Chapter 4- Bird Lady is our Teacher

Recap: "That's it Lorelei! To the office!"
"You can't do that!" Percy objected.
"Do you have a problem Percy? Then you can join her,"
"Percy…," Grover warned. Percy reluctantly remained seated as I left the classroom giving him an 'its ok I understand' look. Was it the right thing to do? No, but I had fun doing it!

I got a little lost finding the office, but someone guided me there. The principal gave me this long drawn out lecture on how I was kicked out before from many orphanages, and how my mothers will so badly wanted me here, and blah, blah, blah. In the end, the principal said that this one act of infamy wouldn't count. The halls became noisier as classes ended and were filled with other students. I only listened to the tapping of my cane on the ground echoing against the walls, I couldn't see very far and with everyone walking. It messed up my senses.

"Well, well, well," I guess I was passing evils territory, because Nancy Bobofit was standing in front of a door with a few of her friends. "I've been waiting here. Percy and the weakling Grover can't defend you. They went off searching for you," I blinked as if to say 'and, your point is' my countenance angered Nancy. "I'm a little mad at you for getting me in trouble like that," I tapped my cane on the floor as a sign of impatience.

"Is this going anywhere? I have places I'd like to be, and your attempt at scaring me isn't working," her face flushed red as she grabbed the cane from my hands and broke it over her knee, I heard it snap in two and then the two pieces drop to the ground.

"You won't be going many places without that stick," she said smugly, and her friends laughed

"No she won't, which is why you'll be giving her money to pay for another one," Nancy's friends scurried away at the sound of the voice. It was Mr. Brunner. He had walked out when Nancy broke my cane in half. Nancy was furious "You'll also be walking to the principal's office explaining how her cane was broken in half. Go now Nancy," I bent down and felt around for the remaining pieces. "Will you be ok without that for a while Miss Lorelei?" I smiled at Mr. Brunner; he had always been so nice to me unlike Mrs. Dodds.

"Yes, I'll be fine…" I said holding the wrecked cane in my one hand. I stood up, and then dropped one part of the cane on purpose, just to make sure I was facing Mr. Brunner. The cane rolled and hit something. "Sorry," I said. I reached and my hand hit something that felt like a wheel. I moved my hand a little and picked up the cane. Mr. Brunner laughed

"Yes, I am in a wheelchair," I turned a bright red

"Oh… I uhm," he laughed some more

"It's alright child, is there anything you need?" I looked down a little embarrassed

"I was wondering if…if there was a music room at all here,"

"Yes, Percy knows where it is, you can ask him,"

"Can I ask another question?" His pause said yes, "Why did you choose Percy as a-," he laughed. My questions always seemed to amuse Mr. Brunner. I didn't know why.

"I suppose that question was bound to come up eventually. I chose Percy, because I thought the two of you had something in common," something in common? I thought a little confused. Besides the fact that Percy and I were both delinquents, I didn't know what else we had in common. Then again, I've only known the boy for a couple days. "Don't forget, the field trip is tomorrow," I nodded and headed off. Well, I attempted to. I didn't make it that far. I decided to walk along the wall and tap it as if I was bored with the back of my hand. Percy soon found me, and I was glad that he did; otherwise I would've been wandering around the place for forever.

"Lorelei, we've been looking for you," apparently Grover was there also.

"As was I. Listen, I was wondering, is there a music room around somewhere?" Percy's face was puzzled

"Uhm…yea I'll show you,"

"I'll come too," Grover sad. I thanked them as I slowly followed. I wondered if Percy and Grover were annoyed at how slow I was walking. I tripped a few times, but never completely fell over. I memorized how many steps it was until we made the first right, the next left, straight, how many stairs there were, and again how many steps to the second right. Then on the left hand side, the fourth door down was the music room. There was a plaque and I rubbed my fingers across it. What I interpreted was 'Nwcle' but I'm sure it said 'Music'. I acted like I knew how to read brail in front of Percy and Grover. When I stepped in, I smiled widely, inhaling the smell of piano keys, instrument strings, the brass, and silver of woodwinds, sheet music, and the ink on them.

"Why are you so happy?"

"It's been so long since I've been near any type of music. I didn't know I missed it so much," I nearly whispered. "Thank you, Percy." then I turned and started to leave.

"Wait, that's it? You're not gonna play anything or-,"

"No, I just wanted to know where it was," Whether Percy was upset, or confused I couldn't tell. It might've been a mixture of both. Truth was, I didn't want anybody around when or if I was to mess up, or to play beautifully. Either way I just wanted to be alone when I was to play. Before I knew it, it was the next day and Percy was basically holding my hand through the museum. Mr. Brunner was drilling Percy with questions about the Greek gods. I went ahead with Grover, when Mr. Brunner asked him to stay behind for a lecture. When Percy came back to where we were sitting at the fountain, he told us Mr. Brunner expected the best of him. That's when Nancy and her group of bandits came standing before us. Nancy started throwing pieces of peanut butter sandwich and Grover. I was upset, but Percy's patience was worse than mine, he quickly stood up but Grover pulled him down.

"Don't worry about it, I like peanut butter," he tried to pacify him. Nancy then came over and started teasing me and making fun of my blindness. My fists clenched, but I withheld myself. I didn't care that she was making fun of me, but when she said 'no wonder your parents probably got rid of you and sent you here' I snapped. I stood up and yelled at her, screaming words I didn't even know. I thought I said something in a different language, it might have been Latin, or German, or something. Then she started backing away and picking on Grover again, but I was still in a rage. Percy got irate at Nancy also. As I reached for Nancy he stood up and next thing we all knew, she was soaking wet. All was silent except for the whispers of children saying

"Did you see that?"

"The water it like-,"

"It looked like it grabbed her," our fury slowly settled down. Then the awful Mrs. Dodds came along.

"What happened here?" she said. Nancy faked tears through her sopping clothes

"Percy and Lorelei pushed me!" she whined. Mrs. Dodds pointed her bony finger at Percy.

"Now, now Honey, come along," I didn't see her angry countenance meaning for Percy, and Percy only, so when I started to follow she sent me back. While Percy followed Mrs. Dodds, Grover told me how he was close to being expelled…again. So there was one more thing Percy and I had in common, we were both expelled from many schools, or in my case orphanages. I stumbled to where they were, following Grover's directions that were far from accurate.

"Mrs. Dodds, this isn't fair I was the one that pushed Nancy, Percy was trying to stop-," Percy was on the floor in terror. Mrs. Dodds had transformed into some bird type monster, with talons sharper than the words that cut me saying

"Die Percy!" she screeched. There's no way I'd let another person die right before me. "And you'll be next Lorelei!" Then I heard Mr. Brunner's voice somewhere nearby.

"Here Percy!" he threw a blazing sword that was once a ballpoint pen to Percy and he caught it. He slashed at the monster that was Mrs. Dodds. She screeched a painful yell, as the cut slashed through the teacher. She disintegrated into a dark powder. I fell over the sound hurting my ears, and started feeling around not knowing what was going on. I fumbled around like an ungainly idiot, as if Mrs. Dodds was on the ground. I backed up against a wall, and shut my eyes for some reason. I have no idea why, it's not like I could see. I didn't know if Mrs. Dodds was alive or if Percy was dead. I didn't hear his voice.