Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.
Please read Authour's Note at bottom.
"Percy." I heard my English teacher, and stepfather, Paul call me over. He looked like his usual self; salt and pepper hair, tie around his neck, and a big smile with looks good enough to rival an actor's. I couldn't help myself as I smiled and walked over.
Usually, when someone hears the word step, as in stepfather or stepmother, they think of a person that the child hates; like how Annabeth's stepmother had once treated her. But Paul was different. He understood a lot about me, we had a lot of good kicks, and my mother was always happy.
I thought about my mom, thinking about the smile on her face that I'd see when I'd come home. Especially after she saw the English test I'd bring home today-I had a feeling that I had done better than I usually would.
When Paul handed me my test, I hadn't even gotten a chance to look at the mark before I heard him whisper"Congrats!" I flipped over the paper. B-.
Now, that might sound bad, but the highest I had ever gotten before this was a C+. It might be like getting an A++ when you thought that A+ was the highest mark.
Not only would my mom be proud, but Paul would be too. He knew that I was a demigod and everything, and he also understood that I had ADHD and dyslexia, something that just so happened to be linked with the C's that I usually got.
A few people that sat at the front of the room saw my mark and snickered, but I merely shrugged them off. Let's see them try to survive with monsters trailing their butt.
Lately though, there hadn't been any monsters trying to kill me. I'd gotten through an entire year without truck-sized dogs and expulsion. Not that the demons could kill me easily anyways. Ah, the Achilles heel.
I was staring at my paper blankly, daydreaming, when the bell rang, and I stood up. Milling out the door with the rest of the class, I took a flight of stairs, and then a right, and we all poured through the door. Having ADHD, I noticed tiny little details, like how today, the door was covered with sparkly posters of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. Our teacher never did that.
As soon as the last person was seated, as if on cue, the teacher arrived. I could literally feel everyone's expression change. Some were frowning. Some had the opposite look.
Instead of facing the grandma skirts, large bifocals, and ever grumpy face of our French teacher, Mrs. Tark, someone else entered. She stumbled in so fast, I only got to study her after she put her bags down on her desk, which now had a name plaque that said Ms. Megalia.
She looked the youngest out of all the teachers, I'd guess at most in her mid-twenties, judging from her height. Her pure vermillion hair was short and cropped in a bob that loosely reached her chin. Heavy, blunt side-bangs covered one of her muddy-brown eyes, falling to just below her lower lip. She sported vintage clothing, but not the ugly type. A series of stretched out hippie headbands hung down her neck and an old-fashion flower-print scarf was used as a thin headband. Even her Native-American beaded bracelet and boots looked exotic. Nonetheless, she made everything on her seem like it was the next hottest trend.
Some boys wolf-whistled, but Ms. Megalia just placed her hands on her hips and stared them down.
"Okay, class, I am Ms. Megalia, and I am your new professeur after Mrs. Tark...unexpectedly left. All of mes etudiants at my old school called me the best French teacher they ever had, and I assure you that French will be much more interesting than it has ever been before. However, if I catch, ahem, dirty behaviour like those shown by les garcons just a few seconds ago, you will catch my bad side. Comprends?" She drawled in a hip French accent, occasionally subconsciously adding in a couple French words.
She reached into one of her big bags and drew out a huge, fat book. I thought she was going to hand them out as textbooks to us, until I realized she only had one. I couldn't make out the words on the cover until a mischievous smile played on Ms. Megalia's lips.
"Anyone ever played Trivial Pursuit francais?"
I was shocked when the bell rang, because French had seemed like such a short period today. Plus, it was the first time ever that I hadn't wanted French to end. All the other kids in the room groaned as well, while I stared at the calendar, trying to make out the date. As the Fates would have it, the best French teacher ever had come today, and it was the last week of school. We had even played an educational version of Twister today.
Ms. Megalia's boots clacked across the floor as she ran over to dramatically open the door. I was still gathering my books together after everyone had left. Ms. Megalia was doodling on her hand with a pen before she noticed me. I stared back at her.
"Shouldn't you be going?" I asked lamely and rudely, though I hadn't meant it that way. She raised an eyebrow.
"Est-ce-que you are trying to get rid of me Percy?" She countered. I stammered. Way to go Percy.
"I didn't mean it that way. It's just that teachers are usually dying to get away from here at the end of the day." I looked at her nervously.
Ms. Megalia drummed her metallic deep purple fingernails on her oak desk before cracking a smile and laughing.
"Oh, Percy. Always a comedian. Tu sais que I could never get mad unreasonably at one of mon etoiles!" She looked at her heap of heavy bags and winced.
"Say, Percy, are you in a rush to retourne a la maison?" I shook my head.
"My stepfather, Mr. Blofis usually brings me home after he's done his errands at school." She nodded and muttered something about having better hair than him.
"Paul, eh? So you wouldn't mind if I asked you to help me carry my bags to my car, cherie?" I nodded enthusiastically, not wanting to turn down such a cool teacher like Ms. Megalia. After all my monster training, two bags wasn't so much to carry.
I got my own bags and Ms. Megalia's two lighter bags, leaving her with the heaviest bag. She hefted it easily onto her shoulder, not even wincing. I frowned but followed her to her car. Then the strangest thing happened.
Ms. Megalia turned towards me, facing me straight on, newfound energy glittering in her eyes. They seemed so familiar. She was so close to me that I realized that she was the same height as me.
"Okay, Percy, my skits done now." She spoke, the French accent completely out of her now eerily familiar voice.
"Um, Ms. Megalia?" I asked warily. She snorted like a teenager. Wait.
She grabbed her carrot-coloured hair, and tugged hard, but her face didn't let on any signs of pain. Instead, her orange crop came right off, and black highlighted shoulder-length hair came tumbling down, all in their righteous spikiness. My eyes widened.
"T-Thalia?" I stammered. She rolled her eyes.
"Well I'm not Ms. Megalia anymore." She said while wiping off the lip gloss on her lips. It actually sounded something like this: "We m ot msh aaea eheeor."
"What are you doing here?" She raised an eyebrow just like she had done minutes ago back in the classroom.
"Well I didn't come here dressed like an eighties French teacher just to say high did I?" She opened one of her heavy bags, and armour and weapons came stumbling out. She pulled out a familiar pen.
"I'm only here when trouble comes, remember?" She said, tossing Riptide to me. I caught it with ease.
"Where's the monster?" I uncapped my pen, and Riptide grew to its full celestial bronze sword. Thalia pushed up her sleeves, revealing her chains, but she didn't even bother to make them change into her spear and shield. I realized she didn't even have her Hunters bow and quiver with her. Or maybe that was because Ms. Megalia was a Hunter. I mentally slapped myself for that pathetic joke.
"Not here. And I didn't mean it like that. We just need some reinforcements for a quest back a Camp. Chiron will give you the details." Thalia caught my worried expression.
"Don't worry, nothing's wrong with Camp Half-Blood itself." I immediately felt at ease.
Thalia opened the driver's seat door.
"You getting in?" She asked. I eyed the door. Thalia did her signature eye roll again.
"I'm driving, kelp brain." I clambered into the passenger seat and then remembered something.
"Paul." I was about to get out when she interrupted me.
"You can Iris message him when we get to Camp." I buckled up. Thalia revved up the engine, and we headed towards Camp Half-Blood.
Hi guys. I know I promised you guys the first chapter of Home Alone as soon as possible, and it'll be up soon because my school let out for winter break today.
This new story is just a little test on what a story with my own plot would be like. If I get enough reviews and enough people wanting me to continue, I might.
Rate and Review! Thanks!