Homecoming

"Addie," my stepmom yells, "clean up your room, your brother is coming home today!"

" Percy likes it messy," I reason with her.

" Percy might like it messy, but I'm pretty sure Annabeth doesn't."

That shut me up. Percy Jackson, the almighty world savior, my stepbrother, the numskull, was home again from camp for his sophomore year in high school, and he might be coming home with his girlfriend!

As I try to remove the clutter on what is supposed to be my bed, I think of Annabeth. She's a child of Athena, really clever, like genius, Einstein clever. My three main reasons for liking her are: one, she is intellectually competent (an understatement really) unlike my brother; two, she always puts my brother in his place by punching him or kicking his butt; and three, she invented the nickname Seaweed Brain, which is the most useful nickname whenever my brother gets overly annoying. I've only seen Annabeth once, when she and Thalia met up at our place to go to Westover Hall, and I agree with my mom that she's the most level-headed demigod ever to hit the eighth grade. Okay, screw that thought, she's the most level-headed demigod ever, which is why I'm working hard on being her friend.

Once I'm finished with my bed, I move over to my dump of a desk. I start randomly chucking things out when suddenly, I come across an empty jar of peanut butter. I am reminded of Tyson, Percy's half brother, a Cyclops who sometimes gets a break form the forges under the sea and comes to have a peanut butter and monopoly marathon with me. Hopefully, he'll come home with Percy to keep me company while my brother sucks face with Annabeth.

I am jostled out of my thoughts when the doorbell rings. I run out to open the door eagerly.

There stands Percy, looking as happy as one can get after saving the world from titan domination. His face breaks into a cheesy grin as I step forward to hug him.

"Hey Ugly," he says, ruffling my mousy hair.

I push him away, scowling. Ugly is his old nickname for me, just because my dad was Gabe Ugliano. I hate it when he calls me that. Seriously, I really need to pester mom a bit more into letting me change my nickname into Jackson.

"I am not ugly," I sniff, "is there too much kelp in your brain to process what you actually see, Seaweed Brain?"

My super annoying older brother with kelp for his brain laughs, "Oh right, you're not ugly, you're hideous."

I punch him, but immediately draw back my hand in pain because I had punched something as hard as granite.

"Ow," I glare at him.

He grins triumphantly, "River Styx, remember?"

Stupid, idiotic, invulnerable big brothers.

"Oh!" I exclaim, and push past him.

Percy is surprised at my sudden change of mood. He obviously thought that I was going to yank at his hair next.

I look out of the doorway, "Where's Annabeth? I thought you were going to bring your girlfriend home to see if she passes the little sister test."

Percy flushes a deep tomato red, which really compliments his sea-green eyes in my opinion. I smirk.

"Annabeth's gone back to San Fran to visit her family," Percy says.

My smirk goes down a bit, "So it's just you?"

It is Percy turn to smirk now, "No, Nico's visiting."

Okay, I am utterly, thoroughly, completely, totally disappointed. No Annabeth, not even Tyson to bring up some peanut butter eating competition.

"Nico, Nico di Angelo?" I ask sullenly, even though I already know the answer.

"Yep!" replies Percy brightly. Sick, sadistic pig.

Percy knows that I am not a fan of Nico di Angelo. He constantly (okay, always) wears black; owns a mop of greasy black hair; has this black sword which makes the air grow colder with its presence; radiates death and gloominess; and destroys whatever happy mood in the apartment whenever he visits. Huh. Nico di Angelo freaks me out, which is why I feel frostbite near my chest when he comes out of the fire escape route.

"Hey Addie," he says in a bored tone

"Hey Nico," I reply in the same monotonous voice, avoiding looking at the slimeball he calls his hair all the while.

"Percy?" my mom calls out from the kitchen.

"Yeah, I'm home mom," Percy says.

My mom bustles out of the kitchen and hugs him.

"I see you've saved the world again," she says.

"And managed to stay alive despite your kelp-filled brain," I add.

Mom gives me The Look.

"What? He's the son of the sea god, he's supposed to have kelp for brains," I point out.

Mom turns to Nico.

"Hey Nico," she smiles, "are you coming in to have some tea?"

"No, he's here to sollect a lost soul, duh," I mutter.

Mom gives me The Look. Again. She ushers Nico in, tells him and Percy to go wash their hands, settles them down, and brings out some blue chocolate chip cookies and milk.

"So, what did you do this summer, apart from saving the world?" I swear, she's talking to them like they're first-graders coming home from the first day of school.

Percy and Nico start talking about their life at camp. How they're building some new cabins for demigods whose parent is not one of the twelve major Olympians and how camp was getting more and more half-bloods each day. Nico then tells us how Percy still got his backside singed while climbing the Firewall. Percy recounts on how Nico got bowled over and slathered in saliva by Mrs. O'Leary and how Juniper turned literally green with jealousy when she saw Grover talking to a neighboring dryad. We all laugh.

Paul comes home and joins us for spaghetti and meatballs. Percy and Nico tell Paul how cool he was when he went wham, slash, thunk during the Battle of Olympus, which I didn't participate in because I was too busy being under Morpheus' spell in the library. I am a little jealous, and start internally cursing stupid brothers and their inability to ask their sisters to join in the fun while something exciting happens.

After dinner, Nico leaves via the fire escape route for the gloomy underworld. We sit down next to the couch and watch Grey's Anatomy whilst playing Monopoly like any other family. At one point, mom gets up to get us some blueberry ice-cream – which is not blue, but purple – for dessert. I don't think I have felt this happy since our vacation to Montauk in the beginning of summer.

Finally, after three hours of Grey's Anatomy, Percy and I get ready for bed. We pull our pillows and blankets out to the living room, shape them up into comfortable beds, and lie down. We've been doing this every weekend for as long as I remember. Mom and Paul help us switch off all the lights and then retreat to their room.

I turn to Percy.

"Hercules?" I ask.

"Hercules," he affirms.

We spend the rest of the night laughing our heads off at how ridiculous Hades looked with vampire teeth and flaming blue hair, ranting about how smelly Gabe's underwear was, and debating whether Percy would get kicked out of school again next year.

Life was good.

Well, first story by an inexperienced fan fiction writer. Constructive criticism welcomed.