Hey guys I had to go over this chapter again to sort out the damn bold bits but yeah. Sorry for the false alarm!

Hey guys, sorry about the last chapter, it wasn't meant to all be in bold but for some reason it was.

My mum took my laptop because it was exam week so I haven't been able to do much except for sneaky school time stuff. I also went to Spain, Sorry! Then when I got back my mum took my laptop again because I have to revise for another GCSE (three actually. French, Chemistry and Physics.) She also doesn't approve of me "wasting my time" writing. Basically lots of personal issues.

After Annabeth had dealt with Conner she went to go sit down again. Her mind on Percy. It was always on Percy. Now that they were reading the books she remembered how she's treated him and how she'd embarrassed him. Used him. She felt terrible. Percy. She sighed.
"Annabeth?" Thalia asked.
"Yeah?" Annabeth asked/answered.
"Travis is reading. Are you listening?" Thalia asked again worried.
"Yeah, yeah." She nodded at Travis to read.

Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death

"An old person knitting is creepy." Leo agreed and was greeted by weird looks.

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.

Those who knew him well laughed and rolled their eyes.

This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me.

The Stoll's shared a look.
"No." Katie whispered in their ears.

The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr – a perky blonde woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip – had been our maths teacher since Christmas.
Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was a psycho.

"Well that explains it." Thalia sighed mournfully.
"Explains what?" Hazel asked.
"Why he acts crazy! He was treated like he was crazy and now..." She grinned evilly.
"He's not crazy Thalia." Annabeth muttered. She didn't like talking like this to her best friend but she also didn't like Thalia talking about Percy like that. At least not when Percy wasn't here to defend himself.
An awkward silence followed until Travis continued.

It got so I almost believed them – Mrs. Dodds had never existed.

"Yes she did!" Nico sang.

Almost

"Grover! I'd bet." Conner whispered.
"No way, who would stupid enough to take that bet?!" Travis whispered back.

But Grover couldn't fool me.

Conner and Travis smirked at each other.

When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.

"Oh Grover." Thalia sighed with a slight smile.

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.

"No duh!" Leo laughed. Annabeth frowned at him; Leo didn't even know Percy yet... Unless in the future... New hope sparked in her heart.
"He can be so thick sometimes!" Hazel laughed.
"And then he will come out with something smart!" Frank continued.
"And then freak us all out!" Piper finished laughing.
"In the future you've met him?!" Annabeth asked her heart beating fast. Those from the future shared a look. Those from the middle past (If that makes sense...) watched them their humour gone for the moment. The Gods looked down confused.
"Can we please continue? I'd like to know what happens." Hestia asked quietly from the hearth. Everyone turned to her just realising she was there.

I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.

All the demigods shuddered. Imagine having a fury as you first monster?

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood.

"Why would the weather affect his mood?" Leo asked. (A/N what's the difference between effect and affect?)
"Maybe because his father is angry, so is the weather and it's affecting him? Making him angry too and considering what's happened so far it's not surprising." Piper whispered to the demigods. Annabeth nodded.

One night a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room.

Poseidon growled.

A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.

Poseidon gripped his seat.

One of the current events we studied in social studies class was unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.

Zeus glared at Poseidon but was ignored.

I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time.

"Hmm, it seems as if he is reflecting the weather." Athena muttered to herself thinking.

My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.

Athena frowned momentarily forgetting the issue of Percy's father.

I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.

Those who felt protective of Grover smirked as did Ares.

I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.
Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was so lazy to study for spelling test, I snapped. I called him an old sot.

Annabeth allowed herself a small smile.

I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.

"It means old drunk." Annabeth laughed. Those from the future looked at her. They hadn't really seen her like this. Even on the Argo II when they had found Percy they had still been too preoccupied to really relax. The other demigods laughed and rolled their eyes. (A/N when I refer to the demigods it includes Rachel and Grover.)

The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, to make it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.
Fine, I told myself. Just fine.

"Oh Percy." Nico smiled.

I was homesick.
I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.

"I thought he liked his step father." Frank said.
"This is the old one." Annabeth sighed. "So you do know Percy?" She pinned him with a look.
"Uh..."
"Yes we do. We are from Camp Jupiter." Hazel answered for him.
"And you three?" She asked Leo, Piper and Jason. They looked at each other.
"Annabeth." Nico said. "We can't reveal too much of the future.
"Why are you with them Nico? Are you one of the Seven?"
"No... It's just... Look I can't really tell you much. I'm sorry." He looked pained so Annabeth let it slide realising she wasn't going to get much out of them.

And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who's been a good friend,

"Thanks Perce." Grover smiled. Hazel and Frank looked at Grover.
"Why is a faun there?" Frank asked.
"SATYR!" Grover bleated.
"Fauns – Satyrs – have different jobs at Camp Half-blood." Jason explained. They just nodded.

Even if he was a little strange.

"Gee thanks Perce." Grover rolled his eyes. Everyone smiled at him.
"We're all a little strange." Katie said.
"Although some more than others." Piper said with a pointed look at Leo. He just grinned as if it had been a compliment.

I was worried how he'd survive next year without me.

"Not well." Grover sighed referring to his time.

I'd miss Latin class too – Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.
As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.

"Aww. That's sweet." Piper smiled. She received some weird looks. "What? It is!" Aphrodite smiled down at her daughter.

I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.

"Good boy." Athena said. "Trust your instincts."

The evening before my final, I got so frustrated that I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.

"I hate dyslexia." Was heard from the demigods.

There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,

"He does now." Annabeth smiled slightly at the memory. Even though at the time it had been terrifying, the quests had been kind of fun. It meant she had gotten to know Percy better. Poseidon frowned slightly at that.

Or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.

"It's not that hard." Hazel insisted.
"Yeah they're pretty easy." Frank agreed.
"But then again he's Greek." Jason said.
"So am I but I can do it!" Annabeth said.
"Yeah but you're a genius child of Athena." Thalia said rolling her eyes.

I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.

"Not a pleasant experience." Conner and Travis agreed.
"Tell me about it." Leo muttered. Living on the streets meant he had been open to the elements, including all kinds of bugs.

I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.

"No pressure then." Piper murmured.

I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.
I'd never asked a teacher for help before.

"No wonder." Athena muttered.

Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat 'F' I was about to score on his exam.

"Aw Percy wants to impress Chiron." Rachel smiled along with Annabeth, Katie, Hazel, Piper and Thalia.

I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.

They all shared another small smile.

I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.
I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... Worried about Percy, sir."

"Enter eavesdropping Percy." Thalia said.
"He eavesdrop that much. Only on Titan's or other enemies in his dreams." Annabeth defended.
"Which is like, every one of his dreams." Nico sighed.
"His dreams must really suck." Leo said wrinkling his nose. The other nodded to show how much that statement was true.

I froze.
I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you not to try listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.

"Fair point." Katie admitted.
"She's agreeing with something ethically wrong, I think you're getting to her Travis." Conner whispered to his brother.

I inched closer.
"... Alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, they know too –"
"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."

"Yeah like that'll ever happen!" Grover scoffed.

"But he may not have time. The Summer Solstice deadline –"
"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."

"He never got rid of his ignorance." Rachel laughed quietly.
"Especially when it came to girls." Annabeth agreed. Now everyone who knew him well laughed.

"Sir he saw her..."
"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."
"Sir, I... I can't fail my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."
"You haven't failed, Grover." Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's worry about keeping Percy alive until next autumn –"
The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.

"Percy!" Travis and Conner groaned shaking their heads. Almost everyone else sighed in exasperation.
"Cut him some slack! He just heard someone talking about how they had to keep him alive!" Hazel defended him. Annabeth shot her a friendly smile which she returned.

Mr. Brunner went silent.
My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed away.

"He's finally doing something right!" Travis said.
"Clean evidence, get out of sight." Conner agreed.

A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Mr. Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller that my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.

"Why is Chiron in centaur form?" Clarisse muttered.

I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.

"Good. Hiding's good." The Stoll's nodded their approval.

A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door.

"Hey!" Grover protested while everyone else tried to stifle their laughter.

A large dark shape paused in front of my door, then moved on.
A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.

Some people wrinkled their noses at that.

Somewhere down the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing." He murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the Winter Solstice."
"Mine neither." Grover said. "But I could of have sworn..."
"Get back to the dorm." Mr. Brunner told him. "Got a long day of exams tomorrow."

"Ugh! That is so the worst bit!" Grover muttered.
"Yeah well we all have to go through it." Leo reminded him.
"Yeah but do you have to do it over and over and over and –" Grover whined.
"Only if you're a stupid as Leo." Piper smirked while she ruffled his hair.
"Hey!" Leo complained.

"Don't remind me."
The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.
I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.

"Good, wait till all witnesses are gone." Conner and Travis continued.
"Yeah, we get it! There is a certain etiquette to being a Son of Hermes, or a thief or whatever! You do not need to point it out continually!" Katie sighed exasperatedly.

Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.
Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.
"Hey." He said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"
I didn't answer.

"Good –" The Stoll's started but were silenced by Katie's glare.

"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"
"Just... tired."
I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and stared getting ready for bed.

"Won't help, he'll just read your emotions!" Leo sang.
"You're talking to a book and besides it's the past as in unchangeable." Piper replied.
"Yeah well we're in the past aren't we?" Leo smiled triumphantly.
"Yeah I've been wondering about that. Won't these books change the past/future?" Annabeth contributed. Suddenly (A/N I was so tempted to write "Suddenly a wild squirtle appears!") another bright light left a note:

Dear Godly friends and ickle demigods,

I realise this may change the future but you guys will only remember this little catch up session once such events have come to pass. Which means future's you remember everything! Middle guys, you'll remember most things and Past pies you'll remember nothing! Stay godly gods! Stay cool mini gods! Apollo!

"Were the Olympians just called Past Pies?" Zeus thundered. (Sorry I had to put that in and I don't know why I called them past pies...)
"Were we just called mini gods?" Leo asked chuffed.
"We were also called Ickle." Frank said.
"You're definitely not ickle." Leo muttered to himself.
"Back to reading?" Travis asked. There was a murmured assent.

I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.

The demigod's nodded in understanding.

But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.

The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.
For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.
"Percy," He said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's... it's for the best."

"He's gonna take that the wrong way." Annabeth sighed.

His tone was kind but his words still embarrassed me. Even though he spoke quietly, the other kids still finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made kissing motions with her lips.

"I'm really starting to hate that girl." Frank growled. Others nodded in agreement.

I mumbled, "Okay sir."
"I mean..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say.

"He does the same in centaur form." Grover smiled.

"This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."

"Chiron!" Almost everyone groaned.
"Someone teach Chiron how to do pep talks!" Hermes moaned.
"Percy'd be perfect to do that." Thalia said.
"Yeah, he's the best at that." Clarisse agreed. Everyone looked at her. "What!" She demanded.

My eyes stung.
Here was my favourite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all tear, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.
"Right." I said trembling.
"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh confound it all. What I'm trying to say... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be –"
"Thanks." I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."
"Percy –"
But I was already gone.

"Told ya so." Annabeth sighed.
"No one doubted you." Thalia cracked a smile.

On the last day of term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.
The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month.

"Our holidays are way more interesting." Thalia smirked.

They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities.

"Like me." Piper murmured.

I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.
They asked me what I'd be doing for this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.
What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazines subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd to school in the Autumn.

"I think that was Merriweather (A/N I think I spelled/spelt that wrong and what is the difference between spelled and spelt!?)." Annabeth mused while smiling and blushing. Everyone looked at her confused.

"Oh." One of the guys said. "That's cool."
They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.
The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover

"Thanks Perce." Grover smiled.

but, as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had

"Stalker." Conner coughed inconspicuously.

So there we were. Together again, heading into the city.
During the whole bus ride,

"Damn bus rides." Grover grumbled.

Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.

"Another part of the job." Grover sighed.
"Technically it's our smell." Thalia said.
"Which is my job, to smell you out." Grover replied.

Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Enter blunt as a stick Percy." Rachel sighed.
"Sticks can be whittled to be sharp." Leo pointed out.
"Which makes him so deadly." Nico grinned.

I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

"Very blunt." Jason noted.

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat.

"I nearly jumped out of my hair." Grover grumbled.
"Don't you mean fur?" Leo asked.
"Shut up."

"Wha – what do you mean?"
I confessed about eavesdropping

"Percy!" Both Conner and Travis moaned.
"Boys!" Katie sighed exasperated.

On him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.
Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"
"Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"

"So he heard everything, basically." Rachel shrugged.

He winced. "Look, Percy … I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"

"Sure, 'hallucinating' almost as bad as the magic mushroom theory." Clarisse muttered.

"Grover-"
"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and …"
"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."

"True." Thalia agreed.

His ears turned pink.
From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."
The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:

Grover Underwood

Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800) 009-0009

"Why would you make it like that?" Athena asked Dionysus frowning.
"Have you seen them trying to read it?!" He said smiling.

"What's Half-"
"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."
My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.
"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."
He nodded. "Or … or if you need me."
"Why would I need you?"

"Ouch." Leo murmured.
"He probably didn't mean it like that." Thalia said.
"Yeah, he probably was confused. Most people aren't needed but wanted. For some it's the other way round." Annabeth agreed.
"But for Percy, he's both." Grover smiled.

It came out harsher than I meant it to.

"See." All three of them said.

Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."

"He won't think of like that." Katie said.

I stared at him.
All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.

"See." Katie smiled, repeating what the others had said.

"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"

"Oh you know, monsters that want to eat you, maim you, kill you in many gruesome way or maybe kidnap you for some other monster to-" Frank started to say until Hazel cut in, "Yeah, we get it!"

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

"Stupid buses." Grover said again.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.

"Don't go into the light!" Leo yelled suddenly.
"Shut up Repair Boy." Piper sighed.
"As you wish Beauty Queen."

We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

"Mmmm, food!" Grover sighed. The others laughed.

The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.

"WHAT!" Annabeth shouted. "Grover is those are the Fates..." Grover gulped, he was so dead.

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

Annabeth gave Grover a hard look but he could see the panic in them – just because you saw the fates doesn't mean you'd die straight away...

All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

"Don't be looking at him. Don't be looking at him." Annabeth chanted to herself.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.

"Oh gods." Annabeth moaned. Thalia scrunched up her face. Nico breathed through his nose calmly. The others from the seven were wide eyed, How is he alive? Was on all of their minds. The other demigods went pale.

I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

This is what he looked like now.

"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"

"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"

"They are." Leo murmured unhelpfully.

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"

Everyone groaned. Oh Percy all of them were thinking.

"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.

Annabeth jumped up suddenly, her chair falling back. "Grover Underwood –"
"Annabeth! He's fine... Well he's still alive where we come from." Piper soothed.
Annabeth searched for a trace of charmspeak in her words but couldn't find any.
"I can – well could when we're – you know – on Olympus – feel our empathy link."
"Yeah." Hazel cut in. "Don – faun at Camp Jupiter – told Percy that he had an empathy link with another faun." Annabeth glanced uncertainly at the others.
"Ok. Ok." She breathed. "Carry on Travis." All the gods looked slightly confused at what the demigods were saying.

"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."

"Yes go" Annabeth pleaded.

"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."

"JUST GO!" Yelled almost everyone, since tensions were running high. The gods were really getting into the story.

"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.

"How is he alive?" Jason asked, unable to stop himself. "Oh gods – sorry –"
Annabeth held up a hand. "It's fine."
"Percy has a knack for getting into and out of these situations." Thalia sighed.
"We'd noticed." Hazel sighed.
"Oh just you wait." Nico told them.

Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for – Sasquatch or Godzilla.

"Godzilla." Leo said.
"You're on." Conner told him, smiling.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

"What a coinkydink." Katie said dryly. Then she noticed all the weird looks she was getting. "What!?" She demanded.

The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.

Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling me?"

"A lot." Frank said. Grover frowned at him. "What? You're not!"

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"You know, just his life cord being snipped!" Leo told the book.

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodds, are they?"

His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.

"Oh so much worse." Jason agreed. Then he winced. "Sorry, not helping."

He said, "Just tell me what you saw."

"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."

"He says it so casually." Piper said amazed.

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.

Everyone looked impressed that he'd picked up on that.
"He's... intuitive." Athena mused.

He said, "You saw her snip the cord."

"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."

"What last time?"

"IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT!" Thalia and Annabeth shouted simultaneously at Grover.

"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."

"That's a little dramatic. I mean we're all still here." Conner and Travis protested.

"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."

"He won't." Those who knew him well said.

This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.

"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.

"Not quite boy." Dionysus growled.

No answer.

"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"

"He's on a roll." Leo smiled.

He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.

"Well that was just lovely!" Travis said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

There was an awkward moment of silence and then, "How about a break?"

I am super sorry guys! And should I bring in a younger Percy and Annabeth? Or just a younger Percy? Or not at all? Super sorry!