Hestia opened the book and read out the title of the chapter. She then proceeded to look at the demigods until Percy grinned back at her. She just shook her head.
"How do you accidentally vaporize someone?" Apollo asked concerned.
"When you don't know what's going on." Percy replies grinning. The Gods looked around at each other at this.
(Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.)
"I'm pretty sure each one of us has felt like that at some point." Chris said to Percy.
"Seriously?" Hermes asked concerned. The Demigods all found certain pieces of the wall and floor interesting.
(If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom and dad told you about your birth and try to lead a normal life.)
"Woah, Percy's giving some good advice." Thalia says surprised.
"Though, I don't think it will work if they did try." Will said. Percy shrugged.
(Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.)
"Yep to all of that" Clarisse says wincing. The Demigods lower their heads in mourning of the lost. The Gods frown at this.
( If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened... Don't say I didn't warn you.)
"You didn't warn us." Travis and Conner smirked. Hermes beamed at them.
(My name is Percy Jackson. I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid?)
"Yes!" The Greeks yelled except for Percy who just slumped and pouted on his couch. Thalia, Nico, and Annabeth laughed at his reaction.
"Yeah, that would be Uncle P's kid." Apollo laughed. Poseidon and Percy both were pouting now.
(Yeah. You could say that.)
Everyone chuckled.
"At least you admitted to it." Grover said to Percy nudging him. Percy grinned back.
(I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan – twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at Greek and Roman stuff.)
"That sounds wonderful." Annabeth smiles dreamily with Athena nodding her head.
"No, it sounds like torture." Conner said. Hestia continued reading before Annabeth could reply.
(I know - it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.)
"Ha! Percy agrees" Conner and Travis do a jig. While everyone except Annabeth, Athena, Zeus, and Hera nodded in agreement.
"You should be grateful to be able to learn the things you do." Athena says sternly.
"I'm sorry Lady Athena but between the ADHD and Dyslexia it's kind of hard to concentrate on stuff for long much less a museum." Percy told her.
(But Mr Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armour and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep. I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.)
"Chiron!" Yelled all the Greek Demigods. While their parents looked at them in amusement.
(Boy, was I wrong. See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.)
Everyone burst out laughing.
"What were you aiming for?!" Thalia asked wiping tears from her eyes.
"I don't think I was aiming it or anything. I was just messing around." Percy shrugged. "I shouldn't have been loaded anyway."
Artemis and Hera rolled their eyes.
(And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.)
Everyone once again burst out laughing.
"Haha, please don't ever change, kid." Apollo bit out between his laughter. Poseidon grinned, though he was slightly troubled by his son's ability to get into trouble.
"It sounds quite fun." The Sea God said.
"Well, you aren't the one the sharks are going to eat." Hades grumbles.
"Looking back on it, I think one of the sharks told me the wrong switch but I just took it for a teacher's voice." Percy said thoughtfully.
(And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.)
"No! You have to tell more." Nico says looking back at Percy.
"Fine. At some point, I'll some more stories." Percy says rolling his eyes. Nico, Thalia, Hermes, and Apollo looked thrilled.
(This trip, I was determined to be good.)
Most of the Greek Demigods snorted at that.
(All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly red-headed kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend, Grover, in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.)
"That is disgusting." Will, Leo, Gwen, and Dakota yelled out.
"It is." Grover says grimacing, remembering the smell.
"I think it tastes fine." Conner shrugs, ignoring the looks that everyone was giving him.
(Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.)
"Grover." groaned most of the Greek Demigods.
"Way to blow your cover."Annabeth said shaking her and rubbing her eye.
"You all have never tried those enchiladas. They were worth it." Grover assures them, a glazed look on his face. Poseidon wonders if this satyr would be able to his son safe with him blowing his cover every so often. Seeing the look on his dad's face, he leans over to whisper.
"Don't worry. Grover is a great Protector. You'll see." Percy whispers grinning. Poseidon doesn't quite believe it but he'll trust his son.
(Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death-by-in school-suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.)
"Not even mildly entertaining." Nico says with a raised brow. "It's like they want you to fall asleep."
('I'm going to kill her,' I mumbled. Grover tried to calm me down. 'It's okay. I like peanut butter.')
"You like peanut butter in your hair?" Piper asked grossed out
"Well, no. But I had to keep Percy from getting into trouble." Grover shrugged. "Not that it worked in the end."
(He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. 'That's it.')
"Yes!" Ares cried. "Some action!"
(I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.)
"Aw." Ares pouted, slouching back on his throne.
Clarisse rolled her eyes at how her dad was acting.
('You're already on probation,' he reminded me. 'You know who'll get blamed if anything happens.' Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.)
"To be fair, I don't think it would have made much of a difference." Grover muttered to Percy.
"That. That is a very good point. Mrs. Dodds had already been there most of the year. She should have been able to tell that the smell was me." Percy whispered back. Grover frowns at that not having thought of that before.
Poseidon frowned at the last sentence wondering just what kind of trouble his son could get into.
(Mr Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years. He gathered us around a four-metre-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting,)
"Maybe when we're done with everything going on, we can go see it together." Annabeth offered to Percy, holding his hand. He grinned back thinking how nice it would be.
Athena frowned not liking how close her daughter was to Poseidon's brood.
(but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs Dodds, would give me the evil eye.)
"Wha... You're trying to learn." Athena pointed out shocked a teacher was acting this way.
"Yea, well. She didn't care." Percy told her.
"Yeah, once a teacher decides you're too much, they just make your life miserable." The Hermes kids state while Leo and Percy nod in agreement.
(Mrs Dodds was this little maths teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last maths teacher had a nervous breakdown.)
Hades had a thought 'She sounds familiar.'
"Yeah, a nervous breakdown." Percy scoffed.
"Knowing Alecto, the teacher most definitely had a nervous breakdown." Nico whispers to Percy.
(From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.)
"No, devil spawn is Nico." Thalia smirked. "Percy is a kelp head.
"Don't go there Pinecone face." Percy and Nico snark back.
(She would point her crooked finger at me and say, 'Now, honey,' real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.)
Hades had another thought 'Very familiar'
"Surely, she had a reason?" Athena asks Percy and Grover with a frown.
"Nope." Percy shrugged for the hundredth time. "She just really didn't like me." Grover nodded.
"Especially now." Nico says smugly to Percy. All the Gods looked confused at that.
(One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old maths workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs Dodds was human. He looked at me real serious and said, 'You're absolutely right.')
"Grover!" Annabeth and Thalia both moaned, covering their faces.
"What? He was right." Grover said smiling sheepishly.
(Mr Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, 'Will you shut up?' It came out louder than I meant it to.)
"It always does." Travis and Conner both said grimacing.
(The whole group laughed. Mr Brunner stopped his story. 'Mr Jackson,' he said, 'did you have a comment?' My face was totally red. I said, 'No, sir.')
"Well, you were trying to listen." Piper piped up.
(Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. 'Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?')
"Who wants to bet it will be us being eaten by Kronos?" Hermes asks smiling at the other Gods.
"No bet." The gods say dryly. Hermes pouted. The Hermes kids just shake their heads.
(I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. 'That's Kronos eating his kids, right?')
"It's always that one." Hades grumbled.
"Ugh. It was horrible." Poseidon says as frowns.
('Yes,' Mr Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. 'And he did this because…' 'Well…' I racked my brain to remember. 'Kronos was the king god, and –')
"God!" Zeus yelled looking like he would throw a bolt if he could.
"I changed the answer. Calm down. " Percy rolls his eyes as Zeus grumbles sitting down again.
('God?' Mr Brunner asked. 'Titan,' I corrected myself. 'And… he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters –' 'Eeew!' said one of the girls behind me.)
"Try living it." Hera sniffs.
"Ew is right. " Poseidon nods.
(- and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans,' I continued, 'and the gods won.')
" 'And the Gods won.' That's it. That's the summary." Hades says affronted.
"Well, it got the point across." Percy grumbles shaking his head.
(Some snickers from the group. Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, 'Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, "Please explain why Kronos ate his kids".' 'And why, Mr Jackson,' Brunner said, 'to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?' 'Busted,' Grover muttered. 'Shut up,' Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got in trouble, too. Mr Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.)
"Horse ears actually." Chris said smiling.
"Really?" Gwen asks.
"No. They're just messing around." Annabeth answers, rolling her eyes.
(I thought about his question, and shrugged. 'I don't know, sir.' 'I see.' Mr Brunner looked disappointed.)
"What was he thinking you would say?" Thalia questions.
"Who knows?" Percy shrugs.
('Well, half credit, Mr Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs Dodds, would you lead us back outside?')
"A happy note?! The worst period of our life was a happy note?" The children of Kronos all looked shell-shocked.
"I'm sure he meant the destruction of Kronos was a happy note." Annabeth said smiling nervously hoping Chiron doesn't get in trouble from this.
(The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses. Grover and I were about to follow when Mr Brunner said, 'Mr Jackson.' I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned towards Mr Brunner. 'Sir?' Mr Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go – intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. )
"He's a bit more than a thousand years." Annabeth says playfully, pinching her fingers together. "And he probably has seen a lot of things. Not everything but a most."
"Yeah well. I know that now." He says snuggling up to Annabeth. Athena narrows her eyes at this movement, trying to figure out how this development happened.
('You must learn the answer to my question,' Mr Brunner told me. 'About the Titans?' 'About real life. And how your studies apply to it.')
"Well, someone better tell him. Cause Prissy won't figure it out on his own." Clarisse points out.
"Come on, I found out didn't I?" Percy grumbles.
"Yeah? Remind us again how you got to camp." Will says looking skeptical.
"That was not my fault." Percy says looking to the floor. Poseidon looked concerned, wondering in His name happened.
('Oh.' 'What you learn from me,' he said, 'is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.')
"Well, You can count on that." Grover says while all the Greek demigods except the newer ones nodded. Percy hid his face in Annabeth's hair. Poseidon looked around the Demigods, who would stand with his son, and smiled proudly.
(I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.)
"It was for the best." Annabeth said.
"Yeah, I understand now after everything." Percy says fiddling with her fingers. Wondering how much he would be repeating that.
(I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armour and shouted: 'What ho!' and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.)
"That's so cool!" Travis yelled sitting up.
"Why can't we do that?" Conner says pouting.
"I don't know. Why don't you look around." Nico says sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
(But Mr Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No – he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.)
"Well, It's defiantly easy to remember names and facts about them after they've tried to kill me multiple times." Percy says chuckling. "Though I do still have trouble with spelling."
" What did you say? Multiple times? What does that mean?" Poseidon asks worriedly. "How many monsters have attacked you multiple times?"
"A couple." Percy shrugs, not wanting his dad to get worked up before the right time.
(I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral. He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.)
"You two were fighting again?" Demeter says exasperated.
"Who knows with these two." Athena says.
(Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's bag, and, of course, Mrs Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.)
Everyone looked to Hermes.
"Don't look at me. Not every pickpocket is mine." Hermes says offended. "Besides no child of mine would have been seen or caught." Hermes kids beamed with pride.
"Though Percy is pretty observant." Chris points out. Travis and Conner shrug, confident in their skill.
"He may be observant but he is plenty oblivious." Rachel mumbles to herself.
(Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school – the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.)
"If you are a freak then so am I." Thalia says crossing her arms, a defiant look on her face.
"I'm pretty sure you were a freak before me anyway." Percy says grinning back at her. Happy that he has his friends by his side.
('Detention?' Grover asked. 'Nah,' I said. 'Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean – I'm not a genius.')
"You may not be a genius but I don't think most of us would be here if it wasn't for your plans." Katie says to Percy, wondering if he still felt like that.
Percy blushes and looks to the floor. Poseidon grins happily, his son has reliable people at his back.
(Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, 'Can I have your apple?')
Everyone laughed as Grover blushed.
"Sorry bout that Percy." Grover said embarrassed.
"It's fine man. I understand." Percy grinned.
(I didn't have much of an appetite so I let him take it)
Everyone from camp was now looking at him concerned. They all knew how much Percy ate and him not eating was a sign of something being wrong.
(I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.)
"Momma's boy."Ares scoffed.
"Proud of it." Percy said back unwilling to let Ares have anything over him.
"I would be too." The Greek Demigods who all met Sally Jackson said in agreement. She was their unofficial Mom of the group.
(Mr Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.)
Leo's head popped up. He got a thoughtful look on his face and took out a notebook and started jotting down ideas. Hephaestus looked at Leo with a proud glint in his eyes.
(I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends – I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists – and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.)
Everyone in the room scowled even the Romans who didn't like Greeks.
('Oops.' She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.)
Aphrodite looked like she might throw up at the description while Piper puckered her lips.
(I tried to stay cool. The school counsellor had told me a million times, 'Count to ten, get control of your temper.' But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.)
"Oh, yea! Percy's gonna get even!" Travis and Conner both exclaimed in excitement.
Poseidon smiled at Percy using his powers even unintentionally to protect his friends.
(I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, 'Percy pushed me!' Mrs Dodds materialized next to us. Some of the kids were whispering: 'Did you see –' '– the water –' '– like it grabbed her –')
"How did you not realize who his father was?" Nico asks Grover.
"We didn't really want to think of the chance it could be Lord Poseidon." Grover shrugs. "He could have been one of the minor ocean gods kids; it's what we were kind of hoping for."
"Fair enough." Nico nods in agreement.
(I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. 'Now, honey –' 'I know,' I grumbled. 'A month erasing textbooks.')
"Don't ever guess your punishment." Hermes and his kids call out. The God gave them a smile. Meanwhile, Hades had another thought 'I do know who that is.'. He glances over to Poseidon 'Not good. Not good at all.'.
(That wasn't the right thing to say.)
"No duh." Travis says in jest. Percy just rolls his eyes.
('Come with me,' Mrs Dodds said. 'Wait!' Grover yelped. 'It was me. I pushed her.')
"Thanks man." "No problem. I know you would for me."
(I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. 'I don't think so, Mr Underwood,' she said. 'But –' 'You – will– stay – here.' Grover looked at me desperately. 'It's okay, man,' I told him. 'Thanks for trying.')
Poseidon sighed as he had tried to keep Percy from going.
('Honey,' Mrs Dodds barked at me. 'Now.' Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.)
"Is she still alive?" Rachel jokingly asks. The Gods looked confused at that.
"Yes, she is still alive." Percy rolls his eyes.
"What do you mean by that?" Artemis asks.
"Oh well, usually it means that he is mad and the things that anger him are usually monsters so they end up dead. Very fast." Rachel explains.
"We know to stay out of his way when he gets like that." Katie adds.
"It's also that his glare is terrifying. It's a weapon all on its own." Nico says having been on the receiving end of it. All the Greeks and even some of the Romans nodded in agreement. The Gods looked around at each other wondering how bad a glare it is that he has.
(I then turned to face Mrs Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast?)
"Monster." The Greeks said. Everyone at camp had thought the Minotaur was Percy's first monster but apparently not. Their regard for their leader was already high but now it raised a little higher.
(I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counsellor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.)
"It's most defiantly not your ADHD." Nico says.
(I wasn't so sure.)
"You would be right." Annabeth says nodding. "You always had the best instincts of all of us."
(I went after Mrs Dodds. Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr Brunner, like he wanted Mr Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr Brunner was absorbed in his novel.)
"What is Chiron doing?" Poseidon asks crossly.
"Don't worry, Lord Poseidon. Chiron knew what was going on." Grover says trying to calm the Sea God. "Even if he didn't know, I went and told him what was happening." Poseidon calms but stays frowning.
(I looked back up. Mrs Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.)
"I wish that's what happened." Percy says scowling.
(But apparently, that wasn't the plan.)
"Nope." The Hermes kids chirped.
(I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty.)
"Excellent." Poseidon groans.
"Finally, some action. The best part." Ares said leaning in to listen close. Clarisse just shook her head at her dad.
(Mrs Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it… 'You've been giving us problems, honey,' she said.)
"Yup. That sounds about right." Chris nods. " Percy's always causing trouble for his enemies."
(I did the safe thing. I said, 'Yes, Ma'am.')
"The safe thing?!" Thalia asks Percy while the rest of the Greeks looked shocked. "What happened to the sane part of your brain in the following years?"
"I got sick of all their crap." Percy says nodding at the Gods. "Besides, my insane ideas keep us alive in dangerous situations."
"That's true. Very true." Annabeth and the Greek Demigods nod. Frank and Hazel look at each other wondering just who they were going on a quest with and if they would come back alive. Poseidon just looks like he's already done with life and it's just the first chapter.
(She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. 'Did you really think you would get away with it?')
"What's she talking about? Get away with what?" Zeus questions.
The Greek Demigods looked and each other and said "Spoilers". Zeus grumbles but leans back on his throne and keeps an eye on Percy.
(The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. I said, 'I'll – I'll try harder, ma'am.' Thunder shook the building.)
"Truly why are you so upset?" Demeter asks.
"It might have to do with what this monster is talking about." Athena works out. The Greeks look at each other surprised but feeling they really shouldn't be. After all, it is Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom.
('We are not fools, Percy Jackson,' Mrs Dodds said. 'It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain.' I didn't know what she was talking about.)
"What in Our names is going on?" Apollo asks concerned looking at his fellow Gods.
"Wait, this is how you were introduced to this world?" Rachel questioned Percy. "You obviously didn't know what was going on."
Percy just shrugs, "I've just gotten used to people accusing me of stuff." The Roman looked around themselves wondering what was going on.
(All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I've been selling out of my dorm room.)
"Oh yeah. Nice one Perce." Travis and Conner grinned. Chris just shook his head.
"Really, Percy."Annabeth shakes her head amused.
"I really do like your kid so far, Uncle P." Hermes says to his Uncle.
(Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.)
Everyone started chuckling except Athena who didn't understand how someone couldn't read a book, Hera who just didn't like the Demigods, and Zeus who was still paranoid from earlier.
"Don't worry. I made him read it later, a Greek version." Annabeth reassures her mom.
('Well?' she demanded. 'Ma'am, I don't…' 'Your time is up,' she hissed. Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.)
"HADES! You sent a fury after my son!" Poseidon yells as he gets up. Hades just sinks into his throne, watching his brother.
"Hey! Dad! It's alright." Percy gets up and walks to his dad to calm him down. "It could have been worse. I mean, he once sent all three after Thalia." He stopped and groaned. Now both Zeus and Poseidon were glaring at Hades.
"Nice going Kelp Head." Both Nico and Thalia say to him in the driest tone possible.
"You did what?!" Zeus thunders as both he and Poseidon advance on Hades. Hera nodded during this like she was agreeing with Hades. Both Percy and Annabeth glared at her.
"Ok! Enough!" Nico appeared between them. "You can't really blame him. You forced him into an Oath that you broke." The three brothers were wide-eyed at this point.
"I mean really. Sure, you shouldn't have sent monsters after Percy and Thalia." Nico says to his father. "It's not like they asked to be here. Like they asked to be alive. But it's also not fair for them to be mad at you cause they broke the Oath first."
"He's right." Percy says wandering over to stand beside Nico. "All of you make Oaths and in the end break them and we, your children have to deal with the consequences. It's not fair to us that we get killed and you are not even able to interfere in our lives when you were the ones to screw it up for us in the first place." He glares at the Gods. "Really, we get attacked by monsters daily because of you all. We don't need to have you attacking us for things we can't control."
"They're are both right, even with them being boys. " Thalia said joining her cousins. "We are the ones paying for it."
"How dare you.." Zeus began before being cut off.
"We dare because we are the ones who get the short end of the stick because of your petty squabbles." Thalia says staring her father in the eyes, defiantly. "Sure, Poseidon broke the Oath but he has never tried to kill any of your children unlike you both."
"You also tried to kill my son?" Poseidon turns to Zeus.
"Enough!" Hestia stands. "The children are right. The children are not there to take your anger out on. Now, can we continue reading?" Everyone goes back to their seats, silent. Though Poseidon was still glaring at Zeus and Hades. Hestia started again.
(Then things got even stranger. Mr Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. 'What ho, Percy!' he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs Dodds lunged at me.)
"Duck and Roll!" Yelled the Strolls. Everyone else was tense waiting to hear what happened.
"You know I'm fine." Percy said waving a hand. "I'm right here."
(With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen any more. It was a sword – Mr Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day. Mrs Dodds spun towards me with a murderous look in her eyes.)
"At least you have a weapon now even if you don't know how to use it." Clarisse said pretending to not care.
(My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. She snarled, 'Die, honey!' And she flew straight at me.)
Everyone was now on the edge of their seat in fear or excitement except a few who didn't really care.
(Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.)
"Oh yes. Naturally." Katie and Piper say sarcastically.
"Only you Percy." Annabeth says to him. Percy just rolls his eyes.
(The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss! Mrs Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulphur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.)
Poseidon was grinning with pride at his son killing a fury with no training. Hades was in shock and Zeus was getting paranoid again.
"So that's when Alecto started hating you." Nico says. "She despises you. She has training dummies with your face on them." he tells Percy.
"Thanks for that. I totally wanted to know that." Percy says grimacing.
"Wait. How many times have you met her?" Hades asks Percy in shock at someone meeting Alecto more than once while still living.
"A couple of times." Percy shrugs.
"That is not an answer." Hades glares.
"It's spoilers. I'm not telling, they will probably show up in the books at some point."
(I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.)
"The mist is still affecting him?" Athena questions.
"Oh yeah. Chiron made it like that to try and protect him a little longer." Grover explains.
"Only for the side effect of making me seem crazy." Percy said.
"Sorry, Percy. He wanted to try and keep you protected till the deadline but you know what happened." Percy nods. He understood but still.
(Had I imagined the whole thing? I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, 'I hope Mrs Kerr whipped your butt.')
"Who?" asks the Strolls, Katie, Frank, Hazel, and Gwen. Hestia chuckles.
(I said, 'Who?')
The Demigods who said that rolled their eyes.
('Our teacher. Duh!' I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs Dodds was. He said, 'Who?' But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.)
"You can't lie." Everyone who knows Grover says to him. He just rolls his eyes.
"I've gotten a little better through necessity." Grover points out. While the Gods wonder why a Satyr needed to learn to passable lie.
('Not funny, man,' I told him. 'This is serious.' Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. 'Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr Jackson.' I handed it over. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it. 'Sir,' I said, 'where's Mrs Dodds?' He stared at me blankly. 'Who?')
"Now Chiron. He can lie." Annabeth said plainly.
"That's crazy. You must have felt like you were going insane." Piper said to Percy who just nodded.
('The other chaperone. Mrs Dodds. The maths teacher.' He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. 'Percy, there is no Mrs Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?')
"That's the end of the chapter." Hestia says.
"Wow. What a way to be introduced to this world." Rachel said.
"So who wants to go next?" Hestia asks.
"I will." Athena stands up and takes the book, returning to her throne. She reads the Chapter aloud with a confused face.