retrieve the Lightning Bolt. Nobody messed around with him. For once in his life, he wasn’t picked on. Other people respected him. They were scared of him. But if he was being honest with himself, he’d rather be ridiculed than experience the loneliness he did now. Now that Luke betrayed him, the only real friends he had left were Annabeth and Grover. All the other kids seemed too intimidated to even look at him. He spent a lot of his time at the beach on camp, alone. Unbothered. You can imagine his surprise when he realized the rustling in the bushes belonged to an actual kid.
When he turned around to face this potential threat, he saw a kid who looked to be about his age. Besides from the run-of-the-mill camper uniform, Percy could tell something looked off about him at first. He had curly brown hair and bright sea green eyes, much like Percy’s. The kid just stared at him for a good minute until Percy broke the silence. “Hello?” He hesitated, confused on why the kid just stood there. Actually, that wasn’t a rare occurrence. Kids would stare at him in shock quite often nowadays. Usually they would lose interest after thirty seconds, but this kid just kept at it.
“Hey.” He responded, looking down at Percy with curiosity that Percy couldn’t quite pinpoint. Sort of like a leprechaun finding its long awaited pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
“Uhm, do you need help with something?” Percy asked, cocking his head slightly.
“Oh, no, I was just wandering around. I’m Pierce. Nice to meet you…?”
“Percy.”
Pierce nodded and smiled.
“Are you new here? I don’t recognize you.” Percy asked.
“Uh, yes, I am. I came here yesterday. I’m still getting adjusted to demigod life, if you know what I mean.” He stammered, rubbing the back of his neck.
Percy jumped up, brushing the sand off his clothes. “Want me to show you around?”
“That would be great.” Pierce smiled.
Percy led him to the battlegrounds first. In front of them were the Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, practicing with swords. “So this is where you all train?” Pierce asked.
“Yeah. That’s Travis and Connor, sons of Hermes. Be careful, though, they play a lot of pranks.” Percy responded.
“Fitting.” Pierce noted.
Percy nodded his head and laughed.
“Yeah, you could say that.”
Percy found it weird that Pierce stared at him with awe while he laughed, like a parent staring at a baby taking their first steps. It made him a tad uncomfortable.
“Anyways – I forgot to ask you. What cabin were you assigned?”