THIS IS ME TRYING

2: Congratulations!

"I don't know, it depends really." Percy explained, "Why?"

"No reason." Luna shrugged, "I've just never seen Sally angry before. She's... different compared to my dad."

Percy asked, "Will Gabe be angry?"

"Yeah." Luna nodded, "Or asleep. It depends if he's picked up the phone when the Headmaster rang him." She added, "I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't know a thing."

Percy watched as Luna took a deep breath, her hand hesitating over the door handle of their apartment. He followed close behind her, as she walked inside slowly- hoping to see her father asleep.

"Hello, genius!" Gabe spoke loudly, as always- he was most definitely drunk.

Percy asked, "Is my mom home?"

"Is that all you gotta say to me after failing out of school?" Gabe replied.

"I didn't fail out of school." The boy sassed, "Apparently, I attacked a kid at a school trip. Which I didn't."

Gabe looked impressed, before turning to his daughter who was quietly walking away. He raised his voice, "Come back here, kid. Don't think I'm not talkin' to you, too."

Luna stormed back towards him frustratedly, "What?"

"Don't what me, kid." Gabe snapped, "What's your excuse for failing again?"

"You say again like what I did was wrong. It wasn't." Luna stated, "I was protecting Percy."

"How sweet." Gabe cooed sarcastically, before snapping, "Well, because of your sweet friendship, you're now outta school. You know what that means? You need to start workin'!"

Luna deadpanned, "I'm thirteen."

"And I'm 46." Gabe shot back, "You have no-one else to blame but yourself! You wanna act like an adult, I'll treat you like one."

"I never said I was an adult." Luna argued, "I said I was protecting Percy!"

"And look where that got you, huh? Congratulations, you protected Percy and now you're worthless!" Gabe shouted, "I don't even wanna look at you! Get out of my face. Now!"

Luna clenched her jaw, as she stormed towards her bedroom angrily, ignoring Gabe's shouts which consisted of 'don't walk away from me!', even though he had previously told her to "get out of his face". Rage engulfed the girl as she swung her door open and slammed it shut, the door nearly blowing off the hinges as she did... but Luna didn't recall touching the door.

She ignored it. She was being crazy, Luna told herself.

After a while, Percy had joined Luna in her bedroom, like he always did most days. They'd always talk about Smelly Gabe and how life would be so much easier without a drunk man playing imaginary poker in their apartment. Luna didn't know why Sally ever got with the man.

Sally knocked on her bedroom door before opening it slowly, seeing Percy admiring Luna's paintings that were hung around her room. Sally frowned at the girl sympathetically, "You wanna talk about it?"

"No." Luna mumbled.

Sally nodded understandingly, before looking at her son, "Percy?"

"I'm really sorry. I tried this time. You know how hard I've been trying." Percy exclaimed, "But this time, it really wasn't my fault. It really wasn't my fault."

Luna frowned as she watched Sally hug her son. Sally smiled, "I'm just glad to see that you're okay." She paused, "I found Gabe on the phone to your Headmaster, he told me what he thought happened with Nancy Bobofit. I told him I believed my kids. It was a very short call."

Her kids. It made Luna feel better that Sally thought of her as her own. Luna wouldn't mind having Sally as a mom, in fact, she'd love it.

Sally looked at Luna, "Come on, let me see it." She paused, "I'm not angry, I promise."

Luna hesitantly outstretched her arm to show Sally her bruised knuckles, a few little cuts engraved into her skin. Her hand trembled slightly as Sally examined it. Percy questioned, "Is it broken?"

"Luckily, no." Sally explained, "You see, the swelling makes your hand seem more damaged, but it's just the way your body reacts to any harm done. You've probably just bruised a bone. Maybe sprained it, at the worst." She smiled, "I'll give you an ice pack for the swelling, and then I'll bandage it up for you. Does that sound good?"

Luna was speechless at the woman's kindness, "Yeah, thank you."

Sally hugged them both, "I'm just glad you're both alright. That's the most important thing that matters." Sally continued, "Mr Brunner called and told me about Grover, would you like to talk about it?"

Percy paused, avoiding eye contact, "Something happened to me. Something has been happening to me. More than my mind wandering and it got worse and... I'm scared."

"Gabe!" Sally shouted, as the man stumbled down the hallway towards them, "I'm taking the kids to Montauk. I'll have the car back by Sunday morning."

"Woah, woah, woah. Since when we're you takin' my kid to Montauk." Gabe replied, "She don't deserve a holiday after failin' outta school."

Sally sighed, "I called to reserve the place as soon as I got off the phone with Yancy."

"Who's Yancy?" Gabe questioned.

"The school." Sally scoffed, before turning to the kids, "We'll talk at the beach, okay? Pack your bags. Let's go."

"Oi, you take your shoes off before you get into my car." Gabe demanded, "Got it?"

"Yep." Luna said spitefully.

a/n:
sally love club