Chapter 9

It's awful, it's horrible, it's something I'll feel guilty about for the rest of my life; but I'm searching my mom's room. Rationalizing what I'm doing isn't that hard: I need to know my father's name, she left me no other options, and she'll never know I did it. It's the stubborn guilt that's become the issue. I'm standing on the threshold, reason, longing, and guilt, battling it out inside my head. Finally, with a nervous breath I step forward into the room.

My eyes scan across the room quickly. There's a dresser on the nearest wall, the bed facing it opposite. I crouch down, and peak under the bed, trying to see a notebook or a scrapbook. There's nothing there. I straighten peering around the room again, and notice a notebook lying down under her bedside table. I pick it up, hoping it's an old diary, but it's just filled with pictures. I quickly flick through the pictures; some are of me when I was little. I freeze when I see one picture, at the very back. My mom's standing next to a man who looks a lot like me. The same black hair, the same green eyes: his arm is around her and they're both laughing, like this is the happiest time in their lives. I shake my head, tempted to throw the book at the wall. I don't though. I carefully put the book back where I found it. As I glance around one more time, my eyes land on a framed picture of me sitting on her dresser. I walk over slowly, feeling the ominous chill in the air.

I gently pick up the frame, it's me standing on Montauk beach, I 'm grinning like a psychopath after catching my first wave; after a few hundred wipeouts of course. I surgically remove the picture from the frame, and a sheet of white lined paper falls out. It's in my mom's curly handwriting. To my surprise all the 'I's are dotted with hearts.

I think I'm in love with him, even though he keeps telling me we can't be together. I'm just going to say it; I'm in love with Perseus James.

Just reading the name, send chills up my spine, there's more written but I stop reading. Perseus, even though she never told me, I'm named after my father. I uneasily put the paper back in the frame and set it on the dresser. Perseus James… Perseus James… Percy James.

Just as I'm closing the door to her room behind me, I hear the sound of my mom's car pulling into the driveway. I sprint into the living room and leap on the couch. She walks in, eyes tired, but still smiling.

"How was school?" She asks, sitting down next to me. I smile at her even though my mind is still stuck on my father.

"Good. I made the soccer team." I tell her. Her smile widens to twice the size.

"That's so great!" She gushes, pulling me into a hug. I almost want to tell her she's smothering me, even though I love it.

"Yeah it's interesting…" I say… thinking about being on the same team as Annabeth.

"But are you sure you can make the commitment? You're not falling behind on your homework, right?" She asks.

"No, its fine," I assure her. "I actually have a sports and society project I'm going to start working on."

"What's it on?" She asks me. I smile a little.

"Not sure yet, it's with partners, I should probably call her…" I trail off, picking up my phone to find the text from Grover, with Annabeth's number.

"Her?" My mom asks (read: intrudes).

"It's not like that Mom." I roll my eyes a little. She laughs and elbows me.

"Of course not" She teases and I have to resist the urge to face palm. "So what does she look like?" I almost consider telling her the truth. Very, very beautiful, with dizzying grey eyes, and curly blonde hair…

"I don't know, a girl." I lied, my mom, seemed to sit up a little straighter, and I knew she caught the lie. I knew she was going to press me for more details so I stood and picked up my phone. "Yeah, I should really call her now." I lie and stand up, slinking back to my room. My mom nods at me and pulls a book out from her bag.

I'm still thinking about Perseus James, if he acts like me, where he is, what he's doing, why he left, when I settle on the edge of my bed. I know the walls are ridiculously thin so I should probably call Annabeth anyways, even though I'm distracted. I dial the number and wait impatiently as it rings.

I'm secretly thrilled that I had an excuse to ask for her number and get to know her better, though I couldn't muster the courage to ask Annabeth for it; I chickened out and asked Grover on the pretense of the project. Finally the phone is picked up.

"Hello?" Someone growls, it sounds a bit like Annabeth, mixed with a wild tiger. I hold the phone a little away from my ear before speaking, more afraid of her than usual. I swallow nervously and start rambling.

"Oh hey Annabeth, it's just Percy, I was wondering if you wanted to get together and work on-" I start, but here the click of the line being closed. Okay…. Half of me; is indignant that she actually just hung up on me. For the most part though, I'm wondering what I did to tick her off. As far as I can remember, I never did anything that would cause that much anger.

Maybe it wasn't me, maybe she was just busy. I know Annabeth's kind of serious, but I don't think she'd spaz because I interrupted her Calculus studying session. Which makes me wonder, what was so important?

A scary thought enters my mind, maybe she was with Luke. I can't stop the jealousy that erupts with that statement. I flop back on my bed, exasperated. Luke's been nothing but nice to me, yet here I am, ready to rip him to pieces, or at least try to, because he might have been with Annabeth; who, by the way, I have absolutely no claim to. God, being me is getting increasingly more complicated.