Noah,

Since I was about eleven years old, my summers had been in LA. My mom moved there when I was eleven, and the new custody agreement dictated that I could spend my school year in New York and my summers in California.

This was a terrible blow to me. It now meant losing Camp Half-Blood, and I could barely take it. Sure, I could visit the Roman camp, but it wasn't the same as being in the same place that my father had learned everything he knew today. It was something we couldn't share, and I had always wanted to share that with him. Even as a little boy, before I knew about the Greek gods being my family members, I wanted to be like my dad. I wanted to handle the same swords, slice the dummies in the same way, and sit myself proudly at the same table my father had once sat at alone.

My first summer there showed my discontentment. I was iris messaging Sam every day, wanting to know all about it, and Kate was only ten years old, not with me or Sam.

The next few summers, I will admit I happened to at least take advantage of my time there. My mom let me go to camp for a part of the summer. She usually had some big event for her husband or something that wouldn't allow much time with me, not that there was too much anyway. I enjoyed the sun, the ocean, and the vibrant new city around me. I got to know my step-father, though I had never cared too much for him, and I got to know who my mother was now.

Every few years, she changed herself.

When I was a kid, she was a hipster to the max. Tight skinny jeans. Whatever smartphone was current. The latest "underground" bands on her iPod. A coffee in hand. And an apartment in the new happening area.

By the time she married Henry (or maybe because she married Henry), she had dropped it somewhat. She still wore the tight pants, yes. She still had the latest smartphone and tried desperately to "stay up to date." But she and her husband were always on a new health-food craze. Health was her new thing, and she had taken up yoga, meditation, and kept her Starbucks hidden in her Lexus.

As I drove up to the Eco-Modern mansion in Bel-Air, my thoughts about my mother were interrupted by my worry for Charlie.

This was her quest. Her moment to rise or fall. The moment we had been delaying since the day she was born.

And she had to spend what could be her last moments in the same house with my mother, who hated her.

That the nail in the coffin of the possible relationship with my mother. She was a terrible mother as a kid, but we could have moved passed it. She left me for California when I was eleven, taking away Camp Half-Blood in the process, but that might have been overlooked. But she didn't like Charlie.

She had always hated the idea of my father with Annabeth, and she had tried to take my father from her, resulting into a drunk night and, well... me. But Annabeth and my father ended up back together. They got married, and they had Charlie.

No matter the fact that it hadn't worked with my parents, my mom still felt a failure for not being successful in ending the relationship between Annabeth and Percy, and Charlie was the proof of the failure.

Charlie was precious to me, and I wouldn't let anyone hurt her.

"We don't have to…" Kate whispered softly to me, her hand resting on my arm as my window rolled down to type in the memorized password to the gate. We had called my mom an hour ago on the drive.

She and Henry were in town, and they were happy to accept us all into their home. While on the phone, I could hear my mom call out for the bedrooms to be prepared for our arrival, and I felt an unsettling familiarity run through me as I compared the times that my flight had gotten in early and I heard my mom call out for my bed to be made while she was looking for her keys to this moment.

Kate knew I didn't want to see my mom.

"We already called."

"She cancels a lot. We can, too," Kate cracked a small smile, but I knew it was fake.

Kate hated JoJo, and she always had. She said that she was unreliable and toyed with my emotions too much. When JoJo came to visit, Kate would just completely avoid her, go off to play with Charlie instead. Mom hadn't liked Kate either, I suppose. Kate was too much like Annabeth and too related to her. My mom had said on many occasions that she thought it was so wrong our parents would ever plan a marriage between the two of us, taking away our free will so early.

"I'm fine. Will you be able to handle her?" I raised my eyebrows, my hand typing in the first key.

Kate rolled her eyes, looking back in the mirror to Charlie in the backseat.

Charlie had been a recluse since she found out. She didn't talk to Aiden or Chester. She didn't even talk to me or Kate. She just looked out the window, lost in thought.

Aiden and Chester even stopped fighting out of respect.

As I finished typing in the password, the gates slowly began to open, and I began to drive through, motioning for Sam in the car behind me to follow.

I knew this house. The driveway was made out of some sort of eco-friendly material. The actual house was made out of organic and recycled materials. The proceeds made from the flowers they bought went to a charity to help African orphans. The pool had some new chemical that was better for the environment. The landscaping was fit to match what would be considered calming for my mom's meditation, and even the yoga mats in her yoga studio were from a company saying that it was better for the environment and went to a charity.

Even if Henry hadn't told me all the time, I would have seen it on the special of his talk show "Laugh, Love, Eat with Henry Alexander" exploring his home and explaining why it helped him be healthier or the people magazine edition with a ten page story over it.

My car pulled into the driveway, stopping in what had always been my spot. Since I was sixteen, every summer, I would get here and find the green convertible that Henry said saved gas and helped the air quality and girls said it was sexy. I would drive in and park exactly in this spot.

I suddenly felt my stomach tighten. It was like I was a kid again, going up to see my mom for the summer when I didn't want to see her. I was right back to where I had been four years ago.

I felt a squeeze on my arm, and I glanced over to see Kate giving me a reassuring look.

"We'll be okay," she whispered, nodding, "We're not kids anymore."

I smiled softly my thanks, and the moment was ended by the sound of Chester opening his car door. As soon as he did, everyone started piling out. Unlike last time, Charlie didn't even acknowledge help out, and she managed it herself. She was still absent-minded, not saying much to any of us.

I was about to open the trunk to start getting the bags when I noticed a figure begin the stripped wood and glass door, and I realized right then and there who it was.

I stopped, frozen as I watched the door open to prove my suspicion right.

It was JoJo Alexander.

About six years ago, she dyed her hair honey blonde instead of platinum, and her style had varied over time to be a little less twenty-something hipster. She was wearing light beige blouse with a scarf wrapped around her despite the heat. Her army green pants were still much too small, and her 5'6 stature was added to by three inch nude heels. The oversized diamond of her wedding ring almost blinded me due to the light catching it, and her hair was styled in the latest popular hair-do, a bun piled up on her head.

The days of her leather pants, band tee shirts, platinum hair, and loser boyfriends were over. She had married Henry Alexander, her dream man, and her dream man came with a lot of perks including the eco-friendly mansion behind her, a step up from the house she bought in the valley when she moved here.

"Noah, Honey!" her arms opened, and she didn't rush towards me due to the shoes. I walked up to my mom and hugged her, and I felt like I was fourteen years old again, which left an unsettling taste in my mouth. This was still m sore spot. My mom was still not in my life, and she still tried to be, reminding me of all those hollow years where my dad would rock me to sleep and say that he would always love me and that my mom did, too, even if she didn't know how to show it.

"Hey, Mom," I nodded to her, and she grinned her professionally whitened smile, "You know everyone, but I want to introduce you to some of the new kids."

Swift didn't like being called a kid, but she nodded towards her anyway, moving away from the secure arms off to Sam to shake hands with my unpredictable mother.

"I'm Swift, thank you so much for allowing us to stay in your home," Swift's voice was kind and respectful, and I was a little shocked that it came from her. But that wasn't the most shocking thing Swift had done.

Aiden didn't surprise me as he did the same, complimenting her and her home, and Chester just simply introduced himself, thanked her, and stepped back, not surprising me either.

"And Kate, you look so very grown up," my mom smiled at Kate like she was four years old again, and Kate just nodded a small and fake thank you.

"As do you, Charlie," my mom was trying to be nice to her for my sake, but I wasn't being convinced.

Charlie looked up at JoJo, and it almost seemed to scare her to see the similarity of her to Annabeth and to my father. She was taken aback, and she tried to regain herself as she motioned towards the door.

"Come on, follow me. I'll have someone get your bags," JoJo nodded, "Henry wants to see you, Noah."

My mom had tried to get me to call Henry things like "Dad" or even "Step-Dad." But it had never caught on. Henry was Henry to me, and that wouldn't change even if he was my step-father.

I stepped through the half-glass half-wood door and through the house. I knew all of the rooms. I knew the hallways. I knew which door went to what. I didn't need a tour, but my mother took us on one as she went to Henry's office, a modern room with a theme of green and bamboo.

And there Henry was.

His blonde curls had gotten grey at the temples, giving him a distinguished look. His eyes were still chestnut brown and as sweet as chocolate. He wasn't wearing his typical crisp business suit. He had switched to khakis and a green long sleeve shirt, and it even matched the colors of the room around him.

Henry Alexander had been married twice and engaged four times. He was engaged to Annabeth for a while, and, after their break-up, she moved back to New York where she and my dad got back together. He found himself another Annabeth about two years later, and he proposed to her. Two months before their wedding, she decided she wanted kids, and they split up. It didn't take long for Henry to find someone else. He found a woman nine years younger than him, a model, and they got married within a year of meeting. They were married for two years, and their marriage ended claiming "irreconcilable differences." Three months later, she was in the headlines dating a musician in a then-popular band, and they got married by the end of their first year dating. They are still married and have two kids.

Two years later, my mom moved to California, and she was a journalist. When I was thirteen, they started dating. She moved in six months later with an engagement ring on her finger, and she became wife number two.

As I looked at Henry, I thought about just how odd it was that Annabeth's ex had married my dad's sort-of-ex. But I guess it really wasn't. Henry wanted Annabeth, and she wanted Percy. JoJo wanted Percy, and he always wanted Annabeth. When Henry met JoJo, they had that connection, and it just kind of grew.

I knew Henry still wanted Annabeth. Of course, their relationship hadn't worked in the first place. They weren't right for each other, and, given a few years of marriage, she would have just become wife number one. She wanted a family, and he didn't. They agreed to break-up, and he even got the apartment. But he still came back when the possibility that Charlie was his daughter came up.

And my dad would always be "That Guy" for JoJo. She never had him, so she never got to see that it wouldn't work. She tried so hard, but he was with Annabeth. Then she thought she snagged him, but her hipster life was thrown for a loop by a new baby and the lack of Percy being hers. She wasn't so desperate for him, and she accepted that she wouldn't be with him. But that didn't mean that she was really over it.

"Feels so strange that you've grown up, Noah," Henry smiled, standing up and holding out a hand for me to shake.

He tried to be a part of my life. There were extravagant Christmas gifts shipped to our house. Eco-Friendly new gadgets that were top of the line and the newest and greatest thing. When he dropped me off with Annabeth's parents, he seemed to regret that choice to not have children that had already ended three serious relationships (one being a marriage) as he saw the family we had.

Sometimes, I wondered if that regret he felt at those times would be the downfall of his second marriage with my mom. She didn't want another kid, and, if she had one just to keep him, her lack of the nurturing ability would cause conflict early on. By the end of it, divorce papers would be filed, and lawyers would be fighting over the mansion we all stood in now.

But it hadn't yet, and maybe it never would.

"Thank you for letting us stay here," I nodded, shaking his hand.

"Any time, you're our son," Henry grinned, and I resisted the urge to point out that his name was not the one on my birth certificate.

Charlie,

There was a feeling of the Bel-Air home that I couldn't escape.

Everything felt healthy, organic, green, and smothering.

I wasn't sure how on earth Noah had been able to handle having to stay here every year during the summer. I could barely handle the day that I had been here.

For one thing, there was the food. It was alright when, at dinner, everything we ate was healthy and fresh and organic. I may have been silently praying for pizza instead, but I could handle it. It was not alright that all of the other food in the house happened to be the same. Absolutely no microwave popcorn. No chips. No Little Debbie Cakes. And never any soda.

Every morning started at six am, and you had an early breakfast of oatmeal and whole wheat toast with freshly home-squeezed orange juice. There was an option to join the yoga and meditation that lasted from six am to eight where JoJo and Henry relaxed before every day.

Almost every TV that you turned on was turned already to Henry's talk show, and there were pictures all over the house of him and his accomplishments.

There was one thing going for it, and that was the garden. It was some sort of calming design that was made after a garden in China with a few Californian twists. There was a palm tree that I sat under where no one else could see me, and I was hidden away from the world for just a few moments. I was on my own, safe and relaxed. I was alone to my demanding thoughts.

Maybe it didn't last long before I heard someone calling out for me due to the new rule that I couldn't be alone, but they weren't being as strict on it due to the situation. Tomorrow, we were going to go and do it. We were going to face the boogey man that had been taunting me since I was seven years old.

It was scary of course. I could die and probably would. I was injured and not prepared, and she had the advantage of having stone men all to her disposal. But, beyond that, it was the fact that it would be over after this. My entire life had been built basically around the Woman in Stone.

What would I do now?

My monster would be banished from my closet. The dread would be gone. My greatest fear would fade back to a horrible memory for everyone. My entire life was created with the fear of Olympia as my supporting pillar that I built myself upon.

And it would be all gone soon.

The ceiling would cave in without the pillar. The closet would only hold clothes. Another story would be added to those told at Camp Half-Blood. New topics to avoid at dinner would be created. And my life would be called into question.

The world seemed to be swirling around me, and the clock was ticking far too fast. Years and years of waiting were drawing to a close, and the slow pace that had let this be the last thing on your mind had suddenly sped up to being the only thing you could think of.

"Charlie?" I heard someone call out through the garden, and I frowned.

I had been found. By Chester.

My hiding place was just a place now…

I stood up from the tree right as he passed the hedge and could now see me.

"There you are. You know it is my shift," Chester smirked, rolling his eyes. He thought the babysitting of me was ridiculous, and I readily agreed.

A few hours ago, I would have been joking around with him back. I would complain about everything that was happening, and I would spend time with him.

But that was before my deadline had been set, and I couldn't talk to anyone. Especially not Chester and Aiden.

"Sorry, I needed air," I shrugged softly.

"Come on, what's up with you? You're so…" Chester's eyes ran over me as he tried to decide what to say, "Down."

"Just thinking," I let out another shrug, and Chester seemed to be disappointed by my lack of a response to him. I wasn't teasing him. I wasn't grinning or even talking.

"If tomorrow is your last day," the words flowed out of Chester's mouth so easily. From everyone else, the words were forced out, strained and painful. But he just said it. Because it was the truth. It was what we were all thinking, and Chester was just the one who could say it, "Don't waste today."

I looked at him a little harder, taking in the little details I seemed to miss about him all the time. He had a scar that I just noticed. Right above his left eye. It wasn't new, but it was new to me. I felt some sort of guilt for never noticing it until now.

"Live today like you'll have that dream Hypos showed you."

I couldn't tell if he seemed hopeful that it might have involved him. I couldn't tell if he was imploring to know what it had been or if he even already could tell what it had been. Chester just said it.

"Wanna get out of here? Get something carbonated and deliciously unhealthy?" I asked hopefully, and he nodded.

"Can we steal a car in the process?" Chester smirked, and I laughed, nodding.

"I'll blame you."

"I can live with that."