DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

A/N: Hey people! First chapter is HERE! So, I gotta warn you guys; the version of Percy Jackson they're reading is actually my fanfiction version. My character Andromeda will not only appear in the past on Olympus but she'll be in the main future storyline they're reading about; Percy just doesn't remember her because she erased his memory. She's basically like Io from 'Clash of the Titans (2010)'. She's Percy's protector, they fall in love, etc, etc, etc. And if you have a problem with that, you can just find another story to read!

Anyway, on with the story!

/\/\/\/\

"I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher," Percy read, but he stopped and grimaced; this was not something he wanted to relive again. "You vaporized your pre-algebra teacher?" asked Charles Beckendorf. "Awesome!" cried the Stoll brothers, but they were silenced by a glance from Andromeda.

"Continue please, Percy," she said in her usual quiet tone of authority. Percy didn't need to be told twice; her voice was beautiful, but he got the feeling that disobeying her would lead to a long and painful death.

Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.

"Nobody does," said Nico, and all of the demigods grimaced while all of the Olympians – even Hades, Dionysus, and Ares – flinched at the tone of pain he said it with. Percy continued:

If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.

"Huh. You actually gave some intelligent advice there, Perce," said Thalia with a thin smile. The Olympians flinched again.

Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.

"Total understatement," Percy, Thalia, and Nico all said at the same time. The other demigods nodded as well, though Clarisse looked a little bored already.

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.

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.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

My name is Percy Jackson.

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?

"Yes!" chorused Nico, Thalia, and Rachel, making the other demigods laugh and a few of the Olympians crack a smile, even try to stifle a chuckle. Andromeda didn't even blink.

"You guys suck!" Percy said, though his eyes were flashing with amusement.

Yeah. You could say that.

"See? You even agree with us!" laughed Thalia, throwing everyone into a fit of laughter again. This time Apollo and Hermes both laughed openly, to the surprise of the demigods, though they were still caught up in laughing themselves.

I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it,

This froze everyone in their place. "Short miserable life?" echoed Thalia, her voice a little surprised. "Um, yeah. You have to admit, no demigod ever has much a happy ending," said Percy, looking surprised at the protective light that sprang into her eyes.

Nico clapped Percy on the back. "Well, we'll have to change that, won't we?" he asked, smiling. Percy just shrugged.

Poseidon's fists clenched silently. 'I'll have to keep a better eye on him,' he thought, gritting his teeth at the possibility of his son getting hurt. Luckily, nobody noticed his anger….. except for Andromeda, but she ignored it for now.

-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.

"'Stuff'? 'Stuff'? ! Young man, those are very important artifacts! You can't just call them 'stuff'!" snapped Athena, her eyes gleaming angrily. Percy blushed and hid his face behind the book to avoid her angry glare.

I know – it sounds like torture.

"No it doesn't," said Annabeth, looking indignant, but all of her friends just stared at her like she was nuts.

Most Yancy field trips were.

But Mr. Brunner,

Chiron raised his head. He met Percy's eyes, and Percy nodded. 'It's me,' Chiron thought, surprised; he almost never went to watch a demigod unless they were very powerful.

-our Latin teacher, was leading the trip, so I had 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'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and 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.

"Sleeping in class? Definitely not a son of Athena," said Annabeth, scowling at Percy along with her mother. Percy just shrugged and continued:

I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.

"Nice one Perce. You jinxed yourself," laughed Nico, Thalia and Rachel smirking beside him at Percy's look of annoyance.

Boy, was I wrong.

"Told you so!" said Nico. "Nico," said Percy slowly. "Yes?" asked Nico innocently. "Shut up before I destroy you," Percy hissed. He was joking, but his eyes were alight with such a malignant light that Nico surrendered.

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.

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. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.

"DUDE, THIS GUY IS AWESOME!" shouted both Stoll brothers as all of the demigods burst out laughing. Travis was on the floor, rolling around in hysterics, while Connor was hyperventilating, trying not to pass out.

The goddesses were doing a pretty good job at keeping straight faces, but Hermes and Apollo were both hugging each other, laughing so hard they almost fell out of their thrones. The other gods were in no better shape; Poseidon looked ready to laugh until his face was red, but he was trying hard to hold it in, and Ares looked ready to pass out from lack of air like Connor.

Thalia, Nico and Rachel all laughed, but it was only half-hearted; they knew that the awful things that happened to Percy wouldn't stop there. Not by a long shot.

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

At the mention of the satyr who was responsible for his daughter's transformation into a tree, Zeus snapped to attention, narrowing his eyes bitterly. Everyone else tensed slightly, feeling his anger. Grover, who had straightened up at the mention of his arrival, quickly shrank in his seat, feeling the angry glare being directed at him from Zeus.

Percy, wanting to spare his friend of the awkward silence, continued:

-in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

Now this had all of the goddesses shrieking "EEW!", though the loudest was probably Aphrodite, who looked absolutely mortified. Grover grimaced. 'Not looking forward to that,' he thought.

All of the demigod girls looked disgusted, except for Clarisse, who simply concentrated on polishing her spear. "Tell me when the action starts," she yawned to Katie, who just shot her a look of irritation; she was getting hooked by this book already.

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.

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.

Travis, Connor, Hermes, and Apollo all laughed at Grover's expense, while several of the other gods and goddesses either chuckled or at least cracked a smile. Grover glared at them all, but Andromeda waved her hand at Percy, signaling him to continue.

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! Do it! Do it!" chanted Ares and Clarisse, who had been listening all along but pretending not to. Percy snorted. 'Yeah. Now they're on my side,' he thought with a roll of his eyes. Meanwhile, Poseidon was agreeing whole-heartedly with Ares, which was rare. He didn't want anyone messing with his son or his friends.

Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."

Ares and Clarisse huffed in disappointment.

He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

Aphrodite wrinkled her nose. "Disgusting," she said, her voice filled with a slight nausea.

"That's it." I started to get up,

"YES!" Ares and Clarisse cried triumphantly.

but Grover pulled me back to my seat.

"Damn it!" Ares snapped, while Clarisse shot a glare at Grover, who quickly slid farther down in his seat, determined not to be noticed – though he was failing miserably.

"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know you'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.

Now everyone in the throne room – except Andromeda – leaned forward in their seats, even Thalia and Nico; they had heard about Percy's past, but this was a firsthand experience.

But Poseidon wasn't excited; he was terrified of what might happen to his son, even if it was a book. He crossed his fingers and tightened his grip on his trident.

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.

"Older than that," corrected Athena, with Annabeth nodding along with her. Andromeda nodded as well, though it was such a tiny nod nobody noticed it; in fact, almost knew she was there anymore. Her presence was being ignored as the excitement began to build in the room.

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 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 interesting,

"Kind of interesting?" asked Annabeth, looking insulted again. Percy shrugged. "I wasn't that interested in this sort of stuff until I found out what I was," he said, and several agreements rose from the other demigods. Annabeth just huffed out a breath.

-but everybody around me was talking, and every time 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 ride a Harley right into your locker.

Hades recognized the description, but decided it was probably better to play it safe and act dumb; there was no telling who Percy's father might be, but once they figured out who Mrs. Dodds was, they'd probably try to kill him.

She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.

Percy snorted. "Nervous breakdown my ass!" he hissed. Thalia smacked him upside the head while Nico and Rachel both giggled. All of the gods and goddesses raised their eyebrows but said nothing. Andromeda remained impassive.

From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.

"That's because you are," said Thalia, earning her punch in the neck from her cousin. She choked, and she rubbed her neck as she coughed. "Geez! It was a joke!" she coughed.

Zeus glared at Percy, but Poseidon smiled proudly; his son was sticking up for him to Zeus's daughter in front of her father.

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.

"Ugh, she's awful!" complained Silena, making several people nod in agreement.

One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."

"Wow. That's subtle," said Dionysus sarcastically, glaring at his satyr, who shrank even more into his chair. "Nice way to blow your cover man," sighed Thalia, shaking her head at Grover's attempts at being a protector. He was great, but sometimes he let things slip too easily.

Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.

Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"

It came out louder than I meant it to.

"Yep, nice going Percy," said Nico, patting him on the shoulder in a congratulatory way while his cousin glowered at him.

The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.

"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"

"Dead meat!" hissed Rachel, earning her a glare from her friend.

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 Olympians grimaced and several demigods gagged, but no one noticed the way Percy, Thalia, Nico, and Rachel all turned pale at the mention of Kronos. Andromeda's eyes narrowed; she already knew this was not the last time her father was mentioned, but she said nothing, remaining as still as a rock.

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied, "And he didthis because ..."

"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,

"GOD? !" snarled the Olympians, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades the loudest of all. Percy flinched and sank a little in his chair. "Nice going, Perce. All of the gods hate you again. Good job!" Nico encouraged him with a pat on the shoulder.

"Yep. Everything's returning to normal," sighed Thalia serenely. Rachel nodded as well. Poseidon, though still insulted, barely suppressed a look of horror; his son was hated by most of the other Olympians? Not good. Not good at all.

-and—"

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Titan," I corrected myself.

Most of the Olympians gave Percy a grudging apology for their shouts, but Zeus and Hades remained silent.

"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.

"Probably because his head is as thick as one," snorted Poseidon, earning him a small jolt of electricity from his brother.

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.

Aphrodite wrinkled her nose but said nothing.

"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."

Silence. Then…. "You just described one of the biggest, most catastrophic wars in history as 'a big fight between the gods and the Titans, and the gods won'?" said Athena, who looked both insulted and amused at the same time.

Percy shrugged. "What? I'm not very good at mythology at this point in time. I get better; trust me, I know all about Kronos now," he said darkly. Thalia and Nico both tensed beside him, and the Olympians looked at the trio suspiciously.

Some snickers from the group.

"Why are they laughing? He got that right!" said a very confused looking Artemis. Athena just shook her head. "Mortals are weird," she said, as if that pretty much summed it up.

Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

Athena huffed angrily. "It won't say that on a job application, but it's a real historical event; you should learn it!" she snapped, and Annabeth nodded viciously along with her mother.

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover muttered.

Several of the demigods and Apollo and Hermes snickered.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.

At least Nancy got packed, too.

"Victory!" cheered the Stoll's, Hermes, Apollo and, surprisingly, Beckendorf.

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."

"Duh; you're a demigod! Of course it matters! It's all real!" said Thalia. Percy glared at her. "Shut up! I don't know that yet, Pinecone Face!" he snapped.

"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.

At this most of the demigods gagged at the thought of their parents or grandparents growing up in such disgusting conditions.

-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?"

"Wonderful; 'they grew up inside his stomach, he threw them up, they chopped him into little bitty pieces, and tossed him into the darkest pits of Tartarus. Anyone hungry?'" asked Thalia, causing both her cousins to laugh hysterically.

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.

Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."

I knew that was coming.

"No duh. You need to learn this stuff!" said Annabeth, but Percy ignored her as he continued.

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.

"Close, but I haven't seen everything," chuckled Chiron.

"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."
"Come on, Perce; put two and two together!" said Nico, who was leaning forward in anticipation. Percy rolled his eyes at his younger cousin.

"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.

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 had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.

"Ugh, I could never remember those at all," grumbled Percy. "It's part of the perks of being a demigod; dyslexia!" said Katie, who was squinting her eyes to try and read the book's cover, though the word 'Jackson' was still trying to escape with all of it's letters doing little tap-dances away from the word.

But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life.

Annabeth looked appalled, but Percy forged ahead before she could say a single word.

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.

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.

"Feeling sentimental, brother? That's not like you."

Everyone jumped as Andromeda spoke for the first time, scaring them all half to death as they turned their heads to see her standing there, eyes scanning all of them with equal hostility. Except for Percy; her gaze softened slightly when it landed on him, but it was so fast and hard to see that nobody even noticed.

"Continue please, Jackson," she said, waving her hand at him to signal 'hurry up!'.

He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.

"Food!" sighed Apollo dreamily, Hermes following his example, and soon they were both lost in imagining a huge mountain of food, all for them. Artemis rolled her eyes at her brother's behavior. "Boys," she muttered.

The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.

Overhead, a huge 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.

Everyone seemed to freeze up at this, and all eyes drifted to the Big Three; Zeus seemed to have found an amazing discovery on his master bolt and was intently studying it; Poseidon had found an equally shocking discovery on his sandals as he kept his eyes firmly on his feet; and Hades was glaring at the both of them, suspicious of the both of them.

Andromeda cleared her throat to gain everyone's attention. "I believe we can all wait for an answer; don't you think?" she asked, sending glares full of murderous intent toward everyone. Needless to say, they all stopped staring for now.

"Continue once again, Percy," she sighed.

We'd had massive snowstorms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.

Everyone was staring at the brothers once again, and although they were trying hard to hold it in, Andromeda could tell it wouldn't be long before they cracked and asked them what was wrong. "The answers will come in time," she assured before anyone had a chance to ask.

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.

"What an awful woman!" sniffed Hera disdainfully. She'd been in foul mood since Thalia showed up, but now she was just about ready to wring someone's neck for answers; she wanted to know why Zeus was angry, and if it involved their family being in danger.

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 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."

"Ah, you finally accept the truth of your own stupidity!" said Thalia. "I'm so proud of you cousin!" cried Nico. Both of them congratulated him until they both heard the sound of water lapping inside the small garden pool outside the throne room. They shut up.

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 turned a little red as the demigods all started to laugh. "Why is it always me that gets the embarrassing parts?" he grumbled, and Thalia waved her hand at him.

"Believe me, Percy gets himself into even worse situations; trust me, I know!" she laughed as Percy smacked her upside the head.

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 and head 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.

"What a wuss!" said Clarisse. Thalia raised a finger and an electric arc shot out of her fingertip, shocking Clarisse with a burst of energy. "What the hell!" she snapped. Thalia smirked. "Percy may be an idiot, but he's just about the bravest guy I know; and believe me, I've seen him in action. I know what I'm talking about."

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.

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.

"Ugh!" groaned all of the goddesses and the female demigods in unison.

"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.

"You have a really strange way of describing things, Perce," said Nico. Percy shrugged. "What can I say? I have a weird imagination."

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.

"A wave?"

Everyone seemed to freeze up at Zeus's quiet question. Athena clenched her fists; this was the only possible conclusion she could come to, but it would not end with peace between the brothers.

"Percy Jackson," she said, "Are you-"

"I do believe you can wait a few more chapters to confirm your suspicions, Lady Athena. We can discuss this after the chapter," suggested Andromeda; she had moved between Percy and Zeus as she spoke. She knew that even if Zeus was yelling at Poseidon, Percy would be the one in danger.

Athena looked surprised and a little angry, but she nodded reluctantly.

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 once again tensed as electricity arced in the air. Zeus was still glaring at Poseidon, who was doing his best to look anywhere but at his brother or his son.

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 the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"

"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."

"You idiot! You never guess the punishment unless you're begging from some serious crap!" cried Travis and Connor. Hermes nodded with his sons. "Thievery 101," he said as an explanation. "We really must teach you the real deal when you get to Camp!" exclaimed Connor, and Travis nodded along. Percy just rolled his eyes.

That wasn't the right thing to say.

"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.

"And I wonder why," sighed Annabeth sarcastically. Grover cringed. "I'm such a pathetic protector!" he wailed. Percy winced. "Nah, you're the best protector yet, G-man!" he said. Grover smiled at him sadly.

Andromeda smiled as well, her eyes swimming with old memories that had been erased from his mind. 'I wonder what he'll do when he finds out,' she thought quietly.

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," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."

Poseidon began to panic silently; if that woman really was the monster, what would happen to Percy? Would he be alright?

Andromeda smirked. She knew what was coming; how Percy would make it out alive. But when it happened, would he remember her? Or would there still be a blank space where she was supposed to be?

Nancy Bobofit smirked.

I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.

"Oh please, your death-stare has nothing on mine!" said Nico triumphantly. "And we all know why," said Thalia, thwacking Nico on the head and making him yelp.

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?

"Monster. Duh!" said Rachel, but her fists were clenched. She and just about everyone in the room – minus Andromeda and Dionysus – were leaning forward in their seats, very eager to hear about this.

"This better finally be an action scene!" snarled Ares, and Clarisse nodded; they both had the gleam of bloodlust written in their eyes.

I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed 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 wasn't so sure.

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.

Chiron grinned sheepishly as Hera gave him a disapproving look.

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 the gift shop.

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 Roman section.

Except for us, the gallery was empty.

"Oh beautiful work, Perce. You're with a dangerous monster with no weapons, no back-up, and no witnesses. How thick-headed can you be? !" cried Rachel, quickly reaching over and smacking him on the head fiercely.

Though he remained silent, Poseidon agreed whole-heartedly. 'Why does it have to be my son that gets stuck with a monster alone?' he moaned inwardly.

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.

Poseidon had to restrain himself from putting his head in his hands; this was getting worse every second.

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...

Athena glanced at Hades and shared a look with Artemis; she knew what monster this was, but she said nothing yet.

"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.

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?"

"Get away with what, for Pete's sake? !" cried Silena. Several people jumped in surprise at her outburst.

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.

"Yes she will!" sighed Thalia in a singsong voice.

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 my dorm room.

The Stoll twins both gave Percy a thumbs-up.

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.

"How can you not have read it? ! It's a classic!" cried Annabeth. Percy grimaced. "Books are not my forte," he muttered, and Rachel snickered. "Got that right," sighed Nico.

"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 to ribbons.

"FURY!" screamed all of the demigods at once except for Thalia and Nico, who both simply grimaced; they'd faced worse.

Poseidon, on the other hand, was resisting the urge to tackle Hades right then and there, but he held it back; Zeus could not know who Percy was until later.

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 of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.

"'What ho?' What the hell?" muttered Nico, causing several of the demigods and Rachel to giggle loudly.

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.

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," muttered Ares and Clarisse, but nobody really heard them; they were too caught up in the story.

She snarled, "Die, honey!"

And she flew straight at me.

Absolute terror ran through my body. I tried to swing the sword, but with a loud clang!, my blade was stopped by something and Mrs. Dodds was launched backwards by something else.

Everyone froze. Percy was squinting at the words in confusion. "What the? I don't remember it happening that way," he said, his voice soft. "That's because you didn't need to remember this moment," said a voice.

They all turned to see Andromeda, her arms crossed over her chest, her hip to one side a little like a model. "Say what?" said Percy. Andromeda smiled. "I can't tell you anything, remember? You need to read this – and remember this – on your own," she said, pointing to the book. Percy began reading again:

I blinked in shock. A girl about my age with auburn hair and grey eyes stood in front of me, a long dagger in one hand, a shield on her other arm. She wore some dress that looked like it was from one of those old Ancient Greek mythology movies that had monsters and heroes fighting each other for the pretty maiden.

Now everyone was confused now, but Andromeda ignored their questioning looks.

"Percy, if there was ever a time for you to learn how to use that sword, it would be now!" she ordered. Her voice was like freezing cold ice, but her tone held such authority, I couldn't help but think that she'd given me orders before.

I shakily held the sword in front of me, and the girl backed up until she was right next to me. "She'll charge in a second, and you'll have to face her alone," she said. "Aim for her vital spots; heart, neck, arteries, organs. Just make sure she disintegrates."

"And what about you?" I asked. I knew it was a pathetic thing to say, but this girl looked ready to kill this thing; why couldn't she do it?

"Yeah, why can't you do it?" asked Nico. Everyone turned to Andromeda, but she just pursed her lips and signaled Percy to continue again.

The girl just gave me the tinniest hint of a smile. "If I did that you'd never learn to fight your own battles. Good luck," she said. "Wait!" I cried, but the girl had already dissolved into a flash of golden sparks, and I was left alone with a monster.

I tightened my grip on the sword as it advanced slowly. "The master will be pleased, yes!" it hissed. "We haven't found a demigod worthy of one of the Guardians since before your family line was born! He will take great pleasure in ripping you apart until you tell us where it is!"

Again, I still had no idea what it was talking about, but I didn't have time to ask; the monster suddenly leaped straight at me.

Nobody dared make a comment here; they were all leaning forward in anticipation.

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!

"WHOOHOO!" cried the demigods, and they all cheered loudly. Andromeda was smiling as well, though almost nobody noticed it; except Percy. He could remember her now; as if reading about that moment had rewritten his memory to this.

Andromeda caught his eye and she shook her head. Before he could say anything, she mouthed, 'Later'.

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.

I was alone.

There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.

"Hmph. The Mist is still affecting you. That's weak," said Ares, though it earned him a punch on the arm from his newest aunt Andromeda.

Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.

My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.

"You always gotta blame the mushrooms," sighed Demeter; she felt bad for the plant. What? She was the goddess of the harvest, you know!

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 her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."

"Who?" asked Hestia; it was the first time she'd spoken at all, and she had faded a bit into the background like Andromeda.

I said, "Who?"

"Our teacher. Duh!"

I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.

"The Mist," said Athena with a knowing look.

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.

"Wow man. You really gotta visit our cabin sometime. We'll teach you to be a lying extraordinaire!" cried the Stoll's.

"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."

Thunder boomed overhead.

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."

The Stoll's and Chris Rodriguez all applauded Chiron, who looked a little proud, a little annoyed.

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 all right?"

Percy grimaced. "That was really freaky," he sighed, and placed a slip of paper from his pocket into the book to bookmark the page. "The first chapter's done!" he announced.

Everyone leaned back a bit in their chairs. "So… why does this book say one thing and I remember another?" asked Percy. All eyes turned to Andromeda, who sighed.

"If you're patient, this will all be revealed in later chapters. The only thing I can tell you is that when you were traveling back in time, your memories," she said, but this time she was directing her gaze at Percy, Thalia, Nico and Rachel, "Were tampered with. You remembered what we wanted you to. We couldn't have you remember everything, or else it would just complicate matters. Get it?"

"No," muttered Nico, and Thalia shook her head. Rachel and Percy exchanged a glance but said nothing.

/\/\/\/\

A/N: And, it is done! WHOO! Okay, I know, Andromeda was NEVER in the original storyline, but she is in this fanfiction! And if you don't like that, you can just find another story to read! Anyway, please review or vote for this story in my profile poll if you want it updated more often! Laters!
-Wind