The rest of the year it was like nothing ever happened. No Mrs. Dodds. No weird things at least for me.

But Grover could not fool Percy and I. when Percy or I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she did not exist. But we both knew he was lying.

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.

The weather continued. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in Percy's dorm room.

Mr. Brunner was watching me closely.

The headmaster sent my orphanage, Fatal's Girls Orphanage, a letter saying that I am good to go to the back. Let me tell you I, my orphanage was Hell in real life. Children constantly fought and nearly killing each other, and the caretakers did nothing about it. I went through at least, 49 or 50 fights in one year. And, if you do one thing wrong and then suddenly you are a very bad child. But the good thing is that Mrs. Jackson is going to "adopt" me.

As exams week got closer, life got more interesting.

Well at least, my dreams were interesting. In my dreams, twelve beings were around me asking me to come to them.

The evening before my final, I got very frustrated with my studies.

I was walking down to talk to Mr. Brunner about some of the myths.

And I heard a voice, Grover's to be precise, talking to Mr. Brunner. He said, "Sir, what do we do about Scar?"

"We hope that her Awaking does not happen until this is over."

"Yes, sir."

That is when I left, passing Percy. And I went to bed.

The next afternoon, Percy was called back inside, while I left the room.

Percy, Grover, and I were going on the same Greyhound to the city. But only Percy and I got on because Percy ditched Grover.

We walked into the little apartment. Gabe or what Percy called him, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies.

"Not looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, your home."

"where's my mom?" Percy asked.

"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"

He manages the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. When Percy was, he expected him to provide his gambling fund.

"I don't have any cash," Percy told him.

He raised a greasy eyebrow.

Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was sort of surprising since his own smell should have covered up everything else.

"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"

Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at Percy with sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said, "the kid and the girl just got here."

"Am I, right?" Gabe repeated.

Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.

"Fine," Percy said. He dug a wad of dollars out of his pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose"

"Your report cards came, brain boy!" he shouted after us. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"

"Percy slammed the door to his room.

Gabe looked at me and said, "welcome home, sweetheart."

"Don't 'sweetheart' me," I growled. Then I left to find Percy.

I found him with his mom hugging.

From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"

Percy gritted his teeth

"What?" his mom asked. "Did something scare you?"

"No, Mom."

"I have a surprise for you two," she said. "We're going to the beach."

Percy's eyes widened. "Montauk?"

"Three nights-same cabins."

"When?"

She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."

Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"

"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."

Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"

"I knew it," Percy muttered. "He won't let us go."

"He better, or he has broken bones for days" I muttered down my breath.

"Of course he will," his mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."

Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip . . . it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"

"Yes, honey," Percy's mother said.

"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."

"We'll be very careful."

Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip . . . And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."

Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?

"I'm sorry," Percy muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."

Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in Percy's statement.

"Yeah, whatever," he decided.

He went back to his game.

"Thank you, Percy," his mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about . . . whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"

An hour later we were ready to leave.

Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch Percy lug his mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro for the whole weekend. I got in the car and waited for Percy.

Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

"When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Percy's mom told stories to Percy about her youth.

"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," Percy's mom said to Percy. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just . . . I just can't stand to do it."

"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"

"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."

They kept talking for a bit, then we went to bed.

When I wake up, it really was storming, the same kind of storms that cracks trees and blows down houses.

Percy's mom woke up after the next thunderclap. She sat up, and said, "Hurricane."

Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. And, over the roar of the wind, we heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made our hairs stand on end.

Then a much closer sound, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling and pounding our cabin door.

Percy's mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.

Graver stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't. . . he wasn't exactly Grover.

"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you both thinking?"

Percy's mother looked at us in terror- not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.

"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

we were frozen, looking at Grover.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"

I saw Percy was too shocked to register that cursed in Ancient Greek, and we'd understood him perfectly. I noticed that Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be . . . where his legs should be. . .

Percy's mom looked at him sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"

He stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand and Mrs. Dodds, and his mom stared at him, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lighting.

She grabbed her purse, towed us our rain jackets, and said, "Get to them. All three of you. Go!"

I ran ahead of Grover and Percy to the Camaro.

Where Grover's feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.