𐌙/𐌍 Ᏽ𐌵𐌀𐌋𐌄 & 𐌕𐋅𐌄 Ᏽ𐌐𐌄𐌀𐌕 𐌌𐌙𐌕𐋅𐌔 ¹

Chapter 1

One
𖧷

Encountering Old Acquaintances

  On the last day before Winter break, I had a small surprise I didn't quite expect.

  Exactly when the clock hit 8:30, our class was dismissed from the long and exausting, two hour honoring for all of the adopted kids that had been adopted this year, and the final goodbye for all of the kids that were going away right now.

  As always, I was the chosen one to do the congratulations for the newly adopted ones, with a fake charisma that took half of my life away, all for being the kid who has been in the adoption board for the most time. Hive was just weird like that.

  But just as I ended saying goodbye to Leslie I-have-no-idea-who, Sally Jackson, the mother of a friend of mine from my summer camp, approached me and said hello.

  "Hi, Ms. Jackson," I said with a genuine smile, for once today. "Are you here to adopt someone? I didn't quite know you were coming today."

  "Oh, you got it right," Sally smiled. "Do you have any ... recommendations?"

  "Oh, I got it. You should try looking for Andrew Ginda, he's super calm and collected, he won't cause any trouble," I suggested. "Specially with a man at home now, you wouldn't want to have a problematic child around most of those."

  "What?" Sally frowned in confusion.

  "Don't you have a boyfriend?" I asked.

  "Ooh, I–" Sally coughed with an immense blush. "I think I'll take a different child. Maybe one who already has a mother?"

  I narrowed my eyebrows for a second before I got the message and my eyes widened.

  "You're wanting to a–ad–" I stuttered.

  "Yes! I'm wanting to adopt you."

  I almost forgot how to breathe for a moment. Finally, fucking finally, someone who is actually a good parent was looking to adopt me. Not some racist, or sexist, or homophobe parent. Or worse, a strict parent–oh, those gave me the fucking chills!

  I jumped up and smushed myself against Sally for a bear hug, she laughed for a moment before she, herself, held me tight. I was happily sobbing with tears of joy and with a stupid smile on my face.

  Sally told me to get my stuff ready and promised she would sign the papers to legally get me under her care, and would be waiting outside on her car when I was ready. She said we had places to go, but didn't tell me where, nor why.

  When I reached my dorm, lots of things were thrown around. There was a notebook half placed on my desk, the other half was open and hanging down. There was a picture of me, Percy and Annabeth smiling with the pine tree on top of Half-Blood Hill behind us. I softly smiled as I picked it up and set it corectly on my bed then went to pick up a bag.

🌙🏹࿏
 

On our drive, we passed Manhattan and picked up Percy, and he looked shocked to see me already on the passenger seat beside his mom when he entered the back seat.

  We kept talking while Sally drove us around. On our way, we picked up our friends Thalia and Annabeth.

  It was an eight-hour drive from New York to Bar Harbor, Maine. Sleet and snow pounded the highway. Annabeth, Thalia, Percy, and I hadn't seen each other in months, but between the blizzard and the thought of what we were about to do, we were too nervous to talk much. Except for my Sally. She talks more when she's nervous. By the time we finally got to our destination, it was already dark out, and Sally had told us each and every embarrassing story she had remembered from when Percy was a little baby.