Hidden Away

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all credit goes to the owner/creator of Percy Jackson.

Summary: Cursed so that Athena can never sense her, Annabeth is constantly attacked by monsters. At age three she was found in an alleyway by Sally Jackson and grew up as Percy's 'twin' sister. When the lighting bolt is stolen Athena slowly begins to realize that the demi-god helping Jackson is actually her own daughter.

We Vaporise A Maths Teacher, Annabeth Jackson (Chase)

I never asked to be a half-blood. My life wasn't perfect before all this happened, it still isn't, but I'm pretty sure that I wasn't in constant life threatening danger and all that. Take my advice, if you think you might be just like me and Percy then you'd better stop reading right here and leave because I don't think things are going to get better for you from here on in. I've never met someone who actually got better when their life was in constant danger and I doubt I'll see one for a long while.

My name is Annabeth Jackson, I'm twelve years old and a month or so ago I was just the smartest kid in Yancy Academy. That's a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Now, I know what you're thinking. How could the smartest kid in the school be troubled? Well, you can take a look at any point in my life and figure out why. It may have something to do with the fact that my brother is an airhead who doesn't apply himself to anything, other than getting his butt kicked by me, or it could have something to do with the fact that our lives have been hell from the very beginning.

Now, things started to go really bad when our sixth grade class decided upon a field trip to Manhattan. We're talking twenty-eight mentally challenged kids with only two teachers on a bright yellow bus that some kids have run into because they thought, and I quote, 'it was a magical ray of sunshine'. And they say me and Percy are the worst... please. We were heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to study for our history class and that meant looking at lots of ancient Greek and Roman artifacts. Percy thought it was hell, as he explained several times, but I thought it would be great. I'm not the smartest kid in the school because I hate learning. Duh.

Almost every one of our Yancy field trips have been hell for us, though. Even my optimistic mood on some occasions just got me and Percy into more trouble because they thought we'd actually enjoyed making these trips hell. Well, this trip was being led by a middle aged guy called Mr Brunner in a motorized wheelchair. He's our Latin teacher and won't stop giving me advice on what to read in my spare time so he was definitely on my good side on day one. Percy liked him because his classes were the only ones he didn't have to sleep through and because Mr. Brunner let us play games in class whenever we got bored. You can probably tell that my brother has a brain made of salt water.

Mr. Brunner has thin brown hair, an untidy beard that isn't half as bad as the ones in other classes and this nice jacket which Percy swears has the permanent smell of coffee on it even though I think of it more as a tea scent. Oh well, my brother knows his coffee so I'll just have to take his word for that. Mr. Brunner is the only teacher who my and Percy both spend time with. I go because of the large range of Roman armor and weapons that he has whilst Percy goes either to copy my homework or to play a wicked game on Mr. Brunner's computer against the ma. I'm not going to lie. Percy got his butt kicked half the time he played and it wasn't even by me.

Anyway, this trip seemed like it was going to be the first okay one of the year.

Well... I hoped it would be. You can't imagine how much I kicked myself for being wrong afterwards, and I am never wrong. Let's set the record straight, me and Percy have this problem where trouble follows us wherever we go. In pre-school we managed to get everything nailed to the ceiling, which is totally impossible for three year olds to do but we got expelled anyway. Percy had this really weird incident in fifth-grade with a Revolutionary war cannon that got us both expelled because apparently I was standing with him even though I spent all of my time by the lost ships exhibit. If you're half as smart as I am, you'll get the picture by now.

So, I had to give myself the mission of making sure Percy didn't get us both expelled for the fourth time in a row because my dream of being an architect is just going to drift further and further away if we keep going through schools this fast. Throughout the bus ride, Percy had to put up with this really ugly red-headed girl named Nancy Bobofit. She would have been after me still if I hadn't scared her off by using my credits as the smartest girl in the school to sneak a pillow full of ketchup and mustard into her room with a note saying 'you come near me again and the colour of your face will be the colour of your clothes'. That girl must love her clothes because I didn't hear anything bad from her again. In fact, I'd say she has a new found respect for me.

This time, however, it wasn't Percy she was hitting with those disgusting peanut-butter and ketchup sandwiches of hers. No. She was busy hitting our friend Grover who leeches off my homework just as much as Percy does. I never had the heart to beat him up like I do with Percy when I get annoyed because Grover is super sensitive. He's the only target easier than this weird kid in second grade who thinks all insults are rainbows. Don't ask. Anyway, Grover was a scrawny kid who cried when he couldn't do something and had been held back several grades. To top it all off, he was crippled. Being the good person that I am, my brothers opinions aside, I read up on those who had problems walking and tried to figure out a way to help him. I was fairly certain that by the end of seventh grade I'd be able to perform the surgery myself.

Now, don't let this act fool you. Grover may walk like it pains him to exist and have a note excusing him from every PE lesson for the rest of his existence but you should have seen him when they held up a notice for a flower eating contest. To this day I am certain that the man has a plant eating problem and his permanent title in the school records book for 'flower lover' didn't do him any favors. Although, for once in his life, Grover didn't seem to care about that. I've been trying to enforce that kind of attitude into his mind ever since I met the guy so I was positive that there had been a breakthrough.

I would have threatened Nancy to leave Grover alone and to pick on someone who could kick her ass any day of the week had Percy not gone and gotten us into trouble again. I'm being serious, I left him alone for one minute and suddenly we're both on probation and being threatened with an in-school suspension that will surely be the death of both of us. So, that ruled out any threats, fighting, arguing and trouble making on this trip which is a shame because I was really looking forward to humiliating Percy again on this trip.

"I'm going to kill her," Percy said quietly enough to avoid being heard by the bats of a teacher that was assisting Mr. Brunner.

Grover, gods help him, tried to calm him down with this. "It's okay. I rather like peanut butter."

Well, I could see that was going to fail right off the bat. "Try something else Grover," I whispered to him helpfully and he gave me a look of thanks after seeing how Percy looked after he had said that.

Right afterwards, he was forced to veer left to avoid another missile of Nancy's disgusting lunch choice. Even I was starting to get angry now and when I am about to get suspended I can keep my temper in check for long periods of time. But this was just insane. Percy seemed to be thinking more practically as he started to get up with a quick "That's it".

Me and Grover had to pull him back down even though I was having thoughts about going after the cow myself.

"You two are already on probation," Grover reminded him. "Think of who'll get blamed if anything bad happens."

"Yeah," I agree. "And think of who'll have a broken nose if he gets me thrown out of school again."

Percy shot me a withering look which I returned with one ten times better. We'd grown up like this with the whole sibling rivalry thing and I'll bet that if we hadn't had that we would have been really nice to each other but it wasn't happening. Brothers and sisters were meant to fight and there was no better example of this than me and Percy. Although, the fights usually consisted of a scuffle that ended with me on top apart from that one time when we fell into a swimming pool and Percy nearly beat me. I dread to think what might have happened had I not chosen that moment to hit him where it hurts.

Now that I think about it, I'm fairly certain that getting suspended from that school wouldn't have been such a bad idea. Nancy Bobofit certainly had it coming, just like the pillow incident, but another reason was that it most likely would have gotten us out of the horrors at the museum. Let me just say this for the record: it was entirely Percy's fault.

Mr. Brunner was the one leading the tour, to mine and Percy's relief, and he led us around talking about lots of interesting things. There were spears, swords and shields which he just wouldn't stop talking about and things that he would describe in Latin just for me. Everyone had gotten used to this by now as it just gave them another excuse to talk to one another. I guess that's why I never got mobbed in the corridors for being a know-it-all. Even Percy seemed to be enjoying this trip whilst everyone else was bored out of their minds which, I must say, is something I never thought I'd see outside of the dormitories.

We came to a stop beside this Roman stele which was a grave mark for a girl around our age. It was worth about two of me and Percy put together since we're the same size this year. Mr. Brunner had some really interesting things to say about it but I had to repeat everything to Percy since everyone around us was talking and he couldn't tell them to shut up because of Mrs. Dodds, our maths teacher. She had Percy pinned on her no. 1 enemy list whilst I held the spot and number two. I was actually clean for a while until I invented a joke for Percy to make him feel better after Mrs. Dodds graded one of his papers and gave me a hundred percent, as usual. Ever since she's been trying to find excuses to put me down by a mark but my work was air tight.

Mrs. Dodds was fifty years old, something I figured out whilst doing a background check that Mr. Brunner suggested when he overheard me telling Percy that she wasn't worth his anger. In my opinion, I am the only one worthy of my twins anger because I am the one who beats him senseless when he makes me mad and then gives him advice when he's troubled. It's just the typical brother and sister relationship that never dies, I guess. It took all of five seconds for Mrs. Dodds to favor Nancy Bobofit above all others and that riled up me and Percy real quick. First of all, I am the favourite of every teacher in the school because I am the one who acts the most normal. Second, she had to be mental herself to fall in love with a pug like Nancy.

Even though I hated her, the maths lessons were always amusing for me. Want to know why? It was because Mrs. Dodds would do this real dramatic thing by pointing on finger at Percy and saying in the sweetest voice she could muster, "Now sweetie," and before you knew it we were out in the corridor with Percy swearing under his breath for being given yet another month of detention. I was with Grover when Percy came in at midnight one day and said in a clear voice, "That hags not human." It was like a miracle when Grover stopped crying over what some troll from eight grade had said to him and agreed that he was absolutely right. We've been using that road to stop his crying for weeks now and I must say it's going really well.

I knew Percy's temper was about to snap when Nancy snickered in that goblin like way about the naked guy on the stele so I turned around at the same time he did and we both said at the same time.

"Will you shut up?"

Every kid in the group started laughing because we'd said it at the same time and Percy went beetroot red because of it. Mr. Brunner stopped talking to see what was going on and I guess he found the idea of giving Percy and me something else to focus on a good one.

"Jacksons," He said. "Is there something wrong?"

I was fully intent on stating that Nancy was being her usual self, witnesses be damned, but Percy could never do anything like that in front of Mr. Brunner.

"No, sir." He replied.

"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner asked expectantly.

I gave Percy an exasperated look and repeated what he'd said a moment ago. "No, sir."

Then, Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the images on the stele. "Percy, can you tell me what this picture represents?"

Percy looked at the image Mr. Brunner was talking about and I could literally see his brain click with recognition. I hoped it would too because I had spent a whole Saturday drilling those things into that thick skull of his. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

Mr. Brunner was probably hoping for an answer like I would have given because he didn't seem too impressed. "Yes, and he did this because...?"

I could see Percy struggling and elbowed him in the side where no-one could see me do it. That seemed to give him the spark he needed.

"Kronos was the king god, and -"

I elbowed him harder.

"Titan," He corrected himself. I could see Mr. Brunner smile at me out of the corner of my eye. "He didn't trust his kids, the gods, because he thought they would be too powerful for him so he ate them all. But his wife hid baby Zeus and when he grew up he tricked Kronos into barfing up the other gods-"

"Yuck!" said one of the girls behind us.

"- and then there was this massive fight between the gods and the titans and the titans won." Percy finished.

I was actually proud of him. It only took me two elbows to get him to remember all of that and usually it would take me stepping on his foot or giving him a hard punch in the gut to finally get him to cough it up. Maybe going on field trips that you enjoy really does have a good effect on people. Even Percy. I'll bet it didn't help him when the other kids snicked at him, though. Some people behind me saw me elbow him in the side and I felt like barfing myself when I saw Nancy, of all people, give me an approving look. I returned it with a rude hand gesture and her face went as red as the ugly hair on her head. Instead, she muttered to her friend. "Why do we need to know this rubbish anyway? It's not like our employers are going to ask, 'Why did Kronos eat his kids'?"

"But why Mr. Jackson, to rephrase Mr. Bobofit's questions, does this matter in real life?"

Percy looked at me the second after the question was said and it was pretty obvious that he didn't have a clue what was going on. Mr. Brunner saw this too and so he asked me instead. That's another of the reasons why I always liked him as a teacher.

"Because any and all knowledge can help you in life and in life threatening situations this is the stuff that can make the difference between life and death. Or, if you are looking for work, a good job or a bad job," I answered smartly and Percy sent the smuggest look of his life back to Nancy. She must hate me almost as much as she hates Percy by now.

Mr. Brunner smiled and nodded. "Good answer, Annabeth. Well, half-credit to Percy since I did not fail to miss the way your sister helped you out there. Yes, Zeus did indeed feed Zeus a mixture of mustard and wine to make him disgorge his other give childen. All of whom, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up undigested in their fathers stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him into thousands of pieces with his own scythe and scattered his remains into Tartarus, the darkest part of the underworld. With that happy memo, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, could you please lead us back outside?"

We were half way to the door, dodging the boys who were shoving each other about like the dimwits they were, when Mr. Brunner stopped us. "Mr. Jackson!" He called, making Percy stop and I couldn't exactly go on because of the grip he had on my sleeve. He probably thought there was a question that he needed me to answer for him. I kept my gaze away since it was obviously a conversation between him and Mr. Brunner that I was not going to be able to get away from.

"You must learn the answer to the question," Mr. Brunner said in all seriousness and I could feel his intense gaze on Percy even when I was looking elsewhere.

"About the titans?" I could have killed him right then for being such an idiot.

"About real life. Learn the answer from your sister by heart if you have to but remember that what you learn from me is vitally important. I will expect you to treat it as such. Only the best is expected from you, Percy Jackson."

I'm fairly certain by the way that Percy had my sleeve in a death grip that he wasn't able to get angry about it since when he does he just lets go and turns to face the person who made him angry fully. I always found that to be the stupidest thing in the world since that just exposes all of your body to your opponent and will get more harm caused to you than if you were facing them sideways. Not to mention, you'd be able to hold your own if they slammed into you and kept enough force in your legs. This is why I always beat him in fights. Percy seriously needs to learn how to learn the important things in life. The first of which being common sense.

Percy muttered something about 'trying harder in the future', which I didn't believe for a second, whilst Mr. Brunner handed me a book about the gods and their histories before looking at the stele with a saddened look on his face. Anyone would have thought that he'd been to her funeral himself but I have said this one and I will say it again. I am not the smartest kid in the school for nothing. Grover was waiting for us when we left Mr. Brunner after he'd told us to go for lunch. When Percy had been called back and stopped me with him he'd told Grover to move on in that silent language of theirs. I was about three steps from cracking it at this point in time.

Lunch was being 'served' on the front steps of the museum. It wasn't a pretty sight for any mature person. We walked past several wrestling matches, a 'blind' Mrs. Dodds who still managed to glare at Percy and me and Nancy Bobofit who was trying to pickpocket something from a poor, unsuspecting older woman. I put a stop to that in a heartbeat by doing something I've always wanted to do. I decked Nancy Bobofit. Mrs. Dodds was actually looking the other way for once and one threatening look was all it took for Nancy to keep that large trap of hers shut. Percy and Grover gave me hi-fives as we went to sit on the edge of the fountain, far away from all of the commotion.

I wasn't sure if anyone else but Percy noticed, but there was a nasty storm cloud spreading through the sky a few miles away. The press put the whole thing down to global warming when they couldn't ignore it after a major flooding that claimed about fifty peoples lives. There was this thing I always had inside of me that I could never force down and it was that the lightning somehow seemed familiar. Percy didn't like it much but I put that down to me tormenting him when we were younger about his fears. I kept having these strange dreams where my own voice would be saying to me 'lets follow the lightning and see what's on the other side'. I thought I was going insane or something for a while.

"Detentions?" Grover asked, looking at each of us in turn. Even I was no stranger to detentions but for once Percy had not gotten me into trouble with him.

"Nah," Percy said. "Not from Brunner, at least, though Mrs. Dodds has been giving me the evil eye lately. I just wish that he could lay off me. I'm not a genius like Annabeth - I think he expects me to be just because she's my twin."

It could have been my imagination, but I was sure that I saw Grover flinch at the word 'twin'. He glanced at the sky as though he was thinking that lightning from the storm a few miles away was going to come and strike us all down. I passed it off as Grover's fear of everything. How wrong I was to ignore something that my intelligent brain was screaming at me to notice. That's what you get from a bad influence like Percy.

Out of the blue, Grover said, "Can I have your apples?"

Me and Percy gave him the ones that we had in our lunches since neither of us were that keen on fruit or vegetables. A healthy living was advised and what my mind said was the best thing to do but an unhealthy diet with a healthy lifestyle of exercise was enough of a balance for me. It all worked out perfectly and I shoved all those little voices to the little blank space at the back of my head. Percy had said many times that it didn't exist but those thoughts had to go somewhere.

I noticed that Percy was spending a lot of time watching the cabs drive by Fifth Avenue and I knew exactly why. That's where our mom's apartment is and neither of us have seen her since Christmas. Percy wants to go there to see her and to get away from all of the things around here but I want to go there to protect her from that step-father of ours named Gabe. He smells bad enough to take down a fully grown bull elephant and his gambling games often call for my assistance since I know whether someone is bluffing or not. I've learned to just decline and threaten never to help him again to get him off my back for the day when his friends are over.

Percy was in the process of unwrapping his sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared like a hag in a rainstorm in front of us with her group of worshipers behind her. I guess the decking incident put her in the mood to annoy my brother since she couldn't get back at me. My temper flares so quickly it's a second faster than Percy's. It's because my intelligence mixes in with the anger and tells me to do something as fast as possible, so I do. She dumped her half eaten lunch right in Grover's lap and I was ready to murder her. I could be my own lawyer if the worst came to the worst.

"Oops." She grinned a disgusting smile at Percy and it is safe to say that my brother lost it right then and there.

The school counsellor had been to see us a million times this year but it never stuck and so was the case this time. However, nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. I was facing the other way at the time but I definitely heard the sound of rushing water and the next thing I knew Nancy was sitting in the water fountain behind where we were sitting. Not one of us three had moved an inch.

"Percy pushed me!" Nancy screeched from behind us and like a bat to it's offspring Mrs. Dodds materialized out of nowhere.

The maths teacher went to check on Nancy whilst me and Percy had stood up from the fountain wall and gave each other confused looks. The other kids around us where whispering things that made no sense.

"Did you see -"

"- the water from the fountain -"

"- went right over them -"

I had no idea what they were on about and Percy obviously had no idea either. From 'them' I knew they meant me and Percy since Grover never got involved in things like this and Mr. Brunner was looking from Percy to me like he'd just seen a ghost. What had we done that was so amazing and fearful? So, anyway, Mrs. Dodds made sure Nancy was alright before rounding on the two of us. She looked like she'd just got the shock of her life and I couldn't understand it. Believe me, I never like not understanding something no matter what it is. Behind her shocked stare was also a look of triumph. Had she been waiting for Nancy to fall in the water fountain all semester?

"No, sweeties," Sweeties. She never said that. It was always 'sweetie' this and 'sweetie' that when referring to Percy but this time she was referring to the two of us. In case she hadn't noticed, Nancy said that Percy pushed her in the pool and not me.

Grover looked ready to wet himself.

"I know, I know," Percy said. "A months detention each." He said it so casually that I couldn't resist the urge to glare at him. Since when did he not think that us both getting into trouble from Mrs. Dodds was normal?

Turns out, like so many other things Percy has done, that was not the best thing to say in this situation.

"Come with me. The pair of you."

"Wait!" Grover shouted just as we turned to leave. I was amazed and so was Percy. The man had never shouted before in his life and here he was doing it right now. "It was me. I was the one who pushed her, not them." Now I was shocked beyond my dreams. This was something you didn't see every day. What was strange was that Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. He couldn't even talk to her straight.

Our maths teacher glared at him down her crooked nose. "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood." She said in a clear and stern voice before looking back at us. "Now, my dears."

My dears? I've never heard her say that before. Grover looked ready to protest but Mr. Brunner stopped him. I didn't seen him move closer or notice that he was beside us until right now. I would have considered the idea that my blonde hair had hidden him from view if it wasn't all tied up in a pony tail for today's field trip. Percy was busy giving Nancy a death stare so I looked up the museum steps and was surprised to see Mrs. Dodds already standing up there. What the hell? How did she move that fast? Last I checked, a fifty year old could not move that fast. She gestured impatiently for us to come along.

I elbowed Percy in the side and the moment he saw Mrs. Dodds his eyes went wide. He must have noticed how fast she moved too. We started climbing the steps one by one together.

"How did she get way up there in a few seconds?" Percy asked in shock.

I shook my head at him. "For once, I don't know. Maybe she's been doing a workout or something in her spare time?"

"No workout could make a fifty year old move like that."

As much as I didn't want to, I had to agree with Percy on that one. Something just wasn't right about this and we both could feel it. We both looked back at Grover and found him waving sadly at us with an apologetic look on his face and Mr. Brunner had once again become engrossed in his novel like nothing had happened. I was beginning to think I'd imagined the shock part I saw in their eyes. Once that was done, we continued after Mrs. Dodds who had moved once again. She was headed inside the museum now.

This was probably the part where she made Percy but Nancy something from the gift shop and made me buy something for her aswell which was totally unfair since I didn't actually do anything. By the time we caught sight of Mrs. Dodds again, she was headed inside the gallery and we followed. I had thought that there would be many people observing the gallery at this time of day but there was nobody else in there aside from us. My brain said something was out of the ordinary right away but I shook it off. I was focusing on staying still when mine and Percy's ADHD meant that we couldn't stay still for long periods of time.

Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed over her chest in front of a frieze of the greek gods. I was more interested in looking at it than at her.

"Now, dears," She said, giving the frieze a strangely hateful look. "You've been giving us troubles."

"Yes, ma'am." Percy replied stupidly. Didn't he even want to know why she had said we were giving her and someone else troubles? Or why a maths teacher wanted to destroy a frieze of the greek gods?

Something inside of me jerked when she started to take off her cuff-lings. "You didn't really think you could get away with it, did you?"

She had this evil look in her eyes and I decided to step in before Percy could cause any more damage. "Get away with what?" I asked with slightly narrowed eyes. No teacher should have a look like that in their eyes.

The entire building shook. "We are not fools, Jacksons." She said. "It was only a small matter of time before we found you out. And now, we have. Confess and you will both suffer through less pain."

Now I was starting to get cautious. Percy was giving me a look that said he was getting wary too. I was hoping that she had figured out how many times I'd fought with people just because they were calling me names for one time in their lives but that seemed unlikely. Those people tended to move away with an excuse of the school being too disrupted for their learning. That was partially correct.

"Well?" She demanded. "Either of you?"

"Miss, I'm afraid we don't..." I am cut off.

"Your time is up!"

That's when my nightmare really began. Her body began changing into something entirely new. Her back snapped and cracked as it was changed and her fingers turned into large talons whilst wings flew out of her back like knifes cutting through butter. Her eyes were like the black holes you read about in books and the jacket she was wearing sizzled like it was on a frying pan then merged with the wings to make them all leathery. In the end, there was only one thing my mind registered. Mrs. Dodds was not a human being and she sure as hell wasn't a nice monster to be with.

Everything happened so fast after that. Her yellow stained fangs were barred at us in a threatening manner and we started backing away when Mr. Brunner, who would have had a hell of a time getting up those steps this quick in a wheelchair, appeared in the doorway.

"Percy! Annabeth!" He threw an object to each of us as he shouted our names. To Percy he threw a ballpoint pen and to me he threw a bronze knife that didn't look like it had been made for chopping up cooking ingredients and was always on Mr. Brunner's belt when he was doing a demonstration in class. We caught them both our of reflex and the ballpoint pen changed into an intimidating sword the moment it hit Percy's hand. Once again that day, we shared a look of shock.

We were forced to dive out of the way when Mrs. Dodds flew right at us and her talons almost slashed us to pieces as we rolled on the floor. Me and Percy stared at her wide eyed from our crouched positions even as we started to move. She came back around for another attack but I am fairly certain that she didn't expect me to duck under her talons and slash her belly open in just under two seconds flat. Percy slammed his sword into her body and she fell from the sky and just like that our maths teacher turned into a pile of dust on the marble floor.

Me and Percy were frozen to the spot. I thought she had turned into a pile of dust on the floor when actually the dust had just disappeared. We were both stood in silence for a long time before I noticed two things. One was that the ballpoint pen was now a ballpoint pen again and the second was that the knife that had been in my hand was gone. In it's place was a card that said 'have a nice day!' on it and was from the museum gift shop. I'd seen it in the window as we walked in and thought nothing of fit back then. I am the first one to break the silence.

"What the heck just happened?" I asked, not believing my own eyes.

Percy slowly shook his head, his mouth hanging open. "I... I don't know. It must have been our ADHD. Right? Things like that don't just happen."

I nod my head once, slowly. "Yeah... yeah, that must be it. In some extreme cases people have been known to hallucinate."

"Do people hallucinate about the same thing?" Percy asked nervously.

"Sometimes," I reply quietly. "Let's just... go back outside."

So we did. Anything to get out of the gallery where we'd just had what we thought at the time was a hallucination caused by our ADHD. Mr. Brunner hadn't been in the doorway when we'd looked and he was back outside reading his book once we got there. Grover was sitting by the fountain again, looking at a piece of paper he'd retrieved from his pocket whilst using a map to shield his head from the rain. It seemed that whilst we'd been inside the storm had spread to the museum and the surrounding areas. Nancy was standing in a puddle looking like a drowned poodle whilst muttering to her 'worshipers'.

When she spotted us she seemed happier than before. "I hope Mrs Kerr gave it to you good!" She said.

Percy blinked and I frowned. What? Ever the blunt twin brother, Percy point blank asked Nancy what on earth she was talking about but Nancy just called him a weirdo and went back to her friends. We looked at each other with identical frowns on our faces and then walked over to Grover to ask him the exact same thing. Everyone knew that he could not lie to safe his life. However, when we did, he just replied that she was a teacher we had. I asked where Mrs. Dodds had gone.

"Dodds?" He asked with a frown of his own. "We don't have a teacher named Mrs. Dodds, Annabeth. Our maths teacher is Mrs Kerr."

My temper snapped like that. "This isn't funny, Grover. We're being serious." I said but Grover just gave me that fearful and confused look he always had on when I lost my temper.

Percy spotted Mr. Brunner in his wheelchair sitting under that umbrella he had and we both walked over to him. By now we were both utterly speechless from confusion.

"Ah, my pen, Mr. Jackson. In future, do remember to ask your sister for a writing utensil and not me. Oh, and the card I picked up from the gift shop." He said.

Wordlessly, he took the card from my hand and Percy handed his over like a mute moron.

"Sir," Percy began uncertainly. "Where did Mrs. Dodds go?"

"Who?" He seemed to think this was some kind of joke or that we had gotten the names of two people mixed up.

"Mrs. Dodds," I said for Percy. "The maths teacher. You know, the one who was assisting you on this field trip. Where is she?"

Mr. Brunner gave me a concerned look. "Annabeth, there was no Mrs. Dodds on this trip nor has there ever been one at Yancy Academy. Are you two feeling alright?"

Me and Percy shared a look for the hundredth time. No. We weren't feeling alright at all. We were never going to be feeling alright again.