⚠️TW: Mentions of grief, implied manipulation, slight mentions of death, swearing, Mentions of Alzheimer's, implied kidnapping and little kids feeling bad about themselves⚠️

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-~-
(brought back Rodger for the person that named him hehehe)

They ran through the camp all the way to our forest, they were all so out of breath and by they, mainly meaning Sam, his littler legs and smaller stamina did him dirty as they sprinted at full pace into the forest, occasionally getting him yelled at because he was the only one who knew where Sparky was found.

Sparky was tucked away tightly in Sam's jacket pocket, that was just large enough to hold the pine coloured rabbit.

He fell over but caught himself and continued running behind the others, as the area of the woods became more recognisable he yelled "Stop!" really loudly so that they'd all hear him from the great distance between them.

Clarisse turned around and swiftly made her way over to Sam. "Is this where you found that dumb rabbit?" She snapped looking down at him intimidatingly.

"Yeah! It was right here I swear!" he said while looking around hoping to see his best friend. Yet she was nowhere to be seen.

Where are you Guppy?

Clarisse went on about how they were all probably just being paranoid. However this didn't stop the older kids from searching all around the proximity.

They made Sam stick to one of them at a time because they didn't need two kids disappearing into the woods.

Nerves were high as the search dimmed and the minutes ticked by. As their search ended, an unsuccessful clarisse was determined that the little girl was likely wandering around camp.

"I swear to fucking god shes going to back there and your gonna get it for scaring the shit out of us." she said bending down to be the same height. He gulped as her fiery gaze met his fearful ones.

She held onto the scruff of his shirt as they walked back to camp. Isa and Max talking to each other while Clarisse just huffed about.

Sam was confused about how someone could go from so worried to so angry in a split second. He couldn't help but feel guilty that he was actually overreacting and wasting their time.

Why couldn't he be helpful? He knew if it was the other way round guppy could have found a better way to help.

He felt like soggy laundry left out into the rain. He remembered how his grandpa would sometimes forget about the Laundry because of his Alzheimer's before he went to the special home.

Sam felt sad when thinking of all the memories his grandpa doesnt have.

Why do things work that way?

-~-

After about a million hours, sore feet and many flower crowns later, Guppy thought about all the bad things and if she was with percy or mama they would have told her not to.

Guppy didn't like when people told her not to think about things because it's her head and she can think what she wants.

If she wants to think about the Gods she can! And if she wants to think about how bad they are then she can! Who can tell her not to when her dad is a God himself.

'Stupid fish god.' She thought.

Guppy did not like using bad words like that. Well to be honest, personally guppy didn't mind the bad words.

Her mama didn't like them though.

She'd always get annoyed when smelly Gabe used them. But right now guppy felt like she could use a lot of the bad words at her fishy father.

Luke told her all about his dad, and Guppy has never had a real dad before, because Gabe definitely did NOT count, but they sound bad even from her little experience with a step dad, and he that was pretty bad itself.

Guppy thought about how having a god for a dad was bad, but at this point Guppy didn't even want a dad, full stop.

She kicked the twigs under her feet as they quietly walked back to the camp.

"Y'know you remind me a lot of Annabeth when she was younger. Me and Thalia found her when she was about your age. You were both quiet, not much of a talker huh?" Luke said with a smile.

Luke wasn't too bad, he was pretty cool. She had had lots and lots of conversations with him and he wasn't mean, she never really thought he was mean but she couldn't help but feel scared someone would be mean to her, or not even like her.

She held his hand tight as they walked back through the unfamiliar woods.

-~-

When they got back to the cabins there was a commotion going on.

There were people clapping and cheering, she looked around for the source and saw her brother hugging Annabeth.

The girl Luke told her about.

She seemed less guarded than when the Guppy saw her last around camp. Guppy felt like the never ending pit in her stomach came back.

She thought she would be happy when Percy came back but all she could think about was how he left.

Annabeth was whispering something to him, and Guppy could tell that it's super important because she has a very serious face on. After they finished hugging Guppy watched as they walked to a cabin together. He didn't even try to look for her, maybe he didn't miss her like she thought he would.

Luke pulled her along as they followed them into the empty hermes cabin. Percy sighed of relief as he saw his baby sister, albeit she didn't know it was a sigh of relief.

"Oh Gracie." he said, kneeling down to try to give her a hug.

She didn't hug him back.

She really wanted to but she was oh so upset with him. He held her shoulders while looking into her eyes, blue met blue however this blue wasn't the same as before, it was different. More empty. Like there were so many questions too complex for her little mind.

Like why did mama have to go?

Why did he leave her?

Why are the Gods so praised when they are horrible?

Why can't we be normal again?

Please let us be normal again.

All her anger towards the Gods and sadness towards Percy had merged together into a cacophony of chaos in her mind.

She stayed holding Percy's hand, her mind trying to keep coming up with reasons to be upset with him.

Sam came running in as the older kids were talking and ran to her and hugged her so tight. She let go of Percy's hand to hug her best friend back.

"We couldn't find you anywhere!" he said and let go of her.

"You were gone for like two whole days." he exclaimed. She noticed Percy looking at them with a concerned look.

"I was with luke." she said simply with a shrug, she watched her brother's attention drift away from her and Sam's conversation. Clearly trusting that Luke took care of her.

Sam pulled Guppy out of the cabin to go show Isa, who was the most concerned other than Sam, about her disappearance.

Isa just so happened to be with Clarisse, who was glaring daggers at Sam.

"See! It told you she was fine! And let me guess, you were with Luke. Weren't you?" Clarrise said angrily while looking at Guppy.

Guppy nodded, maybe just maybe if Clarisse was blinded by her annoyance she would have noticed how Guppy was being quiet.

Normally Guppy might have tried to stick up for Sam but she just couldn't. She didn't really feel like doing anything.

After a bit more of clarisse snapping at Sam she stopped and just sayed quiet, opting to try to keep her frustration in her mind.

She held her best friend's hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

This action said everything that words couldn't.

It said how she was sorry she didn't tell him she left. It said she was sorry for getting him yelled at, and most importantly it said she was sorry she made him feel so horrible and scared.

Guppy knew what it was like to feel scared and she felt like she just ate brussel sprouts because her mouth tasted all bitter and yucky.

She heard some footsteps and saw Annabeth come up to the and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Percy's looking for her, so I'll take her off your hands," she said and swiftly took her spare hand and started walking. Not even waiting to hear Clarisse's answer to her statement.

The child of Ares raised a brow at Athena's daughter and watched as she dragged her responsibility away. Guppy's hand was tugged away from Sam, their once interlocked fingers torn apart.

She did a small wave to Sam before turning and having to walk fast to catch up with Annabeth's fast pace.

She watched the older girl, she looked so determined to get her away from Clarisse. Like she was a monster from a horror movie. But the Guppy didn't know that.

All she knew is that Percy wanted to talk to her.

-~-

Once they got to Percy Annabeth spoke in a hushed voice, something about 'Grace' and ' Clarisse'. Percy got this stern look on his face as they talked about Clarisse.

Guppy wasn't really paying attention though. She wondered why Annabeth kept calling her Grace instead of Guppy.

Yes her whole name is Charity-Grace Jackson but people just called her Guppy, plain old Guppy. She wondered why no one calls her by her whole name, everyone just called her Gracie or Guppy.

Sometimes her mama would say her full name, Charity and everything, but that was only when she walked on the carpet with her muddy boots on by accident.

She wouldn't want anyone to call her by her actual name anyway, she felt that being called Charity-Grace was 'too much of a mouthful' as smelly Gabe would say, and Guppy agrees with him.

She can barely say her full name too. It's not simple. She wished it was simple. But nothing in her life was simple at the moment so maybe it did fit well.

Percy kneeled down to be able to look her in the eye, he seemed to be doing that alot now.

"Why were you with Clarisse, what was she saying to you?" he said to her but she was busy kicking the stones under her feet again. They seemed a lot more interesting as the seconds passed by.

"Charity, look at me." He said sternly, like this was very important. This made Guppy have that bitter taste in her mouth from earlier.

This taste started to feel like it would be staying for longer and it was not kindly welcomed.

She looked up and looked him in the eye, he was doing what her mama did when something was important too.

Percy reminded her a lot of mama.

"Did Clarisse say anything to you? Or your friend maybe, what's his name again?" Percy continued anxiously, almost like he was desperate for an answer.

"Sam," she answered quietly.

Percy couldn't help but think Clarisse is the reason his baby sister had been acting so differently. He couldn't be any more wrong.

She shook her head no but Percy clearly didn't believe her.

"She didn't yell at you guys or anything?" He asked while holding onto her shoulders again.

"...well she yelled at Sam but it's just because he made her worried." she answered quietly while looking down at her purple sneakers.

"What was she worried about?" He asked, but just got a shrug in response.

"Clarisse is my friend." she said, not really why percy was asking all these questions to try make clarisse seem mean.

Percy just didn't understand.

He didn't understand what she knew about the gods.

He didn't understand about clarisse.

And he didn't understand why she didn't understand why he left.

She didn't understand because Percy used to be so good at understanding things, he used to be so good at helping her understand things. But ever since mama...left. It's like he's living in a world without his glasses.

But for Guppy it's like she's living in a world where she can't see at all and she has to walk across a main road, and you don't know if the cars are coming or if it's safe.

She wished she was older so she could understand, maybe then she'll get her sight back.

-~-

LOL HAHA SAD CHAPTER IK

Lots of parallels for Guppy and Sam, not sure if you noticed them but they weren't anything massive

SO! Percy things Clarisse is the reason guppy is acting weird but it's actually Luke, hehehehe.

Next chapter is going to be a Christmas special because I've never written one and would like to, it wouldn't be very long but I think it would be cute, it's going to be a flashback type of thing🎄

DID YOU GUYS GET THE ARCANE REFERENCES???

Publishing this. Bit early but I've been working on it for the past four hours and I just want to relax so byeeee

-GIGI OUTTTT