Here I am with another story even though I haven't touched my other two in ages. Most my chapters are full of conversation, but this one lacks a lot of it so I hope it is still fine. Please let me know if this boring or not well written. The feedback is appreciated.

Liam was just sitting on his couch reading a book when the end started. His parents were visiting his sister in college so he was home by himself. He was trying to entertain himself since the power had just gone out and so he was laying on his stomach with a flashlight pointed at the pages of his book. There was a tornado two towns over, but there were still strong winds in the area that knocked a power pole over. The winds weren't supposed to become a tornado though. The tornado had passed. Nothing indicated he was in horrific danger.

Liam didn't know this was his last time he would be in his home. The last time he saw his parents was this morning, when they said bye and left him cash for supper. The last time he had seen his sister was when she left for college months ago. He never got to say goodbye.

It started with a warning.

Emergency alert

National Weather Service: Tornado Warning in the area. Take shelter immediately in a basement if possible.

"Shit."

Liam scrambled off the couch grabbing his phone and book. He bolted down the stairs skipping a step or two in his rush. He went to the bathroom and curled up in the tub to hide.

Then came the winds.

He heard as it came towards his house. He heard his home that he had grown up ripped apart piece by piece. He saw the roof of the bathroom rip open and he felt himself lift off the ground as the ferocious wind took him. He started freaking out since everything had spiraled out of control so quickly.

Next came the pain.

He felt as he was tossed around. He felt himself hit by debris. Sometimes a piece of metal from a car torn apart. Another, a small rock that was taken by the wind. It didn't matter all Liam knew was pain.

Finally, came death.

He felt the tornado dissipate after some time. He felt the wind speed past him as he slowly, but surely fell. Falling and falling and falling until he felt his body smack something and then it all went black. His life was gone in a flash. Everything he knew disappeared.

Death was weird. It was cold then warm, everything and nothing at all, bright but dark. It just existed.

Then the cold went away and it was just warm. The dark was gone, but replaced with red.

Liam didn't understand it, but what was he supposed to do? There was nothing he could do to change the situation or make it better. So he simply existed.

Slowly sounds started to come. Chuckles and talking, but it was muffled and it was only here and there.

Next, the warmth went away and the cool returned. Liam felt uncomfortable it was distressing and although he was eighteen he felt he could barely handle a little cold.

"Is the afterlife supposed to be this weird and miserable? Am I in hell, cause if so I guess it could be worse."

Liam started to hear crying. He was trying to pinpoint the location of the sound when he realized it was coming from himself. He was the one crying.

Then he was swaddled in something and it was warm again. He heard a small voice sing to him. No words, just a soft sweet melody. He felt comforted and slowly everything went quiet and it all became silent.

Later the noise picked up again and colors started to become more defined. He could see more than red. Noises became clearer. It wasn't muffled anymore and he could vaguely understand words.

He still felt uncomfortable at the smallest things and felt a strange urge to cry. Liam didn't like how he felt and tried to keep it under control, but failed constantly. It was distressing to put it bluntly.

Slowly things started to become clearer, shapes could be discerned better and sounds became more vivid. Then, suddenly all the foginess snapped into perfect clarity.

He was in a rundown apartment from what he could see. The wallpaper was yellowing and torn in certain sections, the ceiling had smoke stains from either previous or current tenants, and finally the room was rather small.

All of these things were minor compared to the face that Liam was currently in what seemed to be a crib. He tried standing up and only managed to get high enough to peak out the crib. He grabbed the railings of the top of the crib and saw pudgy little fingers grab at it. He realized those were his own fingers that the grubby little hands were his.

Everything clicked at that moment for Liam.

"Oh fuck I'm a toddler again." He was not happy at this fact and the tears started coming all of a sudden along with wailing he couldn't control.

"Stop crying, stop crying, STOP CRYING" Liam was trying to control his flippant emotions and was failing miserably at it. If nothing else his crying got almost worse.

Liam heard footsteps moving towards him at a slightly fast pace.

"Shhh, mother is here, everything is okay." said a female slightly monotone voice. Liam in his crying felt arms grab his waist and lift him up and bring him to the person's face.

It was his mother. She was a bit young, looked to be in her early to mid twenties, with brown hair pulled into a ponytail, was about 5,8, and she had thin wire glasses on her light blue eyes. She looked to have been beautiful in the past, but current conditions or bad lifestyle choices hampered the beauty from being shone.

"Liam are you hungry or thirsty?" the woma- Liam's mother asked. Liam would have to start remembering that this was his new life now. This woman would be his mother. Back to the question Liam realized that he was a little hungry.

"Hungie." Liam said with the tears calming down from his mother's presence. Liam wasn't sure if he said this to fake being a two year old or because he hadn't spoken as a two year old ever before and the words weren't wording for him. Regardless, it was still the right thing to say.

His mother carried him in one of her arms. Liam was able to see that he was in a shared bedroom. His crib was on the left side of the rool with a window right above it and close to the door. To the right of the crib was a bed with a little bedstand that had an alarm clock. Overall, the room was very small.

She carried him into a new room that was a decent size bigger than the bedroom. It was a kitchen connected to a living room. She walked with him in her arms into the kitchenette. It wasn't very big and only had a small mini fridge, a stove, and a microwave. She set him on the stove and opened the fridge and grabbed some grapes. She chopped them up and put them in a little bowl from a cabinet to the right of the fridge.

She then grabbed Liam with one arm and with the other grabbed the bowl and brought them into the living room. There was an old green couch that had a few tears here and there with a weird brown stain on one spot. In front of it on a stand was an old box tv from about the 1980s. It was currently showing friends. She set me down on an old blanket with some toy cars, plastic animals, and the bowl of grapes. She then set herself down on the couch and kept watching tv.

Liam did the sensible thing and started eating his grapes and played with some toy dinosaurs. He didn't remember plastic dinosaurs having been this fun to play with. Probably just the kid part of his brain acting up.

( A couple weeks later)

Liam had figured out a couple of things over his time as a kid so far.

The first thing was that his mother didn't really love him. She cared for him, sure, but did it more out of obligation than genuine love for him. She would feed him, change him, which was traumatizing for Liam every time it happened, and would care for him. That was it though other than that she wouldn't care to play or indulge him. There was no love for him.

Liam had mixed feelings about this. On one hand, he wanted a mother that would care for him and love him, what child wouldn't want that and yes he had come to terms with his toddler hood again. Although he had an eighteen year conscience he still had the instincts and behavior of an toddler. This was slightly relieving due to the fact that he didn't have to act too hard to be seen as a child by other people.

Back to the point, Liam was also slightly happy about his mother maintaining a distance. Liam wasn't sure he could fully accept this woman as his mother compared to his mother in his previous life. And didn't that thought hurt that his family was gone, luckily they weren't with him when the house was destroyed.

"I wonder if they are having a funeral for me?"

The second thing he noticed was that it was just him and his mother. There was no dad that came from his 9 to 5 job and greeted his wife with a kiss and his child, Liam with a hug. It was just Liam and his mother, whose name he still hasn't heard. All he had figured out was her last name, and by extension his last name, because the workers at the daycare only called her Miss. Gray. Liam Gray was his new name in this life. At least he got to keep Liam as his name; it would have made things difficult if it hadn't been.

The days typically went like this. His mother's alarm would go off and she would get ready in the small bathroom that their apartment had. She would change into her red, blue and white uniform wherever she worked and then change and make food for herself and him. Eggs for her and some fruit for him.

She would then take him and leave for her job while also stopping at the daycare for him. She would then drop him off at eight and would come pick him up at four, five if she had groceries to do or other things. They would then go home and do nothing except for eating supper and watching tv. This schedule would change on Sundays when she didn't work and would sometimes go to the park to relax and enjoy the currently good weather.

The first day he had gone to the daycare had been the worst experience ever. In his past life Liam had lived in the rural country. A person drove everywhere, never walking from one place to the next unless it was literally across the street. After leaving the apartment he discovered that they were nowhere near the country. They were in New York City. The exact opposite of the rural country.

This was also the first time he had ever experienced the subway. It wasn't anything too special, but it was still unsettling for his new toddler mind and emotions to get used to.

They finally got to the daycare and boy was that an experience. He had never been a fan of children in his past life and he thought that this wouldn't be any different. He was pleasantly surprised to find he could tolerate the other toddlers by playing cars with them. Liam didn't understand, but he quite frankly didn't care. If it could make day care bearable then he wouldn't bother trying to understand the why's.

So far the day would have seemed fine….. that was until he tried to read a book. He could tolerate the kids, but he still was an introvert at heart and wanted to be by himself.

He got from the game of cars he was playing with five other kids. How the game worked he didn't know, but none of the kids noticed and he went over to the books.

"Ugh all these books are picture books." Liam grumbled to himself while having a small frown on his face.

He finally found a book that seemed to have a little less pictures and more words to it. He cracked it open to hopefully enjoy the bo-.

"What the hell is this?" Liam thought with pure horror. All the words seemed to be jumbled and mixed around. He tried to read it and everytime he did the words felt like they moved. He thought he had figured out a word when suddenly it changed on him.

"No.. this can't be happening!" Liam started to panic. Reading had been one of his favorite things to do in his past life. The thought that he would never be able to properly enjoy a book scared him.

"I can't have dyslexia," he thought. He felt tears falling and started crying. It was the one time he had actively indulged his toddler emotions.

"Is everything okay?" asked the worker in a sweet voice. She tried to crouch to get on Liam's level, but Liam was having none of it and threw the book on the ground.

It got so bad they called his mom in who came and picked him up from work. Luckily, it was around three pm when he threw his tantrum so she didn't miss too much work, but she was still not happy with his behavior when she finally picked him.

"No toys tonight." She said as she took him to their home. That was okay to Liam since he knew he would be sleeping the entire night, since being a toddler had exhausted him. He had been good at day dreaming in his past life. So just sitting around and watching tv would be fine for him.

They went back home and she made him a little snack of some cheeses.

"Eat."

Liam was a little hungry so he didn't complain. She then sat him on his blanket and made sure the toys were out of his range. Seinfeld was on so he decided to watch it. Except he could barely pay attention for about 10 minutes and then wanted to do something else. He started to get up to walk when a voice snapped in.

"Where are you going?" Liam's mother asked with an annoyed voice from her place on the couch.

"Away"

"Where?"

"Somewhere."

She didn't look amused with that answer. She walked over and picked Liam up and sat him on her lap on the couch.

"I know you have ADHD and dyslexia, but you have to keep still." She said with a voice as if talking to a child, which she was.

"What?" Liam thought. Not only did he have dyslexia, but also ADHD. This was rather unfortunate for little Liam, but he made sure not to start crying like he did when he found out he had dyslexia.

He found it a little funny that he has ADHD, dyslexia, and a non-present parental figure.

"If I didn't know any better I would think I was a demigod." Liam thought with slight humor. It was just a funny little thought. It wasn't supposed to mean anything.

It wasn't supposed to be true.

It was two years later when he was four that he would notice something else. It was a normal day. His mom got ready, he finally figured out her name was Maria, and she took him to the daycare like normal. Except on the way there he saw a dog. It wasn't any normal dog though the dog had black fur and was huge.

It was a distance away and he must have imagined his mother walking slightly faster. It was the trick of the eye. It couldn't be anything mythological; he would have seen something earlier if that had been the case.

Mythological creatures weren't real there was no way Liam was in the Percy Jackson books.

It was just his imagination.

This changed when he was five.

It was snowing badly outside and all the daycares in the area were closed and his mom was running late for her job. She was on the phone trying to get a babysitter, from the angry voice Liam was hearing her task was not going well. She eventually called into work saying she wouldn't be able to go due to needing to take care of her child. She got off the phone and looked at Liam from his spot on the couch watching cartoons.

"Get ready."

"Why?"

"Because we are going to my work place." she answered in a quick tone while reaching for my little coat that she had gotten at goodwill.

"I thought I couldn't go." She stood for a second and looked at me getting ready.

"Normally you would be right, but another lady also couldn't find a babysitter so my manager is letting us stay in the breakroom as long as you are quiet."

"Okay." Liam said while getting on a pair of small boots he had to deal with the snow. He was a little excited to finally see his mom's workplace. She had never brought him to work before.

She handed him his coat while in her red, white, and blue uniform, for some reason Liam felt the colors should have triggered and alarm in his brain, and they left for her work. They passed by the daycare and came to a candy store.

"Sweet on America" The name tickled something in Liam's, but just like the colors he didn't know what exactly it was.

They entered the store and the smell of sugar and sweets filled Liam's nose. The store was an everyday typical candystore. Black and white tile floor with boxes of candy for people to pick from.

Liam looked and saw a beautiful woman with brown hair and blue eyes at the counter making some candy. She looked familiar, but Liam knows he has never seen her before.

"Good morning Maria!" The woman says in a happy little voice.

"Good morning Sally." Liam's mother replied in a less energetic voice.

Liam panicked slightly before calming down again.

"It's just a coincidence." Liam thought. He wasn't in the riordanverse just because he had ADHD, dyslexia, a non-present father figure, saw a beast from hell, and a woman named Sally worked at a candy store. Things like this just happened.

After greeting each other, Sally looked down at him.

"Who's this little cutie?" Sally asked.

"It's my son Liam, say hi Liam." his mom asked.

"Hello, Miss Sally!" Liam said while giving her a wave with his five year old hand. Sally just cooed at him in response.

"Maria, your son is adorable. Why haven't you introduced him to me before? I've introduced you to my son already." Sally asked in faux anger.

"Because I just haven't gotten to it yet." Maria replied.

"Well better late than never. My son is already in the back on a blanket so you can have the two play with each other." Sally suggested while getting back to the candy she was making.

"Will do." Maria replied.

Maria took Liam to the back where they saw a little boy with black hair sitting on a blanket playing with what seemed to be sharks. Maria leaned close to Liam's ear.

"Play nice will you?" She said and dropped some of his own toys she had grabbed while they left.

Liam walked up to the blanket and sat down. The other boy seemed to notice Liam finally.

"Hi! My name is Percy Jackson. What's your name?" He said with a small little smile while holding his shark. He didn't realize that he had utterly destroyed Liam's view of life at that moment.

"Fuck I'm a demigod." Liam thought with his entire perspective ruined. It didn't seem as life changing as before. Probably because Liam had internally known, but was just denying everything.

"Why are you quiet? You have a name right?" five year Percy asked with an adorbably confused face.

"Yeah, my name is Liam. Cool shark you got there."

Percy looked down at the shark in his hand and grinned at Liam.

"Thanks, his name is bubbles. I have another one somewhere." He reached around and found another shark that was slightly smaller. He handed the shark toward Liam

"You wanna play sharks?" Percy asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Sure" after everything he had heard, playing sharks sounded nice to Liam.

Liam meets Sally and starts to play sharks with Percy. Please let me know if I did not represent ADHD well or anything else. I tried the best I could. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review it let's me know if I am actually doing a good job of writing.