Emily and the Olympians… 1- Percy Vaporizes the Math Teacher…and I Explode a Toilet

Field trips and my brother and I really don't mix well. Bad stuff almost always happens on trips! Like when we went to an old battlefield and Percy accidentally shot the bus with a cannon and I touched a part of the ground wrong and a geyser came up and sprayed the entire class. Or the trip to the aquarium when Percy stepped on the walkway wrong and our entire class took a swim, and when I somehow managed to actually break an exhibit just by touching the glass. Stuff like that, you know?

But this trip should be okay…I hope. Our Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner, is in charge of this trip! And it's all about Ancient Greek and Rome. My only good subject. And the least likely to be useful in my future. But at the same time…our annoying math teacher is coming as well.

So…here I sit on the bus. With my only friend—my roommate actually—Trish, in front of my brother and his friend Grover. Trish is dyslexic, like me, but she's not as bad. She can read perfectly if the book or writing is upside down. And she's disabled. She's paralyzed from the waist down. It took two guys to get her on the bus without the school having to get a massively handicap friendly bus. As it is, there's only one spot for a wheelchair, and Trish insisted that Mr. Brunner take that spot. Probably because he's actually her dad…but that's probably not the only reason.

Anyways, so we're sitting here and I can hear the sound of food hitting Grover on the head. I look back and notice that Percy is getting angry. I glare at Nancy Bobofit, the one throwing food at Grover, and she smirks. I turn back around and sigh.

"What's wrong?"

"The one who acts about as bad as Ares on a good day." Trish laughs at my reference to the Greek god.

"Ah. So who is Athena in this instance?" I smile at our little joke.

"Not Athena. Our Satyr friend." Trish nods once. We refer to Grover as a Satyr, because he walks sort of like a goat might if it were to walk on its hind legs. And both of us are very…obsessed, with Greek mythology.

The tour of the museum is going well so far…well, as well as it can go with everyone talking constantly. I stay about a full yard ahead of the group at all times with Trish. We listen closely to Mr. Brunner as he explains different things about the different artifacts. We get to a Stele for a girl about our age.

"Wow…" I read the inscriptions along the sides and bottom of the Stele and look up when I hear Percy yell at the others on the trip to shut up. I sigh and straighten up from my crouch.

"Can we go to the bathroom?" I look at Trish, and then at Mr. Brunner. He nods and looks back at the others. Trish grabs my hand and tugs me slightly. We go to the bathroom and I open the door to the handicap stall for Trish.

"Do you need help?" She shakes her head and goes in.

"I can manage." I nod and close the door for her. I walk to the sink and lean on it. "Are you okay?"

"A bit aggravated. They're all so rude! You know? It's like they don't care at all about anything beyond themselves."

"I completely understand the feeling. Now calm down. I can hear the pipes shuddering." I smile slightly at the mild, but true, joke. Whenever I get angry around plumbing or water, things explode and get wet. Since the pipes almost exploded in our room the first time, Trish has given me heck about the reaction of water to my emotions.

"Yea…I hear it too." After a few minutes of silence, Trish's chair clatters and she pushes the door open on her way out.

"Let's go on outside. Mr. Brunner has probably let everyone go to lunch already." I nod and we leave the bathroom as Trish rubs hand sanitizer into her hands. I hear a screech and look towards the exhibit.

"Did you hear that?" Trish nods.

"Yea. But we need to let my dad know we're done in the bathroom." I nod slightly and we head for the exit. An old woman blocks our way to the ramp and I sigh.

"We need to get outside please, Ma'am."

"Where is it…?" The woman turns towards me and I catch a glimpse of her face under her little straw hat. She's hideous.

"What…?"

"Mil…run!" Trish turns her chair around and makes way past. I hurry after her and look back at the old woman just as she turns into a batty old hag—literally, not like the expression, but she seriously looks like a bat-woman! Well, like a Fury, but that's beside the point! Trish and I make our way to the bathroom and I hear scraping on the floor as the woman follows us.

Inside the bathroom, Trish digs in her purse.

"What are you looking for? I doubt you have something that can destroy a Fur—"

"Don't call them that! And I'm looking for something important. It should help…ah! Found it!" She pulls a bracelet out of her purse and holds it out to me. "Take it! She's about to come through the door!" I take the bracelet from her, unsure about how a bracelet can help in this situation. But either way. The Fury bursts through the door and glares at me. I hurry to pull Trish and her chair to the handicap stall and stand in front of the door.

"Where is it?" The bracelet in my hand gets bigger as I grip it and I almost drop it when it turns into a gold trident with silver writing on it—the writing is Ancient Greek, by the way, and very important.

"What the heck?" I swat the Fury away from me when she attacks and she slams into the wall of sinks and mirrors with a loud CRASH, and CRACK. She recovers quickly and comes at me again.

"Where is it?"

"Where is what? Leave me alone!" I hear a pipe explode and one of the stall doors flies at the Fury, followed by a stream of water. The toilet exploded…great.

"Use the Trident!" Without thinking about it, I throw the Trident, like a javelin, at the Fury and it hits her right in the heart, dissolving her instantly in a shower of gray dust. I walk over, shocked, and pick up the trident. It turns back into a bracelet just as a woman hurries into the bathroom.

"What are you girls doing in here? What is all this damage?" She's a guard…oh great. Trish comes out of the stall, rummaging in her purse for her hand sanitizer.

"Sorry. I really had to use the restroom. The restroom was like this when we came in just now." The guard woman seems to believe Trish and we exit the bathroom. We start for the door and I hear another screech.

"You don't think that's another…?"

"Most likely. Oh! Percy!" Trish changes the speed setting on her chair and zooms down the hall to the Greek exhibit. I run after her, gripping the bracelet she gave me. We get to the exhibit and I spot Percy, holding a bronze sword. Another Fury comes at him and I recognize the face as our algebra teacher, Mrs. Dodds. He swings the blade and cuts her in half, making her dissolve into dust the same way that the trident destroyed the other Fury.

Trish relaxes slightly and I run over to my brother.

"Percy, are you okay?"

"Mil?" He looks at me and then at Trish.

"Hey Percy. I thought I heard you in here. Mr. Brunner will be pretty upset if you don't get back outside soon. Come on!" I stare at her for a minute and then follow her outside, with Percy trailing behind.

"Chiron…Father. Two Kindly Ones came after them at the museum. The only reason they survived was because of their father's…" Trish? I stop on my way down the hall to my room from the staff fridge, for a midnight snack, and look into the slightly open door of Mr. Brunner's office. Hooves? I hear hooves in there. Two shadows shuffle in the room and I recognize one silhouette as Mr. Brunner. But it looks like he's sitting on the back of a horse!

"Altricia. We can't be sure that the pact really was broken."

"Then explain why the plumbing always starts to act up when Emily is angry! Or why both Riptide and Minerva reacted to them! I saw it in his hands, Father!" Riptide and Minerva? I finger the bracelet from the museum and hurry to my room.

I sit on my bed once I get into my room and take off the bracelet. I examine the cord. Gold thread laced with silver. I squeeze the bracelet in my hand and it expands into a trident again. Minerva is the Roman name used for the goddess Athena. And Riptide is the name of a sword used by almost every major hero born of Poseidon. 'Their father's'? What did she mean? And why did she call her dad 'Chiron'? What would this trident, named after Athena, have something to do with my father?

I open my book of mythology and open it to a story about Poseidon. I skim it slowly, the letters starting to swim off the page and around my head almost immediately. I look at the inscription on Minerva and the characters make sense. So they must be Greek. Of the ancient variety.

In memory of our friendship, and rivalry. Forever and eternal for my uncle. –Athena. Athena? Poseidon's rival and niece…wow. I can't really process this…I spot something on the central spoke of the trident and examine it. Another inscription in Greek.

Claimed by the Sea. Ruled by mortality. A gift for any hero of mine brave as Athena. Another reference to Athena. You'd think that Poseidon and Athena had a thing for each other, rather than an age old rivalry.

"Reading the inscriptions?" I jump at Trish's voice. "What do they say? I've never seen them myself. Just heard that Minerva was inscribed."

"What were you and your dad talking about?"

"Chiron…I mean, Mr. Brunner…he wanted to talk to me about…" I sigh.

"Trish…Altricia. I heard you talking to him. What pact was broken? And what does plumbing have to do with anything?" She sighs and looks around nervously.

"Father won't be happy about this…but still. I'm not human. And neither are you." I raise an eyebrow.

"Then what are you?"

"I'm a centaur. And you…you're a demigod." I laugh at that.