Beating Hearts

Chapter 1

A/N All character belong to Rick Riordan and I do not own anything to do with Percy Jackson and the Olympians nor Hero's of Olympus (this disclaimer is for the whole book)

This is my first story so please offer criticism! Have a lovely day and I hope you enjoy! lol let me know if this is absolute trash... it just might be...

   Percy knew it was inevitable. But, why oh why did the fates have to be so cruel. Couldn't they let him keep his facade up just for a little while longer. Was that too much to ask? The ache in his chest was worsening. But that was just probably the anxiety. No one knew he was slowly dying. Not physically of course, but he might as well have been with the state of his mental health. His mind was like a battlefield. Constant memories waging war against himself. Now, part of that was his own dam fault. Maybe he should have opened up to all the therapists and 'people who just want to help'. But how do you deal with being booted out of a foster home every other month because apparently "his attitude was just too much to handle."

      Now, while the situation with Gabe wasn't great, it was always tolerable when his mom was around. Sally Jackson was the type of mom who bought blue candy for you every friday. A mom who defiled her husband, a grumpy man that said "blue food isn't real!", by creating any possible food blue. But when she was gone because of malfunctioning car brakes, Percy couldn't find the will to keep going and just wanted someone to rescue him. But he had no choice but to shrug his way through it. Gabe made sure of that by controlling every aspect of the boy's life. No friends, no life, no nothing. Year and a half later, Gabe was super drunk one night and stupidly gave Percy a nice black eye and concussion with a stitches-worthy cut by his eyebrow. Percy lied about the cause as much as possible but one teacher became too curious. After CPS stopped by the apartment during a lesson of Gabe's, the evidence was clear and Percy was taken immediately.

       Calmly, as Percy stood in front of house number eleven, he mentally gave himself a lecture to not mess this up and to not be a burden. His case worker, Matt, looked down at Percy with a sad smile. Hopefully this time will be different. The pity in the older man's face was evident. Matt seemed to want to say something in order to comfort the tiny 14 year-old, but was apparently at a loss for words. The way-too-skinny teen obviously just wanted to get the whole introduction thing over with. Matt reached out to open the door but was interrupted when a girl who looked to be the age of 11 with kinky brown hair and large brown eyes opened the door with a large smile on her face. "Hi! You must be Perseus right?" she excitedly exclaimed. Percy shivered at the use of his full name. "It's just Percy," he quietly whispered. The girl was about to ask him to speak up when an older boy with shocking blue eyes and military cut blonde hair appeared behind her. His fair skin largely contrasted the girl's cocoa colored body. The boy had a small scar above his lip that seemed to wrinkle when he smiled."Welcome Perseus! Glad we could meet you" the boy said with a large smile. The way he said ¨we¨ made Percy wonder how many others lived in the two-story house. Percy looked down and uttered one line, "Please just call me Percy." Matt asked the boy if they could come in. After apologizing for not letting them in sooner, the blonde kid widened the entry way and shooed the brown-eyed girl out of the way, telling her to "Go get Chiron." As Percy stepped through the door, his eyes slowly took in every little detail. Off the hallway to the right, was a long wooden table with benches on either side. In front was a large staircase which must have led to the rooms upstairs. To the left sat two grey couches put an L-shape, each with a couple decorative pillows. There was also a cozy fireplace to the side with a mantle and TV up top. Before Percy could appreciate the works of art on the walls and the pine scented candles burning on the in-tables, the boy who welcomed them in, suggested they go and wait in the office and Chiron(whoever the heck that was) was on a call that would only take a minute more. As Matt followed the boy towards the back of the house, Percy reluctantly went along. They entered the office, which contrary to Percy's expectations, was quite welcoming with its comfy chairs and the wide windows. The amount of little kid artwork and jars of colorful surgery snacks didn't do any harm either. The 14-year-old began to wonder how long this house would last because while he had only been there for a couple minutes, he didn't necessarily want to leave right away. It just was so welcoming and he hadn't even met his foster parent yet. Behind him, Percy heard the door swing open and heavy footsteps soon followed. "Hi Perseus, it is a pleasure to meet you. I looked at your file and I think you are going to fit right in." Ah yes, nothing is more soothing than hearing a stranger say they 'read your file' which basically means they know about your whole life. Your trauma, your dislikes, your likes, your issues. Something about that felt wrong. And to top it off, what was with peoples deal with calling him by his full name. That would quickly need to come to a stop. Nobody, and that means nobody, besides Gabe called Percy 'Persueus'. Besides that was always during a lesson as Gabe so affectionately put it and Percy didn't need anymore reminders of those.