Glass Flower

chapter two

Percy Jackson couldn't explain it, but ever since he met Aurora Gutierrez he felt the need to protect her. Maybe it was the fact he had known Jimmy for as long as his mom had been with Gabe. He wasn't a good dude, and Percy had heard Jimmy reassure Gabe that he was in fact allowed to hit Percy even if he "wasn't his kid". Percy also overheard Gabe telling Jimmy foster kids are like walking gold mines anymore. Then after Jimmy found out about getting Aurora he said this one came with money from her birth parents and that he would be contributing a lot more to their weekly poker games.

Then when Percy's mom finally sent him to go introduce himself to her, he realized he wanted to punch Gabe and Jim even more. Aurora was definitely one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen, she looked like she should be a model, a movie star, some kind of lost princess. There were a lot of words Percy could use to describe her. He liked her eyes most of all, even if he could never tell if they were green or gold. They almost seemed to be both.

Sure, she was a little strange. Aurora wouldn't eat around Percy, unless he split their food in half. The first time he did it with the cookies he had just assumed she was weirded out by the fact he came to her window with random food. Then she went to eat with them, and even then she wouldn't eat much. Percy didn't really understand it, until he heard Sheryl gossiping with Sally one night.

"They used to slip it into her food," Sheryl wasn't exactly affectionate towards Aurora, but even now she sounded almost sad for her, "The kid won't eat half the time unless she makes it herself, or if she can sit and watch me cook,"

"Oh my.. that poor sweet girl.." Sally sounded like she was crying, or about to cry.

When Percy asked Sally about what they were talking about, she made Percy swear that he never told Aurora he heard anything. Percy agreed, he was still a little confused though. One thing he knew after that though, was that he would never question sharing food with Aurora again. They split everything they ever ate together. It was just second nature for Percy by then.

When Jim and Sheryl had to take Aurora with them on a trip, Aurora trusted Percy with her most prized possession. Percy was more than happy to help, asking his mom to help him. The first day was great, and easy. Percy actually sat next to it the whole time, watching it to make sure it didn't need anything. Gabe made fun of him, and Percy got mad. The second day was when things went horribly wrong. Percy had to fill up the spray bottle with freshwater, and Aurora had even given him a distilled water bottle to fill it up with. Gabe was antagonizing him while he was trying to fill it up, and his temper was slowly rising. Percy snapped at Gabe, which got him sent to his room. He forgot the flower on the counter though, and when he woke up the next morning the entire bottle of distilled water was poured into the plant. Gave made some snide remark about how Percy's "little girlfriend" wasn't going to be happy. The plant was already starting to die and Percy didn't know how to stop it. In a panic he put it in the window, hoping the sun would dry it up a little bit. He forgot what Aurora had said though about direct sunlight.

So really, he understood why Aurora was made at him. When she smashed the pot on the floor though he felt like she had taken it a little too far. He regretted bringing up her past though, really regretted it, the damage was done though. Percy had lost the one friend he felt like actually understood everything.

After that Aurora avoided him. After Percy got expelled from his fifth grade school, Gabe convinced Sally that Yancy Academy for troubled children would be perfect. Percy knew that Gabe just wanted Percy gone. Sally was reluctant at first, but then agreed shortly after. When Percy saw Aurora he was a little hopeful that maybe she would ask what he was doing there, but then she just glared at him with that girl Lydia Rettick and he knew she hadn't forgiven him.