The Day I Was Claimed (a pjo fanfiction)

act one-scene three

act one-scene three: i dream about ghosts

corresponding chapter: grover unexpectedly loses his pants

word count: 4101

pre-text author's note:

i'm serious guys. if you're going to insult someone, do it right. i don't want any wimpy ass fat jokes or intellect jabs. i want carefully crafted, hard-hitting, sherlock holmes shit.

impress me.

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Confession time, here's what I got: we didn't wait for Grover at the station. I'm sorry, Percy's not.

It wasn't my fault, honestly. Grover has a weak bladder when he's stressed, so the second we stepped off the bus, he bolted to the bathroom. Percy seized the opportunity to grab our stuff and run for a taxi, dragging me along.

My brother gave some excuse about Grover's freaking out freaking him out. Which, in the major scheme of things, made some sense, but we didn't have to leave Gover behind like that.

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A small thing about our mother before she enters the frame.

Sally Jackson is the world's kindest, most beautiful, best mom of all time. And it sucks because she never should've gone through the things she did. But she did.

Her parents died in a plane crash when she was young, so an apathetic uncle raised her. She wanted to be an author, Greek fiction, unironically. She saved up all through high school- working odd-job after odd-job- to get into a decent vocational school with a sick creative writing program. Then, when her uncle got sick, she had to quit school and put all her money into taking care of him. He died and left her broke and alone with debts to pay.

Our father was either the best or the worst thing to ever happen to her. But he made her happy, so he must've had some semblance of goodness in her eyes.

Mom doesn't like to talk about him much, but she'll smile at Percy with an expression I can only describe as sad, angry, fondness. I'm assuming that my brother got more than his looks, while I...I got nothing.

I don't have any memories f him, but it is entirely possible I was too asleep to form any. I was a sickly, surprise child who doesn't look like her parents, so it's more than likely.

He was from a rich, important family with an arranged marriage, mom had told us. And their relationship was a secret. One day, when ordered by his parents, he set sail across the Atlantic and never came back.

She never said he was dead, so I believed what she said. He was lost at sea, trying to get back to us. Percy pretended that he was dead because he didn't like any other option. To be fair, I didn't either. It would royally suck if you had a dead-beat dad who left your broke mother with two troublesome children.

She managed to raise Percy and me, difficult as we were, and she never complained. She took night classes and odd-jobs, got her high school diploma, and nursed us through every temper tantrum and broken arm by herself.

She married Gabe Ugliano when Percy and I were five. He was nice enough. Until we were six, and suddenly, he wasn't so nice anymore. Percy gave him the nickname 'Smelly Gabe,' but he was always 'Stepfather' to me.