Reading about the Greatest Hero
I know there are so many stories like this but most of theirs are unfinished, which really annoys the chizz out of me. So hopefully, I'll finish this all through-out and the other books. But I guess I'll want to update if people review.
Anyway…
...
Zeus snapped his fingers, and a couch appeared. The half-bloods sat down and Annabeth started reading.
"I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER"
"How do you accidentally vaporize someone?" Apollo asked. The demigods shrugged.
"Maybe we would find out if no one interrupts" Artemis said.
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.
"Who does?" All the demigods said at the same time. The gods looked uncomfortable, Do they really feel that way?
If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:
"Oh my Gods! Percy is giving advice! Hit the deck!" Thalia screamed. The gods looked confused but the demigods hid behind the sofa. They came out when they were done laughing.
"You're friends with him right? Why are you so mean to him?" Demeter asked.
"This just the way we say we love him" Thalia answered.
"You have a weird way of showing love" Demeter muttered "If only you ate cereal"
Close this book right now. Believe what-ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.
"That's actually not that bad" Annabeth interrupted herself. The demigods nodded
"But that's not going to work" Jason commented.
Being a half-blood is dangerous.
"Check" Piper said
It's scary.
"Correct" Reyna said
Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.
"True" the demigods said together.
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.
"We envy you too" Nico said.
"Who are you talking to?"
"I don't know, Thals"
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 mat-ter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.
"Whose they?" Leo asked
"The monsters, duh!" Reyna replied.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
"You didn't" Nico countered.
"Do you know you're talking to a book?"
"…Yes…"
"…"
My name is Percy Jackson.
Poseidon looked nervously at the other gods. This was his son and who knows what Zeus will do when he finds out. Should I tell the other gods? What if Zeus kills him…?
I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids inupstate New York.
Am I a troubled kid?
"Yup" All the demigods said.
Poseidon frowned. I hope he doesn't get into much trouble.
Yeah. You could say that.
"Ha! Even Percy admits it" Travis said. He grinned wickedly at his brother.
"Blackmail time" Connor replied also grinning.
Hermes just smiled at his sons
Nobody noticed the horrified look on Poseidon's face. Well actually, Athena saw it.
I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it.
"Miserable?" Poseidon muttered. Athena raised an eyebrow.
But things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.
"That sound like fun" Athena said.
"Please, that sounds like torture" Hermes said and most of the boys nodded in agreement.
I know—it sounds like torture.
"See. Even Percy agrees with me"
Athena just huffed in reply while everyone else was chuckling.
Most Yancy field trips were.
But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.
The demigods who knew who Mr. Brunner is, just smiled. Chiron is awesome.
Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in amotorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Romanarmor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.
"He sleeps in class?!" Everyone chose to ignore the wisdom goddess.
I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.
"That's funny because Percy and Trouble are like best friends" Frank muttered. Poseidon paled when he heard this and this only made Athena more suspicious.
Boy, was I wrong.
"Of course you were"
"You're talking to a book again"
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 anyway.
Everyone smiled. Most of them just started laughing.
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.
Leo and all the immature boys just fell out of their seats laughing.
And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.
"What?! We want more" Hermes pleaded. The guys nodded with him.
This trip, I was determined to be good.
"He just jinxed it" Clarisse said.
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.
"What kind of person eats a peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwhich? Thant's disgusting" Demeter commented.
"Apparently, Nancy Bobofit does"
Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. 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 all that, he was crippled.
"Grover will totally love that description" Thalia laughed with the other demigods. The gods didn't know who Grover was, but it was still funny, so they were laughing too.
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. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.
"And that's what you call, blowing your cover" Leo said in a somewhat official voice.
"We so need to give Grover lessons" Travis whispered to his brother.
"Right after this is over?"
"Of course"
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 because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.
"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.
"Do it! This book needs a little more action"
Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."
"In your hair?" the love goddess shrieked.
He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.
"That's it." I started to get up,
"Yes! Pulverize her! Punch her! Do something"
but Grover pulled me back to my seat.
"Now why did you do that?!"
"Ares, sweetie, who are you talking to?"
"…at Grover"
"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 myself into.
Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.
Now, for those who don't know that Mr. Brunner is Chiron, they were thinking their heads off to find out who he is.
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.
"Longer than that, seaweed brain" Annabeth muttered. She thought of how stupid her boyfriend was, but at least he's cute and loyal.
Aphrodite looked up from painting her nails. She sensed a powerful aura of love. She spotted Annabeth looking dreamily and she smiled to herself. This reading isn't going to be boring after all.
He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone col-umn with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was agrave marker, a stele, for a girl about 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 inter-esting,
Athena nodded her head approvingly. At least he's trying.
but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me theevil eye.
"Why? He wants to learn" Athena was beginning to like this boy. Even though he sleeps at his classes, at least he's trying…
"See Athena, that's what happens when you try to learn."
"Shut up Apollo"
Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore ablack leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had anervous breakdown.
"Definitely a monster" everyone agreed.
From herfirst day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.
"What's with the honey thing?" Leo asked. Everyone just shrugged.
Nico looked at his father. They had a silent conversation and both of them think that Mrs. Dodds seem familiar.
One time, after she'd made me eraseanswersout of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real seri-ous, and said, "You're absolutely right."
"Is Grover really trying to blow his cover?" Piper whispered to Jason. He only shrugged.
Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.
Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, andI turnedaround and said, "Will you shut up?"
It came out louder than I meant it to.
"He's going to get in trouble now" Clarisse said.
"When is he not getting in trouble?" Frank asked
"Good point"
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 thepictureson the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what thispicture represents?"
"He's dead" Thalia murmured
"Give him some fate. He can be smart when he wants to" Annabeth defended her boyfriend.
"Wants to. Not has to"
"Touché"
Aphrodite looked at the two. She couldn't help smiling when Annabeth defended Percy. Were they together or does Annabeth have a crush on him?
I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That'sKronos eating his kids, right?"
"Oh my gods. He actually knew something" Nico said in a fake shocked voice.
"The world is ending" Leo continued. The demigods laughed.
"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."
"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronoswas the king god, and—"
"King god?!"
Annabeth smirked to herself as she read the next line.
"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.
"Titan," I corrected myself.
"Oh."
"And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um,Kronosate them, right? But hiswife hid baby Zeus, and gaveKronosa rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad,Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"
"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.
"—and so there was thisbig fightbetween the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."
"He just summed up the biggest fight in history" Artemis said.
"That's Percy for you" The demigods said in unison.
Some snickers from the group.
"Why? He got it right" Athena asked.
Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to afriend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain whyKronosate his kids.'"
"I already hate her already" Hazel said. Everyone looked at her, she was so quiet nobody noticed she was there.
"So do I" Franks agreed.
"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter inreal life?"
"Busted" Travis said.
"Busted," Grover muttered.
"I just thought like a goat…"
"What?" Athena asked.
"Uh. What. Nothing" Travis motioned Annabeth to continue before he blew it.
"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.
At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.
I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."
"The famous Percy answer"
"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feedKronosa mixture of mustard and wine, which made himdisgorgehis other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"
"Yes. After hearing Kronos eat his kids, we would still have an appetite to eat lunch" Apollo said sarcastically.
"You know, this Mr. Brunner sounds familiar" Artemis commented. Athena thought for a moment then looked at the demigods.
"Is it Chiron?" They nodded.
The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doo-fuses.
Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."
I knew that was coming.
"Why?" Apollo asked. He was ignored of course.
I told Grover to keep going. ThenI turnedtoward 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.
"Probably did"
"You must learn theanswerto my question," Mr. Brunner told me.
"About the Titans?"
"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."
"Oh."
"Another famous Percy answer!"
"Nico?"
"Yes, Thalia?"
"Shut up"
"Alright"
"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.
"It's for the best" Jason said.
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 tothe boardand name everyGreek and Romanper-son who had 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 that I havedyslexiaandattention deficit disorderand I had never made above a C— inmy life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.
"Why? It's easy." Athena said.
"We have dyslexia" The demigods said.
"And most of us aren't walking dictionaries" Poseidon muttered.
"Why you-" Athena didn't have time to finish since Annabeth started reading.
I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral. He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.
The class gathered onthe frontsteps of themuseum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.
Overhead, a huge storm wasbrewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city.
"Why are you angry?" Hephaestus asked.
"I don't know. Ask future me"
I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all acrossNew 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 hurri-cane blowing in.
"Now why are you angry?" Hephaestus asked Poseidon
"I don't know. What Zeus said"
Nobody else seemed 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.
"I hope she's not a demigod. I certainly hope she isn't mine. She's already classified as a-"
"Language!" Athena shouted.
"Scumbag" Hermes finished.
Grover and I sat onthe edge ofthe fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.
"Detention?" Grover asked.
"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."
"Words of wisdom" Nico said.
"Understandment of the century" Thalia commented.
"Genius is probably not the word to describe you, Perce" Leo added.
"Then what is?" Poseidon asked. He wanted to know what they think of his son. Athena looked at him but said nothing.
"Brave" Jason said. Thinking of his cousin.
Annabeth thought of saying something like "Hot" or "Cute" but thought that the gods wouldn't appreciate that, plus Athena doesn't know they're dating. So she settled for the trait she loves most about him. "Loyal"
"Modest"
"Humble"
"Caring"
"Awesome"
"Hilarious"
"The best sword fighter in 300 years" Poseidon looked proud. The gods didn't noticed, only the demigods plus Athena who already thought Percy is his son.
"Nico, Leo said word. Not words" Thalia argued.
"Yeah. So?"
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?"
Everyone cracked up.
I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. 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 andhead 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 be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.
"Mama's boy" Ares muttered. The demigods glared at him until he looked at them.
"What?" Even Clarrise glared at her own dad.
"Don't you ever call him like that again. Sally is like a mother to us…"Annabeth gave him a really scary glare and he slid down in his throne.
Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of thehandicapped 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 eyes lit up and he started writing something in a pad that wasn't there before. Hephaestus raised his eyebrows and walked towards Leo. He stood behind him, so he can look from his pad.
Leo looked up to see his dad. The god smiled and went back to his throne.
Leo smiled to himself. He actually cares…
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.
"That…that…"
"Scumbag?" Jason added for his sister. He didn't know if it was a good idea for Thalia to spout curses in front of the gods.
"Yeah. That scumbag will pay."
"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.
"She's beyond my power" Aphrodite said in disgust.
"Percy has a weird way of describing things" Hazel noticed.
"Just wait until he describes us" Annabeth said.
"If he somehow says something mean about-" Thalia didn't get to continue because Annabeth continued reading. She just rolled her eyes and leaned back on her chair.
I tried to stay cool. Theschool counselorhad 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.
"A wave…" Artemis muttered.
I don't remember touching her, butthe nextthing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"
The gods leaned forward.
Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.
Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"
"—the water—"
"—like it grabbed her—"
"Poseidon!" Zeus bellowed. It was enough evidence that Poseidon also broke the oath. "You have broken our sacred oath." Just for coolness, thunder boomed outside.
"Do you claim Percy as your son?" He thought Poseidon would deny that he is his son but he did the opposite.
"Of course"
"Then I must kill this son of yours before he does something he will regret" Zeus stood from his throne. The demigods stood up too, ready to defend their friend but Poseidon beat them to it.
"Zeus, may I remind you that two of your children are sitting right in front of us" Poseidon said calmly.
"He has a point" Demeter said. Zeus huffed but sat back on his throne. The demigods sat down
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, promising to get her a new shirt at themuseumgift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a tri-umphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"
Nico's eyes widen, so did Hades.
"The honey thing is annoying" Leo commented. Travis nodded.
"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."
"No! Guessing you punishment is just wrong" Connor yelled.
"That's just going to give her ideas" Travis agreed. Everyone ignored the twins except for Hermes, who just smiled at the two.
That wasn't the right thing to say.
"When does Percy ever say the right thing?" Reyna asked. Annabeth looked up from the book.
"He does it when he really really need to" Annabeth replied.
Athena raised her eyebrow. How does she know much about this seaspawn…? Maybe they're good friends…
Aphrodite just smiled to herself. She has a hunch.
"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 whiskery 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 told him. "Thanks for trying."
"Honey,"
"That's really getting annoying"
"We know Leo. You've been saying that a lot of times already" Reyna said to avoid Leo's banter.
Mrs. Dodds barked at me." Now."
Nancy Bobofit smirked.
I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.
The demigods shivered.
"It's probably not that bad" Zeus said.
"Listen Lord Zeus, Percy is a really nice person. He loves his family and his friends. But being in the end of that receiving glare is worse than any monster" Leo said. Zeus noted this, he seems powerful…too powerful…
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?
"How slow can you get seaweed brain? We already know he's a monster" Annabeth said. Aphrodite smiled. Eekk, she even has a nickname for her. He's a son of Poseidon and she's a daughter of Athena. Their parents are rivals…eek! How romantic is that.
I have moments like that a lot, when my brainfalls asleepor something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if apuzzle piecefell out of the universe and left me staring atthe blankplace behind it. Theschool counselortold me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.
I wasn't so sure.
I went after Mrs. Dodds.
"Of course…"
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. 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 going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at thegift shop.
"I just wish it's that" Annabeth said.
But apparently that wasn't the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Romansection.
Except for us,the gallerywas empty.
"Great. No witnesses." Hazel said.
"We're going to find out he's first monster." Frank said, bouncing up and down on his chair.
"I thought his first monster was the Minotaur?" Jason asked. The gods gapped at them but they weren't done talking.
"No. It's Medusa right?" Leo asked. The gods jaw dropped.
"No. The Minotaur was his second and Medusa is like his third" Annabeth said. If possible, the gods' jaws dropped lower.
"Then what was his first monster?" Frank asked. Annabeth just shrugged.
"You know how Percy is. Whenever Grover is going to tell me, he's just pop out of nowhere, say it was no big deal and drag Grover away…" Annabeth said. The demigods nodded and looked at the gods.
"Yes?" Thalia asked. The gods looked away, but they were thinking how powerful Percy is.
Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of theGreek 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.
I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."
No one commented since everyone was absorbed in the story.
She tugged on the cuffs of herleather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"
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.
"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 mydorm room.
Despite the situation everyone laughed.
"Your son is priceless uncle P" Hermes said between laughs.
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 meread the book.
"I'm going to make him read that book" Annabeth said.
"How?" Jason asked.
"I'm going to tie him into a chair and make him read it" Annabeth said.
"Or you'll make out with him" Piper whispered so only the demigods heard. Annabeth's face was bright red but the gods didn't notice. Unfortunately, Aphrodite heard and noticed.
Does she like him? Piper looked around, it was as if one of the gods talked to her telepathically. She saw Aphrodite staring at her, so she smiled.
I can't say.
Why not? Aphrodite pouted.
Can't spoil anything. Aphrodite huffed and Piper chuckled. Her mom was fun sometimes.
"Well?" she demanded.
"Ma'am, I don't..."
"Your time is up," she hissed.
Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began 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 hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me toribbons.
"A fury!" Athena exclaimed.
"His first monster was a fury?!" Jason asked in disbelief. No one heard him since they were all concentrated on Poseidon who looked almost like he was going to explode into sea water.
"You…" Poseidon breathed, his glare concentrated on Hades. "Sent…a fury…after my son?!" It took Apollo and Hermes to stop Poseidon from beating Hades up. Hades looked shaken but didn't say anything. He didn't understand why he would send a fury after his nephew.
"Lord Poseidon! It's alright. Percy's fine. This is just the beginning" Annabeth said. Poseidon seemed to relax until he realized what she said.
"Just the beginning?" He squeaked.
Then things got even stranger.
Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway ofthe gallery, holding a penin his hand.
"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.
Everyone sucked in their breaths.
With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched theballpoint penout 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.
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.
She snarled, "Die, honey!" And she flew straight at me.
Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.
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.
Then everyone cheered.
I was alone. There was aballpoint penin my hand.
Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.
"Oh no. He's going think he's going crazy" Frank muttered.
"Yep" Nico confirmed.
My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms
"Magic mushrooms?" Apollo asked. The demigods shrugged.
or some-thing. Had I imagined the whole thing? I went back outside.
It had started to rain.
Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from herswim in thefountain, grumbling to her uglyfriends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."
"Who the heck is Mrs. Kerr?" Thalia asked.
I said, "Who?"
"Our teacher. Duh!"
"Oh. The mist"
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.
"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."
"Grover is a really bad liar" Leo said.
"Truest words" Nico agreed.
Thunder boomed overhead.
I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under hisred umbrella, read-ing 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?"
"Now Chiron. He can Lie" Hermes smiled.
"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 youfeeling all right?"
"And that's the end of the chapter…" Annabeth said. "Who wants to read next?"
"I do?" Leo said. Annabeth handed him the book.
"THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH"
….
Okay anyway… I forgot to include Octavian in the past chapter. Do you think I should include him or not? I post chapters when people review! Thanks.
