Siblings of Part of the Seven

Since several weeks into July a lot of things have been happening, defeating the Giants and Gea, bringing peace between Romans and Greeks, and finally time to recover, oh the blissful rest we all got! Although right after all of the battles were done I collapsed and blacked-out for a few day’s; as did the rest of the seven, including Nico, though I think Jason, Nico and I had it the worst. The rest of August was spent recovering, training, and burying the dead. Halfway through September I decided to go back home to my parents, not wanting them to worry any more than they had to. I told Chiron my plans and he suggested that I Iris-message them before I went home. I did so, walking to the fountain in the corner of cabin 3. This time I used Fleecy’s number, “O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Sally Blofis.” I said tossing a golden drachma into the mist. An image of a woman with brown hair and blue eyes appeared through the mist. She was sitting on a blue couch writing on a laptop.

“Mom!” Sally looked up from her laptop,

“Percy! Oh Percy, we were so worried about you, last we heard was that you and Annabeth fell into Tartarus!” I flinched when she said that name. “Are you okay?”

“Yes mom, I’m ok. I’m going to come home in a few days, ok?”

“Okay sweetie, by the way, we moved to a new place, a condo, and there’s a surprise for you.” At this Sally smiled a sweet smile, like she was looking back at a sweet memory. Sally went on with telling me the new location and little tid-bits about what happened when I was gone. A bell rang signaling it was time for dinner; I said good bye to my mom, then waved my hand through the mist disconnecting it. I walked out toward the dining pavilion joining other demigods that were heading there. I sat down next to Tyson at the Poseidon table; I looked around at the other tables noticing that there were so little demigods now compared to before the Giant War. After campfire I went to sleep, luckily with no dreams.

The day had finally come when I got to go home, I was so excited! I quickly packed up my bags, said goodbye to people and then left. I felt kinda bad not saying bye to Annabeth when I left; though technically I did say goodbye to her when she had left for her own home and family a few days before. I walked by Thalia's tree, putting a hand on it, and then went down the hill toward the camp's van.

When I got to the building, I immediately liked it, it was closer to camp, it was bigger, and much more updated than the last building we had lived in. I walked to door of 118 and knocked. After a few seconds I heard a click then saw salt and pepper hair in front of me.

"Percy! So glad to see you! Glad to see you all in one piece, and taller too! Come in, come in." Paul said letting me in and all the while talking. The hallway was nice, with pictures on the walls, Paul and Sally, the latter with me, and all of three of us together. The living-room was really nice; it had a blue couch, a wood coffee table, and two blue chairs. With big windows all over the place. Wow did I like it. Two doors on the left side lead somewhere; I guessed it was the kitchen because of the delicious smells coming out of it. Two hallways were on the right with two doors in one, and three in the other. Paul lead me down the farthest hallway, more pictures were up on the walls; the first door lead to a study, the second a bathroom, and the last one was a bedroom. The room had a blue sheeted bed with a night-stand by it, two dressers, and a closet.

"Percy, this is your room, one of the dressers are for your weapons, and there is a fire-escape." Paul said pointing to a door right across from them. "I need to check on dinner, hope you like it here."

"Thanks Paul, I think I will like it here." I said looking around the room. Paul left muttering to himself about things that still needed to be done. After I finished unpacking, I went to the kitchen.

"So... where's mom?”

"At the store."

***

I breathed in the lovely California air. I had just gotten my suitcase and was waiting outside of the LAX airport, I was standing, waiting for someone to pick me up when a 20 or something year old women came up to me. She had wavy brown hair with clear green eyes and a perfect tan. She was wearing skinny jeans and a white top that had flowers on it.

"Mom?"

"Yes you silly, who else would I be?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Came to give you a warning, now that your father knows about you being a demigod, I wanted him to be a happier man. So I hooked him up. She's a very nice lady, and a clear-sighted mortal. So it should be easier for you in your family." Aphrodite said smiling at me.

"What! Are you saying that dad got married?! Now I have to explain things all over again, and what if monsters attack!"

"Well look who's happy about the arrangement. But since she is clear-sighted it will be easier for her to understand and believe. I got to leave, I love you Piper. Don't forget that."

"Thanks mom, love you too. Thanks for telling me when it was time to tell him." I said back to her, with that Aphrodite turned around and walked away. From behind me I heard a bleat, I turned around and saw a limousine parked at the curb, Gleeson Hedge stood by the door, he was wearing a yellow cream suite with white shoes. I walked up to him and gave him a hug.

"Nice to see you Hedge."

"Nice to see you too girly." Hedge opened up the door and followed me in. Inside we exchanged stories about what went on after the quest had ended. Hedge didn’t say anything about dad getting married or anything related to that, so I figured that mom didn’t mean what she said, or that she accidently told me what she planned to do, or that it was supposed to be a surprise. The surprise sounded more likely to be the answer.

When we finally got to dad’s mansion I was asleep. When I opened up my eyes I was on my back looking up at a canopy. I sat up and looked around, I was in my room. Well I’m home. I went downstairs to the living room to see dad sitting down watching TV. It was nice to see him relaxing. I went and sat next to him, leaning back on the tan-colored couch.

“Hey Pipes,” Tristan said smiling down at me. He put his arm around me and pulled me close, “I’m glad you’re home. Luckily, this whole week I’m free to hang out with you whenever you like.”

“Thanks dad, anything new?”

“Nope.” I looked up at him, his black eyes had less sadness in them, and he was trying to suppress a smile, though he was doing a pretty bad job. When he had finally suppressed it he turned down the volume of the TV. We sat next to each other watching the TV for awhile. A bell rang, signaling it was time for dinner. Dad and I got up and went to the dining room. I was starting to sit down when dad asked me something,

“Um…Piper I think you should clean up a bit before dinner.”

“Okay…” I replied leaving the room toward the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and saw that my hair was like a rats nest; I quickly combed through my hair with my fingers, and then wet it. I went back into the dining room to see a lady sitting next to my dad. I stood there in shock, I quickly recovered when she stood and came over to me introducing herself.

“Hi you must be Tristan McLean’s daughter, Piper. My name is Emma Mendel McLean. This might be a surprise to you as we kind of wanted it to be, but I’m your stepmom.” Emma said smiling at me. Emma was pretty, no, beautiful, with wavy blond hair and hazel eyes. She was wearing a red dress with a simple necklace and bracelets as accessories.

“Nice to meet you. I can say I wasn’t expecting this, but, welcome to the family!” I greeted back at her, giving her as dazzling of a smile I manage at the moment. I was expecting a complete knock-out, Emma wasn’t a complete knock-out, but I liked her taste. This was going to be an uncomfortable dinner. Emma smiled back and sat down, I then sat down on the other side of Tristan. Dinner was okay, we ate seafood, as it was one of Emma’s favorite foods. I couldn’t help myself from imagining Percy’s face if he knew what I was eating. I didn’t know I was smiling until dad asked me why.

“I-I was just thinking of someone at camp who doesn’t eat seafood, and what he would say to me.” I replied stuttering a little.

“He doesn’t? Well that’s too bad. I don’t really see how anyone can’t like it.”

“He um, doesn’t like the smell, it makes him nauseas.” After that statement, there wasn’t that much more talking. Desert came, I got ice-cream, dad had crème-brulee, and Emma had berry crumble. Once I was done I got and went to my room. I turned on the TV too Once Upon a Time. Definitely one of the best shows ever. I sat down on my bed. I heard a knock on the door during a commercial break. When I opened the door dad stood there.

“Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

“Care to tell me about the quest and camp?”

“Three questions?” I asked smiling.

“Always. Remember, not too broad.”

“Right.”

“What was your favorite part of the quest?”

“Coming back home. How did you meet Emma?”

“Emma… she’s a wardrobe woman, she does the wardrobe of one of the main characters in my new movie. So I got to know her a bit, and she just seemed like a good fit. How’s Jason?”

“He’s good, he went back to Camp Jupiter, if it’s okay with you I would like to visit him soon. When did you marry?”

“Sure you can visit. We got married on July 27th, a few weeks after you told me about your mother. Last question, why did you tell me when you did?”

“Because Aphrodite told me you were ready to hear it. You know, I think she’s one of the only gods who understand humans better than the rest. Okay, last one, how come you never talked to me about her? You could’ve told me when I was at camp! Why didn’t you?”

“I-we thought it was better if we told you personally. We wouldn’t have gotten married until you had come back, but her parents were close to dying, so we did when you weren’t here. I’m sorry Pipes that you weren’t there to see it, and when we were able to contact you, it was already done. Sorry Pipes.” Dad said all a rush, like he thought I might interrupt him.

***

“Percy! You have to let me go!”

“No! I’m not losing you again!” Percy said looking down at me with determination in his sea green eyes. After quickly giving instructions to Nico (‘cause I was slipping), he looked at me again and then let go of the ledge. We held onto each other as we fell/tumbled into Tartarus.

I woke up in bed clutching the sheets, still feeling like I was falling. Tears were streaming down my face, I cried into my pillow trying to forget about what went on down there, also wishing Percy was there to comfort me.

It was 10:12 when I woke up, that would make it 1:12 in New York. Tomorrow was the first day of senior year, yea. Anyways, after I had my breakfast I spent some time playing with Bobby (or Robert as he liked to be called that now) and Matthew. It was hard to believe that the twins were 12 now. You could definitely tell that they grew up, just from the smell of their body odor. Then of-coarse, by looking at them. I don’t just mean that they were taller, but their hair color had darkened a little. It used to be brown, but was know a dark brown, almost black looking.

At lunch dad said he wanted to talk to me in his study once we were both finished eating. In his study he asked,

“Have you been sleeping okay Annabeth?”

“Yeah, I’ve been sleeping okay. Why?”

“For one thing I’m concerned, and another, you have really bad eye-bags.” He said peering at me. “Oh, and I don’t believe you.”

Exasperated and embarrassed I said “Fine. I’ve been having nightmares every night.” Looking back up, I saw dad with a sympatric face.

“Care to tell me?” I knew what he meant, I just wasn’t sure if it was the best thing to do. “I know I’m no psychologist, but I think it would be for the best if you told me.” I nodded and told him.

“They’re about the worst part on the quest.” I said stiffly.

“What was the worst part?”

I took a deep breath trying to calm my nerves. “Tar-tart-… I can’t.”

“Anything that could help with the nightmares?” dad said slightly changing the subject.

“Having someone or thing to be with.” I said thinking of Percy.

“You know,” dad said tapping his finger against his chin thinking. “I think we still have Wise Eyes the Owl somewhere.” Referring to an old stuffed Barn Owl I used to sleep with as a kid. “You think he might help?”

“We could try.” I said with little emotion, although I was super happy inside.

Notes

Hi, I'm new on here, and this is my first book... so, yeah. I haven't read House of Hades, so there might be things that contradict with it, sorry about that. Thanks for reading! :)