Disclaimer: I own nothing, Uncle Rick rules this universe, if I ruled it BoO would have ended much differently. Chapter updated June 2020.

Chapter 1: Grover

Grover and Percy had their first, awkward conversation on move-in day as they stared at each other from across the room. It was the day before classes started at Yancy Academy. The first thing Grover learned about Percy was that he had a strong New York accent. Surprisingly, no one directly teased him about it because several other kids had one, too. Not all the students were shipped here by their parents out of their home states. Nancy Bobofit's accent was lesser than Percy's, but she would tease him about the occasional word every once in a while, until he would bring up a word she never said "right" either and that would be that. Grover never realized Percy was self-conscious about it until sometime after the Mrs. Dodds incident, when the two friends were talking about their plans for the future. Grover said he wanted to travel the world and Percy informed him that he had never been out of the New York area.

"What, really? You've been to New Jersey, I hope. Good gardens there."

"Of course I have! I just haven't been much farther than that is all," Percy responded, a bit embarrassed. "Plus, if I ever leave Manhattan, I want to hide my accent. Here I can blend in pretty well with everyone else from New York, but I don't like people having another reason to isolate me besides my ADHD and dyslexia."

Grover was taken aback with this revelation. "Are you able to speak with a west coast accent?"

Percy gave him a small grin before speaking in a perfect west coast American accent, "Yeah, I can and I might start speaking this way wherever I end up next because I'll have a fresh start." Grover's jaw dropped.

"You've been practicing! That was perfect!"

Percy laughed and gave a small bow.

After waking up enough to almost hold onto his own glass, Percy and Grover finally got to talk again after Percy defeated the Minotaur. They started to walk towards Mr. D and Chiron and Percy informed Grover he would start hiding his accent from now on. Of course, Grover knew Chiron would be there and because he had taught Percy for the last year, he knew about his accent, but Grover doubted Chiron would say anything. It would be the last time Grover heard Percy's New York accent for quite a while.

AN: (Review please!) So I have this headcannon that Percy is actually self conscious about his accent and no one really knows about it. I hope I do justice for this idea. I was fascinated with this a few days ago but not many people have written about it, so I decided to take a stab at it. I'm trying to explain the deeper things behind Percy wanting to hide his accent because I have always felt that Percy has more layers than just the two we see in the books, and it will be in more detail next chapter with Annabeth.