PERSEUS JACKSON RIDDLE
Perseus- no, that was not his name, his name was Percy, how many times did he have to say that?- was hiding in the closet again.
The closet was where he hid all of the stuff he cared about. The picture of his mom, a shell from when she and him had gone to the beach in Montauk when he was ten. His necklace with the single trident bead from Camp Half-Blood. The Minotaur horn, a spoil of war from the monster that had killed his mother. Sometimes he hid himself in the closet, although he wouldn't put himself above the last memories of his mother. And Blackjack, the darkly colored snake that he had found about three months ago.
Percy was hiding in the closet because Ms. Cole was drunk again. When Ms. Cole was drunk, she got angry. When Ms. Cole was angry, she liked to take it out on her least favorite ward- Percy. He didn't know why she hated him so much. His top theories were his sarcasm, his comebacks and his American accent. That last one was slowly slipping away from him, much to his dismay. But whatever the reason, if Ms. Cole found him, he was in for a world of pain that he knew well from his time with Gabe. So he was hiding in the closet so she wouldn't give him any more cigarette burns. It was hard to heal with water at the orphanage. Ms. Cole only allowed a shower a month, and washing your hands after going to the bathroom was punished with dish duty. Ms. Cole didn't think that one through very well.
This all seemed like he was being very calm about this whole thing. He was not. His breathing was heavy and fast, like he couldn't get enough oxygen into his lungs. His hands were tangled in his hair, pulling at it so that he felt something other than overwhelming panic that's filling his body and making him want to scream. He had thought that he would never have to feel like this again after he had made Gabe stare into Medusa's dead eyes, but the stupid government had sent him to this weird British orphanage. He pressed his feet into the ground, trying to root himself in it, but the pressure was just building higher and higher andhigherandhigherand-
He felt the brush of scales against his leg and his eyes snapped open. He let out a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. As Blackjack hissed comfortingly and wrapped his short body around Percy's hand, his breathing became more even. The snake somehow always knew when Percy needed him. That's why Percy loved him so much, and counted him among his favorite beings.
He remembered when he found Blackjack a few months back. It had been one of the rare days when Ms. Cole wasn't so drunk that she forgot that children needed fresh air and sunlight to stay healthy, and that she needed the kids healthy if he wanted his money from the government. So Percy had been wandering the streets of London- Ms. Cole didn't care about the kids enough to supervise them- and had found a group of kids huddled in an alley. He had brightened, hoping to meet kids who maybe wouldn't hate him.
Instead, he had found them poking at a small, scratched up black snake. It squirmed pathetically, cowering away from the mob. Percy had swelled up with anger. He felt a sort of kinship to the snake- no one liked it either.
"Hey!" he had yelled without thinking, "What are you doing?"
One of the kids, an older boy, probably about fifteen, sneered at him. "Who the hell are you?" He had looked disdainfully at the orphanage uniform that they have to wear when they go outside. "An orphanage brat and a Yank, too, by the sound of it."
Now, Percy can take a lot of insults, but Yank, for some reason, rubs him the wrong way. Maybe because his New York accent is one of the few things that still connects him to his mom. But his eyes narrowed and he shoved past the boy into the circle of kids.
The poor snake had been terrified, and Percy's heart had broken for him. "Leave him alone!" he yelled.
As the words had left his mouth, Percy noticed that they had had an odd, smooth quality to them. His voice had a strange effect on most of the gathered kids, some of whom he now recognized from the orphanage. Their eyes grew glassy and their heads snapped towards Percy. They stepped away from the snake and formed a straight line in front of him.
The older boy who had been rude to him earlier now looked terrified. "What are you doing to them, you freak? Stop it!"
Percy had been shocked. "I don't know! I'm sorry, I don't know!"
The boy had started towards him, raising a fist. Percy knew what a fist meant. Gabe loved to beat him up whenever he lost a hand of poker. "Go away!" he had screamed, squeezing his eyes shut to brace for the punch.
It never came. When Percy had opened his eyes cautiously, the boy was walking robotically out of the alley, his eyes the same clouded color as the rest of the kids who were still standing in the line, as if waiting for his next words.
The familiar feeling of terror had greeted Percy as his breath grew shallower. What had he done? What did he do to these kids? What was wrong with him? Did this have something to do with his father? What was he?-
The cool slide of scales coming up his leg shocked him out of his thoughts. Percy almost screamed at the feeling of a snake slithering up his leg.
But the snake had spoken before he could. Thank you, Boss! You're the best!
That time, Percy really did scream. The sound had caused the foggy eyed children to stiffen and surround him, seemingly trying to protect him. That had just made him freak out even more. Too much was happening all at once: he had somehow controlled kids with his voice, a snake was talking to him, and now the kids who had hated him were trying to protect him. It was overwhelming, even coming back from a summer where his mother died and he was introduced to a world of gods.
He had run back to the orphanage as fast as his feet could carry him, and Percy could have sworn that sometimes he had blinked and he was yards away from where he was when he had closed his eyes. He had arrived at the door, and then suddenly he was in his room, in front of the closet. He had dived inside, shaking and scratching at his skin, trying not to think about what had just happened.
Hey, Boss, are you okay?
The snake's voice hadn't freaked him out this time. Percy gently unwrapped the snake from his ankle, letting it slide around his wrist.
"How are you talking to me?" he had asked. "You're not a water snake, are you?"
No, I'm not a water snake. I don't really know how you can speak with me. You were breathing real heavy, though. You all good?
Percy had laughed breathlessly. "What's your name?"
Someone called me Blackjack, once. I like that name. You can call me that.
"Hi Blackjack. Do you maybe want to- to be my friend?"
I thought we were already friends, but yeah, I'd love that!
Happiness flooded Percy's body. He'd never had friends at the orphanage.
Blackjack was always very helpful for when Percy felt like everything was too much and he couldn't breathe. Percy ended up in the closet a lot now, because that's where Blackjack was.
That did, however, mean that it was easy to find him.
For example, the day of August first.
