We Olympians (A Percy Jackson AU) || BOOK 1

Chapter 1 || Percy

Percy looked around the whole city of Manhattan. The people spitting gum onto the pavement, the shoes stomping over the chewed up balls. How everyone seemed to be heading in every direction possible, but bumping into everyone in any possible angle. Yells and shouts for taxi cabs filled Percy's mornings with turbulence. No, not the plane kind. And you'd think Percy got used to this by now. That he could sleep through everything.

No. No, no, no. It still jolted him up the same way every morning.

He glanced at the ugly bruise on his shoulder. Gabe had popped it out of his socket last night and Percy had to bite a rag as he popped it back in by himself to prevent his mother from hearing his screams of agony. Now, Percy had tried to bandage it up as much as he could, icing it all night before the bag's moisture spilled all over his bed. But Percy didn't mind. He loved water.

Throwing a shirt and a hoodie on, Percy threw on his jeans and tennis shoes before making sure his cuts and bruises were covered up by his clothes. He realized that his tag was itching him, so he turned to try and fix it, but let out a hiss of pain when his side clenched with pain. He had fallen on some of Gabe's beer bottles and worked two hours after midnight to try and get all the glass shards out. He'd even used a vacuum, he was so desperate.

Trying to hide his pain as much as possible, he tiptoed down the stairs, clenching his teeth to prevent himself from grimacing. No. He wouldn't show his pain no matter how agonized he was. He glanced over at the couch to see fat, smelly Gabe asleep with his friends, passed out from all the alcohol they had drank last night. Swinging the door open, Percy slipped out, making sure his keys were tucked securely in his pocket.

He slowly walked down the stairs, making sure he didn't trip. When he got down, he knew Thalia would be yelling, Nico would be upset as ever, and Annabeth... Annabeth would be indifferent. The moment he opened the door to the lobby, he saw Thalia standing there, tapping her foot. Nico was glaring at him, as always, and Annabeth was glancing at Thalia and back to him.

"Percy Jackson!" Thalia marched forward, grabbing Percy by the ear.

"Ow! Thalia!" Percy whined as she practically dragged him down the streets.

When they reached the park, she pushed him roughly onto the bench.

"You were supposed to be out fifteen minutes ago!" she chided. "We were standing there in the rain waiting for you!"

"It's not raining," Percy frowned, looking up at the sky.

"Not anymore!" Thalia sighed, exasperated.

"It's not like we're under some time crunch," Percy rolled his eyes. "We've got an hour until the show starts!"

"And I'd like to get front row seats, Percy..." Thalia grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet.

Percy tried to hide a wince as his shoulder screamed at him for being so ignorant to his pain. But he ignored it.

"Uh... hey... Nico..." he said awkwardly.

Nico's sister, Bianca, had been killed two years back when they were all ten. Was Nico upset? Of course! But why at Percy? Because Gabe killed her.

-FLASHBACK-

Percy sat in the backseat of Gabe's friend's rusty, smelly car, gazing out of the window.

"You know, punk, you're really awful," he said.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Percy rolled his eyes.

He knew it'd get him extra beating time... but he didn't mind. It wasn't like his beatings could get worse anyways.

"You're lucky Earl let us borrow his car, you useless piece of shit!" Gabe slammed the brakes.

"And you're lucky you have your drivers license the way you're driving," Percy muttered, but Gabe heard it.

"Oh, you stupid boy..." Gabe growled, "I only have to take you to the club because your lousy neighbor reported me one night when you were home alone."

"I'm ten. I'm not supposed to be home alone."

Gabe ignored this and when the red light turned, he groaned. Percy saw Bianca getting ready to walk across the street, Nico behind her. That's when Gabe couldn't wait any longer. He had to turn.

"YOU F**KING LOSER!" Gabe growled and pressed the pedal.

"NO! GABE!" Percy screamed, hitting Gabe with all his might as the car they drove rammed into Bianca, sending her flying across the street.

"BIANCA!" both Nico and Percy screamed.

Percy made eye contact with the boy as Percy relentlessly hit Gabe, forcing Gabe to stop.

"YOU STUPID MAN!" Percy screamed with all his might, hitting Gabe with his shoe.

At this, Gabe simply took Percy and threw him out of the car, where he landed with a thud against the sidewalk, his head being rammed against the wall of the building. He heard a crack as blood ran down from his head to his neck. But as Gabe drove away, Percy was blinded by his rage. He ran after the car, throwing a trash can at it, watching as it shattered the glass, hitting Gabe.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS LATER, YOU DICK!" Percy screamed.

Yes, he was ten... but he had seen too much for his age. He sank to his knees, watching as the paramedics and police came too late. They didn't know which car had done the damage. And they didn't know who the driver was. But Bianca was dead. And Nico silently blamed him ever since.

-FLASHBACK OVER-

"Oh..." Nico glanced down at the floor. "Hey, Percy."

Nico's words rang through Percy's head.

"I wish you were dead! You should've been the one to die! Not Bianca! It's all your fault! You should've stopped your drunk stepdad! You shouldn't have even agreed to let him DRIVE!"

"Percy?" Annabeth's voice snapped him out of his daze.

"Oh... uh... hi..." Percy said, averting his gaze from Annabeth's.

"Hurry up, Kelp Head!" Thalia called. "The line's forming!"

Percy and Annabeth raced after her, catching her in the line, their tickets ready in their hands.

"Four tickets to see Hamilton," Thalia said, extending all four tickets to the woman.

"Proceed," she said, motioning to the door.

Perks of living in Manhattan? You get to see Broadway shows.