Triplets of Leto

Chaptet 31

Annabeth and Luke stare at me without any words. "Birthdays are just important to me. Sorry for ranting." I mutter.

"No, it's fine." Luke says gently.

Annabeth looks at me with a look of anger and pity.

"Let's maybe try to get some sleep, it is pretty late." Luke says, with a yawn.

I slide down from where my standing against the wall so my sitting in a ball. I place my head in my knees. After I'm sure Luke and Annabeth are asleep, I let more of my tears fall.

Annabeth POV

Percy walked over to the gazelle, and carefully cut off the balloons. He the. looked down at my watch.

"Happy birthday, Annabeth!" Percy smiled, handing me the balloons.

"Wait, how'd your know when my birthday was?" I asked, confused and panicked.

I don't tell anyone my birthdays. They are unimportant. Stupid "holiday". It doesn't matter about birthdays. They mean nothing.

"Umm, you must have told me, or maybe someone else did. You probably just told me and don't remember." Percy said.

"But I don't tell anyone my birthday. Not even Luke knew before you just told him. I never expected anything and didn't want it to be a big deal." I says, raising my voice slightly.

"Then I'm not sure how I knew, but I did, so let's just have a small celebration. It's not everyday you turn 13. Here," He took out a lighter. "Blow it out."

Birthdays are important, right Amber? Jackson says.

"No. It just another day. I don't want to have anything special." I says, and I can feel a tear starting to form.

Yes. They are. Because, our birthday is the day we remember our brother. Amber says.

What brother? I ask.

They go silent, while Percy lets out a long sigh.

"Birthdays are so important. They celebrate the day you were born, when you came alive. And if you die, people will spend your birthday looking back at the happy memories with you." Percy, Jackson, and Amber say all at once.

"Just shut up." I snap at all of them.

As I feel the tear rolling down my face, Percy looks guilty.

"No, no. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's just, I don't know. It's the little things that have to be important, otherwise you fall apart and your step monster kills you, physically and mentally. And you need those moments of happiness or the sadness and pain consumes you and then you've committed suicide." The salt water flows into my mouth with each word I speak. "You wouldn't know. You're dad is probably awesome and your step mom or dad, if you have one, are probably super cool and rich."

Luke and I stare at Percy at a loss for words. "Birthdays are just important to me. Sorry for ranting." Percy mutters.

"No, it's fine." Luke says gently.

I look at percy both with anger and pity.

"Let's maybe try to get some sleep, it is pretty late." Luke says, with a yawn.

I lay down, using my bag as a pillow.

I heard Percy crying. And even though he made me mad, for assuming I had a perfect life, for assuming my dad loved me, for assuming my step mother wasn't a monster, his crying sounded so helpless. It wasn't a sound that was meant to be heard, especially by mortals.

"Are you ok, Percy?" I say, with a bitter edge.

I hear him gasp, and wipe his eyes. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"I know a thing or two about step monsters." I say up and faced him. "My step mom, she hates me. Figured I was devil spawn by taking one look at me, thought my half brother are angels. My dad is, was all ways really busy. He's a professor. So he doesn't have time to make his own opinions or be home, so he just goes with my step mom."

I fidget with the ring on my necklace. "This is his college ring. He gave to me when I was six, I ran away at age 7, but you knew that. I haven't seen them since I was 10. I tried living with them, but the same thing happened and I went to back to camp."

"I'm so sorry Annabeth. I can't imagine how that would feel, having your own father ripped away and turned into someone you can't love anymore. I guess it never occurred to me that you ran away from an unloving family. When I was 7, I thought all family were the same. Abusive step dad, loving, but busy mom. You couldn't ran away, at least, not for long. I didn't know that much about broken and bad homes. I thought my life was normal."

We sit in silence for awhile. And then, all of a sudden, Percy jumps up. "Who said that?" He shouts.

I hope the truck drivers don't hear us.

"You did?" Percy points to the zebra.

"What's happening?" I ask.

"I think I can talk to zebras."

I think for a second, trying to come up with a logical explanation. "Zebra must be close enough to horses, Poseidon's animal. And so you can talk to them." I says.

"Oh. He asked me if I could remove the S.P.A.M can from his hoof." Percy chuckled slightly. "Of course I can."

I heard him try to pull it off, I turned back over and laid down, finally falling asleep.

A/N sorry it's late