Okay everyone I know that other people have done this but I wanted to try this out, now please don't curse me out of anything. Thanks you guys, for everything.

Set when everyone where still kids.

The counsel were having a meeting like always, it was the Winter solstice, and Hades was there sitting on a Makeshift throne at the end. Everyone was there except Zeus who just came in.

A lightning strike and Zeus is in the house. He looked at everyone and sat down.

"Meeting Started" He sat down on his throne holding his bolt next to him. "Toda-"

Several flashes later and a bunch on demigod came out all piled on the ground. None of the gods recognized any of the demigods save Hades who was staring at Nico.

A moment past before all the gods and goddess pulled weapons out and pointed it at the demigods. Ares cracked his knuckles and grinned "This is going to be good."

"WHO DARES ENTERS OLY-" Zeus started before get interrupted

"Hey Uncle why are we here," A boy that looks too much like Poseidon questioned

Zeus turned to Poseidon. "YOU HAD A CHILD?!" He was gripping his bolt tightly until a girl in a hunter clothes jump out.

"Don't you dare!" she yelled.

Zeus turned to her and froze "Thalia?" Everyone was looking at the interaction between them.

"Yeah?" she looked bored

"YOU"RE ALIVE!" He yelled

"Duh I've been alive for what apparently 20 years?" She looked at an Athena teenager. "Annabeth?"

"No 22 years" Everyone on the more godly side looked shocked they just saw Annabeth yesterday when Zeus saved Thalia. She was only seven years old and now she aged ten years.

Annabeth spoke again. "Ahh what year is it?"

Athena stared until she mumble the answer. All the demigods gasped loudly. "We're ten years from the future!" The gods gasped again.

Athena looked at all of them. "What are you doing here?" The demigods looked dumbfounded

"We don't know."

Suddenly a flash and a note appear in front of Hera, she picked it up and read it out loud

"Dear Gods and demigods,

I have brought you hear to read about the past for the demigods and the future for the gods. I have brought you a book as seen for Percy's Point of view, many others may come after it. For what reason no idea I was bored, and this seen entertaining enough. For now read the book and don't kill the demigods. Also demigods you may not reveal it all to the gods yet, they will find out soon enough. Demigods introduce your selves.

- N"

Everyone looked at each other confused until a book flashed in. 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief"

Annabeth picked it up and looked back at the gods. "Well then we should introduce our selves. I am Annabeth Chase, I am 17 years old, a daughter of Athena, the second time heroine of Olympus and the architect of Olympus." The gods gasped

"Why do we need an architect? Did something happen? HOW ARE YOU THE SECOND TIME HEROINE OF OLYMPUS?" Apollo cried out nervously.

The demigods looked at each other "We can't tell yet" Annabeth finally said. "Also Please don't gasp anymore until we finish introducing our selves." The gods nodded.

Thalia stepped up "I am Thalia Grace, Lieutenant of the hunters of Artemis." She looked at Artemis who was gray "I'm sorry about Zoe," Artemis paled even more.

Nico stepped up as Thalia stepped back. "I am Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, King of ghost, Ambassador of Pluto and is about 80 something years old." He ignored the confused looks and smiled sadly at Hades "Bianca was my sister, former hunter of Artemis and is gone"

A satyr, Grover stood up straighter as Hades had a tear leak from his eye. "My name is Grover Underwood, I am the new Lord of the Wild, The chosen one of Pam and the leader of the counsel of Cloven Elders," The gods stared at him, Chosen one of Pam?

A girl with a Cherokee heritage came forward. "I'm Piper McLean, Daughter of Aphrodite" Aphrodite gasped "and a hero of Olympus"

A boy with curly hair and a girl Calypso stood infront of the gods "I'm Leo, Son of Hephaestus, a hero of Olympus, Bad boy Supreme, Super-sized Mcshizzle, Comman-" Calypso smacked him "And this is Calypso whom you release already so don't kill us!" He yelled as Zeus stood up with his bolt. He frown and sat down.

A ROMAN boy with blond hair and the same coloured eyes as Zeus and Thalia stepped up, the gods gaped at him

Zeus looked at him. "JASON? You're a Roman!"

Jason looked at him and shrugged so did three other demigods. "I am Jason, Son of Jupitor, Champion of Juno, another hero of Olympus, and former Praetor of the Twelfth Legion"

Another Roman boy who was Asian walked forward with a girl with dark skin. "I am Frank Zhang, Son of Mars, Legacy of Poseidon, Praetor of the twelfth Legion, and a hero of Olympus." The girl continued "I am Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, a favourite of Hecate and a hero of Olympus."

Three more people to be introduced. A Roman girl with an emotionless face came "I am Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, the daughter of Bellona, and I am the Praetor of the twelfth Legion, a lesser hero of Olympus."

A girl with frizzy red hair and green eyes stepped forward "I am Rachel Elizabeth Dare, I am a clear sighted mortal, and I am the most recent Oracle of the Delphi." Before the finally person could introduce them selves Apollo bursted out "You're the new Oracle of the Delphi?" He said excitely before Hermes elbowed him hard.

Finally a boy stepped up with sea-green eyes, and messed up black hair. He looked almost exactly like Poseidon "I am Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, the two time hero of Olympus, Savior of Olympus, Seaweed Brain and all the other titles.

Annabeth clapped her hand "Okay I'l read first" She ignore all the word of protest from the gods.

Chapter One

I Accidentally Vaporized my Pre-Algebra Teacher

Annabeth snorted and looked at Percy who was hiding behind her in embarrassment

Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.

"Me too Percy, me too" Nico mumbled as all the demigod nodded their head.

If you're reading this because you think you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe what ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth and try and live a normal life.

"Too late" Leo coughed

Being a Half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.

"No shizz," Nico mumbled quite loudly

If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.

"All of us do" Jason told the book.

But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

"Too Late," Percy mumbled

My name is Percy Jackson.

Percy blushed in embarrassment

I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.

Am I a troubled kid?

Yeah. You could say that.

People snorted.

I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.

I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.

"Every field trip is torture when it has information" Leo told the book, Annabeth and Athena glared at Leo until he hid behind Calypso.

But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.

Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.

"Hey Class isn't that boring!" Athena cried out, at the book. AT THE BOOK.

I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.

Boy, was I wrong.

Annabeth looked at Percy with the book in her hand "Percy what is with this writing? It's nothing like you, if anything you barely write a sentence let alone a book or more." Percy shrugged " I didn't write any book, remember it came from 'N'" Annabeth and Athena looked at each other until they accepted the explanation, Athena still found it weird that her seven year had now turned into a seventeen year old.

See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.

"Classic Percy, " Everyone looked at Percy, who was getting pink-er by the minute.

This trip, I was determined to be good.

"Lies Percy all lies," Nico looked at Percy

All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

"What's klep-to-maniac?" Leo asked trying to sound the word out.

"It's is recurrent failure to resist urges to steal iteams that you don't generally need and that usually has little value. Kleptomania is a serious mental health disorder that can cause much emotional pain to you and your loved ones if not treated" Athena answered.

"She is a dictionary I'll tell you," Apollo mumble to Hermes who snickered.

Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.

"Okay Percy That's rude." Grover told Percy.

"IT WAS WHEN I DIDN"T KNOW YOU WERE A DARN SATYR!" Percy Yelled, they were on the oposite ends of the group, everyone else looked at them amused.

"At least you got the enchilada day part right" Grover offered. He looked at Annabeth to continue

Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.

"Who would have ever expect?" Percy said out loud to him self.

"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.

"I Hated her too," Grover mumbled

Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."

"NO TYSON LIKE PEANUT BUTTER." Percy yelled

Poseidon coughed and looked at Percy "TYSON'S STILL ALIVE?" Percy nodded.

He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.

"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."

"I always get blamed no matter what," Percy mumbled, lots of people nodded.

Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.

"So true," mumbled Frank

Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.

He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.

It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.

"It can't be any older than 2700 years" Athena corrected (Quick thanks to HermioneAnnabeth11)

He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.

"I was actually interested" Percy mumbled.

Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.

"I wonder why" Leo asked, no one answered him

From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.

"It was actually the other way around she's the devil spawn," Percy corrected the book.

One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."

"The good times," Grover mumbled, everyone looked at him

"Grover please be quiet," Annabeth asked him and closed his mouth

Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.

Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"

It came out louder than I meant it to.

The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.

"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"

"It's weird thinking Chrion would call his student by his or her's last name." Grover mentioned, he did his best Chiron Imatation "Mr. Underwood, Ms La Rue, Mrs Jackson aka Ms. Chase."

Annabeth and Percy flushed and the gods just looked at them then Poseidon and Athena. Who glared at each other and the grimaced slightly at the two.

All the gods and goddess had one thing on their mind "ARE THEY DATING?" Except Aphrodite who was smirking slightly before an idea popped up

"Best OTP since Helen and Paris!" She made it her goal now.

Annabeth coughed and continued with the story

My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."

"Like right now," Jason coughed quite loudly and Percy and Annabeth blushed more

Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."

"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"

"GOD?" Everyone asked looking at Percy,

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"

"The good times" Zeus sighed,

"Not for us, you don't know what's it's like to be regurgitated out of your own father." Hera shuddered.

"Along with a rock" Poseidon pointed out

"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.

"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."

Some snickers from the group.

Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover muttered.

"Busted," Grover muttered.

"Ha same out Grover!" Percy laughed

"Shut up," Grover mumbled

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.

Grover turned red and Percy started laughing.

"That's golden!" Percy wiped his fake tears

At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.

I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

"I love how he just fits 10 years of war into a short paragraph. " Hades mumbled

"Or the fact that Zeus feed HIM a misture of mustard and WINE." Annabeth pointed out. "Where did you even get wine?"

"Yeah Hera wasn't there to kill Mr. D's mom and Zeus has yet to stuff Mr D in his thigh" Poseidon added.

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.

"Boy are idiots," Artemis told everyone, Athena nodded a bit.

Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."

I knew that was coming.

I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"

Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.

"You're not far from it." Rachel said for the first time.

"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.

"About the Titans?"

"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."

"Oh."

"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."

I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.

"And you'll soon know why," Leo said darkly or at least tried.

I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C– in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.

Grover choked and looked at Percy, "He did that?" Percy nodded. "I'll never look at Chiron the same."

I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.

He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.

The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.

Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.

"What happened?" Zeus asked confused why he would do all these things.

"Something," Percy told them everyone nodded.

Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.

Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.

"Detention?" Grover asked.

"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."

Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"

I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.

I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.

Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.

"That's awesome! I wonder if i could do that for Festus," Leo exclaimed

I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.

"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.

I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.

I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"

Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.

Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"

"—the water—"

"—like it grabbed her—"

I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.

"No doubt," Jason sniggered

As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"

"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."

That wasn't the right thing to say.

"Yeah that's rule... let me remember," Hermes said.

"There's a rulebook?" Artemis asked

"Yeah! I think it was Rule 18 or 19, Never guess your punishment," Apollo piped up.

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.

"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."

I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.

She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.

"But—"

"You—will—stay—here."

Grover looked at me desperately.

"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."

Nancy Bobofit smirked.

I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.

How'd she get there so fast?

"You'll soon know..." Leo said trying to sound like Nico basically darkly.

I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.

"That counselor sucked" Grover remembered

I wasn't so sure.

I went after Mrs. Dodds.

Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.

Poor Percy

I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.

Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.

But apparently that wasn't the plan.

Someone snorted

I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.

Except for us, the gallery was empty.

"Of course," Nico mumbled

Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.

Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...

"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.

I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"

"Get away with what?" Zeus asked, no one really answered and for one he was angry he was more interested in the story.

The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.

She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.

"Wrong Again Seaweed Brain," Annabeth put the book down, "Okay someone else read, my throat is dry, she threw it to Nico.

"Umm okay," He read on, he stopped quite a bit more often not spacing out his breaths

I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."

Thunder shook the building.

"Hey why am I angry?" Zeus asked getting bored of the book. when no one answered he looked at a random demigod in this case it was Hazel "Answer... Please?"

Hazel and the other demigods looked dumbfounded, so did the gods Zeus barely said please. "Um someone stole something Important of yours?" Hazel told them nervously

Athena thought of the book title and Gasped "The Master Bolt?"

Zeus Gripped the bolt tighter as no one answered, the gods took it as a yes. All the gods griped their symbol of importance the thing that represents them. Hera, gripped her lucky peacock feather from her mom, Poseidon his trident , Hades his helm, Demeter her wreath of grain, Hestia looked up and gave a small sad smile.

"Don't worry it turns out right at the end!" Percy added quickly, everyone gave small smiles of relief

"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

I didn't know what she was talking about.

All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.

"Percy how dare you!" Annabeth looked at him he shrugged and looked small as Athena glared at him, less sure if they were even dating.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, I don't..."

"Your time is up," she hissed.

Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.

"Everyone looked at Hades who shrugged.

Then things got even stranger.

Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.

"Stop!" Grover said before laughing, "Chiron said that?" he looked at Percy he nodded and he grinned "Sorry i had to ask."

Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.

With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.

Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.

My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.

She snarled, "Die, honey!"

"I love how she says DIE, HONEY!" Leo laughed

Nico glared at Leo tired of getting interrupted, he sighed and started again

And she flew straight at me.

Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.

The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!

Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.

I was alone.

"Dun Dun DUN!" Leo chanted quietly

There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.

Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.

My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.

Had I imagined the whole thing?

I went back outside.

It had started to rain.

Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."

"Who?" Leo asked quietly slightly louder than before, Nico ignored him and continued

I said, "Who?"

"Our teacher. Duh!"

I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.

She just rolled her eyes and turned away.

I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.

He said, "Who?"

But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.

"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."

Thunder boomed overhead.

"Gods Uncle you're so dramatic in this book," Percy mumble Zeus looked up, he like being dramatic it made him seem important maybe he should cut it down a bit.

I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.

I went over to him.

He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."

I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.

"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"

He stared at me blankly. "Who?"

"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."

He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"

Nico Let out a sigh.

2. THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH

Nico Placed the book down and tossed it to a random person in this case Percy.

"Awesome listing to a book by the person whos perceptives in the book," Apollo smile, but frowned when everyone looked at him blankly. too confusing?

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.

Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.

It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.

Almost.

But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.

"Yeah Grover you are a bad Liar," Annabeth nodded

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.

I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.

"Really?" Hades looked up, "I didn't think said 'Mrs. Dodds' was scary."

"No she's not to you, she's your subject!" Percy mumber quietly. He turned the page.

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the HudsonValley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.

I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.

"Really Percy?" Annabeth looked at Percy disappointed,, so did Athena.

Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.

Percy glaced at Annabeth to make sure she would say anything.

The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to YancyAcademy.

Fine, I told myself. Just fine.

I was homesick.

"Sallly was the best!" Poseidon said dreamily

I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.

And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.

"Good thing I didn't have to," Grover added.

I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.

As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.

The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.

Annabeth snorted "That's easy stuff I could do it when I was seven," Athena nodded

"No one is a genius like you or your sibling expect your mom," Calypso mildly pointed out.

I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.

I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.

"Geez that's slightly creepy." Leo whispered quietly

I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.

I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.

I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.

I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."

I froze.

I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.

" Twelve year old Percy is right, it's hard," Nico added

I inched closer.

"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"

"You know I never understood why you called Mrs. Dodds a Kindly One," Percy pointed out.

"Didn't I explain it to you already?" Annabeth mentioned

"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."

Percy paused "Hey how do I 'Mature' more?" No one answered

"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline— "

"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."

"Sir, he saw her... ."

"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."

"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."

"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"

The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.

Mr. Brunner went silent.

Percy stopped "Can I read this really fast?" since there were a few shakes anf more nods he read slightly faster, and there was barely interruptions

My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.

A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.

I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.

Gasp Percy took a breath

A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.

A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.

Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."

"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

"Don't remind me."

The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.

I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.

Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.

Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.

"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"

I didn't answer.

"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"

"Just... tired."

I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.

I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.

But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.

The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.

Annabeth shivered at at the names

For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.

"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."

His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

I mumbled, "Okay, sir."

"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."

My eyes stung.

Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.

"Right," I said, trembling.

"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"

"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."

"Percy—"

But I was already gone.

On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.

The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.

Percy sighed and gave a small smile.

They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.

What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.

"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."

They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.

The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.

I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"

I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"

"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"

He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."

"Grover—"

"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."

"It's so true too," Annabeth added

His ears turned pink.

From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,

"Why did you use fancy script for the card?" Percy looked up and asked Mr. D

He shrugged "It's amusing to see demigods read it."

but I finally made out something like:

Grover Underwood

Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800) 009-0009

"What's Half—"

"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."

My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.

"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."

He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."

"Why would I need you?"

It came out harsher than I meant it to.

"No doubt," Jason muttered, everyone looked at Grover who was chewing on a can he pulled from his pocket.

Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."

I stared at him.

All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.

"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.

Zeus coughed "Three old ladies?" He said nervously

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.

"Uh oh," Hades said

"Indeed," Poseidon agreed

I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"

"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"

"Not funny Percy. NOT funny at all," Leo said

"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."

Leo blushed slighty but no one said anything as Percy read out more.

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.

At this moment everyone was holding their breaths

"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."

"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."

"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.

Everyone took a deep breath.

Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.

Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling me?"

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"

His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."

"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.

He said, "You saw her snip the cord."

"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.

Everyone nodded. at this point Percy was getting tired of talk but he check the page and saw he had a few more pages to go.

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."

"What last time?"

"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."

"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."

This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.

"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.

No answer.

"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"

He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.

"I kinda was.." Grover admitted. Everyone turned to Percy who stood up and cracked his back, he walked over to Hestia and placed the book next to her.

"Break?" Percy asked after Zeus nodded he asked something else. "Can we up stay her for the night since we can't go to camp?" Apparently the gods in ten years are a bit more laid back.

Zeus sighed "On your right down that hall way the third door on your left it stood say guest" He stood up, the gods following. "We will come back after dinner to continue the story. Hestia Sister would you like to read" He asked her his face softening as he addressed her. She nodded and the gods save Hestia flashed and disappeared.

"Lets go get ICE CREAM and explore Olympus before Annabeth remodeled it!" Leo yelled and they ran to the market place to get Ice cream.

-This is a line break since I don't know how to make one-

The gods and goddess on the other hand were arguing.

"My daughter shall not date your spawn!" Athena Yelled

"HOW DO WE KNOW IF THEY'RE EVEN DATING!?" Poseidon yelled

"This is going to be the best couple ever!" Aphrodite squeled while thinking "make their love life hard then pair them up!"

"Brother, calm down." Hades asked him, Poseidon begrudgingly calmed down. "Now Poseidon is right we don't know if their dating." Poseidon slyly stuck his tongue out with out Athena seeing. Hades became the peace keeper since Hestia wasn't there at the moment.

"How about we make a bet?" Hermes asked eager to win.

After arguing about a price it came to an immortal favor from each gods. So if three people win, each god had to give a faver to each of them.

"Who chooses couple?" Hades asked. Hades, Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite, and Artemis raised their hand after Apollo gave a trust me look. "Who think their not going to be a couple?" Zeus, Demeter, Mr. D, Ares, raised their hands. Hephaestus, Athena, Poseidon reframed from raising their hands

"We choose to stand aside," Athena carefully answered. Hephaestus continued working quietly.

Everyone flashed away except Artemis, Apollo and Aphrodite.

"Okay why did you want me to choose the couple side?" She shivered slightly

Apollo patted her on the back "God of prophecy remember sis? just a feeling plus Aphrodite's on our side." Hermes started thinking about drugging the demigods to find out the truth, but stopped after Athena gave him a glare.

Okay guys this is the end of the first Chapter. Ta da! there are parts I'm not sure I like but I'll deal with it.

Date: This is the date that was published. Word: 9,436 words not counting author's note.

Except updates every few weeks of months unless I get really behind in school. :)