Pierre
His life was sorta a fucking huge mess, but you know. It should get better. Now that he's away from hell.
We both sort of had a breakdown but after that we talked a lot and then after that we spent the entire day together because we had 6 years to catch up on.
And Percy told me that he didn't like dad and he wasn't going to drag dad out here. But he gave me the info if I wanted to reach out. He just wasn't getting involved. He's completely cut himself off.
Failing at pottery was a lot of fun. It helped me ignore my depression for a while. It's like not that bad. But it's there and so I feel shitty a lot and it's just there. Sitting inside my mind. Always. He has it worse. But his friend also just died.
I did ask about Lee, though. I wanted that story.
"We... Summer camp," my brother explained to me. "Which I mean, it wasn't my choice to go. Mom didn't have a say in it, either. It was dad's choice. Dad is a long story, I'll explain later. But we met at summer camp the next summer after you left or whatever happened."
"Mom kicked me out."
"Yeah, Gabe told me," he responded, nodding his head. "He's dead, by the way. Gabe died a while back. Anyways, Lee was a kid I saw around camp here and there. We really didn't talk until we we're 14. Stuff was going on and we had to deal with each other a lot so we started to hang out outside of that that summer. He told me he was gay towards the middle to end of that summer. Or, he didn't tell me, I found out by accident. But I mean, I am, too, so it's not a big deal for me to know. And I think it was weird for about a week before I asked him out. It worked out."
"And Mom..?"
"Pfft, she didn't know." Percy insisted. "I knew she kicked you out for being gay, and you didn't even have a boyfriend. When Lee was in a coma, you know, I thought he was dead. So I dated someone for like a month. And brought him with to the cabin. Others were with, too. We knew we couldn't do a ton with Mom and all. But there was a loudmouth with and normally he's good but he slipped and mom found out and I blacked out after a panic attack and when I woke up my friends were there in the car and they told me I was kicked out. "
That's, okay.... That's kind of intense. Both of us have anxiety. Depression. It runs in the family. I got lucky with the anxiety. It's hard to actually trigger it. But my depression? It's every other thing.
By the sounds of what happened when he got kicked out, he's got it the other way around.
But I started to think about what Lee has told me. And really, he doesn't tell us much. But stories slowly are having less and less people.
I wonder if they're all dead.
That'd suck.
"What about dad?" I asked, because I still want to meet him. Hug him and slap him all at once. "Like you know him or....?"
"I do," Percy confirmed, nodding his head once again. "And I mean he's okay, I guess. I've seen worse parenting. Kind of a let down I don't know. Dad and his friend kind of saw me as their solution to all of their problems and they used me for a lot of things and they just rub me wrong. But if you want to meet him, which I get, I'll call him. We have two brothers. Half brother, but whatever. Tyson is nice, a year or so younger. Triton is... He's never liked me. He'd probably bring Tyson with, though. Dad did ask about you once. When we met. So yeah."
So Percy made a phone call.
________________
Percy
"Percy! My son!" My dad answered the phone, sounding happy that I wasn't like dead. "Are you okay? Between what happened with your mom and Chiron telling us the news that you've resigned, I got a little worried."
"I'm doing fine," I assured him. "I just needed to get away. If this is permanent, I'm not sure. But it might be. I have good news, though."
"For you or for me?"
"I'm hoping both," I answered, kind of excited now. "So I'm out with Lee and I met one of his friends. Who just turns out to be Pierre. You know, like the other kid mom kicked out? My brother, your other kid."
"Yeah!" That hyped up my dad. "Oh my gods, you found him! That's great!"
"Yeah!" I agreed. "He uh, I haven't told him everything yet. But he wants to meet you still, so I told him I'd call. Which is what I'm doing. See if you'd be willing to come out and talk to him. Figured if you'd come out I'd tell him before you came."
"Well, I mean of course I will." My father insisted, also excited. "I'll bring Tyson, too. He'll want to see you guys, it's been a while. When do you want me there?"
I shrugged.
"Just whenever works, I guess."
"I'll be there tonight, then!"
Well shit okay.
So I went back out to the living room where Pierre was waiting, nervous.
"What'd he say?" Pierre asked me.
"Him and Tyson will be here tonight." At least it was good news.
In reference to mom, I told him what he wanted to know. I figured he wouldn't want to know everything, it's not like he's going to go see her again. With Dad, I told him. What he could manage. Afterwards, we went to his house for a while. I got to meet his adopted parents. Explain this to them because they need to know. Dad was meeting us here.
That way he gets to meet his legal parents, too.
But Pierre did introduce me as his brother and they knew he was a twin so it wasn't a hard concept. When they heard the name, they assumed Lee's boyfriend. So he talks about me quite a bit.
We all sat down at the kitchen table, and I brought things with just to help them maybe grasp this, because Pierre was still pretty weird about it.
The whole god thing they were calm about. It was when I started to talk about camp that they differed.
"If you ask me or Lee," I explained to them first hand. "We won't give the best idea of what camp is. We were stuck there in a bad time, but I mean, I'll try to explain camp for what it is now."
"A bad time?" His mom asked me. "Bad how? Bullying or just low funding or...?"
"A lot of people died over a course of about 3 years." I said, and that just turned them off of this idea. "Our previous leader left the camp and formed an alliance with Kronos and they rebelled. Good news, the guy is dead and we don't have anything to worry about right now. Bad news, I can't promise something won't happen to you, Pierre. If dad will make you go, I don't know."
"Well, if you don't like camp—"
"I don't like camp for reasons that have little to no effect on you right now," I stopped my brother there. "I started off on a bad foot at camp. I was sent there because Zeus was accusing me of stealing from him. I had four gods hate me before I even knew they existed. Alright? Because I was the first living child of Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades in like 80 years, things were different. But now that we have had 7, you'd be the 8th kid out of the three gods to show up over the last 6 years, it's different. I was placed in high stress, and you won't be. I don't know how else to explain it without scaring you."
"No, scare us," his dad insisted, which surprised me for some reason. "If this is how it is, I'd rather him go in knowing all of what's happened and what might happen rather than just the positives."
I sighed for a minute and looked at Pierre.
"I can't promise that you walk out alive." I was honest. "You're stronger than you think, you have more power than you realize. Camp is a place that helps you discover and harness those powers. It is the safest place in the world for Demigods, that's true. But it makes leaving 100 times more dangerous for you. You'll get attacked by monsters. You'll become a Target. And in time, you get used it. In time, if you live, they leave you alone. You have to learn to defend yourself. Because camp is in a way like enlisting in the underage army. And it's not a joke, it really isn't funny. You don't..."
I stopped for a second, because I noticed Zander made a joke yesterday about it.
"You don't joke about somebody being dead," I went on. "Or about war. Or anything like that. Because you're best friend from five years ago? There's a slim fucking chance that they're still alive because Luke and Kronos rebelled and Gaea rebelled and now we're short like 247 campers of what we should be at because there was a war. Not everyone walks out of a war. I was very lucky that I walked out, considering my death was anticipated on our 16th birthday. Lee didn't walk out alive two years ago. If you look on his medical files, it says he was in a coma because the mortal world and the Olympian world do not mix. Sorry, but unless you're marrying one of them, Andrea and Zander can't know about this."
"What? Why—"
"Because they don't mix." I repeated, sighing. "I know it's bullshit. But I don't make the rules, and that rule can get you killed. There's a lot of rules that go with it. It's not the best place in the world, but it is the safest. And I mean, the people who are there are pretty cool. The two guys who run the place aren't that bad, either. Um... Sorry to tell you two, but you have no say in whether he goes or not. Mortal parents have no say. It is the gods and child's decision. Mostly the demigods."
"But if we don't want him there..." His mom knew what I would say, though.
"I'm sorry," I apologized. "You have no say."