Little Tricks (PJO x HP) DISCONTINUED

CHAPTER THREE: Grover unexpectedly loses his pants

James smiled, side hugging Sally with his left arm, his right arm wrapped around Regulus.

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

After hugging Ara goodbye (Her house was 6 blocks away in a little strip of woods) and telling her to say hi to Uncle James and Reggie for me, I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom 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.

Narcissa wrinkled her nose in distaste.

Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."
"Where's my mom?"
"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"

Everyone who knew of Sally's temper when it came to Percy's wellbeing slowly inched away. "What. Does. He. Mean. Percy?" Percy smiled awkwardly, "You'll find out?"

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 I was home, he
expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom,
he would punch my lights out.

Sally let out a full blown snarl.

"I don't have any cash," I told him.

He raised a greasy eyebrow.
Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've
covered up everything else.

"Foreshadowing..." Ara sung under her breath.

"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?"

"He's twelve!" A few mothers shouted angrily. Molly Weasley glared at Sally, "This is your fault!" Percy stood up glaring at the redheaded woman. "No it's not. Remember what the note said? Don't assume. So sit the fuck down." He sneered.

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.

Ara frowned, "If he cared so much, he should have gone to the police." Draco nodded, "Yeah there are clear signs of what's going on."

The other two guys passed gas in harmony.
"Fine," I said. I 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 me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"

"Wow, that's a really pathetic insult." Hermes murmured.

I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's
"study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the
closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his
nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.
I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.
Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit
lady's shears snipping the yarn.