Dread, what a funny word. Percy knew the feeling all too well, though whenever the word struck his mind he couldn't help but be amused. Take away the r and it's dead. Or replace the first d with a b and it's bread. Replace the last d with an m and it's dream. It was just a funny word, Percy couldn't stop thinking about that.

The thing was, he didn't dread his return to school, he dreaded going to Thalia's and finding out the truth about his father. School was going to suck, but he knew what to expect from that. School was always the same, even if he tried to point at small details to convince himself otherwise. But this, the whole thing with his dad, he didn't know what to expect from that. For all he knew, he'd find out more than what he wanted to know. Maybe the image of a man who abandoned his family for the marines was a better image than what he really was.

  "So he really didn't leave you with anything?"

  Percy looked over at Thalia, who looked only at the road. Her eyes shared the same tired look that his eyes held, both of them shared messy short black hair that they didn't bother to tame that morning, and they both wore the first thing they could grab from their bags. For Percy it was a plain navy blue shirt and some black jeans that were ripped at the knees. For Thalia, it was a black hoodie and black skinny jeans.

  "No, I never even got to know him. If he'd left us with money, I wouldn't be in the position I'm in now." Percy sighed and looked out the side window, he watched as the trees flew by. "His fortune has to be somewhere though, right? Money doesn't just disappear after you die."

  "Maybe he gambled it all away then," Thalia suggested, though Percy could tell she wasn't taking the idea all that seriously. "I just hope there's something that'll help us figure it out."

"Yeah, me too." Percy could see the mansion from a mile away, it was probably the most expensive house he'd ever seen. They slowly neared the front gates, where Thalia pulled out a small ID card from her wallet and scanned it in front of the lock. The gate opened almost immediately, Percy could only stare.

"This house is more of an heirloom among the Olympia's, our father's parents passed it down to my father, and my father will pass it down to either me or Jason. Whoever is unlucky enough, anyways. Usually it's the eldest child, which would mean me, but yeah. Not really what I want." She sighed and slowly drove through a pathway, then parked in a small parking area where several fancy and expensive cars were sat.

"So, you were raised here?"

"No, my dad has another place in California. Jason and I lived there together for a while, but our mom took Jason and he lived with her for a couple years. That's when my dad moved us back out here, he tried to stay away from this place as long as he could but... hard to stay away from somewhere so beautiful."

  Percy nodded and stared at the building, Annabeth would've gone crazy over the architecture. "Why are you going to Goode?"

  It was a question that just kind of slipped from his mouth, something he wondered about each of his friends. They knew his reason, but he didn't know all of theirs.

"You and I are more similar than you think." She stared at Percy for a moment and sighed, "Luke and I joined Kronos's gang together, back in middle school. It hadn't been long after I moved to New York, I was desperate for friends and there he was. He said it'd be fun, that we could be like those badasses in my favorite movies and books. Turns out I wasn't fit for the role, but I let it consume me. Got into drugs, found myself doing anything to cope with my decision, until finally Jason moved to New York too. He helped me out of that hole I'd put myself into."

"What about Jason?"

Thalia frowned, "Jason goes to Goode because he almost killed a kid. Back when he was living with our mom, he got into a fight with some kid who was making fun of his friends. His anger got out of control and the kid ended up in the hospital for a day. That's why he moved to New York. He still can't fully control his anger, but he tries."

  Percy nodded, though the truth shocked him. He wondered about the reasons for the others, why Annabeth of Grover were sent there. Even Frank and Hazel seemed unlikely to do anything as bad as what Percy, Thalia, or Jason had done.

  "You aren't alone here, Perce. We all have pasts we don't wanna think about, we all did things we deeply regret. You don't have to hide away because you think we won't understand, because chances are, we know exactly what you're going through."

Percy didn't respond, he only silently followed Thalia to the front doors of the mansion. Maybe she was right, maybe they all had their issues. Percy didn't have to hide the ugly parts of his life just because he was scared they wouldn't understand, but he also didn't like the idea of sharing his worst memories either. Sure, opening up was a good idea, but he didn't want to dump his trauma into another person. He didn't want to rely on anyone to keep himself together, he had to learn to do that on his own.

  But there was another thing he'd thought a lot about, he'd spent so much time waiting for people to notice his struggles, for them to see through his facade, but what would anyone even do? Ask him if he was okay? Obviously not, but he'd still hold up his lie and say he was. If that person told a teacher or authority figure? He'd just run, because in the end he will always find comfort at his lowest point. He didn't know who he was without any of it, even Gabe fucking Ugliano included. Who the hell would he be if he had a normal stepfather? He hated that asshole with everything in him, but he didn't want to know what would happen if he ended up in jail. Percy could deal with a little bit of pain, but not knowing what the future held, not knowing where to go or who would hurt him next, that was scary. This world was fucking scary.

  So yeah, Percy stopped waiting for people to notice, he was content with his issues, as shitty as they may be. If people wanted to notice, he'd gladly force them to look the other way, which he usually didn't have to even request. Many people either don't care or have too much to worry about already. It wasn't anyone's job to deal with Percy's bullshit other than himself.

  "Does your Dad know we're here?"

  He frowned, "He does now, the gate alerts him whenever anyone enters or exists. The card I used works as an identifier, because he at least needs to know who is going into his mansion. There's about a dozen of these cards, all custom made for each person. I've always thought it was kind of cool, except when I got caught sneaking in when I was supposed to be on campus."

Walking inside the mansion was almost ethereal. It was basically what every Hollywood movie portrayed a rich persons mansion to look. It held all these fancy and expensive paintings, all of the fancy expensive antiques, fancy rugs, fancy, fancy, fancy. Literally everything looked fancy, and Percy felt way too out of place.

  "This whole building is so suffocating."

  Percy couldn't help but agree. He followed Thalia into one of the rooms, she unlocked it with a key she'd taken from her pocket and turned on the lights. A glass chandelier illuminated the room, which held only file cabinets and a desk. An older desktop stood as the only thing on the desk, layers of dust piled on every crevice. It had been years since it was ever even touched.

  "What kind of stuff will your dad even have? Like, magazines? Newspaper articles or something?" Percy was trying to ease his own anxiety, which was rapidly spiking as his mind kept conjuring up different ways this could all end. None were all that great.

  "Eh, a little bit of everything. After your dad died, his mail was all sent here, so a lot of that from what I'm guessing."

  That didn't help in the slightest. He sighed.

———————

Apparently senior year of high school is busy as hell. Who would've thought. I'll try to post when I can, but yikes haha.