Sunlight | Luke Castellan

I. my brother is expelled... again

   LOOK, I DIDN'T want for my brother to be a half-blood.

It was a death wish. You might as well have put a glowing sign over his head saying, "Look over here!" Percy's presence was always spotlighted, and it wasn't a good thing. It was dangerous, and there was nothing worse than having to stand next to him knowing that there was little I could do to help.

Growing up, my mother raised us on the stories of Greek heroes and gods. They were present the way anyone normal was brought up on fairy tales. I mentioned that to her once when I was little. A teacher in elementary school had made a comment about my choice for a book report being too 'dark,' which had sent her into an irritated mood.

"You know, other kids grew up on these stories," she told me, plucking the battered poster board from my small hands to slide it above the fridge. You could still see the 'B+' in red marker if you tilted your head from my height at the time. "Besides, who needs another project on Jack and the Beanstalk?"

She was always protective, especially of Percy, who seemed to always pull her out of work growing up by causing some issue at school. "He's not bad," I overheard her explain once angrily over the phone one night. "He's different." I had quickly returned to our shared bedroom in the small apartment, watching my younger brother as he slept with his mouth open and lightly snored. In other households, 'different' meant weird. We'd been clear to stamp that out of ours, but I knew it did little to hide how the outside world saw him.

I never knew how little until that day.

"'Kicked out?'" I repeated my younger brother's words. The high school secretary winced, and I shrunk a little in my seat as I clutched the desk phone with both hands. I hadn't expected to be pulled out of class for a phone call, but when I heard it was from him, my stomach couldn't help but sink. Normally his communication came in letters. "Does Mom know?"

"Okay, not kicked out," Percy sighed. His voice sounded a little older than when I had last seen him during Christmas break. I would never admit that to him though; it was a running joke for me to always refer to him as a few years younger than he actually was. Currently, he was 'ten.' "The headmaster said the letter should be getting home by tomorrow night saying that they decided to not invite me back. Please don't let Gabe see it before she does."

"I'll try my best," I promised, but I still heard the boy groan on the other end of the call. I rubbed the bridge of my nose and briefly closed my eyes, trying to keep my sigh from being audible. Yancy Academy should've been a dream come true, but, like every school my brother had attended, was short-lived. I knew he tried his best, so I never wanted it to come off that I was disappointed. "Besides, even if he did get it before I did, it would probably take him a solid ten minutes to process a paragraph."

Percy laughed at that, and I felt the mood brighten a little. Gabe Ugliano was... our mom hated cursing, but he was an ass. There was no other word to describe him. He was rude, in constant need of a shower, and always had Mom cleaning the house because of his poker parties. He wasn't even good at it either. Every time I came home from school or babysitting, he waited in the old lounge chair in the living room with his hand outstretched.

My mind would always go back to the one summer when our mom met Percy's dad. Being only four, the memories weren't the strongest, but the few times he came around beat all of Gabe's existence in our lives. Mom never wanted to talk about him. She'd say that he was lost at sea, and when I got older, that their relationship had to stay secret because he had big responsibilities. Percy always asked what I remembered most about him. I'd say his eyes because my brother's looked exactly like his.