Warning: Contains mentions of depression, domestic emotional and verbal abuse. (I may need to add more when it seems necessary or I have decided to add another element to the story that requires a warning.)

- WARNING - THIS NEXT WARNING CONTAINS A SPOILER -

Also warning: LGBTQ+ characters. (If you have a problem with that, I advise you to leave, before all of Nico's self-proclaimed spouses, parents, and siblings come after you [AKA me].)

Chapter Four: New Friends

And so they continued with their "not so small talk", slowly getting to know each other more and more. Though not as much as Charlie thought.

"Okay, next…" Percy was smiling; he looked down at the list of questions and frowned. "What's your Hog- Hogwarts house…?" Robin shot to her feet.

"You read Harry Potter and you didn't say anything!?" Her tone was the tone of - 'pretending to be jokingly angry when you're actually kind of upset about the matter because you're very passionate about the subject at hand'.

Charlie internally face-palmed. Why didn't she say anything? "Yes." Was all Charlie could say after she took her thinking time to scold herself.

"Well? What's your house?" Robin said, now calmly, but yet excitedly, sitting back down on the ottoman. "Ravenclaw," Charlie replied proudly.

Robin shot to her feet again. "No kidding! Me too!" They high fived enthusiastically.

"What are you talking about? I don't really know anything about the Hogwarts houses, guys," Percy said in a pleading sort of tone.

Charlie turned to Percy excitedly, more than ready to share her extensive knowledge and wisdom regarding the magical wizarding world of Harry Potter.

"Okay, so there are four houses – Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. In short, the Gryffindors are brave and chivalrous and whatnot; Hufflepuffs are just and loyal; Ravenclaws are wise and witty; and Slytherins are cunning and ambitious; right?"

But Percy still looked confused. Charlie was never any good at explaining anything. Percy looked over at Robin as if to telepathically tell her that he has no idea what Charlie just said, and he needs her side of things.

"Okay, picture this, instead of houses, you have cabins, right? And so Gryffindor would be Ares; Hufflepuff would probably be Demeter, although not necessarily, It's really more of a stereotype; Ravenclaw would be Athena; and Slytherin would be Hermes. Better?"

Wait, what were they talking about? Ancient Greek gods? From like, mythology? That wasn't actually a bad idea if your friend is a Greek mythology nerd. And honestly, the comparisons weren't far off. They were actually pretty accurate. But what cabins were they talking about? What do the Greek gods have to do with cabins? Like cabins in the woods? On a beach? Or even in a camp?

Percy's face became a little bit less confused. "Ah, I guess I sort of understand now, maybe."

"Are you comparing the Hogwarts houses to ancient Greek gods?" Charlie absentmindedly strode over to her bookshelf and perused the spines of her precious books.

"Yes. Do you know anything about Greek mythology? Anything at all?" Robin was suddenly very keen on drawing information from Charlie about her knowledge of the ancient myths.

Charlie found the book she was looking for – a reasonably sized hardback book, it was beautiful, a green on top to blue on the bottom ombre, with a sketch of Zeus, the god of lightning, on the front along with the title of the book, Tales of the Greek Mythology, written in a pointy stick-like font meant to resemble the Greek alphabet.

Charlie turned to the first page of the book and looked at the message written on the inside of the cover.

May Thirteenth - Dear Charlie,
happy seventh birthday!
You've grown so much, you're so big now!
Already in first grade!
Remember, Daddy is with you and
he will still be with you even when I'm gone.
I love you right now and
I will love you forever,
- Mommy.

"I would think I know at least a bit of the stories. My mother liked mythology. She would tell me stories from all different kinds, I really liked the Egyptian mythology, actually. But I forgot a lot about Egyptian mythology over the years. My mother only ever bought me books of Greek mythology, so when she wasn't around to tell me stories anymore, I read the stories, which were all about Greek mythology."

"Is that a book she gave you?" Robin asked. Charlie nodded. "May I see it?"

Charlie hesitated. She really hated it when people touched her things, especially her books, especially books her mother had given her, especially the last one she ever did.

"Be very careful." Charlie gently handed Robin the book. Robin reopened the book back to the first page and read the message; her lips moved and gears turned, but neither made a sound.

Robin studied the message, presumably reading it over and over, the words 'lost in thought' were written all over her face.

"You said Charlie was just a fake name." Robin said this without looking up from the book, her tone rich with absolutely nothing; she said this with the most monotone voice.

"It is just a fake name. Maybe I'll tell you why I chose it... some other time."

Robin adjusted her glasses. "This book was given to you by your mother on your seventh birthday, on May thirteenth, correct?" Robin didn't wait for a response.

"Probably. It says that you were already in first grade at the time, meaning that unless something happened, you would be in seventh grade and thirteen right now, turning fourteen next May.

"You talk about your mother like she's no longer with you, which is what I'm going to assume because it's more likely to be correct than you realize, and if I sound rude for assuming that, I'm sorry. In this message that your mother wrote for you, she says your father will be watching over you even after she is gone, which could either mean that he will physically be there, or metaphorically.

"I think that he is metaphorically with you for a couple of reasons, first, if he was with you and lived with you, he might've also written in the book, or at least signed it, but obviously this isn't a very reliable reason.

"Second, you said you had a half brother, meaning that your mother had another child with someone who is not your father, most likely a stepfather of yours. You obviously have to have some legal guardian.

"When you answered the door you thought we were looking for Kristen, who I assume would probably be a stepsister and not another half sibling due to the fact that you implied that Andrew is younger than you, and Kristen would much obviously be older because two teenagers wouldn't be knocking on your front door asking to speak to a toddler. Also, what I assume would be her bedroom, decorated with giant One Direction posters is right across from here."

Robin looked up.

"What the actual hell," Charlie demanded, "was that? That was some deduction, Ms. Sherlock Holmes, or did you stop by Baker Street and read up on me?"

Robin looked at her with an expression that seed to say, 'one day you'll understand', but also a smile for Charlie's joke, which she seemed to find amusing. she chuckled lightly. "I just connected the dots."

"Connected the dots? Robin, you just connected some dodecahedrons! If fact, there weren't even any dots to connect! I wasn't implying anything, how did you do that?"
Robin shrugged. "It runs in the family."

Percy looked impressed, he raised his eyebrows and nodded. "Well, Annabeth was right, you are pretty good."

Robin smirked smugly. "Thank you. As I said, it runs in the family, you should know that by now, Percy. You might become part of it in the next eight or so years, you know."

Percy's face turned a deep scarlet. "What are you talking about? We're only seventeen!"

Robin looked at him like he just tracked mud onto her recently washed pristine marble floor, but was too tired to make a detailed angry face. "Did I, or did I not just say 'the next eight years or so'?"

Percy shrugged and mumbled something about how everyone dies alone, unless that was just what Charlie's pessimistic brain tricked itself into hearing. But she swore she heard the words 'early death' somewhere in there. But why?

Robin turned to Charlie. "Dodecahedron?" she mused. Charlie clarified, "twelve sides. It was my mother's favorite shape." Charlie looked distant for a moment. "But mine are circles."

Percy shrugged. "I kind of like triangles, actually."

"I don't like triangles."

"Oh? Why not?"

"I don't know. There are a lot of things I don't like for no apparent reason. Or at least, no reason that I can Identify." Charlie thought for a moment. "What do you dislike?"

Robin and Percy thought for a bit. "Being manipulated," Percy said straightforwardly. "I really don't like being forced to do something that I don't want to."

Charlie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Yeah, that's generally a pretty crappy thing to have happen to you. I don't think anyone likes being manipulated, but whatever. How about you, Robin?"

Robin looked up. She had obviously been slightly zoned out. "Oh, uh, me? I, uh, I don't like ignorant, airheaded, shallow, vain, stupid people."

Charlie didn't really know how to reply to that statement, so she settled for nodding and agreeing silently. Though she really could not agree more.

She anxiously took a deep breath and asked Robin, "Hey, uh, can I, uh, can I please have my book back? Please?"

Great, Now she probably just seed like some- some… annoying person, or something. What was she thinking? Why did she have to ask for her book back? Why is she so rude all the time?

"Oh, yeah, sure. Here you go," Robin said casually, smiling and handing Charlie her book back. Charlie gratefully took the book from Robin and put it back neatly in its place on the shelf.

As Charlie was walking back to her bed and sitting down, Percy looked at next question on the list. "Who's your fa-favorite mu-musician slash band?" he read with slight difficulty.

"Imagine Dragons!" Charlie said enthusiastically. "Oh my- Mine too!" Robin exclaimed, growing more ecstatic by the moment. Charlie and Robin high five once again.

Robin then proceeded to suddenly softly yet loudly sing the chorus to Radioactive. Her gentle yet powerful voice washed over Charlie, making her feel like she was melting into a puddle of liquefied human flesh.

Her legs felt like jell-o. Charlie didn't know why Robin's voice made her feel like that. She supposed it was probably because she would never be as a talented singer as Robin, and she was actually just feeling sad about it. She could never feel confident enough to do something like that. Sing. For people. Who would be able to hear her. Gosh, if Charlie ever tried to sing, she would sound like a dying hyena.

Percy grinned gleefully, as did Charlie. Robin must have realized that no one was joining her, assuming Percy knew the song, and her face flushed furiously, Charlie realized as Robin began to gradually grow quieter, her voice faltering.

Charlie didn't want to make Robin feel embarrassed, and she was already almost done with the second verse, which she had started after she finished the chorus, skipping the first verse completely. So when she was slowly coming to the end of the second verse, not intending to start the chorus again, Charlie did it instead of her.

Just as Robin ended with the second verse, Charlie started belting out the words to the chorus in a comically terrible voice, even worse than her own normal singing voice.

She purposely made her voice crack every few seconds, singing completely off key, using a high pitched tone at the points where using a high pitched tone would be most unnecessary, all in an effort to make Robin feel better, whilst making sure that they knew she doing it on purpose, so they wouldn't think her vocals were actually that awful.

Percy grinned even wider, and Robin started laughing, the dusted rosy color on her cheeks disappearing completely within seconds.

Charlie felt great. Her heart was pounding, but she could see Percy and Robin's brilliant smiles as they laughed with her. She thought about adding some ridiculous dance moves to the mix when a little voice in her head told her that they were not in fact laughing with her, they were laughing at her, and at her only.

Her face felt suddenly hot as a blush crept its way onto her cheeks. The little voice in her head drowned out any other sounds, and she could only hear the voice inside.

Her smile started to fade, but she quickly replaced it with another smile, a fake one, as she abruptly stopped singing at the end of the chorus.

Why does she have to ruin everything she has? Why did she have to go on and embarrass herself completely? Why was she always so stupid? Every time, all the time, and for all time.

Robin was still laughing, she leaned over herself to grab her stomach, which was undoubtedly causing her pain due to laughing too much. Clutching her stomach, Robin let out another laugh, causing her to falter. She let out a mild yelp as she fell forwards, rolling onto the floor.

She rolled over and let out another small laugh, she didn't seem to be in any pain, Charlie observed.

She is probably just hiding her pain from you, the little voice inside Charlie's mind told her. She thinks you're so useless that it was so funny, that she fell over. She's just hiding her pain because she doesn't want you to try and help her up. Who would want to touch a disgusting person like you? You bite your nails, have you ever looked at them without the intention of biting them off? They're revolting!

Charlie quickly panicked. What is she supposed to do? Does she help her up? But Robin probably doesn't want to touch her gross hands. But if she doesn't help her up, she'll seem extremely rude.

Before Charlie could find an answer to her dilemma, Percy had helped Robin up, and they stood, grinning. They looked at Charlie and they're grins melted off their faces, leaving concerned frowns in their places.

"What's the matter?" Percy asked. Charlie realized that she had a look of horror on her face, and promptly discarded it.

"Oh, nothing. Just, you know, thinking." Great save, Charlie. Wow. Amazing. Charlie cleared her throat. "So, Percy, what musicians or bands do you like? Who's your favorite?"
Percy shrugged. "Annabeth and I like to listen to Led Zeppelin in the car sometimes."

Charlie was going to make a sarcastic remark like, 'I've literally never heard that name in my life', or, 'Fascinating', but wisely decided against it.

"Okay, Percy. No one cares. Next question." Robin was grinning. She had a gleam in her eyes.

"If you could take a vacation anywhere for free, where would you go?" Percy read. He smiled to himself and without a moment's hesitation said, "Montauk."

Robin thought for a moment, she looked Percy dead in the eye and said, "Rome." Percy looked right back at her, but didn't say anything. Robin looked to Charlie. "The history is interesting," she said.

Charlie nodded. "I've only really been out of the country twice, once to Greece, and then once to Italy. When we were in Greece, I don't know where we were staying, but it was right by the beach, though. That is very helpful information, we all know how little beaches Greece has," she added sarcastically.

"We made plans to take some sort of tour bus to Athens, and I was really excited about it, but my older sister really didn't want to go, so we didn't in the end.

"When we were in Italy, I remember exactly everywhere we were. We flew to Frankfurt, Germany, first, and then took another flight to Milan. From Milan we went to Florence, then Venice, then Lake Garda. Then from a different airport in Milan, we flew to Zürich, Switzerland, then took another flight back home.

"The entire time we were in Italy, I couldn't get over the fact that we weren't going to be visiting Rome, or even The Vatican. I was really hoping we could find the time. I mean, my mother even grew up in Rome for a few years.

"All the museums everywhere else were all about Jesus and stuff, but I wanted to see Roman mythology! They're bound to have museums dedicated just to Roman mythology in Rome!"

Charlie stopped. She shifted awkwardly. "Sorry, I ramble a lot. My mother would call me such a chatterbox. But, um, anyway, I guess, in conclusion, I would also like to visit Rome. Yeah…"

"Your mother grew up in Rome? Is she Italian?" Percy asked. Charlie was slightly taken aback by his casual tone. Usually, no one really paid attention to what she was saying, and then just waited for her to stop talking so they could talk more about themselves, but Percy and Robin seemed to be genuinely listening to her.

Gosh, Charlie. You are such a hypocrite. You've been rambling about yourself this entire time, when obviously no one cares an ounce about anything you have to say, and then you complain about people who only talk about themselves? At least their lives are far more interesting than yours. Who wants to go to one of the most beautiful cities in the world so they can visit a goddamn museum? Get a life.

Charlie grunted and grabbed her head in her hands, rubbing her temples. I'm sorry, she thought, apparently trying to telepathically apologize to her guests, I didn't mean to. She bit her lip in frustration.

"Are… are you alright?" Robin asked, suddenly wary and alert.

Charlie cleared her throat and tried for a smile, nodding vigorously. "Yeah. Totally. I'm completely fine. Don't… don't worry about me. What were you saying, Percy?"

"Well, I was just asking if your mother was Italian, sense she grew up in Rome, but, I guess she wasn't…?"

Charlie shook her head. "Yeah, no… she wasn't Italian. But she did speak Italian. She grew up all around the world. Some of her siblings were born here, others were born all over the place. My grandfather had all sorts of jobs that would take him to all kinds of countries, even before any of her older siblings were born."

"Your mother had siblings?" Robin asked.

"Oh, yes. She had four. Two older, two younger. My oldest uncle, he died, actually. There really isn't another way to say it. I wasn't very close to him, but he was fun, but he was also old.

"Then there's my aunt. She's a nurse, she works with prematurely born infants. She Lives in Maryland. She's been really depressed since my uncle- her husband, died of Brain Cancer. I haven't seen her in a long time, sense she doesn't really have a reason to visit."

Charlie paused. "She and my mother had exactly identical laughs… I haven't heard either of them laugh in a while."

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid, Charlie. Who do you think you are? William Shakespeare? Edgar Allan Poe? Some other poet? You sound like a cringe-worthy wannabe poet who writes about angst and pain and suffering. "I haven't heard either of them laugh in a while." What even is that?

Charlie glanced at her wall, where five sheets of paper with poems printed on them hung. With all the papers combined, she had eleven poems hanging in her room. Three of them were her own original works. Three more original, handwritten pieces lay in a shoebox, one of the many shoeboxes in her collection of shoeboxes, in fact. The extra storage really makes a difference.

Anyway, some of the poems were different, others had similarities, but they all had some things in common. They were all super depressing and kind of dark.

Charlie felt somewhat proud of her pieces; she thinks they're not too bad. But she was ashamed to admit to herself that those categories in poetry are what she chooses to write about. And even worse, what she isn't too bad at writing.

Charlie always wondered how authors and poets could come up with such magnificent tales, but since then she's stopped wondering how they could also come up with such dark, miserable tales.

Charlie had always wondered why it is so difficult for victims of crime, abuse, violence, or depression to admit to people what they had gone through, or still do go through.

It's because first you have to admit it to yourself. If you come to the conclusion that it isn't that bad, or, you're not really depressed, or it's all just in your head, or that you're overreacting, you're not going to tell people about the problem, because you don't think you have one.

Why would you tell someone about your blank if you don't even have blank? That's lying. You're just looking for attention. You're just fishing for compliments and gifts. You're a terrible person. You deserve to truly go through what you're lying about. Because you are lying.

And then, of course, there's being known as the 'The Person With That Thing That Is Definitely A Big Problem That Everyone Should Go And Comfort Immediately, Because That's Definitely What They Need Right Now' person.

Or alternatively, the 'The Lying Attention Seeking, Compliment Fishing, Gift Craving Person Who Is Offensive Towards People Who Actually Have That Problem' person.

Charlie was nearly at the end of her Denial Phase. She was also zoned out. Completely.

"Charlie!" Percy snapped his fingers in front of her face again, and Charlie snapped to attention, impulsively grabbing Percy's wrist from in front of her eyes and twisting it, pinning it down on the floor beside her.
Percy yelped, Robin stared in shock, Charlie blinked. She hastily let go of Percy's wrist and apologized profusely. Percy examined his wrist, and smiled, rubbing it a little.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. You have good instincts. It's fine," he said again. "I'm fine."

Charlie sighed at her own sheer idiocy. She smiled back at Percy, hiding the fact that she wanted to shed a few tears of frustration.

"Sorry," she apologized again. "Where were we? I'm so sorry, I forgot."

Robin nodded understandingly, smiling a little. A small gleam passed over her hazel eyes for a moment before disappearing as she replied to Charlie. "You were telling us about your aunts and uncles."

Charlie mentally face-palmed. She had rambled again. They asked the simple question of "Your mother has siblings?" and received a worthless, unnecessarily long rant about her aunts and uncles that conveyed no valuable information whatsoever.

What's wrong with just 'yes'?

"Sorry for rambling again. I didn't mean to. Sorry." Charlie was surprised when Robin insisted she continue, as if learning useless information about a random person she's probably never going to see again fascinated her.

Charlie hesitated. Robin seemed to genuinely want to learn information about Charlie, even if the facts only indirectly related to her. So she decided to tell them a secret.

"Well, after my aunt, there was my mother, but… there was another sibling. Another sister." Charlie hesitated a second time. But it was already too late to withhold the story from them.

"Before my mother was born, they were three children, not two. I had another aunt. I never knew she existed until my mother directly told me. She said that she had another sister, who died before she was born.

"When I asked my mother how she had died… she only said four words: "She trusted a stranger" and then she left the conversation there. And she never mentioned her again. I don't even know what her name was."

No one said a word for a few long, dreadful moments. Charlie couldn't stand the silence. It was worse than a loud, high pitched speaker or microphone malfunction. Charlie also didn't want to be the one to break it. She had rendered herself speechless. Thankfully, she didn't have to be the one to break the silence; Percy did it of his own free will.

"That's… That's absolutely horrible."

Charlie was looking down at the floor. "Yes. It is. My mother was really big on safety around strangers. I could have ended up like my aunt if it weren't for her continuous reminders to be careful."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Percy asked, startled. Charlie sighed. She shouldn't have said anything at all. She took a deep breath.

"One time, in second grade, I was leaving school, and a woman came up to me and asked me if I was from class B1. And I kind of slowly nodded. So she told me that she was sent to pick me up."

Charlie paused. Percy was listening intently, while Robin, who had been looking at nothing but the floor since their moment of silence, had suddenly looked up and fixed her gaze on Charlie.

Charlie cleared her already-cleared throat. "My mother had told me to never get into a car with a stranger unless she or my stepfather directly told me to, over the phone, or in person.

"I didn't say anything for a long time, and just stood there. So she started telling me that she's the mother of one of the kids in my class, and my parents sent her to get me, because they were busy. In case she was telling the truth, I didn't want to just run away. So I kept asking her who exactly sent her, but she kept saying it was a surprise.

"But I kept telling her that I was just going to leave if she didn't tell me, so then she didn't say anything, but I could see on her face how frustrated and upset she was getting. I got really scared that she would just pick me up and shove me into her car, but luckily that didn't happen.

"She made herself look all overly cheerful and composed again and said, 'It'll ruin the surprise, but okay. Your mommy sent me. She's too busy preparing you a surprise party for you and your friends, because she loves you so much" or something along those lines, I can't exactly remember."

Robin took a shaky breath, but didn't exhale.

"So… so then I just stood there for a moment. And then I kicked her in the shin as hard as I could and kind of just said, 'if my mother loves me so much, she wouldn't send a kidnapper to kidnap me, and she wouldn't be able to do that even if she hated me, because she died last year!" at her.

"She ran away quickly after that. She got into her car and drove away. I would have memorized the license plate digits of her car, but it moved so fast, and it was so far away, and dyslexia is the worst. I don't even remember anything about her. I can't remember what she looked like, what she sounded like, what she was wearing, nothing."

There was another stretch of agonizingly long silence before Percy murmured an unintelligible sort of condolence. Charlie didn't react.

Robin was the next to make a sound, and the first to make a sound that Charlie could understand. "You're cynical," she stated, not a trace of doubt in her voice.

Charlie's gaze wandered over and settled on Robin's framed eyes. She didn't say anything, she didn't move, she didn't know what to make of this statement. Was it irrelevant? Was it a crucial fact essential for some unknown purpose? Was she missing something?

Percy frowned at Robin. "And that is important information because…?"

"Charlie," Robin said quieter now, softer, "if the Harry Potter world were real, meaning that you didn't know that it exists, and someone came up to you and told you that you're a witch, would you believe them?"

Charlie hesitated. "I… I… maybe… I…" Charlie sighed. "N- No… I don't think I would… at all..."

Robin nodded and looked at Percy, who mouthed a long, silent oh.

Robin stood up, Percy followed suit. "I'm afraid we must be off. But first, do you have some paper and a pen?"

Charlie stood up, too. "I am actually out of paper, but I do have a pen."

"Get the pen, please."

Charlie hurried to her desk and grabbed a pen from her mug of writing utensils. She turned back to Percy and Robin. She handed Robin the pen.

"Can I have your arm?" Robin asked.

"What?"

"Your arm, Charlie."

Slowly, Charlie held out her arm. Robin grasped her wrist and wrote down an address on the inside of her forearm.

"Write this down somewhere where you can see it again when you get the chance. If it washes off, we may never see each other again. You can't lose this address."

Charlie glanced at Percy. He looked a little miffed that he didn't seem to be doing anything worthwhile.

"We should leave now," Percy said quickly, maybe before Robin got the chance.

Percy started walking out the door and down the stairs, Robin followed, so did Charlie. They reached the front door; Charlie opened the door and held it open for the guests. They said their farewells and started walking down the street.

Charlie wondered where these mysterious strangers, nay, acquaintances, nay, friends, had come from, and where they were going…? She may never know if that address washes off her arm. Charlie looked at it and sighed. She really wanted to meet them again.

Hello, readers!

You may have noticed that I didn't exactly keep my promise for weekly updates, but I assure you, what happened this week is a one time thing only.

I've just been super busy with some stuff, and I'm a ridiculously lazy ass, so I procrastinated for an entire week, just did a total of a third of the stuff I needed to do, and realized I haven't updated.

I'm using my phone right now, I'm on the website on Desktop mode, so if you see any mistakes in the chapter please go easy on the criticism, I'm a weak human.

I may be slightly late again next week, I might even be very late, but I have a very good reason that I just am not able to tell you.

I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive my poor soul, I bet you've even forgiven Uncle Rick for everything he's done, so this should be a piece of cake.

Anyway, this note is getting really long, so I'm gonna go now. Bye!

- Pandemonium