A/N: Hey, I'm back with another chapter! For those of you was were waiting so long, I'm deeply sorry! I've been so busy with my other stories and my college life, I've had almost no time. Also it's discouraging to see that I don't have any reviews for this story or that no one will take part in my little contest. But I've decided to keep going. So enjoy the chapter and please review (positive ones)!


Confession time: Hinata and I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.

I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"

Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, we got my suitcase, slipped outside, and were caught the first taxi uptown.

"Are you sure we should be ditching him like this?" Hinata asked with a guilty look on her face.

While putting our luggage in the trunk of the taxi, I said "I know we promised to wait but he's seriously scaring me, aren't you scared too?"

She looked at her hand, the one she had gripped Grover's collar and a concerned expression came to her face "It wasn't until he gripped my hand so tightly, giving me that look of desperation and fear, that I became scared" Her lips formed a thin line as she looked back at me "Whatever he knows is making him fear for our lives. Don't you think we should try talking to him again?"

I bit my lower lip. She was right, whatever Grover knew was making him scared for us, it's true that I want to figure out what's going on but I feel like the truth will scare me more that Grover had already have.

"I want to know too b-but lets just go back to my place and relax. We can ask him again when he calms down" I said closing the trunk.

I look at Hinata and she gave me one of her looks. She had a different look for everything and right now that look was saying 'you're running from the problem' and I'm not going to lie because I am. But this was just too much for me right now.

I gave her a pleading look, after a minute that look on her face softened . She sighed "Ok, fine. We'll wait until things cool down a bit"

I smiled, we both got into the taxi "East One hundred and fourth and First" I told the driver.

A word about my mother, before you meet her.

Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.

The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.

I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.

See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important jour-ney, and he never came back.

Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.

She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never com-plained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.

Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick-named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.

Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.

Hinata and I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.

"This place is a dump" Hinata whispered and I agreed with her

Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."

He looked up and his eyes widen when he saw Hinata standing next to me. He leaned back against his chair as if he was trying to get away from her "You brought that girl here?!"

Let me explain, the first time Hinata met Smelly Gave was about 3 months after we became friends. Right then and there I knew she didn't like him. He tried to act all sweet and innocent in front of her but she could see right through his phony act. There was a time where they got into an argument, when it got pretty heated Smelly Gabe tried to slap her but things didn't go his way.

To make a long story short, he ended up with a broken arm, which I was pretty happy about. They went to court because of it and of course Hinata won the case because it was in self defense. After that, she was still allowed to visit us but Smelly Gabe couldn't put his hands oh her or else he would end up in jail.

I did my best to contain a smirk from coming to my face "She's staying with us for the week, mom and her parents talked it over."

"Better behave yourself, Mr. Gabe, I don't think Orange is your color" she said in a mocking tone

Smelly Gabe glared intensely at her, clutching his fist. I could tell he wanted nothing more than to kick her out but he knew he couldn't. So he just looked back at his game with his face red with anger "Just keep that girl away from me"

"Whatever, where's my mom?" I asked

"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"

That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?

Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.

He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.

"You ever heard of a greeting?" Hinata asked

He rolled his eyes "Oh sorry, Hi, you got any cash?"

Hinata's eyes twitched at his response. She really hates when people are sarcastic, most as much as when they roll their eyes at her.

"I don't have any cash," I told him. He raised a greasy eyebrow.

Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.

"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"

Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."

"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.

Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony which made Hinata gag a little in her mouth.

"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."

"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"

I led Hinata to my room and slammed the door but it wasn't really my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.

I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.

"He hasn't changed one bit" Hinata stated, looking around the room "He turned this place into a garbage dump"

I sighed

She looked around the room again, then at me with a twinkle in her eyes "We should clean it"

"You're kidding me, right?"

"Nope, I'm serious but we'll do things a little different" She said.

She went to the window and opened it, sticking her out and saw a dumpster about 3 floors below us "This is perfect"

I asked "What's perfect?"

Hinata took hold of Smelly Gabe's muddy boots "Now these boots don't belong on the windowsill, Perce."

She stuck the boots out of the window and dropped them "They belong in storage, right?"

I look out the window and saw the boots were now in the dumpster. So that's what she meant when she said 'cleaning' "Have I ever told you, you're awesome?"

We started to take some of Smelly Gabe's dirty clothes, his shoes and his magazines and threw them out. I started to feel better as we were 'cleaning'. Man, pay back feels so good.

Even after all the 'cleaning', the awful smell was still in my room. Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.

But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made us promise we wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone- something-was looking for us right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.

Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy? Hinata?"

She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.

My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.

"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"

Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.

She looked over at Hinata "And Hinata, you've become so beautiful since the last time I saw you"

"Please Mrs. Jackson, I'm not use to being called that" Hinata said blushing

Being the tomboy that she is, Hinata is not use to being called pretty or beautiful. When someone calls her those things, she gets all flustered and embarrassed and her cheeks turn red. At time like those, I can't help but think she's cute when she gets like that. Of course, if I ever tell her that to her face, she'll probably hurt me to cover up her embarrassment

We sat together on the edge of the bed. While Hinata and I attacked the blueberry sour strings, Mom ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters and explained to Hinata where she'll be sleeping during her stay here. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?

I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.

From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally how about some bean dip, huh?"

I gritted my teeth.

My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.

For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her Hinata and I wasn't too down about our expulsion, that we still on being in the same school together. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends and kept my old one. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.

Until that trip to the museum ...

"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"

"No, Mom."

I looked over to Hinata, I knew she was thinking the same thing I was. I could tell by how her eyes darken a bit and her hands were clutched on her laps.

My mom turned and looked at her "My dear, did something scare you too"

Hinata clutched her fist tightly like she was trying her best not to tell my mom anything, she forced a smile "I'm fine, Mrs. Jackson"

I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.

She pursed her lips. She knew we were holding back, but she didn't push us.

"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."

My eyes widened. "Montauk?"

"Three nights-same cabin."

"When?"

She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."

I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.

"And Hinata, you can come with us" Mom said to her

Her eyes widen with surprise written in them. During the first year of our friendship, I told Hinata about Montauk Beach and how special it is to my mom and me. Sending three days there with two of the most important people in my life, this day may turn out to be not so bad.

"Mrs. Jackson, I appreciate the offer but this sounds like more of a mother-son thing. I don't want to ruin that." Hinata said

"It's ok" I told her "It'll be great having you there. Besides its better than staying with Gabe"

She thought about it for a moment "Well, when you put that way" She smiles "I'd love to come with you guys, thank you"

Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"

I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.

"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."

Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"

"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."

"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."

Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"

"Yes, honey," my mother said

"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."

"We'll be very careful."

He glances at Hinata "And you'll take that girl with you?"

Hinata softly growled, my mom laid her hands on Hinata's, their eyes met. Mom was silently telling her the same thing she did with me. "Yes honey, I think it would be nice to take her with us"

Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kids apologizes for interrupting my poker game."

"Say what?!" Hinata angrily said aloud

Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.

But my mom's eyes warned us not to make him mad.

Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?

"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."

Hinata just bowed her head to him and said something in what I think is Japanese

"In English, girl" Gabe said

She rolled her eyes "I said I'm very sorry, Mr. Gabe"

Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in our statements. "Yeah, whatever," he decided.

He went back to his game.

"Thank you, kids," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"

For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.

But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.

I looked over at Hinata "What did you really say?"

She smiled " I said 'I'll apologize when you learn what a shower is'"

We both laughed and high five each other

An hour later we were ready to leave.

Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags and Hinata putting her own to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.

"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."

Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.

Watching him lumber back toward the apartment build-ing, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair-case as if he'd been shot from a cannon.

Hinata must have been watching me because I heard her gasp besides me "Perce, how did you?"

Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.

I took her arm and quickly got us into the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.

"Wow, this place is...something" Hinata muttered as she was looking around

Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

I loved the place.

We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.

As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.

We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. Mom said since Hinata was our guest, she didn't have to help but she did anyway. She was cool like that. As we were cleaning, she looked out of the window and enjoyed the sunset. Sometime ago, Hinata told me that the sun made her feel safe. She never know why, it just did.

After cleaning, we walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work. Mom said Hinata's hair color almost looked like the blue jelly beans and Hinata just laughed.

I guess I should explain the blue food.

See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.

When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told us stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told us about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.

"I know you'll earn enough money soon, Mrs. Jackson!" Hinata said as if she was stating it as a fact

Mom smiled "Thank you, Hinata. When my books come out, I'll give you the few for free!"

"I look forward to it!"

After that, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.

"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."

Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."

I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.

"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"

She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."

"But... he knew me as a baby."

"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."

I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile

I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me ...

I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.

"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"

She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.

"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.

Hinata gave me a glare and my mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."

Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said that it was best for me and Hinata to leave Yancy. "Because I'm not normal," I said

"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe." She looked at Hinata as if this involved her too "...we thought both of you would"

Hinata looked confused "We?"

"Your parents and I, Hinata. We thought you and Percy would be safe there"

"Safe from what?"

She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.

During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.

Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.

In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. People thought I was crazy except for Hinata because she said the same thing happened to her.

Hinata told me when she was five, her family went to their cabin in the woods. According to her, while she was picking berries from the trees around the area, there was a wolf, the kind you would see in the coldest of places, looking at her. Her parents never believed her. They also didn't believe the time she saw a woman, who wore a dress of leaves, turn into a tree.

I knew we should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about our weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword in order to protect my friend. But I couldn't make myself tell her. And I made Hinata promise me not to tell her until I was ready. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.

"We've tried to keep you two as close to us as we could," my mom said. "They told us that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Kids-the place they wanted to send you two. And I just... We just can't stand to do it."

"So, Percy's father and my parents wanted us to go to a special school?" Hinata asked. She looked very confused and I couldn't blame her, I was just as confused as she was.

"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."

My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?

But there was one thing I realized "Mom, does dad know Hinata's parents?"

She looked at the fire unsurely, as if she doesn't know whether to tell us or not "Yes...he does...but-"

Hinata shrugged "Well then it's simple, all I have to do is call my parents and-"

"Sweetie, Percy's father...knows your other...parents"

Suddenly the fire got a lot hotter and bigger, like someone just added fuel to the flame. Hinata's expression darken the moment my mom said that "I see"

I looked from my mom to Hinata and back "Um...what does mom mean by 'other parents'?"

She angrily threw her stick with the blue marshmallows into the fire and stood up, glaring at the fire "It's not like it's a big deal or anything."

"What's not a big deal?" I've seen her angry before but not like this. She wasn't yelling or trying to hit something, she just stood there.

"I'm adopted..."

I felt my heart skip a beat, my eyes widen in shock "You're what?"

I didn't need her to tell me she wasn't going to repeat herself, the look in her eyes said it all. She excused herself, saying she wasn't feeling well and went back to the cabin

I looked over to my mom "Mom, how...what is-..."

"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. All I can say is W-We couldn't send you both to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."

"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."

She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.

That night I had a vivid dream.

It was storming on the beach, and four beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. A crow seem to be trying to stop the eagle, shrieking at the eagle and a dove just flapped it's wing above, watching the whole thing quietly. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. The eagle recovers, going back shrieking loudly at the crow and dove, but just the crow bravely shrieked back. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!

I woke with a start.

Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse, dolphin, dove or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.

I looked around and saw that Hinata had looked like she just woken up like me. Her eye were wide, she was sweating and frantically looking around the room. It made me wonder what if she had the same dream as me?

With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."

I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.

My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.

Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.

"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you two thinking?"

My mother looked at us in terror not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.

"Percy, Hinata.." she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. Hinata seem to be having the same problem because she kept rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"

I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...

My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"

I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me. She looks over to Hinata and she told her the same thing from her view. Mom's face became deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.

She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. All of you. Go!"

Grover ran for the Camaro but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.