A/N Hey guys it's me, Sarah, again. So my friend Alexis written from another point of view during the same time go check it out.. It is an adventure story with different characters.

story/10972500/A-minor-situation-The-book-Reading-from-the-Past-from-another-point-o

K thx bai


Chapter 2

Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death

Grover knew exactly which event this was. Nervous as he was, he started reading.

"The Fates," the gods realized. Whoever saw the string snip would be in grave danger. Assuming they did snip the yarn thread, but by the way the story was going so far it was very likely.

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. 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 students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond 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 pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.

"The Mist confused even the greatest of minds, Percy," Poseidon told him.

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 psycho.

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

"Except she did," Leo said, staring at Percy with his eyes wide.

Almost.

"So stubborn, it actually paid off," Annabeth scowled.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Percy asked nervously.

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

"Stupid goat," Dionysus muttered.

Unfortunately, Grover's super-ears sensed it. "What did you say?" He paused. "Oh, um, Lord Dionysus?"

Dionysus didn't answer, so Grover kept reading.

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

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.

Jason sighed. "The start of the demigod dreams... and nightmares."

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.

A lot of glares were sent towards Zeus.

"What?" he said, getting fed up with all the glares.

"Just because your master bolt is missing doesn't mean you can ruin the world," Hades said like he was reciting something, and a lot were shocked that Hades actually cared about mortals.

I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.

"That's not good," Poseidon said, even though grades were the least of his worries.

Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.

Some gasped.

"Woah Percy, even I would go that far," Grover told Percy.

"Sorry," he replied. "I guess school isn't that good for Percy Jackson," he smiled sheepishly.

Athena shook her head. How could her daughter possibly be close to this Seaweed Brain?

The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.

Fine, I told myself. Just fine.

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.

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'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.

I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.

"Of course his classes would be the one he would be interested in," Dionysus grumbled.

As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. 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.

The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.

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

"Ew!" Hazel cried.

"Uh, aren't you best underground? Which means insects?" Piper asked.

"But, inside my shirt? No way!" she shrieked.

Mental note: Hazel does not like bugs. Glad the Stoll brothers aren't here. Speaking of weird company...

I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes.

"Now I realize it! It's because he is thousands of years old!" Percy realized.

Grover did a mental facepalm. And he would have if he wasn't reading the book.

I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.

"Again!" Percy said, exasperated at the reminded of the expectation he had to live up to.

I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.

I'd never asked a teacher for help before. 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. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.

Dionysus shook his head. "Why Chiron? Why not me?"

Percy looked at him confusedly. "What?"

"Well, you obviously seemed like the troublemaker type. So why listen to Chiron and not me?" he explained.

"How do you know I don't like you? You haven't even met me before now!"

"I can sense it, Peter Johnson," he replied.

That was weird...

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."

Everybody inhales, and Grover turned red.

I froze.

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

I inched closer.

Demeter shook her head disappointingly, but Aphrodite leaned in, holding in fits of giggles.

"... alone this summer,"

Aphrodite's eyes opened wide.

Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school!

"I knew it!" Poseidon said, looked at Hades for an explanation.

"What? I didn't even know about this yet," he said.

"Yes... but you do have a daughter that we never knew of, and she's controlling the past and future!" he said as if that cleared up everything.

Hades just looked confusedly at Poseidon and gestured to Grover to continue reading.

Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"

"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."

"Too late, I'm much to 'important'," Percy says with air finger-quotes.

"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."

"Sir, he saw her... ."

"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."

Poseidon shook his head. "So close."

"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."

Thalia looked at Grover, and looked at him comforting, her face telling him it was alright, and he shouldn't blame himself for what happened in the past.

"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was.

"A pine tree," Grover choked.

Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"

The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.

"Oh no," Aphrodite said, disappointed.

There was a short period of unusual silence, and suddenly Leo started laughing. "I just realized Grover read that Percy dropped the book! Oh, I thought Mr. Brunner dropped on the floor."

"How is that funny?" Thalia glared at him.

"Oh, I just... um—"

Mr. Brunner went silent.

"Yeah, he died," Leo said, avoiding Thalia's glare.

My heart hammering,

"He died and Percy started going overdrive."

I picked up the book and backed down the hall.

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

I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.

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. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.

A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.

Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

A few confused looks. "The winter solstice? What happened there?"

"Mine neither,"

"Pan?"

Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."

"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

"Ugh, really, exams?" Piper said. "Don't you have more important things to do?"

Grover didn't respond.

"Don't remind me."

"Yeah, don't mind me," he said, a little harsher than intended.

Everybody noticed, and Grover started to read again, but a silent mental note passed around the room.

The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.

Hazel paused, staring at Grover.

"What?" he said, after a long wait.

"I just remembered a ghost story," she shudders.

"Are— isn't your dad Plu—I mean Hades? God of the Underworld? And death?"

"I don't like the dark..." she whispered, which made everyone confused, especially Hades and Frank, and that left everyone to wonder, What do we really know about each other?

I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.

Hazel shuddered again. That would have been torture for here, being secretive in the dark, alone...

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.

"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"

"Just... tired."

"The same problem you were facing, Grover," Thalia said.

I turned so he couldn't read my expression,

Grover nodded, and smiled sadly at Percy. It was only the beginning, which meant more and worse to come, and they already couldn't cope with everything.

and started getting ready for bed.

On cue, a few demigods yawned. Grover hoped it wasn't because of him, but he noticed the sun going down, filling the room with darkness, making it harder to read.

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

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.

"Because you are!" Athena said exasperated. "Can't you see?"

"Actually, I had no idea who I was or that the gods even existed. Cut me some slack, okay?" Percy said back, noting that Athena was more uncertain about him dating her daughter, being pond scum and all.

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."

A lot of gods nodded.

His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me.

Percy turned a shade of pink.

Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

I mumbled, "Okay, sir."

"I mean..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."

My eyes stung.

Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.

Poseidon sighed. He didn't experience it, but he knew how others felt when they didn't belong because of their weird ways as a demigod. He didn't want to see his son sad.

"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—"

Artemis shook her head. "I've been through my relationship troubles enough, even if it was one time, and that's definitely not the way."

There was a mutual agreement understanding between Artemis and Athena. Boys.

"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."

"Percy—"

But I was already gone.

On the last day of the 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. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.

"You shouldn't have heard that," Piper said, feeling bad for Percy. It was worse than how she was told she was a demigod.

Percy liked his friends, and was glad they wanted to help him, but the last thing he wanted was to be pitied.

Annabeth wrapped her arms around him, knowing exactly how he felt.

They asked me what I'd be doing 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 magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.

"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 good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety 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.

Thalia shook her head. "Just part of ol' Grover," then ruffling his hair.

Artemis slightly glared at Grover and Thalia, not liking the physical touches of her new Hunter in the future.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.

I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"

I confessed about eavesdropping 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?"

Grover winced. He did not want Percy to know that he attracted all the monsters in the area, and on top of that, all his failing grades and trouble as a "regular kid."

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

"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."

Piper giggled.

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

"Wait, I thought you couldn't have phones?" Jason asked.

Percy shrugged. "I guess Grover has some good satyr potatoes," he said, not meeting Grover's eyes.

"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.

Grover lowered his head, not thinking about the small consequences on faking his identity for his friends.

"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."

He nodded. "Or... or if you need me."

Artemis and Athena grunted in exasperation. How could he be so clueless? They understood that Grover was trying to protect Percy, but he needed to do it more— settling.

"Why would I need you?"

It came out harsher than I meant it to.

Grover flinched again, reminded of the bad job he did as satyr and protector.

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

"Wait, isn't that what erm, Luna does?" Annabeth asked. "So are satyrs part of her... I don't know, companions?"

"Not likely," Hades grumbled.

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.

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

Grover nervously shifted in his seat.

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.

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.

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.

Piper shook her head. "How do you observe everything in such a short amount of time?"

Percy shrugged. "Maybe I don't realize it. Maybe in the books, they add the extra details as my thoughts to— give the readers more information."

Annabeth stared open-mouthed at her boyfriend. Since when did he know anything about details and books?

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.

"It does," Jason said, slightly drooling. He contained himself. "Why blood cherries though? Also, when are we going to eat?"

The group noticed the moon up and the sun completely down. How long did they read this book for?

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.

Percy crossed his arms. "Could fit Tyson."

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.

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.

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

"Oh no," Poseidon realized.

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

"Blood, blood, why does it have to be blood?" He shuddered at the mention.

"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"

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

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

"Not funny Percy," Annabeth said seriously. "This is deadly serious."

Percy knew she wasn't joking. And, since it had already happened, he started to feel a bit guilty.

"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.

Everyone else in the room also caught their breath with Grover.

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

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

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

"I wonder who died..." Hazel wondered.

"Well, Perseus would have obviously, since he saw it, but I see that is not the case," Athena said, looking at Percy.

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.

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?"

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

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

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

"Suspicions confirmed," Leo said. "Dun, dun, dun!"

"Leo, this is serious," Hazel scolded.

"Right, just trying to be... me," he whispered.

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.

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

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

"Big deal, death," Zeus pointed out the obvious.

"Why the Fates? Are they in command of Hades or something?" Percy glared at the god of the Underworld.

"Fates are... well, fate," Hades said. "It's not the matter of life or death, but the matter of the future untold. Nothing can control fate, fate controls itself."

"Then how did Perseus Jackson survive when it was clearly fate's doing of death?" Zeus asked, suspiciously at Hades and Percy.

"I... don't know," Hades admitted.

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

Annabeth and Thalia patted Grover on the back comfortably, and the thought of Luke Castellan came up, their old friend.

"What last time?"

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

"Superstitious, 666," Leo said.

Piper didn't like that. Maybe she was a little superstitious, or maybe just the adventure of many lifetimes always occurring to her.

"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."

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

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

"Yep, see?" Leo said, pointing at the book.

No answer.

There was no answer in the group either.

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

Annabeth stared open-mouthed at Percy.

"What?"

"It's just a really good guess, but I didn't know you could predict things!" she laughs.

Percy pouts.

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

"Hmm, maybe some daisies, pink roses, and sacred lotuses?" Leo said, ticking off his fingers.

"That's the chapter done," Grover said, putting in the handmade sea-themed bookmark Percy made.

"It's so dark in here," Piper said. "Don't you guys have any lights or something?"

Grover thought she was being a tad bit rude, but we're in the past with the gods, so maybe it'll be okay. To be rude to the gods. With all they've done and all.

"Wait, why is it night?" Annabeth asked.

People stared at her.

"Didn't Luna freeze time when we came back?"

"Erm, I don't know exactly what's going on. Either she only froze the time you were in before you came, or the frozen time doesn't affect Mount Olympus. If that's the case, then it'll either probably be the same day over and over again, or resets to the day you came after you leave. Or—" Zeus rambled on.

"Or, the house is charmed to make sense of day and night and affects the beings inside. Well, I mean, not us gods since we don't need to eat or sleep," Hades said.

"Well, I feel like I need to sleep in a coma, do you have someplace for us?" Piper yawned.

We should have checked before reading. Usually, the temple was only thrones and a hearth and fancy pillars. But now, there were many rooms and the entrance was blocked, feeling like a normal home. There was a kitchen that was the size of Percy's apartment, which had a fridge of a supermarket, and many tables and chairs. There were two separate bedrooms, but they were even bigger than the kitchen. One for boys and one for girls, I guess, Percy thought.

Apparently, the gods had a sleeping-couch mode for their thrones, too.

As Percy laid in his bed, the one light Hephaestus had put in because apparently, Luna didn't like electrical circuits or light, he thought about how much work she had put into doing this for them. Was she really a Gaea spy? Percy didn't think so... not anymore.

He and the others didn't eat because it was too late and they were all so tired, Percy remembered weird things about the house, and the book.

There were exactly six beds in the boys' bedroom, and Percy guessed there were four beds in the girls.

Percy didn't like the book, but he knew it was important for them so they could save lives and make life better for everyone before everything was destroyed. He could already see how people were losing their cool and happiness, just by reading about his first adventure as a demigod. He didn't want people to worry about him, he wanted them to be happy.

He thought about this all in his head before he drifted off.