The man sitting across from him was not how Percy had ever imagined his father to look. He'd always thought that maybe the man would be cold, harsh even. That upon meeting him, Percy would see a reflection of all his worst qualities, the things that couldn't have come from his mother. Whenever Percy had thought of his father he'd pictured his 5th grade principal, a stoic serious man who'd reeked of disappointment when it came to Percy.

His mother had always told him that if his father could have been in his life he would have been there for every moment of it. It wasn't often he got her to actually talk about his father. Her eyes would water and her voice would get far away. It was more likely for her to argue back with Gabe whenever she'd finish telling Percy stories. Like the emotion of leaving something good and ending up with something so Gabe was enough to fight back. Never enough to leave but enough to momentarily level the playing field.

The man sitting across the conference table was not regal, or serious like Percy had imagined. Instead, it was just some guy in a very loud Hawaiian shirt and a fishing hat. He sat straight up in the office chair that was directly across from Percy and smiled warmly. Thankfully he didn't actually try to hug him or anything, seeming content enough with whatever Percy led.

went about introductions, like Percy hadn't been told hundreds of times already who he was going to see and when. But he played along as politely as possible, not wanting to seem like too much of a nuisance already. There was an awkward beat of silence before his father started speaking.

"Well Percy, it's nice to finally meet you." An angry part of Percy wondered why that was. What excuse would his father possibly have for leaving him and his mother alone and struggling after all of those years. But he remembered Annabeth's advice, that there were two sides to every story, and that it was up to him to find out his.

So Percy sat and responded nicely. "Yea"

Because he was really good at words like that. He did his best to follow it up with a smile that he hoped didn't look as evil as his teachers had told him throughout the years. His father just smiled warmly.

"I won't make you talk much if you don't want to. You already know my name, I work at the aquarium. I have a wife, and two sons. Triton, my oldest, he's older than you by a couple of years. And Tyson, my youngest, he's turning 9 soon." His father passed a simple photograph of him and the people he'd mentioned. Percy was slightly surprised to see that none of the other people in his fathers family had the same curly blond hair as him. Instead his fathers other children had sleek black hair, the oldest with it long and sleek and the youngest with it in a messy mop all over his head.

"I have 2 brothers and 3 sisters, and we all emigrated from Greece with our mother when we were very young. They're all very excited to meet you whenever they can." His father finished his introduction with another smile and looked to Percy as if waiting for a response. cleared her throat and chose to speak for the first time.

"Percy, is there anything you want to say? Or tell your father?" She seemed to move as nervous as Percy felt, she was still shuffling around through papers even though the meeting had well started.

"Was my name supposed to start with a T?" He couldn't help but wonder what his life would have been like if his name had been Tercy instead, before changing his mind and being grateful his parents didn't set him up for a life with worse bullying. His father laughed loudly, startling Percy.

"No! No, your mother chose that name. She knew how my mother named my brothers and sisters and wanted to keep the same theme." His father laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world that Percy's name had almost been Tercy, and Percy couldn't help but smile too. looked relieved at the whole thing, and finally stopped shuffling her papers.

By the end of the visit, Percy had gotten a bit more comfortable with his father. He'd heard a couple of the stories on what life had been like for his father growing up, some stories about his brothers, and even cooler, about the animals his father worked with. Before he'd known it, the timer on 's phone went off, signaling the hour was up. cleared her throat, looking pointedly at his father.

"Oh. Yes, according to the letters your mother sent, it's in her will that if she were to come to any harm you would come to live with me." The silence was enough to hear paper fall as Percy looked around to see if his father and social worker were joking.

"What?"

"Percy," cut in, "Delphi isn't meant to be a permanent option-"

"No, my mom is where I'm supposed to go."

"Yes, and until she's able to take care of you, she wanted you to-"

"Wants." Percy was surprised to hear his father cut off sternly as she spoke. Despite the loud Hawaiian shirt he wore the man still radiated the aura of a well experienced businessman. "Your mother wants you to come live with me, according to her living will and the letters she's written to me. But due to your age the state is allowing you a choice."

The world seemed to melt away as his father looked into Percy's eyes. " I can understand any hesitance you may have. If you want to wait until your mother is ready, that's fine. And if you want to come live with me you can. The paperworks already been done."

"And I'd go back to my mom when she's ready right?" His father nodded solemnly, "Can I at least think about it?"

"Of course. Before you leave, I have something for you." An amused twinkle lit up in his fathers eyes as he pulled out a rectangular box Percy hadn't noticed on the side of the table. With a nod from the older man and Mrs. Gleeson Percy ripped the box open to find a complete skateboard.

The deck was an ombre of blues with big graffiti letters that took Percy a while to sort out spelling creature. He flipped it over, not even minding the griptapes rough surface as he took notice of the Thrasher logo printed in blue flames. The board looked brand new, the wheels clean in the ridges and no signs of any dents or damage done on the deck. It must've cost double whatever his mom had been able to spare for a new board.

"Your mother mentioned your hobbies in her letters. Your social worker said it was okay that I gave it to you but if you don't want it I could get it changed out." Percy gripped the board tightly and pulled it away from his father, still unable to even process how great the gift was.

"No. No, it's cool. I like it." He licked his lips admiring the details before remembering he had manners and an audience. "Thanks."

Poseidon grinned.

As they left the visit his father didn't try to make Percy hug him or anything. He let Percy take the lead, and he held out his hand to shake like he'd seen in the mobster movies before following out to the car to take him back to Delphi.

Sitting on the couch curled up with a new fancy font book from Chiron's office sat Annabeth who looked up once she saw Percy walk in. Despite being gone for a while it was still early enough on a Saturday that most of Delphi's occupants were pretending to be asleep in their beds.

"How was it?" Annabeth asked, dog-earing a corner in her book. Percy inwardly cringed at it. Even though he didn't read as often as he should have, he couldn't imagine what his mom would say to him bending the pages like that. Her question ran across his mind. The meeting with his father had been awkward, yes. But it hadn't been as terrible as it could have been. It left Percy wanting to know more. He plopped down on the couch next to her and began to tell her everything.

At the bottom of a pool nothing could bother Percy. He'd learned that young, when his mom had made sure to take him to swimming lessons and he'd always excelled faster than the other kids. That at the bottom of the pool, the deepest he could go, as long as he had air nothing could bother him. Sound had difficulty penetrating through water, so he didn't have to worry about anyone yelling at him for doing anything wrong or simply being alive. And the pressure massaged his bruises in a way that felt good. The effort from simply swimming usually helped Percy actually feel useful for doing something, instead of being as useless as he usually felt.

Realizing that all the other kids had caught up to him on the deep end of the pool, Percy rocketed from the bottom up to where the Coach Eudora had been talking. A couple of the other kids stared at him weirdly as he tried to figure out what she had been talking about.

"-nd nobody is beating Jackson's time. It's his first practice and he lapped all of you. So for the rest of you, we're going to try it again and I want you to try and match his pace. And Jackson, I want you to do what you just did again. You learn how to do a kick turn and I'll have you in the next swim meet." Unused to praise and the smile that his Coach gave Percy found himself grinning back ear to ear. She blew her whistle loudly and this time instead of flinching Percy dropped himself down in the water and waited for the second blow to call out the start. At least in the water he could make someone else proud.

"You think I could make a working Iron Man suit by Halloween?" The group of kids sat around the table chomping down their dinner, making plans for next weeks holiday.

"Why wouldn't you have started it already? Halloweens in a week" Jason's gold glasses glistened in the sunlight as he looked around to see if anyone found Leo as hopeless as he did. Leo just shrugged and stuffed his mouth with mashed potatoes.

"I have ADHD" He mumbled through a mouth full of food. The rest of the group cringed and Percy leaned back to avoid being hit by the spittle.

He'd never really been a big Halloween celebratee. When he was little his mom usually got off work too late to take him out, but she'd do her best to pick him up a bag of blue candy on her way home. His favorite memory was after another failed trick-or-treating attempt, where she'd had to work, and Gabe had been out. Instead of letting Percy pout the night away she'd set a timer for 15 minutes and hid the candy around the room for him to find.

"We still doin our matching costumes, Jace?" Thalia asked, reaching to jab her brother in the shoulder. Jason grinned cheekily, something that was only reserved for Thalia.

"Yeah, I'm thinking Spiderman this year. What about you, Pipes?"

Although Percy had gotten acquainted with most of the occupants in the house, Piper had been the hardest to reach. She spent most of her time with Leo and didn't seem interested in talking with anyone besides him or Jason. As expected the quiet girl at the head of the table just shrugged.

"What about you Luke? You wanna match this year?" Annabeth asked the oldest boy. Time had passed since Percy and Luke's big argument. At first his roommate hadn't said anything to him which Percy preferred over the fake niceties Chiron had encouraged.

"I'm not going this year." All of the faces (minus Percy's) dropped. He'd even say he was secretly happy about his snappy roommate not joining in on the fun.

"What?"

"But we always go-"

"That's not fair Luke."

Luke cut off their whines by abruptly standing up from the table and loudly picking up his unfinished plate.

"I'm about to turn 18. It's time for me to grow up." Without leaving room for a second opinion, Luke dumped his entire plate into the trash, and left to go upstairs. It only took a second for the rest of the children to continue talking.

"What's up with him? He's been in such a bad mood lately." Annabeth asked, now only picking at her food. Percy tried his best not to let his stomach drop. Even though he hadn't meant it he knew that the argument he and Luke had really affected his attitude. Thalia didn't seem to care, reaching to nudge Annabeth's shoulder with her own.

"Who cares about Luke's attitude? He'll get over it sooner or later." Soothed by the oldest girl's words the rest of the kids continued to finish their dinner. Percy tried his best to believe in Thalia's words. She'd known Luke longer than he had, practically double. But he had a feeling Luke would just get worse from here.

The small crowd of people in the bleachers by the pool should have made Percy nervous, but for once in his life he felt confident in himself. The echoes of parents cheering didn't even make Percy's ears hurt, even though most pools had the worst echoes in the world. They didn't even make him miss his mom too much because this time no matter what he knew he could make her proud.

"Alright listen up. Just because we've never beat this school before doesn't mean we can't do it now. Sure they're close to the top of the district, and sure they're times are almost half of ours. But that doesn't mean that we can't try!" Coach Eudora looked around to see that none of the swim team kids seemed particularly moved by her speech and waved her hands to continue.

"I see you've all been working hard. Connor, you've improved your backstroke form. Lou you've cut your time down. And we have our secret weapon."

The coach clapped Percy on the shoulder and gripped him tightly, shaking him as she continued to speak. Despite knowing she meant well, Percy tried to cringe away from her touch but Coach Eudora was always too caught up in her own mind to notice small things like that.

"Nobody has seen Jackson swim. And I see that you all have been learning from him. SO I want you to go out there and do your best." Punctuating her sentence with a clap on her clipboard Coach Eudora finally released her grip on Percy and went to reminding the kids of what events they were in. Rolling his shoulder to get the feeling of her hands off of them Percy focused. He had to make his mom proud. Maybe he'd even have a good story to tell the next time he saw his dad.

"Woohoo! Jackson!" Breaking his hard earned concentration Percy looked over to see his friends and surprisingly Coach Hedge and Chiron seated at the bleachers. All of them were there, minus Luke (good), Annabeth and Leo. A weight of disappointment settled in his stomach before Percy remembered it was Tuesday. Annabeth and Leo were probably at their "nerd club" he still hadn't found out the name for. But Grover had enough enthusiasm to replace them as he waved one of his crutches back and forth.

"Let's go, Percy!" Grover yelled, his voice cracking and narrowly missing a parent to the side of him. He grinned sheepishly and put his aid down. "Oh! Pay attention!"

The announcer's voice (the other gym teacher) came over the microphone, telling the swimmers to make their marks. Between the kids from the other school in their red swim caps, Percy remembered to fix his and lock his goggles in place as he climbed onto the block. On the next announcement he took his position. And on the final whistle blow he dove into the water, keeping in mind to replicate the perfect shape Coach Eudora had bashed into his head over the past few days.

In the water nothing mattered. He didn't even notice when he had rocketed way past the other kids and reached the opposite end of the wall. Using all of the force needed he pushed his body down and flipped off the wall, timing his kickturn perfectly, before returning to swim back to the other side of the pool.

Percy was so content under the water, part of him didn't even feel like he was actually participating in a race. It felt like he was home, a safe place where nobody could hurt him again.

Realizing he was on his fourth and final lap, he made sure to slam into the timer hanging under the pool to really make sure that his time had been matched. He bobbed to the surface of the water, and realized that he was the only one there.

The crowd was deafening around him. He couldn't make out what any of the other voices were saying no matter how hard he tried to focus but he could see Coach Eudora at the edge of the pool waving wildly, her ugly gym sneakers practically dancing on the wet ground.

Panic began to seize him as Percy realized he must have done something really wrong. The crowd hadn't quieted, he still couldn't hear what anyone was saying, and one by one other heads started to pop up around him in the water. One of the other kids from the other school scrunched his face up, looking at Percy as he climbed out of the pool. Suddenly the trapped water dripped out of one of his ears.

"-time! Percy! Percy! You beat their time Percy you won! First place!" His heart thundered in his ears as he tried to comprehend what his coach was telling him. She reached out a hand to pull him out of the water, still wild with glee. "Percy you did it!"

The times were reflected on the cheap scoreboard next to his gym teacher announcer and Percy rubbed the water out of his eyes to read the numbers. At the top was his lane, with a time that had a 20 second lead on the second place.

He'd done it. He'd won the race.

The noise of the crowd came back into focus as he recognized his name being yelled. His friends, louder than anyone else, had started a chant of his name through the bleachers with as many participants as they could include.

Eager to match his Coach's excitement Percy smiled with her and let her grab her hand and bring it to the air. Even if it embarrassed him a little bit.

"I wanna see you take us to the states, kid." Coach Eudora whisper-yelled in his ear as the crowd slowly quieted. Percy tried not to stumble at his coach's words. Swimming in the state competition held a lot of weight, one he wouldn't let himself dream about until way later. Besides, he still had the rest of the swim meet to watch.

Percy spent the rest of the meet cheering on his teammates and watching as his school dominated the scoreboard. Coach Eudora had said that in the past this school had been impossible to beat. But now with their spirits battered by Percy's great lead in winning his own team found it easy to pull ahead. He even got to swim in three more events, pulling in first, second (to someone from his own school) and first again. Not that he cared, at the moment Percy felt like he was on top of the world.

By the time the meet was over, the darkness of the sky was visible from the small windows close to the ceiling of the room. His team stood anxiously in a bundle waiting to hear the score from the officiators of the meet.

"...And the winner is…" Percy wasn't honestly surprised at the reveal that his own school had won, but it didn't stop him from joining in with the rest of the team's celebration before he rushed off to change into dry clothes.

The morning of halloween was the most Chaotic Percy had experienced at Delphi. Itching for excitement everyone was actually awake on time, ready to put on their costumes. Makeup was scattered along the bathroom counter and clothes were strewn on the floor as they all rushed to get ready.

Procrastination had always been one of Percy's more present qualities. Even as the rest of the kids (minus Luke) had spent their time on creating or finding the perfect costume Percy hadn't had any idea on what he wanted to be. He could blame it on the excitement at getting to experience a tradition he'd always wanted, but at the same time he knew he'd also forgotten.

Coach Hedge's surprise at the already awake occupants of the household woke Percy up, and as he listened to the chaos of Thalia doing Piper's makeup, he remembered what day it was. Halloween. And he still didn't have a costume.

Jolting out of bed Percy began to rip through his clothes trying to see what he could find. He didn't have much when it came to clothes, even after Chiron had taken him on a very uncomfortable shopping trip, but Percy knew how to make things work.

By the time Luke finished stirring (way after Coach Hedge's knock on their door) Percy had pulled out his cargo shorts, a faded tee he'd had longer than he could remember, and a thermal long sleeve to go under it. The best idea he could come up with n such 'short' notice was a skater. Which wasn't really a costume since he already was one. It kind of made him feel like a poser.

Percy slipped on his raggidiest (and only) pair of vans, ignored Luke's snort, and went to go meet the other kids for breakfast. Immediately he realized he was the odd one out.

Thalia and Jason wore spandex spiderman suits, Thalia's with a leather jacket and baggy jeans and Jason's with basketball shorts and a zipper hoodie. Her hair was adorned with spiky accessories while Jason had let his own hair be picked out to match the height of Miles Morale's afro. Thalia wore her big heavy boots to complete the look while Jason matched his own suit with jordans. They looked cool and Percy instantly felt jealous.

Following the superhero theme, Annabeth bounded into his view in a batgirl suit halfway covered up by a red zip up jacket and jean shorts. She looked happy until she saw Percy's lack of costume and looked him up and down.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Percy asked before she even got the chance to. Annabeth huffed.

"Cassanda Cain. God Percy, do you read any comics?" Without mentioning his crappy costume Annabeth walked away, which somehow made him feel worse. Percy did his best to check his attitude as Leo came into view.

"Doth Mother know you weareth thy…rags?" Leo yelled as he came down to attack the french toast Argus had left out for him. Percy was starting to feel really left out by the superhero theme as he noticed Leo's glowing arc reactor he had attached to his shirt. Remembering last night's overheard conversation he recalled how he'd heard Chiron talking Leo out of wearing his entire scrap metal suit to school. Instead they had settled on just the mask and shoulder part of the armor. Everyone had figured it was a better idea since Leo could barely move around in the legs of the suit.

"It's supposed to look like that." Percy grumbled as he tried to defend his outfit. Piper blinked at him over Leo's shoulder.

"What were you trying to be?" She asked. Piper, like him, hadn't stuck to the superhero theme like everyone else. Instead she wore a boxy green shirt with equally boxy brown pants. She waddled around the kitchen awkwardly, narrowly tripping over a head that completed her costume, one Percy recognized as a character from Minecraft. Percy sighed. At least she wasn't trying to make fun of him.

"A skater." The rest of the kids in the kitchen surrounded him, and he tried not to feel a little panicked at all the attention.

"Your clothes need to be baggier." Leo said

"Maybe some eyeliner." Thalia added

"Didn't you just get a new skateboard? Where's it at?" Jason asked

"I worked with what I had alright! I forgot." Irritated Percy moved to push past them and try and force some breakfast down only to be stopped by Thalia's hands.

"Nah, hold on we can work with this. Why didn't you just say something?" Within seconds he was being dragged upstairs as all of his housemates worked together to make his costume better.

Piper did her best with his eyeliner, smudging it to make him look borderline emo and exaggerating the eyebags he already had. She even added a couple of scrapes and bruises to his face, reminding him to wipe it off if anyone thought it was real.

Thalia brought some clothes from her closet that he thought would have been hilariously too big for him, but with the work of a few safety pins and a belt she and Jason had made look somewhat stylish. Annabeth and Leo worked on carefully taking the trucks off his skateboard, so he could just carry the deck around school.

Looking at their work, all of the kids squinted at Percy to look at all of their improvements.

"Put your board to the side, like they do in the movies." Percy followed Annabeth's instructions, and the group hummed and nodded.

"You think you can do any tricks?" Leo asked. Percy shuffled over to where the living room carpeted floor was and did his best kickflip, somewhat restricted by the baggy jeans he wore. This time the group agreed loudly with each other, happy with their handiwork.

"Okay now you look like a skater." Everyone else agreed with Jason, and returned to rush their breakfast before it was time for drop off. Chiron came in and took a couple of pictures with them all costumed up together, even forcing Luke to join in his regular day clothes for a couple of them.

The day at school wasn't extremely memorable as Percy had his sights set on Trick or Treating for the first time later that evening. It was fun, if not a little overwhelming, to see the array of costumes and makeup that flowed through the school hallway, each student taking longer than usual to get to their classes focused on seeing different costumes.

At lunch Jason brought over a couple of other kids to see Percy's costume, and more importantly to make him do his trick from earlier that morning. This time he made sure to land it because he didn't want to disappoint his friend. He got given a couple of whoops and cheers in return, making him feel a little bit better about himself.

By the end of the day he had amassed a small collection of candy from various teachers who had made them all promise to not tear into it until they left school grounds. Percy had every intention of following it until he saw Annabeth sneaking candy into her mouth when she thought no one was looking. Then Percy realized he had free reign to do what he wanted as long as he wasn't caught.

Dismissal was a blur, and the moment he got back to Delphi everyone was ready to go back out. Luke had still declined to join in on the fun, instead choosing to brood in their room. Percy figured that he was waiting for the opportunity to sneak out the bedroom window again, but didn't care enough to think about it.

"You're his roommate," Thalia had said when she was able to pull Percy to the side for a moment. "What's up with him?"

"I mean, we haven't really spoken much since the argument, but I thought he'd probably be sneaking out again." Thalia stared at him, waiting for Percy to say more. Even though Percy knew she wouldn't hurt him she still intimidated him a good amount. "I mean he's always texting some K name in his phone and sneaking out at night, so maybe it has something to do with that.

Thalia nodded, and walked upstairs to talk to his roommate before he left. Percy couldn't exactly hear what she said but he knew the voices were slightly raised.

Instead Thalia replaced Luke as the group's leader with Mr.D following them behind. The grumpy man had told them to pretend he wasn't there because he wished he wasn't, but it was hard because he'd lost a game to Chiron, resulting in him wearing a big inflatable grape costume as he grumped down the street.

"I'm so ready for this. I'm so so ready for this." Annabeth's eyes were lit with the effects of sugar as she paced by the door. She had a dated map of the neighborhood, with her and Luke's handwriting detailing which houses had the best and which route was the most efficient to get the best candy and have the best fun. Percy knew how close she was with Luke, and figured she'd be a little bummed by his attitude, but Annabeth didn't seem to mind too much.

They set out in the neighborhood, closely monitored by the swishing of Mr.D's costume as they went from door to door collecting candy. Most people guessed everyone's costume right. But Annabeth seemed to strike out almost every time, and she'd argue back the same way when the grownups were stunted saying, "Does nobody read comics anymore?" Eventually one house got all six of their costumes right, which Percy could tell made Annabeth's day.

Percy decided Trick or Treating was the best thing he could have ever done as he sorted through the heavy bag of candy as they began to head back to the house. It was beginning to get dark outside, and groups of teenagers, closer to Thalia's age were beginning to show up. Not that the older girl seemed to mind, taking her title of being the leader seriously and hanging back until she was offered candy by some of the houses. They were about two blocks away from the house when the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

He wasn't sure if he could actually smell the stench of stale beer and sweat or if his mind conjured it up upon seeing the man again. Just like last time, his body began to throb with pain as Percy recognized his stepfather's hideous shape on a darker emptier street away from him. This time the man was looking straight back at him, grinning with his rotting teeth.

Terrified, Percy pulled his hood over his head and started walking as fast and casually as he could, away from the group and away from Gabe. He focused on the ground, on his left and right foot following each other and not the waves of pain and memories of broken brown glass that flooded his mind. The hyperventilating noise wasn't even something he realized was coming from him until he was a block away being stopped by Annabeth's grip

"Percy. Percy what's wrong? Why're you breathing so hard?" His friend searched his face for any clue, slightly out of breath herself from catching up with Percy. He could see the rest of the group jogging up behind her.

"He's here." Percy forced out, stuck between bending over to try and catch his breath and keeping an eye out for the evil man. "He found me, I thought. I thought the first time it wasn't real but-"

"Percy? Percy, who are you talking about?" Annabeth was shaking his shoulders, something Percy really hated but was covered up by the panic thrumming through his bones. Mr.D shoved through the crowd of watching eyes to get closer to hear what he was saying.

"My stepfather."

~~~A/N~~~

Happy Halloween! I think this is actually my favorite chapter so far

If you were anything for halloween what was it? I have on a spiderman sweater for now. Everyone stay safe and enjoy!