"The reason our hierarchy of needs is a pyramid is because the foundations need to be solid before you can build up," Cassia explained, marking out each tier in sharp, crisp letters. "Most of you have probably seen something like this before, with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but our self-care pyramids are going to be a little different and much more personalized."

She stepped aside enough for Percy to see the board, and he crossed his legs and squinted at it. Some of the other kids had referenced the self-care pyramid before, but he hadn't thought much of it; they must have covered it soon before he arrived. He glanced down at the five-category worksheet in front of him and wondered vaguely how Cassia would shift things around to fit her four-tier pyramid.

"Physical health is the bottom of the pyramid," Cassia said, tapping the corner. "That doesn't mean it's the least important part; it means it's the most important, because it's what everything else is built upon. Can anyone tell me why?"

Eliza put her hand up, smiling a little when Cassia gave her a pleased look and a nod. "U-um, because it's hard to be happy if your body's not okay?"

"Exactly," Cassia agreed. "What do we think goes on this tier?"

"Food, water, shelter," Cody rattled off, frowning at the board. "Just the regular stuff, right?"

"Sleep too," Kiana put in. "Lack of sleep will fuck you up." She blushed at her own language.

"Safety," Percy added, tapping his knee. "If you don't feel safe, that's all you're gonna be able to think about." A few of the others nodded in agreement.

Cassia nodded along, noting down most of them in small letters, and then said, "We'll get to activities for effectively managing these things soon, but let's continue. The next tier up is responsibilities." She tapped it. "Ultimately, all of these are about managing stress, but this tier emphasizes taking care of anything that will have negative consequences if it's not taken care of. What do you think goes in this tier?"

"Homework," Kiana deadpanned, and Cassia chuckled and wrote it down.

"Chores at home," Kylie added ruefully. "Cleaning in general, I guess."

"Does space need to be clean?" Bryce asked dubiously.

"Only a boy would ask that," Kiana muttered, rolling her eyes, and Bryce scowled at her. Percy cut in before they could wind each other up.

"It doesn't need to be clean, but it needs to not be like, filthy," he explained to Bryce. "It's fine if it's not real neat, but you do need clean clothes and space to cook and stuff. You can't have rotting food or broken glass laying around. So you gotta do some cleaning."

Bryce made a discontented grumbling sound, but didn't argue, and Cassia added it to the list. Cody ran his finger down the self-care checkup sheet, frowning, and after a minute offered, "Hygiene too, I guess? Showering and brushing your teeth and all."

"Very good," Cassia agreed, writing it down. A minute passed while they all contemplated the issue, and finally Cassia cleared her throat and added, "A certain amount of relationship maintenance goes into this tier as well, so we'll add spending time with friends and family."

"That is a negative consequence," Bryce grumbled. Cody elbowed him. Bryce elbowed him back.

"Stop that, both of you," Cassia said sternly, and they winced and scooted apart. More gently, she said, "Relationships decay over time, and it takes some effort to maintain them. Spending time with friends and family is the bare minimum to do that. We'll focus on developing and nurturing those relationships on the fourth tier. Is there anything anyone would like to add to this one?" A few of them shook their heads. "Then the next tier is happiness. You've done all the things that keep you healthy, and you've handled everything you need to, so you need to do things that make you happy." Kiana put a hand up. "Kiana?"

"Are we not allowed to do these things before we finish the first two tiers?" she asked, biting her thumb nervously. Cassia snapped her fingers in understanding, giving Kiana a reassuring smile.

"Only you can make that call at any given time," Cassia said. "You never need a reason to make yourself happy. This is strictly in the context of self-care." She tapped her wrist, considering, and then after a moment she continued, "No one is 'on' all the time, that is, expending effort to do things you know need to be done. But when you're consciously expending effort to take care of yourself, I'd like you to try and focus on these things in this order."

Kiana nodded, giving Cassia a grateful smile, and Cassia paused to give them a chance to ask questions before she returned to her lecture.

"Most of your favorite pastimes are in this tier," she explained. "Reading books for fun, video games, hiking – whatever your hobbies might be. It's important to make time for those things in your life, anything that gives you enjoyment. There's also more room for spending time with friends and family here, especially if you're doing something that you both like."

"So this is the stuff that isn't important," Cody said.

"Everything on this pyramid is important," Cassia said firmly. "Doing things you enjoy is very important for your mental health. If you have these two-" She tapped the bottom two tiers. "-but not these two-" The top two. "That's what psychologically treading water looks like. You're not losing ground, but you're not having a good time either. We want you to feel good, not just sort of okay."

Cody huffed. "What does it matter?"

"You've only got one life, Cody," Percy broke in, tossing a ball lightly from hand to hand. Cody glanced at him, frowning. Percy shrugged. "You can spend it however you like, but it's kind of a waste to spend it hating yourself for existing. You already exist. May as well take advantage of it."

"Okay, but it sucks," Cody snapped. Percy nodded sympathetically.

"Yeah," he agreed. "That's why there's a whole facility dedicated to teaching us how to make it not suck." He waved at the room, and Kylie muffled a giggle.

"Very well put, Percy," Cassia said warmly. "Does that answer your question, Cody?"

"Good enough, I guess," he muttered.

"Then we'll move on to our final tier before we change gears to today's exercise," Cassia said, and tapped the top of the pyramid. "The highest tier of the self-care pyramid is growth. It's this tier that gives us a sense of fulfilment – things like volunteering, reading books that help you better yourself, trying new things, improving your relationships. People are happiest when they're moving forward, but you can't move forward-" She swept her finger from the tip-top down. "Unless you have everything you need."

Kiana wrinkled her nose. "I don't get it." She cleared her throat. "Um, I don't get how this is self-care."

"It's still time that you dedicate to yourself," Cassia explained. "Taking time out of your day to start a new exercise regime, or learn a language. If you're doing that for yourself, and not because someone told you to, that's a form of self-care."

"But you're still bettering yourself if someone told you to," Kylie pointed out.

"Yes," Cassia agreed, "but then it's an obligation. You're not doing it because you want to, you're doing it because you have to, which doesn't necessarily provide the same sense of fulfilment. Especially if there was some form of coercion involved. It's self-care to try and eat healthier, but not for your mother to make you go on a diet."

Kylie winced, and nodded meekly without replying. Cassia softened.

"Isn't eating healthy a bottom tier thing?" Percy asked, making a vague sideways gesture to indicate the shape of the tier. Cassia hummed.

"Somewhat," she admitted. "It's a bit of an in-between. Eating healthier will certainly make it easier to keep your body happy, but the act of working to change your eating habits is growth. For our purposes, if you're eating to your own standards, you're completing the bottom tier." She waved a hand. "At the same time, if you slept for eight hours, but it was mostly during the day – that's still your bottom tier, and changing your sleep schedule would be your top tier."

"What if I want to change my sleep schedule first?" Eliza piped up.

"You can do that if you want," Cassia assured her. "There are no hard rules here, only guidelines. In this case, I'd say you're welcome to put effort into fixing your sleep schedule any day, but I wouldn't recommend prioritizing it over meals or letting yourself do anything fun. If you're sleeping at night instead of during the day, but you're not eating, it's not going to make you happy." Tap, tap. "And if you're engaging in hobbies, but you're letting all your homework pile up unfinished, you're not going to be happy for very long."

Eliza nodded and sat back, satisfied, and Percy scowled accusingly down at his worksheet. Self-Care Checkup. (Surprisingly, it looked like he was pretty good at it for the most part. Didn't make the lesson any less confusing.)

"This is a lot," he whined without meaning to.

"Did you have a question?" Cassia asked. Percy shook his head grumpily.

"No," he said. "It's just a lot. I'm not gonna remember any of it."

"We're working on that next," she assured him. "Does anyone have any more questions about the self-care pyramid?" A few of them shook their heads. "Then let's move on to the next part. All of you have your own priorities and needs. Some of you may need to spend more time talking to friends and family, and some of you may need more time alone. I'll hand out two worksheets for all of you, and I want you to make one weekly and one daily checklist of self-care activities."

Percy groaned loudly and smashed his face into his arms.

"...Percy, is something the matter?" Cassia asked, amusement warring with concern in her voice.

"I fucking hate checklists," Percy growled without looking up. "Every school counselor and their secretary tells me that checklists will cure my ADHD or something and they're all fucking lying. I forget about them and they get crumpled up under my bed or in a stupid car magazine or something and I'm so damn sick of them." The silence was crushingly awkward. Percy huffed against his arm. "...Sorry. Every school I've ever been to sends me to the school counselor and all they ever do is tell me to make a checklist."

"You've been to a counselor?" Cody asked, bemused. "...You've been to multiple counselors?"

"I was diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, and anger issues when I was like, five," Percy said dryly. "I've been to so many counselors." Cody gestured at the room. "Normal counselors, for like, normal kids that aren't disabled or abused."

Bryce rolled his eyes. "Fucking useless."

"Don't we all know it," Kiana said ruefully.

"He brings up a good point," Cassia said, bringing the conversation back around. "Does anyone have any ideas for alternative solutions? The idea is to give you all something to reference regularly as a reminder to take care of yourselves."

"A regular list instead of a checklist?" Bryce offered, audibly dubious. Percy suppressed a groan.

"Just a picture of the pyramid?" Kiana asked, gesturing in a triangle shape. "You can put the things you need on each tier and it'd be organized but not a list."

Cassia looked at Percy, and he made a so-so motion.

"Feel like I'd forget about that too," he muttered.

"Poster?" Eliza suggested, glancing thoughtfully at Percy. "Something with a drawing and maybe a caption for each thing you want to remember. In sections for the tiers. Something big, that you can put on your wall and see a lot."

Percy sat up, thinking about that. "Sounds fun," he decided, relieved. "Is that okay, Cassia?"

"It's perfect," she assured him. "Thank you for the suggestions, everyone. Let's start on the worksheets – here, I have stickers for everyone to use, put them wherever you feel is appropriate for you-"

Percy was shaking his head before Raine even finished.

"If the first thing I need to do in a crisis is read, I'm literally just going to kill myself," he informed her. At the flash of disconcertion, he explained, "My dyslexia gets worse when I'm stressed out. For something like this, big white-on-black text really isn't gonna cut it."

Raine sighed and nodded. "Fair enough. But we do want you to have something to reference when you're truly spiraling, and if you're alright with it, I'd like you to have a written copy to bring home so your mother can help you."

Percy bit his cheek, then reluctantly nodded his consent. "Yeah, alright," he said. "It'll probably make her feel better to have something on hand."

Raine smiled at him, then leaned back. "And for you... I think there's an old voice recorder somewhere in the building. You could record yourself explaining your safety plan so you can play it back when you need it."

Percy tapped his elbow for a second, and then asked, "Can you read it instead?" He shrugged, cheeks heating up at her curious glance. "Sorry, um- I, I think I'd feel better if I heard your voice. Is it too weird? I can ask Mom or Annabeth to do it."

Raine blinked, and then smiled at him. "You caught me by surprise, that's all. Yes, I can read it for you – I'll find the recorder before I go to bed tonight." She took one of the safety plan sheets herself and gave another to Percy, and then leaned over to grab a pencil. "Let's start at the beginning. What do you think your warning signs are when you're sliding into crisis mode?"

Percy bit his lip. "I dunno... I mean, I really didn't have any big incidents before. I'm-" He bit back the 'I'm fine' with a sigh. "I don't know what I'm looking for."

"Being in imminent danger is the extreme end of a mental health crisis," Raine explained gently. "A safety plan also helps with less critical, but still ultimately distressing incidents – for example, you would have used it after your fight with Jet, or your first attempt to discuss Luke with Annabeth. The idea is to be able to put yourself on a trajectory towards recovery without needing to rely on someone else noticing first."

Percy frowned, then nodded slowly. "Like, if I'd come to you that morning instead of hiding in the art house?"

"Going to the art house was a good step," Raine assured him. "That was your attempt to calm yourself down, which is the first step of a safety plan. But yes, when it became clear that you were struggling to resolve it on your own, I would have liked for you to come to me."

"Okay," Percy agreed, leaning back with a frown. "I guess, um... negative self-talk is a tell. Once I start insulting myself, that's like, a really bad sign." Raine nodded and wrote it down. "And- if I'm even worse at focusing than usual. I start getting mad at myself for every mistake, so I can't really do anything, and that definitely means I'm working myself up. And..." He tapped his knee, then glanced away, reached up, and scratched his head self-consciously. "If I start thinking about Elysium. I didn't realize it until pretty recently, but I don't really think about Elysium unless I'm wishing I was dead."

Raine nodded and wrote it down. "It's good that you've recognized that," she said. "You have excellent self-awareness, Percy."

Percy grinned a little, embarrassed but pleased. "Uh, I think those are the big ones, is that enough?"

"Certainly," Raine said. "Can you tell me four things you can do to cope on your own?"

"Drawing and skateboarding," Percy said instantly, rocked a little, and then continued, "Uh, computer games honestly worked pretty well for me, and... running."

"Perfect," Raine said warmly, adding them to the sheet. "Can you tell me three people and two places you can visit when you need a distraction?"

"Distraction, not help?" Percy clarified. Raine nodded. "Huh- uh, Clarisse is a great distraction." He paused. "She is not allowed to know that she was the first one I thought of though." Raine chuckled. "Rachel is usually pretty good too, she's always got some activist thing lined up and those are usually fun. And Tyson. It's hard to be sad around Tyson." He couldn't help but smile. "Places... the ocean's great for that. Fish always have problems." Raine let out a startled laugh. "I know, right? But it's true. And there's always a couple monsters to fight in the forest." Raine was frowning now. "What?"

"For most people, I'd say that fighting is not a particularly healthy distraction," Raine admitted. "But I do understand you live by different standards. Would Chiron approve?"

Percy frowned, actually thinking about it. "Uh, he wouldn't disapprove, I think. But I can do better. Uh, there's the strawberry patches. Mostly the Demeter and Dionysus kids look after those, but anyone can help out if they feel like it."

"Perfect," Raine said, giving him a pleased smile as she finished copying that down. "Now, three people you can go to for help?"

"Mom, Paul, Annabeth, and Grover," Percy said instantly, and then turned pink, scratching his head in embarrassment again. "Sorry. It doesn't feel right to leave any of them out."

Raine laughed. "That's fine. Excellent, even." She jotted the names down. "That's all I needed from you, but I'll also be reading out the phone numbers of a few crisis lines as well as my own phone number. I know you prefer Iris messages, but I would like you to have it anyway."

"Okay," Percy agreed easily, surprised by how light he felt. "Thanks a ton."

"And yes," Raine added, referring back to a question he'd asked at the beginning of the session. "You can take the shark home."