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Percy: Chapter 5

One month later

This last month has been exciting, new, and horrible all at the same time. Let's start with the good part because I like to consider myself to be a positive person. Rachel and I hit our two year anniversary. We went to a beach about an hour away, then went out for a nice dinner, and ended the night at a midnight showing of some movie about a dog that dies. I hated it, but Rachel was in love with it and kept raving about how cute it was. So I pretended to like it.

Annabeth started eating lunch with us. Something about her personality fit so well into our group. Her and Leo had this great gag going about them both being the only single ones in the group, and Leo kept jokingly flirting with her. Don't worry, I think both of them would rather eat a live toad before dating each other. Her and Piper constantly teased each other and even the most brilliant minds would never be able to understand their constant strings of inside jokes. Her and Jason always studied together and have had 3 roast battles; one of which ended with Frank and Leo rolling on the floor laughing. Frank loved having deep conversations with Annabeth about life, school, and the deep hatred they both had for Mrs. Hera the principal. Hazel and Annabeth once spent a whole lunch playing Papa's Freezeria, and now are on level 16. Rachel and Annabeth got along easily, both were so smart they could easily rant together, and even had friendly debates.

We had been tutoring together every other day after school, and it was helping my grades enormously. I had all A's and B's, and was able to go home without any homework and fall asleep by 8:30 if I wanted. We often talked about the old days, when we used to hang out everyday.

One day Annabeth said, "I just miss Grover so much! It just isn't the same without him." Which gave me a brilliant idea. Every end of the month Grover visits me and we hang out on the weekend. We stay at my dads, eat loads of pizza (and enchiladas which he loves), and watch TV the whole weekend. So when he texted me that he was coming in town on Friday, I told him to come to school at 6:00 so we could surprise Annabeth. He was ecstatic about the idea and suggesting getting ice cream afterwards.

When we walked into the library for tutoring, Annabeth didn't even notice me at first. She had her curly hair in a high ponytail, white workout shorts, and an orange tank top on. She looked kind of upset, but as soon as she saw me and Grover her face lit up. She screamed, earning her a loud hush from the librarian, blushed at her mistake, and ran up to Grover and gave him a big hug.

"Grover!" She whisper-yelled. "I haven't seen you in a hundred years!"

"I know!" Grover said. Grover was very short, shorter than Annabeth, and I could tell he was trying to stand on his tip-toes. "What have you been up to?"

Annabeth was practically jumping up and down with excitement. I was thrilled that I was able to do this for her. Lately, she'd been upset because of Thalia and all the drama that came with their newly ruined friendship, and seeing her so happy was amazing. "Oh, just helping Seaweed Brain here pass his classes."

"Not true," I interjected. "I was already passing them." "Barely." Grover smirked. "How's Luke?"

Annabeth made a face. "Over. Let's go sit down."

Grover raised his eyebrows. So I wasn't the only one who noticed the quick change in subject anytime Luke got brought up. But he ignored it and sat down with her.

We got almost nothing done in the next hour, we were too busy chatting. It wasn't a big deal since it was the weekend, but Annabeth felt bad and made me promise that we would get together this weekend to finish it. The three of us talking just was so easy. All we did was remember old times. The biggest talking point was the one time we tried to run away in a zoo truck.

We were 12 and all were feeling a little moody one day. My parents were getting divorced, Annabeth's mom missed her track meet for work, and Grover was just kind of hungry. So when we saw a zoo truck transporting animals near my house, Annabeth suggesting we get in it and run away to LA, where the animals were going. We made it about two miles before the smell got to us and we snuck out of the car. We had to walk home, but the exercise made us all feel a little bit better. When we got back to my house, my mom got upset with us, but ending up laughing because it was just so stupid of us.

After Grover had left, Annabeth and I were walking to our cars when she stopped me and said, "Thank you so much for inviting him. Thalia had just sent me a nasty text message, I'm guessing she's drunk. But, it made me feel so much better. It was really thoughtful of you."

I smiled and joked, "Hey, co-DD's stick together and make sure the other is at peak emotion level." Co-DDs was our new joke after Annabeth's fight with Thalia.

Annabeth gave me a little smile and nodded. She hopped into her car and I watched her drive off until she was out of eyesight. I didn't want to go home. I had to go home to Gabe.

That was why this month had been so horrible. Normally I only stay with my mom when Gabe is out of town. He goes on business trips for weeks at a time which is great. Then I get alone time with my mom. She doesn't know that he sometimes hits me, but knows I hate him. After she first married him, she promised they would get divorced as soon as I finished college. She just needed money, and he had a steady job. I know she would leave as soon as she found out about my secret, but then she would have to work full time. Her ultimate goal in life was to become a writer, but without an actual book out, she doesn't make very much money. My dad sends her money, but not enough.

This month I stayed with both of them, because my dad was gone for the whole month. Normally my dad lets me stay at his house when he's gone, but his brother was staying there because his house was under construction. So I had to spend a whole month with Gabe.

I tried to come home late every night, so he might already be in bed. But on occasion he would have poker games with friends and then would have to stay up late cleaning before my mom got home. Two times, he had gotten frustrated with me. What over, I couldn't tell you. I tried to stay quiet, do what he asked, and get it done quickly. However, sometimes even if I breathed too loudly it would invoke him to hit me. I would try to stop him, but he was 200 plus pounds and could lift over 300 pounds. If I even tried to pick a fight with him, I would end up in the hospital.

Today I had to go to school with a huge black eye. I woke up early for swim and snuck into my mom's bathroom to steal some makeup. I could keep my head down until swim started, put on my goggles and hoped no one would notice. Then I went into a bathroom stall and used the camera on my phone to cover up my bruises.

The only person who noticed throughout the whole day was Rachel, who was a makeup expert. We were sitting in my car when she touched my face and asked, "What's this?"

"Oh," I tried to look embarrassed. "I ran into a wall. It's embarrassing, so I tried to cover it up."

"Baby, that's not embarrassing!" She laughed at me. She wouldn't laugh if she knew the truth.

"I guess not," I grabbed her hand. "Just don't tell anyone. I don't want any of the guys making fun of me."

She looked a little confused. I normally was fine with people making fun of me. "Okay, Percy. I won't." I kissed her on the head and we went back to singing to the radio.

When I came home after killing as much time as possible, my mom was there. I was safe tonight.

I flung my backpack on my bed. Even though my room was huge at my dad's, I loved this room so much more. It had blue walls, a grey bed, and posters of my favorite bands and sport players. I kept it messy, because cleaning made me want to puke. I just Jason clean whenever he came over.

Just then I remember that my dad was coming home the next day. Thank God. I decided to pack a bag for my dad's house, and remembered that Annabeth wanted to finish studying. We could study there, instead of at school. It was closer to her house anyway. I texted her, then started to get ready for bed.

"Percy, sweetie," My mom knocked on my door. I let her in. I made sure my mom installed a lock on my door after Gabe moved in. "Were you planning on just not saying hi at all?"

Actually I was. I was planning on leaving early the next morning for my dad's before Gabe and her woke up so I could avoid any conflict. "Oh, sorry! I'm just tired."

She smiled. "I bet you are. Long day. Are you going to your dad's tomorrow?"

"Yeah," I said apologetically. I could tell she didn't want me to. I think she got lonely with just Gabe. "Annabeth and I are going to study there."

My mom's face lit up. "You guys should study here once Gabe leaves! He'll be gone in 3 weeks."

"Totally, Annabeth really misses you," I tried to make her feel better about me leaving.

"Oh what a sweetheart! I packed you a lunch for tomorrow. I know your dad can't cook and I don't want you to just eat cereal the whole time. I'll make Annabeth one too," She kissed my head. "I have work early tomorrow, so I'm heading off to bed."

"I should go to bed too." I hugged her. When she left I checked in the mirror to make sure my make up was still on. If she knew I had a black eye she would automatically be suspicious.

The next day I woke up early and threw on the first clothes I found in my closet. I snuck out of my room, passed Gabe and my mom's room, and grabbed a bagel from the kitchen. I almost forgot my mom's lunch, but remembered to grab it last minute. She had put a heart on Annabeth's bag.

The drive to my dad's was around 40 minutes since I lived in central Manhattan and traffic was crazy. My dad's was close to school, only a 10 minute drive, but the drive from my mom's took forever. I love driving though, because my dad bought me an awesome truck for my 16th.

When I got to my dad's, I had to walk into his busy lobby. He lives in a huge apartment. Probably 7 times bigger than my mom's, with a tiny aquarium in it. He keeps his favorite types of fish there. My room is huge, and I hate it. It lacks the comfort that is at my mom's house. Normally I end up sleeping on a loft in the living room and bringing a bunch of blankets and pillows.

My uncle had already left by the time I got there. My dad and his brother's weren't close, but still did nice things for each other from time to time. Annabeth was coming over at 10:00, so I had two hours to kill before she came. I was about to turn on the TV and lounge, when my dad burst open the door, singing Yellow Submarine.

"Percy!" He said in his loud voice. "How are you?"

I got up from the couch and walked over to hug him. "Glad your back."

My dad threw his suitcase on the kitchen table. "How was the horrible hog? God, why your mother decided to marry that piece of shit, I'll never know!"

"He's kind of the worst." My dad didn't really know anything about my life with my mom, besides that I hated Gabe. He kind of figured my mom had lots of money, because when they were still married, she never needed to worry about it. "I have a friend coming over soonish."

"Ah-don't worry, I'll stay out of your hair. I'm leaving to go fight Zues on something. He wants to make horrible company decisions and I won't let him." My dad fought his brother, Zues, on everything. Jason, Thalia, and I often joked about how if we fought as much as they did, we wouldn't even be able to look at each other with getting angry at school.

4 hours later Annabeth and I were sitting on my bed in the loft laughing.

"Remember that one time at the St. Louis arch when that lady's dog attacked you?" Annabeth giggled and wiped away some tears.

"How could I forgot?" I laughed. "I'm scarred for life. I'll never get a chihuahua!"

"And-and-and-" Annabeth could hardly keep from laughing. "That one time you made your mom only feed you blue food for a week? She finally gave up when you wouldn't eat any vegetables because blue ones don't exist! So she threatened not to feed you!"

"It's practically abuse! At least blue is better than grey! I bet there aren't any grey foods!"

"Oysters are kind of grey," She thought for a while. "I don't think there are. But I don't need to eat my favorite color. That's weird! I forgot how cruel you used to be to me about my color preferences!"

I jokingly rolled my eyes. "Annabeth, there is not a color duller than grey. Then again, it matches your personality."

"Ah! How rude!" She threw a pillow at me, when started an all out pillow war. At one point I almost fell off the loft.

After Annabeth and I had decided her as the winner of the pillow fight, we realized how exhausted we were from laughing. I sat up and said, "I need food."

"You always need food," Annabeth rolled her eyes and started climbing down the ladder.

"My mom made us both a lunch," I said climbing down after her. "I'm sure it's not blue though."

"How unfortunate. Tell your mom she's the best."

I fished the lunches out of the fridge while Annabeth sat up on my counter. Just then my phone rang. I handed her the lunch then checked my phone. It was Rachel.

"One sec," I said and Annabeh gave me a thumbs up while digging into her sandwich. I picked up the phone. "Hey babe! What's up?"

"P-percy!" Rachel sounded like she was crying. "I'm so s-sorry!"

"Rachel? What's wrong?" I stopped fishing through the fridge. Annabeth looked up curiously.

"Percy!" She moaned. "We have to break up!"