Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted a story in forever. I'll try to be more regular from now on.
"The pine tree bead," Percy said. "Is that from your first year?"
I looked at my necklace, realizing I had been subconsciously rubbing it.
"Yeah," I said. "Every August the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and the paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress-now that was a weird summer…"
"And the college ring is your father's?"
"That's none of your-"I stopped. Don't be rude, I told myself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."
"You don't have to tell me."
"No…it's okay." I drew in a shaky breath. I hated talking about my family. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. THe ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her… That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."
"That doesn't sound so bad."
"Yeah well…" I really didn't want to talk about this, but too late now. "The problem was at Percy. True, I was annoyed that he had brought the subject up, but I was mainly an, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood."
"You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?" Percy didn't even realize how lucky he was to have a mortal parent who loved him.
I didn't look at him. Why did he have to bring this up? "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."
"You shouldn't give up," he said. "You should write him a letter or something."
And you should write a book on family relationships, I thought. "Thanks for the advice," I said coldly, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with."
We passed a few more miles in silence, but I was fuming. Not necessarily at Percy,but because I was remembering my dad… the way he read his engineer books to me as a bedtime story… Whatever. I didn't care. I was over it.
"So if the gods fight," Percy broke the silence, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"
I put my head against my backpack and closed my eyes, emotionally drained. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you."
"Why?"
"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"
He didn't say anything else. I started thinking that maybe he wasn't as bad as I had thought. In fact, I suddenly realized that I had a crush on him. But I didn't say anything either. We had had enough of a heart-to-heart conversation already, so I drifted off to sleep to the gentle bumping up and down of the zoo truck.
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