All at Sea

09: The 'It' Crowd

Content Warning ➙ homophobic speech; slurs


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Percy would have thought that such a prestigious private school would breed class and maturity in their students. Percy was wrong, very wrong.

When she walked into the bustling classroom, the students seemed to hush on cue. She noticed the uninterested glances the boys of the class threw her way before going back to their business, the sleeves of their pressed collared shirts were rolled up haphazardly--maybe in an attempt to look tougher, which was completely undone by their designer bags--and they continued to talk in deepened voices and rub at the whispy hairs growing on their chins. A group of girls sat near the back of the class with obnoxious highlights streaking their hair; sharp eyes outlined in whispy eyeliner looked down upon Percy and her wrinkled uniform skirt. They glanced at her briefly when she walked in, only to turn back and giggle among not-so-hushed whispers.

Percy had entered the school property fifteen minutes before, wearing a freshly ironed set of the uniform. Her old black Jansport backpack was littered with pins from scattered events in her adolescence that she refused to part with, Bruce had offered to buy her a new bag, but as a final act of rebellion, she chose to keep it despite the tearing. Within those fifteen minutes, every Wayne member managed to disappear under the fluorescent lighting and she had somehow gotten a couple of dozen scoffs and side-eyed looks.

To be truthful, she didn't mind the looks--it was eight-thirty in the morning, she wouldn't have minded if somebody ran her over--but when her homeroom teacher made her introduce herself, it crossed a line. Thickly framed glasses fell onto the teacher's plump cheeks when the woman gave a clearly insincere smile and directed Percy to the front of the room.

"I'm Percy--" she started, picking at the ends of her red tie before she was interrupted.

"We don't support nicknames here. If you will, please introduce yourself correctly," the woman said with a honeyed voice. Her smile was starting to look more like a sneer.

"My name is Persephone, and--"

"Full name, please."

"Persephone Andromeda Jackson-Wayne," an annoyed glare followed her pointed statement and she continued, "I like skateboarding, I guess."

Percy left no room for interruptions as she slouched in on herself and walked towards the chair she'd been told was hers. Tossing her bag loudly onto the polished floor, she sat on the chair, giving the teacher an equally fake smile, resting her chin on her hand. The teacher (whose name Percy was still trying to decipher from the squiggles on the schedule the office lady had given her) had halfheartedly started teaching a lesson while Percy halfheartedly doodled the teacher's graphic death in her notebook.

"Looks like the Waynes adopted another freak," came a whisper a couple of seats back.

"I thought she could be interesting when I was watching that press release, but when she insisted on that stupid fucking name... ugh," another girl whispered.

"And a boy's name, no less. I bet she's a dÿke," the first girl whispered back, interrupting herself to raise her hand obnoxiously and call for the teacher's attention. "Miss? I remember this lesson from last year, why are we going over it again?"

"Well, you're right, I don't think we should be reviewing this again, but we're in... mixed company," the teacher responded, shooting a nasty glare towards the more pigmented kids throughout the class. "Last year's class was much easier to get through to."

The dialogue felt stiff, like a rehearsed code to insult everyone at once, their lack of subtlety was almost equally as offensive as what they were saying.