ENJOY Thank you, my wonderful reviewers!
Sorry its taken so long, im trying to help my grandparents with financial stuff.
On with the story! Nobody's P.O.V
"CHAPTER TWO:THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH," Lisa read.
"Great, another exciting chapter," Kendall said.
(I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle.)
"It wasn't a hallucination," everyone said.
(For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algeaba teacher since Christmas.
Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.)
"I probably would, too," Lisa said before she went back to reading.
(It got so I almost beleived them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.
Almost.
But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exsist. But I knew he was lying.
Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.)
"Nah," Carlos said,"you think?"
(I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.
The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my doorm room.)
"Sweet!" Lisa said, eyes bright with excitement.
Everyone else, besides Logan, looked at her like she was crazy.
(A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.)
"Awesome!" Lisa yelled.
(One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.)
"Poor people," Kylie said.
(I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.)
Lisa snorted.
"What?" James asked.
"It's just that I was sent out into the hallway in science," Lisa said. Logan looked astonished since science was one of his favorite subjects.
"Well, the teacher hated me," she responded.
"He would've loved you if you hadn't called him a fat son of a b**** just because he called your mom one," Jamie said.
"He should've known better," was all that Lisa said.
(Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped.)
"Oh no," everyone said,"not the water thing again."
(I called him an old sot.)
'I would've said worse,' thought Lisa, Jamie, Kendall, Logan, and James.
(I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.)
Logan reached for the dictionary and started to look it up. When he found it, he busted out laughing.
"What?" everyone else asked.
"Old sot means habitual old drunkard."
Everyone started laughing until Lisa calmned down enough to read.
(The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.
Fine, I told myself. Just fine.
I was homesick.
I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.
And yet...there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.)
"Lisa," Kylie, Jamie, and Carrie said,"he's like you."
"How?" everyone else asked.
"Lisa always puts others before herself," Kylie said. "And judging by what we've read so far, Percy would do the same."
(I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.
As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to beleive him.
The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.)
"So that's what dyslexia's like," Carlos said. "Cool."
Lisa glared at him before reading again.
(There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.)
"Low self-esteem," Lisa muttered.
"What?" Logan asked.
"Nothing."
(I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.
I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. 'I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.'
I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.
I never asked a teacher for help before.)
"Maybe that's why you're failing," James said. Lisa glared.
"Le-Le?" Kylie asked her adopted sister warily.
"What?"
"Why do you glare at anyone who makes fun of Percy's dyslexia?" Jamie asked.
Lisa started looking at anything but everyone in the room.
Then she said,"I didn't tell you guys this earlier, but my sisters had signs of dyslexia."
"But isn't dyslexia a genetic disorder?" Carrie asked.
"I think it sometines can be, cause my dad had it," Lisa said.
"But doesn't that mean that you have it, too," Carlos asked.
"No," she said. "I got lucky."
(Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Acacdemy with him thinking I hadn't tried.
I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.
I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said"...worried about Percy, sir.")
"Whatt?"
(I froze.
I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.
I inched closer.
"...alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-")
"Who's they?" everyone besides Logan and Lisa asked.
"I think it means monsters," they said together.
("We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."
"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead-line-")
"The what?"
("Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."
"Sir, he saw her..."
"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."
"Sir, I...I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."
"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-")
"He's gonna..." Carlos said. "Well, I don't know what he's gonna do."
(The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.)
"IDIOT!" James, Jamie, Carlos, Carrie, Kendall, and Kylie yelled together.
(Mr. Brunner went silent.)
"Crap!" everyone said.
(My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.
A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheel-chair bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.)
"Whaaa?"
(I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.
A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.)
Lisa and Logan had their thinking faces on again.
"What's up you two?" Jamie asked.
They didn't answer.
(A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.
Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice.")
"What's that got to do with anything?" Jamie asked.
("Mine either," Grover said. "But I could have sworn..."
"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow.")
Everyone groaned.
"I thought you two liked exams?" Kylie asked the braniac couple.
"We do to a point," Lisa said.
"If it was for the whole day," Logan said,"I don't know what I would have done."
("Don't remind me."
The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.
I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.
Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.
Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.)
"He doesn't believe it," Carlos said.
Everyone rolled their eyes except Carrie.
("Hey," he said, bleary-eyed.)
"What does bleay-eyed mean," Kylie asked.
Lisa grabbed the dictionary and, after flipping some pages, said,"Sleepy eyes."
("You going to be ready for this test?"
I didn't answer.
"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?")
"Oh, yeah," Kendall said sarcastically. "I'm fine considering I just heard my best friend talking to a teacher about me living or not."
"Don't joke about that!" Lisa said while throwing a pillow in his face.
"About what?" Then Kendall's eyes widened. "Oh, sorry!"
She glared at him then said,"You don't seem like it."
("Just...tired."
I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.)
Jamie, Kylie, and Carrie looked at Lisa with raised eyebrows.
"What?" she asked.
"Does that remind you of anyone, guys?" Kylie asked while keeping her eyes on Lisa.
"Yep," Jamie said, also keeping her eyes on Lisa.
"Who?"
"Lisa," Carrie said. "How?" everyone besides the three asked.
"She'll ignore someone when that question is directed at her."
(I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.)
"I understand," Lisa said.
(But one thing was clear:Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.)
"That's because you are if you are the son of some god we're thinking about," Lisa said while ignoring the confused looks of everyone besides Logan.
(The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,)
Everyone groaned again.
(my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.
For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.
"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's...it's for the best.")
Lisa slapped her forhead and muttered in Cherokee,"Idiot."
Seeing everyone's confused faces, she explained. "He said that in front of the whole class. Combine that with the fact that Percy has a little bit of low self-esteem and that Mr. Brunner was his favorite teacher, he's gonna be mortified."
(His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me.)
"They'd embarrass anyone," Kylie said kindly.
(Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.)
Everyone glared at the book, and comined with the devil's glares of Lisa and Logan, it was surprising that the book didn't burn.
(I mumbled,"Okay, sir."
"I mean..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.")
Lisa put the book down and went into Logan's and Kendall's room. When she came out, she had a pen and paper.
"What are you going to do with that?" Jamie asked.
"I'm going to write down the names of all of the people I need to get even with when this is all over." And as she said that, she wrote the names 'Nancy Bobofit' and 'Mr. Brunner'.
(My eyes stung.)
"Why?" Carlos asked and recieved a pillow in the face.
(Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the whole class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.)
Lisa wrote next to Mr. Brunner's name 'Kick a** until he is mortally injured.'
("Right," I said, trembling.
"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say...you're not normal, Percy.)
"Oh, that's nice," Lisa scoffed.
(That's nothing to be-"
"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."
"Percy-" But I was already gone.
On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.
The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland.)
"I wanna go there!" all the guys said. The girls looked at their boyfriends like they were crazy.
(Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month.)
"I wanna go there!" all the girls said. The guys looked at their girlfriends like THEY were crazy.
(They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents.)
"That doesn't mean anything," Lisa said.
"Huh?" Carlos asked.
"I mean they may be rich in money, but Percy has something that they probably don't have."
"What's that?"
"Love."
(Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.)
"If you were a nobody then why do you have five books about yourself?" James asked.
(They asked me what I'd be doing this summer)
"At least they have manners," Jamie said.
(and I told them I was going back to the city.)
"Cool," everyone said.
(What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs)
The guys groaned and recieved a pillow in the face from Lisa, who had a german shepard named Lone Wolf, or Wolfie for short.
(or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.
"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."
They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.)
"Take back what I said about them having manners," Jamie said.
(The only person I was dreading saying goodbye to was Grover, but as it turned out I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.)
Lisa's thinking face was on again.
(During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occured to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.
Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.)
"I wouldn't have either at that point," everyone said.
(I said,"Looking for Kindly Ones?")
"Yeah, give him a freaking heart attack, why don't you," Jamie said.
(Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"
I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.)
"NO!" Kendall, James, Carlos, Jamie, and Carrie yelled. "You never confess that kind of stuff!"
(Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?")
"Oh, not much," Lisa said sarcastically.
("Oh, not much.)
"Are you sure you two aren't related?" Jamie asked.
"Let's see," Lisa looked up at the ceiling in thought. Logan (who got up when Lisa lunged for the dictionary in the first chapter) looked over at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Nope," she finally said.
(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 Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and..."
"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."
His ears turned pink.
From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."
The card was in fancy script,)
Lisa grabbed the paper off the table and wrote 'Whoever wrote business cards'.
(which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,)
Lisa wrote next to the newest eddition 'Sick Wolfie'
(but I finally made out something like:
Grover Underwood Keeper Half-Blood Hill Long Island, New York 800-009-0009)
Logan went to his and Kendall's room and came out with his laptop.
When he sat down, Lisa asked,"How are you going to pinpoint the number?" He didn't say anything until he was on Google Earth and said,"Can you give me the number, babe?"
Lisa repeated the number as Logan typed it in. When it came up with the result, he looked at the screen in confusion.
"What is it?" everyone else asked.
"It's a strawberry place that delivers strawberries to New York, Manhattan, cities in that area."
"Maybe that's a cover name," Kendall said.
Logan's eyes widened and he said,"Why didn't I think of that!"
When he turned off his computer, Lisa started to read again.
("What's Half-")
"That's what we're wondering," Jamie said.
("Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um...summer address.")
"That would've worked if he didn't pause," Kendall said.
(My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.
"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."
He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."
"Why would I need you?"
It came out harsher than I meant it to.
Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."
I stared at him.
All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.)
"Are you positively sure you two aren't related?" Kylie asked.
"Yes, why?" "Because that's something you did back home," Jamie said.
"People made fun of you?" the guys asked.
"Yeah, they did," Lisa said. "Jamie because of her shortness, Kylie because she hangs out with us, and Carrie because they thought she was a re-re."
"They didn't make fun of you?" James asked.
"Nope," Kylie said. "And they knew not to make fun of us if they didn't want to be possibly killed."
"I wouldn't go that far," Lisa said.
"You nearly put a guy in a coma," Jamie said.
"It depends on how big the guy was," Kendall said.
"He was bigger than James," Carrie said.
The guys' eyes widened at the thought. They turned toward Lisa and said,"Remind us to never get on your bad side."
("Grover," I said,"what exactly are you protecting me from?")
"Monsters," everyone said.
(There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.
After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.
We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.
The stuff on sale looked really good:heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice.)
Suddenly, there was a growl. Everyone looked around except Logan and Lisa, who were looking at Carlos, who was holding his stomach.
"What was that?" Kylie asked.
"It was Carlos' stomach," Logan and Lisa said together.
"Well, I'm hungry," was all he said.
"We'll eat after this chapter," Lisa said.
(There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.
I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.
All three woman looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.
The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking straight at me.)
"That's what I thought when I first met your grandparents, Lisa," Jamie said.
"Really?"
"Yeah, but I think that's because we were looking around the place like 'Whoa! This is so cool!'", Kylie said.
"Oh, yeah!" Carrie said.
"When did you guys meet her grandparents?" Logan asked.
"When we were seven," Kylie said.
"A couple years since we first became friends," Jamie said.
"Where was it?" Logan asked.
"Outside Fort Hudson, Texas," Lisa answered. "Why?"
"Do you guys remember a little boy who used to ride horses with you guys?" he asked.
"Yeah," Kylie said,"his name was," she paused as the answer came into everyone's head.
"Hi, KK," Logan said. He recieved a pillow in the face from Kendall's girlfriend.
'I met my future boyfriend at my grandparents ranch,' thought Lisa,'I guess I'll have to thank them for that.'
(I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.)
'That's odd,' everyone thought.
("Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"
"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?")
"What does that have to do with anything?" Jamie asked.
Lisa suddenly grabbed the dictionary and started flipping through it. When she found what she was looking for, she paled to a sickly white.
"Babe," Logan said,"what is it?"
As to answer his question, she read,"The Fates are three Greek goddesses of destiny and fate, also known as the Moirae. They are timeless old hags who weave the threads of destiny that control everyone's life. Their names are Clotho, who spins the thread of life, Lachesis, who allots the length of the yarn, and Atropos, who snips the thread and decides when life will end. All the good and evil that befalls everyone is woven into their destiny and cannot be altered. The Fates control the destinies of all. Even the greatest gods are subjected to their decisions."
"But what does them looking at Percy have to do with anything?" Carlos asked.
"I think that if they appear in front of you, that you'll die soon," Logan said.
Silence, then Lisa began to read again.
("Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?")
"Not funny," everyone said.
("Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."
The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.)
Lisa began to read a little bit shakily.
(I heard Grover catch his breath.
"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."
"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."
"Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.
Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.
At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.
The passengers cheered.
"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"
Once we got going, I started feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.)
'Why's that?' everyone thought.
(Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.
"Grover?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you not telling me?"
He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"
"You mean the old ladies?)
James was about to say something, but a warning look from Logan and Kendall shut him up.
(What is it about them, man? They're not like...Mrs. Dodds, are they?"
His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse that Mrs. Dodds. He said,"Just tell me what you saw."
"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.")
Everyone shivered at that.
(He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.
He said,"You saw her snip the cord."
"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.
"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."
"What last time?")
"That's what we're wondering," Kylie said.
("Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."
"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"
"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."
This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.
"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.)
"Kinda," Lisa said.
(No answer.
"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?")
"Yes," Lisa said.
(He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.)
"Who wants to read next?" Lisa asked.
"I will," Kendall said.
"But I thought we were gonna have lunch?" Carlos asked.
"Fine, I'll read the next chapter after we eat."
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