Okay. I'm sorry for the late update but here's a chapter to introduce Percy as an olive branch. *dodges virtual tomatoes*

Here we goo!

~o~O~o~

Riiiiing riiiiing!

Riiiing Riiing!

Okay. That's enough of that stupid ringing!

Percy switches the alarm off grudgingly. He hides his face in the pillows and went back to sleep, just barely.

"PERSEUS JACKSON! GET UP!" He heard his mom yell. Mom's been crankier ever since she's been pregnant, she's never been this cranky even when she was pregnant with Tyson. He and Tyson were very excited to find out we're going to have another sibling but they never knew they had to deal with the crankiest mom ever.

"DID YOU HEAR ME? GET DOWN HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" She yelled even louder.

"PAUL! GET HIM OUT OF HIS BED!" She yelled and he heard some hurried footsteps and then the door opened.

"Come on Percy. Your mother is going to kill me. Please?" Paul asked exasperatedly.

"Mmkay. A few more minutes." He said, his eyelids drooping. He didn't get much sleep yesterday night. Today was her anniversary. He hated this day. He wanted to go back to sleep and never wake up again. But he wished for that every day, didn't mean it was going to come true.

"NO! PAUL, IF YOU DON'T GET HIM DOWN HERE!" She yelled. Wow, his mom must've had a super hearing or something. Paul winced, he took off Percy's covers.

"Okay. I'm awake, I'm awake." Percy said and tried to get up. Keyword: tried. He tripped on his own covers and fell face-first onto the ground. That really hurt. A great way to start the morning, sprawled half-naked on his bedroom floor, in front of his step-father.

"Ow," He said as Paul helped him up.

"You have ten minutes to get ready," Paul announced and walked out of Percy's room. Percy stood, blinking wildly so that his eyes could get adjusted to the light coming through the curtains.

How can the sun shine so brightly today? He shook his head, determined to act happy in front of his mom today.

"Morning, mom," He said after he got ready and sat beside Tyson near the counter. Tyson was 7 years old and in second grade. He had big brown eyes and messy brown hair. He was the cutest thing.

"Here." She replied and pushed a plate full of blue pancakes in front of him. Her eyes were soft and glassy when she looked at Percy.

"How are you, honey?" She asked, softly and carefully as if she was afraid he was going to break down. He did last year. Percy decided to break away on the inside this year.

"I'm feeling okay." He said, giving a small smile. He didn't want his mother to be worried. She smiled sadly. They all missed her because who couldn't?

"Eat up, Tyson." She said and gave him his plate of pancakes. He started to eat. Mom was three and a half months pregnant, so that meant the baby's going to be here before graduation, hopefully. Percy would get to spend some time with them before he goes to college.

He felt college was years away. He didn't want to go to college without her. Hell, he didn't want to live life without her.

He arrived at Goode and walked down the hall to his locker. Grover and Jason were talking, leaning against it. He took a deep breath and tried to make his thoughts vanish with the sound of his school. He put on a smile, like a mask, and walked towards them.

'Hey, guys.' He greeted as they turned towards him.

'How are you feeling, man?' Jason asked the same way his mother did, careful and sad. He wanted to cry every time someone asked him that. Because what did they expect, for him to be honest?

He shrugged his shoulders in response. A dark melancholy falls over their group this day, every year. He wished it was different. He just wanted her to be here with him.

"Hey, Percy." Thalia popped out of nowhere and greeted him. She started school a year late because her mother wasn't that responsible for her like how her father was with Jason. They don't talk about their mother who died in a car accident and their father, Zeus, who was a strict disciplinarian.

Right now, he wanted to cry into her arms like how he used to when they were young. She was the only one who was older in their family and was always there for them. But they grew up now, no more crying. No more feeling.

He waved, still silent. He felt like a cotton ball was lodged in his throat.

Luckily, he was saved by the bell and walked away from them. He caught a few pieces of their conversation.

"...this is worse than last year..." This was from Grover.

".. at least he was feeling something..." Thalia said.

"...acting so cold and unbothered... "

He walked away realizing he made a mistake by acting unbothered. They're even more concerned now.

The day was over before he knew it. The best and worst part of the day approaching.

He walked alone towards the flower shop, a few blocks away from school. He got a bouquet of her favorite flowers and walked down to the local cemetery.

He walked down the lonely graves. One had no name at all, just Rest In Peace. Truly lonely without even recognition. He picked out a few flowers from his bouquet and put them on the lonely grave.

Slowly, he walked to her grave, it was filled with flowers and love, just how a grave should be. he set down his bouquet and sat down.

"Hey, Rachel. How are you? I'm miserable without you. Remember that one day we danced in the rain and we both coughed and sniffled because we got a cold? But you painted a picture the next day even though we were sick. " He chuckled, sadly. Tears welled up in his eyes.

"I wish you were here. Three years, Rachel. And I still feel alone. Still feel lost. You made me promise. Remember? 'Promise. Promise me you'll find someone, Percy. I love you.' I promised you. But I still love you, Rachel. I still fucking love you and how am I supposed to find someone else when... I don't deserve them?"

He cried then. He felt everything that he's been ignoring all year long.

"I still love you. And I'll love you forever, this I can promise. I'll live but I'll still be dead because you aren't here. You aren't here."

He walked back home, a big weight on his shoulders. He felt as if the whole world's sadness was in him. He hated it. He wanted to be where Rachel was. Dancing in the rain with her.

He'd give anything to go through those moments again. Their first kiss. Their first dance. Their first date. Their first fight. Their first everything.

He would give his whole life to feel them again.

~o~O~o~

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~Bhavya