It was sunny. There were no clouds in the sky and it felt like the day would never end. I was sitting on a picnic blanket trying to eat a sandwich but failing miserably as I was laughing to hard. "Daddy stop it! That's gross!" I managed to shriek out between giggling fits. Two other sets of laughter joined mine as my parents started laughing. It was the perfect day. My mom was sitting to the right of me and had just started to bring the desert out of the picnic basket we had brought. "Annabeth we can go swimming in the lake soon. You up for it?" My dad asked me. I was about to respond when I heard someone call out...

Annabeth! Aaannabeth! ANNABETH WAKE UP!

I jolted awake with a gasp.

Springing out of bed I looking wildly around my room trying to find what had woken me up. I found the culprit seconds later when I spotted Thalia, my best friend, laughing next to me.

"What did you do that for?" I asked her angrily. I had been having a dream about my family before they had died in a car crash and I really didn't appreciate being woken up from it.

"Chiron told me to wake you up." Thalia said this innocently like she hadn't just been screaming in my ear.

I sighed knowing if Chiron wanted me up then I should probably get up before he pored ice water on me, which he was known to do from time to time.

As I got ready Thalia entertained herself by talking to me. "And don't forget that new kid, Perry or what ever his name was, is coming today."

I finished brushing my hair started heading downstairs, knowing Thalia would follow me.

"Percy, Thalia, not Perry."

"That's right! I new it started with a 'P' and I didn't want to ask Chiron again. I think he was starting to get annoyed with me."

Knowing Chiron, our caretaker at Half-blood Orphanage, he had tried to be as patient as he could be with her but Thalia was, well she was Thalia. After all a person could only repeat themselves so many times.

"Speaking of him how old did Chiron say he was again?"

"Around our age, 14."

In case you haven't noticed Thalia had trouble remembering things, we weren't sure if it was because she doesn't pay attention or if it was something else entirely. Although I was pretty sure that it was the first one as she could remember random things that no one else noticed. This came in handy sometimes but annoyed everyone at others.

Eventually we made it into the kitchen and had breakfast. I finished then waited for Thalia to be done before continuing outside with her.

If there was one thing you could say about Half-Blood Orphanage, was that it was beautiful. We sat on the steps that lead up to the front door talking and taking in the morning sunshine. I was just about to answer something Thalia asked but was interrupted by the sound of tires coming up our driveway. And there was only one person who was supposed to be coming today.

"Chiron!" We shouted at the same time he came running out of the house to us.

"What girls?" He asked seeming exasperated, the Stoll's had probably been up to something again.

"The new kid, Percy, is here. We heard a car coming." Thalia informed him putting extra emphasis on his name to show she had, in fact, remembered it this time.

"Thank you then, you may stay here to meet him if you wish."

"We would love to." I said just as the car pulled into view.

The car parked and the drivers side door opened up in front of us and the driver, who was a man about thirty, stepped out. He started walking over to Chiron as the passenger side door opened, the kid who came out had black hair and sea-green eyes. He was holding a notebook to his chest like it was the most important thing in the world. Once he was in front of Chiron the man introduced himself to be Argus, Percy's Social Service Agent and the boy to be Percy, as I had assumed. Chiron and Argues walked over to the side to talk about the usual stuff and exchange information on Chirons new charge. The whole time Percy didn't say a word he looked around and seemed to be far away his eyes finally focused on me and I felt uncomfortable under his stare. Argues finished talking to Chiron and turned to Percy. I expected Percy to say good-bye to him but all he did was wave and give a small smile. Argus smiled back and left. And that was it, Percy was now part of Half-blood orphanage.

Chiron turned to Percy first. "Hello child, my name is Chiron I am your new caretaker."

Percy nodded showing that he was listening Chiron moved to pick up Percy stuff that Argus had left and said, "Let me show you your room."

Percy picked up the rest of his things that Chiron hadn't been able to carry and they headed inside.

We followed Chiron inside the building only to literally run into Katie Gardener. Another 14 year old who was here because her parents were ill-equipped to take care of her. An important thing to know about Katie was that she was into gardening, which was why we had a huge garden in the backyard.

"Sorry Annabeth I didn't see you there! I was just going to check on my garden."

"Its okay Katie. Did you see the new kid?"

"Yes I saw him, he doesn't talk much does he? I said hello and introduced myself but all he did was wave."

Thalia spoke up. "No I doesn't seem like he talks much, didn't say anything to us either, but his name is Percy um..."

Sighing I helped her out. "Jackson, his last name is Jackson."

"Right." She said trying to memorize the name.

"I am sure he will warm up to us." She said confidently before she walked down the steps we had just been sitting on moments ago.

We continued inside and saw Travis and Conner Stoll, 16 years old, in the living room. We tried to sneak by them, sometimes it was just easier to avoid the Stoll's but it was useless as the Stoll's spotted us and ran over.

"Did you see the new kid?" Conner asked looking like he was going to jump up and down and sounding like he was talking about a new TV show.

"Yes." I said not at all fazed by his excitement. He was probably just excited about the prospect of having someone else to prank. "Did he talk to you at all?" I needed to ask, I was starting to suspect that there might be a reason behind his silence, maybe a medical problem?

"No." Travis said calmer then his brother, I wasn't fooled by this though because he could be just as bad as Conner was. "He waved though."

Then Conner said, "Does he talk at all?"

Thalia answered him, "From what we've seen? No, not at all."

Chiron chose that moment to come down the stairs and walked over to us. "Percy is upstairs unpacking, I expect all of you to be nice to him and help him out if needed." Hesitating only for a moment he added in, "No stealing from him."

The last part was directed the Stoll's who loved stealing from anyone they could and then pranking them for fun afterwards.

"Fine." They mumbled but I knew that they still would, and so did Chiron.

"Chiron did he talk to you?" I asked wanting to know.

"No, but give him time and he will, this is his 8th orphanage in seven years. The poor boy is probably stressed."

I whistled "Wow that is a lot of orphanages."

"Yes it is. I wish I knew why they kicked him out, he seems like a nice child." That was just like Chiron always seeing the best in people.

He then turned and walked out of the room and into the kitchen, most likely to get coffee.

I turned to Thalia and voiced what I had been thinking. "What do you have to do to be kicked out of eight orphanages?"

She could only shrug in response before turning and making her way back outside, probably to see if she could find Clarisse and arm wrestle her.

As she walked away she left me with the strangest feeling that Percy was going to bring change to Half-blood Orphanage, whether we wanted it or not.