The next morning, September first, I was nervous. Despite being mentally eighteen and having already completed all of grades one through the first half of grade twelve, I was still anxious. It wasn't really the normal first day stress however, more along the lines of ‘This is the beginning of my new life’ kind of stress.

I would probably be meeting Percy Jackson and Grover Underwood along with Chiron and a fury this school year… I also need to at least try to become friends with Percy, not that I think it will be hard, the opposite in fact. Given the fact that Percy’s experience in schools and bullies with little friends, if I dont bully him or ignore him and act friendly, I should at least become passing friends with him.

I stop, and shake my head while packing my clothes. What am I doing… This feels wrong, manipulating someone to be a friend just so I can use them in the future… I sigh, starting to pack my clothes. Well, I can deal with the ethical side of this later… Once I am not in imminent danger from a titan, the earth itself, giants, gods, a giant snake that wants to eat the sun…

Besides, it's not like I wouldn't try to be friendly to him if I didn't know what he will be capable of in the future and the things that will happen anyway, that is pretty much how I became friends with Jake.

I zip up the small suitcase with my clothes and stand up, walking out of my room and into the empty hallway. From there I walk to the front door, seeing the caretaker lady and Director Kasandra hurrying five other kids to get their shoes on so they can get to the bus stop. Director Kasandra sees me, looks me up and down and smiles at me knowingly then motions for me to wait.

As soon as the kids in the entryway had their shoes on properly, the caretaker lady walked out the door and I approached Kasandra. “Are you driving me to the school?” I ask her, she nods and says “Yes.” then tells me and then motions for me to follow her and I carefully but quickly put on my runners and walk out the door, shutting it behind me putting an end to my time in the orphanage.

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“You remember where you are supposed to go for your room key, right?” Director Kasandra asks me in the back of her van, causing me to roll my eyes a little saying “Yes.” as I did so. Director Kasandra nods and says “Well, I hope you have a good year, I will see you soon.” From the look in her eye as she said that, I could tell that she truly meant every word.

I was actually a little touched by this, I wonder if she is acting like this because of my perceived age, or is she just that type of person? I wonder, before responding with “Thanks, I hope I do too.” and opening the van door, before turning back to her and saying “Goodbye.” Director Kasandra looked a little confused at the finality in my tone, but she nodded and smiled at me as I closed the door behind me and walked to the main hall of Yancy Academy to get my room number and key.

Even before I entered the hall, I saw a long line of kids that stretched even outside the building and I joined the end of the line, casually looking around as I absentmindedly twisted Masatr on my finger and took it off, leaving it in my pocket. This was very important for my plan, I couldn't exactly just leave it on while Grover might be around, I need to make sure that I am recognized as a demigod and not just some random mortal. As the line got shorter and shorter, I saw some signs that were an obvious red flag about the people who go here. School hasn't even technically started yet and I can already tell that this year is going to suck…

When I finally got to the end of the line, I was met by a nice looking woman who asked me for my name, she searched a long list for my corresponding room then handed me a key for room twenty seven.

I then walked away from the building and just across the small private driveway to where I knew the dormitory building was, from my tour of the school a few days before. Once I reached the building, I headed inside and looked around the practically stuffed lobby, full of an unnecessary amount of couches, table and chairs, along with several vending machines full of candy and sugary drinks of all kinds. I then moved towards the stairwell doorway on the far wall and walked to find my room.

Luckily, my room was actually quite close to the second floor stairway and I entered it no problem. The room was actually really nice, two beds, two desks, two closets with shelves beside them and even a bathroom. I set my suitcase on the right bed, claiming it. “Well… Let's put away all my stuff!” I said to myself jokingly as I opened my tiny suitcase with my clothes and various binders stuffed with papers.

I did bring more than just what was in my suitcase, but I just shoved anything that I might want later in the Soul Forge so I didn't have to carry everything with me, but there is nothing that I really need in my new room, so I am just going to leave it there.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

I put my clothes into the right side closet and the binders in my desk. Then I sit down on my bed. What should I do while I wait for my new roommate to show up?

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“Flight test eleven!” I say to myself as I throw a jumble of paper, elastics and paper clips that I had found in my new desk, into the air. Almost directly after I had thrown the makeshift mechanical helicopter drone into the air, the door of the dorm room opened. My helicopter took offense to that and immediately went soaring off towards the now open door. “Watch out!” I yell out to the guy in the door frame as my helicopter flew towards him, on a crash course with this guy's forehead.

Not if I have any say about it however. I realized that I still had a pen in my hand from the last time that I had to stop the mechanical drone and I threw my pen at the helicopter. With all my practice predicting incoming projectiles with my two skills, I found myself mentally calculating the best angle and force of the pen to misdirect the helicopter with minimal damage to the helicopter and without hitting the guy with the pen.

The pen soared through the air and glanced off the helicopter, the pen hitting the right side of the door frame and the helicopter careening into the left side of the door frame with a sad little dull thump and twanging of the elastics in it.

I grin at my pen throwing skill, but then remember that I have an accidental almost victim from my little drone. I looked the guy over, he was a pretty average looking guy with a less than athletic frame, messy black hair and green eyes. “Sorry about that…” I told him embarrassedly. “What are you sorry for? That was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen!” The guy that I assumed was my roommate said, looking almost awed at me, then the helicopter by his foot. The kid picked it up off the floor and took a look at it before saying “Huh.” and handing it to me smiling, seemingly not angry about the helicopter almost smacking his face.

I took the helicopter carefully then asked the guy “So… this your room too?” in a questioning way, looking at him. The guy nodded and said “Yes. I am Percy, what’s your name?” ‘Huh, this might actually be easier than I thought.’ I thought to myself in surprise at my roommate's identity. While this might have been a surprise, it was definitely not a bad one, so I seized advantage of the situation and told him “I’m Ardika. I am seriously sorry about almost hitting you though, I promise I didn't do it on purpose.” I told him sincerely.

However Percy just grinned at me, responding with “Seriously, it’s fine.” and then he walks to the left side bed, seeing that I have the right side, and he begins to put his stuff down. As he started putting his stuff away, I looked at the little paper and rubber band drone and thought to myself ‘Well… This looks like it will be an interesting year. Even without all the supernatural stuff.’

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A few hours later, in the middle of fixing another helicopter drone after I had broken it with Percy, a voice rang out in the dormroom and the hallways, saying “Welcome to Yancy Academy students! All students with rooms on the first floor will be meeting in room ten in twenty minutes and will meet with Mrs. Watt there. All students with rooms on the second floor will meet in room thirty in twenty minutes and will meet with Mr. Nicoll there. All students with rooms on the third floor will be meeting in room twenty in twenty minutes and will meet with Mr. Lenwick there.” The voice continued along the same lines until floor fifteen, where the speaker shut off.

As the lady was speaking, I noticed where the voice came from. There is a speaker built into the wall above the door. Seeing the speaker got me thinking about some prank ideas, but right now I think me and Percy should go and meet with the rest of our class. Percy seemed to disagree however “We still got a few minutes right?” he said, looking at me for confirmation. I sighed, giving in to the temptation. “Alright, but if we are late to class, I am going to blame you.” I said and then got back to fixing my tiny helicopter.

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Twenty minutes later I sprinted through the hallways, Percy struggling to keep up behind me as he followed my jog-sprint to room thirty. Percy and I had lost track of time, and we were late. I knew that I would be late somehow…

We flew past the doors one at a time, 27, 28, 29, 30! We stop in front of room thirty abruptly and I open the door, both of us walk in, I can hear Percy is out of breath but my breath is regular. When I walk in, I see that we apparently got here just on time, as the older man standing in front of a wall mounted smartboard in front of the class. “Sorry if we interrupted anything…” I said to the man, who was presumably our teacher, Mr. Nicoll. The man frowned at us and said “Good. Now go sit down.” to us while glaring annoyed. I mentally cursed my luck, so he was going to be that type of teacher…

Still, I did what he said along with Percy, though Percy looked a little angry about it. We saw two empty seats close to the center of the room and we sat together. “Now that everybody is here,” Mr. Nicoll turned and gave us a disapproving look “I am your English teacher, Mr. Nicoll. Today, you will be getting your weekly schedule for classes and then I will give an introduction to this year's English curriculum. I will then leave and your math teacher Miss Prince and after that you will meet with your science teacher Mr. Earnwell, then your PE teacher Mr. Stine and then you will be talked to by your Latin teacher Mr. Evanescit and finally you will meet your history teacher Ms. Rosenhert.”

(A.N. If any of you got the joke, I can tell that you would or have already passed Latin easily.)

What followed was the normal very dull and boring talk about what we will be going over in the year, the plagiarism talk, the ‘good behavior’ talk and all that other stuff. Then we met with the other teachers and my expectations were squashed. They were terrible at their jobs. I could tell, whether from their clear laziness, their almost cruel attitude to the students or just incompetence, it all led me to a singular conclusion. This year was going to suck…