hello again everyone. Okay so I used spellcheck this time so there shouldn't be any misspelled words but if there are any please let me know. I'm working on finding a beta reader so if any of you have any suggestions I would love it if you let me know. Remember I own nothing, Rick Riordan owns Pjo and HOO. Enjoy this chapter. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed and read this story so far. I greatly appreciate it.
So I will be making Apollo serious at some parts, is everyone okay with this? Also the story will be in bold and italicized everything else will be in normal text.
Percy flips to the first chapter of the book and begins reading.
ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE
MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER
"how do you accidentally vaporize someone!?" Frank exclaims wide eyed and looking at the book in disbelief.
"I'm sure the book will explain it better than me," Percy replies smiling.
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.
If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is
"oh no percy is giving advice. Hide!" Thalia exclaims playfully, and ducks behind the couch.
: 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 pretty good advice," Thalia says acting shocked, coming out and sitting back down, and Percy playfully glares at her.
Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.
"check, check and check," Percy says interrupting himself.
"it's not that bad is it?" Athena asks.
"There are kids that don't live to see their next birthday if they aren't at camp, and since some don't know where camp is they get killed," Annabeth replies coldly her grey eyes swirling in anger.
"This is why we should be allowed to have contact with our kids!" Apollo yells at Zeus surprising everyone since usually he's so calm.
"No contact and that is final," Zeus glares at Apollo.
"one day that is going to be our downfall," Apollo mutters.
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.
"there are times when I also envy the kids that aren't demigods," Thalia says frowning.
But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading
immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they
sense it too, and they'll come for you.
"who's they?" Leo asks fiddling with some paper.
"the monsters?" Jason suggests and percy nods.
"yeah that's probably who I was talking about."
Don't say I didn't warn you.
My name is Percy Jackson.
"no, it's Peter Johnson," Dionysus says.
"I didnt even think he was paying attention," Grover mutters.
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 you are," Grover teases.
"I agree with Grover here," Annabeth says joining in on the teasing.
"you both aren't my friends anymore," Percy replies crossing his arms and pouting.
They last a few minutes before all three of them burst out laughing. Reyna does not seem very amused at their, in her opinion, immaturity.
Yeah. You could say that.
"You even admitted it kep head," Thalia says chuckling.
I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it,
"Short?" Poseidon asks paling.
"it was probably just a hyperbole," Annabeth says.
"I sure hope so," Poseidon mutters.
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.
"sounds like torture/fun" Athena and Leo say at the same time. Athena glares at Leo.
"fun, yeah I meant fun," Leo quickly says not wanting to anger the goddess.
I know-it sounds like torture.
Now Athena was glaring at Percy.
Most Yancy field trips were.
But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this 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.
"is that Chiron?" Hermes asks and Percy nods.
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.
"You slept in class!" Athena and annabeth exclaim glaring at Percy.
"look at it from my point of view lady Athena. I have dyslexia, which makes it difficult for me to read words in English. Most teachers just put it off as me not trying and decided not to help me a lot. I tried but there comes a point in which you stop trying because the adults simply don't care. For a child of Athena working over the dyslexia would be easier, as they inherit a lot of knowledge and ability to be knowledgeable, from you lady Athena. For us other demigods with have to struggle with dyslexia." Percy explains his situation, and that of countless other demigods, without losing eye contact with Athena.
"Is it really that hard for demigods to succeed in school?" Athena asks looking shocked.
"most teachers peg demigods as lazy or troublemakers and decide early on not to help," Thalia responds.
"I will find a way to make this better and you can not stop me." Athena looks determined and glares at Zeus when he goes to object.
"Thank you sea spawn, for bringing this to my attention." Athena grudgingly says. Percy nods bowing a bit and then returning to reading.
I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.
Boy, was I wrong.
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.
"what...were you...aiming...for?" Apollo and Hermes ask throughout their laughter.
"I actually can't remember," Percy replies rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
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.
"Poseidon your son is gold," Apollo says once he finally manages to calm down.
"can I kidnap him?" Hermes asks smiling mischievously.
Poseidon shakes his head amused.
And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.
"no don't stop!" Thalia exclaims laughing.
"I'll tell you some more stories later," Percy promises.
This trip, I was determined to be good. All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting
my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.
"where can I find this girl," Annabeth asks angry and takes out her dagger.
"calm down Annabeth it's in the past," Grover says.
Annabeth frowns nodding but doesn't put away the dagger.
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.
"gee Percy thanks for that wonderful description."
"well how was I supposed to know that my thoughts were going to be read aloud!"
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.
"You risked blowing your cover for enchiladas?" Jason asks bewildered. Grover just blushes and does not reply.
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 hate bullies," Piper says frowning.
"I'm pretty sure everyone does," Hazel says timidly.
"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.
Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."
"You know who else like peanut butter?" Percy asks smiling.
"Tyson, he loves his peanut butter," Thalia replies chuckling.
He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.
"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.
"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.
"How do you always manage to find yourself in messes?" Annabeth asks sighing.
"It's a gift," Percy replied smirking.
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.
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, 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.
"For paying attention!?" Needless to say that athena did not happy.
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. She had
come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.
"I wonder why he had a nervous breakdown?" Thalia looks at Percy as if he knew the answer.
"teaching delinquent students is bound to give some people breakdowns," Percy says.
From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.
"no that's Nico," Thalia teases nico who had so far been quiet.
Nico chuckles shaking his head.
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.
One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight,
"that's horrible!" Hermes exclaims dramatically.
I told Grover I
didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."
"you need to stop blowing your cover," Frank says and Grover simply blushes.
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.
"Of course it did." Annabeth sighs shaking her head.
The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.
"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"
My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."
Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture
represents?"
I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating
his kids, right?"
"It had to be that one." Poseidon sighs shaking his head.
"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."
"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"
"KING GOD!!" Zeus thunders glaring at Percy.
"I correct myself drama queen," Percy replies and the Romans look shocked that he was speaking to a God like that.
Zeus looks angry but before he can do anything he notices Poseidon's glare and does nothing.
"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.
"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them,
right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up,
he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"
Most of the demigods looked slightly ill.
"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.
"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."
"you summed up a long war in a couple of sentences," Reyna says shocked.
"that's percy for you," Grover replies chuckling.
Some snickers from the group. 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.'"
"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit excellent question, does this
matter in real life?"
"Busted" Apollo grinned
"Busted," Grover muttered.
"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."
"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a
mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being
immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The 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?"
"How is that a happy note?" Hazel asks looking slightly ill.
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. 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.
"You're very perceptive," Hestia rells Percy who shrugs.
"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.
"About the Titans?"
"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."
"Oh."
"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept
only the best from you, Percy Jackson."
I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.
"Gor your own good percy," Grover says.
"I know that now," Percy replies.
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.
"Sounds like fun," Leo says grinning.
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. 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.
"He probably had," Hades says.
He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.
The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth
Avenue.
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. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I
wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.
"What are you fighting about lord Jupiter and lord Neptune?" Frank asks. Zeus and Poseidon's form shifted briefly.
"I'm sure it will be explained in the book," Apollo quickly replies not wanting a lot of spoilers to happen.
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.
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.
"Did it work?" Piper asks and Percy shakes his head.
"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."
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?"
That got some laughs and a blush from Grover.
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.
"Mama's boy," Ares teases percy looking angry and sneering.
"And proud of it," Percy states firmly.
"Why can't you be like that?" Hera asks her children.
"you threw me from Olympus l," Hephaestus replies glaring at Hera whom frowns.
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.
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.
"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-
painted her face with liquid Cheetos.
I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your
temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.
I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain,
screaming, "Percy pushed me!"
"Great job percy," Leo says chuckling.
Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.
Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"
"-the water-"
"-like it grabbed her-" 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 should never guess your punishment," Hermes says shaking his head and looking at Percy as if he should know this already.
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.
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."
Nancy Bobofit smirked.
I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.
"You do not want to be on the end of that stare," Grover mutters.
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," Reyna replies frowning.
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.
"Nope," Thalia says popping the p.
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.
"Really chiron?" Annabeth asks, as if Chiron were here, shaking her head.
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.
Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was
making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.
Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs.
Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...
"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.
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?"
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.
"Unfortunately you're out of luck this time," Thalia says.
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.
"I really love your kid poseidon," Hermes says chuckling.
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.
"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.
"You sent a fury after my son!" Poseidon glares at Hades gripping his trident.
"Dad it's fine, he didn't do it just to kill me he thought I had something of his," Percy says. Poseidon frowns but nods and let's go of his trident.
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.
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.
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.
"how is that natural!?" Piper exclaims and Percy just shrugs.
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. I was alone.
"That is creepy," Leo says still fiddling.
There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.
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
some-thing.
"Magic mushrooms?" Piler asks percy bewildered.
"He has a strange mind," Annabeth says sighing and Percy playfully glares at her.
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?" almost everyone asks.
I said, "Who?"
"Our teacher. Duh!"
I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.
She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.
He said, "Who?"
But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.
"You need lying lessons," Hermes tells Grover.
"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."
"No Sirius is Harry's godfather," Apollo replies looking completely serious before he and Hermes burst out laughing.
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."
I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.
"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"
He stared at me blankly. "Who?"
"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher." He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far
as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling alright?"
"now that's lying," Hermes says once he calms down.
"That's the end of the chapter. Who's reading next?" Percy asks.
"I will," Annabeth replies and Percy hands her the book.