A War is Coming | Percy Jackson

03: Dump Sweet Dump

Long story short: we ditched Grover.

To be honest, I didn't feel like it was right ditching him, but Annie and Percy said that Grover was beginning to freak them out with the talk about children dying in the sixth grade. I would be lying if I said he wasn't scaring me. So when Grover went to the restroom, Percy dragged us to the first cab he saw and we were on our way home. I felt a little guilty, but I told myself that he deserved it for lying and being vague and creepy.

Though, I also couldn't wait to see Mom again. She made everything better. She would hug me and tell me that everything's going to be okay. I needed her to hug me and tell me that everything's okay, even though I know that everything and I will never be the same again. My math teacher had just tried to kill us and Percy killed her.

"We're finally home," said Annie.

"Is that what it is?" I asked. I was always under the impression that home was with two parents who loved you and a place that was clean and smelt nice, with a room for each kid instead of the dump that we lived in. It would be a home, if Ugly-Ass Gabe didn't live there...

I paid the taxi driver while Percy and Annie got our belongings. I grabbed my duffle-bag and we into the apartment building and up the elevator to the apartment that we lived in.

I started feeling dread because I didn't want to deal with Gabe.

Of course when we stepped inside, I was stunned at how messy the apartment was. There were empty chip bags, chips, crumbs, old food, beer cans and beer bottles, and basically trash carpeting the carpet. I had actually forgotten what the carpet looked like and I haven't been home since Christmas. The TV was blaring ESPN and Gabe and his buddies were at a poker table in the middle of the living room, of course, playing poker. Nothing changed.

Ah. Dump sweet dump.

"Great, the three of you are back," said Gabe. He was smoking a cigar and I was thankful the three of us didn't have asthma.

"Yes, we are," I said. "Isn't that fantastic, Dad?" I walked over to Gabe and hugged him.

He pushed me away from him, disgusted. "Stop being a smart-ass, Other Girl."

Other Girl. That was what he called me. He called Annie 'Girl'. Since calling us both 'girl' would've been confusing, he called me Other Girl. I doubt that he even knew our names.

"Do you have any cash?" Gabe asked.

Somehow, the man could smell money whenever we had managed to make it doing car-washes, selling magazine subscriptions, selling Annie's artwork, and doing chores for other tenants. He called it our 'bonding time' which meant that if we tattled, we're in deep crap.

"We don't have any money," Percy lied.

"The three of you took a taxi from the bus station. You most likely paid with a twenty and got eighteen, nineteen bucks in change. When three people expect to live under this roof, they should expect to carry their own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"

Eddie was the super of the apartment building. Whenever Gabe was going on one of his tirades, he allowed the three of us to watch TV in his apartment to wade it out. I suspected that Eddie didn't like Gabe, but Eddie liked taking Gabe's money, which he gave back to us.

"Come on, Gabe," said Eddie looking a bit sympathetic. "The trips just got here."

'Trips' was his term of 'affection' for us. We thought it was cute when we were around five up to when we were eight, but now we thought it was kind of annoying. Admittedly, I thought of Eddie as a father-figure, since he was nice to us. Once he made us cookies for our birthday. I think he liked us because he never saw triplets before, despite New York having a crap-ton of people in it. He also told me that if I killed Gabe, he'll provide an alibi for me. I still don't know why he thought that I would be the one to kill Gabe, when Annie was the blood-thirsty one.