Chapter 1: Coma
Percy
Imagine waking up and seeing a family member looking down on you, but you don't exactly know why you are there. Now multiply that times one-thousand. I woke up with a bright light blaring in my face. I could make out the face of my mom… Sadly thats all that were there. She suddenly spoke and her voice was raspy like she hadn't used it in a long while. "Percy thank goodness your awake" she said. "What happened to me" I demanded. Her face went from happy to concerned. "You feel and got a concussion during a field trip and went into a deep coma, the doctors were afraid you weren't going to snap out of it" she rasped. "How long have I been here?" I asked with a whimper on the side. "2 years" she looked on the verge of tears and then replied "When you didn't wake after a week the doctors recommended I return home and go back to my job, I couldn't do it. I have drove from the apartment to here everyday for the past 2 years." she replied with a sob. "What day is it?!" I demanded. "May 10th" she said cooly. "Where is Annabeth?" I asked. "Who is Annabeth" she said. I thought she had lost it. Who is Annabeth? Only my girlfriend, the person who helped me save the world twice. "WHERE IS SHE?" I demanded. I didn't ever yell at my mom, but I just snapped. Something in me told me my mom wasn't joking, like she really didn't know who annabeth was. "Percy I don't what your talking about, you were dreaming. Nothing you have seen in these past years is real. Nothing. I don't know who Annabeth is, but I do know you were dreaming." she said. I lost it, I about lept out of my bed ( except i felt like puking ) and grabbed her and shook the truth out of her. I wanted Annabeth, I wanted to go back to camp. I thought of something suddenly and stood up. "You shouldn't do that" she warned. I did it anyway. I walked over to the mirror and wanted to scream. I saw this young boy maybe 12 staring back at me, he had black hair and sea green eyes. I'm not 12. I'm 16. The boy staring back at me wasn't me, it was, but it wasn't. I never cry, but I couldn't help it this time. I slumped over and sad against the wall bawling my eyes out. I couldn't stand it anymore, apparently Annabeth isn't real. I wanted to run away from this horror, to escape and go back to Annabeth. I missed her, heck I missed my un-scrawny, not-ugly, muscular 'dream' self. My mom took me home and insisted I went to school next week. She handed me about three books to read. I tried reading the title "ifeL fo egeoGr Wshintnga". I can't read? I couldn't read in my 'dream' either. I felt as if it was nothing new. Then a thought hit me, I've never been able to read correctly. Whats wrong with me?! I can't read, I can't sit still? And I had a 'dream' that was so real I was convinced it was the truth and not this horror. The next week past like a flash ( hahaha ) and I was off to school on the bus. A boy that was scrawny, had curly brown hair and had crutches ended up sitting next to me. Turned out his name was Grover. Wait a minute? Gover? It sounded familiar, where from I don't know. I had almost forgotten about my dream and what it was about. Almost. Something clicked. There was a Grover in my dream. Not just any Grover, a scrawny kid with curly brown hair and crutches. The gears in my head turned, trying to process the thought. I lost it. I didn't think it was that important. Boy was I wrong.
Grover
My day started like this, I dodged chunks of someone's lunch ( cough cough Nancy ) and I met this strange kid who had messy black hair and sea-green eyes. He didn't smell like everyone else, he kinda reminded me of the sea. His expression was unreadable ( probably because he might have been sleeping ) and he didn't talk much. I later found out his name was Percy. Of course he was new, that was why I hadn't seen him until now.Wait? A NEW KID IN MAY? I put that thought behind me and tried to be friendly. We talked a little but after like one minute he got bored and started staring off into space. I led him to the school office to get his classes for him ( all of them were with me ). And off we went on our boring day of school. Just another day looking for demigods. You see I'm a satyr, half human half goat. My job is to get demigods safely to camp ( cough cough ). I was determined to do good this time, I couldn't fail again. The day wasn't as boring as I thought it would be. ( Hahaha ) announced we would be going on a field trip on May 18th is when we would be going. I noticed staring at someone. I followed his line of sight and my eyes rested upon Percy. "What?" I mouthed to . He gave me that look like "I need to talk to you". I knew he meant it. I didn't see anything special about Percy at first but then I started to notice some things and made a mental checklist in my head. ADHD: check DYSLEXIA: unconfirmed.
Percy
Ok I can't read obviously and I have trouble writing much more than my own name. School to you may be easy, to me it is hell. I twirled my pencil in my hand and tapped my foot continuously on the floor. I thought about the field trip on the 18th. I tried to pay attention to but I just couldn't. I felt myself being distracted by everything, every sound, every vibration, everything. It got annoying after a while and I felt like giving up. After a while of trying to write down notes I noticed and Grover staring at each other, then at me, then at each other. Wash, rinse, repeat. It got very annoying after awhile until I finally stood up and burst out of the room. I needed some air away from the stareing. I ran to my locker ( more like sped walk ) and unlocked it to grab my picture of my mom. I heard footsteps and looked up to see Grover walking towards me. I tried to quickly put the picture of my mom back in my locker but I wasn't fast enough. He saw it. I thought he would ask "where is your dad?", but he didn't. He just sighed, and muttered something then walked back to Latin class. At least I didn't have to explain. You see ever since I can remember, I haven't had a dad. I remember his warm smile and that is all. My mother always told me he had to leave for a reason. I never understood why, but I wanted to find out. After English ( taught by of course ) the day started to get weird. Grover wouldn't stop staring at me as if I was an alien, and then the math teacher kept looking at me like I was juicy meat. Apparently she called herself . Whenever she looked at me I shivered and looked away from her. She didn't even seem human to me, more like one of those monsters from horror movies disguised as a human. The rest of the day went pretty normal ( besides Grovers staring ) and I ended up going to sleep in my new dorm. I tried reading some of my books to study for a quiz in Latin but I just couldn't read anything. The words floated off the page and mixed about with each other making it impossible. It got to the point that I asked Grover to help me read it. He just stared at me like I was crazy. At that point I gave up and laid down to go to bed.
Grover
Alright so I have pretty much summed up the fact that Percy is a half-blood. But which godly parent? I have no idea. I knew he couldn't stay still or pay attention for long ( he demonstrated that well today ) and apparently he couldn't read either. I remembered telling me to meet him after school. But I felt as if it wasn't the right time to talk to him. I eventually fell into a restless sleep filled with nightmares.
Percy
Yeah I couldn't fall asleep.I tried to read some more and eventually gave up and laid there in bed. I mumbled songs to myself. And remembered good times with my mom at some point I fell asleep and was then awoken by an alarm clock. It was the day of the field trip to the museum. I was determined to be good. We got on the bus and of course, Grover ended up sitting right next to me. A girl ( later I found out called Nancy ) was throwing her peanut-butter and ketchup sandwich at the back of Grover's head. It made me mad but I knew the teachers were still watching me after my little fit in class on my first day, so I sat back down. We arrived at the museum right on time and started to lead us into the Greek wing of the museum. I tried to pay attention but the girl called Nancy wouldn't shutup, something about boys being cute ect. I finally snapped and told her to shutup. It came out louder than I meant and the whole class laughed. "Do you have something to say ?" asked . "No" I replied. Just as started talking again Nancy said "How would this actually apply to real life?". Apparently that offended , because he gave her an icy stare that was like "shutup". She was quiet from then on. I was listening to my ipod and didn't hear a thing. Suddenly asked "Percy why did Kronos eat his children?". I snapped out of my daze and said "Kronos was the king god, and-" "God?" asked. "Titan" I corrected myself. " And he ate them because he didn't want them to overthrow him" I finished. stared at me like I had failed his question then said "Good". After that we went outside to eat lunch. Nancy was pickpocketing to tourists, and of course didn't see a thing. We sat next to the fountain well away from the other kids. Grover and I started talking and suddenly Nancy walked over and dumped the rest of her lunch on Grover's lap. "Oops" she said. I lost it, my mom had always told me "Count to 10, get control of your temper" but I lost it. My gun tightened and a wave roared in my ears. I don't even remember touching her but when I opened my eyes Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain saying "Percy pushed me!"
Some of the others kids were whispering: "Did you see-" "- the water-" "- like it grabbed her -" I didn't know what they were talking about, but I knew I was in trouble. materialized on us. "Percy would you come with me please?" she rasped. I made the mistake of following her. She led me to an abandon exhibit. I looked around for maybe 2 seconds then looked back at where she should have been. She wasn't there. Then I saw her, somehow she had made her way to the top of the paint stand. "WHERE IS IT? WHERE?" She screeched. "What are you talking about?" I stuttered. "You can not fool me, give it to me Perseus! NOW!" she yelled. Suddenly wasn't there anymore. In replace of where she was a giant flying bat replaced her. Out of nowhere, appeared and threw me a pen. "THIS IS A PEN?!" I screamed. "Uncap it Percy! Quickly!" he said. I hesitated then uncapped the pen. It wasn't a pen anymore, it was now a 3 foot long glowing bronze sword, like the one he used of tournament day in English. I remembered ( or whatever it was ) and focused on her. She swooped down to grab me and some part of my brain said "swing the sword you moron!". So I did. I caught wing and she crumpled to dust. I looked around and there was no one there. In my hand I held a pen. I walked outside and saw Nancy standing next to the fountain completely soaked in water. "I hope wooped your butt" she said. "Who?" I said? "Our teacher duh!" She snapped. I walked over to Grover and asked where was, he said "Who?" " Not funny man" I said. Then I walked over to and asked where was. He stared at me blankly "Who?" "The other chaperone " I replied. He frowned and sat forward and said "Percy there is no on this trip, as far as I know there has never been a at Yancy, are you feeling alright?" After the field trip I started to weird out, my grades slipped from Ds, to Fs and I was always irritable. I asked Grover who was once in awhile to see if I could get him to slip, he didn't. The night before my final exam I tried to study. The words swam up off the page and danced around like they were doing 1-80s on skateboards. I couldn't do this. I walked down to the faculty offices hoping was there and could help me. Most of the office doors were closed and no light came from them. But 's was ajar and the light was on. I heard two people talking and stopped to listen to the conversation."Percy is definitely a half-blood" said one voice. "Did you see him? He can't stay still for 2 seconds and he loses focus so easily."the voice continued. The voice was "Can he read?" he asked. "Apparently he can't Chiron" another responded. It was Grover. "Are you sure?" He asked. "Yes sir" Grover replied."We need to get him the the camp. the deadline-" said Grover in an urgent voice. Camp what camp? "The boy needs to mature more" said . "But Sir, he saw her" said Grover. My mythology book dropped out of my hand and made a thunk on the floor. "Someone is listening to us" Grover said. I picked up the book and backed up the hallway. I opened the nearest door then slipped inside and looked at door. A shadow much taller the my wheelchair-bound teacher appeared. The shadow of something that looked much like a bow in his hand. I heard the slow clop, clop, clop of wood blocks on the floor. Then the sound of an animal sniffed at my door. "Nothing" he mummered. "My nerves haven't been right since the Winter Solstice" Grover said. "Mine either, go get some sleep Grover" replied . "Ok sir" replied Grover. I sat there and waited for a while in the dark. Eventually I slipped out from the door and went back to my dorm. Grover was sitting there like he had been there the entire time. I laid down in my head and pondered what I had heard. The next morning went by in a blur. I finished the 2 hour long Latin test, thinking about how many names I had spelt wrong. Right before I could walk out of the class called me back. "Percy" he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's…. it's for the best. Even though he spoke quietly Nancy Bobfit overheard and smirked, making sarcastic kiss motions with her lips. wheeled back and forth for a moment before saying "This isn't the right place for you it…. it was only a matter of time" My eyes stung. Here I am in front of my favorite teacher and he tells me I was destined to be kicked out of Yancy. "Right" I said while trembling. "No, no" 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 already gone. On the last day of the term I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. Some of the guys asked me what I was doing for the Summer and I told them I would be going back to the city. One of the guys said "Oh thats cool" then they continued goofing around like I didn't exist. The only person I actually didn't want to say goodbye to was Grover. I didn't have to, he had gotten a ticket for the same Greyhound bus that I had. We got on the bus and were on our way. Grover always seems jumpy and worried when we left Yancy. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore and said "Looking for Kindly ones?" Grover nearly jumped out of his seat "Wha-what do you mean?" I confessed about eavesdropping on him and . His eye twitched "How much did you hear?" " Oh not much, what's the Summer Solstice Deadline?" He winced. "Look Percy… I was just worried for you, see. I mean hallucinating about demon math teachers…" "Grover-" "And I was telling that you might be overstressed or something… because there was no person called " Suddenly something snapped in my brain. I had 'dreamt this' before. Where had I dreamed this happening? It suddenly hit me like a brick wall "BOOM". When I was in the coma. My mom still thought I was crazy. I knew it. This exact thing had happened in my dream. Was the rest of it real? I couldn't remember any other part of the dream "sigh". Grover shook me out of my thoughts. "Grover your a really bad liar" I mumbled. His ears turned pink. He gave me a card that said.
Grover Underwood
Keeper
Half-Blood Hill
Long Island, New York
(800) 009-0009
"Whats half-" "Don't say it outloud!" He yelped. "That's my umm…. summer-address." "So thats the number I call if I want to go to your mansion?" I asked. He nodded "Or if you need me" Grover muttered. "Why would I need you?" It came out harsher than I meant it to. Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Percy look the truth is I- I kind of have to protect you" I didn't say a thing, I just stared.