Authors Note: Uh, Hi? Yes, I know it's been a little over two years. I- have no good excuses. Please accept this chapter as an apology.
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.
"Mist. You weren't so far from the truth." Annabeth said, looking at her boyfriend next to her. Under her breath, she added, "Surprisingly."
"Hey!" Percy interjected, looking incredulously at Annabeth.
Zeus cleared his throat with a dangerous expression on his face, and continued reading.
"Drama Queen." Poseidon muttered to Hades.
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.
"You are psycho," Leo said, though he didn't really know Percy that well yet. Percy just rolled his eyes.
It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.
Almost.
"Grover," Annabeth groaned, pinching her nose in between her fingers, shaking her head.
But Grover couldn't fool me.
"Oh, Grover," Thalia sighed, looking more than amused.
When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.
"He needs lying lessons." Hermes informed the room seriously. Dionysus glared at him form over the top of his magazine.
"You will not be teaching any of my satyrs how to lie," Dionysus commanded. Hermes just shrugged innocently.
Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.
"Of course it had," Leo remarked. "I mean, what else? Do you really need to keep dropping unnecessary comments?"
"Apparently, he does," Piper said. "Now shut up, Leo."
"Also, it's not like I wrote this book," Percy pointed out.
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.
No one spoke at that. Most of them knew what it was like.
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.
There were many looks thrown at Poseidon and Zeus but the two brothers were frowning at each other. What had made them so angry? Well, Poseidon thought glancing at his son, besides Zeus being a hypocrite.
I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.
Athena raised her eyebrows and shot a disapproving look at Percy.
I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.
"Been there, done that." Luke grinned.
His siblings all shook their heads, looking slightly amused. Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him.
"I hope that was a joke." She said sternly. Her gray eyes then widened, looking surprised at what she had said.
"Of course it was, Mom." Luke said quickly.
Annabeth flushed and nodded her head, choosing to ignore everyone's gaze on her and simply put her head back on Percy's shoulder.
"You can continue to read now." She added when everyone kept looking at her.
Zeus complied, looking slightly relived.
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.
The demigods, Apollo, and Hermes were laughing as Percy flushed.
"An old sot means old drunk." Athena informed the room.
"So, Dionysus?" Hermes laughed. The God in question just looked up over the top of his magazine and glared.
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,
"Oh, a mommy's boy?" Ares grinned.
"If you meet Sally, you would be too," Thalia said. Percy shot her a pained smile, overcome with the feeling of missing his mom.
"She misses you too." Annabeth whispered in his ear. Percy shot her a grateful look and squeezed her hand.
even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.
"Men," Artemis sniffed, looking at the men in the room as if daring them to disagree. None of them did, though Ares looked as if he wanted to.
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.
"He wouldn't have," Annabeth agreed, thinking of their second quest.
I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.
As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.
"The only one?" Athena asked, looking appalled.
"Hey," Percy said, raising his hands in a placating manner. "At least I studied for one."
That didn't appear to appease Athena any.
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.
"That's good," Poseidon said, glancing at his son.
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,
Annabeth fell into a fit of giggles, looking at Percy as if he'd made the best joke she'd heard in her life. Percy was grinning at her, his eyes twinkling.
or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.
Athena shook her head in disappointment. Sea spawn, she thought.
"Dyslexia." Leo said, looking sympathetic.
I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.
I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.
I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.
Annabeth smiled at her boyfriend, giving his hand a squeeze.
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 YancyAcademy with him thinking I hadn't tried.
"Oh, Percy," Annabeth sighed quietly. "Chiron will always be proud of you."
"I know." Percy said simply.
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 feel some sleuthing about to happen," Hermes sing-songed.
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." 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.
"I knew it." Hermes said, grinning triumphantly.
"No one disagreed with you," Apollo said, patting Hermes on the arm.
"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! 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."
"Ha!" Thalia said.
"Like Percy would ever mature." Nico agreed.
Percy, the mature teenager he was, stuck his tongue out at them.
"That doesn't help your case, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth told him, looking thoroughly amused.
"Well as interesting as this conversation isn't," Hera sniffed. "I would like to get this over with."
Zeus nodded his agreement and continued.
"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline— "
"What's going to happen at the summer solstice?" Jason asked.
Piper gave him a deadpan look. "I'm sure we'd find out if we read the book." She pointed out.
"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."
The demigods all snorted in amusement.
"I don't think Chiron understands how awful a liar Grover is." Annabeth mused.
"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."
"He never failed." Thalia said determinedly, glaring holes in the book like she could tell the past Grover that.
"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"
"That'll be difficult." Nico said. Poseidon looked at his son, wondering what his child had gotten himself into.
The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.
"No." Hermes moaned. "You're going to get caught."
Mr. Brunner went silent. My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.
"Retreat. Excellent back-up plan." Hermes said, nodding at Percy in approval.
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." "Mine neither," 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." "Don't remind me."
"Ugh," Bianca said. "That's the worst".
"I agree." Leo said.
The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. 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.
"I'm impressed." Thalia said, one eyebrow raised.
"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." I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.
"He could still smell you, Perry." Dionysus said, not even glancing up from the magazine he was flipping through.
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.
"Aren't you always?" Zoe said, looking at her father fondly. Percy offered her a smile.
Zoe looked down at Grace next to her and knew that out of all of them, she was struggling the most right now. She'd always been a daddy's girl and Zoe knew that having her father right there in front of her, no matter what version it was, was upsetting her. Zoe pulled her arm around her youngest sister, hoping she could offer her a little normalcy and comfort. By the way Grace gave her a small smile, it was working.
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."
"Oh no," Annabeth said. "Chiron doesn't give the best pep talks."
"Yeah." Percy agreed. "He really doesn't."
His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. 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.
"How rude." Aphrodite scoffed.
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."
Thalia sighed, looking at her cousin. She'd always known Percy to be secure about himself. Perhaps her cousin hadn't always been the self-assured idiot she'd always known him to be.
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.
"I'm sure he didn't mean it like that." Hazel said looking at Percy sadly.
"I know." Percy told her, giving her a smile. He was more than a little embarrassed that everyone here was reading his thoughts like this.
"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—"
"Well of course you're not normal." Apollo said grinning.
"You're only the son of Uncle P over there." Hermes said, jabbing a thumb at Poseidon.
"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.
"Nobodies?" Zeus asked, looking offended.
"Yeah," Annabeth laughed. "Nobody." Percy rolled his eyes at her.
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.
"Men." Artemis said again.
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. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"
"Percy." Annabeth said, looking amused as the demigods laughed.
"What?" He defended. "I was sick of people lying to me. I wanted the truth." Annabeth shook her head at him fondly as Zeus pointedly cleared his throat to continue reading.
Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"
"I bet you really scared him," Thalia smiled.
I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.
"You should never confess." Hermes told Percy seriously.
"Stop trying to teach my son to be a criminal, Hermes." Poseidon demanded. Hermes just winked.
Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?" "Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?" 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."
The demigods chuckled at that.
"I'll say." Hermes agreed.
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 "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. "Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion." He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me." "Why would I need you?"
"Percy!" Annabeth scolded, pulling her head off his shoulder and looking at him disapprovingly. Their future children laughed on the other couch as they watched Percy spread his hands in an innocent manner.
"Yeah, not my best." Percy agreed, looking apologetic.
It came out harsher than I meant it to. Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you." 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?"
"Aliens." Charlie deadpanned. "Also monsters and gods."
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.
Oh no, Poseidon thought. What could possibly happen to him now? At least he had the reassurance that his son lived until sixteen. He probably would have had a heart attack on the spot if he didn't know that.
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. 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. 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.
"Oh." Athena said, looking at the Sea Spawn thoughtfully. If the fates had snipped his string, did that mean he was the child of the prophecy?
Poseidon looked horrified, glancing at his son in disbelief.
The other demigods were looking at Percy like he'd grown a second head.
"Uh," Percy said. "I promise that this is fine."
"How could it be fine Percy?" Annabeth demanded, anger shinning in her eyes. "If the fates snipped you string how could it possibly be fine?"
"If we're here," Bianca interjected. "Than it must be. You all know that he's our father, so if you think logically, this does turn out all right for him."
Annabeth looked at Bianca approvingly. "You're right," She sighed.
"This still doesn't excuse you for never telling me about this though" Annabeth finished, pointing a finger at Percy's chest.
"I'm sorry?" Percy tried. "I forgot?" Annabeth huffed, but motioned at Zeus to continue.
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.
"I hate trio's of old lady's." Percy mumbled.
The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me. I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching. "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?"
"Really not the time to joke, Perseus." Aphrodite said.
"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. "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.
"Why didn't you just get on the bus?" Poseidon asked, his face in his hands.
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.
All the people in the throne room looked to Percy.
"How?" Athena asked. "The fates cut your string. You should be dead by the time you're old enough to have children."
"Keep reading." Percy told them simply. Annabeth let out a gasping breath and clutched his hand tighter.
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.
Athena looked back over a Percy in curiosity. The string had been cut. How had this child survived?
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." 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.
"You are very observant to the smallest things." Thalia mused. "Considering you miss the things that are right in fornt of your face." Percy just huffed at her.
He said, "You saw her snip the cord." "Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.
"Yes, it is." Poseidon said.
"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time." "What last time?" "Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."
"Really Grovel?" Dionysus said, shaking his head. "Saytr's."
"Do you think he's paying attention?" Apollo asked Hermes. They both watched as Dionysus flipped another page of his magazine. Hermes just shrugged.
"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. No answer. "Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?" He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.
"Well." Zeus said. "That was an awful experience. Hades you can read next."
"Joy." Hades said, taking the book. "Grover Unexpectedly
Loses His Pants."