I Wish I May, I Wish I Might, I Wish I Could Go Back In Time

Percy

I woke up and breathed in deeply, expecting the smell of the sea that always accompanied waking the Poseidon cabin. Instead, I could smell waffles and rain.

That was strange. Why would it smell like waffles and rain in my cabin?

But upon opening my eyes, I found I was not in the Poseidon cabin. Instead, I was in my old bedroom, the way it was decorated when I was a lot younger.

I didn't understand.

I brought my hand up to rub the sleep out of my eyes and realized they were a lot small than they should've been.

I struggled out of bed, my smaller body getting caught in amongst the sheets. I looked in the mirror and studied myself. I looked exactly how I did when I was seven.

Was this some kind of weird dream? Was I reliving a memory? If so, where was Smelly Gabe, rudely shaking me awake and demanding I get out of bed.

It didn't make any sense.

“Percy, honey. It’s breakfast time!” I heard my mom call to me from the kitchen. I could smell my favourite breakfast: blue waffles. I breathed in deeply. I had always loved that sweet smell.

“Coming,” I yelled back. Was my voice higher? It sounded a lot higher.

I looked around the room trying to remember where everything was, but it had been so long since I’d lived here.

Knowing that my mom would help me find everything later, I hurried out the door and into the dining room where blue waffles lay spread across the table.

My mom smiled at me from her chair, “Come on, sweetie. Your foods getting cold.”

I sat down, not missing the fact that my mom had only laid out two servings of breakfast.

“Mommy,” I said, wincing as my voice came out high pitched and small. “Where’s Smelly Gabe?”

My mom laughed, “Who, dear?”

“Smelly Gabe,” I repeated. “My stepdad.”

My mom frowned, looking mildly concerned, “Percy, are you okay? You don’t have a stepdad.”

I didn’t have a stepdad? Well this just turned into the best day of my life.

“I’m okay, mommy.” Why was I talking like a kid?

Then I remembered; the beach, Nico di Angelo, talking.

The wish.

I’d wished to relive my childhood differently. To make it better.

And that was exactly what I was given. Somehow, the wish I had made on that star came true, and I now had the chance to change my past; to live without Smelly Gabe, not go to boarding school.

This was my second chance, and I was determined to make it count.