After that first night with Annabeth now living with us, I went on my weeklong fishing trip. It was really hard, and it tore my mind up, leaving Estelle and Mom with a girl we known for not even 24 hours.
The land appears on the horizon, seagulls screaming over my boat trying to get my haul. The land get closer, and the Fishing Drop of Zone is getting nearer. I pull up along the dock and a guy ties my boat to it. They start pumping the fish I caught into a tank, and they weigh it.
"346 fish, totaling 1.1 tons... you earn, 116 chits." The guy says.
"WHAT?!" I stand up quickly. "Last time I had 800 pounds and got 400 chits, what the hell is this!" I get in the guy's face.
"I'm sorry Percy... the Capital reduced our funds again." the guy looks down.
"Ah... I'm sorry..." I back away from him, filled with guilt and worry. "I have three mouths to feed now, and this will barely feed me." I sigh and sit back into my chair. "I can just go hungry again, or help someone out." I look back to the guy. "Thank you, and I'm sorry again." the guy hops off and unties my boat. My engines burps to life and I go off towards home.
The sun setting and night taking over, lights from peoples homes scatter around. I cut my engine and slowly glide into my dock, I hop off and tie the boat.
"PERCY!!" A scream echoes the field. Estelle sprinting from the house at me. She jumps into my arms clinging to me for dear life.
"Hey duck." I whisper as I hug her back. Mom and Annabeth walking down to me to.
"I missed you Percy!" she sobs into my chest as she clings to me.
"Duck, you do this every time, I told you I will always come back for you." She lifts her head up from my chest. Snot and tears connecting from her face to my shirt.
"Estelle, sweetheart... your covering Percy in snot... again..." Mom says as she hugs me to.
"Hey mom, Annabeth." I look over to the blonde girl, standing shyly behind my mom, she gives a small wave.
"How was your trip?" Mom asks me.
"It was ok, no storms and I got a pretty good haul, almost broke my record too...but..." my voice trails off, and my mom's face drops.
"Cut offs... How much?"
"116."
She sighs and shakes her head, I hand her the money and we head inside as I Estelle clings to me still.
Inside is a nice warm dinner, "Have a seat sweetie... Estelle get off him!"
We sit down for dinner, and we talk about what happened and how everyone is doing.
"So, the reaping is in a couple days..." moms face goes white. "And Estelle is old enough now."
"Its ok mom, she's only eight, with one entry." I grab her hand.
"And you have eight now." she looks at me. I nod slowly.
"Annabeth, are you in it? Since you just got here." I ask her.
"Yeah, I have eight too." She sits staring at her plate.
"Enough of this sad mood, lets watch a movie!" I stand up and Estelle cheers.
We bundle up and watch Estelle's favorite movie... for the thousandth time. Not even an hour in and I'm the only one awake and being used as a pillow by everyone, Annabeth drooling on my arm.
