I do not own Percy Jackson. I only own my OCs and their storylines. I am open to helpful criticism, but please know that I am young so this isn't going to be the best. Thank you for reading! Feedback is very much appreciated. I don't have a schedule for updating yet but I will try to update regularly. -lies
ONE
Look, we didn't want to be half-bloods. If you're reading this because you think you're one of us, my advice to you is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lies your parent shoved down your throat about your birth and live a normal life.
Why? Because being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. And ninety percent of the time you die an early death at the hands of a myth.
If you're a normal kid, reading this out of sheer boredom and are convinced this is fiction, cheers. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe none of this ever happened.
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 we didn't warn you.
My name is Andromeda Jackson. I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy along with my twin, Percy.
Are we troubled kids?
I pretty much define 'troubled kid'.
In the fifth-grade, me and my brother went to a Saratoga battlefield and exploded the school bus with a Revolutionary War-era cannon. Why they would have a loaded cannon right there in front of a bunch of eleven-year-olds, I dunno. We were expelled upon our arrival at the school and sent packing to our cramped apartment on the East Side.
My personal favorite, however, is when Percy pulled the wrong lever and dumped the whole class into a shark tank. At the moment it had been terrifying, but now I laugh at the thought of it.
However, Percy had begged me to be on my best behavior for this trip. And I, being the amazing younger sister that I am, agreed to be on my bestest behavior. The reason for his insistence of good behavior? The trip was being led by our favorite teacher, Mr. Brunner. He was this middle-aged guy in a wheelchair that always smelled like coffee. With his scruffy beard, frayed tweed jacket, and his epic collection of armor, he kept me interested. His class was the only one that didn't make me want to bang my head on the desk repeatedly. I'd always enjoyed learning about the arts so hopefully, the trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art would go smoothly and we would revel in our appreciation of viewing Ancient Greek and Roman stuff.
However, if the redheaded, cheeto-faced, kleptomaniac girl named Nancy Bobofit didn't stop hitting my best friend, Grover, in the head with her sandwich. I would be adding first-degree murder to my record. It would be a painful death, too. She'd been picking on him since the day he enrolled. Unfortunately, I understood why someone like Bobofit was picking on Grover. He has probably been held back a couple of grades (I'm guessing because of his wispy goatee and acne). He was scrawny. He cried when frustrated. And he was crippled. And Bobofit? She was just a class A bitch whose parents didn't love her enough and felt the need to inflict her prepubescent angst upon the "lesser" people in and below the sixth-grade.
Neither Percy nor I could do a thing about Nancy throwing peanut-butter and ketchup sandwich wads into Grover's curly brown hair. This being because if anything went wrong, and I mean anything, Percy and I would be tortured with ISS.
"I'm going to kill her," my brother mumbled. I squeezed his left hand with my right in an attempt to placate him.
"As much as I would love to see that fight, you can't. We're kind of running low on options as far as education goes."
"I know but-"
"It's okay. I like peanut butter," Grover plucked a mangled piece of bread out of his hair.
"So do I!" I exclaimed. "But not in my hair! Or with ketchup." Grove dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.
"That's it," Percy pushed off his seat. Both Grover and I grabbed his arms and yanked him back into the uncomfortable school bus seat.
"You guys are already on probation," Grover reminded Percy. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."
Percy huffed in defeat before turning to me, "Are we almost there?" The fluttering of my eyelids and large intake answered his query.
I examined the huge echoing galleries, marble busts, and statues, and black and orange pottery in glass cases in authentic interest, listening raptly to whatever history or myth explained its creation.
We gathered at the base of a huge stone column with a sphynx on it. He explained that it was a stele for a girl that had been around our age. It sounded interesting but, alas, Nancy and her group of demonic friends would not shut up.
Percy and I would tell them to shut up, then immediately receive the evil eye from Mrs. Dodds. Fun fact about Mrs. Dodds; She was spawned in the pits of hell. She was a math teacher from Georgia who was never seen without her black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. I missed the teacher we had for the first semester before she had had a nervous breakdown (which was, unfortunately, quite the norm at Yancy).
Upon her arrival, Mrs. Dodds hailed Nancy Bobofit as an angel from Heaven and me and my brother as spawns of Lucifer. I'd once told her she had it mixed up with me and herself. Okay, maybe more than once. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," with her voice dipped in honey, and I knew that I would be frequenting after-school detention for a month. It was still worth it.
Though due to the fact that I'm on probation (and have been for almost a month), I've been trying to avoid trouble for a while. It was rather hard. There were so many golden opportunities that I had to sadly watch pass.
Mr. Brunner continued to talk about Greek art, oblivious to Nancy sniggering with her friends about a naked statue. I was tempted to throttle her but I'm 80% sure that's considered a bad thing to do to people.
"Will you shut up?" Percy! Mr. Brunner stopped his story. Percy's face turned beet red. Bet that came out louder than he meant it to.
"Mr. Jackson," he said. "Do you have a comment?"
"No, sir." His face was so red now it was almost funny.
"Sir, he was trying to quiet down some of the other students who were acting immaturely so he could listen to your lesson." I finished with an apologetic smile flashing a 'silly boys' look along with it. "He didn't mean for it to be so loud."
Percy looked at me gratefully. I smirked at him, my 'I got your back, bro' face showing.
Mr. Brunner stroked his beard thoughtfully, "Perhaps you could tell the class what this picture represents?" He pointed to one of the pictures on the stele that depicted Kronos's A+ parenting.
"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" Yay, point for Team Jackson!
"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, not satisfied with the answer. "And he did this because..."
"Well..." he paused. "Kronos was the king god-" I kicked the back of his shin. "King Titan," he quickly corrected. "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 siblings-"
"Ew!" cried one of the girls behind us.
"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," he continued blatantly ignoring her. "And the gods won." Well in a nutshell I suppose.
Behind us, Nancy Bobofit mumbled, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please why Kronos ate his kids'." I questioned what I had done in my previous life to deserve her ceaseless chatter.
"And why, Ms. Jackson," Mr. Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"
"Busted," Grover muttered.
"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face bright red.
I thought about his question and (after donning my philosophical cap that just spewed BS until it sounded half-way okay) said, "It symbolizes that there will always be some to come after you, and trying to hold onto an empire while you should clearly hand over the torch will just bring your downfall faster. Because, in the end, everything dies so it is meaningless to hold onto what has already been taken away." I considered adding 'Or it just means don't eat your kids', but he looked pleased with my answer. I wasn't about to ruin that.
Mr. Brunner nodded, "Nicely put, Ms. 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 outside, girls complaining of hunger, guys acting liking idiots. But not my merry crew, no! Grover and I were waiting for Percy at the fountain trying to maintain a decent distance between us and the school for rich reject freaks.
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.
Nobody else noticed the strange weather. Guys continued to pelt pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket some random lady, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.
Percy sat on the fountain between us, sighing.
"Detention?" Grover asked.
"Nah," he responded. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I'm not a genius."
I faked a gasp, "What do you mean? You're the child protege he's searched for for years!" He snorted, mission accomplished.
"Thanks, Andy," Percy smiled at me.
"Well, it was either that or 'oh really', soo..." He shoved me playfully. Silence enveloped us. I watched the yellow cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought of my mom. Neither of the twins had seen her since Christmas. I missed her and desperately wished that I was in a cab on my way home. I knew what would happen (I'd ran from school before) she would hug me and be happy to see me, but she'd also be disappointed that I hadn't tried harder, too. She'd send me right back, even if this was my sixth school in six years and it was highly probable that I would be kicked out again.
Eyeing Bobofit's failed attempts at stealing I bumped Percy's shoulder with mine, "Bet you a dollar I can pick-pocket a tourist before Nancy does." He gave me a disapproving look.
"As your older brother-"
"OH MY GOD, YOU'RE TEN MINUTES OLDER!"
He laughed and sang in an airy voice, "I'm still older than you ." I shoved him jokingly. He chuckled again and handed me my sandwich which I quickly unwrapped. I was about to take a bite when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of my merry crew. She was probably tired of stealing from tourists so she went to her second favorite past-time- picking on the three losers sitting at the fountain.
She dumped her half-eaten lunch on Grover's lap. A disgustingly saliva drenched apple core rolled off of his lap and into the fountain with a plop. My nose wrinkled on reflex at the sight. Though to be honest, I wasn't sure if the sight was the half-eaten food or Nancy.
I sighed, "You know Nancy sweetie, there are starving children that could have eaten that food." I looked up at her with mock-sadness. "And you just throw it away like that," I shook my head and tsked.
"What? Children like you and your idiot brother?" That seemed to be the last straw for Percy. The water around us surged. I never saw Percy move but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting in the fountain screaming that Percy had pushed her.
Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"
"—the water—"
"—like it grabbed her—"
Their comments confused me but I quickly put two and two together. According to the other students the water had grabbed Nancy and thrown her in the fountain, and Percy had apparently been the one to make the water do this. I looked at my twin, he was, in a nutshell, confused.
It took me a couple of seconds to register that Mrs. Dodds had materialized out of the ground like the overgrown demon bat she was. She had a triumphant fire in her eyes as if Percy had done something worth being expelled for. "Now, honey-"
"I know, a month erasing workbooks," he grumbled. I, not for the first time, actually wanted to facepalm myself into oblivion. You never guess your punishment. It will always be worse if you do.
"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 my brother. 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. "Ma'am, I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding. I was sat beside Percy the entire time. He didn't push her in."
She looked me up and down, "Perfect, then you'll come too." My face momentarily twitched from the peace-making, teacher loving, the respectful mask I had donned. Well, that tanked.
I smiled gratefully at Grover, "Thanks for trying, Grove." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Percy glaring at Nancy Bobofit with his 'deluxe I'll-kill-you-later' glare. I snorted and turned to face Mrs. Dodds, except she was no longer there.
Somehow, she stood at the museum entrance, gesturing impatiently for us to hurry up the tall stairs. My brain did a double take. How'd she get there so fast? My brain occasionally did that, falling to sleep and waking up, only to find a mysterious chunk of time had been lost forever.
I shrugged it off and made my way up the stairs, not checking to see if Percy followed. I raced to catch up with Mrs. Dodds, but she had already made to the entrance hall. Okay, so we would just have to buy Nancy a new shirt at the gift shop, nothing too bad. Oh, how wrong I was.
We went further into the museum until we came across the room the stele was been in. The room was suspiciously empty now. Mrs. Dodds stopped in front of a huge frieze of the Greek gods. She almost sounded like she was growling. I took a step back and clutched Percy's hand in mine. I had a bad feeling about this.
"You two have been giving us problems, honey," she said.
In my head I was screaming what the fuck is happening?! but on the outside, I kept my calm (but confused) facade up. "I'm sorry ma'am, but neither of us knows what you're talking about."
"Did you really think you'd get away with it?" She snarled. The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.
She's a teacher, I thought nervously. She won't hurt me. Percy gripped my hand and stepped in front of me. "I'll try harder ma'am," he responded shakily. Once again, he had said the wrong thing. Thunder shook the building. Percy pressed his body into mine. I hated cowering behind him, but for the moment I was glad he was offering protection from whatever Mrs. Dodds was talking about.
"We are not fools, Perseus and Andromeda Jackson, " Mrs. Dodds snarled. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain." The chant of what the fuck is happening increased in both loudness and speed. I squeezed Percy's hand and all I could think was that the teachers had discovered I'd faked both of our Tom Sawyer essays. Or maybe they realized Percy had been selling candy of his dorm room. Neither of those reasons, however, explained the animalistic way our teacher was eyeing us.
"Your time is up, " she hissed. If I thought she was demonic before, what came next confirmed my suspicions that she was literally from hell. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice us to ribbons.
Somehow, things got even weirder. Mr. Brunner, who I could've sworn was at the front of the museum only a minute ago, wheeled his chair into the place of our death, holding a pen.
"What ho, Percy!" he shouted and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at Percy, desperate to kill him before he caught the pen. Except when my brother grabbed the pen it was a three-foot sword. The same one that Mr. Brunner used on tournament day. The demon bat talon's slashed at the air where I'd stood. I froze, surprised at my own quick reflexes. She growled and swiped at me but hit the empty air again.
Mrs. Dodds twisted towards us with a murderous look in her eyes. I scrambled to my feet, almost slipping in my haste to get away. My legs wanted to give out but I held my ground beside my brother. I curled my fists, though let Percy take charge due to him being the one with the sword. He looked like he was about to drop the sword because of how scared he was.
She snarled, "Die honey!" And flew right at us. Percy swung the sword as if he'd been training with it his entire life. The blade ran through her shoulder and body as if it was warm butter. Hiss! Where Mrs. Dodds had once been was a sand castle in a power fan. She had vaporized at first contact with the strange sword. 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 us even after death.
We were alone. Percy no longer had a sword in hand, but a ballpoint pen. Mr. Bruner wasn't there. I shook for a second before flinging my trembling body into my older brother's arms.
"Did that really happen?" I whispered against his shirt. Percy looked unsure of what was real and what was fiction. He nodded slowly. "I don't wanna go back out just yet," I mumbled into his chest. I knew I was acting like a child but I figured I had good reason to.
"Maybe our lunches were infected with magic shrooms."
"And we had a joint hallucination?"
"Twin powers. They're truly powerful."
I snorted, "Well, it must have been your imagination cause mine ain't that wacky." I stood shakily, turning to offer my hand to Percy who had to sit down. "It also may have caused me nightmares for weeks, I'm never looking at Mrs. Dodds the same way."
"I forgot she would still be there," he shivered. "Can we agree to never tell a soul about our joint acid trip?" I nodded soberly. We stood and dusted off the imaginary dust. Though we acted as if it had been nothing and just some weird daydream, we both knew deep down it had happened. We walked slowly outside as if trying to lengthen the time spent away from Mrs. Dodds.
It had started to rain outside. Grover was sitting by the fountain where we had left him with a map over his head. Nancy Bobofit stood there, soaking and grumbling.
"I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your asses," she said upon seeing us.
I could feel Percy was about to ask 'Who?' but quickly jabbed him in the small of his back and pulled my well-worn troublemaker look.
"It really wasn't too bad. Just a polite scolding really." I stared at Percy, hoping his brain was functioning again and had caught on. Thankfully, he had. Shrugging nonchalantly he sat next to Grover and continued to eat his lunch. Nancy's eye twitched. It was a glorious moment where I ruled over cheeto-face. I resumed my place on Grover's other side and joined in their enlightening conversation as to whether or not it was socially acceptable to sing randomly.
Percy waited for Nancy to clear the area before he sprang on Grover. Smart boy. When Percy asked where Mrs. Dodds was, Grover answered no but his hesitation gave his lie away.
I rolled my eyes, "C'mon Grover, I know we weren't all having mass-hallucinations about a teacher." He glanced at me fearfully but said nothing and focused on not getting wet. Thunder boomed overhead again. I huffed impatiently, "Fine, be like that."
Percy walked to Mr. Brunner motorized cafe table and began to talk to him. There, I thought triumphantly. Now we'll finally get to the truth. Or so I thought. My thoughts fizzled and died when I saw Percy slump and hand back the pen. My brow furrowed in confusion but quickly put the pieces together.
I rushed up to Percy. "He doesn't know her either?" He shook his head in response. "O-okay," my brain raced to figure out what the fuck was happening. "For now, let's just go with it," his expression looked pained. "We've never heard of a Mrs. Dodds, Mrs. Kerr is our teacher. Got it?"
"Got it."