Chapter Text
Perseus Jackson woke up to loud, relentness banging on his door.
He quickly jumped out of bed, too quickly maybe, his vision faltered a bit. No time for that, the clock on his wall marked 07:38AM.
Like most winter nights he spent at home, he woke up damped in sweat and with the bedsheets completely soaked. His Montauk t-shirt was plastered to his skin, outlining his too scrawny frame. His mamma suffered from constant colds, so she always had the heath turned on at its maximum and the whole place was bleeding hot. Surprisingly, Gabe didn't seem to mind, Percy supposed that he was used to being hot, if you took how much that guy fucking sweated for a hint; so he knew better than to complain about it. He was never home too, so he didn't mind all that much. It was kind of comforting, even, a strong contrast with the freezing cold of Yancy's dorm. See, Yancy Academy didn't believe in "spoiling the children", and apparently turning on the calefaction when it was 20 fucking degrees outside was included in that. At least that made him practically immune to catching colds during the rest of the year. Grover would argue that cold actually didn't make you sick but whatever.
It was his first day back to school after Winter Break and, if Yancy Academy didn't tolerate any tardiness on a normal day, they'd much less on a special day like that one; so he better hurry up or he would have to write I won't arrive late ever again a hundred times on a notebook. By hand.
Percy didn't get the fuss about the whole going back there, honestly. It was just coming back from Break, not from fucking Irak.
As that train of thought flew his mind, he threw his dirty t-shirt to the corner of the room and grabbed his neatly ironed uniform from the desk and some fresh underwear so he could get into the shower.
"WAKE UP!" He was running out of patience; Percy knew it. The thought thrilled him, just a little bit.
Nonetheless, Percy bit his tongue and fought the urge to yell a smartass response back. He didn't feel like getting smacked on the face that early on the morning. He tried to swallow up all the deep hatred that he felt on his very core, but he found it harder than usual. Sometimes that happened.
"I fucking am!" Probably not the smartest thing to say if you're trying to avoid getting beaten up.
He saw the door knob twist and the door fly open, revealing a scarily calm Gabe on the other side. He had a dead grip on the knob, though.
"Wanna think better about what ya jus' said?" he asked, his eyes, black little things just like a pig's, full of fury. That was the thing about him. When you made him angry, he wouldn't react instantly. He found pleasure into making you think that you'll be able to make up about what you just did or said. He'd fake patience and mercy, to just throw it all away when you tried to apologise. Just like a snake playing with it's prey.
Percy had never met a rage like Gabe's. His face would transform into something horrid and maniac, and just so, so violent. He would punch you senseless until you started to beg for forgiveness, to promise and do things that... you just didn't want to do.
You'd think that it'd make you angry. That it'd make you hate him. But the only thing that Percy ever experienced after was guilt; shame even. And shaking it away was hard, man. When he was younger he thought he understanded his step father. After all, it was an illnes. Well, he called it an illness. His little problem.
But Percy was older now, and he knew better. Percy, unlike his mother, knew that it was just an excuse for his violence. And, many times, violence was just an excuse to lay his gross hands on your skin.
He looked at him straight in the eye, trying his hardest to not show any fear. He would not give him the satisfaction; Percy wasn't Sally. He didn't beg for mercy, neither he did for drugs.
"You heard me." He spat. He had long ago stopped playing Gabe's guilt game.
The bigger man approached him, and Perseus almost gagged at the smell that came with his close presence. He smelled like cheap liquor and cigarette smoke, all mixed with sweat and humidity. Percy had started to suspect that he actually sweated alcohol, with how much he drank during the day.
Just as he prepared himself for a fight, his mamma's voice rang from the kitchen:
"Boys! Breakfast's on the table!"
Saved, he thought.
"Sì! Be there in five, okay? Gotta shower!" Percy yelled back, keeping eye contact with his step father.
"Gabe, honey?!" Sally inquired.
"A second, woman!" he shouted, anger still flooding his gaze.
With a last look thrown his way, a promise that this little argument wasn't over, he turned around and closed the door with a slam.
After a quick shower that left him freezing, since the hot water had ran out after Gabe used it, Perseus headed to the shabby kitchen and was immediately hit with the delicious scent of fresh out of the oven cookies.
"Hai dormito bene, hon?" Sally was all over him even before he could properly step into the kitchen. He took him by both sides of his face and studied him, her hands trembled a bit. "Hai cambiato shampoo? I tuoi capelli profumano funny..." She frowned.
"What about speaking fuckin' English, eh? Ya Italian little..." Gabe sneered. It made him incredibly paranoid to not understand what they were saying. Probably made the little shit believe that they were plotting his death or something.
Sally simply chuckled and laid a gentle kiss on top of his ugly head. Percy had no idea how she was able to stand the smell and the grease that man emanated.
"Sorry, love." She said, her voice dreaping fondness, as she made her way back to her son.
"Look, Percy! I made some cookies for you. I thought you'd like it." Sally smiled at him. "One last breakfast home."
Against his will, his heart warmed at that, and he couldn't help to just nod and smile back.
"Thanks, mom. You really didn't have to."
Since his mom worked in a candy shop, that was also a bakery, she always had to be there at ungodly hours. She would wake up at 4AM to get ready and leave some breakfast for her husband, all in order to be at work at 5. At least she had a 35min break at 7 that she could use to get some rest or go for a coffee at the café she had next door. In fact, it was usually what she did. Except the times that Percy was home from school. Those times (if she was in a good mood, of course) she would run back home and throw herself into the kitchen to make some pastries for her baby.
Sally Jackson was not an easy one to hate.
In the eyes of young Perseus Jackson, his mother was the most awesome living person. It was all he knew. It was all he had; his reason to keep going.
Of course, she wasn't perfect, but who was? He knew kids his age that didn't have a mother, and others that had one but wished they didn't.
Sal wasn't the classy mom. Sal wasn't always there when school called over his grades. Sometimes she wouldn't call for weeks; and sometimes she wouldn't even recognise his face.
But she loved him. Oh, certainly she did. Because someone that doesn't love you doesn't tell you so. Someone that doesn't love you doesn't bake for you or pay for your expensive ass school. Someone that doesn't love you doesn't try to get better.
It was January 5 of 1987 and he woke up of his childish fantasies and he finally saw Sally Jackson for who she really was. And with that, everything changed. His world started to crumble until there was nothing left, before he could even realise what was happening.