-Kurt-

I had seen the two seniors picking on the freshman, probably jealous that a freshman was as good as them. I tried to step in and help, but it didn't really go as well as I had planned. Sure, the kid had gotten away, but I had received a nasty punch in the face. I stumbled back and leaned against the wall, my face throbbing. They neared me and wound back again, about to punch me again. I closed my eyes, expecting another painful hit, but none came.

"He might not make you. But I will if you don't leave him alone." A voice said casually, as if it stood up to giant bullies on a daily basis. I looked up to find the Captain, Percy. I remembered Shania introducing me to him during lunch.

They laughed at him, even though he was the Varsity captain, they were taller with obtuse, bulging muscles. The second one wound his hand back and threw another wild punch at Percy again, but that one was stopped too. Holding the second guy's fist, Percy twisted his hand back and pushed him back. I could tell Percy was a lot stronger than he seemed to be. The first one growled angrily and tried to attack Percy from behind, but Percy was to fast and ducked out of the way, tripping him. He fell into a puddle of water that I was sure wasn't there 3 seconds before.

Behind him, Ugly #2 was back on his feet and rearing back to punch Percy in the back of the head. "Look out!" I screamed, trying to warn Percy, but he was to slow. He only had time to turn around, receiving the punch directly on the nose. I winced and closed my eyes, expecting to hear the loud crunch of his nose shattering, but nothing. I opened my eyes to see that Percy was only pushed slightly back, while Ugly #2 clutched his knuckle, looking as if he had tried to punch a brick wall. Percy kicked him backward and he tripped over what looked like a small wall of water. I blinked and the water was gone. On of the shower faucets had been turned on during the fight and water was spewing everywhere, soaking everyone. I shakily stood up, staring in awe at what Percy had done. He had easily beat two bigger guys and wasn't even bruised.

"Are you alright?" He asked, coming over to me looking quite worried.

I shook off the left over grogginess from being punched in the face. "Yep! Fine! All good."

He looked at me, smirking. "Yeah? Well your face says otherwise. Go look in the mirror before you decide if you're really alright." He lightly shoved me toward the mirrors while lightly laughing. I looked in the mirror and winced when I saw the angry, dark bruise covering my cheek. How on earth was I going to explain this to my mother? I looked back at Percy to see him laughing at my expression. "It's not that bad dude, it could've been worse."

"I know, I just don't know how on earth I'm to explain this to my mom." I shook my head, knowing I was in trouble. We walked out together, everyone else had already left, and talked nonchalantly about swimming. As we talked, my mind wandered back to the scenes that I'd seen. Percy getting punched directly in the nose, and obtaining no damage. Not having a single scratch or bruise on him. I looked at him, and also found that he was not wet whatsoever. We had been in the locker room showers and there was water everywhere, the shower had turned in and sprayed everything, and I had seen him walk through the shower spray. And yet, there wasn't a drop of water on him. I knew there was something going on, and I was going to find out what.

-Percy-

The rest of the week passed by with much less excitement. I had told Annabeth about what had happened in the locker room. At first she was afraid that they were monsters, but after checking them out more, we realized they weren't even bright enough to be Hyperboreans, let alone any real threat. There was no real action until Monday morning. Just as we pulled up to the school, we saw two harpies landing on the lawn near the back doors. There were no mortals around the back so we charged in. I pulled out Riptide and charged after the first one. She swiped at me with her claws, but I ducked and sliced upward, turning her into a shower of golden monster dust.

I turned to help Annabeth, but she was already stabbing it. She stood up clutching her arm. "Stupid bird scratched me." She explained. We sat down and pulled out our bag of ambrosia. I fed her some while I looked her cut over. I was a long gash on her forearm, not too deep but still painful. "I hate getting hurt." She pouted.

I laughed, of course Annabeth whined about being vulnerable and not the pain. "Come on, we can go to the nurse's and tell her you fell or something. We need to rap that up."

"Fine." She said grumpily as we marched up the stairs.

-First Period-

"Annabeth!" Shania ran up to us gaping at Annabeth's wrapped arm and bloody shirt. "What the hell happened?"

"Fell. On a rock." She replied stonily, hating the cover up story as it made her look clumsy. I had to stifle a laugh at her expression. "Shut up Seaweed Brain." She growled at me.

Shania looked between us, curious. "How did you get that nickname? Pretty unique."

Annabeth was more than happy to answer. Well since he's an idiot, but a good swimmer, I had deducted that his brain must be filled with seaweed." She smiled cockily at me.

"And her nickname is Wise Girl because she is a know-it-all." I grinned back at her.

Shania laughed at us before adding herself to our list of strange nicknames. "Not to outshine your weirdness, but my nickname is sometimes Refrigerator." We stared at her in confusion, wanting an explanation. "Really long, confusing story. Basically I told a joke when my friends and I were really tired where the punch line was refrigerator... And I was forever branded that. " She looked back at us barely containing her laughter. "I'll explain better at another time. There really is no logical explanation."

"Alright class let's begin!" The teacher called the class to attention and we began.

The rest of the day went by very well and I thought that maybe once, I had good luck. Maybe after fighting the harpies, Nemesis and Tyche had granted me good fortune for a day. Those hopes dissapeared when everything went horribly wrong when I got to 7th period.

Last Friday we had talked about the lab we would be doing today: Analyzing our own blood. Shania and I had been goofing off distractedly during class and not paying any attention whatsoever, so when I walked into class to find our lab stations set up with medical scalpels and microscopes, I knew I was in trouble. Getting a drop of my blood meant cutting me, and thanks to Achilles, that was now impossible.

"σκατά!" I muttered as I walked in and sat down.

Shania was already sitting down and looked over at me worriedly. "Is something wrong?"

I tried to think of an excuse for me to not be able to do this lab, but I had nothing. I stood up without answering Shania and made my way to the teacher. "Mrs. Lucian..." I hesitated unsure how to continue.

"What is it Percy? Whats wrong?" She asked when she saw my worried face.

"I can't do this lab."

Her face looked shocked for a millisecond before becoming stern. "And why on earth is that?"

"Because... Because I can't cut myself (quite literally too)... I'm... Scared of blood?" I said the last part not very convincingly, and it ended up sounding like a question.

"Really?" She said skeptically, not believing my story in the slightest. "Then how come you didn't come see me on Friday when I told everyone who wouldnt be able to cut themselves to. You didn't come get the sheet to sign by your parent to sign you out of the lab. You did none of this Percy, I'm sorry. There is nothing I can do, you'll have to do the lab."

"But I-"

"Percy." She interrupted. "You do this lab, or both you and your partner get an F on it. Although you may not care about your grade, your partner does." She then turned and left me standing idiotically and totally screwed.

"σκατά." I muttered again before going back to sit with Shania.