Sorry, couldn't post it yet as my job is weighing me down and either giving me more hours or wrong hours and other issues. Hope you like this one.
Lots of weird shit had been happening to the gang. However, the twenty-four-seven hallucination was getting old. The students acted as if they were completely insane and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr- some perky blond woman who had no recollection of Percy or any of the gang bullshit, had been there since Christmas.
Every so often Percy would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if he could trip them up, but they would stare at him like he was psycho, well with his friends there not far off.
Percy wasn't alone. Katie keeps getting pissed off when she tries to get a straight answer about any of this, but gets the same answer which pisses her off and gets violent, lucky her friends were there to stop her. Terry's blackmail and Sydney gossiping isn't getting them nowhere, even Nathan weed isn't doing much but getting people high.
Normally Percy would think it a hallucination due to stress but with Grover's inability to lie and his friends also having said hallucination and Sydney holding the very weapon the hallucination had made it pretty fucken real.
Luckily the gang was about to keep each other in line and keep their grades and behaviour in line so they never failed out. Even Katie attacking Nancy seemed to be pushed under the rug, thanks to Terry pointing out the were literally cameras showing her theft and constant bullying and so she was removed from school making life far easier for all of them
Terry is currently helping Percy to study the difference between Charon and Chiron. They are all in a group study.
"Charon is the ferryman to Hades, sending people to hell and Chiron is the Centaur Teacher of countless heroes that die young." Terry explains to him as Percy smiles, pleased with Terry teaching as he keeps it interesting and focused, despite putting his opinion on the subject.
"Now what did Zeus do to punish Prometheus?" Terry asked, keeping Percy on his toes as Percy thinks.
"Prometheus stole fire to give to man…then Zeus took Prometheus to a high mountain, the….?" Percy thinks, but Sydney helps out.
"The Caucasus, and chained him on a rock with thick chains made by Hephaestus. And every day, Zeus would send an eagle that ate Prometheus' liver." Sydney explains with a sadistic smile that scares both Percy and Terry.
"Very good Sydney, try to remember Percy" Terry points, Percy nodded, pleased but scared nonetheless.
"How can Zeus be so cruel to someone giving mankind such an important gift" Katie said reading the book as she yawned. She has been studying all night for her assignments.
"Cause he's a cunt Katie" Nathan said, as they all laughed.
"It's good that only one of us has Dyslexia; I'd never get this far without you guys." Percy said to Terry as he smiles, but Nathan laughs.
"At least you're healthy Percy, pots, diabetes and a weakened immune system is the worst. The amount of meds I need is so annoying" Nathen pots a bunch of pills and checks his blood.
"Yeah getting those pills and shots were a pain" Percy said, having had to get injections and pills for being with Nathan.
"Hey...do... Do you think we should confront Mr. Brunner? I know lied to us, but he does seem to care... Maybe if he's alone, we can confront him?" Percy asked them, as they all looked at him.
"Hell no, Brunner has been lying to us this whole-time, he knows something about this supernatural shit and won't explain it" Katie despised Mr. Brunner for lying.
"I agree Brunner hasn't been much help off late beside school work" Nathan agrees as Percy sighs.
"Maybe but we need information, what better way to get it and just doing it ourselves" Percy said, as everyone has been trying to find out about the weapon and the supernatural. Katie has been training with everyone on how to fight, Terry and Nathan were studying more about the supernatural while Percy and Sydney were working on their special weapons, Percy found out how to work the pen sword while Sydney learned how to use the whip which can turn on fire when used right.
They still haven't found out what it was made of but they found it very durable and rust proof.
"I think we should do it," Sydney said, getting their attention.
"If he lies again then fuck him. We deserve better than some cripple giving us that treatment. It's a lead at least" Sydney explains to them as Percy smiles and Terry signs.
"Bring your mythology book; it would be a good excuse if we are asked why we are walking out of hours." Terry said as he, Percy and Sydney head out leaving a sick Nathan and a tired Katie behind.
Together they 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.
They were three steps from the door handle when they heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's.
"... worried about Percy, sir. And honestly, Katie and Terry scares me, their aura is unlike anything I have ever seen. Nathan and Sydney aura is to familiar and sweet it incredible to be around them "Grover said,
They froze.
Inching closer, with open ears, the group shared a frown.
"... 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 Percy to mature more. Katie is far too aggressive, such bloodlust is frighting. Your right about Nathan and Sydney auras, but the one I fear the most is Terry aura" Mr. Bummer said in a grave tone.
"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead-line-"
"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."
"Sir, he saw her and" Grover was cut off
"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince them of that…or I would say that if Terry was not pushing them past it. That is my worry. I fought to have the group separated, but the Mist isn't working for some reason, the Principle seemed immune to the Mist, I saw traces of magic on him. And some of the other teachers are asking uncomfortable questions, in some areas everyone nearly saw thought the mist completely, I suspect Terry but the mist around Nathan is slowly deteriorating"
"But how, no one untrained can control the mist" Grover voice in surpise as the other listen in.
"I'm not sure; whoever at play may be more powerful than previous thought" An uncertain voice of Mr. Brunner.
"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."
"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-"
The mythology book dropped out of Percy's hand and hit the floor with a thud, Terry and Sydney held their breath.
Mr. Brunner went silent.
Terry and Sydney glared at Percy as he quickly picked up the book and backed down the hall.
A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than their wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.
They opened the nearest door and slipped inside.
A few seconds later they heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled woodblocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on. Sydney felt a shiver, feeling the air colder for a moment.
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."
The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.
They waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. Finally, they slipped out into the hallway and made their way back up to the dorm to Katie and Nathan.
They quickly explain the issue in Mr Brunner's office.
"Something big is going on, why they suspect me of all people" Terry asked as everyone just stared at him.
"You're kidding right?" Nathan asked Terry giving the amount of crazy stuff he does as Percy shakes his head.
"Besides the obvious, keep me posted" Percy asked them as each nodded.
"Always." Nathan said.
LINE
The next afternoon, as they were leaving the three-hour Latin exam, Mr. Brunner called Percy back inside.
Naturally, Katie not trusting the man he too followed her friend into the office.
"Percy," he said. "I-"
"Save it." Katie started. "You are a liar, and we caught you in that bullshit. Whatever you are hiding, you will be found out and if we find out you are a threat you will be dealt with. I promise you" Cold as ice, Katie's hate overpowered his attempt at calm. Madness and Bloodlust always oozed at the edges of his mind, he pushed back at it but the damn thing oozed forth with layers and threats.
"Now, you leave us alone unless you would like to be dealt with early." Katie said, with Percy nodding and they left, leaving a gaping Mr. Brunner looking after them.
Despite avoiding Grover since the Incident at the Museum, the group of them ended up sharing a bus on the way to their home.
During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers.
It occurred to Nathan that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when they left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Nathan thought it was like regular anxiety before, but now there was a new edge to it...
"Looking for Kindly Ones?" Percy, after a while, started.
"Wha-what do you mean?" Grover nearly jumped out of his seat.
Percy confessed about them eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.
"How much did you hear?" Grover's eyes twitched.
"Oh ... not much Grover, if that is your real name." Terry asks, looking right at Grover who looks nervous.
"Grover is my name Terry" Grover tries to say but it doesn't convince Terry
"What's the summer solstice deadline?" Percy asked, as the group looked at Grover.
"Look, guys ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon maths teachers ..." He winced, as Katie started to glare at him.
"Grover-" Percy warns him.
"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..." Grover tries to say but Katie grabbed Grover's arm and squeezed, making the boy squeak out.
"Your pissing me off with you lies Cripple, you have to make the smart choice or I'll tear your arm off." She let go, making Grover cower and holding his arm in pain.
Quickly he reached his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card.
"Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer. All of you I guess." The card was in fancy script, which was odd in and of itself.
Grover Underwood
Keeper
Half-Blood Hill
Long Island, New York
(800) 009-0009
"What's Half-" Percy asked.
"Don't say it aloud!" Grover yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."
"Why would you need a business card?" Nathan asked, as Terry looked at the business card in interest.
"You have a mansion or something for us to visit?" Sydney asked him as he nodded.
"Or ... or if you both need me." Grover said,
"Why would we need you? You're a liar and a cripple." Katie added, cold and unyielding and almost hateful.
"We've been protecting you for the entire year, you did nothing but lie to us and talked about it with Brunner in secret. Why trust you at all? You did nothing to earn it?" Katie growls as Grover blushes right down to Adam's apple and sighed with great sadness.
"Look, guys, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect all of you" Grover confessed as they all stared at him.
All of them started to laugh, Percy and Nathan in confusion and Katie, Sydney and Terry in amusement. Grover was bullied, abused, and had not an ounce of spine. Katie and Percy had protected him dozens of times throughout the last year, Nathan and Sydney gave him emotional support and Terry helped him with school work.
"That's a good joke cripple, I'll give you that" Katie laughs at him.
"It's so sweet of you but, haha" Sydney couldn't help it as she laughed.
"Maybe for pity points but I doubt you were in a fight where you actually threw a punch" Terry points out as they laugh at him as Grover looks down at that.
"Grover I like you but you can't protect anyone" Nathan hoots with everyone else.
"Grover, What exactly are you protecting us from?" Percy asked, asking after getting his laugh under control.
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.
After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that they'd all have to get off. The five of them filed outside with everybody else.
They were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On their 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 the afternoon heat was an old-fashioned fruit stand. The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blooded 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 they had ever seen.
They were massive socks, each the size of full-blown sweaters. 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.
The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at ... Percy!
They looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face.
His nose was twitching.
"Grover?" Percy said. "Hey, man-"
"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?" Grover looks scared as they look at the old ladies.
"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?" Percy asked as Nathan looked at them.
"Think they could knit me a sweater?" Nathan jokes, Sydney looks at the design of the sock.
"How much do you think they want for it?" Sydney asked, Katie looked at her.
"Why do you want an oversized sock?" Katie asked her.
"I want to try it for something" Sydney looks embarrassed for a bit.
"Guys this is serious" Grover stresses out how they are not taking this seriously.
The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. They heard Grover catch his breath.
"What do you think you are doing?" A voice said, the old ladies stopped and looked at the glasses wearing child in front of them. Everyone turns to see Terry right in front of them.
"Oh shit" Nathan said, knowing Terry is doing random shit, it's a condition that he can't control, or so he said, he's probably bullshiting.
"You think you can stare at us like that, like we're nothing to you, who are you to decide that, who decided you, a bunch of old hags think you can look down on us" Terry threats them as the old ladies look at him in surprise, never felt someone threatening them, at all.
"Are you eating that apple cause I'm so hungry I could eat anything" Terry points at an apple next to one of the old ladies, they look at the apple until Terry grabs it.
Terry loudly bites and chews the apple right in front of them with an open mouth.
"Num, Numm, Num" Terry chews the apple loudly to the old hags, chipped up food falls out of his mouth as the others start to get him.
"Terry don't do this right now" Nathan tries to grab him but Terry shrugs the hand away.
"Fuck off Nathan, these hags shouldn't be knitting on the streets, come on what kind of average joe knits on the street, and before you say anything their not homeless, I mean look that their threads" Terry stops Nathan from arguing as he grabs the Threads off one old lady, who is to shock to do anything.
"Look at all these colours and sizes, they are definitely rich with this kind of thread, the 1 percenters, yet they're sitting near a bus stop eyeing us, eyeing me while holding scissors." Terry argues, pulling, stretching and mixing the threads up, showing Nathan how some are more valuable than normal as the old hags could do nothing but stare. Katie tries to step in.
"Terry, you bullshit is pissing me off, don't make we knock you ass out" Katie threats shaking her fist, having more than once knocked Terry out before he tries something stupid.
Terry doesn't take that change and grabs the old ladies scissors and points it at Katie.
"You stay out of this Kat, this is between me and these self-entitled rich bitches" Terry glares at Katie as she steps back but not too far as Terry starts cutting the threads, as Grover gasps.
Snip
Snip
Snip,
Again and again Terry cuts and messes with the thread as Percy tries to calm him down.
"It ok Terry, look you show those ladies whose boss now gives the scissors and those threads back" Percy tries to pacify Terry but he keeps sniping.
"Like hell I'm giving back this thread, his shit could cost more than your house and I'm cutting it" Terry smiles as he continues to mess the expense threads, these actions always get everyone's attention and people start to look at them.
Snip
Snip
Snip,
"Forget this, guys Terry having a mental disorder, I give the orders for operation stop Terry random shit go" Sydney orders, a plan they all agree to do encase Terry has an episode where they distract him then take him away from everyone, Percy and Nathan walk forward getting Terry's attention before Kate growls and force Terry to turn not notice Sydney quickly grabs the scissor from his hand.
Terry notices he without the scissor could only scream when Percy, Grover, Katie and Nathan grab each limb and lift him up in the air away from the old ladies.
"No you assholes put me down in this instance, I still need to kick these hags, they have no right to wave scissors at people, no right. They can't look down on us, we are better than them, we are better than those spoiled rich bitches" Terry screams at the four as they carry him to the bus as everyone watches.
"We're getting on the bus," Grover told them, looking horrified, right now
"Come on."
As they agree as they all get on the bus,
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!"
Across the road, the old ladies just watch them leave. One old lady looks at the mess of the thread, it was a grumble up mess, all tangled up, pulling at it only makes it worse as the other old lady looks at her scissors on the ground and the cut up threads on the ground.
They had no idea what just happened as they looked at the mess before them.
LINE
Once they got going, a rush of exhaustion overtook them, as the group looked at a sulking Terry and a terrific Grover. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.
"What the fuck was that" Katie asked Terry who look away.
"Those hags had it coming" Terry said, as Nathan smacked his shoulder.
"Old ladies who were just sitting there knitting and you just had to get on their case" Nathan said crossing his arm. Sydney shakes her head but Percy notice a scared Grover
"Grover?" Percy asked.
"Yeah?" he answers.
"What's wrong?" Percy had never seen Grover so scared before. Grover dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve.
"We are dead; we are so dead, this is so much worse. How can this get so bad so fast," Grover mumbles in horror.
"Come on Grover, is it the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?" Percy asked, getting everyone's attention.
"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb.
"This is so much worse than last time."
"What happened last time?" Sydney asked him as they all leaned in to hear.
"Always sixth grade. never get past sixth. We'll be lucky to live the next day"
"Cripple, what are you talking about?" Katie gets pissed off at what Grover is babbling about.
"Let me walk with you guys home from the bus station. Promise me." Grover looks very desperate but Percy frowned and turned to Katie and the others, they shook their heads.
"Only if you agree to tell us more." Percy asked.
"Please!" Grover went cold.
"You dig your own grave with your lies cripple" Katie shrugged, as Sydney looked over at him.
"That's really on you more than anything." Sydney replies as they all get conformable.
And yet, as she said those words, something oozes off of Grover. A real emotion, like the ice around him was thawing and they could smell the raw emotion behind the ice. It reeked of fear, but only something far greater than they could understand.
Whatever it is they would face it together.