Chapter 1: Vaporized Pre-Algebra Teachers
People started looking at Percy.
"Let me guess, he's the great hero we'll be reading about." Zeus said with groan.
Lachesis just nodded.
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.
"None of us did." The demigods, past ones included, said. Too much heartbreak, sorrow, and emotional pain.
The gods and goddesses that have children had guilty looks on their faces and tried to look anywhere but the demigods.
If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:
"This outta be good." Thalia said earning some snickers from Clarisse and the Hermes kids (excluding Luke).
"What does that mean?" Athena asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Percy's bad at advices."
"Hey!"
close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.
"Okay nevermind."
Being a half-blood is dangerous.
"Check."
It's scary.
"Double check."
Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.
"Triple check."
"Travis?"
"Yes Katie-Kat?"
"SHUT UP!"
If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.
"So do we." The demigods replied. Once again the gods had guilt on their faces.
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.
"Who?" Achilles asked out of curiosity.
"Monsters. Half-bloods give off this aura that lures monsters towards them. When a demigod realizes their status, their aura becomes stronger and easier to track." The past heroes paled at the explanation. That explains alot.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
My name is Percy Jackson.
"No, it's Kelp Head."
"Actually it's Aquaman."
"No his name is Perry Jefferson." Dionysus said dully.
I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.
Am I a troubled kid?
"Ten drachmas he says yes." Nico said.
Will grinned at his boyfriend. "Deal."
Yeah. You could say that.
Will pouted before handing over the drachmas to a smiling Nico.
I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our grade six class took a field trip to Manhattan -twenty-eight mental case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading for the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.
"That sounds like fun." Athena, Annabeth, and Malcolm said.
"Sounds like torture." Poseidon and Theseus groaned. The Goddess of Wisdom and her kids glared at them.
I know -it sounds like torture.
Poseidon and his sons grinned at eachother while several other people started laughing.
Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our latin teacher was leading this trip, so I had high hopes.
Mr. Brunner was this middle aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he was cool, but he told stories and jokes and would let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.
"Hey that sounds like Chiron." Katie stated before everyone, except the Fates, looked at Dionysus for confirmation.
He looked up from his magazine. "Yes that is Chiron." He said before going back to his article.
"Are you listening?" Aphrodite asked.
"Maybe, are you?" Let's just say someone, I'm not pointing fingers, threw a stiletto at his face because of that comment.
I hoped the trip would be ok. At least, I hoped for once I wouldn't get in trouble.
Boy was I wrong.
A few people snickered at this.
See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus but of course, I got expelled anyways.
...
"Holy Hephaestus that's hilarious!" Leo gasped. Everyone else was busy laughing or falling off their seats to remember how to breathe.
And before that, at my fourth-grade school when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.
Cue more laughter.
And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.
"NOOOOOO! We want more!" The Stolls, Hermes, and Apollo all exclaimed. Artemis and Katie just rolled their eyes and smack them over the head.
This trip, I was determined to be good. All the way into the city I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.
Those that were close to Grover, except Percy, and Dionysus glared at the book.
"It's fine you guys." Grover reassured.
"Who even eats a peanut butter and ketchup sandwich?" Aphrodite and Demeter said in disgust. Katie and Piper nodded in agreement with their respective mothers.
Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated.
"Gee. Thanks." Pan's successor said sarcastically. The son of Poseidon just gave a sheepish grin in response.
He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs.
Thalia looked at Grover with a raised eyebrow. "Did Chiron help with that lie? Cause I know for a fact that you are a terrible liar."
The satyr's ears turned pink. "Um... yes..."
He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should have seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.
"So you nearly blew your cover for enchiladas?" Annabeth scolded.
Grover just rubbed the back of his head in embarassment as everyone else laughed.
Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her cause I was already on probation.
Those close to Grover gritted their teeth.
The headmaster threatened me with death
"What?!" Poseidon and Theseus exclaimed.
Lachesis grinned and said, "Ah ah ah. I'm not done reading yet."
by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.
"Oh" The sea god and his son became flustered as laughter broke out again.
"I'm going kill her," I mumbled.
"DO IT DO IT DO IT!" Ares and his daughter chanted.
Grover tried to calm me down. "It's ok. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.
"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.
"Awwwwww why did you do that, goat boy? I want to see some action." Ares pouted. Aphrodite looked at him in disgust. Sure she wanted to see the girl get what she deserves, but violence was going to make the situation worst.
"You're already on probation," He reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens. "Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get into.
"What trouble?" Poseidon asked. Clotho just motioned for everyone else to ignore his question and keep reading.
Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.
"Much longer than that." Everyone jumped and looked at Persephone. "What?" She snapped.
"Sweetie, it's just that you were being very quiet up until now so we thought you might have left or something." Demeter told her.
"So? I just saw no reason to comment so I stayed quiet." Everyone nodded and returned to the book.
He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele for a girl our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting,
"You actually wanted to learn something?" Annabeth looked at her boyfriend in shock.
Athena raised an eyebrow at this while Malcolm just laughed. "What does that mean?"
"We always have to chain Percy to the table to get him to focus on studying." Malcolm managed to say between laughs. Several others laughed at this too while Percy just blushed.
"Um hello? Seventeen year old demigod with ADHD and dyslexia. What did you expect?" Several of the demigods stopped laughing and thoughtfully nodded their heads in agreement.
but everyone around me was talking, and everytime I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye. Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to drive a Harley right into your locker. She hadcome to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.
Hades, Persephone, Hazel, and Nico furrowed their eyes at this. Why does she sound so familiar?
From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was a devil spawn.
"Actually that's Nico." Thalia said teasingly.
"Hey!"
"To be fair son, I have been called the devil from time to time. Mostly get called Satan though." There was an eerie silence after that.
She would point her finger at me and say, "Now honey," real sweet and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight,
"What?! I know kids need to be punished for not studying, but that's too far!" Athena yelled in outrage.
I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right." Mr. Brunner kept talking about the Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele,
Frank managed to catch Hazel as she fainted when she heard the word, 'naked'.
and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"
"Good! That girl needs to be put in her place." Athena said approvingly as several others nodded.
It came out louder than I meant it to.
"Of course it did." Annabeth mumbled before pecking Percy on the cheek.
The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.
"Mr. Jackson," He said, "did you have a comment?"
My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."
Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"
I looked at the carving and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"
All of the gods and goddesses that got swallowed started shuddering.
"Why couldn't it have been something else?" Hestia softly asked. She was still traumatized by the event.
"Yes," said Mr. Brunner, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because..?"
"Well..." I racked my brain trying to remember.
"He should really eat more bread or muffins or anything with wheat in it." Demeter said. Hades and Persephone groaned at her statement.
"I like eating pancakes. Does that count?" Demeter gave a thumbs-up to the son of Poseidon.
Nico snorted. "It gets worse in the future. All she talks about is cereal."
"Cereal..." Demeter mused.
"Don't give her any ideas!" Hades and his wife yelled simultaneously. "Keep reading!"
"Kronos was the king god, and-"
"GOD?!" The elder gods and goddesses shouted.
"I was twelve!"
"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.
"Titan," I corrected myself. "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 brothers and sisters-"
The elder gods grimaced while Zeus was secretly thanking his lucky stars for not being swallowed.
"How does one mistake a god for a rock?" Reyna asked out of curiosity.
"It's simple. Zeus is thick-headed like a rock." Hades answered.
"He also looks like one!" Poseidon, Hermes, and Apollo added. This caused an uproar of laughter while Zeus darkened slightly.
"I'm guessing that's where you got your sass from." Annabeth managed to say in between laughs.
"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.
"At least you weren't there when it happened!" Hera and Demeter yelled in anger.
"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."
Several gods looked at Percy in surprised.
"You just described ten years of fighting, trauma, and hardships as a 'big fight?'" Athena asked incredulously.
Percy just gave a childish grin. "I'm a special boy." This caused a lot of laughter.
Some snickers from the group.
"Why? He got the answer right." Annabeth said.
"Mortals are weird." Her boyfriend answered, wrapping an arm around her.
"I'm right here y'know." Everyone just chose to ignore the Oracle in the room.
Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like its going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids."
"Actually you do have to answer that if you want a job on Olympus." The demigods looked at Hera with raised eyebrows.
"Seriously?"
The Queen of Olympus nodded. "Seriously."
"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"
"Busted," Hermes, Apollo, and the Stolls snickered.
Lachesis grinned at the next line.
"Busted," Grover muttered.
"OH NO! WE THINK LIKE A GOAT!" All four got wacked over the head again by a certain Goddess of the Moon and demigoddess of Demeter.
Grover huffed, "I'm a satyr and god."
Hermes frowned at this. He hasn't gotten over his son being dead yet, and with May's prophecy, he had a feeling he was going to lose another one soon.
"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.
"Or horse ears." Leo said. "Wait do his ears count as horse ears?"
He only got shrugs in reply.
I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."
"I see," Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. 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 elder gods minus Zeus shivered again.
The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe and scattered his remains to Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld.
Percy, Annabeth, and Nico frowned when they heard Tartarus.
On a happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"
The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs,
"Wimps." Clarisse said out loud with Reyna, Artemis, and Thalia nodding in agreement.
the guys pushing eachother around and acting like doofuses.
"Doofuses is not a word by the way." You can guess who said that.
Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."
I knew what was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"
Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.
He's very observant. Athena mused to herself.
"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.
"About the Titans?"
"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."
"Oh."
"What you learn from me," He said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."
I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.
"That's because you're his favorite student." Thalia said as she punched Percy's shoulder.
I mean, sure it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who ever lived, and their mother, and what God they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I have never made above a C- in my life.
Athena nearly fell over so she grabbed onto one of her throne's armrest to keep steady. "Annabeth how could you date this sea spawn?!"
"Relax mom. I tutor him. Now he never gets anything below a B-." This managed to calm the Goddess of Wisdom down, but she still prefered if her daughter dated someone else.
No- He didn't want me to be as good he wanted me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly. He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overheard, a large 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.
"Wow dad. What made you so upset?" Apollo asked. Zeus just shrugged in reply.
"You will all know in due time." Atropos said as she wiped her scissors with a piece of cloth. It wasn't meant to be a menacing gesture or threat, her scissors were just really filthy.
Nobody else seem to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.
"Please tell me that Nancy isn't your daughter." Percy begged.
"Nope. She isn't. Otherwise I would have remembered a Mrs. Bobofit." Percy sighed in relief at the messenger god's answer. As did the Hermes kids. They definitely didn't want someone like Nancy as a sister.
Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that- the school for loser freaks who can't make it elsewhere.
"Um excuse me? God of the Wild and Two-Time Savior of Olympus. We ain't nobodies!"
"Detention?" Grover asked.
"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean- I'm not a genius."
Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"
Grover just looked flustered as everyone else laughed.
"Never change goat boy. Never change." The Stolls said in between laughs.
Grover glared at them. "Want me to bring in Hedge?"
The Stolls clung to eachother and shook their heads rapidly.
"Actually, Hedge and some others will show up after this chapter." Oh joy.
I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.
"Not much of an appetite?" Annabeth said incredulous. "Seaweed Brain, you have an appetite that could rival ten satyrs and Tantalus. And that's saying something cause he never eats!"
I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head for home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to get kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to sixtgtand that sad look she'd give me.
Poseidon and the demigods that have met her smiled.
"Aw he's a mama's boy!" Ares teased. This earned a glare from several of the demigods.
"Do NOT insult my mom. She is the best mom in the world and don't forget it." Percy said glaring at the war god. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but Ares may have peed himself when he saw the glare.
Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.
Leo immediately wrote down the idea on his notepad before returning his attention to the book.
I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends- I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists- and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.
Several demigods, including Luke, growled at the book while Dionysus looked ready to turn someone into a bottle of merlot.
"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.
"Thanks for ruining Cheetos for me." Frank mumbled as everyone else laughed at the son of Poseidon's description.
"Beware. My descriptions are weird."
"I wonder how he'll describe us."
I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears. I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!" Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"
"-the water-"
"-like it grabbed her-"
Everyone grinned at this.
I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay,
Several people scoffed at this.
promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant ffire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.
Hades and his wife and kids immediately widened their eyes after realizing who it was. Fearing his brother's upcoming wrath, the Lord of the Underworld snapped his fingers and he was wearing a waterproof armor. Some of the gods and demigods looked at him strangely. Hades just motioned for them to keep reading.
"Now, honey-"
"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."
"PERCY YOU IDIOT!" Chris and the Stolls yelled.
"Never guess your punishment." Hermes chided. "That's rule number 15."
Luke nodded in agreement. What? He was still a Hermes kid.
"There's a rule book?" Hephaestus asked.
"Yep."
That wasn't the right thing to say.
"No Styx, Sherlock." Hermes and his kids mumbled.
"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 me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whisker chin trembled.
"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," She said.
"But-"
"You- will- stay- here."
Grover looked at me desperately.
"It's okay, man," I said. "Thanks for trying."
"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."
Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.
Everyone who have seen it shivered while Percy grinned.
"And here's the terrifying part: that was just my regular I'll-kill-you-later stare!" He laughed at everyone's pale faces and horrified expressions.
Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast?
"Considering she is technically confirmed a monster at this point, it could either be super speed or teleportation." Annabeth replied warily.
I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've miss something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.
"I'm not so sure." Theseus said.
I wasn't so sure.
The two sons of Poseidon grinned at eachother and fist bumped. "Bro." Everyone else just laughed except for Jason and Poseidon. Poseidon, looking at his kids with pride and Jason, feeling hurt because saying 'Bro' was their thing.
I went after Mrs. Dodds. Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.
Some of the future demigods just sighed and shook their heads.
I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.
Okay, I thought. She's just going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan.
"It never is." Percy grumbled as he buried his head in Annabeth's hair. Aphrodite was currently fangasming at how cute they are, but no one but Piper noticed.
I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...
"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.
"What problems?" Zeus asked. None of the future demigods said anything. That was when Athena and Hera gasped. Being two of the smartest gods, they quickly figured out what was happening.
"What's with you two?" Apollo asked, still recovering from the heart attack caused by their sudden outburst.
The two were about to answer, when they saw the future demigods and the Fates shaking their heads and simply said, "It was nothing."
Once the demigods finished sighing in relief, they went back to the book.
I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."
She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"
"Away with what?" Everyone was to focused on the book to even register Apollo's question.
The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.
She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."
Thunder shook the building.
The gods glanced at Zeus who was wondering why he was so mad.
"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."
I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.
"I thought I told you to get rid of them!" Grover yelled.
"I did!... Once I sold the last of them." Grover just shook his head in frustration at his best friend's answer.
"Why were you selling them anyways?" Connor asked.
Percy shrugged. "I was bribing the other students to leave Grover alone. Only Nancy kept bullying him, even when I bribed her."
Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.
"Seaweed Brain!" Percy looked sheepishly a this seething girlfriend.
"I love you?"
"Nice try. Mom!"
Athena snapped her fingers and the book materialized into Percy's lap.
"It's in Greek and you are going to read it after this chapter." Percy just groaned.
"Well?" She demanded.
"Ma'am, I don't..."
"Your time is up," she hissed.
Hades closed his eyes, bracing for the upcoming storm. Here it comes...
Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes begin to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled bag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.
Everyone who didn't knew gasped and turned towards Hades, realizing the reason why he summoned armor.
"Hades," Poseidon started with a rather unnervingly calm and gentle voice. Calm before the storm. "Why did you send a Fury after my son?"
Before Hades got the chance to make up an answer, Percy surprised everyone by saying, "Dad, it's fine. I'm okay, plus the reason he sent the Fury was because of a big misunderstanding, so I forgive him."
This was a major shocker since barely anyone forgives the Lord of the Dead
Then things got even stronger.
"How exactly?" Leo asked.
Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.
"What's a pen gonna do?" Ares said scoffing.
"That pen is capable of doing a lot more damage than you think." Percy warned.
"What ho, Percy!" He shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword- Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.
Poseidon had a small grin on his face. I see he held onto it for me.
Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.
"Wuss." Ares said. Let's just say the responses he got in return was getting hit in face with a tidal wave, having a knife getting thrown near his face, getting electrocuted, having his motorcycle keys stolen, and getting hit over the head with a stiletto.
She snarled, "Die, honey!"
"What's with the 'honey'? It's almost as worse as Hedge's 'cupcakes'." Leo said. Jason, Frank, and Piper nodded in agreement.
And said he flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.
"That's actually surprising since most of the newcomers at Camp Jupiter would usually play dead or dodge out of the way." Reyna said.
The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss! Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, 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 me.
Everyone looked at Percy in both shock and surprise. "Let me get this straight," Achilles began, "you managed to defeat a Fury-" "The LEADER of the Furies no less." Perseus interrupted. "-With no training at all." Theseus finished, looking amazed at his half-brother.
Before Percy could answer, a certain Wise Girl tackled. "Oh my gods, Seaweed Brain that was amazing!" Annabeth then proceeded to kiss Percy all over the face as the others except for Poseidon and Athena laughed at Percy's reddening face.
I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.
"The mist is still affecting him?"
My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushroom or something.
"Hey Katie-Kat? Can I-?"
"NO!"
Had I imagined the whole thing?
"Nope." Will still aid popping the 'p'.
I went back outside. It had started to rain.
"I actually like rainy weather." Nico blurted out. Everyone looked at him weirdly, but Apollo and Will looked flabbergasted.
"Neeks, why exactly do you like rain? It gets you affecting all wet, it's gloomy, and and stuff!" Will said with his father nodding in agreement.
Nico just shrugged. "I just find the gloomy atmosphere to be calming."
Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."
"Who?" Poseidon and Theseus asked.
I said, "Who?"
Poseidon and his kids shared and grin and d fist bumped. "Bros."
Athena just groaned. One sea spawn was king of Athens while the other would become her son-in-law. As if her immortal life couldn't get any worse.
"Our teacher. Duh!"
I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.
He said, "Who?"
But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.
"Grover, we're going to need to teach you how to lie." The Stolls said at the same time.
"Don't bother. Satyrs are naturally terrible liars." Dionysus said with indifference.
"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."
Thunder boomed overhead.
"See? Even Zeus agreed with me."
I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."
I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.
"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"
He stared at me blankly. "Who?"
"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."
He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling alright?"
"At least Chiron is able to lie." Connor said. His father and siblings nodded in agreement.
"Before we continue, let's first meet some new readers with us!" Atropos said before snapping her fingers and a bright light illuminated the room.
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Wow. I took three weeks to finish one chapter. Gods I'm lazy asf. XD
Anyways I'll be uploading the next chapter soon, but it may take as long as this chapter so please be patient.
Bye!