The Lightning Thief
Summary: Percy, Thalia, and Nico(and eventually other people) get zapped to the past to read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus series. Sorry I suck at summaries there may be a bit of Percico not sure yet... I don't own the PJO series or the HoO The awesomely awesome Rick Roirdan does. Sorry for any mistakes and if the characters seem a little too OC. I'll try to make it funny but my sense of humour is messed up.
Chapter 1
3rd person P.O.V.
It was the winter solstice on Olympus with the gods usual bickering:
"Mother Rhea always liked you best-"
"Air disasters are better than sea disasters-" etc.
When a blinding white light appeared and dropped a Demi-god from the roof and landed on the floor. The impact should have killed him, but he surprised the gods when tried to sit up, but just as he almost got up another Demi-god popped up and landed on top of the first. Just as Zeus was about to speak another Demi-god fell from the roof but she landed perfectly on her feet.
Zeus's P.O.V.
"Who are you and why did you interrupt the winter solstice?!" I yelled at the intruders purposely adding thunder to make it more intimidating. The first boy finally stood up. He had black hair that looked as if he had just gotten out of bed, sea green eyes, and was wearing a Camp-Half Blood t-shirt with some blue jeans. He stepped forward.
"Didn't you summon us?" He asked his question directed towards all of us. Just as soon as the words left his mouth. The Fates appeared. This couldn't be good...
"Hello Zeus. Olympians," They said bowing. "Sorry for the...inconvenience. We have brought these Demi-gods back from the future to read some books with you. You may not harm them. As you read on we will send some more of your children, but for now these are the first three. As I assume some of you guys will find their presence...startling or amusing. Maybe even a threat, but as we said earlier YOU. MAY. NOT. HARM. THEM." They said this emphasizing each word. What did they mean by threat? They then turned to the Demi-gods,
"You will introduce yourselves except for you parents and titles. Just names." Then without another word they flashed out. I turned to them expectantly. The first boy was the first to speak again.
"I'm Percy Jackson." He said smiling happily. The next was a girl. She had short spiky black hair and electrifying blue eyes. She wore a Hunter's outfit. She reminded me of Thalia. She stepped forward like the the one named Percy did.
"Thalia Grace." She said smiling a tiny bit looking up at me. Thalia! But she couldn't be here! She's a tree. The others seemed to recognize her to. Hera wouldn't be to happy. She was never really fond of my mortal children. The others looked at me waiting for my reaction. I simply glared at them mentally yelling at them to stop.
The last one stepped forward. He had black hair like Percy did and the same I-just-got-out-of-bed hair style. His eyes were either really dark brown, or pitch black. His skin was pale as if he spent a lot of time in the dark. He was dressed in all black.
"Nico Di Angelo." He said giving a nervous smile. He looked sort of uncomfortable. He went to stand by Percy. Just as the introductions finished a box appeared containing five books and a notes from the Fates.
"Are those the books Father?" Athena asked. She had always loved reading. I simply nodded my head.
"What are they called?" She asked seriously, but I could tell she was eager to start reading them. I looked at them and what I found startled me.
"Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of The Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian." I read them out loud. I looked down at the Percy in front of me. He looked confused and in shock. Thalia and Nico were looking at him confused too.
"These books are about you?" I asked. Why did they (who ever they were?) write books about him.
"Umm... Yeah... I guess." He replied still looking confused. He stared at my hands. I looked down. The note. I almost forgot about it.
"Before we start I guess we should read the note the Fates have sent." I said catching the attention of everyone. I started reading,
"To the Olympians and future Demi-gods, These are only the first five of ten books. Don't try to prevent what will happen in the future, we all know you can't control prophecies. And a small reminder: don't hurt the children. We know you'll want to (mostly when you find out their parents) but don't. We'll be sending more Demi-gods later as you read.
-The Fates"
"Ten books?" Thalia asked. "Yes." I said after making sure everyone was here before I started reading. Percy Jackson and the Olympians:
The Lightning Thief
"The lightning thief?" Apollo asked. Everyone looked Hermes.
"Hey! Not all thieves are my children." He exclaimed. All of the gods nodded their heads not convinced.
I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher
"How do you accidentally vaporize someone?" Apollo asked
"Don't ask." Thalia said. She got a lot of weird looks, so she explained,
"This is Percy. He's weird." Everyone nodded.
"Hey! I'm not weird!" Percy shouted.
"Sure" Nico said drawing out the word longer than normal. Percy glared at him, but you could tell it wasn't serious. At this point I'll never finish. I started reading again after a silence.
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.
"No one does Se-" she stopped herself.
"No one does Percy." She corrected herself when she got a warning look from Percy and Nico.
If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:
"Oh no... Percy gives horrible advice." Thalia and Nico groaned. They were still standing.
"Can we have someone to sit?" Percy asked. Hestia drew up some bean bags. As they were getting comfortable I continued reading.
Close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.
"You know that's not bad advice" Nico said leaning against Percy. Guess they were closer than I thought. I started reading again.
Being a half-blood is dangerous.
"Check." The Demi-gods said.
It's scary.
"Check." They said again.
Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.
"Check" they said again, but this time sadly. At this I felt a bit guilty, and judging by the looks on the other gods faces I knew they probably felt like that to.
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.
"Me to." Nico said pouting a little.
"It not always bad." Percy said putting an arm around Nico's waist. He smiled at him and leaned up closer against him. They were really close... Thalia just smirked at them.
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.
"Why to make it sound starker-ish Percy." Thalia laughed along with Nico.
"Oh I'm sorry, next time I plan for someone to read my thoughts I won't do that." He said his voice dripping with sarcasm. Thalia, Nico and now most of the gods were laughing, and after a while he joined in.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
"You didn't warn us!" Apollo and Hermes yelled. They both got hit by Artemis.
My name is Percy Jackson.
"Really? I thought it was Peter Johnson." Dionysus said from behind his wine magazine.
"You're listening?" The Demi-gods asked in bewilderment.
"Of course." He said. They looked confused, but decided to drop it.
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.
"It makes sense that you're there." Thalia said.
"Hey!" Percy said, but calmed down a bit when he saw everyone was laughing.
Am I a troubled kid?
"Yes!" The Demi-gods exclaimed to the pouting Percy. A couple of the gods (Poseidon, Artemis, and Aphrodite) looked at them curiously.
"This is Percy, he's the most troubled kid in the world. At least I'm pretty sure." Nico said. He leaned against Percy again. Thalia just smiled at them. I wonder what's going on between them? Why does Thalia keep smiling at them? Does she like One of them?! Oh. My. Gods. I sound like Aphrodite. That isn't good.
Yeah. You could say that.
"You even agree with us!" They said almost in shock.
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 of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.
"What other color are school busses?" Thalia asked Percy. He just shrugged.
"Sounds like torture." Poseidon said and I smirked. He looked at me questionably. I read the next line.
I know—it sounds like torture.
Everyone laughed.
Most Yancy field trips were.
"How?" Apollo asked.
"Boring." Percy replied shrugging. He looked up at Aphrodite ,who was already looking at him, and whispered something to Nico who frowned and leaned away from Percy giving him as much space as he could.
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.
"Sounds like Chiron." Athena said. And Percy nodded. Then she remembered something, "You shouldn't be sleeping in class anyways!" Athena cried out.
"Well that's Percy for you." Thalia laughed.
I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.
"Not possible Perce." Nico and Thalia said laughing.
Boy, was I wrong.
"Of course you were." Thalia said.
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.
All the gods were laughing and Hermes and Apollo were on the ground rolling with laughter.
"What were you aiming for?" Nico asked in between laughter.
"I don't think I was." Percy said. This only made them laugh harder. I started reading again when they calmed down.
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.
"No! We want to hear more!" Hermes and Apollo screamed laughing. I waited until they calmed down.
This trip, I was determined to be good.
"As if that was possible." Thalia said still laughing.
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.
"Eeeeewwwwww!" Aphrodite squealed in disgust. "She eats that?!"
"Yeah." Percy said.
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.
"Wonder what Grover would think of that description." Thalia said thinking of her friend's reaction.
"Don't you dare tell him." Percy threatened.
"Oh she won't have to. And I don't like that description at all." A male voice said behind him. They all turn to see a smiling boy wearing a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, blue jeans, and some converses.
"Hey Grover!" They all yelled happily. Hestia drew up another bean bag for the new guest and I continued reading.
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.
"Way to blow you cover Goatboy." Thalia snickered while Dionysus glared at a red Grover. So, he's a satyr.
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.
"What did you do to get on probation?" Apollo asked.
"I don't even remember anymore, to many possibilities." This caused Hermes and Apollo to start laughing again.
The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.
""Aww... That's no fun." Hermes muttered.
"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.
"Do it!" Ares yelled hoping for some action. Aphrodite smacked him.
Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."
"Not in his hair" Aphrodite exclaimed still disgusted with this Nancy girl.
He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. "That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.
Ares glared at Grover who looked absolutely terrified.
"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens." Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.
"Me too." Ares muttered.
In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.
"Great" I think I heard Poseidon say. I wondered why he cared for this Demi-god.
Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up 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.
"More than that." Athena told him smiling. I guess she getting fond of this Demi-god.
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 looked up to see that Thalia was staring at Percy with her mouth open.
"You... Found... Something... At school...interesting?" She asked him while Nico looked as if he were trying to hold in his laughter.
"Hey! I have my moments." Percy replied crossing his arms across his chest.
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 in to your locker.
I heard two people gasp only to find it was Hades and Nico. They were both staring at Percy. Hades in curiosity and Nico looked upset or mad maybe both. Percy was avoiding having to look at him.
She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.
"Before anyone says anything:," Percy said looking at Thalia, who looked away innocently, "it wasn't my fault." He finished his sentence.
"I don't believe you." Thalia said.
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.
"That's cruel." Hermes said.
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."
"You're gonna blow your cover Goatboy." Thalia laughed at the slightly red Grover.
"He didn't really believe me." Grover said in his defense while everyone else laughed at them.
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.
"Of course it did Perce.." Nico said smirking.
The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. "Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?" My face was totally red.
"Wait. Is it the type of red it gets when we catch you making out with-" she was interrupted by Percy covering her mouth with his hand. He glared at her while Nico, Grover and her laughed.
"So, who are you dating?" Aphrodite asked him, and even I could see he didn't seem to happy right now.
"No one." He said in a tone that made it clear that he didn't want to talk about this. How did he have the nerve to talk to a god that way? Everyone was listening to the conversation now. He and Aphrodite were having a staring contest. He sighed in defeat.
"I'll tell you after this chapter." He grumbled while Aphrodite squealed in excitement and he glared at his friends, who were laughing silently.
I said, "No, sir." 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.
"You recognized it?" Thalia asked in disbelief. If this comes as a shock I wonder how dense this Demi-god was.
"You know I'm not that hopeless." Percy said laughing at her reaction.
"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"
"Why does it always have to be that one?" Poseidon asked shuddering at the memory. Glad I wasn't there. I smiled to my self.
"Yes," he said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because . . ."
" Well..." I racked my brain to remember.
"Don't try to hard Perce." Nico said laughing a bit. Percy half heartily glared at him.
"Kronos was the king god, and—"
"GOD?!" I yelled infuriated. I'm king god!
"Sorry, but I do correct my self. I think..." I kept reading.
"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.
"Titan," I corrected myself.
"Told you." I heard him mumble. I decided to ignore it. I saw Poseidon smirking.
"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—"
"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.
"Imagine being there." Aphrodite shuddered again along with most of the other gods.
"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, " and the gods won."
"You described a war with hundreds of death and destruction as 'big fight'?" Athena asked him. He nodded. I heard her mumbled something about a low vocabulary.
"Forget about that, he managed to sum up a war that took years into. Couple of sentences. That takes talent,." Hermes smiled at Percy.
"Whoever's kid this is I love him!" He said laughing now. Percy just smiled. I think I saw Poseidon smile to.
Some snickers from the group.
"Why were they laughing? You got the answer right." Athena asked him. He sighed before answering her.
"I normally didn't ever get anything right, so they naturally assume anything I say is wrong." Athena looked murderous at the at answer.
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'
"Idiot." I heard Athena mumble.
"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"
"Busted!" Hermes and Apollo yelled.
"It does matter... If your a Demi-god." Percy and Thalia said.
"Busted," Grover muttered
"Ha! You guys think like a goat." A new voice said. Everyone turned around to see twins standing there laughing. They walked over to us.
"We're Travis and Conner Stoll. Son of Hermes." They said together as if they practiced it. Hestia drew up another bean bag for them.
"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.
"More like horse ears." Travis and Conner said. Everyone was laughing at this until the centaur himself said,
"I heard that." Everyone stopped laughing immediately. He was in his wheelchair. "Olympians." He said nodding to us.
"Wait. You guys do know what's going on right?" Thalia asked them.
"Yeah the Fates explained everything. We just wanted the hear Percy's thoughts and you know." They said smiling, but the look Chiron gave them made them stop. I looked over at the first trio (Percy, Thalia, and Nico) they were all laughing.
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.
"You had to go into details?" Demeter asked looking like she was about to throw up. "Sorry." Chiron apologized.
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?"
"How is that a happy note?" Apollo asked Chiron.
"Not sure actually." He said.
The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.
Artemis raised an eyebrow,
"When are they not?" She asked him.
"Now." He said which was true all five boys (well four boys and a satyr), and gods were sitting calmly and paying close attention to the book. At least that's what I thought until I saw Ares, Apollo and Hermes rough housing. Artemis raised her eyebrow again.
"Well... They don't count." He said. Artemis actually smiled at him.
Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson." I knew what 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.
"Not quite Percy. Not quite." Chiron said.
"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."
"Typical Percy answer." Thalia and Nico both said before laughing at Percy's eye roll.
"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."
"That's a lot of pressure." The Stolls whistled.
"Sorry about that Percy." He said sadly.
"It's okay Chiron. I mean you had to." He said smiling.
I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard. 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 up 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.
"Wow... Again that's a lot of pressure." Travis and Conner said. While Chiron looked down sadly.
"Really Chiron it's okay." Percy said and smiled when Chiron did.
"I don't think even Athena could name every Greek and Roman person and their mother and which god they worshipped." Hermes said, which got him a smack on the head from Athena.
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 probably was." Thalia said.
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.
Everyone was looking at me and Poseidon.
"Wonder what got you two mad this time." Athena said.
"Probably the usual things." Demeter said bored.
Nobody else seemed to notice.
"The Mist." Athena said.
Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers.
"Boys." Artemis said clearly annoyed.
Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.
Everyone looked at Hermes, who frowned.
"Not my kid." Was all he said.
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.
"Ow!" Percy groaned rubbing his head where Nico had just smacked him.
"What was that for?"
"For thinking that you were a 'loser freak'. You're not a loser or a freak." Nico said.
"He's right you know." Thalia said to Percy. The Stolls and Grover nodding in agreement. "Thanks guys." Percy said hugging Thalia and Nico cause they were siting right next to him.
"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."
"That's an understatement." A female voice said. I looked up to see a girl with blond hair in a ponytail, and stormy gray eyes. Like Athena's. She looked up at us and bowed. "Annabeth Chase. Daughter of Athena." She said smiling, as a note appeared in front of me.
We forgot to tell you: you won't have to explain to the new Demi-gods what's happening. They know they have been sent to the past and that you are reading about Percy's adventures. The coming Demi-gods will tell you their parentage, it's just Percy, Thalia, and Nico, who can't tell you. Enjoy your reading.
-The Fates
I continued reading Annabeth sat down, sharing Thalia's bean bag, like Nico and Percy were sharing one.
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?"
Everyone busted out laughing at the red satyr.
"Sorry man." He said to Percy.
"It's okay G-man." He said laughing with everyone else.
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 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.
"Mama's boy." Ares said.
"What's wrong with that?" Hera asked him.
"N-nothing Mommy!" He said stuttering. I could tell the Demi-gods were trying not to laugh.
"Six schools in six years?" The Stolls asked Percy. He just nodded.
"You even beat our record." They said in shock.
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 café table.
Hephaestus was already drawing blueprints.
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.
All of the Demi-gods gritted their teeth at this.
"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.
"You have the weirdest, yet vey detailed, descriptions." Annabeth said laughing.
"In my defense: no one is exactly supposed to know my thoughts." He said pouting, but stopped when saw everyone was laughing, even Nico.
I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper."
"How many times did you go to the counselor?" Nico asked sighing, but before Percy could answer Grover did,
"If it was a good week about four times a week. A bad week about four times a day." He said. Everyone looked at Percy.
"You try controlling your temper with her. It's impossible." He said which had them laughing again.
But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.
A wave? I was quiet for a minute before I turned to look at Poseidon. Could it be he broke the oath? Athena was looking at him too.
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.
"She's a monster isn't she?" Travis or Conner asked.
"Yeah..." Percy said looking at Nico worriedly. Nico was looking at the book.
Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"
"—the water—"
"—like it grabbed her—"
"You broke the oath!" I screamed at Poseidon.
"You will not hurt my son or I will personally send you to Tartarus with Father. And need I remind you, that you broke the oath as well." He said pointing at Thalia before I could say anything else. I could tell he was serious. Could Percy be the prophecy child? He could already use his powers unconsciously.
I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.
A few of the Demi-gods laughed.
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.
"You did Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said rolling her eyes.
"I didn't know back then." Percy said.
"Now, honey—" "I know," I grumbled.
"A month erasing workbooks."
"No!" Hermes and his kids screamed.
"You never guess your punishment. That's rule #17." he groaned at Percy.
"Sorry," he said holding his hands up "I didn't know."
That wasn't the right thing to say.
"Of course not." Hermes groaned.
"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.
"With good reason." I heard Hades or Nico mutter.
"Why?" I asked. Hades spoke before Nico.
"You'll see." He glanced at Poseidon worriedly.
She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.
The Demi-gods were laughing at the sheepish looking Grover.
"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.
"But—"
"You—will—stay—here."
"At least you were persistent." Annabeth said smiling at Grover.
Grover looked at me desperately.
"It's okay, man," I told him.
"Thanks for trying."
I saw Artemis raise an eyebrow at him.
"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me.
"Now." Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.
"You do not want to be one the other side of that." Grover said to us.
"Mine is better." Ares challenged, and gave us his glared. The Demi-gods weren't fazed at all. They all looked at Percy, who just sighed and gave us his glare. It was terrifying. And I could swear the room got colder and darker. Everyone shivered when he stopped. Ares just grumbled something about 'stupid Demi-god', while Nico smiled a bit at Percy.
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?
Nobody spoke.
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.
"Don't be so sure Seaweed Brain." Annabeth mumbled.
I wasn't so sure.
Everyone laughed at the similarity.
I went after Mrs. Dodds.
"Not a good idea Percy." I heard Nico quietly say to him.
"I didn't really have much of a choice. You know?" He relied. Nico just rolled his eyes.
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. Coverages
"Cause that novel is more important than my son's life." Poseidon grumbled while Chiron apologized. Poseidon accepted the apology but was still glaring.
I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.
Everybody was worried now.
Okay,I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.
"That's not the plan." Thalia said to Percy.
"Didn't know back then." He said shrugging.
But apparently that wasn't the plan. 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.
I looked up to see everyone was looking at Percy worriedly. They must really care about him.
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.
"It was growling." Annabeth and Thalia said.
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. . .
"She probably did." Hades said. Then to Poseidon,
"You can't blame me for my future self's actions." Poseidon only nodded confused.
"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said. I did the safe thing.
I said, "Yes, ma'am."
"Wow. You did the safe thing and were polite that's a first." Travis and Conner said laughing, which only made the other Demi-gods laugh, breaking a bit of the tension. Poseidon looked worried.
She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket.
"Did you really think you would get away with it?" 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." Annabeth and Athena said.
I said, "I'll—I'll try harder ma'am."
"Man, you were stuttering," Travis and Conner said, "must've been hard for you being that polite." They laughed when they got a playful glare from him.
"Or he was just scared." Annabeth countered.
"If that was the reason: It was his first monster. Cut him some slack." Grover came to Percy's defense.
Thunder shook the building. Everyone looked at me.
"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and will suffer less pain."
"Less pain?" Poseidon asked, he looked a bit pale.
"Dad I'm right here. I'm okay." Percy reassured Poseidon, calming him down a bit.
I didn't know what she was talking about.
"Of course you didn't." The Demi-gods laughed.
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.
Everyone was laughing.
"Man Uncle P! I love your kid!" Hermes and Apollo said. Poseidon smiled at this proudly.
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.
Annabeth and Athena were both glaring at Percy now, who was trying not to laugh. Hermes and Apollo were only laughing harder along with everyone else.
"They should take that grade away." Annabeth said.
Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.
"How is that worse?" Grover asked.
The Demi-gods were looking at him in shock.
"Percy's dyslexia is worst then most of ours, but still you try reading a book when all the words decide to jump off the pages." Grover shrunk into his bean bag at the tone of Thalia's voice.
"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.
"YOU SENT A FURY AFTER MY SON?!" Poseidon yelled to Hades at the same time Nico yelled at Percy:
"YOU FACED ALECTO AND DIDN'T TELL ME?!" Poseidon and Hades got their argument first.
"I told you not to blame me for my future self's actions. For all you know I had a good reason!" Hades yelled at Poseidon.
"He still didn't even know he was a Demi- god!" Poseidon yelled back.
"I'm sorry Brother." Hades said talking normally. Poseidon still looked mad but accepted the apology. Everyone turned to look at Percy and Nico who were now arguing.
"I...Faced...Didn't...When." Percy was saying. I couldn't hear all of it because they were whispering.
"You...She...Your...Monster." Nico angrily argued back.
"I...Worry..." Percy said. Whatever he said to Nico calmed him down a little.
"Fine...Sorry..." Percy smiled at him, before looking up and realizing we were all trying to listen.
"Umm... You can ummm... Keep reading now." He said. I felt kind of bad for trying to eves drop. So I saved him from this awkward moment by reading.
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.
Nobody said a word.
Then things got even stranger.
Nobody wanted to break the tension.
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.
"What's a pen gonna do?" Ares asked. Percy and Poseidon smiled.
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.
"Oh." Was the only thing Ares said.
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.
"Wimp." Ares said, and he got hit with a large amount of salt water from Poseidon.
She snarled, "Die, honey!" And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.
"That comes naturally to you?" Annabeth asked Percy.
"Yeah." Everyone just looked at him weirdly.
The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!
"You killed a Fury on your first try?" Hermes asked him.
"Yeah, but I couldn't have done it without Chiron's help." He said smiling at the centaur. Artemis was looking at him again with a raised eyebrow.
"Even before he knew he was a son of Poseidon, he was making water references." Annabeth laughed. Everyone joined in with her.
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 hate that feeling." Thalia said.
"Yeah." The Demi-gods agreed with her.
I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.
"You still let the Mist affect you?" Athena asked.
"Yeah." Percy said.
My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.
"Really Percy? Magic mushrooms is the best you could come up with?" The Stolls and Hermes asked.
"I was confused."Percy said.
Had I imagined the whole thing?
"Nope." The Stolls said popping the 'P'.
I went back outside.
It had started to rain.
"Stop thinking in short sentences."Apollo said.
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?" Hermes, Apollo, Travis, Conner, Thalia, and Nico asked.
I said, "Who?"
The Demi-gods laughed.
"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.
"That wasn't very nice." Aphrodite said. I forgot she was here.
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.
"Grover can't lie." Annabeth, Thalia, and Percy said. Grover turned a bright red.
"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious." Thunder boomed overhead. 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?"
"Now Chiron can lie!"'Hermes said proudly. Everyone agreed.
"Now how about a lunch break? I'm starving." Apollo said.
"I do believe Percy owns me some information, though." Aphrodite said smiling at him. Everyone walked to the kitchen while Aphrodite led Percy the other way.