We were sitting on the school bus on the way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a field trip with our Latin teacher Mr. Brunner. Mr. Brunner is an older man that wears a tweed jacket that smells like coffee. He also goes around in a motorized wheelchair. He is my favorite teacher and is the only one who makes learning interesting. For example he sometimes brings in his collection of greek and roman armor and a bronze sword that I can feel magic from. I also have a feeling that there is more to Mr. Brunner than meets the eye. We also have our Algebra teacher Mrs. Dodds as a chaperone, whom I get a bad feeling from. She is a little woman from Georgia who wears a leather jacket, and looks mean enough to drive a Harley right into your locker. I can feel that she has bad intentions, particularly to Percy, but also toward me. While I was lost in thought, Nancy Bobofit, the class bully, started throwing pieces of peanut butter ketchup sandwich at Grover which started to irritate Percy. I then heard Percy say that he was going to hurt her and decided to speak up, "Nancy I'm only going to ask you once, would you stop throwing food at Grover?" She then looks at me with stars in her eyes and asks, "Will you go out with me?" This has become a daily occurrence, where I distract her from bullying people and she asks me to date her. Like always, I reply with, "No, I'm not looking to be in a relationship right now." This comment that I give to any one who asks me out seems to reinforce my "Ice King" persona.
Today I am dressed in a navy blue t-shirt with an image of white angel wings surrounding a gold crown and a pair of black jeans. Around my neck is an amulet that my mother gave to me saying that it was a gift my grandfather gave my grandmother at their wedding. The amulet is a gold seven pointed star in the center of a circle. At each of the points there are mana stones infused with the seven elements: wind, water, earth, fire, lightning, life and spirit. Each stone is a different color that represents the respective element. Though the stones are small they hold an immense amount of power that only members of the royal family can tap into.
Anyway, she gives up and goes back to gossiping with her friends. Percy turns to me and says, "Thanks for that I was about to get up and deck her." I reply with, "And you would have been sentenced to death by in school suspension." Percy and Grover are the only people I show my true personality to, I am actually a sarcastic but light hearted person. To others I'm a quiet, cold person who doesn't like interacting with others or that I am aloof.
As we arrived at the museum, I noticed the weather is starting to get bad. The clouds looked heavy with rain. As we went through the exhibits, Mr. Brunner lectured us on the history of the different relics. While Mr. Brunner was explaining all of this, the only students really paying any attention to him were me, Percy, and Grover. The other boys and girls in our class were talking amongst each other at such a volume that combined, caused us to not be able to hear Mr. Brunner. As we approached a carving of a sphinx and Mr. Brunner was explaining that it was a grave marker for a girl about our age, Percy couldn't hear him and said "Shut up." It came out a bit louder than he expected for Mr. Brunner turned to Percy and asked, "Did you have something to say, Mr. Jackson?"
"No." replied Percy, blushing slightly as Nancy whispered "Busted." I look at her with a slight glare, no that she could tell with me showing minimal emotion in general in order to practice my refined, noble image for if the time comes to return to my home world. Mr. Brunner asked, "Then can you tell me about this image?" pointing to a large carved mural.
"That's Kronos eating his kids . . ."
"And he did this why . . . ?"
"Kronos was the king god -"
"God?"
"-Titan," Percy corrected himself, "and he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, he ate them. But his wife hid baby Zeus and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. When Zeus grew up he tricked his dad into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"
"Eew," a few girls complained at the barfing part.
"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans and the gods won." Percy concluded. I then had a faint smile to show that Percy did a good job, though no one saw. Nancy then grumbled, "Right, and how is this important to real life? It's not like we're going to need this for a job interview."
"And why, Mr. Jackson, to rephrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, is this important?"
"Busted." Grover whispers to Nancy, who hisses a quiet "Shut up!" all the while blushing at being caught. Percy looked to think deeply about the question but was unable to find an answer. It is at this point Mr. Brunner turns to me and asks what I thought of the question. I replied with, "I think that we could learn from history as to not make the same mistakes."
Mr. Brunner seemed surprised at my answer, though it quickly turned into pleasure at my insight and mature answer. Mr. Brunner then did a recap of what was just discussed and directed Mrs. Dodds to lead us out side to eat lunch. As we started walking, Mr. Brunner called us back. "Mr. Leoven, I really liked your insight into the value of history. But Mr. Jackson I hope you can find your own answer to my question."
"Which one?" Percy asked
"The one about how your studies apply to real life."
"Oh."
The two of us were then dismissed and we headed outside to eat our lunch.
