A Town Called Elysium

Chapter 1

Author: Carla, aka cali-chan
Rating: PG-13.
Genre: Family, friendship, drama, romance, probably some humor because "oh, small-town charm" and on top of that, these characters are all sassmasters (that's why we love 'em).
Pairings: All the canon pairings (...eventually).
Canon/timeline: AU, inspired by the TV show Everwood (why yes, I find connections to my fandoms everywhere. It's a gift).

Disclaimer: I only hid Percy in my closet for a couple of nights. It's not kidnapping if I sent him back, right? (AKA: PJO/HoO don't belong to me, they're all RR's).

Note: Percy's going to be a bit of a grump in the first few chapters. Don't worry, he'll be back to his fun, bright and sassy self as soon as his father's out of the picture. ;)

Summary: When circumstances force Percy's family to move to a quaint town in the mountains, he puts the blame for his frustrations straight on his absentee father's shoulders. But as they slowly acclimate to small-town living, they begin to form new friendships and relationships, demonstrating that sometimes it takes a place with heart like Elysium, Colorado to show a person what living really is. Inspired by the TV show Everwood.

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"Oh, come on!" Percy groaned, throwing his mother a frustrated look.

Sally Jackson raised her eyebrows at him. "Don't give me that attitude, Percy. You know I'm only doing this to make sure you're safe."

Being a teenager, Percy had mastered the art of angrily putting on his backpack, as he proceeded to demonstrate. "You seriously think it's better for me to walk to school through two feet of snow than take the car?" Yet another thing New York had over this nothing little town: it snowed in New York, too, but when it did, the school district had enough sense to suspend classes. In Elysium it seemed like they saw a full blanket of snow as only a minor inconvenience.

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a "Mom" look, which effectively shut him up. "Now, these are your options: either you go by bike— carefully— or you call your father to come pick you up."

"Wait, how come he gets to drive?" he complained immediately. He wasn't even sure why his father was in Elysium to begin with. Wasn't the whole point of shipping them off to Colorado that he didn't have to see them? Sometimes Poseidon had those moments where he wanted to pretend he wasn't a crappy father, and this time he seemed to think the first day of school merited his presence. Particularly since it was his influence (and his money) that got Percy into Greek Hill High well after the official application period had closed.

Sally wasn't having any of his protests. "You just got your permit last month. He's an adult and I can't tell him what to do," she replied, matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, just like you didn't say a word when dad up and made us leave New York for this frozen hellhole," he muttered under his breath, but clearly not quietly enough, as he saw his mother sigh and shake her head. It was an argument they'd had many times, and never quite settled. He didn't want to have it all over again; he loved his mom, and he didn't really blame her for their current situation. No, that was all on Poseidon. "I'll take the bike," he said, pulling the second strap of his bag over his shoulder as he walked to the door.

He was halfway down the porch steps when she called out to him again. "Hey!" He looked at her over his shoulder, to where she was leaning against the doorframe, wrapping her thin robe around herself a little tighter; it was cold outside. "Come give me a kiss," she signaled to him to come back up for a second.

He rolled his eyes— hey, he was sixteen and being told to kiss your mother like a kindergartener was embarrassing, okay?— but otherwise complied. She hugged him tightly. "Have a good first day, sweetie," she added, rearranging his hair off his eyes a bit before she kissed his temple. "I'm sure Tyson will want to hear all the details when you come back this afternoon."

"Yeah, because my life is just that exciting," he retorted, dryly. Sally chuckled. Truth be told, they both knew he could spend the entire day staring at a wall and Tyson would still find the retelling riveting. Tyson just idolized his older brother that way.

Untangling himself from his mother's arms, he skipped down the porch steps two at a time and went to unlock his bike, already not looking forward to being the new kid in school... yet again.

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Sally watched her son pedal away until he turned the corner at the end of their street. Her Percy was all grown up now, almost a man, but it never got any easier for a mother to see her son off for a first day of classes. She only hoped Greek Hill High would be the one to stick; there were a limited number of schools Percy could transfer to in Elysium and its surroundings if he got expelled this time.

She was so lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice anyone else was nearby until she heard someone clear their throat. Startled, she turned around to see a man standing out on the porch of the house next to hers. He wasn't short but wasn't very tall either, and was probably in his late thirties if his salt-and-pepper hair was any indication. Said hair was longish, dark waves curling slightly at the ends against his nape; he was handsome, in an understated way. He was wearing slacks and a white shirt unbuttoned at the collar, with a tan wool coat— light, like the type one might put on to only briefly walk outside the house (she made a mental note to get one of those for herself as soon as possible).

He wore thin-rimmed glasses and slippers on his feet, and he was holding a mug with a cartoon mustache on it in his right hand. "Good morning, neighbor," he greeted her with a small smile. "Paul Blofis," he introduced himself. "It's nice to meet you." Since they were separated by the entire length of Sally's porch, he couldn't exactly shake her hand, so he went for the next available option and gave her a small wave with his one free hand. "I must admit I was getting curious to see who bought the house next door. It's been on the market for a while."

"Ah, it must have been waiting for us, then," Sally returned his smile, moving a couple steps forward so she wouldn't have to raise her voice for him to hear her. "I'm Sally Jackson. That was my son, Percy," she pointed down the street in the direction Percy had left in. "My youngest son, Tyson, is still asleep in his room."

"Ah," Paul nodded. "Off to Greek Hill High, I presume?" he asked his eyes moving in the direction Sally had signaled. She nodded. "Next time I can drive him there if he prefers that. I work at Greek Hill myself," he revealed.

He paused to take a sip of what she assumed was coffee. She wasn't surprised that he had overheard part of their conversation; Percy had a tendency to be loud, especially when he was complaining. "I'm sure he'd like that much better than going by bike. What do you do at Greek Hill?"

"I teach English," he replied, still smiling. "What grade is Percy in? He might be in one of my classes."

"He's a junior this year." She linked her hands in front of her chest as if adding emphasis to her words. "Oh, if you could keep an eye out for him, that would be a weight off my shoulders. Percy's always had trouble with studying, he's had to switch schools so many times already..."

"Behavioral problems?"

"Not really. He's been called out for his attitude a few times, but he's not a bad kid. It's just, between the ADHD and the dyslexia, classes and exams are very difficult for him. It's actually part of the reason why we chose Greek Hill," she admitted, with a small shrug of her shoulders. "We thought smaller class sizes would make things a little bit easier for him. We tried public school back in New York, and that was a disaster."

"So you're from the Big Apple! Not many city transplants around here these days. Or ever, really," he added with a chuckle. She wasn't surprised; she couldn't imagine a place more different from New York City than Elysium, Colorado. "And I wouldn't worry too much. You made the right choice in Greek Hill; we have many students with learning disabilities and most of them are thriving. I'm sure Percy will love it there."

"Oh, I really hope so," she sighed. A cool breeze picked up momentarily, making her shiver, and she realized she had been standing outside longer than she'd originally planned. "If you excuse me, I have to go make breakfast before Tyson wakes up."

"Yes, of course. I have to finish getting ready myself. It was nice meeting you, Sally," he gave her another small wave. She replied in kind and he turned around to go back inside his house.

Sally did the same, smiling to herself as she got ready to make some scrambled eggs. Her neighbor seemed nice, and her fears about Percy's new school were slightly mitigated. Perhaps they were starting their new life in Elysium on the right foot.

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Percy was lost in thought as he pedaled to school. (His mother probably wouldn't approve, but hey, she wasn't around to give his ear a pull). He was mainly thinking about the chain of events that brought his family to Elysium; as with many other undesired situations in his life, it all started with his father, world-renowned neurosurgeon Poseidon Irving. [1]

Percy's relationship with his father started off wrong since before Percy was even conceived. Poseidon met Percy's mom when he operated on her uncle Rich, the man who raised her after her parents died in a plane crash, to remove a brain tumor that other doctors had deemed inoperable. Sally was barely eighteen then. Poseidon's "miracle hands" gave uncle Rich an extra two years that he wouldn't have had otherwise, but they were two very tough years, as uncle Rich couldn't work anymore and his motion functions were affected; he needed someone to help him with even the most basic tasks.

Sally had to drop out of high school and work odd jobs in order to care for her uncle. During those two years, Poseidon continued to visit for check-ups and was very attentive with Sally, going above and beyond what was expected of any doctor. They grew close, and soon enough Sally was pregnant with Percy. This would've been all fine and dandy, except Poseidon neglected to mention that he was already married to another woman.

Mira [2], his wife, couldn't care less about her husband's extracurricular activities, so long as it didn't affect her precious image and their bank account. That was how the truth came out, actually: with Poseidon's reluctance to legally recognize Percy as his son. Any public record of him having an illegitimate child being found by the wrong person could lead to a PR nightmare.

Poseidon insisted he did it for his patients. His field of work required patients to put their lives in his hands, and so they needed to trust him on all levels; therefore, if his name was going to be in the papers, it would be because of his medical prowess and not his personal life. Internally, Percy thought it was because he was as vain as his wife, unwilling to let people see him as anything but perfect. There really was something, Percy mused, to everything people said about surgeons having God complexes.

Whatever the reason, it became obvious to Sally that 1) he wasn't planning on divorcing his wife, and 2) he would never be Percy's father, except behind closed doors. When that became clear, she ended the relationship, registered Percy with her own last name, and set out to raise him all on her own.

Poseidon did his part in supporting his son financially, Percy had to give him that. He even gave child support for Tyson, even though he wasn't his. Sure, every birthday it was his secretary who called the boys to congratulate them, but a check arrived at the bank every month without fail. Because that's what fathers are for, right?

Sally eventually got her GED and found a stable job at a candy shop, and they made do. Their apartment was small and it wasn't in a particularly nice part of town, but it was theirs, and that was enough. It was at the candy store where Sally met the man who would eventually become her husband, Gabe Ugliano. Percy never liked the guy; he was lazy, mean, smelled like a pig who had just thrown up a bucketful of bad beans, and treated Percy like he was an incredibly annoying mosquito rather than a child.

Percy didn't care what smelly Gabe thought of him— he just tried to stay away from Gabe as much as possible and that was usually good enough to keep Gabe off his back. What Percy really couldn't stand, though, was how Gabe treated his mother. He didn't respect her at all, treating her more like a maid than a wife, and expecting her to do everything for him while he lazed about on the couch with a beer in his hand and his pants unbuttoned. He repeatedly told her she was useless and treated her like she was stupid, but he demanded her attention 24/7, even going as far as pulling her out of work several times on some ridiculous whim.

Gabe's constant appearances at Sally's workplace eventually got her fired, and that was the stroke that broke the camel's back. Percy walked in on a huge argument as he came home from school: Sally in disbelief that he had caused her to lose her job, and Gabe trying to relieve himself of any responsibility because surely it had to be something Sally did that pissed her boss off. Things got heated, both of them screaming at each other back and forth, and eventually Gabe roughly grabbed Sally by the arm and raised his hand at her. Percy lost it. Although he was only twelve at the time, he didn't think twice before forcibly pushing Gabe off his mother.

It helped that the most exercise Gabe ever did was raising a bottle to his lips; thrown off-balance, he toppled back until he banged his head against a wall. Taking advantage of Gabe's grogginess, Sally pulled Percy back and told Gabe in no uncertain terms to get out of her apartment for good or she would call the police on him. That was the last Percy saw of smelly Gabe; Sally returned all his stuff by delivery service (paid collect, of course) so that her soon-to-be ex-husband wouldn't have to step foot in their home again.

It was difficult for Sally to find a job in the recession, and for a few months they lived off her savings. She decided to start her own business in the form of an online bakery, but it was slow to get off the ground. It was also when Tyson came into their lives; he was an orphan who was put in the system, but the system wasn't made for children like him. Tyson was born with a comparatively mild case of Down Syndrome, but it wasn't mild enough for him to be able to go to school without any aid, and he was struggling. Percy befriended him quickly and tried to help him as much as he could, but there was only so much he could do, he was still a child himself.

When he told his mother about Tyson, Sally realized the child needed special care and homeschooling, things his foster parents weren't equipped to give him, as they were only in it for the government checks. She attempted to gain custody of the poor boy, but it was difficult for a single, self-employed woman to be granted custody when she already had one child she could barely support.

That's when Poseidon swooped back in. After learning how tight things had become for them after Sally's divorce, he offered to support them in everything they needed— not just in the form of Percy's child support payments, but also paying their rent, food, utilities and any other necessities they had— to make up for being absent through the whole Gabe debacle. Because that's what Poseidon did: throw money at problems as if that were enough to make them go away.

If it had been up to Percy, he wouldn't have accepted the offer. Sally had turned down Poseidon's money several times in the past, but this time she knew she wasn't in a position to refuse: soon her savings would start to dwindle and they wouldn't be able to pay rent, and what's more, Poseidon's money (coming in as a regular injection to the bakery account) and especially his lawyers, won Sally the custody and eventual adoption of Tyson.

So for the last four or so years, the Jacksons had been living in an apartment paid, stocked and maintained by Poseidon, with Percy going through what felt like every private school in the tri-state area on Poseidon's bank account. Sally still had her online bakery, but most of her time and effort went to homeschooling Tyson and helping Percy pass each grade without too much of a struggle. Percy knew she wasn't happy with the fact that they depended entirely on someone else's money to survive, but she wanted the best for her children and she could swallow her pride for them. Apart from basic necessities, she didn't use a dime of that money on herself, ever, and Percy loved her for it.

Poseidon's sporadic contact with his children didn't change. Shelling out money by the bucketloads wasn't a problem for him; he had enough money for two lifetimes and his wife didn't care as long as there remained enough of it to keep up her lifestyle. It wasn't a good idea for him to visit too often, though, as New York was too crowded and his profile was too high for repeated visits to go unnoticed. For what little they saw of Poseidon, Tyson idolized the guy. Called him "Daddy" and everything. Percy didn't have the heart to bring his brother down, and his mother insisted that he should get along with his father, so usually he tried to be civil. But this latest stunt he pulled? That was crossing a line.

The turn of the tide came when Percy joined the municipal swimming club the summer before his freshman year. Initially it was just something he could do to spend all that extra energy, but as time went on, Percy realized he had finally found something he not only liked, but was also good at. And he was very good: he started winning competitions all the time, beating records and making his times better and better to the point he could compete at county and even state level.

At the beginning of the past summer, he actually qualified for nationals in freestyle 800 m, breaking the current record at the time. Winning that race had been one of the best moments of his life, and he didn't think he'd ever seen his mother look so proud. He really loved swimming, and he hoped one day he could make it to the Olympics. In the meantime, the final competition would take place in August, and Percy immediately threw himself into training, while his mother and the club helped out in securing sponsors for him.

His performance in the qualification rounds earned him a fair bit of attention from the press. It's not like he made the front page of the Times or anything, but they did air some quick interviews in a couple local news channels, and there were some mentions of his achievement in a few of the local papers. Nothing major, but it was still too close for comfort for Mira. New York was rife with paparazzi, and all it took was one person asking the wrong questions for the identity of Percy's father to come to light, especially since he was now going to be competing at a national level.

Percy wasn't there to see it, but apparently the woman threw a tantrum of biblical proportions. She still didn't care how much money Poseidon threw away on his "other family," but she wanted him to do it away from New York— away from the public eye. So she gave Poseidon an ultimatum: either he got the Jacksons to move somewhere sufficiently far from civilization that the threat of their connection to Poseidon being recognized was minimal, or she was going to take back everything he gave them. Which she could easily do. It was all half hers, anyway.

Since the two boys were now old enough to make their own informed decisions, Sally took herself out of the equation, telling them she would only agree to the move if it's what they wanted to do. Percy, of course, declared he would rather go back to living in an apartment the size of a matchbox rather than accommodate the whims of a woman he'd never even met, but much to his frustration, his father bought Tyson's vote with the promise of a pony (thanks for that, traitor!), and then declared himself the tie-breaker against all of Percy's protests. Then, because he hadn't had enough ridiculousness, Poseidon pulled Tyson's geography textbook from a bookshelf, opened it on a map of the United States and put his finger down on a random location.

And that is how they ended up in Elysium, Colorado. Population: 6471, and filled with modern commodities such as a movie theater with three whole screening rooms, a Dairy Queen with a Drive-Thru, an authentic Chinese restaurant, and a pizza place. No, wait, make that an authentic Chinese restaurant that was also a pizza place. And not only did Percy have to change schools yet again (he'd actually managed to go a year without getting expelled, too!), leave the only home he'd ever known and what few acquaintances he had made in the past... he also had to abruptly quit the swimming club, which meant he was immediately disqualified from nationals.

Could he be blamed for being pissed at his so-called father? He thought it was understandable, given the circumstances.

Before he could get angry all over again, he decided it was better to just pedal faster and hope to start the day in a slightly less murderous mood. Teenagers were slowly making their way into Greek Hill High's main building as he parked his bike, and he resolved to try and have a good first day, in spite of his father.

That resolution lasted about two minutes as, just as he was walking away from the bicycle stands, he accidentally bumped into someone. Someone huge. "Sorry, man," he offhandedly offered, but before he could keep walking, the guy grabbed him by the hood of his jacket and pulled him back.

"You think sorry's going to cut it, noob?" Percy turned around to finally see who was speaking. The guy was gigantic— could be 6' 4'', with biceps the size of Percy's head and a circumference around his middle that could probably cushion him in a car crash about as much as an air bag could. He had messy black hair with enough gel in it to get more than one unlucky insect stuck in there, plump cheeks to go with the belly and tiny eyes that were looking down at Percy like it would be the easiest thing in the world to flick him off the face of the Earth.

Great. A bully.

Percy hated bullies. That's actually how he first met Tyson in school, rushing in to defend him from a group of boys who thought they were so cool because they could harass a helpless, younger kid with an intellectual disability. Bullies also reminded Percy of smelly Gabe; this one in particular because of his wide waistline. "Listen, pal, I don't want any trouble, so if you could just let go..." he suggested, figuring that getting into a fight would not be the best way to start off the school year.

The dude narrowed his eyes (or at least Percy thought he was narrowing his eyes— it was hard to tell, really, as they were so beady) and tugged at Percy's hoodie sharply. "Don't call me 'pal,'" he warned, a clear threat in his voice. "People call me The Bull."

Out of the corner of his eye, Percy could see that the kids around them were standing to take notice of the scene: many were murmuring to each other, eyes on the pair, and some had outright stopped walking to watch the confrontation. There was also a group of four or five standing near, all boys except one girl, although she was built like a linebacker.

Alright, Percy didn't want to get into a fight on the first day of school, and he was sure if one arose The Bull's posse would endeavor to make it six against one, but he was no pushover, and he had never been one to hold back on wisecracks when the perfect opportunity presented itself to him on a silver platter. "I can see why they call you that," he blurted out, because it was too good not to say it. "It must take four stomachs to keep you in... that shape."

A round shape, he added in his mind but left unsaid. He figured most people got the joke, anyway, as murmurs erupted from the crowd around them. A loud bark of laughter came from a girl standing with two others near the "Greek Hill High School" sign in front of the parking lot. He only had a brief second to look her way, but he saw that it was a girl with short, spiky black hair with streaks of blue in it, wearing ripped jeans and a black leather jacket.

His attention was dragged back to The Bull when he was pulled by his hood again. "What's that supposed to mean?" He looked completely befuddled, and Percy wasn't surprised: in his experience, most bullies were dumb as rocks. He probably didn't have the slightest clue how bovine digestive systems worked, but he certainly didn't miss the laughter bursting out from the crowd. "Are you making fun of me?!"

"Of someone who's named after an animal that spends the entire day swatting flies off its ass with its tail? Yeah. I mean," he shrugged as best he could with the tension of someone's fists pulling at his hoodie, "the mocking practically happens by itself."

There was another bark of laughter from the punk girl in the back. "Man, the new kid is schooling you, Eustace!" With that distraction, Percy finally got a good look at her two friends. One was a tall, blond guy who was watching the scene with a slight frown on his face, his eyes framed by rimless glasses. The other was a girl with blonde hair that fell around her face in loose curls, like a fairytale princess'; she was observing everything with a curious, almost calculating expression, and when her eyes met his, Percy felt like she could stare into his soul.

The Bull— Eustace— turned his head around to throw the punk girl a glare that did not affect her in the least. "Shut up, Grace!" Then he turned back to Percy, grabbing him by the collar of his hoodie instead, clearly not pleased to be the butt of the joke. "Listen here, newbie," he said, menacingly getting right up in Percy's face. Percy could now confirm that his breath was also as bad as his namesake's. "I don't know where you come from, but around here people respect seniors."

Percy was about to retort something about senior citizens that would probably get him punched, but he was conveniently saved by the arrival at the scene of someone he assumed was a teacher. "Mr. Cowden!" said the man as he walked up to them from the front door of the building, tall and brown-haired, with a scruffy beard, carrying a briefcase and wearing an awful lot of tweed. "I would thank you if you would release Mr. Jackson from your hold," he added, and it was clearly not just a suggestion.

The Bull glared at Percy once more for good measure, and then begrudgingly let go of his hoodie. "Mr. Brunner," Bull started what was sure to be a poor excuse for his behavior, "I was only welcoming the new kid to—"

"I know exactly what you were doing, Mr. Cowden. I was watching your interaction since the beginning." Brunner clearly wasn't having any of Eustace's BS. (Get it? BS? Haha). "Please take your things and wait for me outside my office. We will have a talk about how to properly welcome new students to our school." As the Bull angrily shuffled into the building, Brunner turned to the crowd that was still loitering around them. "Everyone else head to class! Contrary to popular belief, I can— and will— mark the entire student body as tardy if you fail to make it to first period on time."

As the students slowly started making their way inside, Brunner turned to Percy, who was still standing there, unsure what was in store for him. "I apologize for the rather rough start to your stay at Greek Hill, Mr. Jackson."

"It's fine. Not your fault," Percy replied with a shrug. There were bullies everywhere, and there was little the school could do to prevent jerks like Eustace Cowden from being their jerk selves.

The older man nodded. "I am Mr. Brunner, I'm the Vice-Principal here," he introduced himself. "Perhaps we can find someone with a better disposition to give you a tour of the place... Mr. Underwood!" he called out to someone after a quick look around.

After a few seconds they were approached by another student. He was slightly shorter than Percy but rather lanky, wearing cargo pants, a "three R's" t-shirt and a hooded jacket that looked too big on him. He was pale, with a wispy goatee and curly brown hair that peeked out from under a multicolored rasta cap. "Mr. Underwood, this is Mr. Jackson. He's a new student, and I was hoping you could show him around today. You can get a hall pass from Ms. Mellie when you stop by the office."

"Sure, no problem," the boy agreed straight away. "Hey, man. I'm Grover," he says, extending a hand to Percy to shake.

"Percy," he replied as he clasped the boy's hand quickly.

"Very well," Mr. Brunner nodded to himself as he saw the arrangement was set up. "Mr. Jackson, I would like for you to stop by my office at some point before you leave today, so we can talk about what to expect from your time here at Greek Hill. For now, though, I urge you to go on ahead with Mr. Underwood. You want to miss as little class time as possible." With one last nod of his head, Mr. Brunner turned on them and started following the gaggle of students inside the school.

Percy picked his bag up from where it had fallen on the ground during the confrontation with the Bull, and as he stood up, Grover seemed about to say something, but stopped when he saw people approach them. It was the punk girl who had been laughing earlier, accompanied by her two blond friends.

She looked Percy up and down with electric blue eyes and a mischievous smirk. "Not bad, new kid," she said, giving Percy a small pat on the shoulder. "Not bad." With that, she continued her way toward the school. The blond guy with the glasses gave Percy and Grover a small smile and a nod of his head like 'Sup? as he walked by them following the girl.

The blonde girl took up the rear, only giving Percy a side-look as she passed, like he didn't warrant any more of her attention. In that half-second look, however, Percy noticed that her eyes were actually a striking shade of gray, like polished silver. Her golden hair swung slightly from side to side of her ponytail as she walked. He couldn't help but stare; she was really very pretty.

"...You good to go, man?" Grover's voice pulled him out of his daydream.

"Yeah... yeah, sure." Shaking his head clear of bullies and gray eyes, he followed Grover inside the school for a first day that was already looking like a disaster.

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Tyson wanted to see more of Elysium, and Sally needed to buy ingredients for the bakery, so they decided to go grocery shopping while Percy was still at school.

After some research Sally actually found out that the nearest Walmart was actually a few miles outside the town limits, which was very inconvenient. As it turned out, everyone in Elysium shopped in a local grocery shop called "Demeter's Harvest." It was a larger space than Sally had expected from a small town (an old warehouse from the days when trains still stopped in Elysium), but most of the space was taken up with plants and patio supplies. Apparently the owner of the place was really into gardening, and that's where the store had started. Sally didn't mind; Tyson enjoyed looking at all the different flowers and playing "jungle explorer" among the foliage, and Sally loved seeing her boy play and have fun.

Their selection of groceries was also very limited, however; the closest they had to "ethnic" food was rice, the extent of their spices were cinnamon, nutmeg, and black pepper, and they had precious little as far as decorations went, so she'd have to order the rest online. Still, she did get all the basic ingredients for her baking, to the point that she practically took all the flour they had available with her (she'd have to re-stock sooner than she'd hoped). She also had enough food to put on the table for the week (their dinner would be a little blander than they had in New York... surely the boys wouldn't mind too much), so the trip was a productive one, in her opinion.

Now they were making their way to the checkout counter with two full shopping carts, both of which Tyson insisted on pushing. Sally was carrying a flowerpot holding an ornamental fern in her hands, so she didn't mind. As they got to the counter, they were greeted warmly by a college-aged young woman with brown hair. Her nametag read Miranda. "Hello! Did you find everything alright?" she asked them with a smile as she started ringing up their items.

After they exchanged the usual shopping venue conversation ("Do you have a frequent shopper card? You can get discounts on all green tag items!"), and the affirmation that they were indeed new in town (apparently in Elysium everyone knew everyone, so outsiders stood out like a sore thumb), the girl finally began to pay attention to the items she was ringing up. "Wow, that's a lot of blue food coloring," she commented, not in a rude way, but more surprised.

Sally smiled. She got that reaction often. "My sons love blue food," she admitted with a smile, looking to the side at Tyson, who was very focused in unloading their groceries onto the conveyor belt. "It's a bit of an inside joke we have."

The girl smiled back, looking like she didn't really get it (well, that's why it was called an inside joke), but found it cute nonetheless. "Well, they'll sure have enough blue food for a long while with all this flour you're getting."

"Oh, no, that's not for us," Sally chuckled at the girl's befuddled expression. "Those are for my job. I run a bakery."

For some reason, that seemed to startle the girl so much that she actually stopped ringing up items to stare awkwardly at Sally. "Oh. That's— that's great. Really great. But, um, you do know that there's already a bakery in town, right?"

Sally found the girl's obvious discomfort a little amusing and curious. "Yes, I know about it. Gardner's, right? I've heard good things. Surely a little competition can make things better for both establishments," she suggested tentatively. In New York there were bakeries in every corner— from nationwide chains to small mom-and-pops, family-run places, and it was the variety of it all that made it a successful business venture. There was something out there for everyone, no matter what your tastes were.

"Yes... yes, that's right," the girl seemed to realize she was being a little overdramatic and shook the awkwardness off, continuing to ring up the last few items in Sally's cart. "Where are you setting up shop, then? I'm gonna have to stop by and try these blue pastries for myself."

Sally laughed. "No, I'm not opening up a storefront. I bake from home. I have a website where people can place their orders and then I ship them by mail. Not just in Elysium, either; I can ship baked goods all over the country."

The girl's brow furrowed once again in confusion. "You send pastries by mail?" she asked, like she'd never heard of such a thing. "Like a... cupcake Amazon or something?" At Sally's nod, her eyebrows rose so high they got lost behind her fringe. "Well, that sounds... interesting. Still, I hope you don't mind if I come pick mine up at the source!" she finished with a sheepish laugh.

By her awkward attempt at fixing that last comment, Sally figured the girl wasn't trying to be rude, but rather was truly baffled by the idea. Elysium was a small town, pretty isolated because of the mountains, so it shouldn't be surprising that the concept of an online bakery felt a little like science fiction to people here. They'd get used to it soon enough, she was sure. "Oh, of course," she replied, giving the girl a quick nod.

Miranda read off the sales total and Sally handed her a debit card to cover it. When they were done putting all their bags back in the cart, the young woman gave them a genuine smile. "Welcome to Elysium, and I hope you have a great time here," she told them, sincerely. Turning toward Tyson, she cooed. "Especially this cutie here. What's your name, hun?"

Tyson gave her a smile and a wave. "I'm Tyson," he declared enthusiastically.

"That's a lovely name. I hope you're liking Elysium, Tyson," Miranda replied, lightly patting the boy's forearm, which was resting on the counter. Turning to Sally again, she asked: "He doesn't go to school?" She probably noticed the time— still a couple hours too early for school-aged kids to be running around.

"No, I take care of his lessons at home."

Miranda nodded wisely, like with that admission, now everything made sense. "Of course, of course. Real school must be too difficult for him, the poor thing." She patted Tyson's arm some more, shaking her head as if she was sad.

Sally cringed inwardly at the phrasing. While it was true that Tyson struggled through school when they first met him, it was like she was implying that homeschooling wasn't real education. The girl probably didn't realize her words could be interpreted that way, but that's the way it sounded to Sally. "Oh, he's not poor at all. He's actually doing really great in all his subjects. He's very smart. Isn't that right, Tyson?"

The boy nodded eagerly. "I'm almost finished with elementary," he informed the cashier, looking very proud. Sally's heart felt warm whenever she saw him so confident in himself.

"Of course you are, sweetheart," the girl retorted, and now Sally was getting a little irritated at her patronizing tone. Even though Tyson was fourteen and already taller than everyone else in their household, as soon as people took a look at his face, they tended to coo at him like he was a baby.

She knew they didn't do it to be mean; it was something that came from a place of ignorance of what children with Down Syndrome really were like. Regular people had little exposure to children like this, and they had no idea of how special they were, how intelligent and determined they could be. She could only imagine how limited that exposure was in a small town like Elysium. Still, she didn't want Tyson to be exposed to that if she could help it. "Well, it's time for us to get home now. Lots of things to unload. It was nice to meet you, dear. I'm sure I'll see you around sometime."

"Yes, definitely," she said with a nod of her head. "Be sure to visit us again soon!" She added, very obviously switching back to the script the store most likely had her spout at every customer. Sally picked up her new fern and gave the girl one last (more reserved) smile. Tyson waved at her again and rushed to push the carts toward the exit.

As they put the bags in the trunk of the car, she pondered that maybe the point was not to get acclimated to a new town as much as to get the new town acclimated to them.

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That afternoon, Percy walked out of the vice-principal's office with about as much enthusiasm as he could muster at the end of the first day of the school year; that is, none at all. It had been nice of Vice-Principal Brunner to try and give him the ins and outs of the code of conduct at his new school, but apart from the fact that the students couldn't eat lunch out in the yard because apparently in Elysium it snowed from September till May (why did the school even have a yard, then?), it hadn't really been much different than the usual spiel he had already heard at all the other schools he'd attended in the past.

His classes hadn't been much more interesting than they were in New York, either. He'd mostly had math and science classes today, and he'd never been very good at those. Well, to be fair he wasn't very good at any classes, but math was definitely his Achilles' heel. All those numbers and equations, he could never understand any of it; it was like they were written in Greek or something.

Grover had stuck by him for most of the day, showing him to his classes and even sitting with him at lunch. Percy liked him, he seemed like a cool dude, although he talked a little too much about his girlfriend Juniper and was very, very insistent on Percy sorting his trash correctly (hey, he was all for recycling, but anyone would get a little tired of being reminded every five minutes).

But still, it was nice not to be completely alone on the first day of classes, especially since everybody kept staring at him like he was some kind of sideshow attraction. Grover insisted it was only because he was new, and the novelty would wear off soon enough. Percy hoped he was right.

The door to Prof. Brunner's office led straight to the School Office proper, where the School Secretary, Ms. Mellie, was still sitting, apparently filing some documents. She smiled at Percy as he passed. He had talked to her in the morning and she seemed like a really sweet, bubbly lady, so he figured he had no reason be rude to her. He nodded lightly as a greeting.

It was then that he noticed she wasn't the only person there: on the opposite site of Ms. Mellie's desk stood the blonde, gray-eyed girl he had seen this morning. Once again his eyes were drawn to her like a magnet. She truly was beautiful; even though she was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt, she seemed to radiate a confidence that only alpha females could conjure in an environment full of awkward teenagers. She seemed to be filling out a form, and was very focused on it, to the point where she didn't seem to realize Percy's presence.

Figuring that it was more than a little creepy to stand there just staring at her like an idiot, he shook himself out of the trance and not-so-gently reminded himself that girls like that were way out of his league. Tightening his hold on the strap of his backpack, he walked toward the door of the office intent on grabbing his bike and going back home, but just as he was about to cross the threshold he saw that someone was waiting for him outside, and it was the person he least wanted to see at the moment.

Poseidon caught sight of him and signaled for him to wait with one finger, as he was currently arguing with someone on his cell phone. It wasn't an unusual sight; most of Percy's few memories with his father involved Poseidon paying more attention to his phone than to his children. One big difference this time, though, was that Poseidon wasn't wearing some kind of smart business suit as he usually did in New York, but instead he was wearing the ugliest sweater any human being had ever worn outside of the holiday season. Percy figured he was probably trying to "blend in with the locals"... and failing miserably.

Out of pure politeness (he didn't want his mother to give him an earful when he got home) he waited there as Poseidon finished his phone call. It was a few minutes of utter boredom; he couldn't even eavesdrop on the conversation because they were talking neuroscience and he couldn't understand a word of it. Eventually, though, with a final "Call my secretary! She's the one who knows all the details. I have to go," he finally locked the phone and put it back in his pocket. "Hello, son!" he exclaimed, turning to Percy with the same bright, arrogantly charming smile he gave reporters when he was being interviewed for Time Magazine. "How'd your first day go?"

"What are you doing here?" Percy, who wasn't smiling in any definition of the word, asked rather bluntly. There should be a rule for parents who show up at their children's school unannounced. And that rule should be fairly simple in the case of Poseidon Irving: Don't.

"I came to pick you up from school, of course!" he said, signaling the empty hallway around him like he'd just declared that Christmas had come early and expected Percy to react accordingly.

"Well, gee, it's so nice of you to do this for the first time ever ten years into my schooling," Percy retorted dryly. He was hoping to avoid whatever father-son "bonding" awkwardness he had planned for the ride home. The last time Percy had been with his father in a confined space for any extended period of time, Poseidon had turned the conversation to fishing, which he seemed to believe was the only topic he had in common with his son. Except he didn't; Percy liked fish, not fishing, and the entire conversation had been a colossal waste of time and patience. He did not want a repeat of that anytime soon.

Poseidon shook his head at him, as if disappointed. "Don't be like that, son. You're always saying I don't spend enough time with you... well, here I am. I'm trying, here!" Moving forward to clasp a hand on Percy's shoulder, he lightly pushed him, trying to encourage him to walk toward the exit.

"I'd rather just go by bike," Percy insisted, planting his feet firmly and not moving an inch.

"You're going to have to go home eventually and then you'll have no choice but to talk to me," Poseidon pointed out smartly, and it was true, but Percy was very determined to delay that moment as much as humanly possible.

"Oh, you mean our home?" he returned, highlighting Poseidon's particular phrasing. He didn't get to talk like he was a part of their family. He wasn't. "Because as far as I remember, you live in a condo on the opposite side of the country."

"I'm trying to do you a favor here," Poseidon insisted. "Unless you're telling me you actually prefer pedaling for miles in the cold with a blanket of snow on the ground."

He preferred it to riding awkwardly in a car with his father, yes. Still, he was running out of arguments. He had to think of something quick, before he pulled the Mom card. "Actually, did you know that our carbon footprint has increased over 30% since the nineties?" he blurted out one of the random environmental facts Grover had shared with him at some point of the day. "Really, the responsible thing to do would be for me to go by bike, that way we produce only half the emissions."

"That's not really how it wo—" Poseidon started to debunk his latest excuse, but he was interrupted by his phone's ringtone (some calypso tune that was probably older than Percy). "Hello?" he said into the speaker as he put the phone to his ear. He listened to whoever was on the other line for a few seconds before putting a hand over the speaker and turning toward Percy again. "Okay, fine, go by bike if you want. I'll be having dinner with you guys anyway." He went back to his phone conversation as he walked down the hallway toward the main entrance of the school.

Percy watched him go. He knew he would have to sit at the table with Poseidon tonight and pretend to be polite for his mother's sake; there was no getting out of that. "What are the odds he gets picked up for talking on the phone while driving and gets thrown in jail, so I don't actually have to see him at home?" he muttered under his breath.

It had been a rhetorical question, so he wasn't expecting to get an answer. "Actually not very high. Elysium has no stoplights, let alone traffic cameras." Startled, he looked behind him to see the blonde girl leaning against the office's doorframe, with her arms crossed like she had been watching a mildly entertaining event unfold. She seemed amused at his wide-eyed look of surprise. "Issues with your dad?"

"That's an understatement," came Percy's answer. He couldn't believe this girl was actually talking to him just like that, and believe you him, his father was at the absolute bottom of the list of topics he ever wanted to talk about with a pretty girl.

"Yeah, I know the feeling." She unfolded her arms and took a couple of steps outside into the hallway, so she was standing closer to him. "Your name is Percy Jackson, right? Our new transfer from New York?"

"How do you know that?" he asked. He was pretty sure he hadn't had any classes with her that day— he would've noticed if he had. Whenever she was in his periphery his eyes strayed to her like a moth to a flame.

"It's a small school," she said with a short tilt of her head. "Was Professor Brunner giving you the 'Welcome to Greek Hill' speech? He doesn't get to do that often enough, so I'm sure he was excited about it," she finished with a dry chuckle.

"Yeah. Nothing I haven't heard before, though," he admitted with a shrug. "What about you? What are you still doing here? Everybody's gone home by now."

"Oh, my friends are waiting for me outside," she pointed out, signaling vaguely in the direction of the school entrance. "I had to sign up for a class. Someone dropped out of AP Physics and if I waited until tomorrow the spot could be snagged up by someone else."

Percy let out a whistle. "AP classes, wow. You must be really smart, huh?" Being just an average student, and one with ADHD and dyslexia on top of that, he'd be lying if he said that wasn't a little intimidating to hear. Still, he liked that he was learning new things about her even in their first (but hopefully not last) conversation. Knowing that she was as smart as she was beautiful only made him want to get to know her better.

She shook her head. "It looks good on college applications," she added by way of an explanation. If only she knew that only made her seem even smarter. Even though he was a junior, Percy had never even given college a thought. The extent of his academical worries came to completing the current school year; he'd worry about college when the time came, and not a minute sooner. "Um, I gotta go. If I don't go out soon, my friends will—"

"Annabeth!" came a voice from the far end of the hallway. Both of them turned to look in that direction, and just a couple of seconds later a person came running their way: it was the blond boy Percy had seen hanging out with her that morning. "Annabeth, are you done yet? Thalia's almost about to leave without you—" He cut himself off when he saw that the girl— Annabeth, it seemed— was not alone. "Oh. Sorry," he said, raising his hands in front of him as if emphasizing that his bursting into their conversation was an accident.

"She can't leave without me, it's my car," she answered the question with a roll of her eyes. "I'm almost done. Tell her to hold her horses, I'll be right out." The boy nodded in acknowledgment and, with one quick side-glance at Percy, turned around the way he came, presumably to relay the message.

The girl turned back to Percy. "So," he started, quick to start the conversation back up before she had the chance to tell him again that she had to leave. "Annabeth, huh?"

"Yeah. Annabeth Chase. It's nice to meet you, Percy Jackson." She smiled at him, and Percy felt his stomach do a somersault. He couldn't be sure yet, but he had a feeling smiles from Annabeth were a rare gift indeed. "I really have to go, though," she added a little sheepishly, and he understood he couldn't hold her back any longer. He could only hope they'd broken the ice and she wouldn't just ignore him for the rest of the school year.

She turned to walk down the hallway toward the exit, but after a couple of steps, she stopped and turned to look at him again. "By the way, I really liked how you put down Eustace this morning. He had it coming, he's a jerk."

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too," he replied with a shrug, allowing himself a small smirk. Normally he'd be against judging people based on the way they look, but then some people just love being walking stereotypes, and Eustace screamed "bully" from a mile away.

She chuckled. (Score another point for Jackson!). "You should have lunch with us some day." And, like that wasn't the most mind-blowing thing she'd said in their entire conversation, she turned and made her way down the hallway.

Percy's eyes stayed glued to her form as she walked away, and when she disappeared from sight he had to fight the urge to do a (highly embarrassing) happy jig.

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Author's notes!—

[1] Irving is an English/Scottish last name meaning "green water." Thought it was fitting. Also, Kevin McKidd, who played Poseidon in the first Percy Jackson movie, is Scottish. Yay double trivia! =D

[2] Mira means "sea, ocean" in Sanskrit. What can I say, nobody names their kid "Amphitrite" these days.

Hey, all! I hope you liked this first chapter. I actually finished the first "episode" of this story (directly based on the first episode of Everwood), and it got to be really long, so it'll be divided into three chapters. I'll try my best to post the second and third chapters within the next two weeks.

I have not started writing the second "episode" and for reference, this first one took me about a year and a half to write as it is, so I can't promise speedy updates after chapter three is posted. I'm a slow writer; when it comes to my stories, it's better to not expect updates at all and then be pleasantly surprised when a new chapter pops up out of the blue. Just bein' honest here. I hope you can understand that.

In any case, I'll be posting snippets and excerpts from anything I write on my Tumblr (girls-are-weird) so be sure to follow me there! I'll have chapter 2 up around this time next week, so please do tell me what you thought of this one, and what you think of this AU idea in general. Surely I can't be the only one around who loved Everwood, right? If you did, too, please tell me in a comment!

PS: If you're wondering "Where's [insert-character-here]? Why didn't you include him/her?!" then don't worry, most of your favorite characters will make an appearance in this story... eventually.