Chapter Text
Look, Percy didn’t want to deal with time travel.
It’s something that so many mortal movies have shown is not something that should be messed with. Until just now, he was content with where his life was. He slept soundly, curled up in bed with the sounds of the sea playing from the radio WIll gifted him. It was a peacemaking present in response to what happened with Michael, which made a pain run through his heart. He hadn’t intended to get the son of Apollo killed on the bridge that day, at least that’s how it felt to him.
There were a lot of people whose death he felt like he could have prevented, Lee’s, Bianca’s, Zoe’s (and they had just started to at least somewhat become friends), Castor’s (even if they never talked, it was clear from the meetings that Pollux was broken up about it and Percy did feel really bad for him), and Michael (it was a greater blow as he himself had led to it to begin with).
All he wanted was the blessing to go back and fix it. But he shelved those thoughts for another day, and let the sounds of the sea continue to lull him to sleep. He wasn’t willing to let his hope for another chance get in the way of his peace.
When he woke up again, he found himself moving. His eyes shot open and he found himself on a bus. Looking around, he recognized some of his classmates from Chiron’s class. Right next to him sat his best friend, Grover Underwood. He felt bad for not catching up with him recently. Though this made him both confused and freaked out. What happened? Why was he back on the bus?
If his luck was anything to go by, his wish was likely granted. Percy frowned at the floor, that ment he had to relive all of those deaths again and had to look forward to the constant surveillance by Mrs.Dodds, or rather the fury, Alecto all day. All of which had to do with Nancy and a crime he didn’t commit.
“Grover, get up.” Percy whispered.
“Huh?” Grover asked, startled awake.
Percy sighed. He really wasn’t looking forward to dealing with this day again. They got off the bus and Percy kept an eye out for Nancy. She was predictably acting well behaved for most of the exhibits, though there were some girls talking behind him. Since he actually wanted to learn more about what he was dealing with, he was paying attention to what Chiron had to say.
“Can you plea-” He was about to talk when he got interrupted.
“Mr. Jackson?” He heard Mrs. Dodds ask, “Eyes forward please. It’s rude to not listen to the teacher when you’re supposed to be learning.”
Percy sighed for what wouldn’t be the first time that day and turned around, ignoring the snickering from the kids behind him. At least Nancy hadn’t become completely intolerable yet. But Percy predicted that would change very quickly now that he was in trouble with Alecto already. She was always itching to get him in trouble. She actually reminded him much of Clarisse, who he couldn’t wait to see again.
Sure they might not be friends in any sort of capacity, but a familiar face that was someone he might be able to fight back against would be nice. Plus dealing with her was easy the first time, as long as she didn’t also have her memories back. But from the way Grover and Chiron were acting, it looked like it was just him.
As expected, Nancy started up as soon as they reached one of the last few exhibits before lunch.
She started by throwing a bit of a peanut butter sandwich at Grover’s hair. Percy turned to Nancy, already annoyed from all his incoming years of experience that seemed to have stayed in his head.
“Would you cut that?!” Percy asked her.
But Nancy just laughed and made herself look innocent. “But I did nothing wrong.” She replied.
“Yes, you did. I saw you throwing that peanut butter sandwich of yours at Grover. Cut it out.” Percy argued back.
“Is there a problem, Mr.Jackson?” Chiron questioned.
“Not at all, Ch- I mean, Mr. Brunner.” Percy replied.
Chiron didn’t look convinced but Percy just looked down as Chiron eyed him for a bit before shaking his head and the disguised centaur resumed his lecture. Something was telling him he may have messed up already and they haven't even gotten to lunch time yet.
Percy was tempted to just tune everything out
“On that happy note, it’s time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?” Chiron questioned.
Finally outside, Percy led Grover far away from the others.
“You alright dude?” Grover questioned.
Percy nodded, “Yeah.” He didn’t feel the need to elaborate further. Instead he made the choice to wait his time for when Mrs.Dodds would call him away. There, he would send her back downstairs and deal with her again when the time came.
Nancy walked over, and just like last time, dumped her food right in Grover’s lap.
“Oops.” She said with a smirk.
Percy had to bite his tongue but clearly not well enough as he felt his hand jerk forward and when he regained a cooler head, Nancy was doused in water like last time. Also like last time, he had hardly moved a muscle. But that was just the trick of the mist.
“You pushed me!” Nancy exclaimed.
“Yeah, well you dropped food on Grover. That wasn’t exactly nice, Bobofit. Not to mention, you stole from those tourists over there.” Percy replied, yeah he caught that too, at least last time.
Nancy went red in the face as Mrs. Dodds appeared next to them.
“Percy Jackson” She said, “come with me now, I think we need to have a talk about your behavior.” Yep, the tone in her voice indicated that she was pissed.
“Wa-” Percy stopped Grover.
“Dude, she’s not gonna believe you.” He replied. He got up and walked over to Mrs. Dodds, who was now waiting at the entrance.
He walked in behind her, with her walking way faster than he could keep up with and followed her to the Greek and Roman exhibit.
“Now, Perseus,” Mrs. Dodds started, “you’ve been causing us quite the trouble. It was only a matter of time before we found you out little thief.”
She turned into her terrifying fury form. Right on cue, a voice came from behind him.
“Percy!”
Turning around behind him, Percy saw Chiron wheel his way in and threw Riptide right at him.
“Thanks!” Percy exclaimed, turning to swing right at Alecto as she dove right at him. She turned to dust and he turned back to where Chiron had been and he was gone.
"Of course." He muttered. Percy wondered how much of a headache he could prevent for himself just beelining straight to camp.