Hi! I'm really sorry I haven't been updating. I could give you guys a bunch of excuses about why it took me forever to update, but I'm sure you guys want to read the chapter instead.

This is the Thanksgiving special! Yeah!

Thanks for all the reviews, follows, and favorites.

Enjoy!

Annabeth:

"So, how do you guys celebrate Thanksgiving?" I questioned.

Thanksgiving was scarily close. It made me nervous because no one seemed to be doing anything to prepare, and I really want this to be a special holiday! I have never really celebrated Thanksgiving. My stepmother made turkey (it tasted terrible) and other things like that, but I never really celebrated. Thanksgiving isn't all about food; Thanksgiving is about being thankful. When I was in that house, I wasn't thankful for much and people weren't thankful for me. It was unthankful holiday.

"We do what usual people do: eat turkey!" Percy responded.

"Well, duh! Do you do anything special?"

"No."

"That's boring," I replied trying to think of something I can do to make this holiday "special". I didn't want it to be exactly like my Thanksgiving had been: unthankful.

"I want to do something that expresses thankfulness!" I said.

"In school, we all have to write a letter to a person that we are thankful for," Percy said.

"We didn't that in my old school, but we were only allowed to write to a teacher. We can write to anyone?"

"Anyone"

I started to think about who I should write my letter to, but then I realized that was thankful for more than one person. I was thankful for Chiron, my teachers, Thalia, Percy, pretty much everyone else in the house, etc.

"Can you write…" I paused for a second as I thought about how many people I wanted to write to," …twenty-five to thirty-five letters?" I asked even though I kind of knew the answer.

"You can't at school, but you can at home," Percy responded. "You have to submit one for the teachers to read."

"Okay, I better start writing," I responded as I pulled a pen and sheet of paper from my drawer.

XXX

As I began to write my fifteenth letter, which was to Mrs. Sim, the science teacher, I realized that this year still wouldn't be "special". I'm not doing anything "new". I have always written letters. I have a lot more to write this year, but I'm still doing the same custom. I stopped writing, sat back in my chair, and started to think: What is something new that I can do that shows thankfulness.

I am really thankful this year. I go to a great school. I have a bunch of friends. I'm healthy. What more could I want? This year, I wanted to give back to people that aren't as fortunate as me. I'm just not sure how I want to do that. I should do some type of charity work.

I found a list of charity activities that my:

-participating in a food bank

-helping the elderly

-helping the ill

-donating/making cloths

-Big Brothers and Bid Sisters Program…

The list had about 20 activities. Which one should I do? You know what…I'm going to do all of them! No, I'm not crazy! You can't put a limit on helping!

I walked to my calendar to see when I can fit all of these activities into my schedule. School will end tomorrow, and I will have five days until Thanksgiving. I started finding out about the organizations that I was planning to participate in/help to see when I can or should do my activity. I was activity calling, emailing, and running to the organization to talk with them to see what they needed to have done most.

I most of looked crazy running in and out of the house, constantly going back from the top floor to the bottom floor to email because the house has five computers and they are all down stairs, and using the phone several times. Eventually from all this madness, I caught someone's attention.

"What have you been doing?" Percy asked as I started at the computer screen as I waited for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Program to respond to my email.

"Things…"

"Wow, really specific…"

"I'm doing charity stuff," I replied after Percy refused to leave without an answer.

"Why have you been running everywhere? Charity work isn't that complicated."

"Percy, I'm doing twenty charity activities."

"Okay," Percy replied calmly. "That's a lot."

To be honest, I though Percy would be like: "Are you crazy?" or "That's insane!" or something else like that. I am very surprised that he responded calmly as if he had already known.

"Can I help with some?" Percy asked.

That made me happy. Now, I know that someone else wanted to help. I handed him the list, "Which ones do you want to do?"

"Do you want to split the list up so I do ten and you do the other ten?"

"Sure, that would be the fastest way to finish all of the activities."

"Can I suggest something else, even though splitting up the activities would be most time efficient?" Percy asked while looking at the list.

"Go ahead," I responded turning to him.

"Maybe, we can do each job together? We will still be able to do all the jobs, it will just that twice as long. It will be more fun if we do them together."

"That's a great idea!"

XXX

I anxiously as eighth period came close to ending. I'm rarely anxious to get out of school because I love school, but I have a lot of charity work to get done and I felt like I was losing time as each minute passed. I was also really excited to do charity work. I haven't done any charity activity since eighth grade. We are planning to go to the soup kitchen right after school.

RING! RING! RING! I rushed out of the room as soon as the teacher finished her teacher and said we were dismissed.

As I opened my locker, I realized that Percy and I have to walk home for an hour. We can't afford to lose an hour of our time. I quickly grabbed my things and ran to Percy's locker and dragged him out the door.

"Why are you in such a rush?" Percy asked as I continued to drag him off of school campus.

"Percy, you know it takes forever for us to walk home!" I said impatiently and continued to drag him.

"Why do we have to walk home? Why can't we just go straight to the soup kitchen?"

"We…" I stopped and thought. Wait a second; we don't need to go home! I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around and punched Percy in the arm.

"What was that for?" Percy said while laughing.

"This isn't funny!"

"It kind of is!"

"Why didn't you tell me that before I got all worked up!?" I yelled at him.

"I tried to!"Percy protested. He actually did try to tell me.

"What time do we need to be at the soup kitchen?" Percy asked.

"We need to be there by 4:30," I said while looking at the time and seeing that it was 3:36.

"We have plenty of time," Percy said while turning to the direction of the soup kitchen and away from the path to our home.

The soup kitchen was only two miles away. It would probably take us 30 minutes to walk there. It would be better to get there early, tough. The early we get there, the more time we have and the more food we can make.

I didn't have a problem having to walk to the soup kitchen. The weather was nice to me. It was cold, but I like the cold.

The city wasn't very busy either because it was only 4:00 so it was less crowded to walk too.

"Okay, let's start volunteering!" I said as I walked faster, excited to start.

XXX

"Putting on this hair net, thoroughly wash your hand, and we can begin cooking!" A woman said to us cheerfully as she handed me a hair net. Percy didn't need a hair net because he had a baseball cap on. I had no problem with the hair net, but I know many girls who would…

I washed my hands for several minutes. I was a clean person, and I defiantly do not want to be responsible for getting someone sick that I was intending to help. When I was in elementary school and we had a strep throat outbreak in third grade, the nurse came to talk to us about washing our hands. She said to wash your hands and sing the alphabet, so you wash your hands for about 30 seconds. I sang the alphabet five times just to be safe. I always have washed my hands like that ever since the outbreak. That day we couldn't even eat in the cafeteria because the grade that ate before us had five people throw up, so they were afraid to us in the cafeteria.

"The young man will be in charge of cutting onions, and you will make the bread," She said as she walked away.

"Don't onions make you cry?" Percy asked as he seemed slightly hesitant to cut his first onion.

"Yes," I said trying to hold back a grin when I noticed he had about a hundred onions to cut.

"Whatever," Percy said as he began cutting.

I was a good cook. I did it all the time when I lived with my dad because most of the time they never wanted to cook anything. Pasties were my specialty. I'm going to make the best bread ever. My job wasn't complicated: I put ingredients in a bowl, stir, put in oven.

I turned over and realized Percy really looked like he was crying. I started laughing.

"I'm fine. I just really don't like unions. They taste so bad that they make me cry," Percy said as he wiped his tears away.

We continued cooking for another hour then they said we could have a ten minute break.

"That was the most tearful cooking with my life. I'm glad I'm finally done with that," Percy said.

"Did I forget to mention that if stick a piece of bread in your mouth while cutting you won't cry?" I said innocently even though I didn't tell him this until after he finished on purpose.

"Nice time to tell me! Why didn't you tell me, and give me a piece of bread! You worked at the bread station!"

"Oops!" I replied innocently

XXX

They start letting people in at 5:30 p.m., and it was already 5:25.

I see homeless people on the streets on a regular basis because I live in New York, but I never really thought much of it. Today, seeing all the people out there waiting for their dinner, gave me a bittersweet feeling. I saw people that didn't have the basic necessities, which made me sad, but I also see people getting help.

I thought the homeless were crazy, lazy or just plain angry people, but what I saw was really quite different.

I met a man named John, who was about fifty and he told me that he was a former lawyer. He had a master's degree and was a great student like me, but he is at a soup kitchen. John worked hard, but from him I learned someone can take everything you worked for away from you.

This was really an eye opener because I always held the belief that if you work hard in life than you will get what you deserve. Well, John was an exception and so were many of the other people in this room. Many of them used to have respectable jobs but sometimes terrible things happen to decent people. Those are the facts of life, and yet, I realized that I didn't have a clue.

I could be homeless too. I don't have any parents to care for me. As soon as I turn eighteen, I'm out and no one's going to be there to support me, no one. There is no safety net for me. I have less than three years.

A little girl walked up to me with her mother. The little girl looked poor by the cloths she wore. She couldn't afford her dinner. How is she supposed to have a chance to do what she wants? She can't even have the things she need much less than what she wants. I was speechless. I gave her what food she asked for.

"Happy Thanksgiving…" I choked as she turned away. I doubt that she heard me.

I was going to cry. I ran to the back of the kitchen before I did. Percy followed me.

"Are you okay?" Percy asked concerned.

"Not really," I replied facing the wall.

"They need so much help," I said.

"Why do you think we're here? You are doing a really great thing. Come on back out. You're supposed to have a rewarding feeling. I know you're sad about that little girl, but remember that you just feed her dinner," Percy said.

Percy was right. I suddenly felt that feeling of goodness. I went back out and I didn't see sorrow anymore. I saw a bunch of people eating and having a good time with each other.

After all the food was passed out, I decided to meet a few more people. I saw a chair that was open at a table of three people socializing about the weather. I asked them how there night was and they said that the bread was the best it has been in this soup kitchen. Yes! I knew it! As they made this comment, I elbowed Percy because he didn't believe me when I told him that I could cook!

I meet so many people and they were thanking me for the meal. I felt appreciated. That's something I haven't felt in a long time.

XXX

The next days were a huge blur. Percy and I ran all over the city helping everybody. I feel like superman. This has really made me feel thankful. I have everything I've ever wanted. I'm an orphan, and I'm okay with that. I feel like I have an awesome family.

If you haven't noticed I've been calling the foster care "home". This took me a long time before I was comfortable with calling it home. The foster care is my home.

Today was Thanksgiving and I was oozing with niceness. I have been so nice that I want to throw up on myself, I'm known for being kind of evil, but today can be an exception.

I gave my letters to everyone that I wrote them too. I went to Percy's room to see if he was awake, yet.

"Knock, knock," I said with a yawn. It was early.

"Come in"

I walked in and was surprised when I didn't see Grover.

"Where's Grover? It's really early and doesn't Grover usually sleep until like 2:00 p.m.?"

"He's with Juniper," He responded.

"Happy Thanksgiving!" I shouted as I tackled him with a hug.

I'm so thankful of Percy. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be able to call the foster care home. He's my best friend. He puts up with me and has never gotten mad at me even though I hit, yell, and tease him daily —wow, I'm a great friend.

"Even though you are a seaweed brain, really oblivious, kind of crazy, obtuse at times, and sometimes just plain dumb…."

"I get it!" He responded.

"I'm really thankful that you are my friend," I said.

"Me too," He replied.

The rest of the day, we helped cook. Everyone needed to help. We have like thirty people in this house, which causes us to have a lot of food to cook. We had dinner at like 4:00 p.m. No one could wait! The food smelled so good that it was taunting!

I'm thankful for everything—especially me temporary home.

How was it? I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Tell me how the chapter was! Feel free to leave any suggestions in your review! Next chapter will be in Percy's POV!

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Thanks for reading!

-h0a4l2e1y