As a demigod, Percy can do magical phenomena with his water powers, like blow up a pipe and flood the bathrooms with water (Chapter 6, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief) or can plummet from couple of stories high to a river without splattering himself on the impact (Chapter 13, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief). However, these powers don’t solve his way of making terrible choices. Through research and the context of the book, it is decided that Percy Jackson can make better choices by strengthening his relationships with his peers and have more control with his emotions.

Firstly, Percy can make better choices if he strengthens his relationships with his stepdad, Gabe Ugliano. In the book, Gabe Ugliano is described as a figure that Percy despised, calling his stepdad, “Smelly Gabe”.  Take the case of when Percy and Gabe were arguing. Percy was coming out of the taxi and coming back to his apartment. Gabe knew that he got there by taxi and wanted Percy’s money. Instead, Percy lied to get himself even in more trouble. From the Newsela article, “Conviction Challenge: Seek Out Different Beliefs to Test Your Own,” the author says that “disagreeing is ok and makes us a better person, however, the listener should’ve first listen to the talker, ask why they truly believed it, and then decide what to do next”. Percy should have asked why Gabe needed the money, so Gabe could ask himself, do I truly need it? If Percy did do the actions, as stated in the same article, he would actually fortify his connection with his stepfather. In connection to the idea of seeking out different beliefs and getting stronger relationships as a result, as claimed by the report, “Why Personal Relationships are Important”, people who had stronger relationships with others had “a faster recovery when they were reminded of people with whom they had strong relationships”. Percy is dealing with stress from the gods, and his mother isn’t there to help him. If he had a stronger relationship with his stepdad and didn’t have to be so unfair, he could have dealt with less stress.

Equally important, Percy can make better choices if he can control his emotions. This problem occurs to many middle students, including me. Every time I’m mad, I lose control and forget myself. However, in this case, Percy always want to defend Grover in anyway possible because they are friends. When Nancy Bobofit purposely dropped her half-eaten lunch onto Grover (Chapter 1), Percy automatically forgets all the advice from the counselor about disciplining himself and sends Nancy into the fountain. To make it worse, Percy sassed at his Pre-Algebra teacher even though Percy was already on probation. From the article, Recognizing and Managing Emotions, it advised to “stop and give ourselves a chance to think, consider what might happen as a result and how the result affects others”. Percy should have thought first what will happen if he got mad, then consider how Nancy Bobofit will be affected.

In the end, Percy has had a rough time being a middle school student and being a normal person in general. He didn’t strengthen his relationships with other individuals, excluding his mom; he also didn’t manage to control his emotions when he comes to stressful situations, like getting mad at Ares because he felt the “anger, resentment, bitterness” presence from Ares. Kronos is now making his way back to reality, the gods say that Kronos has a way to go into anyone’s dreams and haunt them. Would Percy stand a chance against Kronos, and his terrible choices?