**DISCLAIMER** All rights to Rick Riordan - I only own the the plot (I'm pretty sure you guys know this by now)

*Rated 'T' because I'm too young to go get sued for not putting the right rating

It was the end of the day - and the end of the school year .

Percy shouldered his backpack, scrubbing away any lingering tears before picking up his suitcases. Percy walked out of his dorm, chin high. He would not let anyone make him feel bad. Besides, it was actually an ACCOMPLISHMENT that Percy had managed to last an entire school year. That had never happened before. He took out a wad of dollar bills from his pocket, that his mother had sent him the week before. It was for his journey "home". Percy looked around, searching for Grover. He wanted to say good-bye to his friend before going back to his tiny little apartment. Just as Percy was about to give up, Grover came, running in the funny way he always ran.

"Percy!' Grover cried. "There you are! I was afraid you had left already!"

"Actually, I was looking for YOU! Where were you?" Percy asked. Grover's eye twitched.

"Just packing," Grover lied. Percy sighed. He knew Grover was lying, but he wasn't quite sure why.

Oh well, Percy thought. What can you do?

"So, uh, Percy," Grover said, shifting from one foot to the other. "Do you want to ride the bus together?"

"Depends. Where do you live?" Percy asked.

"Well, um, where do you live?" Grover asked back, wringing his hands nervously. Percy cocked an eyebrow. What was going on here?

"Downtown Manhattan, Westfall Apartment Complexes," he replied, giving Grover the side eye.

"Great! That's exactly where I live!" Grover said a bit too soon, a bit too fast. His eye was starting to twitch again. Percy highly doubted that Grover lived near the area, but maybe Grover was just feeling sentimental and wanted to be with Percy a bit longer.

Or maybe he's watching out for any other crazy old bats like Mrs. Dodds, a voice inside his head whispered. Percy silently chased the voice away.

"Okay," Percy said. "Let's go."

"Oh, um.." Grover blushed. "I don't exactly have, my, uh, stuff with me..." His voice trailed off as he looked at his empty hands. "I'll just be a minute. You don't mind, uh, you know, waiting?"

"No, it's cool G-Man," Percy assured Grover.

"Thanks, Percy!" Grover said, and hurried back through the thickening crowd of students and faculty. Percy stared at where Grover had been standing before. He shifted from one foot to the other. He knew he should wait for Grover, but maybe it was his ADHD, maybe it was that bad feeling coiling in his stomach, or maybe it was just the fact that he didn't want to be stuck in the crowd, Percy turned and walked away, suitcases in hand.

~xXx~

Percy had made it home. Yippee (note the sarcasm).

He stared at the door. Did he want to go in? Percy could smell the tobacco and alcohol wafting from the apartment.

You know, maybe a nice walk around the city might clear my mind, Percy thought to himself. He bit his lip.

C'mon, Percy, you're gonna have to go inside at one point or another, Percy thought to himself. He steeled himself, and reached for the knob, and slowly - very slowly - turned it. The door creaked open. He heard guffaws and slurred words, and smelled the beer, the cigarettes and the bean dip. Percy willed himself to look inside - and saw a bunch of drunk men, playing poker with his equally drunk stepfather.

"Look, the little punk's back!" Gabe laughed crazily, raising his beer in the air. Percy cursed himself silently. He should've waited till they were all passed out on the couch or something. He shouldn't have come in while they were drunk but awake. Percy stared at Gabe's jowly chin, unable to meet his eyes.

"So, where's the money?" Gabe asked. That was it. No "Hello, Percy. How's your life been these past 6 months?".

"Sorry," Percy lied, looking at Gabe. "I don't have any on me." Gabe snorted, and took another swig of his beer, the brown alcohol sloshing down the sides of the bottle.

"You took a bus, and then probably a taxi. You must have at least 10, 20 dollars extra left." Percy stared at Gabe, wowed. It never ceased to amaze him how Gabe was somehow able to sniff out money anywhere, even when his stench of beer and cigarettes should have covered the scent of everything else.

"C'mon," One of Gabe's friends, Eddie, said. He was the only sober and non-smoking guy in the apartment - excluding Percy, of course. "Cut him some slack. He's only, what, 12 years old?" Percy shot Eddie an appreciative look. Although he knew that Eddie's opinion would mean nothing to Gabe, he was still grateful for the effort.

And true to Percy's prediction, Gabe remained undeterred. "A man's gotta hold his own, am I right?" When no one answered, Gabe repeated himself. "Am I RIGHT?" Percy glared at Gabe.

"You know what?" Percy said, digging a wad of dollar bills from his pocket. "Here you go. I hope you lose." Gabe squinted at him. "I'd hold your tongue, Brain-Boy. Your report card came!" Percy could detect the unspoken words from Gabe: And someone's gonna end up with some real nasty bruises, too. Percy involuntarily flinched. The other 2 drunk guys in the room guffawed. One fell out of his chair and dropped his beer on the carpet. Percy sighed, and walked to his room.

It was scattered with beer bottles and half-open packets of cigarettes. A pair of muddy boots sat on the windowsill. Percy dropped his suitcases on the bed. Home sweet home. Percy plopped down on the bed, and drifted away into his wishful thinking. Oh, what he would give to have Smelly Gabe gone, for him and his mother to live a decent place, for his mom to have her high-school diploma and for her to be able to follow her dream and become a writer, instead of working in the candy shop. What Percy would give to be actually be smart, to not have dyslexia or ADHD, for his mom to be able to say, "Oh, my Percy got an A!" or "My Percy is the perfect, well-behaved boy that any parent would want". Of course, he wished that his father wasn't dead (or as his mom put it, "Lost at sea"). But most of all, he wished his mom was here, right now, next to him, comforting Percy like she always did.

There was a tentative knock on the door. Percy jolted out of his thoughts. Gabe and his friends would probably never come in here, and even if, they wouldn't even bother to knock; they would probably just barge in, tripping over themselves in their drunk stupor. So that could only mean one thing...

"Mom!" Percy exclaimed as his a woman with beautiful black hair and kind brown eyes peeked around the edge of the door

"Can I come in?" she asked.

"Of course!' Percy replied happily, shoving his luggage aside. His mom burst in, and gave Percy a tight hug.

"Mom, you're smothering me!"Percy complained, but secretly, he enjoyed it.

"Oh, sorry honey," his mom said, taking a seat next to him on the bed. "It's just - I haven't seen you since Spring break, and oh my - you've grown taller, I think!" Percy rolled his eyes. He doubted that he'd even grown that much, but of course that didn't matter to his mom.

As they talked, Percy felt the unknown tension in his body go away, and the rest of the world faded. It was just him and his mom, talking about life. He almost swore he felt a salty-sea breeze dance into the room, even if no windows were open.

"So, honey," Percy's mom said, eyes twinkling. "I thought since it's YOUR summer vacation after all, and you made it through a whole school year this time, we'd celebrate!" Percy grinned. Leave it to his mom to be happy about her son getting expelled out of school for the SIXTH time.

"So... we're going to Montauk!"

~xXx~

Percy and his mom bumped along the road. Gabe hadn't been happy about them leaving, but after Percy's mom promised him some bean dip and assured him that the money for this trip was coming out of her clothes budget, he was okay. Percy wished he could hit Gabe over the head with one of his beer bottles. Why did they need him anyways? Percy sighed.

"What's wrong, honey?" His mom asked, giving him a worried look.

"Nothing, it's just... why do we need Gabe?"

"Because," his mom said, "We need the money. I can't support you and your needs with just the money I make."

"But Gabe spends all of the money he makes on beer and cigarettes!" Percy complained. His mother's eyes softened.

"I know it seems that way, honey," She said, ruffling his hair. "But trust me, it'll be good for you in the long run." Percy stared at his mom.

"But what about YOU?" He asked. "You're... you're suffering, Mom. He's abusing you. You-"

"Percy, I'm fine," His mom assured him. "Oh, look, we're here!"

Percy turned his head to look out the window. He saw the sea washing up against the shoreline. He spotted seashells, and smiled to himself. Maybe, just for a moment, he could pretend he was a normal kid, with a normal family. Just maybe...

~xXx~

Percy and his mom were sitting on the deserted beach, wrapped in blankets, talking and eating. Percy's mom had brought a bunch of "free samples" from her work for Percy, and all the candy was blue. It was an inside joke between Percy and his mom, when Gabe had protested that food could not be blue. Since then, Percy's mom had gone out of her way to make and eat blue food: blue corn chips, blue cookies, blueberries smoothies, blue saltwater taffy and blue lollipops. Percy shoveled a handful of blue jellybeans into his mouth.

"Mom, can you tell me more about Dad?" Percy asked through his mouthful. His mom smiled endearingly at Percy.

"Oh Percy... your father, well, he was once a marine biologist, but then started working as a geneticist. Percy, he was so incredibly smart, but even more than that, he was brave and courageous. And he loved the sea, of course. This is where we first met, actually..." His mom smiled at the thought. "You have your father's eyes, you know. Oh, Percy, he would have been so proud of you." Percy blinked. Proud of me? The idea was laughable. Percy actually snorted at the thought.

"You know, its getting cold out here." His mom said, shivering. "Why don't we go inside the cabin?"

~xXx~

Percy awoke to a loud thudding noise. He blinked sleepily, and kicked off the blankets. What was going on? He emerged into the hallway, to see his mom rubbing her eyes and staring at the door curiously.

"Who would be at the door at this hour?" His mom said. Suddenly, her face turned pale.

"Percy, why don't you juts go back to your room? I'm sure it's nothing. I'm just going to check," She said.

Percy yawned,, and went back inside. The rain was pounding on the roof. Maybe someone had gotten stuck in the thunderstorm outside and needed help. but if that was the case, then why did his mom look so frightened? Percy felt a tug in his stomach. Something was definitely off. And Percy knew what he needed to do.

He crept down the stairs quietly. He then tiptoed across the hall, careful not to step on any creaking floorboards. He ducked behind the only potted plant in the house and listened.

"What are you doing here?" He heard his mom ask.

"They're- they're after Percy. They found him. They know he's alive." Percy recoiled at the sound of the voice speaking.

"GROVER?!" Percy exclaimed, the words bursting from his lips. His mom and Grover turned to look at Percy.

"Percy, you were hiding behind the plant?!" His mom said, staring at him.

"Uh, yeah," Percy said awkwardly. "But why are people after me? Why should it matter if I'm alive or not? AND WHY IS GROVER, my BEST friend, telling you all this?"

"Percy," Grover said, his soaking clothes creating puddles under him. "Your father - he's a geneticist, right? He worked with a team of people, who were also geneticists. He- he altered some of his genes. It gave him abilities to do things normal humans couldn't do. Everyone in the team altered some of their genes. However, they shut down the project - called Project Olympus - because some people wanted to take advantage of it. They wanted to create a superhuman army, to take over. It would be like World War III or something. But anyways, they shut down the project. But when you were born... you inherited some of the abilities your father got. And these people want to have these powers too. These are the same people who wanted to take advantage of Project Olympus. That's why they are after you."

"So, what are we going to do now?" Percy asked.

"Percy," His mom looked at him sadly, as if they were saying good-bye. "We're going to The Institute."

So yeah... things just got interesting!

I LOVE LEAVING PEOPLE ON CLIFFHANGERS! MWHAHAHAHAHA!

I'm sorry I have't updated in a long time (To be fair, this chapter is longer than the normal amount of words I write. Also, I think my math teacher is secretly the devil and loves to gives us piles of math HW to do.)

I'm sorry it took this long to get to the action part, but a lot of the stuff in this chapter was necessary. I tried to cut out a lot of the boring parts. I was also unable to include the Fates (AKA the Kindly Ones) because, you know, this is sci-fi or whatever, and destiny doesn't really mix with science.

Also, if you couldn't tell, The Institute is the equivalent to Camp Half-Blood!

So, till next time... PEACE OUT!