I think I may have made Percy be a little too mature for his age here. Maybe. Longest chapter yet! It's also not the whole thing, but I didn't have it finished and since I made you all wait for an update for almost a whole week, I thought I better give you what I've got. I think I stopped it at a good place, though. It's not too much of a cliffhanger! :D And I'm having friends over tomorrow so I won't be able to update then. I got the Les Miserables Highlights CD and I've been playing it 24/7... I'm addicted, guys.

I joined a PJO forum! They're fun, and kind of addicting, but really confusing when you're talking to like 5 different characters at the same time!


Second grade wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I made it to December without any weird stuff happening!

Of course, I had to live with Smelly Gabe now, and that wasn't a party.

He was always having his friends over, for one thing. That wouldn't be too bad, except for that all they did was sit around, eat, play poker, and drink beer. One time I found an empty bottle in the hallway. I picked it up and smelled it, and it smelled really, really gross. Why would anyone want to drink that stuff? Maybe it tasted better than it smelled. I don't know, there wasn't any left for me to see for myself.

Of all the ugly, lazy, smelly guys who were always hanging around our apartment, Gabe was the fattest, ugliest, laziest, and definitely the smelliest of them all. He had a job, something with electronics, I think, but I don't know how he did it, because every time I was home, so was he.

So, for the first time in my whole life, the best part of the day was when I was at school. That was weird, and it kind of made me a little scared. What if something happened again and I had to stop going to school? It wasn't really a 'what if'. Something was going to happen.

It was the week before Christmas when something happened. It wasn't another stalker, which was good, but it was Gabe. Which was bad.

For a while, I thought a boy in my class named Ryan Jefferson was a monster with a really good disguise, but I don't think he really was now. He's just really, really mean to me. He's not mean to the other kids, just me, and I didn't get it. He would always make fun of me for not being able to read as good as the rest of the class. He was right, too. I couldn't read very good, but I wasn't stupid, like he said. I don't know why I couldn't do it. I hated being picked to read out loud, and Ryan knew it, so he always picked me.

I asked Mom and she said that I shouldn't think he was a monster, just a bully. She told me that some kids were just going to be mean, not because they were trying to attack me, but because it made them feel better.

Yeah. It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, either.

Back to what happened the week before Christmas. My teacher said that we were going to do Secret Santas in our class. We had to listen to a whole big speech about how everyone in this class was a good person - except Ryan, I added, but I didn't say it out loud because I'd get in trouble - and that no matter who we got, we had to give them a good gift that they would like.

Then she pulled out a hat and said that everyone's name was on a piece of paper in that hat. We would take turns picking names, and we weren't allowed to get ourself. I ended up going last, so I just took the last paper that was in there. The name took me a few minutes to read, because the letters kept floating around. It was annoying. Finally I got it, though.

I had to get 'nice gifts' for Ryan Jefferson.


I told Mom about the whole thing when I got home. I thought she was going to call my teacher and ask for me to switch people, but I was wrong. She told me that maybe if I did this for him he wouldn't be so mean to me, and that mean people can become nice if someone is nice to them.

I wanted to tell Mom that was a bunch of baloney. But I'd get in trouble. Why am I always trying to not get in trouble?

"Here you go, here's some money. Go find presents for Ryan. I think I gave you enough to find something for every day for the rest of this week." Mom handed me some money. "Now I have to go make Gabe's bean dip, he's been begging for it all weekend, but I have to get the ingredients first." She left my room and I sighed. I guess there wasn't a way I was getting out of this. I slid off my bed and went downstairs, hoping I wouldn't run into Smelly Gabe on my way out.

I shouldn't have thought I'd be able to.

"Hey, kid! Where are you going?" he shouted from the living room, where him and his friends were playing poker on a coffee table.

"Out," I said, and turned to leave, but he shouted again.

"Come in here a minute."

I didn't know if I should be worried or not, but I was worried anyway. I went into the living room. Gabe threw down a card, then looked over at me. "You got money?"

"Um... what?" I asked, trying to sound tough. I'd tried sounding innocent before with Smelly Gabe. It didn't work.

"Cut the act, kid. Tell me, you got money?"

"No," I lied. Mom told me I shouldn't lie to people who... uhh... have something on me. Oh, yeah. Authority. Over me. But Gabe doesn't count, at least not for me. He shouldn't have... authority on me. I think authority means he can do bad stuff to me if I don't obey him.

"You're a right little liar, aren't you?" Smelly Gabe frowned, squinting his tiny eyes at me. "You are. You have cash, I know you do. Where you goin' if you aren't goin' to the store?"

"A friend's house," I said quickly.

"You don't have friends. Who'd be friends with you?" He reached up and grabbed me in a headlock. "Mommy isn't here to call to now, kid. Turn out your pockets. All of 'em."

I felt like I was going to cry and be sick at the same time as I turned out my pockets. The money Mom gave me to get Ryan's Secret Santa presents was on the floor for Gabe to put a foot over.

"Mine now. Listen, you gave this to me, okay? It's what you'll do whenever I ask you if you have cash. It'll be our guy secret, okay? Sally doesn't need to know." He popped his knuckles to tell me what would happen if she did.

I ran back up to my room, not waiting for Gabe to tell me he was done talking. I didn't care. He was a bully just like Ryan, and even worse. Ryan didn't steal my money, he just called me mean names. One time Gabe stole some of the candy bars I had under my bed. Well, he never told me, but I knew it was him. When I tried to tell Mom how mean he was to me she didn't even really listen. Actually, she listened, but pretended she didn't hear me. It wasn't fair!

Why was it so important to her to get married to Smelly Gabe? When I'm older, she told me. When I'm older I'll know why she married Smelly Gabe. When I'm older I'll be able to meet my dad. When I'm older I'll find out why weird gross monsters follow me.

Why does everything have to happen when I'm older? I want to know now.

I still needed a Secret Santa present for Ryan, though. There was only one thing I could think of that might be an okay present. I reached under my bed and pulled out a shoe box that used to have at least fifteen candy bars in it! It took me a while to count all them. But now I had... two. For four days left of the week.

For the second time, I felt like I was going to cry and be sick. But this time I actually did kind of cry. Kind of. I didn't really cry, my eyes just got a little wet. Stupid Gabe and his stupid guy secret.


The next day at school, we did the Secret Santa gift exchange. I got a jar full of caramels, which I knew I would have to hide the minute I got home, because Gabe could smell candy from a mile away. And I don't think our apartment is a mile big. It might be, but I don't think so.

Ryan got his candy bar, and he just threw it in his backpack and started playing with the present his friend Mark got, which was a plane that you can put together and fly.

The day I was worrying about came soon. The second day, Wednesday, I gave him my last candy bar, and it went pretty much the same way as the day before, and I got a giant chocolate bar. I ate a lot of it before Mom picked me up, because I didn't know how long I could keep something that big hidden from Smelly Gabe.

"How does Ryan like his presents?" Mom asked when she picked me up on Wednesday.

"He likes them okay," I said. It wasn't really a lie. He didn't seem to hate them.

"Well that's good. You reveal who you have on Friday, right?"

I forgot about that. What was going to happen when he found out that I was the one who gave him nothing? And I wouldn't have anything to give him. I needed to find something before then. "Um, yeah we do." Then I stopped talking for the rest of the way home, because I thought she would ask me what I got him and I wouldn't be able to say, nothing because Gabe stole my money. I didn't want to lie to Mom. She had authority over me.

The next day, when Ryan found out he didn't have anything, he started yelling. Like I thought. He was gonna be so mad at me tomorrow, when he found out who me was.

The teacher got him to calm down, and she said to the whole class, "Tomorrow when I find out who it is, I will be having a serious talk with Ryan's Secret Santa. I told you that everyone in this class deserves a nice gift, and Ryan didn't get anything."

"Yeah!" Ryan added. "I guess there are just some mean people in this class."

It was so not fair. Ryan was the mean one, but I was going to get in trouble! First Smelly Gabe, now this. If my mom never married him, this would never have happened, I thought.

That night, I was starting to really panic. I wanted to pretend I was sick so I wouldn't have to go to school with no present for Ryan, but then I would be home all day with Smelly Gabe. That would stink. Literally.

I went down to the kitchen and started looking through the refrigerator for something, anything, I could take as a present. Then I saw Gabe's leftover bean dip. He was always begging Mom to make it, so it must be really good. Maybe that would be a good present! I found a plastic bag, scooped some of the bean dip into it, and took the bag up to my room. Maybe, just maybe, this would turn out okay.

The first thing we did at school on our last day before Christmas was the Secret Santa final gift exchange. We were giving our gifts in alphabetical order. I think that means that if your last name starts with A you go first and if it starts with Z you go last. Mine started with J. I wasn't good at spelling, but I did know how to spell my name.

The first kid was a boy named Adam somebody, but I guess his last name started with A even though I didn't know what it was. He was the one who had me. He gave me a box full of brownies. They smelled really good.

By the time it was my turn, I was sweating and kind of maybe nervous. I stood in the front of the class and said, "I had Ryan." Ryan almost jumped out of his chair to come get his present. When he grabbed it from me, he made a face.

"What's this?" he asked. "It looks totally gross."

"It's bean dip!" I announced proudly. "Smel-er, my stepdad loves it. He begs for it all the time."

Ryan smelled it. "Smells weird. Why didn't you give me anything yesterday? Are you the mean one in this class?" I couldn't believe him sometimes.

The teacher frowned at me. "That's right. Ryan, go ahead, it's your turn. Percy, I need to have a talk with you in the hallway." She would ask me why I didn't give Ryan anything, and I couldn't tell her the truth, because if I did she'd call my mom and she'd talk to Smelly Gabe and then he would know that I told on him and I'd get in trouble.

But if I lied I'd still get in trouble because I would have to say something like I bought stuff for myself.

My life is a mess. It's messier than the bean dip that Ryan hates.

"Percy, I need to talk to you," the teacher repeated.

"No!" I blurted out, grabbed my coat, and ran out the back door. The back door of my classroom went right outside instead of into the hallway. It was snowing, and it was cold, but for me it was better than being in there.

I sat down on the curb.

My life was a mess.