When Alessia woke up, she was in back at Yancy, in the clinic. The lights and white-washed walls didn't help the roaring headache that appeared alongside consciousness, and she blinked rapidly to acclimate. The nurse, whose name she couldn't be bothered to remember, quickly rushed over.

"Miss Mason, you're awake!" The woman's high-pitched voice echoed like a bomb throughout her head. As if to save her, Grover poked his head into the clinic.

"Alessia," he smiled, "I'm glad you're awake."

Alessia smiled weakly in response, and held up two fingers in a 'peace' gesture. "Yo."

"We were all so worried when you hit your head on those steps, Miss Mason." Yet another voice came from the door as Mr. Brunner rolled in, his kind, relaxed smile instantly putting her at ease.

She frowned. "That's not what..." A flash appeared in her mind as her headache flared up. Thinking about that hurt, it seemed... Another thought flashed through her mind, suddenly. "Where's Percy?"

"Percy?" Her Latin teacher asked. "I don't believe there are any students by that name here."

Alessia nodded slowly. "Uh-huh... Nobody named Perseus Jackson?" Confusion was all that showed on the two's faces.

"You sure she didn't get a concussion, Miss?" Grover turned around, his goatee flailing in the air behind his face.

The woman snorted. "I don't get paid enough for that," she said as she walked out of the room, pushing a cart of what looked like ice packs in front of her. Grover turned back around slowly, eyes wide with surprise.

"O...kay then."

Grover was many things: A good friend, a badass on crutches, someone who you most definitely did not want to be in the way of on enchilada day, but a good liar was not one of them... And Alessia could see no signs of a lie on his face. 'Did I get a concussion? Or am I just going insane...?' She shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts, and immediately regretted it when her headache flared back up.

Grover became alert at her groan of pain. "Do you need anything? Water?"

"Please." The boy left for the cafeteria. As soon as the door closed behind him, Alessia looked at her wheelchair-bound teacher. "There's something you're not telling me."

Mr. Brunner sighed. "Indeed... The board has decided that you aren't..." He paused, as if looking for the right words. "...a good fit for the school environment at Yancy."

"So, I'm expelled." Alessia replied bluntly.

Her teacher nodded. "I wouldn't put it like that, but yes. They're asking that you leave once you're feeling well."

"I'm feeling quite fucking fine," She spat as she swung her legs off the bed... which promptly buckled as soon as she put any pressure on them. She groaned as she fell back onto the bed, defeated.

Her teacher didn't react to her profanity, other than seeming slightly amused. "So it seems. Maybe you'd like to rest just a few more minutes until young Mister Underwood can get you some water." Alessia nodded with her eyes squeezed shut. "I'll leave you to rest until he comes back."

The door shut, and the lights dimmed. Alessia opened her eyes. Her bag was right beside her bed, and she dug through it, looking for something in particular. It wasn't her earbuds, not her iPod... It wasn't even the marine biology textbook she had smuggled out of the library months prior. Something poked her finger... That was it! She pulled it out. It was creased around the edge, but it was definitely...

A photo of her, Grover... and Percy. His wavy black hair, his sea-green eyes... They were definitely real. She laid back on the bed, breathing a sigh of relief. So... she wasn't insane. That begged the bigger questions... Where was Percy, and why was everyone acting like he didn't exist?

Walking away from Yancy wasn't that bad. In fact, she flipped off the school as she left without turning around. Grover had wanted to come with her, but there was no way he'd be back in time for classes.

But... She was still dreading going home. It wasn't that she'd be seeing her mom; no, she was excited about that. It wasn't even disgust at having to share a living space with her stepdad.

No... it was going to be the disappointment on her mom's face as she told her she was expelled from yet another school. She'd tell her, her mom would let out a sigh of defeat, and say, "Well... that's their loss then. The next school will be lucky to have you." It was what she had said the last six times.

She slipped out her phone. It was small, old, and had a cracked screen, but hell if it wasn't hers. The screen came to life, the light dimmed. She checked her battery percentage and cursed. Only twelve percent left. That would have to be enough.

She opened up a web browser and typed in 'Human turning into bat". Of course, the search returned Batman and Dracula. She rolled her eyes, then refined her search. 'Human-bat monster'. The top link was a Wikipedia link to "the Furies". She clicked on the link just as they went into the Queens Midtown Tunnel, and lost her internet connection. She cursed quietly.

"Murphy's Law, hun," A lady across the aisle said, nodding.

Alessia cracked a half-smile. "One day I'll have to find this Murphy guy and teach him a thing or two about things going wrong." The two both laughed quietly, still drawing some glares from the rest of the passengers on the Greyhound, most probably dreading going to work just to do it again the next day. She turned her phone off as she waited for the bus to clear the tunnel. Thanks to Manhattan's traffic, it would probably take a few minutes.

The windows brightened, and Alessia pulled her phone back out. The page on the Furies loaded, but she was now down to eight percent. She frowned, but read through quickly. They were servants of the Greek God of the Underworld, Hades, and served as his tormentors. It all sounded so weird... But then she saw a picture of a marble sculpture located in Athens - it might as well have been a photo of Mrs. Dodds herself!

'Maybe it's some sort of... of weird mutation. Some government serum or something.' She tried to reason, but it sounded weak, even to her. She clicked on the hyperlink to Hades. Down to four percent. Honks directly outside of her window in the bumper-to-bumper traffic made her wince. Her headache from before hadn't entirely abated yet, and fighting her dyslexia, even though it was a low-level, was taking its toll on her.

Something the man that looked like Percy had said... "Tell my uncle hello"? She tried clicking on the family tab, but... Geez, the Greek Gods loved to bang... And, also, incest, she noted. Hades, for example, was married to his niece. It was far too complicated to go through all of them, especially considering how many children one of the brothers, Zeus, had.

She tried a new search. 'Greek Perseus'. Another Wikipedia link showed up, and she clicked on it. This time, it was a disambiguation article. 'Did you mean the hero Perseus, or the god Perseus?' it read, providing links to both. Alessia tapped on the hero Perseus' link first, and she quickly slid through it. But... nope. Perseus died of old age, and the description didn't fit anyway.

She swiped to go back, and then tapped on the other link. It took a while to load, but, finally, 'The Greek God Perseus was originally a-' she started to read before the screen went black. For a second, Alessia didn't register what had happened. Then... it settled it. She cursed again. She slipped her phone back in her bag and fall back onto the seat, scowling.

Update schedule is becoming less and less "every Sunday" and more like "whenever I can muster up the willpower to write"... eventually, the hope is I'll get back on schedule, though. Although, next chapter of Magic and Marvel will probably come before this, and those are always longer and drain me heavily. Wanted to get this out tonight, though.

Enjoy, I love you, and I understand if you're mad at me.

- PJO Fan Power

Extra note: Six months in! We're halfway there, woaaaah, living on a prayeeeer