Chapter Text
It was a warm summer day. The sky was a bright blue and not a cloud was in sight. It was the kind of day where the heat was just the right amount of overbearing that the breeze didn't make you shiver, but also tepid enough to not make you want to jump into the nearest body of water. Though, in all honesty, Percy was probably going to do that anyway, no matter how mild the temperature.
He gazed into the polluted East River waters and debated if jumping in and risking contacting E. coli, or whatever disease lurked within the water, would be worth it if he got to take some of the garbage with him when he got out. How were people truly so lazy that they couldn’t even dispose of plastic properly? He wondered if they would feel the same if they were in the position of those poor fish who had to choke on their trash.
He twirled a lollipop in his hand and stared into the water for a few moments more. In the end he huffed and decided against it. Percy couldn’t give less of a crap about germs, but he didn’t want to make his mom have to help him get out all the dirt stains from his shirt if he did jump in.
Percy promised to come back next week, in some already dirtied clothes, and turned away from the rushing current with a longing look. He’d be damned if he didn’t attempt to help the local marine life sometime this summer before he was shipped off to whatever new boarding school awaited him in the fall.
Still fiddling with the lollipop, he wandered the streets of east Manhattan and hummed a tune he heard on the subway earlier. Today hadn’t been all too shabby. Gabe was knocked out on the couch and didn’t even twitch as Percy left the apartment earlier in the day, and he’d manage to get halfway across the town without any concerned adult inquiring about parent supervision. Not that it would’ve mattered, he could lie his way out of any situation, perks of being a born and raised New Yorker, but it would've been annoying for sure.
He didn’t really have any location in mind, and just wandered around aimlessly, looking for something to ease the thrum of energy throughout his body.
He rounded the corner and quickly crossed, ignoring some red faced driver cursing him out. He focused on the sounds around him and could make out the faint sounds of laughter and skeeching on concrete. His lips twitched upward as he picked up the pace.
It wasn’t his intention to visit today, since he had no clue if anyone he knew would be there, and he really didn’t want to bargain with any of the hardcore kids just to get a ride on their boards. But it wasn’t like he was going home either.
He slowly approached the small skatepark. Even the sign was worn, the benches were creaky, and the concrete was so cracked it had to be a skating hazard, but it was like home. Packed with other kids both his age and older, boys and girls alike, it was just the energy he needed.
Every summer, while his mom was stuck working and Gabe was busy dirtying up the apartment, he spent his days here. The people weren’t half bad, and there were even some chill people who would let him take their skateboards for a spin if he bribed them with his mom’s cookies.
Speaking of chill people–
“Leslie!” Percy shouted when he spotted that trademarked red hair.
A girl with strawberry blonde hair swiveled her head back and forth before her eyes settled on Percy and her face lit up with surprise.
Leslie waved some of the other teens off, chuckling when they spotted Percy and threw over their own greetings, before jogging over.
“Hey Perce,” she lightly ruffled the shorter boy's hair, ignoring the squawk of displeasure, “I didn’t know you back in the city? Thought you’d be stuck at that boarding school til July.”
Percy rolled his eyes, trying –and failing– to keep the grin off his face.. “I was supposed to be, but apparently blowing up your school bus isn’t exactly appropriate behavior,”
“Percy,” Leslie let out a groan, but he could tell she was only half serious. “You are elaborating on that later, yeah?”
Percy finally broke and let a grin spread on his face, already looking forward to catching up. “We’ll see, I gotta let the mystery simmer a little before revealing my tricks, y'know?” another thought crossed his mind and he let his smile fall a bit “Also, we hafta wait for the rest of the group to show up don’t we?”
Leslie’s nose scrunched up in the way that let him know she was conflicted and tried to plaster a smile on her face. “Not quite, we could all hang today if you’re up to it.”
“Huh? What– did Winter get expelled or something too?”
“Eh- not quite,” Leslie looked hesitant, “It’s an… interesting story. I’m sure he’d be glad to inform you all about it later, yeah?” She averted her gaze before Percy could gauge the emotion in her eyes, and he felt the hair on his arms stand.
Winter was another kid that hung around the park sometimes. He was closer to Percy’s age, but he stood out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the kids in the area. Most of the people that frequented the park wore battered clothes and rode banged up skateboards, but Winter’s clothes were bleach white, and his skateboard was brand new. Not to mention he smelled like flowers.
Percy didn’t care about the guy's excuses about ‘cologne’, the guy weirded him out a bit, but they were friends, albeit begrudgingly, and he didn’t like the sound of what Leslie was saying.
“Yeah,”
—
Leslie was quite a bit older than Percy. She graduated high school a few years ago and would've been in college if she hadn’t needed to take care of her younger brother. She was basically a sister figure to everyone who knew her, or at least to everyone who knew her and knew Percy.
But as the two weaved through the crowd of expressive kids and teenagers, chatting with a few friends here and there, she stopped to talk with an older girl Percy hadn’t met before. She was clearly a bit older than Leslie, and that caused him to tense a bit. Adults usually only entered the park for one reason, to get everyone else in trouble.
But they looked friendly enough and Leslie didn’t look in the least bit concerned –not that Percy trusted that because she came from the south where you were expected to be nice to everyone. He stayed on guard throughout the little interaction, startling when the older woman ruffled Leslie’s hair giving him a weird sense of deja vu.
That must’ve reminded her that he was watching because the teen chuckled and pointed him toward the tables on the edge of the park.
“I think I saw a head of blue hair over there, why don’t you say hi?” She gave Percy a playful nudge, and as he trailed off, the other woman gave the boy a small wave. Percy didn’t give one of his own, instead choosing to meld into the crowd.
Percy maneuvered through the crowd with considerably less grace than when he had Leslie by his side and scowled. He craned his head for any sight of familiar faces, as jerked to the side to avoid a flying elbow from nailing him in the head.
Then, in a startling assault of colors, greetings, and shoulder shaking, he was being pulled through the crowd towards a small clearing of grass.
After a rush of blue, red, and blonde, –and even more greeting and shoulder shaking– Percy found himself settled under a tree surrounded by banter and chatter. He combed a hand through his hair in a pitiful attempt to orient himself.
It helped that he was in a familiar place. Taking a glance at the tree, he could recognize the many engravings he carved there himself. And of course the many carved by the doofuses arguing in front of him.
Focusing on their conversation, Percy scrutinized the two idiots.
Aris, the girl with the navy locs that trailed down her spine, argued stubbornly with a mischievous grin on her face. She argued that Katniss was so obviously the stronger main character, and that any other opinion was invalid as they had clearly never read the books before, only watched those forsaken movies.
The other girl Romie, with cherry red hair and slightly grown out brown roots, scoffed, clearly taking the debate far more seriously than her counterpart. She stated that characters were irrelevant, all that mattered was the meaning of the books, and in that the giver obviously was better. Then, she rambled on about themes and used words that Percy didn’t even think were real before huffing and declaring that Aris had terrible taste.
And then the whole thing started all over again.
“Personally, I think Maze Runner’s better,” Percy turned to see shoulder length blond hair and icy blue eyes not even a bit shocked that they were both back in the city a whole 2 weeks before they should be. “But I think Romie would tear me apart if I dared voice such an opinion.”
Percy snorted. “Hell yeah she would, that girl does worse in school than even I do, but when it comes to literature she turns into the most bratty snob ever.”
Winter barked out a laugh and rested his head back on the tree.
On Percy’s other side, Romie, who must've been done ranting to Aris about her gripes of the Hunger Games, plopped down on the grass and soaked in the sun.
“I am not a snob. I just think some people get over confident in their opinions about modern writing!” She sent a pointed glare in Aris’ general direction, and pointed a chipped painted finger nail at Winter. “And don’t think I didn’t hear you. Maze Runner, seriously? There is hardly anything even dystopian about that book!”
Winter rolled his eyes. “Not everything has to be about deep meaning Rom. Gosh forbid a guy enjoys reading just for enjoyment.”
Percy found it hard to believe any of them enjoyed reading at all, considering they all had dyslexia, or well in Aris’ case a pair of bad eyes. He scrunched up his nose at the thought of picking up a book for anything other than school. Hell even for school was terrible.
He could tell Winter picked up on his sour expression from the snicker he heard, but he didn’t get a chance to rebut as Aris squeezed her way into their circle.
“Don’t even bother with that guy Rom. If you think I have terrible taste in dystopia, this guy is a dumpster fire of bad opinions,” She whispered the info as if it were confidential government secrets. “Also, who says gosh anymore? Are you stuck in the 1950’s or is that fancy European boarding school infiltrating your brain?”
Percy could've sworn he saw the blond shoot a panicked glance in his direction, but then Winter stuck out a tongue in an act of maturity and averted his gaze. “I’ll have you know that despite that school’s best try at ‘controlling’ me, they did not brainwash me. Honestly, I think you’re clearly out of your mind if you can’t see the wonders of the Maze Runner series.”
“And please tell, what are these magical things you speak of?” Romie interjected with a dry look.
Winter ignored her and continued on dramatically, “Maze Runner is a series full of dramatic ups and downs and tales of government control! It displays the ethical dilemmas of possible future societies, and warns readers of the idea of the greater good. It–”
“Oh come on! You just like it cause you think Dylan Obrein is hot!”
Winter sniffed and suddenly seemed extremely focused on their surroundings. “Well, his attractiveness is just a fact. And it in no way diminishes the greatness–!”
“Nope Nope Nope. Opinion invalid immediately,” Aris her arms up to make a giant X. “Dylan O'Brien is like… the mid-est of the millions of mid white boys you think are hot.”
Winter buffered at this, unsure of whether to argue against the insult against his celebrity crush, or to defend himself against the insult on his taste. In the end he just huffed and crossed his arms.
Percy laughed, and decided to fan the fire. “Damn, you really gonna let that slide?”
Winter groaned and flopped backwards on the ground to make a starfish. “Wow, like you don’t agree with me? The betrayal!”
“I mean, you do have like a million celebrity crushes dude.”
“See! Even Percy agrees!” Aris said , looking awfully smug.
Yeah, no way was he gonna let that happen.
“But!” He announced, interrupting Aris’s taunting. “I will say Dylan Obrien slander is not tolerated here!” Percy mimicked Aris’ earlier gesture, and made a giant X in the air.
“Ugh, whatever,” the blue haired girl furrowed her brows and eyes the two of them in disgust. “You guys have terrible taste.”
“No worse than your taste in dystopian novels, right?”
“I am not restarting this argument with you Romie!”
The boys shared a look and shook their heads as the girls continued to bicker about other meaningless things.
“They do this every year.”
“Yup”
“Every year! You would think they would run out of things to argue about, how do they do it?”
Percy snorted. “Aris likes pissing people off thats how”
Winter groaned, and Percy tried not to laugh. It was going to be a long summer.