I thought I knew my past. But I was so wrong.
"Miss. Allrin, that was for you. Mrs. Jaspen needs to see you in her office." My teacher told me, as he hung up the phone. I was in Math class and happy for the interruption even if I was a little worried about what it was about. I thought about why the headmaster might want to see me, all the way to the office.
By the way my name is Lariece Allrin. I'm an orphan. I live in an all girls orphanage in Pennsylvania. Now don't go getting all that pity everywhere, because I don't want it. Whenever people find out that I don't have parents they act like I'm not normal or like I'm different from them. But I'm the same as any other kid, or at least I thought I was.
I entered the office and closed the door softly behind me. Mrs. Jaspen was there with a man in a suit I didn't know. He was wearing a hat, but I could see some of his curly brown hair sticking out from under it. He was probably in his early thirties, of normal height. He was in a suit which must have been really uncomfortable because he kept squirming in it.
"Miss. Allrin, thank you for joining us." Mrs. Jaspen said when I took a seat across from her and the strange man. He was looking at me, studying me but not in a bad way.
"Miss. Allrin, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." The man said standing and reaching across the large desk to shake my hand. "My name is Mr. Underwood. I'm your case worker person; I hope we can get to know each other better." He said sitting back down.
"Mr. Underwood and I were just talking about sending you to a new home: nothing too different from here but there might be more kids… similar to you." Mrs. Jaspen said with a smile. She was nice, but I hated her smile; she used it at all the wrong times. By "similar to me" she meant different. I wasn't the classic kid, by any definition; strange things happened whenever I was around. Not to mention I was two grades ahead of the rest of the thirteen year olds.
"If you pack up your things we can leave this afternoon. It takes a few hours to get there and we have a stop on the way but we should get there before eight." Mr. Underwood said nodding like he was really excited.
"Uh so I'm leaving?" I ask dumbfounded.
"Yes, as soon as possible, but Mr. Underwood says that he's shore that you'll be much happier at the new place. Give it a chance." Mrs. Jaspen said smiling again.
"Um okay, I guess I'll go pack." I said, getting up from my chair. "I'll be down in half an hour" I said leaving the room. I headed up to my room on the third, above all of the school rooms.
As I got to the bottom of my drawers, I looked at the pictures there. There were two. One of me when I first came to this home and the other was of my parents. I didn't know them, they both died when I was only a baby. No one has ever found where they were buried or if they had any family, because all anyone knows of them is that I have a picture of them. I packed the two pictures away, pausing to look at their faces, for the millionth time.
When I got to the office, Mr. Underwood was waiting outside of it standing there with his keys in his hands.
"Let's go!" He said, practically bouncing with excitement. I wondered what was so great about taking some kid to an orphanage. I thought it was better not to ask.
As we got in the car I waved to the few friends who had come to see me off. They weren't good friends; we weren't close. So I rolled up the window and looked ahead as the engine started and we drove away from my old life.
The ride was silent; no radio, no talking. Until Mr. Underwood started a conversation I'd dreaded.
"So… what do you know about your parents?" He asked calmly, not meeting my eyes. I could tell he didn't want to ask the question almost as much as I didn't want to be asked it.
"Well, I have a picture-"
"YOU WHAT?" He said slamming on the breaks. Once my neck recovered from the stop, I looked behind us to make sure no one was going to rear-end us.
"Um… is that a problem?" I asked scared and still a bit jarred. I just then realized that I'd never told anyone about the picture, only Mrs. Jaspen had known, and she hadn't told anyone.
"Where is it? Does it have anything written on it?" He asked. The way he was talking you'd think we were talking about the key to saving the world not some picture of some orphan's parents.
"No it's just a picture. It's in my bag-" and before I could finish he was driving again with renewed speed. We were zipping along, thank goodness it was the middle of the work day and no one else was on the free way.
"As soon as we get to our stop you have to show me that picture." He said taking a sharp turn heading into New York City.
"Where are we stopping?"
"Your Grandmother's home" He answered looking me strait in the eye. He could only look for so long, as he turned again weaving through traffic like a pro. I could tell he was probably a New Yorker, so why would he have chosen some random kid from Pennsylvania's case?
I sat there silent for the rest of the ride thinking. It wasn't too long, but my thoughts were zooming. Who was she? What was she like? Would she be happy to see me? Would she love me? Would she tell me about my parents? Soon enough we reach our destination and parked in front of an apartment building.
I was scared, Mr. Underwood could tell; probably because I was shaking like a leaf. I was about to meet my Grandmother. For some who always accepted the fact that she has no one and is utterly alone, it's a big step. I was about to meet someone who might consider me family. I was in shock.
Ding. The elevator rang; opening. We stepped inside and Mr. Underwood pressed a button and the door closed. The elevator began moving.
"Mrs. Blofis, your grandmother, has been worried about you. For quite some time actually; well you and you parents." He said, while tapping his foot repetitively. It was getting annoying but I wasn't going to say anything since I was the one pacing back and forth.
The rest of the ride went silently, as did the walk down the hall and the wait at the door. When it was opened we were greeted by a woman in her early fifties with a pleasant smile and long brown hair with a few subtle gray streaks.
"Grover, How nice to see-" She broke off with a gasp as her eyes met mine. We both stood staring at each other. It made me think of those old western movies where the two gun-slingers would stand waiting, staring at each other, until "high noon" when they would have a shoot off.
"Come inside." She finally broke the silence, holding open the door and stepping aside to let us past. All the while, she watched me, looked me over.
"Is it her?" She asks once we sat down at a table in what must have served as a dining room/kitchen.
"I'm not sure but she says she has a picture. She has it here." Mr. Underwood said nodding at me. It annoyed me, how they were talking like I wasn't there so I pulled out the picture they both wanted to see so badly and laid it down on the table.
It probably would have been more dramatic, except for the fact that the picture was face down. I quickly flipped it over and heard both Mr. Underwood and Mrs. Blofis gasp. I studied their faces. Mrs. Blofis had a hopeful expression while Mr. Underwood had a sad yet fond look, like he was remembering happy memories. It was me who broke the silence.
"Who were they?" I asked. I looked at the picture with them; they were still staring. The guy was about 25, with dark hair and green eyes. The girl was about the same age, 25, with blond hair and piercing grey eyes.
"They're your parents." Mr. Underwood said.
"You have Percy's eyes, and Annabeth's blonde hair." Mrs. Blofis said looking back up at me. "Percy, your father, is my son. Annabeth has family in San Francisco." She added.
"So are they dead or will I get to meet them?" I asked. I'd been holding that question away all my life. I'd never for a second let myself even begin to hope that I would ever see my parents. Hope would only get crushed, and that was pain I didn't need. Now as I sat here with my newly discovered family I was filled with hope; and with that hope came tears. I broke down and sobbed, tears falling down my face like rain. I'd never cried like that; it was complete and total, like I could lose myself in the tears and sobs if I didn't stop. But I let them fall as Mrs. Blofis went on.
"They aren't dead. At least we know that Percy isn't. Last time I heard neither was Annabeth. But we don't know where they are." She said reaching over to grasp my hand. She glanced at the clock on the oven in the corner and sighed. "You two should get going" she said turning to Mr. Underwood. "Chiron will be expecting you."
"Right, let's get going." He said standing up from his chair. "Bring the picture I'm sure Chiron will want to see it."
We said our goodbyes and I managed to stop crying. We headed back down in the elevator, still in silence. We got into the car and I put my picture away. The car ride was also silent, the noiseless void filled with thought. They were thoughts of my parents and my grandmother. Thoughts of the place I was going and who this Chiron was.