Chapter Text
Yancy academy was not a fun place to be especially on a Friday at lunch time it just made me miss my mom. At most schools you went home at the end of the day but this was a boarding school, yippee, so I would be stuck here until something happened to get me kicked out. Not that I wanted to get expelled. But school was hard for me. I hated school more than just about anything. But my mom wanted me to do well, so I was trying harder than I ever tried before. It was almost the end of the semester, and I’ve only got suspended once. That's a new record for me.
I hated Yancy, but it’s all good my best friend ever was right there with me. “Yo Grover, I got an extra apple, trade you for your yogurt?” Grover was an awesome dude. We always had lunch together in mr Bruners classroom. Thats because the cafeteria sucks rotten eggs.
“I’ll take that deal Pe-eeercy.” Grover had some weird tics from time to time, but he was probably the only person besides my mom that treated me like a normal person. Not the troubled kid that got kicked out of every school he’d ever gone too. Needless to say we swapped food. Hey just because we’re not eating lunch in the cafeteria doesn't mean we got to skip lunchroom trading. As is tradition everywhere. We talked and joked and general goofed around for most of our lunchtime.
Then mr Bruner opened the door and wheeled on in his classroom. He was paralyzed or something. He had an awesome wheelchair that one kid tried to steal the wheel off of. He tried to blame me, that’s actually how I got suspended. Said I made him do it, I was this close to punching the kid. But then I thought about what my mom would want me to do, and I just let the anger wash over me.
Mr Bruner looked at me with deep brown eyes, his eyes always seemed so weary. But today especially they were old, but like with a capital O. “Percy, your mother is here to see you.” That was unexpected, in just about every way. His voice sounded so apologetic and sad. But what he said had to be good news right. Mom was literally the best person in the world. How could he be sad about her being here? “ You should meet her down at the main office.”
“Should I go with him?” Grover asked.
“No this is a matter we should not be involved in.” He said to Grover “and Percy, do try to remember, your a good person. Always act with kindness and compassion, don’t let the sins of the father taint a child’s heart.” And with that cryptic message he rolled over to his desk and put his head in hands shaking his head solemnly. I heard him whisper to himself “something man is worse than any monster. Take this and remember that you need to be strong. I fear stronger than any child ever should have to be.” He handed me a blue ball-point pen.
I don’t understand what’s going on but I knew my mom needed me. I ran as fast to the main office as I could. I threw open the door, wich was harder to do than I liked to admit. I was so panicked and the heavy wood doors were not designed for 12 year olds. Then I saw her Sally Jackson, the most awesome woman in the word. Now my mom was many things, strong, and kind, and gentle, and brave. I had never seen her with puffy red rimmed eyes, a runny nose and tissues dabbing at her face.
She had been crying, and a lot. My mom was awesome, but she didn’t cry. my mind swam with dark thoughts, had smelly Gabe hit her, was she dying. No she couldn’t be dying, and gabe promised if I let him hit me, he would leave my mom alone. Not that smelly Gabe ever kept his word.
She saw me and ran to me still crying. She bent down and wrapped me up in a big hug, and suddenly everything didn’t seem that bad. See my mom gives the best hugs. She was awesome like that, but something was still very wrong. She breathed in deeply like she was afraid I’d vanish into dust.
She was crying as she desperately wrapped her arms around my shoulders “Percy baby, you’re okay. Thank the gods.” Now that was weird. I didn't think my mom was religious. “Hey baby, how would you like to go get ice cream ang go to Montauk this weekend?” Something was wrong so deeply wrong. We got a cabin down at montauk sometimes and I loved it, but asking unprompted like this. She was trying to give me some bad news and soften the blow. I paled, as we walked out of the school. Gabe’s cadillac was sitting out front. We sat in silence as my mom drove us out to the beach.
—-
When we got there I finally got the courage to ask “Mom?” My voice was shaky and I was scared, what was happening to my mom. “ what’s going on? Are you okay?” Mom started crying again.
“Ohh baby I’m going to be alright.” Her voice faltered for a minute. “ baby your going to be alright. Everything is going to be okay. There was a place your father wanted you to go when the time was right. I think it’s time I took you there.” She broke out in another round of tears. I just hugged her as hard as I could.
“Mom I love you so much.” I tried to tell her just how much she meant “you’re like the best person ever. I will always love you even if we have to be apart, your still my mom.” She hugged me like she would never hug me again.
“Percy…” her voice broke. “I’m leaving Gabe.” She seemed so sad it didn’t make sense. Now I know I’m just a dumb kid, but still I knew my mom never loved Gabe so it should be a happy thing. “Percy your going to be a great man, but remember Percy, strength without kindness is just evil.”
“I like that.” And the funny thing is I really did like that saying, it was a great explanation for why bad things happened. If someone was kind and weak, well they couldn’t do much, but if someone that was strong lacked kindness, well you heard the quote.
“Percy, I have some more bad news. I’m pregnant, and it’s Gabes child.” My world shook. I didn't know fully about how the whole making of a baby worked. But I knew enough to know that it wasn’t mom’s choice and Gabe had made her have one.
“Mom, I'm so sorry. I promise they will be just like you though they won’t be anything like smelly Gabe. We’re going to be okay.” And I meant every single word. Mom was crying, so I hugged her as hard as I could. “Mom, I promise I’ll be kind and strong, just like you.”
We just held each other for a long time. We ended up spending the night in the cabin at Montauk. The sky was storming really bad and the sea was choppy and violent. But somehow we felt safe in each other’s arms. I was probably too old to be sleeping with my mom, no scratch that definitely too old. But still she just needed to know I was safe, and I really loved my mom.
When we woke up, she made blue blueberry pancakes, with blueberry syrup. Did I mention my mom was awesome. I just realized something. “Wow my sister is honestly super lucky, she gets to have you as a mom.”
Mom was taken aback. “Percy, what makes you think you're going to have a sister?” She seemed a little amused by my certainty. “What if it’s a boy?” She had a smile on her face, and I was happy my mom was happy.
“Don’t know, but it’s going to be a girl. I’m gonna be the best big brother ever.” I ate up the rest of my pancakes so fast it would make Grover’s head spin.
“Well we better clean up, we’re going to drive to Long Island today. There’s a camp your dad wanted you to go to up there.” Oh right she said something like that yesterday but I was busy being worried okay. “You’re going to love it percy.” We got into the car that smelled too much like cigarettes and cheap beer. She put the car into five and stared to roll out of the lot we had parked at it was pretty empty, wich wasn’t surprising. It was almost the middle of winter
“Wait hold up, aren't I supposed to go back to yancy? I haven't been expelled yet? I set a personal record.”
“Percy baby I’m sorry but your probably not going to be heading back to school.” She looked out at the sky and frowned, it was already storming today. It was early morning but dark like night. Rain pelted the car and thunder boomed in the distance.
“We can’t have that.” I knew that voice, it was like nails on a chalkboard. It was my second least favorite person. my pre algebra teacher mrs. Dodds “truancy is a sin and must be punished.” Two other old ladies cackled beside her. I blinked and they looked like they had leathery bat wings. “Now run along the chase is always more fun.”
My mom floored it. “Percy, you know all the stories and myths I told you about the Greek gods and heroes?” Of course I did, my mom named me Perceus because he was one of the only Greek heroes that had a happy ending. “We’ll crash course, they’re real. Those are the furies. Your dad is the god of the seas, Poseidon. Your going to a camp of half god half mortal, that’s the word for normal humans, children. Your scent attracts monsters, that’s why I stayed with Gabe his smell was so disgusting he blocked your scent.”
I blinked, my mom was driving like a maniac, I thought I saw a lady with bat wings. That must have been one of the furies, she was cackling and cracking a whip out the rear view window. “Wait so when you said you were with smelly gabe for me, you meant because he smelled bad?”
“That’s what you got out of this?” She laughed. I shrugged. She swerved around a deer in the middle of the backroad. “Nothing else surprised you in that explanation?”
“Nah I kinda just roll with the weird. I mean Wonder Woman was in world war 1.” We charged through a red light swerving around some cars. “And if that’s true it will probably be the least weird thing to ever happen to me again. I figure I should get used to it now.”
She reached over and rubbed my arm. “Aww my baby is so smart.” I smiled. In my humble and absolutely not biased opinion I was too old to be called a baby, I was 12 after all.
She swung off the main road onto a small dirt path. “Your still my baby, at least until your sister takes that place. Your going to be such a great big brother.” Claws ripped into the roof of the car like it was a bag of chips.
“Now now sweeties, we sisters want to have some fun.” It was one of the furies that sounded like mrs Dodds but they were all so ugly it was hard to tell.. “And Perseus we brought a playmate for you child.” Suddenly a roar sounded off in the distance. A thumping sound followed, like the rumbling on the tracks when they used those fancy old timey trains during Christmas time in the subway.
The furie reached down and grabbed my mom by the collar of her shirt. I screamed and tried to claw at the arm but it wasn’t working. I watched helplessly as my mom was ripped upwards and out of the hole in the roof of the car. “MOM!” I screamed, but Mrs Dodds didn’t listen to me. Without a hand on the steering wheel the car lost control. It was going fast and flipped into a line of trees. I tried to curl up to protect myself, just then the airbags went off.
I managed to pry open the door and crawl out of the steaming wreck. I was bleeding but not that bad all things considered. I looked up and the three ugly bat lady things were flying around they appeared to be tying cords of inky shadow around my mom like a cocoon. “Leave her alone!” I shouted at them.
“Well Perseus if you can tame the bull we might let her live yet.” Dodds snapped her fingers and out came charging a weird half bull half man thing, it’s hair was thick and matted like well like an unhealthy matted hide of bulls hair. It charged straight at it and suddenly everything was slowing down. My only thought was ‘gee am I going to die before I meet my sister.’
“NO! We’re making it out of here mom!” I screamed as I rolled to the side out of the way of the Minotaur’s charge, at least that’s what I think it was called. It slammed into a tree face first. It roared whether I’m pain or annoyance I didn’t know. And wasn’t going to ask. I ran up its legs and across its back. The fur was wet and slick from the heavy downpour but the water felt like it helped me.
I grabbed onto one of it’s horns and pulled with all my strength. I heard a sickening snap as the horn snapped off jagged and splintered. I held it as the bull stumbled back and fell directly onto its butt.
“Run away and leave us, for I am the son of Sally Jackson! And if you try to harm my mother you will face my wrath.” The bull headed man stumbling climbed off his butt and onto its feet. It roared and charged at me. It was a horrible idea and I was the king of bad ideas so I charged back at him screaming with rage. The bull went to swing it’s massive fist at my head, the punch easily the size of my chest. I simply rolled again, but this time under the fist. I cam straight up with the horn driving it into the neck of the beast. It sputtered and fell forward driving the horn further into its own neck.
The monster dissolved into a puff of golden dust. I turned to my mom and her temporary captors. It was weird I was still terrified and my mom was still wrapped in those inky black coils, which I now recognized as whips. Suddenly the furies snapped the whips taught. No no no no no no no no. My mom dissolved into the same golden color only it was just light not powder I had to believe that meant she wasn’t dead.
I screamed “I’m going to kill all of you.” Before I knew what I was doing I reached my hand into my pocket and pulled out the pen Mr Bruner had given me and uncapped it. The pen grew almost instantly into a faintly glowing bronze sword wich I knew was called a xiphos. “Not one of you will make it away alive.” I spoke in barely a whisper. I knew my mom wouldn’t want this from me, but I didn’t care anymore.
The furies started to fly towards me, but the air was full of rain drops and gale force winds. I felt the Evil monsters move through the water, I wasn’t sure how but I did. There was a faint pulling sensation in my gut and I tugged. hard. A gust of wing slammed down on the three furies, it wasn’t a super strong gust just kinda like how you put your hand out of the window of a fast moving car. but it was enough to unbalance them for a couple of seconds as I directed the wind and rain directly at their wings.
They’re wingbeats faltered for just a moment. I struck, and fast killing the lead two furies in two simple and brutal strikes. Mrs Dodds stopped and fell to the ground a look of shock and terror on her face “destroyer” she whispered quietly, but I could hear it. I smiled as I stabbed her in the gut she looked at me eyes wide
“No killing you, this was a kindness.” I said, and then promptly passed out. What a cool dude right?