The first thing I heard when I woke up was voices. My eyes were too tired to open, so I just laid there with my eyes closed. I tried moving, which didn't work. I felt my hands tied to smooth, cold metal. Then I realized I was sitting upright. The voices stopped talking, though I wasn't sure what they were saying in the first place.

I tried opening my eyes, but they wouldn't open; I didn't have the energy. So instead, I listened. There was a scraping of a chair, so I assumed someone sat down.

"Where is Gabe Ugliano?" there was a gruff voice, and it slowly grabbed my heart in terror. I haven't seen Gabe since Thursday night. I couldn't really answer this guy's question, and I was minorly freaking out.

I felt something hard connect with my stomach, and I gasped.

"I'll ask again, where is Gabe Ugliano?" I figured talking would be my best bet. I wasn't sure what had hit me, but I knew I didn't want to be hit with it again.

"I don't know. I saw him on Thursday, but he wasn't there Friday night," another hit. Seriously if you want people to answer, why hit them when they speak?

"Who are you?" ok, I knew that this was bad news. These must be debt collectors or something, so it might be a bad idea that they learn my name. Taking a deep breath, I decided to play it like I thought they meant my relation to Gabe.

"I'm his step-son," another hit which made me cough since it had hit a few bruised ribs.

"Well then, maybe you know where he has his money? He was supposed to repay us two weeks ago. So you're either going to cough up where he is, or you're going to be his replacement" my throat closed up. This is bad, shit shit shit. Maybe if I tell them where some of his buddies are, they'll leave me alone. I took a deep breath.

"Um, well, I don't know exactly where he is," a punch to the face" But, wait, I know a few places he might've gone" there wasn't a punch. I figured they were waiting for addresses.

"Spit it out."

"Um, I don't know addresses, but I know names."

"Good enough, get him a piece of paper and pen. Also, take his blindfold off."

As soon as the blindfold was taken off, I realized that it had restricted my efforts to open my eyes. I blinked as the light in the room blinded me. I heard the slap of a paper and pen on a table, and I looked up. There were two men, one sitting and one standing. I tried to lift my hands but realized that my hands were still strapped to the chair. The man sitting waved his own hand exasperatedly, and the one standing came up and unstrapped my right hand.

I lifted it and leaned awkwardly to write down the three names I knew, Jared Columbine, Reese Saren, and Felix Garder. I dropped the pen and then looked at the man sitting across from me. He read over the names and handed them to the guy standing. Panic welled up in me as I waited to be released.

"Alright, kid, we're going to let you go, but know that we'll be watching you. That is until we either find Gabe or his trail goes cold. If you go to anyone and spill what has happened here, you're dead along with the person you told." the man sitting waved his hand again and the one standing walked up to me and punched me hard, knocking me out.

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When I woke up, I found myself sprawled on the floor near my front door. I wasn't sure if that was a dream, but the throbbing of my cheek from where the guy knocked me out made me believe it really happened. I stood up shakily and grabbed my phone out of my hoodie. Looking at the time. 5 am Wednesday.

At least I didn't miss another day of school. I sighed as I walked to the restroom. Turning on the shower, I stripped down and unwrapped my bandages. After around four days of zero beatings, my body looked almost completely healed. Well, except for the new bruises on my stomach from last night and my right wrist caked in dried blood.

I stepped into the warm water and immediately felt relieved. All my stress and injuries seemed to fade away as the water ran down my body. Closing my eyes, I started washing. I made sure not to look as I washed my wrist. However, I could feel the letters in my skin as I rinsed and washed it. I quickly finished in the shower and rewrapped my wrist. I decided against wrapping my torso since it was basically healed and walked to my room with a towel around my waist.

Closing my bedroom door, I walked into my bedroom and pulled out clothes. Throwing on clean underwear and jeans, I shuffled through my shirts, grabbing a dark grey one, and looked around for a clean hoodie. I cursed as I realized the only one I had was the blue one I got for my birthday. I always tried to never wear it because it was a present from Mom. I don't know what I would do if I wore it and got blood on it.

I didn't have a choice, and I hoped that I wouldn't get beat up bad enough for me to bleed all over it. I threw on the blue hoodie and placed my phone, earbuds, and house key in the pocket. Walking out of the house, I turned towards the school. I was aware of eyes watching me, but every time I turned around, I didn't see anyone.

I made it to school and checked the time 6:36 am. I walked towards the library in hopes that Annabeth was waiting for me. I saw her sitting on the floor outside of the library with a book in her hands.

"Um, hey Annabeth, sorry I'm kind of late."

Her head snapped up at me, and she jumped to her feet. "Oh, thank gods, I was about to text you demanding to know when you were. What took so long? Are you ok?" she hugged me as she fired questions at me. I felt my heart melt, and my stomach do flips as I felt her arms around me.

"Um, I'm ok. I just took a shower and lost track of time. Do you uh, do you have the papers from yesterday?" she slowly let go, and I immediately missed the warmth. She walked back to where she was sitting and grabbed her book and a notebook. She opened the notebook and grabbed some papers out of the slide.

"Here you go."

"Thanks, um, want me to walk you to Architecture?" I rubbed the back of my neck as she chuckled at me.

"Sounds good, Rusticitas" I groaned at the nickname. She laughed, but it soon faded, and we walked in silence. The comfortable silence was interrupted as someone shouted from across the hallway to the right.

"Annabeth!" we both whipped our heads to stare at the red-headed girl who was running towards us. Annabeth narrowed her eyes until they widened in recognition.

"Rachel?" the red-head barrelled into Annabeth, almost knocking her over. I placed my hand on her back to keep them from falling over from the red head's hug.

"What are you doing here?" Annabeth was grinning as she talked excitedly to the girl, Rachel.

"I managed to convince Dad to let me come to your school. But enough about me whose this?" she gestured to me, and I was quickly aware of my hand on Annabeth's back and withdrew it, blushing a bit.

"This is Percy," Annabeth quickly explained. As she introduced me, she narrowed her eyes at Rachel, who laughed at her as she held her hands up in surrender. I had no idea what was going on, so I just watched and waved in hello.

"Well Percy, I'm Rachel, Annabeth's best friend. I used to go to another school, so that's why she was surprised to see me." she looked me up and down and then continued," So this is the guy I was told about" she stuck out her hand, and I shook it smiling softly to her. I retracted my hand and rubbed the back of my neck.

Then I realized she said Annabeth told her about me. I must've started to look panicked because Annabeth quickly said, "All good things Percy, don't freak out" I was pretty sure that meant that my secret was safe, which I was grateful for. Then I saw Rachel, who was biting her lip looking at us, and I realized she probably wanted to say something but couldn't with me standing there. I sighed.

"Well, um, I'm sure you guys want to catch up, so, um, I'll see you later, Annabeth" I waved a bit and walked down the hallway, leaving the two girls behind. I heard a small argument happen behind me, but I just pulled my hood up and walked to my locker. Opening it, I took out my math notebook and sat down on the floor. Closing my locker, I set the papers Annabeth brought for me on the floor. I turned on my math playlist as I tried to finish the homework from Monday and Tuesday. I had just finished math when the bell rang. I looked at my phone; zero period had just ended.

I packed up my papers and walked into math, ready for the exhausting day ahead.

As the day dragged on, I realized that Rachel was in both my French and Biology class. Each time when she saw me, she would sit next to me. No one really hung out with me in the first place, so it was awkward to have someone nearby.

In Music Class, I avoided looking at the list of names and focused mainly on practicing a few random songs on Riptide. Eventually, the school day came to a close, and I felt the eyes on me again. I tried to ignore them as I left the locker room and arrived at the library.

I found Annabeth reading, like always, in our little alcove with Rachel. I greeted them and waved as Annabeth and Rachel looked at me. Rachel looked at Annabeth, shocked for some reason. Then she whispered something to her, and Annabeth's cheeks tinted pink as she closed her book.

"Um, did you want to go see the results?" I asked. I wasn't sure if she wanted to go now that Rachel was here.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, of course, Perce. Do you mind if Rachel knows? She can keep your musical secret" She lowered her voice when she said the last part, and I was grateful.

"Um, yeah, that's ok, as long as she's the only one besides you who knows" I shrugged and started to walk out of the library. I heard the two girls behind me as Annabeth spoke softly to Rachel. When we got to the Music room, I slipped in with the two, and we looked at the whiteboard.

I read down the names, not finding mine. Disappointed, I started to turn away when I realized I was looking for Percy Jackson and not Caesitas. I looked back at the board and scanned it. I heard a small cheer from Annabeth, and in that moment, I found my name.

As I turned, she hugged me, and I smiled, "I knew you could do it. Now I have to decide on a song for your next performance. Ok, what do you say we go to my house and raid the ice cream in celebration?" Annabeth started rambling with a huge smile. It wasn't that big of a deal, it was just the auditions, but I couldn't help feeling giddy with how excited she was.

She let me go and grabbed my hand, not waiting for an answer. Rachel followed as Annabeth dragged me to her car. She let go of my hand, and I got in the backseat, letting Rachel sit in shotgun.

Once everyone was settled, Annabeth drove us to her house. It took a lot shorter than Monday night when we were coming from my house. Maybe it was because I was so on edge. I shrugged as we pulled into her driveway.

Soon we were sitting at her kitchen table with cookies and cream ice cream in front of us.

"So, Caesitas, huh? Why'd you choose the Latin word for the noun, blue?" Rachel started, I looked at Annabeth, and she sighed.

"I chose it because his mom calls him Blue."

"Also, it's my favorite color," I added, and Rachel nodded her head in acknowledgment.

"So, what song were you thinking, Annie? For the preliminaries."

Annabeth immediately stood and shouted, "Don't call me Annie!" while pointing her spoon menacingly at her. Then she settled down and continued, "I'm not sure, but it needs to be impressive enough to hold the audience's attention without overshadowing his next performance in the actual competition."

"Wait, you think I'll be given a spot in the seven?" I was surprised she was thinking so far ahead. I didn't expect to get into the actual competition and fully expected to be dropped in the preliminaries.

Annabeth looked at me, confused, "Are you kidding? You're amazing! I bet you'll even win the actual competition too" I felt a blush creep along the back of my neck and cover my cheeks. I shoveled ice cream into my mouth and looked away.

"Aww, you guys are so cute," I heard Rachel exclaim, and my blush deepened. I heard Rachel chuckle, but I didn't look up.

"Um, anyway, I should uh, probably be heading home. My step-dad knows that I'm not being tutored anymore and wants me back earlier than 5 now," an obvious lie, but I knew those debt collectors were watching me, and I didn't want them to get a hold of Annabeth and Rachel. I quickly finished my ice cream, put the bowl in the sink, and left the house after saying goodbye to the two girls.

I promptly almost fell down the stairs again and walked swiftly towards my house. The eyes boring into my back as the hairs on my neck stood up. I swallowed and tried to keep my head facing forward as I tried not to look behind me.

I got into my house and noticed how eerily quiet it was. I ran quietly towards my room as I tried to escape the fear and anticipation of the silent house. I stayed up all night watching my locked bedroom for intruders. I knew the only way I would sleep is if Gabe came home, but with these collectors on his ass, I knew he would probably not be back for a while.

To add to the Gabe issue, I had to worry about his debt collectors. Maybe now that Gabe wasn't home, I could get a job. I nodded to myself and pulled out my phone; I wasn't sleeping anyway. I quickly applied to a few nearby fast-food restaurants and stores.

I looked at the time, 3:07 am, too early to get up and get ready and too late to do anything. I felt the familiar rumble of my stomach as I neglected to eat anything when I got home. But like a scared kid, I knew that 3 am was a superstitious time, and I decided to wait until the morning to eat.