Hey! So I currently don't want to write the next chapter for this story, so I rewrote the first one. Hehe. Hehe. So...enjoy?

I kidnapped Percy to be my Disclaimer minion. Do it Percy.

Percy: Do I have to?

Me: Yes you do, get to it now

Percy: *sighs loudly* Fine, Sophie does not own PJO. Or this piece of awesomeness right here. *gestures to self*

Annabeth POV

"Annie!" Thalia yelled up the stairs. I groaned and buried my head in the pillow. I'm Annabeth Chase, and I live in a foster home. Piper McLean's mom and dad, Tristan and Aphrodite McLean, run it, and they have six kids in total, including their own, Piper, who apparently 'hates' fashion but still has several piles of fashion magazines in her desk drawers. We have Leo Valdez, who's a total pyro, Jason Grace, Thalia's younger brother, Thalia, who has this weird obsession with Barbie guillotines, Nico di Angelo, who's a total emo and likes to hide in his room blasting heavy metal, and me.

"Get up!" Thalia yelled, barging into my room. I groaned again and pulled my pillow over my head. "Go 'way Thals. Still tired."

"Annie! Did you forget already? We're getting a new kid today! Come on, do NOT tell me you forgot or major asskickery will commmence in your room." Thalia said, picking up the book I had started last night. "To Kill a Mockingbird?"

"Yes, there will be major asskickery. I will be kicking your ass out of my room. Get. Out. Still. Tired. Want. Sleep. Wait...did you say new kid?" I blinked. We hadn't gotten anyone new since...Leo, two years ago. I had assumed Mom was done.

Thalia grinned. "Yup! And Mom's making pancakes, so hurry UP or else I will eat your share and then the new kid's share just for good measure. Get. Up. Now. Or. Else. I. Will. Get. The. Chainsaw."

I was out of bed in a flash. "Not the chainsaw, Thalia. Remember what happened last time?" Vivid memories flashed through my head and I shuddered. "That must never happen again."

"It will happen again if you don't get your sorry butt down the stairs and into the seat. And there will be no pancakes. Or cookies. Do you want your cookies? No. There will be no BACON." Thalia threatened. I gasped.

"No! Not the bacon! I will do what you ask of me, O Great and Mighty Thalia. Just GIVE ME MY BACON!" I yelled, sliding down the banister and landing on my feet at the bottom. "I need my BACON! Must have BACON!"

"Calm down Annie," Piper yawned, emerging from her room with her brown hair disheveled but still perfect-looking. How she does it is a mystery to me, but I don't care. "Mom's making bacon. Just don't eat it all or else I will hire Thalia."

"I'm not for hire!" Thalia huffed, coming down the stairs after me. "Unless you pay me in bacon?"

"Who's paying what now in what?" Jason muttered sleepily, coming out of his room and rubbing his eyes. "And...did someone say bacon?"

"Ooh, bacon? Where?" Leo asked, his head popping out from behind his door. "I want it!"

"You guys are losers," Nico called from the kitchen door. "The bacon is mine!"

"MY BACON!" I yelled, sprinting towards the kitchen with Jason and Leo on my tail. Piper and Thalia were right behind us. I snatched the platter of bacon that was ready and stuffed a piece into my mouth. "Ba. Con."

Aphrodite came out from behind the stove with another tray of bacon and a plate of pancakes. "Don't eat it all now. We still need some for our new kid, okay?"

Thalia shrugged, taking a handful of bacon and stuffing it into her mouth. "I make no promises. Especially when it comes to bacon."

"Neither do I," I mumbled through a mouthful of bacon. "My. Ba. Con."

Aphrodite sighed and rolled her eyes, somehow still managing to look pretty. Leo took a pancake and took a bite. Piper came in too, rubbing her eyes, and picked up a piece of bacon, stuffing it into her mouth. I growled and scooped a giant pile of bacon towards me. "MINE."

Aphrodite sighed again. "Dad's gone to pick him up, and I need you all to be nice, okay? No fighting. He's...been through a lot, so don't push him, got it?"

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, Mom." Aphrodite had said the same thing when getting Thalia and Jason, and Thalia and Jason had ended up starting all of the fights. Well, mostly Thalia. Jason had tried to break them up. Most of them.

I ate half the plate of bacon until my bacon cravings were finally satisfied and bounded upstairs, throwing my closet door open and ignoring the weird-looking sundress Mom had forced me to buy and wear for that one weird outing to the beach. The memory still gave me goosebumps.

I changed into shorts and a T-shirt and brushed my teeth. I was just getting started on brushing my hair when the front door opened. I raced downstairs, the brush still stuck in my tangled blond curls, and Dad entered with a small duffel bag.

"That...that's it?" Piper looked like she was ready to go into anaphylactic shock. "Thta's all? Who-who could live with so little clothes?"

"A homeless person," Jason smirked. "Or, I don't know, me."

"Why do I date you?" Piper rolled her eyes, letting go of Jason's hand

Dad went upstairs, dropping the bag in front of the door to the guest room next to mine. Hm. Looked like the new kid was going to live next to me. Couldn't have an opinion yet; I haven't even met the kid.

We all rushed outside. Leo's hands were dirty, probably from his latest 'project', Piper had somehow managed to get changed and her hair brushed and her teeth brushed and her small amount of makeup on in the time it took me to satisfy my bacon cravings and change, Thalia was wearing her pajama pants and a regular black shirt, Jason hadn't even started to change, and Nico was looking all depressed and emo-y and stuff like always. And of course, he had an earbud dangling in his right ear.

The car door opened and a kid my age, sixteen, climbed out. His raven hair was messy as hell, and his eyes stayed on the cement so I couldn't make out their color. He had a huge baggy hoodie on, with his hands shoved in his pockets.

All in all, he looked like the shy kid in the back of the class whose name nobody knows. I've never really liked those kinds of people. But I guess since I was living with him, I'd have to make an effort.

Percy POV

I stared down at the floor, repeating four words in my head. I do not exist. I do not exist. I do not exist. I do not exist.

Finally, a girl with blonde princess curls spoke up. "Hi, I'm Annabeth Chase."

Did she want me to talk? Was she talking to me? I think she was. Oh crap, if I respond now it'll seem weird. Why am I wasting time overthinking this? Crap crap crap, they probably think I'm so weird.

"Um..." the same girl - Annabeth, wasn't it? - muttered. "Can you talk?"

Crap is she talking to me? Crap crap crap.

On the outside, I mumbled something like, "Mmsshfg."

"Well this is awkward," a curly-haired Latino boy grinned. "I'm Leo. You?"

"M-me?" I stammered. Well duh of course it's you he knows everybody here already except for you get your act together Percy. "Oh, I'm - uh, I'm Percy."

"Why is he so quiet?" a blonde guy murmured to a girl with choppy brown hair and color-changing eyes.

Pretending I didn't hear that, I shuffled my feet a bit and kept staring down at my worn sneakers. There was a hole in the toe of my right one. That's not good.

"So...uh..." A girl with a punk-looking haircut and electric blue eyes trailed off awkwardly. "I'm Thalia."

"Per -" I cut myself off. Crap I've already told them my name. Why am I doing it again?

The Latino guy - Leo - stifled a snort. The girl with choppy brown hair whacked his arm. "Shut up, Leo."

A small smile stole over my face, watching them. They seemed nice, but I knew I'd eventually be kicked out. Not many families liked the kid who says about five words a day, never comes out of his room because stupid panic attacks will make him look like a complete weirdo, and who's basically a lonely hermit.

In case you didn't get it, that kid is me.

"So, uh, my dad put your bag next to my room," Annabeth said, coming a step closer. I instinctively stepped back, keeping as much distance as possible between me and her. A confused and slightly hurt expression crossed her face. Crap Percy why do you always mess everything up?

"Want me to show you the guest room? Uh, I mean your room," Annabeth corrected quickly. Her gray eyes flashed with an emotion I couldn't quite place, something between impatience and curiosity and...something else.

I shrugged slightly, which Annabeth took as a yes. She reached out for my arm and I flinched away again. For the second time. Godsdammit Percy get your act together what are you doing.

Gray eyes narrowed and Annabeth stepped back as well. A breath I didn't know I was holding whooshed out and I relaxed slightly. Hopefully not too noticeably, though.

"Okay, just follow me then," Annabeth said, confusion lacing her tone. The blonde guy leaned over to whisper in the punk girl - Thalia - "This is so weird. Why doesn't he talk?"

I swallowed and tried to ignore the whisper, but I knew that every time someone asked that question and the parents thought, 'Oh, he's just too hard to open up,' and sent me right back to Social Services.

And of course, it would happen again.

"Come on," Annabeth called impatiently. She was standing near the front door, which was open. I shoved my hands deeper into my pockets and carefully followed her, keeping my head down and hoping that the lady near the steps didn't notice me.

"Hello, Perseus," the lady said warmly. Crap.

"Uh, it - it's Percy," I mumbled, nearly inaudibly. Her eyebrows drew together, but she let me be and stepped out of my way. Thank the gods.

"So, your room should be up here," Annabeth continued. "Right next to mine, so hopefully you don't mind if I get up at midnight to blast heavy metal.

That startled a laugh out of me and Annabeth grinned, pleased with my reaction. "I'll take that as a no. Anyways, the kitchen's down there, just go down the hall, down the stairs, then turn right and it's there. Our house is pretty big, so you've got a bathroom adjoined to your room and a walk-in closet. I'll go finish up my hair now." She frowned and tugged on the plastic hairbrush still stuck in her curls.

I bit back another laugh and stepped into the room, scooping up my small bag along with me and closing the door gently. Crap I did terrible out there and here I was promising myself that I'd actually stay with a family for once.

Oh well. Maybe the next one will be better.

Annabeth POV

Five minutes after I showed the new person -Percy, wasn't it? - his room, and managed to untangle the hairbrush from my curls, Mom knocked on my door. I opened it, running the brush through my now-untangled curls. "Hey."

"Annabeth, I just want to say that you cannot blast heavy metal in your room at midnight. That's Nico's job, and he does it well. Also, thanks for not whispering about Persrus behind his back like a certain person named Jason Grace. I'm not pointing any fingers, but thank you for being a better child than some people I could mention, like, oh, I don't know, Leo."

"Uh...no prob?" The end of my sentence rose up like a question, because I had no idea what she was talking about.

Mom sighed. "Your dad, to be honest, wanted to adopt a different kid, one named Luke or something. He seemed better, easier to adapt into our family. Perseus has a history, you know. He's been convicted of carrying drugs and he's had barely any formal schooling." She paused, and I considered the 'criminal record' Percy with the shy, probably abused kid I had just seen.

"The police did later find out that his stepfather, Gabriel Ugliano, was the one forcing him to deal with drug traders for him, and was the one who pulled him out of school and murdered his mother. They arrested him when Perseus was thirteen, although Perseus had run away long before that, when he was only nine. Social Services found him on the side of the road when he was fourteen, and dropped him into seven different foster homes. We're his eighth. So...well, I guess I had to let you know that he's not quite like everybody else here." My brows drew together.

"That's...a lot of stuff to happen to one kid," I willed my voice not to crack. "But, uh, what about his real dad?"

"Oh, him. Well, actually, his real father is my cousin. Poseidon Olympian. He disowned Perseus when he was three or four, for reasons he 'didn't care to reveal to us commoners.'" At the end, Mom's voice became singsongy, as if she was repeating something someone else had said.

All I could say was, "Wow."

Hehe. Yeah, I rewrote the first chapter. I looked up child abuse and researched victims, and I thought that the harsh and bold character I wrote Percy as didn't quite fit. So I changed him up quite a lot, and PERCABETH will start earlier. Yay!