Sally

It was Thanksgiving week. So of course family was all coming home, which was the apartment. Because now my sister wanted to come for the holidays. Not just Gordon, Tara, and their kids.

So we had to move Susan into our room. The  four youngest kids (a four year old and then three like 15 year olds) and then Jack, Percy, and Nico were in Percy's room. Being we had two couches, smaller, but two of them, that's where everyone else slept unless they changed it themselves.

My sister was the first to arrive. With her husband and four year old. And she started to tell me about this nice guy, probably Percy's age, that they saw at the hotel they stayed at last night between flights.

And her husband... Kind of like Poseidon, is homophobic. But her husband was raised Mormon.

"He wasn't nice," William insisted. "He should be burning in hell. Rotting in Tartarus."

Anne, my sister, had a child with Zeus. Didn't tell anyone until after she got pregnant, of course.

I felt so bad for Cosette, my niece, because after Percy...

Were all inclusive about the gods in our family. All of Gordon's kids are all demigods. Not of the same origin. Four different ones. Jack is the son of Hathor, Egyptian goddess of love, Matilda is the daughter of Eir, Norse goddess of healing. Holly is daughter of Dionysus (wine is a hell of a thing, plus Dionysus was apparently trying to pull off being off a girl). And then Megan is the daughter of Venus.

He's lucky he doesn't live in America. His kids would've been died by the age of 5. Monsters reign here because so do the gods.

All of them.

Now, this is Anne's first back in America in a long time. Like 20 years. She hasn't met Percy. She lives in Canada. But more so by Vancouver and that's a while away from us.

So we're catching up and her husband insists this dude should burn and suffer in Tartarus or hell or whatever.

Percy and Nico got home.

Anne whispered to me that Percy was the nice guy she had told me about. So when William thought he should burn in hell...

I have a problem with that.

"Which one is yours?" Anne asked me as Gordon and his family showed up.

"Percy," I told her. "The taller one."

William tried to start a fight with Percy. It didn't work because Gordon told him to shut the hell up. And Percy really didn't care to have an argument.

We had all started to prepare dinner, and this is when this started. Percy had said something to Jack, because they haven't seen each other in forever. And William just...

"You know, why don't you just go rot in Tartarus?" William suggested.

Everyone kind of gave him a look.

"Why don't you shut your mouth, William." Gordon told him, aware that kids are around and he shouldn't swear.

"Yeah," Percy agreed with my cousin. "And plus, if you care that much, I already rotted away in Tartarus. You put up with me either way. See how that works?"

You see, Percy can be as nice as I try to be. He can be a complete sweetheart.

But in .03 seconds he can become the coldest person you've ever met. It doesn't take that long. And he gets that from his dad. But like me, once you lose Percy's trust, you're not getting it back.

"I'm sorry," Gordon remarked. "How the fuck do you end up in Tartarus? And get out alive?"

Percy looked over at us.

"You got Greek of Roman kids, right?"

Gordon and Tara nodded their kids.

"Take my advice," Percy suggested. "Don't let them go to camp. It's not worth it."

Nico shook his head, agreeing.

Dinner was nice, the food was amazing, and half of the kids passed out almost right away. Including Percy and Nico. Jack and Holly were still awake. And then Gordon, Anne, and myself. But Anne was trying to get Cosette to lay down. So it's Gordon and myself in the dining room. Paul had a meeting at 7 in the morning, so he willingly had put Susan to bed and went to bed himself.

The four of us were playing Monopoly. And they all told me what's been going on with them and how they've been.

They asked about me in return. How we've been the last couple years they haven't been able to be here outside for a couple hours. I was married to Gabe the last time they spent more than a night here. They're here for three days. Then they go back home.

"I..." I started and sighed. "You know, I myself am fine. Susan sleeps through the night now so that's great. But as Percy's mom... He's been doing so shitty these last couple months. This is the happiest I've seen him in a long time. And I mean a long fucking time."

"What's going on with him?" Gordon asked me. "Like how bad is he normally?"

I rolled the dice and moved the 9 places I had to before handing over $6 to Holly.

"Well he got out of the hospital about two weeks ago." I explained to my cousin's. "And what he did up until like two days ago was that he'd go to school and everything. That was normal. But when he came home, he went to his room and not really do anything until Nico would get back and force him to do something. He came home two days ago and sat down in the living room and did his homework and talked to me and that was weird. He's been very depressed lately."

I just hope that's starting to change.