Since Percy was coming up for a school fieldtrip, it was understandable that I was nervous. Twitchy, even. Percy didn't exactly have a great track record with fieldtrips. Lifting my head from where I was supposed to be studying, I stared into the distance and felt a breeze from what I expected to be an open window, feeling it brush against my face whilst also tasting a sort of static in the air, telling me that a storm was rolling in. Mr Brunner could see my distraction and rather kindly asked what was on my mind as he set down whatever reading material he had to hand. I had learned that Mr Brunner only ever read from paperbacks and they usually smelled old. Along with this, Mr Brunner also smelled of a rich coffee scent, and together they made a rather nice combination. If it weren't for the underlying tone of horse, it would be perfect. "Percy's going on a fieldtrip." I announced like that made everything obvious. Mr Brunner, however, understood perfectly.

"Ah yes. I can see why you might be distracted."

"Percy doesn't have a great history with these kind of things. It's like trouble always finds him." Sighing heavily, I leaned back in my seat and began to fiddle with my bracelet whilst tapping my foot against the ground. "You're going, right Mr Brunner?"

"Indeed I am, so you can be certain that at the very least I shall be able to keep my eye on Percy." Although this was slightly reassuring, it did not completely instil me with confidence so I continued to worry and fret over everything. As it turns out, my concerns were not unwarranted, because by the time Percy came back he was completely out of his mind. He was raving about someone called Mrs Dodds turning into a demon and trying to kill him with talons of some kind before Mr Brunner showed up and tossed him a pen that turned into a sword and then he turned said Mrs Dodds into pixie dust. Now I knew he was crazy, and I had no idea who this Mrs Dodds was, though Percy was insisting that she had been real and even started to get angry over the whole thing.

"Come on Lily! You know. Mrs Dodds, the pre-algebra teacher that made our lives living hell? Well, turns out she was probably from there in the first place which quite honestly would explain a lot!" But I was still drawing a blank with no clue what Percy was on about, my expression clearly telling him that I thought he was totally losing it as I arched an eyebrow at him and asked if he was feeling okay. "Stop messing with me Lils! I am not crazy!" Well, he sure was acting like it so it wasn't exactly like he was convincing me at all. Still getting nowhere with me, Percy stormed off in a temper. Bewildered and completely at a loss, I wondered if I should maybe call my mom and tell her that Percy had finally lost it.

His grades went from bad to worse and soon enough he was fighting almost every day with that Nancy girl and his mood generally never improved. Not even I could keep him in line anymore, and I just couldn't understand it. "Come on Perce, what's eating you up so bad? Maybe you just had a nightmare or something, or maybe you really are just going insane. Whatever it is, pull it together Percy! Think about mom. If you get kicked out of another school, it's going to make things so much harder for her, and I'm sick of moving around. Every time you get moved, I have to move with you!"

"Yeah? Well, nobody asked you to keep an eye on me." To this end I scowled at my brother and swatted at the general area I knew him to be standing in and was rewarded, managing to clip him over the head.

"You think I want to be shipped after you everywhere? Because seriously dude, it's exhausting and I don't exactly get much of a choice in it. Every time you move, mom has me transfer too because clearly she thinks you and I shouldn't be far from one another." Now this wasn't exactly true, because most of the time mom would ask me what I wanted to do and I'd say I'd go with Percy, because usually he lasted a little longer than a semester without me holding the reins on him. He was such a baby about these things sometimes. "Just get out of your head Perce and knuckle down, or something. I'm tired of hearing you whining about some teacher that never existed."

"But she did exist!"

"Oh for the love of…I can't believe I'm related to you." Pushing myself away from him I navigated the endless stream of students in order to get to my next class. Percy of course did not take my advice, and the next thing I knew I'd heard that a letter had been sent to our mom telling her that Percy would not be coming back for the next academic year. Great. Just when I'd found a school with some cool teachers that I actually got along with, and by that I meant Mr Brunner. I figured at the very least we could end the year quietly, but unfortunately, Percy's bad luck seemed to rub itself onto me and before I knew it, I too was getting mixed up in business that had me often in trouble. Mostly because people were talking about my little brother behind his back calling him crazy and a nut-job, so I would valiantly rise to his defence and I even managed to punch Nancy Bobofit in the face purely by accident. She'd been mocking Percy within my earshot so I'd stomped over to where I could hear her talking and meant to grab her, only my fist had seemingly moved on its own and knocked against her teeth, pulling one loose.

Like I said, totally an accident, but this time the blind card didn't fly and I got into trouble. Another time when I was in my dorm, I got turned around whilst trying to get back because someone thought it would be a genius idea to spin me around repeatedly until I had no idea where I was going, hearing them cackle until I got mad and just as I was about to yell at them, the peak of my rage and lack of patience exploded within me just as an earthquake hit. It shook the foundations of the school and I was thrown off my feet as the winds howled and ravaged from the outside. Terrified I cried out with a scream, wanting Percy and my mom at the same time because now I was blind with no clue as to what was happening even as the other kids all screamed around me. The earthquake vanished almost as soon as it hit, like it held its own breath and settled. Breathing heavily I lay flat upon my back attempting to recover myself as thundering footsteps came and went in every direction. I was only on the floor for a while before I heard the sounds of clip-clopping and next thing I knew, Grover was with me and helping me back to my feet. "I got you, you okay Lily?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. What's going on? Was it an earthquake?" But Grover couldn't answer because nobody was really sure what it was that had happened, however one thing the other students did appear to agree on, and that I was somehow to blame. They claimed that I'd gone crazy and pushed them all, slamming them into walls and the lockers which was why they had apparently ended up crumbled and an entire wall cracked. It was stupid because it was clearly a big fat lie, but the teachers didn't much care for how ridiculous it sounded. I cried out injustice, but my obstinacy only served to make them all the more adamant to be rid of me, and I think Percy's reputation impacted upon mine as they seemed to dislike me merely for the fact that I was related to him. He was such a royal pain in the ass that kid. Grover guided me back to the dorms, my hand on his shoulder to help keep me on track since I was too tired and too pissed to really take note of where I was and how many steps I had taken.

It truly sucked, because now I was on probation, and it looked entirely likely that I wouldn't be welcome back the following year either into their High School. This meant only one thing. Next year it would be public school, which was infinitely worse than this academy for many, many reasons. So after exams and the end of the academic year, I packed up my things with some help from one of my roommates, one of the kinder ones, and left Yancy Academy with a mind to never return. I felt sad about leaving behind a few things, Mr Brunner and his cool lessons and endless patience with me, but not much more than that. Oh I guess the cafeteria food, it was pretty good all things considered, probably the best I'd ever had at a school. Now I can look forward to return to public school-grade slops. Wonderful.

Since I was still mad at Percy and entirely blaming him for everything, I sat away from him on the coach home, though since he had Grover to keep him company it wasn't exactly a punishment for him. Not that my company would be entirely a reward, but still. I have an entire summer ahead to make his life a misery, so I looked forward to it and spent my time plotting and planning whilst listening to music. Halfway through something like my ninth or tenth plan to torture my little brother, the bus gave a sudden lurch and I instantly clung to my seat and tensed all over, holding my breath as I felt the entire thing shudder and jerk violently. A terrible stench filled the bus and I instantly clamped my hand over my mouth and nose to block it as I heard Percy yell out my name. Feeling the bus judder as it moved slowly to the side, I remained in my seat until my brother was beside me, telling me that it was okay and that the bus had just broken down. Okay, so I guess he wasn't totally bad. I mean, deep down we cared about each other.

When we were asked to get off, Percy insisted on holding my hand in order to lead me forwards even though I told him it was totally unnecessary but my protests fell on deaf ears and every time I pulled away he'd catch hold of me again until I just relented. "Okay, so at least describe to me what's going on around here. Is there at least a place with WiFi around?" Sadly it was not to be, however Percy did a pretty good job of describing our surroundings, which meant that I was soon painted a picture of a lonely stretch of road in the middle of nowhere with some old ladies knitting giant socks and selling fruit. I mean…that's not even the craziest thing I'd ever heard Percy describe to me so I just rolled with it. Sure. Giant socks. Maybe it was for charity or something? However, it appeared that these old ladies seemed to freak out both Grover and my brother, because when Percy turned to ask Grover something, he stopped as Grover literally felt like a ball of nervous energy beside me and I had to refrain from giving him a knock to snap him out of it, because it was seriously messing with my own nerves.

"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are. Aren't they?" Who, the fruit selling old ladies? What's Grover's deal?

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?" Percy of course meant it as a joke and in my head I was picturing him wearing these giant socks of electric blue, because according to him that was the colour of the yarn and I had to smirk to myself. Now that was something I would gladly pay to see. If I could see, that is. Grover, however, did not see the humour and said so, telling Perce that it wasn't funny at all. All of a sudden Grover announced that we were getting back on the bus, and of course I was totally at a loss as to why he was suddenly panicking. Maybe he was just freaked out by old ladies. "What? It's a thousand degrees in there."

"Come on Grover, just chill. Percy said they seemed to be selling fruit or something, I'll buy you some if you want?" But this offer only made Grover whine and whimper, already heading over to the bus as I heard him clip-clopping over and pulling the door open. Neither Percy nor I moved to follow, though he leaned in closer to me and asked who he thought the socks could be for; Sasquatch or Godzilla. "I don't know. Maybe Bigfoot?" This time Percy laughed and I could hear his grin. Just then I heard the sound of metal being wrenched free from something alongside a hiss from what I could only presume to be the smoke from under the hood, whereby the bus then spluttered back to life and everyone cheered. "Sounds like we're back in business."

"Yeah, thank god. Come on, I'll help you back to your seat."

"Don't be such a mom, I can manage." Clicking my tongue at him as I fiddled with my bracelet I pulled my headphones back over my ears and drowned out the world around me, using my hand to feel my way onto the bus then counted the seats in turn before I found the one I had previously occupied and sat back down. Feeling a sudden chill I shivered, frowning slightly but passed it off, though I rubbed at my arms because they were now all pimply and cold. Nothing much else happened for the rest of the journey, though the moment we got off the bus and had our suitcases in hand, Percy grabbed hold of me and started marching away. "Perce? What's going on? What's got you all…you know. Weird." Pausing a moment, I amended myself. "Well, weirder."

"It's nothing, I'm just escaping Grover because he's been freaking me out."

"Grover?"

"Yeah. He was all freaked out over those old ladies, just because I saw one of them cut their yarn he's all worked up about it and acting like I'm gonna die or something." What? Now I'm certain my brother was just as crazy. Rolling my eyes I slipped on my shades to hide my eyes from view so that I didn't get so many stares as Percy hailed a taxi and after we'd stowed away our luggage, we started off for home and as we neared, I couldn't help but feel excited to hug mom again.