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✧.*
Grover's snores could be heard from every side of the compartment, and the train itself was audibly trembling.
Victoria shifted to try to find a comfortable spot under the blanket, murmuring under her breath, Percy noticed a faint glimmer of light illuminating the room.
"Are you awake?" With a slight smile on his face, Percy spoke.
Acting as though she was, Victoria was reluctant to speak with him, Victoria froze and slowly decreased the light radiating from her palm.
Percy stood up and carefully tugged on the blanket to reveal her face. She turned around, rolling her eyes.
"I said I was sorry like a thousand times, and you're still not talking to me."
She actually went to sleep this time, ignoring him. Annabeth was laying on her back, staring up at the mattress on top of her, and Percy groaned as he sat back down.
"Can't sleep either huh?" He said before laying back on his back.
"Yes." Replied annabeth dryly.
"You and Thalia were really close right."
"Yes."
"What was she like?"
"Why?"
"She was the last forbidden kid before me, right, she must've dealt with the same kind of stuff."
"She was tough, I mean, she knew she was a forbidden kid, she just didn't care. When Luke and Thalia found me, Luke cared for me right away. But Thalia... she made me earn it."
"Is that why you give me a hard time? I gotta earn it with you too?"
She sighed "Yeah. Maybe."
"I gotta say, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me."
"What doesn't make sense to you?"
"The way you guys all talk. The way the gods want us to think. Gotta burn an offering to get a parent's attention. Gotta beat up on Clarisse just to get my father to admit he's my father. It isn't supposed to work that way. People who are close to you aren't supposed to treat you that way."
"You wanna know how I ended up alone on the road in the first place? I started out as a gift to my father. That's how it works with Athena. We're born from a thought in her mind, and then given to a partner she feels connected to. And for a while, I was treated like a gift. My father cared for me. He loved me. I knew it. Then he met a woman. They had their own kids. And to her, I I wasn't a gift. I was a problem. So I left. I was seven. It isn't the gods who think that way.It's everybody. But at least with the gods you know the rules. Show them respect and they'll be in your corner, no matter what."
