Cassandra Jackson: The Lightning Thief

Grover Expectedly Loses His Pants, Just Percy Didn't Expect It.

Okay. Percy's an idiot. He ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal. He grabbed his suitcase and slipped outside and caught the first taxi uptown. "East One-hundred-and-fourth and First." Percy told the driver. Yeah, he was still carrying me as well. Well I mean,  I live with him, so. Anyways, to explain why I live with Percy instead of at CHB. So about two years ago, Chiron let me live in the mortal world, because I didn't get to before. So I told him that I found a family. But I didn't. So I basically lived on the streets for awhile. That was, until Percy stood up to some bullies at Yancy at the beginning of the year. He wrote his mom and asked if I could stay with them for the summer. I even offered to work a summer job to help take care of me. I also wrote to her that I was going to a troubled kids camp for the summer. I think she got the hint. Because when we went for Christmas break, she treated me like I could die any moment. Which I could. Anyways, I have this theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma. And now she is raising two kids and has an abusive husband. 

Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds I knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When Percy was young, he nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.

Between the three of us, we made my Sally's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and Percy got along ... well, when I came home is a good example. 

We walked into our little apartment, hoping Sally would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.

Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home." "Where's my mom?" Percy said."Working," he said. "You got any cash?" That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months? Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.

He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever Percy was home, he expected him to provide his gambling funds. He called that their "guy secret." Meaning, if Percy told Sally, he would punch both our lights out.

"I don't have any cash," Percy told him. He raised a greasy eyebrow. Gabe could sniff out money like a hellhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.

"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"

Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."

"Am I right?" Gabe repeated. Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony. "Fine," Percy said. He dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose." 

"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after us. "I wouldn't act so snooty! And you girl! You were already forgotten by one family! If I were you, I be carful you don't end up on the stre-"Percy slammed the door to our room, which really wasn't our room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving our stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on Percy's windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer. Percy dropped his suitcase on the bed. I sat down on the floor about to cry. I should have been used to it by now. But you know, those word reopen wounds that I didn't even know existed. Percy turned around and sat next to me, hugging and confronting me.