Hi guys! Here's another update. I don't care about the Super Bowl, so I finished a chapter for you instead! :)
Also, for those of you who aren't super sure of the minor characters from CME (I get them confused myself sometimes), Izzie (Isabella) and Caleb are Piper and Jason's kids, Emily and Tommy are Frank and Hazel's, and Esperanza is Leo and Calypso's daughter. They're all mentioned briefly in here. Enjoy!
"Do I have to go to school today?" Nicholas whined, sitting unhappily on the end of his bed and obviously unwilling to go closer than that to getting ready without further persuasion.
I sighed from the doorway, still half-asleep myself despite the cold shower I'd forced myself to endure a few minutes ago. It had been a rough night. "Yes," I told him.
"Why?" he demanded not rudely, flinging himself down across the mattress. He was going through a bit of a dramatic stage.
"Because you have to. I'm required to make you. It's the law."
"But Carly's not going," he tried weakly. Even he knew that card wasn't going to win him anything.
"Carly has a stomach bug and was up all night. If you'd like to start throwing up, you're welcome to stay home with her, but if not, you're going to school. Now get up and get yourself ready." He was walking a thin line now and he knew it. Wisely, rather than say another word, Nick rolled dejectedly from his bed and moved toward his dresser. Satisfied that he was making actual progress now, I turned away and left him to it.
School was difficult for Nicholas. Logan was a straight-A student and if he didn't love it, he certainly didn't mind school, and Carly wasn't doing too badly with it herself so far either. Nicky, however, struggled and his issues with it didn't seem to be getting any better. I knew that and I sympathized with him. School hadn't exactly been my favorite place when I was his age either. He knew that and I tried to be reasonable, but I was still obligated to make him go regularly whether he liked it or not.
As I walked toward the stairs, Carly's bedroom door opened and Annabeth stepped out, closing it gently behind her. I met her eyes. "She's asleep," she informed me quietly.
I nodded, glad to hear it, "She still have a fever?"
She nodded. "It's not too bad right now though. I'd give her something for it but I doubt she'd keep it down." I sighed and nodded. "Are you okay to take both boys to school?" she asked. "We can still call your mom."
I shook my head. "It's fine. It gives me a little time with Nicky before I have to leave him." I watched her for another second. "You look exhausted," I noted.
"So do you."
I shrugged dismissively. "Maybe you should go sleep for few hours."
She snorted. "I'm fine. I have to work today too."
"Yeah. I know."
"Okay. Can you go make sure Logan's getting ready? I'm going to shower."
"Sure."
"Thanks." She pecked my cheek and walked past me, disappearing into our bedroom at the end of the hall.
Logan was already dressed and groomed when I stuck my head in his room. He stood at his desk, his back to me, stuffing homework and books into his backpack. "Almost ready, Champ?" I asked.
He turned around. "Yeah. Nicky's coming too today, right?"
"Yeah. He's getting ready. Did you brush your teeth?"
"Um, maybe."
I snorted. "Make sure you change that answer to yes before we leave."
"Okay," he grinned.
Nicky was leaving his room when I left Logan. "Almost ready?" I asked. He nodded unenthusiastically, turning toward the bathroom. "Hey," I stopped him. He looked at me with gray eyes. "Come here," I said, arm outstretched. He stepped toward me and I wrapped an arm around his shoulders, hugging him. "I love you, okay?"
He nodded into me. "Love you too," he mumbled.
"Okay," I said, letting go, "Finish getting ready and then come eat breakfast." He nodded and headed toward the bathroom once more.
"Dad," Logan said, walking from his own bedroom now, "Can you make me scrambled eggs?"
I glanced at the watch I wore on my left wrist. "Sure," I determined, "If you hurry up and finish getting ready."
Ten minutes later, both boys were seated at the table and I was serving each of them a pile of eggs. Annabeth walked into the kitchen, wet hair hanging loose around her shoulders. "Carly's up again," she informed me, placing a plastic cup of water down on the counter.
"Did she throw up again?" I asked, mildly concerned. This was some stomach bug.
"She would have," Annabeth said, "She doesn't really have anything left in her to throw up. She's getting dehydrated." She looked at the boys, who were watching the exchange in worry. "You both feel okay, right?" They nodded.
She sighed, "Okay," and looked back at me, "She won't drink anything."
I sighed. "Let me try." I grabbed the cup off the counter.
"Don't you get sick," she warned me as I turned toward the doorway.
"I'll be fine." I turned to the boys. "Finish eating and make sure all your stuff's together. We're leaving in twenty minutes."
"'Kay," Logan managed around a mouthful of food while Nicky nodded.
Carly was in bed, looking flushed and miserable, playing halfheartedly with the tablet Leo monster-proofed for the kids a few years back. There were tear tracks on her sweaty face. "Hey, Peanut," I said, walking in, "Feeling any better?"
She shook her head. "My tummy hurts."
"I know," I said sympathetically. I leaned forward and felt her forehead. She was pretty warm. Annabeth was right about the fever. "Listen," I said, "I know you don't want to, but think you can drink a little water for me?" She shook her head. "Please, Carly? Just a few sips. It will help."
"I don't want to," she whimpered.
I sighed and sat down at the end of her bed. "I know. But if you don't, you can get even sicker and you don't want that, do you?" She shook her head, her green eyes bright. "C'mon," I held up the cup, "Just a few sips. For me." Carly looked at the cup unmoving for a few seconds and then weakly moved to sit up. I leaned forward to help her and she diligently accepted a few gulps of water. "Good job," I told her, setting the remnants on the side table. "Thank you."
"Are Logan and Nicky sick too?" she asked miserably.
"No, it's just you, honey. But I'm going to bring them to school in a few minutes and then you and Mommy will be here together all day."
"What about you?"
"I have to go to work." She looked unhappy about this. I changed the subject. "Do you want to stay here in bed? I can take you downstairs and put a movie on for you if you want." She perked up just a little at that and gave a tiny nod. "Downstairs?" I asked. She nodded again. "Okay," I said, standing up, "Let's go." I pulled the blanket away from her. She grimaced at the loss of it in her fevered state.
"Can you carry me?" she asked.
I sighed lightly. "Yeah, I can. How do you feel? Are you going to throw up again?" She considered for a second and then shook her head. "Okay. Come on then." I scooped her up off the mattress, grabbed the blanket off the foot of her bed, and left to carry her to the living room.
When Carly was settled on the couch and I'd turned the TV on for her, Annabeth came in with a pot in hand. She set it on the cushions next to our daughter. "Just in case," she told her. Carly nodded, unhappy but resigned.
"Okay, Peanut," I said, "I'll see you later, okay? Feel better."
"Bye, Daddy."
"I'll be right back," Annabeth told her and followed me out of the living room. "You better not get sick," she said flippantly, "I don't need two miserable kids to take care of."
"Oh thanks," I replied, leaning into the kitchen doorway and informing the boys it was time to go.
"Anytime." Logan and Nicholas walked past us, heading obediently toward the door.
"You stay healthy too," I told Annabeth, pecking her lips, "See you later."
If there was anything I appreciated about living outside the city, it was the lack of traffic. We were about thirty minutes outside of Manhattan and while there was still a healthy amount of people on the road in the morning, it was nothing compared to what I was unfortunately used to. Having grown up in the city, I had an endless appreciation for the fact that I could drive five miles to Oak Grove Junior High in ten minutes instead of thirty. I still drove into Manhattan for work, but it was near the outskirts so usually it wasn't too bad.
Logan spent the drive to his school regaling us with the details of the project he and his friends, Jarrod and Will, were working on for the science fair next month. They were studying whether different fabric softeners affect the flammability of clothing. It was a question Leo probably could have answered for them easily, but that would have ruined the fun and Logan had learned to do his own laundry in preparation for the experiment, which had Annabeth happy.
He'd definitely inherited her genes, as I certainly hadn't been taking part in any science fairs when I was in eighth grade.
That's not to say I wasn't proud.
"Jarrod's mom gave us a bunch of his brother's old T-shirts, and they're all made of cotton so we can use them for the test," he said excitedly. "We're going to work on it more this weekend."
"Cool," I said, pulling into Oak Grove's parking lot, "Sounds like it's really coming together."
"It is," he confirmed, gathering his things as I pulled up to the student entrance.
"Have a good day," I told him.
"Okay. Bye, Dad. Bye, Nick."
"See you later," I said.
"Bye," Nicky mumbled.
I glanced at my younger son in the rearview mirror as Logan closed the car door and started toward the building. Nicky stared glumly at his hands in his lap.
"You okay, Nicky?" I asked.
Yeah," he answered quietly. I didn't believe him for a second, and a moment later when he sniffled, I pulled into an empty parking spot, put the car in park, and turned around to face him. "Nicholas," I said, making use of his full name, "Talk to me. What's the matter?"
He hesitated for a second and then murmured, "Logan's good at school."
In my surprise, I could only manage, "What?"
He looked up now and met my eyes, one of the tears he'd obviously been trying to prevent falling tracing its way down his face now. "Logan's good at school," he repeated, "He's smart and gets good grades, and he's got smart friends to do science fair projects with."
"Yeah," I said slowly, waiting for further elaboration, "He does."
"And I don't," he continued, "I want to be smart like him and I try even though some of my teachers don't think I do. But I'm just not good at it and…" He looked down again and spoke even quieter than before. "They're mean to me."
I stared at my son in surprise. "Who is?" I asked.
"The other kids," he whispered, fully crying now, "Cause Ms. Jones called on me to answer a question on the board and I-I couldn't answer it because I couldn't read it. And now everybody thinks I'm stupid and they… make fun of me."
My heart sank as he spoke. This was the first time I was hearing of any of this and it had been a long time since I'd felt so helpless.
When I didn't respond immediately, Nicky, mistaking my silence, continued on, "But I'm not! I'm not stupid. I mean, I don't try to be. It's my dyslexia! I can't read!"
"I know," I said softly, but he was still talking.
"It gets all jumbled and doesn't make sense, and it hurts my head."
"I know," I said again, slightly louder. "Nicky," I said, preventing him from continuing, "I know."
He looked at me, shaking as he cried. "I don't know what to do," he said.
I sighed. "Why didn't you tell me?"
He shrugged. "Because… I don't know. I didn't think it would do any good."
"Nicky, if kids at school are bullying you, they need to stop."
"I know…" he muttered and then paused, staring at the floor, "Why am I the only one with dyslexia? Logan and Carly don't have it and neither does Izzie, or Caleb, or Emily, or anybody!"
"That's not true," I assured him, "Esperanza does and so does Tommy." I paused, meeting his eyes, "Mom and I do. And out of all our friends, Uncle Frank is the only one who doesn't." Nicky was silent. "And you know what?"
"What?" he asked halfheartedly.
"I got bullied in school too."
He sniffed. "You did?"
"Oh yeah," I said, "All the time. For all kinds of things."
"What happened?"
"Well, I let it bother me a lot before I found out I was a half-blood. It was hard having ADHD and dyslexia without knowing why. Back then, I just thought they were normal issues."
"But they weren't."
"No, they weren't. And before I learned the truth, I thought they were the worst problems I'd ever have to deal with. But then I learned what I was and why I was the way I was and the bullying didn't matter so much anymore."
"Cause you had quests and wars to worry about."
"Yeah. But I also realized that I was part of something way bigger than any of the kids bullying me would ever even know about, and it didn't bother me so much anymore." Nicky considered that. "Listen to me," I said intently, "You're dyslexic because your brain is programmed for Ancient Greek. And ADHD can be the difference between living and dying in a monster attack or worse. You're part of two worlds instead of one and you have to deal with the bad parts of both of them. So I don't care what those kids tell you; there is nothing wrong with the way you are. I sleep better at night knowing you are this way. And you know as well as I do that just because you can't read English and take tests as well as your brother can doesn't mean he is any smarter than you are. You're just smart in different ways. So I don't want you to listen to those kids, okay?"
"Kay," he whispered.
I watched him for another second and then turned, opened my door, stepped out, and opened his. I wrapped my arms around him and he buried his face in my shoulder. "It'll be okay," I murmured, "I promise." He nodded against me, and after another few seconds, I let him go. "I know it's hard to deal with now but you will eventually learn how to manage the dyslexia. It gets easier."
"Okay," he said again.
"Okay," I said, "Do you want me to speak to your teacher?"
Nicky thought about it for few seconds. "No," he decided, "Not yet."
"Are you sure?" He nodded. "Okay, but if it keeps up you need to tell me and we're going to do something about it."
He nodded again. "Are you gonna tell Mom?"
I smiled. "Yes. Or you can. But she should know."
"Okay."
"I love you, okay?"
"I know. I love you too, Dad."
"Are you gonna be okay? Can I take you to school?"
"Okay. Let's go."
I'd been at work for a little over an hour when I got the phone call.
"Hello?"
"Percy," Annabeth said. She sounded odd, and I knew why at her next words. "Its Carly."
"What's wrong?" I asked, an anxious knot suddenly settling itself in my throat.
"She's burning up. The fever won't go down at all and she's in agony. I don't think this is a stomach bug—I know, baby. I know. It's okay," she added, obviously speaking to Carly, who I could hear crying in the background. "Are you at the aquarium?"
"No, heading back there. One of my guys needed help in the field."
"Okay, well you need to come as soon as you can. I'm taking her to the emergency room."
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more. :)
