"Alright everyone, roll call!" Mr. Brunner called enthusiastically.

Percy Jackson groaned and put his head down on his arms. It was too early for this. Like, they really expected teenagers to function this early in the morning? It was barely 7:30 am but no, Yancy Academy waited for no teen.

The black-haired boy found himself slapped over the back of his head. It didn't really hurt, but it was enough for him to raise his heads and look at his usual assaulter, who had her hands on her hips and a bemused expression on her face. His lovely older sister Cailee Jackson; always trying to make him suffer more… whoops, sorry! He meant that she tried to keep him in line. Yeah. Totally.

"Come on, Percy. Seriously?" She complained good-naturedly.

"Well if I were allowed coffee…" Percy jabbed, half-heartedly glaring at her.

"Never happening again." Cailee cut him off, struggling to keep from giggling. "You're enough trouble without caffeine, and besides. You're twelve."

"I can't sleep, and I can't have coffee. The abuse." Percy whined.

Cailee rolled her eyes with a smile. "Awww, I'm sorry, Perce, but I don't make the rules."

She ruffled his hair to his protest before sitting between them. Both sat up and listened out for their names.

"Jackson, Cailee?"

"Present." Cailee called back to Brunner.

"Jackson, Percy?"

"Present, sir."

Percy glanced back to his sister to find a cheeky grin on her face.

"Thanks Percy." Cailee smiled softly. "Keep this up all day and I'll talk to Mom about getting your iPhone back early."

Suddenly he was very motivated to be good. It was going to be a challenge, but he hoped he could manage it. Just had to get through the daily hell without snapping. Now that was going to be a challenge.

Breakfast finished, and Percy headed to the first period. And the Dread herself arrived.

That is to say, the annoying cow that was Nancy Bobofit. She flung erasers, pinged rubber bands, flicked pencils, and slapped her ruler on her desk. But Percy was determined to be good. He loved music. Thus, he was eager to get his iPhone back after it was confiscated for getting into a fight last month. Mom had made Cailee send it home. He just enjoyed having music going. It helped him focus and he was a speed demon on anything he was working on with a fast beat in his ears.

An eraser came flying at his face.

Percy was so focused on Mr. Brunner's lesson that he nearly missed it, but he leaned himself back just enough in his chair that it sailed past his face and hit the next kid over.

"Ms Bobofit, the next time you fling stationary in my class it will be detention." Mr. Brunner announced calmly.

Percy loved that Mr. Brunner never got mad. But that wasn't to say the teacher couldn't put students in their place. He was quite good at discipline, and no one other than the student punished ever complained of unfairness. Percy had suffered his displeasure a few times, but Mr. Brunner seemed to push him extra hard. He always wanted the best from Percy, to be better than everyone else despite his ADHD and dyslexia. Cailee expressed the same experience. He pushed her harder than all her class too.

"Sure, whatever." Nancy rolled her eyes.

Percy's eyes narrowed. His hands moved with lightning speed and pretty soon he had assembled a mini crossbow from 4 pencils, a click pen, a standard ballpoint pen, a bindi clip, and some rubber bands he'd acquired from Nancy's antics on prior days. Normally trivial, if very intensive work for something so small, but in his hands? A lethal weapon.

Thank you, internet, he thought, for teaching him to make it.

He paid attention to the Latin lesson again, but under his desk he aimed the stationary crossbow at Nancy's side. He glanced sideways at her for the briefest second and fired it one-handed.

The click pen's ink tube, ballpoint tip still attached, launched straight into Nancy's side, and she jumped violently. The pen inner rolled out of sight and Percy hid his little classroom weapon, replacing it with a pen and getting back on with his work. When Mr. Brunner looked back from the board all he saw was Nancy throwing a fit.

"Ms Bobofit, sit down please."

Percy kept a dead serious face. The lesson continued along the same lines. Nancy got detention, again. The middle Jackson struggled to remember as always. He was good at the story bits, less so the Latin side of it. He made it through that class. He left, and wandered down the corridors to his next period. He ran into his sister on the way.

"What's next?" Percy asked.

"History. You?" Cailee answered neutrally.

"Pre-algebra." Percy groaned in return.

"Ah, I feel your pain, little brother."

They both hated pre-algebra. Partly because they got bored way too easily. Percy was a closet genius at geometry and measurements, which was about half of it. The rest he kinda sucked at, and still hadn't gotten above a C+ at best. But both Jacksons also hated it because of their teacher, Mrs. Dodds. Percy's friend Grover swore up and down that she wasn't human, and they were inclined to agree.

Percy made it through the lesson without much disaster, managing to keep his head down as much as possible. Still, whenever Mrs. Dodds walked too close to him he sensed a menacing and dark presence, and felt a familiar tension in his back. The involuntary shifting beneath his skin was bothering him; he felt cramped even though he had plenty of room. He was restless and his back muscles seemed to be rebelling against him. It was all he could do to make it to lunch and keep his head down, and as soon as he could leave he grabbed Grover and made for Cailee.

"Hey sis, you got a sec?"

She glanced around her small group of friends and nodded. "Sure. I'll be right back."

Cailee took him up to one side, and whispered, "What's going on?"

Percy guided her hand to his back and allowed her to feel the constantly shifting and straining muscles beneath his flesh. A strange look came across her face. Confusion, but was that a little bit of recognition?

"Something's been going on since the second period. I don't understand it at all, Cailee." He admitted.

Her fingers ran over two very specific spots, feeling her way through his back.

"What does it feel like?"

"Like… I'm cramped, not enough space. Like I need to stretch out." Percy described it as best he could. "I can't stop it. What's happening to me?"

Cailee was silent. She brought him in for a hug, rubbing her hand in some kind of soothing way down his spine from top to bottom several times, deep in thought. As she did, his writhing mess of a back settled, and the straining stopped. Then she ushered him away and whispered in Percy's ear,

"Let me know if it happens again, but leave it alone."

Helpful.

Cailee excused herself to the bathroom and locked herself inside a stall. This couldn't be happening. But when she opened her eyes and called on that familiar sensation, an energy was exuded. She felt the life energy, just as she had always, only now she had exercised it openly.

Mom is going to kill me, Cailee told herself. She shouldn't have used her grace.

A couple weeks later, Percy was being taken on a trip with his sixth-grade class. A terrible idea, but it had happened. 28 mental-case kids on one trip heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at Greek and Roman artifacts for their Latin class. At least Mr. Brunner was leading the trip, even if Mrs. Dodds was chaperoning as well.

Cailee had managed to slip the rules this one time to see him off.

"Pen? Notepad? Lunch? Hoodie?"

Percy indicated to each item as his sister listed them. His pen and notepad were in his bag, as was his lunch. He was wearing his hoodie. He had everything. As much as he found her parenting him and checking he had his belongings annoying, it was actually nice on some level. It was nice to be shown she cared.

Cailee smiled and gave him a warm and secure hug, which he gladly returned. She spoke into his messy hair, "Stay safe."

"It's a museum trip; how much trouble can I get in?" Percy grumbled with a smile into her neck.

Cailee pulled back enough to look him in the eyes. "With your track record, you don't want me to answer that."

"True. Get going, you're gonna be late."

She just smiled and ruffled his hair before walking back inside.

Percy climbed on the bus and sat next to Grover in the aisle seat so no one could harass him, poor kid. The bus started up not long after that and they drove to the museum. The journey was over an hour, so Percy tried to focus on things in his control. Nancy Bobofit was being an absolute donkey, trying to cause as much trouble as she could. Luckily Grover was safe, because Percy had chosen to sit in the aisle seat to keep people from getting at the poor boy. Nancy didn't usually dare try anything with Percy because Cailee had avenged the wrongs the bully did to him ten times over back on Nancy in the past, and she was terrified of his sister. To this day Percy had no idea what his sister had done, but it had been enough to curtail Nancy severely.

Thankfully, they made it to the museum without Percy causing a scene. He wasn't on probation, but he could be put on it from a big enough incident.

Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. Percy was actually interested for once, and looked around at the representations of different myths and stories.

Speaking of story bits, Brunner had some for this trip. He pulled up a stele and got out his pointer.

Nancy and the girls were giggling and pointing at the naked art style of the Greeks. They kept doing it. Percy rolled his eyes and turned to them.

"Will you please shut up?" He hissed.

Apparently, he spoke louder than he thought.

"Mr. Jackson." Mr. Brunner inquired, "Did you have a comment?"

He got a 'No, sir' from Percy.

The wheelchair-bound teacher pointed to the stele. "Then perhaps you can tell us what this picture represents?"

He recognised it. "It's Kronos eating his kids, sir."

"Correct." But Mr. Brunner wasn't satisfied. "And why was it that Kronos ate his children?"

Percy tried to recall everything he could remember about the picture.

"Well Kronos was the King of the Titans, and as he chopped his dad into a bunch of pieces his dad cursed him to have the same happen to him. So Kronos ate five of his six kids but his wife tricked him into eating a rock instead of the youngest one, Zeus. Zeus grew up and forced his dad to throw up his brothers and sisters. They declared war on their dad and won, and Zeus cut Kronos up with his own scythe."

Someone snorted in the middle of the mass of students and muttered, "Yeah, this is totally gonna be useful in the real world."

"And, to paraphrase that excellent question, why does this matter in real life?" Mr. Brunner said with a dry smile.

"Busted." Grover muttered to the girl who snorted.

"Shut up." The girl hissed, her face as red as Nancy's hair.

Percy stood up fully, clearly thinking about it. In the end he shrugged and put his gaze down, slightly ashamed. "I'm not sure, sir. Maybe it shows that anything can be messed up by being scared?"

Mr. Brunner looked a little intrigued, but there was a small measure of disappointment there too.

"An interesting theory." He acknowledged. "Well, half credit Mr. Jackson. On that note, class, hurry along to lunch."

The class quickly cleared off, the girls a bit disgusted and the boys acting like the hormonal messes they were. Percy and Grover were last to go. They were in the doorway when Mr. Brunner called out.

"Mr. Jackson."

Saw that one coming.

Percy told Grover to go on, and turned to face his teacher. Mr. Brunner had this intense look in his eyes, like he'd lived for a thousand years and had seen it all.

"Sir?" Percy questioned.

"You must learn the answer to my question. About how your studies apply to real life. What you learn from me will be vitally important, I want you to treat it as such. I know you struggle especially, but that is your strength. You work to achieve. Nothing is handed to you. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson." Mr. Brunner insisted, so genuinely that Percy felt greatly motivated to try better.

See, when Mr Brunner gave these little speeches, Percy just felt like he had to make it, like he couldn't fail his teacher. Not when this man put so much faith in him, in them both, even with their learning difficulties that near crippled him academically. He Mr. Brunner genuinely wanted them to do well.

Percy stayed inside and wandered the museum while everyone else was outside ((They're already all outside)), slipping away from the crowd.

As he passed the empty side room, he heard hissing. Furious, maybe even pained. He crept to the door and dared to peek through the glass. No one. He wandered in, scanning the empty room. He whirled around when he heard someone clear their throat.

Mrs Dodds was behind him, seeming to come from nowhere.

"Woah! How did you get in here?" Percy exclaimed, practically jumping out of his skin.

Then the weirdest thing happened. Mrs. Dodds' eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs.

Then she flew straight at him.

His body kicked into overdrive, adrenaline flooding his system like a shock. Percy threw himself down onto his back, his demonic Pre-Algebra teacher just missing him. Percy flipped back to his feet and hurled his bag into her face as she turned to buy himself more time.

Percy had no idea what Mrs. Dodds had turned into, no clue why she was trying to bite his face off and nothing to defend himself with. This psycho teacher looked demonic. He had no choice. Percy unzipped his hoodie but had to roll out of the way of Mrs. Dodds' next swoop before flinging his hoodie away. His t-shirt tore open over his shoulder blades and dazzling white eagle-like wings sprang out. He wasted no time in getting in the air. He hadn't flown in a long time, but it came as easily as breathing.

"Give me what you stole!" Mrs. Dodds hissed.

Percy had no idea what she was on about. Cailee busted him every time he did something wrong; that's how he had lasted so long in Yancy. He hadn't stolen anything.

"Mrs Dodds, I have literally no idea what you mean!"

"If you won't hand them over, you will die, honey!"

He tried to dodge her, really he did, but she was too fast for him to avoid at such a close range. Luckily, she seemed to be trying to capture, not kill, so he was able to kick her flying and into the wall with some force. Percy noticed he managed to leave a spiderweb of cracks where Mrs. Dodds hit the wall. Oops.

Suddenly Mr. Brunner wheeled in, throwing a ballpoint pen at him, shouting, "What ho, Percy!"

When Percy caught the object, it was a bronze sword.

Mrs. Dodds flew at him again.

The absolute terror from before was gone. Fire filled his veins as he flew to meet her, but this time he dodged, twisting in the air and doing the only thing that came naturally. He swung the sword.

The bronze blade sliced through like she was butter, and she exploded in a shower of yellow, leaving a horrible stench of sulphur. Percy coughed, blowing the powder away with his wings as he descended. He folded his wings away into his back and seemingly out of existence.

The sword was gone. He was holding a ballpoint pen. He hadn't consumed anything that would make him hallucinate, and he was as mentally sound as a dyslexic ADHD kid could be and he was pretty sure he had witnessed his Pre-Algebra teacher turn into a monstrous bat on steroids.

He shakily removed the cap of the pen, and sure enough it turned into a bronze sword. It seemed to glow slightly. It was three feet long with a leaf shaped blade and a hilt wrapped in leather. The hilt had an inscription he couldn't read too. It looked similar to the Ancient Greek writing he saw in the Greek and Roman section earlier. He couldn't walk around with a sword though. If taking the cap off the pen turned it into a sword…

He put the cap on the tip of the blade and, voila! Ballpoint pen again.

"Bingo! Percy, you're not as dumb as you look." He muttered to himself, tucking the pen into his pocket of his trousers. Then he headed outside to rejoin the others, calming his racing heart down as he went.

By the time he got back to Grover, who'd been tortured by Nancy for a bit it seemed, he appeared completely calm. Inside he was still a mess, but he handled it.

The trip ended eventually, with some random woman, Mrs. Kerr, turning up in place of Mrs. Dodds. No one seemed to know who Mrs. Dodds was. Grover was clearly lying very badly when he went along with it. Everyone else seemed to believe it. He didn't show the pen to Mr. Brunner, since he'd probably take it away.

Percy just resigned himself to soldier through the rest of the year. He told Cailee about what happened and showed her the sword. She managed to translate the inscription on the hilt too after hours of pouring through books in the school library. It read 'Anaklusmos' which translated to 'Riptide'.

One night, Percy was taking a walk through the corridors in the evening and he was passing Mr. Brunner's office when he overheard,

"... worried about Percy, sir."

That was definitely Grover.

Now, Percy wasn't an eavesdropper normally. He was raised better than that; neither his Mom nor sisters liked eavesdropping and they got up in his grill whenever he had in the past. But when his best friend was talking about him, presumably to Mr. Brunner, he kinda just had to know.

"He's gonna be back home with his sisters soon. Sir, that much divine blood in one dwelling… it only spells trouble. They've got no scent unlike other half-bloods, but Percy and Cailee here… their combined sheer power alone was enough to draw a Kindly One to the school! We don't even know what their divine parents are."

"Ah, on that I have some progress, Grover. Seeing Percy facing the Fury… he revealed his true nature in his fight or flight response. He took a divine hybrid form; one I have seen only once before... in Artemisia of Caria."

Grover's voice was stricken with concern when he responded, "You don't mean… he's like her?"

Mr. Brunner's tone changed to what sounded like dread.

"Indeed. If my conclusion is correct, Cailee, Percy, and their sister are half human and half Judeo-Christian angel. Which angel or angels, I can't say, but most texts call this union of human and angel… 'Nephilim'."

Nephilim. Percy remembered that word from when his mom took him and his sisters to church. Genesis 6, verse 4. The offspring of fallen angels and humans. That explained his wings and abilities, as crazy as it sounded. Mr. Brunner continued talking to Grover, so Percy zoned back in.

"Artemisia was thought to be the only example of this breed. Until now, she was believed to be an anomaly, but it seems there is more to the Nephilim than any of us ever realised... Back to the matter at hand. The Kindly One only attacked when Percy was off campus and alone – this implies she was afraid to take a chance and try it when Cailee was within the same walls. It seems her master believes that united, they are too great to overcome covertly. Cailee is older; not as much raw power but her presence is certainly every bit as formidable."

"Are they dangerous, sir? I can't fail. Not again…" Grover's voice was choked up with emotion. "The summer solstice deadline…"

"You haven't failed, and we'll find a way to resolve the crisis. Percy and Cailee haven't been affected by the Mist at all; they seem to be immune. Also, Percy hasn't had the pen in my view since the museum so I've had no chance to retrieve it. We must assume that both of them know what happened at the museum was real. Go back to your dorm. You have exams tomorrow."

"Don't remind me." Grover groaned.

Percy ran. He got back to the dorm before Grover and pretended to be asleep when Grover got back. Riptide was tucked into his sock in pen form so no one could steal it while he was asleep. He stayed with his thoughts until he fell asleep for real.

At last the final day of the school year came. Cailee was incredibly glad to be done,/ she'd never held any fondness for Yancy Academy, and even less so after the attack from Mrs. Dodds, whatever she was. She woke early because she had places to be and she did most of her packing before her roommates woke up.

"Woah, someone's an early bird." Madilyn remarked with a smile, blearily wiping the sleep from her eyes.

Cailee smiled in return. "Places to go, photos to take. You know how it is, Maddie."

"Full-time boarding student and side-hustling as a part-time model. I have no idea how your mind hasn't snapped." Madilyn mused, swinging herself out of bed. "I've heard the industry is very demanding. How do you handle it?"

"Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. I set my limits and don't let anyone try to push them. Also, my mom is amazing at helping me manage schedules." Cailee replied, tucking her washkit into her suitcase.

"Your force of will is something else, girl."

She packed the last few items into her suitcase, then she was off with a brief, "You've got my number if you need it."

She arrived at the gates of Yancy with 10 minutes to spare. While she waited, she checked her phone. She had one message. It was from her Mom.

I'm working till 8 so dinner will be late. Percy is picking up Parisa on his way home,/ I sent a letter to school so he's been told and has the money, so don't worry. Good luck with your shoot!

Love Mom

Cailee smiled. She loved her mom so much.

Soon enough, her cab pulled up and she got in. She'd called ahead to book it, so she didn't have to tell the driver where she was headed. Cailee stared out of the window during the hour and something drive, taking in the city at last after so long cooped up in the private boarding school her mom has enrolled her and Percy in. She enjoyed the brightly lit billboards and even the cutthroat New York traffic – it was better than the same old classrooms, study hall and the four walls of her dorm. And the food, goodness the food was abysmal compared to the home cooked meals and fast food her family favoured.

Cailee made it to the Oblige brand set with half an hour before her appointment was even due to start. She liked to be early, even if it was quite early. It showed her commitment and dependability to her co-workers and superiors. If she kept on top of it and always made it on time, no fault in the shoot was hers, which made them more likely to want to keep her on.

The moment she checked in, the director appeared from thin air.

"Alright, Cailee. Just to refresh, it's a sports shoot. We've got a whole new range today, Dinah, Lacey, Keira, and Naomi are on set too, they're just not here yet, and we're going to get through all of it no matter how long it takes. We're still waiting on the stylist but let's get you into hair and makeup. Take it easy today – it's a long shoot, we don't want you getting tired with half to go."

Cailee nodded, set her suitcase off to the side and out of the way, and headed to the hair and makeup station. It was the usual makeup artist, Ava. The moment she sat in the chair Ava swooped down on her like a vulture.

"Bare minimum, Ava." Cailee reminded her.

Ava got carried away sometimes, she had a real passion for her work. Cailee held a general disdain of being utterly caked in makeup, she felt suffocated and fake, like someone's Russian doll, under too much. So, she wore only what she had to. Anyways, Ava did her work. It was barely anything, which disappointed Ava but she did begrudgingly agree Cailee looked better without excessive makeup. Begrudgingly. Even so, she would always try to persuade Cailee into going further with it. When Ava put down the makeup brushes, Joselin, the hairstylist, came over and spoke.

"And what hairstyle will it be today, Cailee? Messy bun? A French braid? Pigtails?"

"French braid, basic." Cailee confirmed.

Joselin started with brushing Cailee's hair backward, which didn't take too long considering she'd given it a thorough go when she woke up. Then she wove her hair into the basic French braid, secured the end with a small hairband, hairsprayed the stray hairs, and smoothed them back, creating a flawless finish.

"Are you sure we couldn't change the colour a little?"

"Don't mess with my hair more than you already have." Cailee replied, a little defensively.

"You know I hate dying my hair. Never again."

Done with hair and makeup, she got up and went to the director, awaiting instruction.

Jeff, the director, looked up from his notes. "Hair and makeup done, wonderful! We're still waiting on Lucas. He's late. Take five to get familiar with the set. We changed it up a bit this time trying some new angles."

"Is it still Dan on the camera?" Cailee inquired respectfully.

"Yeah, we still got Dan, but we're bringing in our other guy too. You haven't worked with him before, but it'll be fine."

Cailee nodded and walked on, taking in the whole set. She was on a standard backdrop, no one else was in yet. In all likelihood, they were all modelling this line, but the team would pick and choose who was the final model for different outfits on the advertisements when they had all the pictures compiled. She spotted the two photographers within a minute. Now she just had to wait on the stylist and her fellow models, all of whom were older than her.

Percy walked to the gate with Grover and got on the Greyhound bus back into the city. Grover was skittish, constantly scanning their surroundings. About 20 minutes into the ride, Percy couldn't hold it in any longer, and asked,

"Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Grover almost jumped five feet out of his seat. "How… what… when?"

Percy opened what he called his 'true eyes'. His sea green eyes glowed with his power, his grace, as Cailee called it, pure white supernovas inside his irises. He turned them on Grover in curiosity, who suddenly went very pale. What he saw surprised him. Instead of a human soul, he saw immortal essence. It was similar to the 'Kindly One' he'd just killed but purer, not dark and twisted.

"I can see more than you could ever know, Grover. I can see you're not human." Percy revealed sheepishly. "Your… essence... It looks a lot like Mrs. Dodds' did."

"Yeah that's true, but don't go announcing it to the whole world!" Grover bleated panickedly before looking around again. "How long have you known?"

"I took a guess." Percy admitted. "As for me, I didn't know what I was exactly until I overheard you and Mr. Brunner talking about me and some summer solstice deadline."

"So you know you're… Nephilim." Grover shuddered when he said the final word.

"Why are you saying that so carefully?" Percy questioned, confused.

Grover gave another suspicious glance around before replying.

"Names like that, divine names… they have power. It's why we call what Mrs. Dodds is a Kindly One – it's a way to refer to them without invoking them."

"But if I am 'Nephilim'... can't I say it, because I'd only be invoking myself?" Percy ventured. He wanted to know the 'why' behind a lot of things right now.

"You're not the only one of your kind though, Percy. You're invoking all the rest, and who knows how many there are. You, Cailee, and your sister are the only ones to be known of since the ancient times. Since… her."

"Artemisia of Caria."

The name rolled off of Percy's tongue and struck something inside him. He knew that name, somehow. He knew the woman who it belonged to, on some level, somehow.

"Perce, don't invoke her name again!"

"Okay, okay." Percy agreed, if only to stop Grover panicking. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, I'm gonna have to tell Mr. Brunner you're fully aware, because that puts you in more danger than you were already. Then we've got to get you and your sisters to the safest place on Earth for you. Luckily monsters can't smell your breed of half-blood out like they can demigods, otherwise you'd have a herd of the worst after you with how powerful you are. They can only stumble across you, but the smarter ones will feel your power when they're close."

"Right."

"One more thing." Grover added, "I can't leave your side. I'm your protector, even though you'll probably be the one protecting me, I've got to keep track of you until I get you to safety or I get in trouble with Mr. Brunner and the others. Please don't get me in trouble, man."

"I won't, I promise." Percy vowed.

Percy blinked, and his eyes went back to sea green. Grover seemed less on edge after he looked fully human again. Percy looked out of the window when the bus stopped at a red light.

Across the traffic, on the far side of the road, he saw three old ladies knitting a massive pair of socks, like the size of sweaters. The middle one took out a gold and silver pair of scissors, almost like ancient shears. They were looking him dead in the eyes. Percy let his true eyes shine through again, and stared into their souls. They held great power, that much he could see by their souls. They weren't human but weren't monsters like Grover had called Mrs. Dodds and her kind. He turned his eyes back to normal.

And when they cut the electric blue yarn, Percy heard the snip across four lanes of traffic. It was chilling, even to him. Thankfully Grover didn't notice.

When they finally got to the bus station, Percy waited for Grover to use the restroom. Grover got an upset stomach when he was anxious or stressed, and he seemed to be both today. When the crutch-bound boy returned, they slipped out of the terminal and caught the first taxi in the right direction. They climbed in and the cabbie asked,

"Where to, fellas?"

"West One Hundred and Sixteenth and Eleventh Street to pick someone up from Greenwich Village Elementary School, then East One Hundred and Fourth and First Avenue." Percy told the driver.

The driver took off into the New York traffic. It took a while, but they got there.

When Percy got out, he asked, "Do you mind waiting? She might be a while."

The cabbie shrugged. "Don't bother me none, man, as long as I get paid what I'm owed."

"Thanks, dude." Percy replied with a smile. For once he'd been lucky enough to get a driver who was nonchalant.

Some time later, the school bell rang, and kids began flooding out. Soon enough emerged a 10-year-old brunette girl. Percy started counting down as she ran over.

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One."

Parisa slammed right into her brother, hugging him around the middle. Percy laughed and picked her up so she could cling onto him.

"I missed you!" Parisa declared fiercely, happy tears in her eyes.

"I've missed you too, Pari." Percy murmured into her hair. "It's been too long. Far too long."

The only answer he got was the overjoyed giggle of his little sister. Grover bleated a laugh as he smiled. Which of course ended when she gave him an intense stare and sniffed.

"Who are you?" Parisa demanded.

"Hi, ummm, I'm Grover Underwood. I'm Percy's friend." Grover managed.

Parisa turned back to Percy as she jumped back down to the ground.

"Your friend smells like goat, Percy."

Grover bleated in surprise and Percy laughed.

"She's got sharp senses." Percy laughed for a moment, to Grover's dismay. "Get in, Pari, you can interrogate Grover when we get home."

The trio climbed in the cab and the driver moved off as soon as he could. Parisa curled up to Percy. It'd been spring break when she last saw him, so she was clingy today. This always happened. It was sweet.

They made it home to the apartment in good time. Percy got out Cailee's door key that she'd left with him last night, the only copy other than their mom's and the spare, and unlocked the apartment.

"Alright, Mom won't be home till past 8, so dinner will be late. We're allowed a snack if we get hungry." Percy told Parisa and Grover. Her turned to his little sister. "What's for snacks now? Doubt it's still muffins."

"Cookies!" Parisa exclaimed. "Mom made them last night, and I helped!"

"Did you? I bet they'll be great then!" Percy smiled.

A fun fact – the cookies were dyed blue. All snacks were in this family. Was there a reason behind it? Absolutely! There was a whole story to the blue food tradition.

When they were younger, Cailee said there was no such thing as blue food. Percy and Parisa had argued with her for hours, but when she shut them off to clear her head and be the mature one, they stepped it up. All on their own, they made a champion's attempt at baking cookies, loaded to the brim with blue food dye. Percy knew he couldn't have been more than 7, and Parisa was barely 5, maybe 4. They made a proper mess of the kitchen, but they got some pretty stonking cookies out of it in the end. Mom had come home right as they were trying to figure out how to get them out of the oven and rescued the cookies before they could burn. She wasn't mad though. She was laughing as Percy remembered. She was impressed too. Since that day, Mom went out of her way to help them make and eat blue food, from blue birthday cakes to blue corn tortilla chips. The whole nine yards. Cailee came around after 2 months and just started enjoying it.

They occupied themselves quite well while waiting for their Mom to get home. First Parisa interrogated Percy about the past term. Then she interrogated Grover. Finally, she shared what she'd been up to. Then they got hungry so they got a cookie each. Grover was keeping track of both Jackson kids. Parisa was on the fire escape, exchanging hisses with the black cat that loved to drop by.

Eventually, Percy went and stood by the window. He gazed up at the evening sky with longing. He longed to fly again, and that desire was even stronger since the trip to the museum where he was forced to call on his Nephilim gifts. And that was exactly how their mom found him when she finally got home.

And for their mother, all three of them had nothing but love and praise.

Her name was Sally Jackson and she was the best person in the world, which was in line with their theory that the best people had the worst luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She always wanted to be a nurse, and when her uncle got cancer and eventually died from it, she was left further from her dream than ever, with no money, no family and no help. But still, she worked hard and long, and she made it eventually. None of them knew how.

"Percy?"

Percy turned from the skyline view to see his mom, and suddenly all the stress and frustration melted away. Mom had that gift, to set all his worries at ease. When she looked at one of her children, she saw all the best things.

A smile lit up his face and he was jumping into his mother's arms like a little boy in the blink of an eye.

"Hey Mom!"

Sally smiled right back and hugged her son tightly, rubbing his back comfortingly. "Oh, Percy, you've grown since spring break!"

He didn't know what it was, but whenever his mom was around and it was just them, he became like a 7 year old boy again. No responsibility or pressures, just happy times with his sisters and his mom.

"Mom!" Percy complained with a smile. "I'm 12! I'm not that little!"

"Yes, but you'll always be my little boy." Sally promised, booping Percy on the nose playfully.

Percy tried to look offended but instead broke down into laughter like a little kid.

Every time. Mom got him to smile every single time, no matter what was playing on his mind. Even now, after all of this year… he bit his lip as he thought about the attack. His mom must've seen it because she asked, "Percy, did something happen at school this term?"

"Yeah actually…"

Parisa came hurtling around the corner at that very moment and their mom managed to catch her and lift her up into a warm hug. Honestly Percy had no idea how Mom caught Parisa every time – he personally relied on his Nephilim reflexes to catch her and stay on his feet.

The look in their mom's eyes said 'we will talk later' before she turned her attention to her youngest. Percy went to stow his bag, dropping the spare change from the taxi in the change jar. He chucked it in his room to deal with tomorrow. Cailee would do the same with her suitcase probably, since she'd be tired from her photoshoot.

Percy ducked under the top bunk of the double bunk bed and flung himself onto his mattress. He stared up at the mattress that belonged to Parisa before letting his gaze fall down to the single bed against the back wall that Cailee used.

It was good to be home.