Annabeths POV

I woke up and looked beside me. nope, still no Percy. He'd been away every since the twins were 4. Now, 10 years later, the 2 of them couldn't even remember him. I could hear them, running around out in the hall. I heard something smash, and the girl, Madi, yelled." Brandon! you broke ANOTHER vase! You are gonna get into so much trouble!" I rolled my eyes. Brandon had broken another one. that was the tenth one this week. I was gonna have to bawl him out, AGAIN.I got dressed and went to the kitchen. Brandons face paled as he stuttered out excuses.

"Brandon, Accidents happen. I'll clean it up"

He looked so releived. I only noticed because he always broke something, either a plate or a vase. Madi came in with a bowl of something. "What's wrong mom? You look troubled." I always was relieved she inherited my brains.

"It's nothing, Madi. I'm fine."

Brandon rolled hid eyes. "Madi, she always get's like this near our birthday. Haven't you noticed that after 10 years?"

"Well, Brandon, sympathetic people would ask anyway."

Oh, so, I'm not sympathetic?

"well..."

"Oh, I'm gonna get you for that."

He took some dried food off the table, Took a spoon, and flicked it at her.

"Hey!" She launched herself at her twin brother. they wrestled for a while until I broke them apart. "What is wrong with you two?" I asked. They pointed at each other. They always had to blame each other. I thought it was hilariuos sometimes, but sometimes it just mad me mad. I set them apart. I sat down with Brandon. I planned on asking why he and his sister never got along,but before I could say anything, He began to talk

" Before you start to interrogate me, I'm gonna say this in self defense. I don't have any friends accept for one. And he's got something wrong with his legs. Muscular distrofy, right? I have ADHD and I never knew my father. Make sense that I don't get along with Madi?"

I actually found myself agreeing with him. What he was saying was making sense, but that wasn't going to stop me.

"Brandon, you have to learn to get along with her. One day, your going to realize that you need her. And when that day comes, you'd best be freinds." He looked like he was going to argue, but I stopped him. "Just get along with her" After I was done, I went to Madi, and she started to sat things like," Brandon is a dummy" or,"I hate him" or,''Can't you send him to military school?"

"Madi,theres nothing wrong with Brandon. He's just a troubled kid, and you don't exactly help him."

"So your blaming me?"

"No, I'm just saying you should get along with him" I left to go to work. I hoped that the house wouldn't burn down.

Brandons POV

I was still wondering about what mom had said "you need her more than you think"

"Yeah right" I thought. "If anything I need to stop being so hard on me." Even though we usually got along pretty well, When push came to shove, neither of us would back down. sometimes I wished I was an only child. Madi always put me down. I wanted her to go away. She came up to me.

"Why does Mom always take your side?"

"I don't know"

"She never, once that I can rememeber, took my side"

"so what's your problem?"

"never mind"

She said down beside me and turned on the TV. She flipped through the channels. I could hear something rumbling, but I ignored it. It began to get louder.

"Do you hear that?" I asked.

"hear what?"

"Never mind" It got louder. It was beginning to freak me out. Madi probably thought I was crazy. She was too busy watching some kind of comedy. Then it got so loud, I couldn't even hear the TV. I turned to her.

" you must of heard that"

She was looking a little freaked out.

"yeah, I did"

"what was it?"

"You think I'd know that?"

We listened A little longer. Then something smashed. Then someone screamed. Then something, huge, came thundering up the stairs. I turned to Madi.

"that didn't sound good"

"What do you think it is?"

"If I knew, Madi, I'd probably run away screaming"

It sounded like it was thundering down the hall. It was so close, I swore I could smell it was, it smelt so bad, I thought I'd pass out. Then, for like, 20 minutes, nothing happened. All of the sudden, the door splintered under the weight of something. And a giant tiger thing , maybe 8 feet tall. stepped in.

"So,It said This is the lair of the Jacksons"