Annabeth hated moving. But ever since her parents divorce, her and her dad had been doing it more often. They had slowly moved farther and farther away from her mother who was all the way back in California. Here she was stuck as the new kid once again in some random school in Manhattan while her mom was living her dream back home without them.
Annabeth hated lots of things. She hated lawyers who had finalized the divorce. She hated her new step-mother who was trying to replace her mom. She hated her half-brothers because they were proof her parents were over. She hated her father for not fighting and trying harder to convince her mother not to do this. She knew if he had tried he could have prevented all of this! But he didn't care enough to try that hard! Now she just did what she was told and tried to be normal because even if she sometimes hated her dad for not trying hard enough she still didn't want to lose him.
Maybe, she though to herself sometimes late at night when there was nothing and no one to be angry at, if she wasn't so much of a freak her mother wouldn't have wanted to leave and wouldn't have pushed her and her father away. Maybe if she wasn't so freakishly smart and didn't attract bullies like lights attract moths her mom would have loved her enough to stay. Maybe if her eyes weren't such a wierd ugly color, grey, her mom would have thought she was pretty enough for her to love. Maybe if she wasn't so afraid of spiders her mom would have thought she was brave and deserved a parent.
Percy loved his life and only wished others could share in his good fortune. He had a great mom, a great dad, and a great step-dad. Things hadn't always been this good but Percy knew every life had it's downs. After his dad cheated on his mom Sally got married to a nice man named Gabe. But after the marriage he turned out to be not so nice. For years Percy had to deal with threats, abuse, and his step-dads alcoholism.
He came to thrive off the danger. He didn't know why but he liked it. He didn't do it when his mom was home because he didn't want her to get hurt but sometimes he would purposefully get Gabe angry just because he wanted to fight. Because of Gabe Percy discovered his wild side, his love of danger, and absolute disregard of rules and his own safety. But then Gabe was arrested for something he did, Sally would never tell him what it was but Percy jad his suspicions, and Paul came along to help his mom through it. It was wierd with Paul being one of Percy's students but Paul was good for Sally and that's all that really mattered. So when Percy got his second step-dad he was glad it was Paul.