Disclaimer:

I DO NOT own this series. That goes to the wonderful Rick Riordan and Hyperion Books. I am just borrowing the story and characters. I will say that the story lines will be written down because it makes it much easier to follow along and know the current placement, especially if it has been a while since reading the book. Also, this is not beta'd so there will most likely be a few mistakes, feel free to let me know. Enjoy!

Oh, this is also only my second story ever so please be gentle. I've been really enjoying getting to share how I would imagine characters would react to their tales and I hope to continue to do so.

Book

'thoughts'

"speech"

Hello here's our first book chapter. Thanks to those already following and favoriting after our little intro, it's gotten me super excited.

I am hoping to have this story updated at least weekly, if I'm able to twice a week. Anyway, onto the story. Enjoy!

I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher

Chiron read the title and the demi-gods snicker.

"I guess that's one way to explain it, Perce." Grover chuckles.

Percy shrugs, "Honestly, how else could I when I had no idea what I even did?"

That caused Poseidon to faulter. 'A monster? Might as well prepare myself now.'

Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.

"Nobody does." someone mumbles.

If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advise is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.

"Unfortunately, it wouldn't work that way Seaweed Brain." Annabeth sighs.

"It could give some more time to be normal." Percy suggests.

"Maybe."

Being a half-blood is dangerous.

"Yup."

It's scary.

"Absolutely."

Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.

"Double yup." Many demi-gods look down, remembering those who didn't make it in the past years.

The gods look among the group. Was it really that bad?

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.

But if you recognize yourself in these pages – if you feel something stirring inside – stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

"Hey, you didn't warn me!" Nico cried joking.

"'Cause I was struggling to not strangle you instead, Mr. Mythomagic." Percy smirks. Causing Nico to flush.

My name is Percy Jackson.

"I thought it was Chiron." Travis asked confused. Many roll their eyes.

"No, it's Peter Johnson." Connor giggles as do many others. The gods and Sally are just confused.

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.

"Ugh, hated that place." Percy muttered.

"Me too man, it sucked." Grover readily agreed.

"Well, for the most part." Percy corrected looking to Chiron smiling.

Am I a troubled kid?

"Yes." All the demi-gods, other than Percy, answer.

"Hey! Rude." Said boy pouts causing snickers to ring out.

Yeah. You could say that.

"Wow, thanks me." He deadpans.

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 ancient Greek and Roman stuff.

"Sounds perfect." Annabeth sighs. Her mother looks on proud.

"Sounds like torture" Hermes, Apollo, and Poseidon murmur.

I know – it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.

Hestia giggles, "Like father like son."

Said duo look to each other beaming. Sally watches the pair happy to see her son and ex-lover interact.

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.

Chiron had to pause and give a smile to Percy. He had to admit, it was a rather decent description.

Percy did have to put out a quick disclaimer "Um, as decent as that description was, I will say that my brain can have very unflattering thoughts and I would like to not get smote since I don't usually say them out loud."

At that the gods had to glare at him briefly, but in the end they agreed. The fates probably wouldn't want them to do anything to the demi-gods anyways.

You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had his awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.

"You slept in class, boy? It's a privilege to learn." Athena sneered at Percy.

"No offense, Lady Athena, but for demi-gods school is a real struggle. ADHD alone causes most teacher to outright despise teaching you because we can't properly focus, add in dyslexia and the teachers just prefer to act like we don't exist in their class because they can't be bothered to try and find easier ways to help us. After having multiple teachers at multiple schools not even try to help, other than Chiron, i.e. Mr. Brunner, I gave up even trying and had to teach myself what I could." Percy lectured, the other demi-gods nodding along. Seeing her own daughter nodding as well was a concern. 'Is it really that hard? Surely not.'

"Man, you got Chiron as your teacher? School would've been so much better with him as mine." Connor whines.

"Would have? Are you not still in school?" Athena had to ask.

"I'm not in a registered school if that's what you mean." Travis was the one to answer. "Most demi-gods at camp aren't except for the few who were able to manage and then go to college in what their powers easily support. Then they teach us what they can. It's not like we'd be interacting with the mortal world anyways since monsters and other stuff would always be interfering."

Annabeth motioned for Chiron to continue before her mother could start questioning again.

I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.

"You just jinxed yourself, Kelp head." Thalia drawled.

"Eh, with my luck it wouldn't have mattered."

"He has a point there, Thals." Grover muttered.

Poseidon looked to his son worried. Percy saw the look and had to explain.

"My luck is terrible at the worst moment, but perfect in battle or fights." That only worried his father more.

Boy was I wrong.

"Told you, Perce."

All the demi-gods snort goodnaturedly.

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.

"How even?" Hermes laughed.

"I just wanted to see if it was a real cannon, usually they're fake." Percy crossed his arms defensive.

"I think the real question is why was said cannon loaded." Sally had to add.

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 level on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.

Apollo burst out laughing "Uncle P your kid is the best!"

Poseidon had to smirk at that memory. Oh, he would have loved to see that in person.

"You know, I'm pretty sure one of the sharks in the tank had told me to hit one of the switches and I thought it was a tour guide." Percy sniggered as did his father.

And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.

"Aww man, I wanted more stories." Nico whined acting close to his age for once.

This trip, I was determined to be good.

All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

Many shuddered at the thought of that sandwich combination.

"Ugh, that just sounds wrong on so many levels. Just gross." Rachel shivered.

"Yeah, try wearing it." Grover sighed.

Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated.

"Gee thanks man." Grover grumbled.

"'Course, G-man." Percy smirked.

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.

"This description is just getting worse, Perce."

"Oh, just wait, I'm sure when I find out you're a satyr will be even better." Percy laughs.

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.

"Way to blow your cover, satyr." Dionysus chastised.

"Yes, sir." Grover said.

"Haha, that's our goat boy. Give him enchiladas and he's your friend forever." Thalia giggled.

Grover flushed.

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-

"WHAT!" Sally and Poseidon yelled.

"Let Chiron continue. Please." Percy pleaded.

-by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.

"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.

"Do it." Everyone was shocked to see it was Artemis who said that. But she wasn't forthcoming with a reason why. 'I may be a man-hater, but I'd never condone a girl behaving like that.'

Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay, I like peanut butter."

"Eww, not in your hair!" that was Aphrodite, for once many were nodding along in agreement.

He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.

"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.

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.

"Longer than that, boy." Athena snarked.

"Oh, give him a break, Birdy. He was still learning." Poseidon was quick to defend his son.

"Don't call me Birdy, Shell Head." She retorted.

Poseidon snorted, not bothered at the name calling. "Just cut him some slack, huh? He was only twelve." That made the Wisdom goddess do a double take, usually Poseidon was quick to retaliate and verbal spar. Apparently, he seemed to be holding it in, maybe due to his son being present. She wasn't so sure.

Percy and Annabeth were quick to motion for Chiron to continue before they started up again.

He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-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,

"Wait, you found it interesting?" one of the Stolls asked surprised.

"Well yeah. I did like Chiron's class for a reason. I don't like museums 'cause my ADHD wreaks havoc on my attention, but I was trying." Percy shrugged throwing a smile to Chiron. "And I do remember most of the stuff, it's just not an instant recall so I seem slow. That's why teachers can be annoying since they think I'm stupid."

"Yes, that is unfortunately the problem when I have to find Percy a new school. Most just don't want to even have an ADHD student registered with them. If it was just dyslexia there would be more leeway, but not ADHD and certainly not both." Sally explained.

This caused many of the Gods to look down, they had never realized how difficult it could be for a such a simple thing as school. Hera on the other hand didn't care. She hated demi-gods in general.

-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.

"Mrs. Dodds? Isn't that the name you call…?" Nico started.

"Yup."

"Oh boy." Poseidon and Hades were confused at that exchange. 'What did that mean? Is she a monster?'

Mrs. Dodds was this little math 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 math teacher had a nervous breakdown.

At that description Hades eyes went wide. Thankfully, his brother had yet to see his reaction and he discreetly inched further away from the Stormbringer.

From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.

"No that's Nico." Thalia snickered.

"Yeah… hey!" Nico pouted causing light sounds of laughter.

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.

"Does she still call everyone honey?" Percy had to ask Nico.

"Yeah, just as creepy as you think it is." Nico shuddered. At that confirmation Hades did let a smirk appear on his face. Alecto was the best at scares.

One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math 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."

"Wow, Grover, way to keep your cover." Annabeth snarks.

"Hey! He had asked when he got back from that detention, by that time I was already tired, and my filter was nonexistent." He defended.

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.

"Of course, it did." Rachel sighed.

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."

Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

At that the Gods shuddered, especially those who had been in the Titan.

"Why did it have to be that one, Chiron?" Hades whined, which made the demi-gods and some of the other gods look to him astonished at the tone.

"The boy needs to learn his history. Makes sense to start at the beginning." Chiron answered matter-of-factly.

"Let's just get this part over with quick." Hestia hurried Chiron.

"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! Boy -" Zeus boomed.

"Hold on, I got corrected! I told you it's not a perfect recall. I knew there was a connection to gods and my brain spits out the first thing I can remember." Percy hurriedly says.

The Thunder was still glowering, but settled down some.

"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."

"Because I'm mother's favorite." Zeus puffed up.

"You just look the most like a rock." Hades snickered. Causing many to need to stifle giggles.

"And mother was getting tired of us being eaten and you were next to be born." Poseidon added.

Zeus quickly deflated, but still ignored his older brothers.

"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.

"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."

"You… you summarized a insanely long and difficult battle into 'this big fight' and 'the gods won'?" Clarisse asks slow.

"Got the main point across. Not like I lived it to give details."

"Fair enough."

Some snickers from the group.

"Why are some laughing?" Athena asked. "He got it right, technically."

"Knowing answers in certain school circles can make you seem like the teacher's pet. Which at Yancy was me in Chiron's class, since I did know the basics of the stories more than the rest, besides Grover." Percy explained.

Athena frowned; it just didn't make sense to her.

"Unfortunately, it is quite common in pretty much all schools." Rachel cut in. "I know I struggled with that as well where I went before transferring to Goode."

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." The Stolls murmur.

Grover and Percy smirk looking at each other and then the two brothers.

"Busted," Grover muttered.

"Oh no, we think like a goat." The pair fake cry. Grover bleated with indignation.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter than her hair.

At least Nancy got packed too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong.

"That was always a welcome difference." Percy beamed at his teacher. Chiron smirked rather proud of that fact. He looked back to the book, saw the next line, and snorted.

He had radar ears.

Others snort as well.

"More like horse ears." Clarisse laughs.

I thought about is question, and shrugged. "I don't know sir."

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "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."

"How was Percy supposed to know those details? Even I didn't know them." Surprisingly it was Annabeth who asked. The demi-gods looked to her shocked, they've never known her to not know something.

At that Chiron had no answer.

"Also, how does that relate to real-life? Well mortal real-life." Chris drawled.

"Ah, well…" Chiron started, but cleared his throat and continued reading.

"On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

"Happy note?!" Rachel asked.

"Well Kronos was defeated… that's a happy note." Chiron muttered.

"So, you're still struggling with changing conversation, eh?" Apollo winked causing the centaur to flush.

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.

"Ugh, boys." Artemis grumbles.

"My lady, please don't judge too harshly. I agree that most boys are doofuses, but there are good, if not great, boys and men." Thalia tries to stop that judgement early on.

Annabeth nodded, "Yes, Lady Artemis, in our time you even tolerated, maybe even vetted him personally when we all had met during a quest."

This shocked the Huntress who looked to said boy who was bright red. That caused her to smirk, 'it appears the boy can't take a compliment.'

Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."

I knew that was coming.

"Whoa, can you tell the future? You're not secretly related to Will are you?" Travis asked.

Percy looked at him incredulous, "What? Why would you even think that?"

"You knew it was coming? Hello, future!" Connor added.

"No!" Percy countered. "Chiron just held me back a bunch to talk. It was expected."

The other demi-gods were rolling their eyes at the Stolls, it wasn't a surprise they came up with that thought.

Poseidon wrapped an arm around his son, suddenly possessive for some reason. Zeus saw this and glared at his brother, who just stared back daring him to say something.

Chiron decided to start reading again before anything could happen.

I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward 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.

"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."

"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."

I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.

"For a reason, Perseus." Chiron chided.

Percy flinched at the use of his full name; he still wasn't used to it. "I know that now, but before entering this 'world' nothing really made sense in that respect.

"Wait, your name is Perseus?" Hermes interjects. "But that's Dad's son…"

The last bit caused Hera to scowl, well more than she already was.

"Ah, yeah it is… Mom?" Percy looked to his mother hoping she would take a hint and explain.

"Oh! Um," the Gods turned to Sally causing her to tense some. "Uh, well, I named him Perseus because he was the only hero who was able to have a happy ending or at least live long enough to have family. I had hoped that maybe that would help him in the long run."

At that some of the gods had to concede the point; it made sense in a vague way. Others were still unimpressed or just didn't care.

I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, swordpoint 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.

"I would love to have had a class like that in school. Definitely would've tried harder some." Chris said.

Rachel sighed, "Same here, all classes at prep school is awful."

Percy, Thalia, Grover, and Annabeth had to cringe at the statement. They had forgotten the Oracle had agreed to go after getting her father to help her back to New York.

But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that 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.

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.

"Sadly, I had." Chiron sighed, nostalgic before continuing.

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.

The gods look to Zeus, questioning looks obvious. 'Just what was he angry about?'

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 purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.

Artemis had to sigh softly; girls like that tended to give such a bad reputation for others.

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.

"You are not 'loser freaks'!" Thalia and Annabeth yell.

Grover and Percy duck their heads, shoulders hunched causing many to start. They never realized how low the pair's self-esteem was, Percy especially. He always seemed to ooze confidence.

The girls grabbed the boy's hands in support. They knew it would take work, but they would get it through the boys thick skulls they were liked.

"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."

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?"

Snorts and snickers ring out.

I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.

That made the demi-gods and Sally look to Percy surprised. The boy never said no to food, let alone easily share.

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.

"Mama's boy." Ares snickered.

"Yeah, I am." Percy said. "I love my mom, she's the best. Can you say the same?"

At the taunt Poseidon grew worried. Looking at his son, he saw how defiant the boy was. Looking at his friends was more concerning though. None of them looked surprised, apparently used to this happening, or just resigned to the fact of it happening.

Ares was snarling, pissed at the boy. He began to stand hoping to get to pummel the brat when Hera pulled him back down. Looking to her he was shocked to see her glaring at him.

"Do not give him the satisfaction of a reaction, you're supposed to be better than him. You are a god, act like one."

At that the War god slumped down sulking.

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.

Hephaestus smiled at the mention of the technology still looking down at the scrap he was fiddling with. It appeared that he was able to complete that project after all.

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.

"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 shivered at the image. "That girl is in serious need of a makeover."

The others (gods included) just nodded agreeing, hopefully then she wouldn't turn to them for makeovers as well.

I tried to stay cool. The school counselor 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.

"So how long did it take to figure out he was Uncle P's kid?" Hermes chortled.

"Too long." Annabeth groaned. "I have no idea why we couldn't tell."

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.

"Whoa that's quick." Apollo muttered. "Monster?"

Some demi-gods confirmed nodding, Percy just shrugged. Mrs. Dodds was rather tame compared to other monsters he faced; she just didn't seem like such a big deal.

Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"

"—the water—"

"—like it grabbed her—"

I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.

"As usual." Percy grouched.

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 workbooks."

"Never guess your punishment!" Apollo, Hermes, and the Stolls yell.

"Too late now." Percy shrugged.

That wasn't the right thing to say.

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.

"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."

"Thanks for trying anyway, G-man." Percy smiled.

"Was worth a shot." Grover blushed. "Not that I'd be able to do much."

"I don't think she would've allowed anyone else to go with her."

"Fair."

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.

Grover flushed, frustrated at that admission.

"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."

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."

Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.

The demi-gods shivered causing the gods to look on confused.

"Oh, come on, it can't be that bad." Hermes said.

"Well, if it's anything like his father's then it probably is." Hestia apprised.

"Mhmm, sure." Ares sneered.

Father and son were quick to glare at the God of War with twin 'I'll-kill-you-later' stares. It took everything in the god to not show his shudder of fear.

Then I 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?

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 counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.

"Unfortunate side-effect of battle-instincts outside of battle." Thalia said.

"Yeah, sucks."

I wasn't so sure.

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.

"Chiron!" Poseidon screamed.

"I was aware of what was happening, but I couldn't show I knew. Otherwise, we'd would have had a bigger problem." The centaur explained.

The Sea God dropped the judgement at the explanation.

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.

"Oh, if only it was that simple." Percy shook his head.

But apparently that wasn't the plan.

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.

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.

Poseidon glared at his older brother, starting to get a clue as to what monster this teacher was.

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.

I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."

"Whoa, Percy playing it safe? That, like, never happens." Nico said surprised.

"Hey!" Percy said. "Okay, yeah. Good point."

That didn't comfort either of his parents.

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"

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.

The Gods looked to Zeus, curious. The Thunderer was just as confused. Just what was he angered for?

"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.

All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.

"Very nice." Hermes said.

"Yup." That was Apollo.

Sally playfully glared at her son, but she honestly wasn't that upset. She got it; she'd been in school once too.

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.

Athena glared at the boy, "You should be grateful to be able to read novels such as that."

"No offense, Lady Athena, but dyslexia alone makes reading such a hassle. Not including ADHD not allowing me to stay focused long enough to read properly." Percy tried to calmly explain. "Besides, I've read it now. Annabeth found me a Greek copy and helped."

Beside him his girlfriend flushed fighting the urge to hide her face in Percy's chest. It wouldn't be a good idea to show her mother they were together. Poseidon may not react harshly, but her mother most likely would.

"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 shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.

"A FURY!" Poseidon bellowed. "You sent a fury after my son?!" He started to approach the Underworld Lord.

"Dad! Calm down." Percy stood before his father keeping him back. "Once you hear everything you'll understand. Just listen, okay?"

At this Hades was surprised at his nephew. Grateful, because once Poseidon got started it was very difficult to fight him, yet surprised. Very few ever defended him, let alone stood between him and another. Well, Poseidon was always his favorite brother, maybe his son took after him.

Poseidon continued to glare but sat back down breathing deeply.

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.

"A pen?" Travis asked.

"You have no idea how my sword works do you?" Percy wondered.

Connor shrugged, "Never needed to think about it."

Artemis' eyes narrowed. That sounded like something familiar.

Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.

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 anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.

Poseidon and Sally relaxed slightly, at least now their son had a weapon.

Artemis' eyes tightened. A sword? Really now?

Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.

My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.

"Wimp." Ares muttered. The demi-gods ignored him, they'd all heard of Percy's accomplishments, the War god didn't really rate too high on his list.

Poseidon, however, moved his glare to his nephew. Ares decided to keep his eyes down not daring to look up.

She snarled, "Die, honey!"

And she flew straight at me.

Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.

"That's natural?" Sally asked. She had never seen Percy fight before.

"Percy has some of the best reflexes I have ever seen." Chiron stated.

The demi-gods nodded.

"Percy is a beast with a sword." Nico said remembering him after bathing in the Styx.

Poseidon puffed up with pride.

The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!

"You took a fury out with one hit?" Travis questioned.

Percy shrugged.

"Impressive, Prissy." Clarisse said.

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 sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.

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.

Had I imagined the whole thing?

"Why was the mist still effecting him so much?" Poseidon asked.

"I made it do so. I thought we would be able to keep him unaware a little longer, at least past the solstice." Chiron explained.

"The solstice? What's so important about that?" Athena inquires.

"I believe it will be explained in the book, my Lady."

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?" Shockingly that was Sally who was thrown by the sudden change.

I said, "Who?"

"Ha, like mother like son." Poseidon smiled.

Said pair smiled, it was rare for the two to hear a comparison between them.

"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.

"We really need to teach you how to lie, G." Connor sighed.

His brother and father were nodding furiously in agreement.

"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 Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.

"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"

He stared at me blankly. "Who?"

"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra 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 how you lie, Grover." Travis pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah." Grover waved him off.

"That's the end of the chapter." Chiron said. "Who would like to read next?"

"I will." Thalia offered reaching for the book.

She opened it and began to read.

AN: And there it is, we're off on an adventure! Thanks again to everybody already showing support, y'all made my day. As I said at the beginning I am hoping to update this story at least weekly. This week will definitely have maybe two more updates if my hands don't die on me. :)

Feel free to comment/review or if you prefer to PM go ahead. I welcome and love hearing what y'all think. See y'all next time!