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Liam honestly hated this place.
It’s not like he wanted to be in AHS but it wasn’t like he had a choice either, his options were getting a GED and going to work or sucking it up and going to AHS. He picked the smarter option, which is how he found himself meticulously analyzing every little detail about one of his peers.
Much like going to AHS, Liam didn’t want to be doing this but he straight up couldn’t help himself. How could he when Percy Jackson was just so damn interesting. The guy was a walking cryptid and barely anyone noticed, or if they did they simply didn’t care at all. Which Liam found insane, how could you not care about how utterly fucking weird Percy was.
This isn’t saying that people just ignored him, far from it sadly. Liam saw firsthand how much the assholes of AHS loved to just mess with him, and if he were being honest, it went past normal “bullying” and went straight into harassment. Thankfully, Percy’s position as the star of the swim team did help alleviate some of the bullying, which mostly targeted his dyslexia or ADHD.
Liam only knew Percy had ADHD because he overheard a conversation Percy had with a school counselor. He tried to hear more of the conversation through the door, hoping to get some insight into the actually weird stuff, but Liam was hurriedly shushed along by a passing teacher before he heard any of the good stuff.
“What’s so weird about Percy?” Greg, one of Liam’s friends, asked at lunch one day, absentmindedly sticking the end of his pencil in his mouth.
“Pfft, what isn’t weird about Percy?” Liam responded, before going off on his first point.
Firstly, there was the tattoo. Now there were a few people here with tattoos, so that wasn’t the weird bit. It was what that tattoo looked like. Percy didn’t wear short-sleeved shirts all that often, so getting a clear look at the damn thing on his right forearm was pretty hard, but after a few days of catching glimpses of it, Liam was finally able to draw it.
The tattoo was of a trident with the letters “SPQR” above it. A quick search showed Liam that it was a Roman saying: “Senatus Populusque Romanus” or “The Senate and People of Rome”. Weird, but maybe Percy is Italian and can trace his roots back to the empire itself… Seems like a normal explanation, especially as he looks the part.
But it doesn’t explain the trident or the singular horizontal line below it or the fact that it honestly looks more like a burned in brand than a tattoo.
“So what?” Greg said. “Guy has a tattoo, big fucking deal.”
“Of some ancient Roman shit?” Liam replied.
“So he’s edgy?” Greg raised an eyebrow. “You’ve gotta let this go, let him fucking aura farm or whatever it’s called.”
Liam dragged his hand down his face. “The guy literally smells like the fucking beach dude, and I know-”
“Bro,” Greg shook his head. “You’re gay for him, that’s what this is about. You’re gay for Percy.”
“I’m not,” Liam sighed. “He’s got a girlfriend, remember? The blonde girl that waits for him outside sometimes.”
“And? That doesn’t disqualify you for being gay for him.”
Liam just frustratingly groaned into his hands. How could he even explain it? How could he explain that very subtle details about Percy that just fucked with his head? He glanced past his friend to the table behind him. Sure enough, Percy was sitting there, alone as usual as his swim teammates didn’t share a lunch block with him.
Liam watched the guy take out a blue tupperware container and pop it open. Percy pulled out a few bits of what looked like sushi, a blue cookie wrapped in a paper towel and bottle of water. Greg had taken to watching Percy with the selfie camera on his beat up Galaxy.
“Sushi for lunch? Okay, I’ll admit that’s-”
“It’s not sushi,” Liam cut his friend off. “It’s pink, that’s raw fish.”
The pair just watched in silence as Percy literally ate raw fish, and somehow that wasn’t the strangest part. Because the guy’s canines were very noticeable, and very sharp looking. Just looking at it set the hairs on the back of Liam’s neck upright with nervous anticipation, like he was staring at something he shouldn’t be staring at. Something that was far more real then Liam could ever be. Turn away, turn away, turn away, run away! Some primordial part of his brain screamed at him.
“I take it back,” Greg put his phone down. “You’re onto something.”
“Fuckin’ told you,” Liam mumbled, a bit out of breath.
The next day, Liam kept his eyes glued to Jackson during every class they shared together. Thank God they actually shared a lot of classes, like it was meant to be.
For most of the classes, there wasn’t much. He seemed utterly bored in both math and history. In fact he was barely paying attention in history, he kept staring out the window up at the cloudy sky while muttering something in a language that Liam had never heard before. It certainly wasn’t Japanese, Liam could tell you that.
Science class was much the same, though with no windows to stare out of Percy was just idly watching the teachers’ desk fidget toy. It was one of those oil and water things, where the oil was dyed in bright colors. For some strange reason, the oil inside was actively moving, creating a swirl of colors and patterns in the water. Maybe Mrs. Parker’s toy was battery powered, but Liam was positive that those things required you to actually shake it by hand.
So how, and why, the fuck was it moving like that?
It was in English class. That’s when things got weird.
Dr. Dyson, who would’ve made a killing selling vacuum cleaners, was a notorious hard ass who took his frustrations out on everyone because he wasn’t teaching college courses anymore. So when he thought Percy wasn’t paying attention, he decided to put him in the spotlight in an attempt to humiliate the poor guy. To be fair, Percy was staring out the window again.
Liam couldn’t blame Percy for not caring about this class. This was the second time he personally had to go over 1984, and he had to imagine it was the same for Percy as well.
“Jackson!” Dyson angrily called out. “The ministries! Go!”
Percy, of course, answered but not in English. It was that other language he was muttering in earlier. Dyson just stared at the guy, brown eyes blown wide.
“What?” He asked, the anger in his voice completely gone.
Percy mouthed a curse, and spat out the names of the ministries. In English this time. It was hard to not to notice that the entire class had turned to face him, and in turn Liam next to him.
“Correct, but what language was that?”
“Uh… Greek?” Percy sheepishly replied.
The look on Dr. Dyson’s face was incredulous as he shook it.
“Jackson, I know that wasn’t Greek. How the hell do you know ancient Greek?” Dyson demanded, not angrily, but with an unheard whimsy.
Percy’s eyes seemed even more intensely green than usually as they darted about the classroom. They landed on Liam and that feeling in the back of his mind came up again, the same exact feeling he got when staring at Percy’s fangs. It was this anxious pit that drove his hands shaky and his mouth dry.
All Liam wanted to do was run, to get the hell out of dodge as fast as he could. He knew that this was just his brain being stupid, trauma does that after all, but trying to ignore your brain when it’s screaming: “RUN! RUN! RUN!” to you isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do. So Liam just stared at his still blank worksheet instead, hoping that if he read the questions over and over again it would somehow restart his brain into not freaking out because Percy just so happened to look at him.
Shit maybe Greg is right… Maybe he is gay for Percy?
“Summer camp. We kinda just learn it there? It’s a fun thing,” Percy said after a few painfully awkward seconds. Thank God the feeling in Liam’s head seemed to vanish as soon as he spoke up again.
“Right, a summer camp…” Dyson rubbed his eyes. “You know what, nevermind, now back to Julia’s involvement.”
Liam tuned the guy out entirely and grabbed his notebook. He flipped to the back page which had all of his notes on Percy’s weirdness and stared at it for a second. A few lines jumped out at him, such as Percy’s teammates joking that he could stay underwater for days or a comment he made about crashing his own funeral. Liam felt his heart spike again as his eyes dropped to the drawing of the trident tattoo at the bottom of the page.
He glanced over to Percy, who was keeping his eyes glued to Dr. Dyson.
Liam grabbed his pencil and started writing. He will get to the bottom of this, no matter how much his instincts tell him not to.