Percy knew it was inevitable. But, why oh why did the fates have to be so cruel. Couldn't they let him keep his facade up just for a little while longer. Was that too much to ask? The ache in his chest was worsening. But that was just probably the anxiety. No one knew he was slowly dying. Not physically of course, but he might as well have been with the state of his mental health. His mind was like a battlefield. Constant memories waging war against himself. Now, part of that was his own dam fault. Maybe he should have opened up to all the therapists and 'people who just want to help'. But how do you deal with being booted out of a foster home every other month because apparently "his attitude was just too much to handle."
Now, while the situation with Gabe wasn't great, it was always tolerable when his mom was around. Sally Jackson was the type of mom who bought blue candy for you every friday. A mom who defiled her husband, a grumpy man that said "blue food isn't real!", by creating any possible food blue. But when she was gone because of malfunctioning car brakes, Percy couldn't find the will to keep going and just wanted someone to rescue him. But he had no choice but to shrug his way through it. Gabe made sure of that by controlling every aspect of the boy's life. No friends, no life, no nothing. Year and a half later, Gabe was super drunk one night and stupidly gave Percy a nice black eye and concussion with a stitches-worthy cut by his eyebrow. Percy lied about the cause as much as possible but one teacher became too curious. After CPS stopped by the apartment during a lesson of Gabe's, the evidence was clear and Percy was taken immediately.
Calmly, as Percy stood in front of house number eleven, he mentally gave himself a lecture to not mess this up and to not be a burden. His case worker, Matt, looked down at Percy with a sad smile. Hopefully this time will be different. The pity in the older man's face was evident. Matt seemed to want to say something in order to comfort the tiny 14 year-old, but was apparently at a loss for words. The way-too-skinny teen obviously just wanted to get the whole introduction thing over with. Matt reached out to open the door but was interrupted when a girl who looked to be the age of 11 with kinky brown hair and large brown eyes opened the door with a large smile on her face. "Hi! You must be Perseus right?" she excitedly exclaimed. Percy shivered at the use of his full name. "It's just Percy," he quietly whispered. The girl was about to ask him to speak up when an older boy with shocking blue eyes and military cut blonde hair appeared behind her. His fair skin largely contrasted the girl's cocoa colored body. The boy had a small scar above his lip that seemed to wrinkle when he smiled."Welcome Perseus! Glad we could meet you" the boy said with a large smile. The way he said ¨we¨ made Percy wonder how many others lived in the two-story house. Percy looked down and uttered one line, "Please just call me Percy." Matt asked the boy if they could come in. After apologizing for not letting them in sooner, the blonde kid widened the entry way and shooed the brown-eyed girl out of the way, telling her to "Go get Chiron." As Percy stepped through the door, his eyes slowly took in every little detail. Off the hallway to the right, was a long wooden table with benches on either side. In front was a large staircase which must have led to the rooms upstairs. To the left sat two grey couches put an L-shape, each with a couple decorative pillows. There was also a cozy fireplace to the side with
a mantle and TV up top. Before Percy could appreciate the works of art on the walls and the pine scented candles burning on the in-tables, the boy who welcomed them in, suggested they go and wait in the office and Chiron(whoever the heck that was) was on a call that would only take a minute more. As Matt followed the boy towards the back of the house, Percy reluctantly went along. They entered the office, which contrary to Percy's expectations, was quite welcoming with its comfy chairs and the wide windows. The amount of little kid artwork and jars of colorful surgery snacks didn't do any harm either. The 14-year-old began to wonder how long this house would last because while he had only been there for a couple minutes, he didn't necessarily want to leave right away. It just was so welcoming and he hadn't even met his foster parent yet. Behind him, Percy heard the door swing open and heavy footsteps soon followed. "Hi Perseus, it is a pleasure to meet you. I looked at your file and I think you are going to fit right in." Ah yes, nothing is more soothing than hearing a stranger say they 'read your file' which basically means they know about your whole life. Your trauma, your dislikes, your likes, your issues. Something about that felt wrong. And to top it off, what was with peoples deal with calling him by his full name. That would quickly need to come to a stop. Nobody, and that means nobody, besides Gabe called Percy 'Persueus'. Besides that was always during a lesson as Gabe so affectionately put it and Percy didn't need anymore reminders of those.
Matt's phone buzzed. "Good to meet you, Chiron, unfortunately I have to run. It seems that everything is in place and Percy should be all clear to stay," Matt commented. I wasn't near ready for him to leave me alone but hey, that's life and life ain't fair. Chiron looked to be around 40 years old more or less, but with the worry lines etched into his forehead, you would've thought he had seen 9 decades. His fashion sense seemed to need some help as he sported a black turtleneck with a red checkered vest and blue skinny jeans. I sunk deeper into my chair. Apparently my fear and worry was clear on my face because Matt leaned down and whispered, "Hey, I'll be back next month, just survive till then." Well, that sounded easy enough. Just one month to go. One month of hiding emotions. One month of downplaying the pain. I can do that, I mean I've always done that. But, some part of me deep down inside wished that maybe, just maybe, I could stay for longer. But that was stupid. I'm Percy Jackson, the kid no one wants. The kid with too much attitude. So here's to four more years before I can get out of this hole and this screwed up system.
Matt walked out and after a minute I heard his car pull away. Chiron looked at me and smiled that we'll get along just fine kid smile all adults give, whether out of pity, false hope, or just stupid chipper-ness. Either way I didn't like it. "Why don't we put your stuff in the room you'll be sharing, Perseus?" I tried not to flinch but it was inevitable to cover it up so I quickly nodded and got up to follow. Quietly I asked Chiron "Could you just call me Percy, please?". " Oh of course! Whatever is your preference," He assured. ¨There are around eight others here. You will share a room with Jason Grace whom you met at the door." Looking at him out of the corner of his eye, Chiron asked me, " Why don't we ask him to give you a tour? Would that be ok with you?" Mostly, I just wanted to collapse on a bed and sleep for days. But, seeing as that wasn't an option presented to me, I mumbled okay.
Turns out, Jason was the blonde who let us in. With a seemingly natural leadership personality, Jason greeted Percy, " Hey! So I hear we are sharing a room. I can't wait to get to know ya. You'll notice we are all pretty close here. Just don't get on Nico's bad side ya know." Geez, what is up with all the happiness in this house. I mean group homes are typically the place where the kids are ignored unless acting out and everybody's always scowling at you, especially when you're the newbie. "Oh...O-Okay." I intelligently responded. Wow, Percy. I try to make a good impression and can't even get a coherent thought. Jason decided to show me all the upstairs bedrooms first. As he led me around, I wondered where everybody else was. He kept telling me who slept where (of course I didn't remember a thing), but I never saw anyone else. That is, until Jason led me to the second staircase leading up to the attic I guessed. As soon as we stood at the base, I began to hear yells, exasperated voices, and Taylor Swift music.
I looked around at the large attic. There were two beds on side with one decorated in Cherokee owls and woodland creatures and a messily made bed while the other had a simple and modern look with a few horse-girl type accents. Once we reached the peak, Jason called out, "Hey guys, this here is Percy. He's bunking with me now." A chorus of "Hey!", "Finally a newbie to pick on", "Thalia!", and " Hi's" resounded around the room. A brown haired girl with eyes that were brown...no wait, blue… is that green? walked towards me. "Hi Percy, nice to meet you. I'm Piper, and the hooligans over there are Leo," she pointed to a short Latino boy with a goofy grin, "and then Hazel and her half brother Nico," the only thing that looked similar was their eyes which seemed to hold years of experience behind them. Piper continued on her list counting off Frank Zhang, Thalia, (who looked terrifyingly fierce) and Annabeth Chase. Woah...Gosh those girls startling gray eyes held so much confidence and power that her laidback smile didn't match one bit. I waved and stood next to Jason and Piper, uncertain what to do and shuffling my feet. By the way they looked at each other, I figured they were a couple but didn't know it. After a few (awkward) seconds, Leo beckoned me over to where he was playing Call of Duty with Frank who, while he didn't look to be enjoying it, was dominating Leo. "Come child, and watch the master," announced Leo. Annabeth immediately leaned over to the couch from her place on the floor and whacked the player's arm. "Ouch….holy smokes senorita, careful I'm sensitive!" Annabeth, with a smirk on her face, reprimanded the boy, "Knock it off and leave Percy be. You too Thalia." I looked over at the scary girl. She stared at me, like contemplating how my head would look on her wall but after a stare down with the gray-eyed girl, seemed to simmer down to a keep one eye open when you sleep at night, kind of glare. I quickly looked away. Awkwardly sitting down on the floor, I quietly watched the boys play. Annabeth went back to reading her book while Jason hopped on the Call of Duty and Piper joined the rest of the girls at a table playing Monopoly. The rest of the afternoon went smoothly as I stayed in the background, trying to fade away. At dinner, Chiron and the others chit-chatted about various things.
I laid in bed that night with so many questions. Why was everyone so nice? When were people's true feelings towards each other going to show? Would I be able to last longer at this house? Now, I try not to dwell in self pity. My mother always said pity gets you nowhere. But sometimes, there's nothing else to do. So I was lulled to sleep that night thinking about how horrible everything and everyone plus the sound of Jason snoring.
