Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

A/N: Italics are either flashbacks or thoughts.

Chapter 38

"Your hair is too long, cut it off now Thalia," Ms. Grace demanded, looking rather crazy as she stared at her daughter's long flowing hair.

She was nine at the time, looked up at her mother in a disgusted way, and simply sneered. "I'm not going to a stupid hairdresser." She replied stubbornly, crossing her arms.

"A hairdresser's too expensive," Ms. Grace agreed, nodding her head in agreement.

Thalia beamed, showing her pearly white teeth. She didn't even notice all the strange habits her mother had been showing lately, ignoring them as 'adult stuff.'

"That's why I'm giving you one!" Ms. Grace continued, grabbing a pair of scissors she had beside her.

The beaming smile disappeared, followed by a shriek of pain as her mother grabbed her shoulders tightly. With a few snips of the scissors, the long flowing, luscious black hair was all gone, replaced by short choppy hair sticking up in random directions.

Ms. Grace continued, a crazed smile on her face as the scissors went snip, snip, snip...

All the while Thalia was shrieking, tiny droplets of blood dripping off her shoulders where her mother's fingernails clawed too hard.

"Stop it!" Thalia screamed, trying to run away. "You're hurting me!"

"You look much better now Thalia, it's all done now;" Ms. Grace spoke, smiling at the job she had done.

She steered her daughter to the mirror, showing the short hair that was sticking up in many directions.

She snapped back to reality, instantly touching her spiky hair on instinct.

"Come on Thalia!" Nico yelled impatiently.

"Survival of the fittest can only go this far," Thalia grumbled, jumping into a bush of spiky leaves. "We should've called the gardener a few months ago. The stupid bush grew."

"That, or you grew," Nico pointed out, ignoring the fierce glare sent his way. "Either way, we need to get out of here."

"And what do you think we've been doing the last few minutes di Angelo?" Thalia growled. "Playing one of your stupid Myth-o-Magic games?"

The son of Hades looked slightly hurt, mumbling a short reply that sounded like a bunch of syllables bunched together. His hand immediately went to his pocket, where he kept his sister's Hades figurine. It was cold, but the mere thought comforted him slightly.

"Here you go Nikki, catch!" Percy yelled with a smile on his face as he crossed the road with Bianca. "It's your favorite figurine number one!"

Nico grinned, catching the Hades figurine his sister had brought him. They were halfway of crossing the road when a huge jumbo truck with the letters spelling out TALOS came across, not pausing to stop at the red light. His eyes widened, yelling out to the duo crossing the street.

She never made it across, back to her brother who was watching her get roadkilled with wide, watering eyes.

Thalia didn't even notice her cousin's short depression moment. She grabbed him quickly, dragging him in the bush with her, before throwing him out the other end. She followed behind swiftly.

"It's right there," Thalia pointed out, only pausing her sprint to let her cousin catch up slightly. She felt slightly sympathetic towards him but shrugged off the thought. "Hurry up!"

"I know it's true but you just had to say that last comment didn't you?" Nico replied, a flash of annoyance on his face. "Now we're running away from our home."

"I don't regret anything," Thalia retorted, ducking under another bush to escape.

"Thalia Grace! Mark my words, if you leave, your house, your police protection, everything I gave to you will be gone!" Zeus thundered, storming over to the motorcycles.

Ares followed close behind, a scowl evident on his face. He looked as if he wanted to beat them up.

"Thalia, let's go!" Nico shouted, impatient.

"Important..." Thalia muttered under her breath. She tiptoed quietly, making sure that the prickles didn't touch her. "What about being there for me?!"

"Yeah that's right, run away like the punks you are! Sissies."

"Ares," Zeus warned, watching them go rather sadly. His tone was stiff. "Let them go."

"But... But they left their motorcycles, we can go after them!" Ares roared in outrage.

Zeus sighed, turning back to go to his daughter's shared house. "Leave it," he demanded in a clipped tone.

With Percy and Annabeth:

"I'm hungry," Percy complained clutching his stomach in pain.

"Well you just ate," Annabeth snapped, although it seemed the effect of not having any food was starting to take place on her as well. "Screw it. I'm hungry too..."

"You just ate..." Percy retorted. "We look pathetic."

She didn't even have to look in the mirror to know that they actually did look bad. A sigh escaped her lips, and she slouched on the wall even further as if she didn't want to be noticed.

"What about school?" Percy suddenly asked.

"I don't care if you're not going, but despite everything's that happened, I'm still going," Annabeth replied with a small raise of her eyebrows.

"A simple 'I'm going' would be nice," he muttered.

Annabeth chose not to respond, instead choosing to stand up and stretch. It was nighttime.

"This is boring, I'm going for a walk," Annabeth stated bluntly, stretching her arms. She heard cracking noises and winced slightly.

"Its night," Percy remarked, looking at her face.

"Your point being...?" Annabeth retorted, daring him to say anything else.

He did. "You could get robbed or murdered or..."

Her gaze softened. "Fine then. You'll come with me."

Well isn't that pleasant, he thought with a scowl on his face. Yet he still stood up, ignoring the evident victory grin on her face. He hated when people smirked at him. It gave him the feeling of the other person being arrogant or stuck up. Plus it was a good way to say 'I won you lost loser.'

"Don't do that," Percy muttered, kicking some small stones along the way.

"Do what?" Annabeth asked, her eyebrows raising up in confusion.

"Smirk like that," he replied, facing her. "It's annoying and makes me feel like you think that you're better than everyone."

"Oh."

It was the exact same thing her dad had told her on the day of her 'kindergarten graduation.'

Annabeth was smirking when her tiny hands shook the teacher's hand. She was proud of herself when she smiled toothily at the camera and walked down the fake stage to greet her dad.

"I got a certificate daddy, see?!" Annabeth spoke excitedly, a smirk still on her face, though it was more of an innocent proud smile.

"Yes, yes, I see it," Frederic spoke rather grumpily. "Is it over now? I have a... Meeting with one of my friends."

"You mean your girlfriend?" Annabeth asked, her eyes looking downcast at the floor. "When is your meeting?"

"It was meant to be a few minutes ago," Frederic snapped at his daughter. "But I came to your kindergarten graduation."

"Oh."

The teacher, whose eyes were wandering to the arguing father and daughter, quickly went to someone else's reunion. She had never seen such carelessness between a parent and daughter.

"Stop smirking like that," Frederic finally spoke, sensing a small victory smirk from his daughter. "It makes you feel more annoying than you already are, which is something."

Annabeth stared at her father, her eyes watering as she held her graduating certificate in her hands. She gripped it so tightly, it made a rip, right where the name Chase was written in smooth cursive handwriting.

"Aw Annabeth, look what you did," the teacher told her kindly, staring at the ripped certificate. "Now we'll have to make you another one. Would you like that?"

She nodded meekly, but her father stopped her, glaring down at his daughter rather harshly.

"It's fine," Frederic told the teacher curtly, steering his daughter away from the crowd of parents. "After all, only the last name is ripped, which is fine since she shames it after all. She's basically a bastard kid since her mother is Athena, who isn't-"

"Mr. Chase!" the teacher scolded, her hands coming up to cover up her mouth.

They were already gone.

"I think we missed the court case," Percy told her, making her sight go back to normal.

She nearly swore, before remembering something. "There's still the one in around two weeks."

"I'm looking forward to it," Percy spoke dryly. "I'm sure it'll be great fun to wait two weeks for perhaps Gabe to get a lawyer and us to survive on the streets, and my cousins doing whatever."

"Yeah," Annabeth echoed, her eyes glazed over due to reminiscing. "Great fun."

A/N: Sorry for the late update again, but 'Don't Mess with the Cabins' is on hiatus so I'll hopefully be able to update faster. I also apologize for all the OOCness in this chapter. I'll be doing a time skip next chapter, forwarding to two weeks, to the court case. Then the end will be in a few chapters after that. Thanks for all the support!