Okay, I shall say this once and once only! I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, therefore, I don't own any of Rick's characters either. I only own Andy. Now read. Read I say or I shall send my minions, the invisible dodos, after you! They're everywhere!

Apov

"Happy birthday, Percy!" I shouted in his ear to wake him up. I might as well have yelled at a wall for the effect it had on him. Percy grunted in his sleep and pulled the blankets higher over his head.

It was the first time that Percy's birthday had ever fallen on a Saturday (atleast that I could remember) and I was going to wake him up so that I could be the first one to wish him a happy birthday. Mom told me that waking him up at 7 o'clock was too early for a Saturday and maybe it was, but hey, I'm an over excited seven-year-old. I'm allowed to wake up Percy as early as I want. I backed up as far as I could in the tiny room we shared and took a running jump at him.

He grunted again.

For the love of cheese, what is it going to take to wake this boy up? I started bouncing on him, but it still wasn't enough.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up-"I chanted.

"I'm up, Andy" he moaned.

I knew he would go back to sleep as soon as I stopped so I continued, "-wake up, wake up, w-"

"Andy, shush. Go back to sleep," he mumbled. Ha, I would only stop when he actually got out of bed. He would need some more encouragement.

"WAKE UP, YOU LAZY BLOB, WAKE UP! WAAAAKE UUU-"I shouted.

"SHUT UP, ANDROMEDA!" he snapped. Ouch. He never calls me Andromeda unless he's really, really mad and he was never mad at me, and I mean never, ever mad at me.

Why did he yell? I just wanted to wake him up so that I could be the first one to wish him a happy birthday. Eh, he'd get over it.

"Now what was so important that you needed to wake me up for?" he asked, a hint of worry came onto his face.

"Oh, nothing important," I began scarcastically. "Just your birthday."

"Oh. It's my birthday today. I'm twelve." He sounded as though being twelve was the best age anybody on the face of the earth could be.

"Good job, Sherlock" I said with sarcasm. "Honestly Percy, you'd forget what days you're supposed to go to school if I wasn't here."

"Wait, is that why you woke me up? Am I late? Yes, I am I'm going to get in so much trouble-"

I cut him off," Percy, one- it's a Saturday, two- school doesn't start until two weeks from now and three- you're going to a boarding school this year."

"Oh, whoops."

"Yeah, whoops." I sighed; Percy really was hopeless when it came to remembering things. I'm going to have to work with him on that or at least get him a calendar. We fell silent as we watched the still rising sun.

I must have fallen asleep because when I finally opened my eyes the room was bright with light from the sun and I could hear our step-father, Gabe (or as my brother and I oh so lovingly call him, Smelly Gabe), yelling at my mother to get some stuff to make bean dip on her way back home from work.

My mother's name is Sally Jackson and she has some of the worst luck in the world. Both of her parents died when she was five and her uncle died when she was a teenager, but, worst of all- she had to marry Gabe Ugliano to keep a roof over our heads. Gabe is in every way a terrible, disgusting, fat, foul, feculent, ugly meanie-butt and smells like a sewer and a dump combined all into one bad smell.

I look out the window of our Manhattan apartment and see the sun one forth of the way across the sky and what I guess is the remnant of the 8o'clock traffic. A glance at the clock confirms that it is almost 9o'clock in the morning and I look at where I am. To my surprise I am still on Percy's bunk of our bunk bed and Percy is still sitting against the wall holding me up in a fetal position against him.

It's almost eerie how much I look like him. We both have untidy black hair and sea green eyes and a light tan from the sunny summer months. The other unnatural thing about our looks is that we don't share any features with our mother except our smiles.

It makes me mad that I look so much like the man that didn't have the guts to stay with Mom before he died, a man that I never even met but I guess it's the universe's way of saying, "Hey, you had a father once and even though you wish you didn't, you still wish that he were here to take care of your family."

Maybe I do wish that. Maybe the remnants of my little girl mind, the one that had to grow up much too quickly, does wish that I had a father to tuck me in at night and chase the nightmares away, but it will never happen. There is no use wishing because my father is dead and now Percy feels that it's his responsibility to take care of me. Speaking of Percy, I should probably wake him up now. I start to shake his shoulder.

"Percy," I whisper.

"Yes?"

"I thought you were asleep."

"I'm not."

"I noticed. What do you want to do today?"

"I don't know; how 'bout we walk down to central park?"

"Yes!" I've wanted to go to central park for the past week. "Can we go down the fire escape? I don't feel like dealing with Smelly Gabe today."

"I hear that. Now go get dressed. Go. Shoo."

I giggle as I climb off of Percy's bunk and grab my clothes from the little dresser in the corner of the room and then climb up the ladder to my bunk to get dressed. Once I'm dressed I slide down the ladder and end up landing on Percy as he's getting up and I get sent into a fit of giggles. I slide off him and once I get a good look at him I get sent into another fit of giggles. Wow, who force fed me sugar while I was sleeping? I am giggly today.

Not only are we both wearing blue jean shorts but we're both wearing our goldfish t-shirts; Percy's has Finn and mine has Gilbert (yeah, they're pretty amazing, aren't they?), both on light blue backgrounds. I stand on Percy's bed so that I can push his hair down, but it doesn't work too well. I giggle again and jump off Percy's bunk.

I start crawling around on the floor looking for my rubber bands so that I can put my hair in pigtails. I've never worn my hair any other way, and I'm not changing my habits anytime soon, but anyway I continue crawling around until I hear a fake coughing noise and look up to see Percy twirling two blue hair ties around his fingers. I smile and stand up, letting him put my hair up, thinking again how Percy is sort of like the dad I've never had. We depend on each other so much, how are we going to survive when Percy goes off to a boarding school and I'm not going to see him again until Christmas. Percy has now finished with my hair and put me on the floor; I decide to voice my worries.

"Percy, what are we going to do when you leave for that Yancy Academy place?"

"Hm, I'm not sure. We could write each other letters?" I gave him a weird look, along with ADHD, we both have dyslexia which, along with making it really hard to read, made it nearly impossible to write as well. Percy quickly continued, trying to cover up his goof. "By that, I mean I get a roommate or teacher to write what I want to say and then read responses to me and you get mom to do the same."

"Better."

"Yep. I'm just that good."

"Come on, Percy. Lets get out of here before your head gets so big it pops. I just have to get something first." I scurried to my bunk again and pull a blue marker out of my pillowcase and put it in my pocket. I can feel Percy staring at me as I climb down yet again.

He asks," What's that for?" I smile and shake my head, he'd find out later. He is obviously not satisfied with my answer because he sighs then frowns while I climb out of the window onto the fire escape.

"You coming' or what?" he jumps out next to me and starts climbing down with me hot on his heals.

So, how was it? Good? Bad? Review? Please, take pity on me, this is my first fan fiction. And for those who have been living under a rock and don't know who Finn and Gilbert are, they're from the goldfish commercials. The cheddar one and the pretzel one, respectively.