"What?" I looked at his hands, looking for any weapons. "I will die."
"Use your chopsticks." He pulled them out of my hair... He put them in my hands, "Spin them." Mr. Brunner demanded.
"Spin?"
"Like in class, with your pencils, hurry!"
Look, I know it's cool to be a half-blood and all, but calm down, you will die.
If you are reading this, thinking that you might be one, my advice is stop. You aren't cool. I'm kidding, but seriously. Believe whatever story your mom or dad told you, and try to live a normal life.
Being a half-blood, it's dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, you can even get killed in the most painful, and nastiest way possible.
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 will come for you.
My name is Sappy Takamitsu.
I am ten 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, along with my adoptive brother, Percy Jackson.
Are we troublesome kids?
I guess you can say that.
I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started to go bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan, twenty-nine 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, 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.
I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once, we wouldn't get in trouble.
Boy, was I wrong.
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, along with my brother. We weren't aiming for the school bus, but of course, we got expelled anyway. Also, before that, at our fourth grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, Percy sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. Another time, I supposedly "burned" a bully's hair. And the time before that...well, you get the idea.
This trip, I was determined to be good.
All the way to the city, Percy and I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freaky, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting our best friend, Grover, in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter and ketchup sandwich.
Not to be mean or anything, but our friend here, was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must have been held back for 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 of some random kind of muscle paralysis in his legs. Grover 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.
Anyway, back to the topic, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck to his curly brown hair, and she know that Percy and I couldn't do anything back to her because we were 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.
"I'm going to kill her," Percy mumbled.
"You can't." I spoke up, looking past Grover to see him, "At least not yet. Just wait for the police to go searching for you, then we can both kill her and go to jail together."
"Guys, no." Grover tried to calm us down, "It's okay, I like peanut butter."
"Not as much as enchiladas." I scoffed, as he dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.
"That's it." Percy and I synchronized, and started to get up, but Grover pulled us both down.
"You guys are already on probation," he reminded, "You know who will get blamed if anything happens."
"Oh good, god." I uttered, the sound of thunder echoed after I said that. I looked up, and saw nothing but a clear blue sky.
Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.
He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoing 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.
He gathers us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started to tell us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age, or the other sixth graders, since I am the youngest at the age of ten. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say because it was interesting, but everybody around me were talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye. It wouldn't be a problem with the kids blabbing, if I didn't have ADHD.
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.
From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured that Percy and I were 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.
One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, Percy and I told Grover that we think that Mrs. Dodds wasn't human. He looked at us, real serious, and said, "You are absolutely right."
Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.
Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and Percy quickly turned around and said "Will you shut up?"
That came out pretty loud. The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.
"Mr. Jackson," He spoke, "did you have a comment?"
His face turned a bright red, "No, sir."
Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele, "Perhaps, you'll tell us what this picture represents."
I observed the painting and sighed of relief. That's an easy one. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" Percy said.
"Yes, and he did this because…"
"Well," Percy started, "Kronos was the king god, and…"
"God?"
"Titan," I corrected, "Father of the gods. He didn't trust his kids, which were the gods, so he ate them. However, his wife, Rhea, hid baby Zeus, with the help of Gaea's, or Mother Earth, idea, Rhea gave him a rock to eat instead."
"And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters."
"Eww!" one of the snobby girls shrieked from behind us.
"And so there was this big fight between the gods and the titans," Percy continued, "and the gods won."
Some snickers were heard in the group.
Behind Percy, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to another 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.'"
"Like you know how to fill in a job application." I retorted, earning a punch on the lower part of my back.
"And why, Mr. Jackson, to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"
"Busted." Grover muttered.
"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter than her hair.
At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. Like me, he had radar ears, maybe not as good though.
Percy thought about the question, and shrugged, "I don't know, sir."
"I see," Mr. Brunner looked disappointed.
"Maybe there are such things as gods and titans. Maybe the titans are trying to rule the earth again, and are seeking revenge at the very moment." I commented. Instead of even considering my idea, the whole class started laughing, and of course I would make the obvious, idiotic mistake.
Mr. Brunner winked at me, and quiet the class down. "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?"
The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.
Grover, Percy, and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson, Ms. Takamitsu."
I expected as much. "Go ahead, Grover, we'll meet up with you later." I told him, then turned to Mr. Brunner, "Yes, sir?"
Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you do, intense brown eyes that could have been a thousand years old and had seen everything. "You guys must learn the answer to my question."
"About the titans?" Percy questioned.
"About real life, and how your studies applied to it."
"Oh."
"What you learn from me, is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson." He looked over at me, "I wouldn't anything less from you either, Sappy."
I wanted to know more, but I sensed that now wasn't the time. "Wait, my dear child, all will be revealed soon." A voice rang in my head.
Mr. Brunner expected my brother and me to be as good as the others, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention hyperactivity deficit disorder. I never made it past a C+ in my life. No, he didn't expect us to be just "good", goodness, no. He wants us to be better. We know the information, or at least, the main points, I just simply fail at spelling.
Percy mumbled something about trying harder. I looked over to Mr. Brunner, only to see him took a long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral. "You guys are dismissed." He finally said.
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 across New York State had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, floods, wildfires from lightning strikes, the poor animals. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.
Nobody else seemed to notice. I took a glance at Percy, seeing that he too, was observing the skies, I knew that I wasn't the blind one. 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, Percy, 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 that we were from the school of loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere. I guess that applies to me too.
"Detention?" Grover asked, munching on a peanut butter sandwich.
"Nah," Percy answered. "Not from Brunner. I just wished that he'd lay off Sappy and me sometimes. I mean, we're not geniuses." He looked down at me, "Never mind, I am not a genius."
"Hey," I protested, "I'm not a genius, I am failing just as much as you are."
"Don't you have an outstanding A+ in music right now?"
"No…" I toned out, "I can't read the music notes at all."
"Pfft, musical genius." Percy scoffed.
We stayed silent for a while. Then, when I thought that one of us is going to say something, "Can I have your apple?" Grover asked my brother.
Percy nodded. "Take my nachos too, I'm not that hungry." I offered.
"You're turning down nachos?" They both gasped.
"I'm just not hungry," I shrugged.
"You guys are the best." Grover spat out through a mouthful of food.
I went over and sat on my brother's lap, like what I always do, when I am feeling uncomfortable. We 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. We hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She would hug us and be glad to see us, but then disappointed, too. She would send me right back to Yancy, remind me to be good and work harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years, and I am most likely going to get kicked out with my brother again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.
"If only we can see mom right now." I sighed.
"I know, I want to, too." Percy whispered back, hugging my waist tighter.
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.
Percy reached over to unwrap his sandwich, when Nancy appeared in front of us with her ugly friends, I guess she got tired of stealing, and now she just dumped her half eaten lunch in Grover's lap.
"Oops," She grinned with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, if someone had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.
I tried to keep my calm, but I can feel my body temperature rising. The school counsellor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." I heard the sound of waves crashing.
I saw a huge build of water flowing out, and grabbing her. Next thing you know, Nancy was sitting with her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"
I stood up and growled at her, "No, he didn't, you dumb fool." Her hair startled to sizzle, and then grew to ashes. Great, now I am in trouble.
"What did you do to my hair?" She started to cry.
Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. Some kids were whispering, "Did you see...the water...like it grabbed her…"
I somewhat understand what they are talking about, but what I understand a full one-hundred percent, that we were in trouble...again.
As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising her a lot of things, she turned to us. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, I can tell that she's been waiting to ravage us all semester. "Now, honey…"
"I know." Percy grumbled, "A month erasing workbooks."
I was surprised that she didn't say anything like that, instead, all she said was, "Come with me." I have a terrible feeling about this. Not like, uh-oh, you are in trouble! Haha, no. It's you are going to die, like seriously, you are going to die.
"Wait!" Grover yelped, "It was me, I pushed her, and burned her hair."
Percy and I stared at him, stunned. Grover was a wimpy kid who wouldn't even stand up to his bullies, was trying to take the blame. Plus, Mrs. Dodds scares him to death.
She glared at him, "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood."
"But..." Grover started, but was cut off by her glare.
"You. Will. Stay. Here." She said sternly.
Grover looked at us desperately, like we are going to be gone forever.
"It's okay, man." Percy told him.
"Thanks for trying." I added on.
"Honeys, now." Mrs. Dodds barked.
Nancy smirked at us. "You're lucky that I didn't burn you alive." I muttered, while Percy just glared at her. We turned back to Mrs. Dodds, but she was already at the top of the steps, at the museum entrance, tapping her foot, gesturing that she's been waiting for us a long time ago.
How did she get there so fast? Percy and I gave each other confused looks, but then quickly ran up the stairs.
Perhaps that it was just my imagination. The school counsellor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.
I wasn't so sure, I just followed Mrs. Dodds. I took a glance at Grover, who was darting his eyes back and forth between us, Mrs. Dodds, and Mr. Brunner. He looked like he wanted Mr. Brunner's attention, but the man was absorbed in his novel.
I looked back up, Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. I'm pretty fast and swift, but I am lazy. "Percy~" I whined. He bent over for me to climb on his back, and he hoisted me up.
"She's probably going to make us buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop." Mrs. Dodds walked deeper into the museum, "I guess not."
We followed her deeper into the museum. When we finally caught up, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. This entire gallery was empty, except for us.
I slid off of Percy's back before we can get into any more trouble. 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 am still terrified of her. It's weird being along with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze scared me, as if she wanted to pulverize it…
"You have been giving us problems, honey," She said, swiping her finger on the side of my face.
"Yes, ma'am." We replied.
She tugged the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think that you would get away with it?" Her eyes were scary. They didn't look just mad, it was beyond mad. They look completely evil. She's not allowed to hurt me, she's a teacher. I hope.
"We'll try harder, ma'am." Percy stuttered out. Thunder shook the building, scaring me. I turned into Percy, hugging him.
"We're not fools, Percy Jackson," She said, "It's only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."
What is she talking about?
All I can think about was the illegal stash of candy, not drugs, that we've been selling out in our dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized that we got our essay on Tom Sawyer off of the internet without reading the book, and now they will deduct our grade. Or even worse, they will make me read the book, out loud, to the class.
"Well?" She demanded.
"Ma'am, I don't…"
"Your time is up." She hissed. 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. I knew that she wasn't human! Uh, now's not the time, Sap. She was shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.
Then things got even stranger. Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in the front of the museum just a second ago, 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, when Mrs. Dodds lunged at us.
I let out a shriek when Percy pulled me over to the side. I felt her talons slash my cheek. The stinging pain burned me. Percy grabbed the pen out of the air, however when he caught it, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword, Mr. Brunner's bronze sword which he always used on tournament day.
I made a run for it out towards Mr. Brunner. "Sappy." He exclaimed, "You go fight too."
"What?" I looked at his hands, looking for any weapons. "I will die."
"Use your chopsticks." He pulled them out of my hair. My golden chopstick with a blue flower at the end of it, and my silver chopstick with a pink flower hanging at the end of it. Two both very harmless food transferer for asians. He put them in my hands, "Spin them." Mr. Brunner demanded.
"Spin?"
"Like in class, with your pencils, hurry!"
I put one in each hand, and then twisted them around my fingers, as I brought them back and around my wrist, they turned into two sai. I turned over to see Percy dodging Mrs. Dodd's talons.
Naturally, I ran over, and sliced her with my half golden sai. Her talons fell right off. Percy quickly got onto his feet and his sword sliced her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she was made of water.
It was like seeing a sand castle getting destroyed by 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 the evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching us.
We were alone.
Two chopsticks were in my hand, and a ballpoint pen was in Percy's.
Mr. Brunner wasn't there, nobody was. The gallery was empty except for Percy and me.
My hands were trembling. Had I imagined the whole thing? Percy took my hand and walked me outside. It was raining. I swore that the skies were blue earlier.
Grover was sitting by the fountain, with the museum map tented over his head. Nancy was still standing there, getting even more soaked after her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw us, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."
"Excuse me?" I questioned.
"Our teacher, duh!" She looked at me as if I was stupid, which I kind of am.
I blinked, and looked over at Percy. "I don't remember having a teacher names, Mrs. Kerr." He whispered.
Nancy rolled her eyes and turned away.
Percy ran over to Grover, "Where is Mrs. Dodds?" I tumbled down the steps, slipping on the wet marble stairs.
"Ouch." I grumbled, quickly moving over to them.
Grover paused for a moment, looking at Percy's pen and my chopsticks, "Who?"
"Not funny, man, tell me where she is." Percy demanded.
Thunder boomed overhead. I went over and hugged Percy. I peeked back up, looking at Mr. Brunner, chilling under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if I didn't see him pulling out my chopsticks.
Percy went over to Mr. Brunner. He took back the pen. Thunder echoed again, and I hugged Grover this time. "It's alright Sap, Zeus isn't punishing you." Grover rubbed my head reassuringly.
"Zeus is just a myth." I cried, then let out a scream when thunder echoed again.
Percy came back, and carried me like a little child. "Mr. Brunner said that was no Mrs. Dodds. Not on this trip, nor Yancy Academy. I think that something crazy is up."
I nodded on his shoulder. Stupid astraphobia.
Alright, so you guys may be disappointed that it's not the Digimon update, but I'm sorry, this is the best I can do for now. I have school and extra curriculum, leave by a review, and message me. I should start something new: question of the chapter (qotc). Who are your favorite OTP?
I personally like my characters together, and Kid Flash x Artemis (the OTP) Drop by a review :)