Percy Pov

"Hey, man. What's up?" I passed Grover through the hallway.

"Nothing much. You?" he said, pausing in his steps.

"I have to go see Ms. Dodds. Most likely about my math grade." I sighed. "I'll see you later."

He nodded, as he turned around and started walking the opposite. "Good luck, Percy."

I headed over to the math classroom. Ms. Dodds, my least favorite teacher, was in there, correcting work sheets. I knew one of them was mine. When she saw me entering, she stopped correcting and sat there with her hands folded on her desk, waiting for me to approach. I handed her my pass.

"Percy, your math is definitely not improving," she looked me in the eye, definitely not pleased as she handed me back my worksheet. "This question is simple. You just have to find P by simply first starting with order of operations, then…" she went on and on, raving about how you need to do multiplication first, or something. My mind always mixes up x's and +'s.

"So," Ms. Dodds concluded. "I just explained everything." She pointed her red pen at the question. What is P when A is equal to 32 and R is equal to 3 in P + A - R + 16 x 15 + 12 = 302? "Now, can you tell me what P is equal to?"

"Uh, well…" I tried to think, but all I could hear was the slight buzz of the heating. "You need to first do 15 x 12? Wait no…16 x 3?"

Her frown told me I was wrong. "Percy, I can't just explain every question to you. I'm basically doing your work! Just insert P in the equation! Do you know which goes first –multiplication or addition?"

"Addition. I mean, multiplication. So 15 + …no x…" my head ached as it tried to comprehend the x's and +'s. This question was too complicated. How could I figure out this problem? How can I insert P in this situation if I can't even insert A and R? "It's too hard."

"I will not take that for an answer. It isn't an excuse. You're going to need a new math tutor. I am tired of explaining every question for you. You need to figure out your own problem."

My math tutor right now explains everything so fast that I can't keep up with the steps of the formulas. My last tutor didn't do much but sit around and watch me stare down at my paper. My mom and dad are always too busy to teach me, and I never bother to ask.

I didn't want to irritate Ms. Dodds any more than I just did, so I did the safest thing. "Yes, ma'am."

"Let me see if I can find anyone…" she put on her glasses and flipped through her papers as I stood there uncomfortably. "How about…Malcolm? Wait, he's already tutoring someone else. I don't think he has time…"

It seemed like there was no one else. After 30 minutes of going through all the possible choices, we had nothing accomplished.

"I don't know what to tell you, Percy. You have to pass math. It's one of the most important subjects in life," Ms. Dodds said, putting her papers back in the drawers. She looked through her class list, double checking just in case she missed someone. She took off her glasses and looked at me sternly. "Well, we'll wait for now, but if you can't find a tutor until next week, we'll have a problem."

p~p~p~p

"How was it?" Grover asked me at lunch.

"Well, I have to find a tutor before next week." I explained everything to him, as he chewed on his enchiladas.

"Maybe you can find someone in my Nature Club," Grover suggested through a mouthful of cheese. Grover is a member of the Nature Club, and they learn about saving nature and those kinds of things. He's pushed me to go, but that would mean losing time for fishing.

I shook my head. "We already looked through everyone, including your Nature Club. Either they're already tutoring someone else, or they have no time."

"I'll tutor you," Conner offered. "2+2=4."

We sit with Conner, Travis, Beckendorf, Nico, Frank, Leo, Jason, and Michael. Clarisse, Katie, Thalia, Juniper, and Hazel sit at the table next to us, but for some reason Piper wasn't there today. I noticed because Jason kept glancing over his shoulders to the girl's table.

"Where's Piper?" Jason complained. He has a crush on her. She's in all my classes, so that's how I know her.

"I have no idea. Wait –didn't she volunteer with the others to show the new girl around, or something?" Frank remembered, knitting his eyebrows.

"Oh yeah! She mentioned that to me yesterday, how there was going to be a new girl. She volunteered to give her a tour today. Isn't she from Europe?" Jason questioned, looking around at us.

"London," I confirmed. "That's why Piper wasn't at fourth period."

"The new girl? Well, we all know here that I'm a free man," Leo joked, his mischievous smile growing wider.

"Well, you're probably still going to be a free man when you're 50," Nico joined in, as everyone else laughed. "Remember how you thought the new girl last time was going to be yours? Turned out she was a nose picking nerd. This one probably isn't going to be any better," he stated, as we all agreed.

"Hey guys! What was the homework for English again?" Silena slipped into an empty seat next to Beckendorf. They like each other, but Beckendorf hasn't given up the courage yet to ask her out. We pressure him, but he always says maybe later.

Beckendorf's cheeks colored. "I, uh –well, I think it's, um…"

"Just read do the first 5 pages of the packet you were assigned," Jason helped him.

"Oh, yes. Yes, I meant to say that. The first 5 pages of that packet," Beckendorf managed to snag his voice back.

"Thank you Charlie!" Silena winked at him as he blushed, while Jason had a Oh, so I did nothing look.