Hermes raised an eyebrow, blinking in confusion, as Grover let out a nervous bleat, "Not this again!"

Leo laughed, "I love your chapter titles, man."

"Once again, I didn't write this." Percy grumbled.

"Are all the titles going to be like this?" Beckendorf asked, stifling some laughter, and Thalia snickered, "Knowing Kelp Head... definitely!"

"I hate you." Percy groaned, and Thalia grinned at her cousin, "Nah! You love me and you know it!"

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle.

"Perhaps we need a word with Chiron about how to handle... house calls..." Poseidon sighed.

"House calls are rare enough as it is. Don't bother so much about it. Like he needs more of an excuse to bring more brats to camp." Dionysus grumbled, and Apollo pointed out, "Hey, D. You do realize that you also called Pollux and Dakota "brats"?"

Dionysus looked scandalized, and he subtly tightened his grip on his two demigod children, much to the amusement of the Roman and Greek demigods.

For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me.

"Tell me about it." Katie groaned. "Travis and Connor once got the entire camp to play a prank on one of my newer siblings. Someone managed to convince him that left was right and right was left. My brother was confused for so long!"

"You and your kids need to eat more cereal!" Demeter just glared at Hermes as the god laughed and high-fived his two sons.

The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our maths teacher since Christmas.

Rachel nodded, "Imagine that, but for my entire life."

"Sounds bad." Percy grimaced, "At least for me, it was only a few months."

Every so often I would spring a Mrs Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.

"Eh, at this point, we all know Percy's a psycho." Thalia grinned.

"You don't even know half of it." Frank just grumbled under his breath; he was fairly sure that no one, except for Percy, Hazel, and Frank himself, knew that Percy had gambled with Gorgon's blood. He was certain that anyone had to be a complete psycho to even think about using it to gamble, let alone winning by being confident that Gaia would choose him and kill Phineas off.

It got so I almost believed them—Mrs Dodds had never existed.

"Emphasis on almost." Thalia grinned.

Almost.

"Lemme guess... Grover." Annabeth snickered, and Grover sighed, with Juniper patting his arm comfortingly.

But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.

"You know... Percy is surprisingly perceptive." Will tilted his head, "No offence, Perce, but I feel like you notice a lot of things, but you don't really talk about it. Even if you don't really piece things together."

"I blame the ADHD." Percy shrugged.

I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.

"I think meeting a Fury would make anyone wake up in a cold sweat." Thalia commented. Artemis raised an eyebrow at her lieutenant, "And you know that... how?"

Zeus knew why Thalia knew about that; he had been watching as Hades hunted his daughter down.

Thalia merely shrugged, "Lord Hades sent all three Furies after me. And a bunch of other monsters."

Zeus glared at Hades, but before he could say anything, Hestia sighed, "Perhaps we can talk about this later. I don't think this is a topic you should be talking about with all the children around."

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood.

"The fight between our parents affected you?" Jason asked, and Malcom tilted his head, "I don't really think so... most demigods aren't really directly affected when their parents domains run wild... but Percy is one of the strongest demigods I've ever seen, even for a child of the Big Three... so I'm not sure..."

"Not really. The weather was just causing some problems for me, but other than that... not really." Percy sighed, "And I'm not that strong."

"Says you." Thalia snickered.

One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room.

Reyna winced, "Yeah, you don't have to be a Son of Nep... Poseidon to get upset over that. Anyone would get upset over that."

"Did you get into trouble?" Will asked, and Grover shook his head, "Nope. We had to work with some other kids for a group project. Luckily, we were with some of the milder kids, so it wasn't too troublesome, but they did vouch for Percy and told the teachers that he didn't break the window."

A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.

Everyone glared at Zeus, "Stop taking your temper out on poor mortals!"

Triton sighed; he had been the one who had to deal with the paperwork for that. Zeus had shot all the planes down, but the planes had sunk into the ocean, and Triton had to document the locations of the destroyed planes, ensure that they weren't disrupting the marine ecosystem, or were potentially in the way of endangered species... it was just a lot of work.

I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.

Annabeth patted Percy's back gently, as Athena glared at Percy.

"Don't worry, Mom." Athena looked up at her mother, "His grades in high school were decent, and he's doing pretty well in university as well."

I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.

"Attaboy!" Ares grinned, and Poseidon groaned, "Stop encouraging my son to pick fights! He does that enough on his own!"

I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.

"That's why your grades are low." Athena stated, "You aren't even in class to learn."

"In his defense, Athena, the teachers were the ones who sent him out. Plus, I'm sure Percy could feel that Poseidon was upset over something." Artemis grinned, and Athena just grumbled under her breath.

"Huh..." Reyna shook her head, "Jason, wasn't there that time you just felt super irritable for no reason? You nearly destroyed all the training dummies."

"Oh? Yeah." Jason nodded, "I have no idea why. You think my father was also affecting me?"

"Sure. I mean, they were both mad. If Percy was affected, and he didn't even know he was a demigod, I would think that you would also be affected by your father's mood." Reyna turned to Thalia, who shrugged, "I was a tree at that point in time, so I can't really give my input on the matter."

"Er... No offence... but why were you a tree?" Dakota asked.

Zeus, Percy and Annabeth flinched, but Thalia shrugged, "If these books are from Percy's point of view... I think you'd get the story behind me being a tree."

Finally, when our English teacher, Mr Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests,

"Too lazy!?" Athena, as well as most of the other gods, looked horrified. They knew that school was hard for most of their children, given their ADHD and dyslexia, but they thought that, at the very least, the schools would understand those problems would would try to understanding.

"Kinda hard to study for a spelling test when all the letters just float off the pages and get jumbled up." Silena admitted, and the demigods (except for Frank) nodded in agreement.

I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.

"To be fair, he kinda deserved that." Annabeth sighed, "Doesn't he know you have dyslexia?"

"You think the teachers care?" Percy sighed, "If they're not paid to care, they won't deal with it."

"Especially if it's a severe case of ADHD and dyslexia, called "being a demigod". Teachers suck like that." Annabeth groaned, and Thalia nodded; she had gone to school with Annabeth for a bit, before they had to rescue Artemis and Annabeth from Luke, and it had been an absolutely horrid experience.

The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.

"Ouch." Leo understood a little too well about being kicked out.

"Good. They don't deserve you." Poseidon huffed, and Amphitrite and Triton both nodded in agreement. They might not know Percy that well, but a teacher gotten so upset over being called an "old sot" that they decided to expel a twelve year old; it wasn't like Percy had vandalized the school building, or killed a teacher (sure, he had killed a Fury, but Chiron had used the Mist to cover it up, so to the mortals, they weren't missing a teacher, and so it didn't count).

Fine, I told myself. Just fine.

I was homesick.

"With someone like Aunt Sally... it's kind of hard to not be homesick." Thalia admitted.

Clarisse added, "Yeah. She's a great person."

Nico nodded, "Her cooking is also awesome."

Hades raised an eyebrow, surprised that Nico seems fond of Percy's mother. Maria's death had hit Nico hard, but he was happy that Nico had found a motherly figure up on the surface.

I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.

Nico tilted his head, "Poker? I thought Paul liked Monopoly, even though Tyson completely destroyed him."

"Oh..." Annabeth nodded knowingly, before turning to Nico, "Before Paul."

Grover and Percy both scowled, and the other demigods looked on in confusion. Sure, an "obnoxious stepfather" and "stupid poker parties" didn't sound too good, but it just seemed like a mortal version of Dionysus, if they replaced poker with pinochle.

Maybe that was why Percy never got along too well with Dionysus, but Dionysus didn't really get along with any of the demigods anyways.

And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees.

"Yep." Jason nodded, "Percy loves Camp Half-Blood before he even got there."

I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.

"Hey!" Grover bleated, "I'm not strange!"

"You have a "muscular disease" that can run. Not even counting you being a satyr -" Piper pointed out, "I think that counts as a little strange."

I worried how he'd survive next year without me.

Grover grinned at Percy, who just smiled back at his friend.

Hestia's hearth warmed up as the goddess in question smiled softly; Percy loved his friends and considered them his family, and would always worry about them.

I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.

"That sounds awesome." Chris stated.

"Quick question." Athena asked the demigods, "Do your teachers... not have faith that you could do well?"

The demigods looked at each other, not knowing how to answer the goddess, but their lack of an answer was more than enough to tell Athena that a lot of times, teachers just gave up on the demigods due to their dyslexia and ADHD, even if they were her children.

Athena scowled. Maybe she would have to do something about the education system to make it more friendly towards half-bloods.

As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.

"Well... at least you tried in something." Artemis shrugged, "Though I'm not sure why Chiron would teach you Latin."

"Do you think... he knew?" Annabeth asked, "Like... that we would have to end up working with Romans."

No one had an answer to that, not even Apollo, who was the God of Prophecy.

I hadn't forgotten what Mr Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.

"Yeah... you should." Dakota nodded, and Percy glared weakly at the dead Centurion, before he felt insanely guilty.

Percy liked Dakota, even though the Centurion was a little loopy on his Kool-Aid when Percy had first entered camp, but he hadn't really gotten the chance to get to know Dakota before he had gotten killed in the war against Caligula.

The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.

Athena sighed at Percy, "You should treat your books with more respect."

"Dyslexia." Percy groaned, "At that point, I could read the book upside down and it would still make more sense."

Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.

"Dyslexia, late at night, and being tired." Katie shook her head, "It's a terrible combination. It's hard to even read Greek when that happens."

There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,

"I'm sure you can tell the difference now." Annabeth shoved Percy lightly, "We've met both."

"You've... met Charon?" Poseidon asked weakly. Sure, his son had been to the Underworld, but Poseidon had been hoping that Percy had used a non-Charon entrance.

"Yeah." Percy smiled at his dad, "We drowned in a bathtub."

"A really big bathtub." Grover added, before Percy, Annabeth and Grover dissolved into fits of laughter, as the others looked on in confusion.

or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.

Reyna shrugged, "Latin verbs are easy."

"Well, Latin is a Roman Language. You should conjugate Greek verbs then." Katie winced; English was already hard enough, she didn't want to think about Latin.

"Yeah... and given the rivalry between the Greeks and Romans..." Annabeth shuddered, "Is Latin harder than English?"

The demigods paused, and turned to Percy, the only Greek who had really learnt Latin.

"Err..." Percy tilted his head, "So-so. They use the same letters, and I think some English words originated from Latin... so I have the same amount of trouble reading them. Understanding them... English is still easier."

I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.

Connor and Travis groaned, "That's a horrible feeling!"

"Serves you right!" Katie grinned. Seeing the confused looked of the others around her, she explained, "The Stoll brothers had tried to play a prank on the Demeter Cabin, but we noticed it, and with Chris' help, we sent the prank back at them."

The Stoll brothers glared at Chris, who just feigned an innocent expression and whistled.

I remembered Mr Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.

"Best way to motivate Percy; make him feel bad." Leo grinned, "Guilt tripping always works!"

"Leo! Shut up!" Percy whined.

I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.

"Good." Rachel nodded, "Just put it down, maybe wake up early for some last minute cramming."

Malcolm and Athena looked at Rachel weirdly, but the oracle just shrugged, "It helps, sometimes. And since Percy can't study anyways, it would be better if he rests early for a fresh start the next day.

I'd never asked a teacher for help before.

"Or you could do that." Rachel grinned.

"Because you don't care about your studies?" Athena glared at Percy, but the boy sighed, "I didn't want to bother them."

"But it's their job to help you?" Poseidon asked, as Triton looked confused at Percy's reasoning.

Percy didn't have a reply, and just shrugged weakly.

Maybe if I talked to Mr Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.

"Aww! You want to impress Chiron!" Aphrodite screeched, "Cute!"

"Of course!" Leo nodded, "Chiron guilt tripped him!"

"I'm sure Chiron would understand." Hestia smiled kindly at Percy, who was glaring at Leo.

I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.

I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "…worried about Percy, sir."

"Grover!"

The satyr sighed, "How was I supposed to know that Percy would start eavesdropping?! I thought he was studying!"

I froze.

I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.

"Very understandable." Leo nodded.

"But you eavesdropped when I was..." Nico paused, unsure how to continue his statement, but Percy knew what he was talking about, "Well, that's only because I saw you. I didn't even know they were talking in the first place."

I inched closer.

"…alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"

"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."

"Ha! That would never happen!" Thalia laughed, and Percy grumbled, "Well, you'll never age, so you'll also never mature!"

"I'm plenty mature! But you? Nah!"

Percy proceeded to do the mature thing, and stuck his tongue out at Thalia, who in turn, also stuck hers out.

"Now now, you are both equally mature." Reyna had to do her best to stifle her laughter.

"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline—"

"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."

"Ha. I wish." Percy sighed.

"Sir, he saw her.…"

"His imagination," Mr Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."

Rachel laughed, "Well... I'm pretty sure that little trick did nothing but convince Percy that he's mental."

"But he is mental." Rachel shook her head.

"Says you!" Percy defended himself, "You threw a hairbrush at Kronos!"

"But you! You drank -"

Hazel slapped her hand over Frank's mouth, "Spoilers!"

Everyone fell silent, confused as to what Percy could drink that would make Frank think that he was mental, but before another discussion could break out, Hermes continued.

"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 autumn—"

"Now, we need to worry about keeping Percy alive every day." Annabeth smiled, kissing Percy gently on the cheek.

"It's not so bad now! I mean... University..."

The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.

"Well, you're screwed." Travis snickered, as Connor and Hermes yelled, "Never give away your position!"

Mr Brunner went silent.

My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.

"Yeah... you should probs get out of there." Dakota nodded.

"Good!" Hermes grinned, and Chris added, "Never leave any evidence behind!"

A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.

"Er... probably because it was an archer's bow, Perce." Beckendorf had to stop himself from laughing, and Zoe shook her head, "Thou are stupid."

"How was I supposed to know he was a centaur!" Percy groaned.

I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.

A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.

A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.

There was silence, until Leo hissed, "Suspense..."

Travis and Connor nearly fell to the ground, laughing intensely, and the other demigods all cracked up.

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…"

"And somehow, neither of you smelt the child of Big Three who's probably just a few feet away from you." Hermes snorted.

"Percy's been all over the school." Grover sighed, "We had lessons everywhere. I could smell Percy pretty much everywhere."

"Go back to the dorm," Mr Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

"Oh yeah... You have a Latin exam." Piper cringed slightly.

"And other subjects." Grover sighed, "The worst thing about maturing half as fast as humans... you take double the exams."

"That sounds terrible!" Nico grimaced.

"Don't remind me."

The lights went out in Mr Brunner's office.

I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.

"It was probably only a few minutes." Apollo stated logically.

"How about I shove you in a dark closet and see how you like it." Percy grumbled, but Apollo smiled at him, "Well, I'm the God of Light and the Sun! It can't be dark with me around!"

Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.

Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.

"So goat boy can act. But he can't lie?" Chris turned to Grover, who sighed, "I told you! I've gotten better over the years!"

"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"

I didn't answer.

"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"

"Yep. Everything is just fine and dandy." Thalia nodded sarcastically.

"Just…tired."

I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.

"We all know that doesn't work." Pollux snickered, "Satyrs can read emotions."

"Actually." Grover stated, "He wasn't lying. I could tell that he was tired."

I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.

But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.

"When are you not?" Annabeth turned to Percy.

Percy tilted his head, "I don't know. Probably when Hera took my memories."

Poseidon glared at Hera, "I still haven't forgiven you for doing that! You can't just snatch children out of a place where they are comfortable in and dump them in a new environment with no memories! That goes for Jason as well!"

"I did what had to be done!" Hera replied haughtily, and Hermes raised his voice to avoid a potential argument brewing between the two siblings, while Jason looked slightly happy and surprised that Poseidon was standing up for him, despite being a child of Jupitar.

The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,

Even the Romans cringed at that.

"A three hour exam!?" Michael asked, horrified, "That's painful!"

"And dyslexia. Never forget the dyslexia." Silena added.

"And the ADHD." Annabeth shuddered, "That's just plain torture."

"But it's an exam?" Athena asked, and Annabeth replied, "The content isn't the real problem. It's the "sitting down for a long period of time with letters floating all over the place" that's the issue. I think the maximum amount of time even one of my siblings managed to sit in one place to write something was an hour, and even then he was constantly fidgeting."

"Chiron should know how bad it is. He's taught plenty of half-bloods." Artemis frowned, before turning to Percy.

"He was just the teacher. I think the school board is the one that decides on the exams." Percy scratched his head, "I don't think Chiron wanted us to take a three hour long exam, but he really couldn't do anything about it since he's only been there for less than a year."

Some of the Camp Half-Blood campers were wondering why Artemis seemed so casual with Percy. As far as they knew, Artemis hated men, and her Hunters didn't like the campers; heck, they had even burnt down a couple of cabins in the past.

my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr Brunner called me back inside.

"Oh, busted." Travis muttered, "What did you do now?"

"Actually." Percy replied, "Nothing."

For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.

"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's… it's for the best."

Everyone grimaced. Even Triton cringed at the centaurs words directed at his half-brother.

"Chiron really needs to work on his wording." Will muttered, and Apollo nodded, "He's great at everything else... just... pep talks..."

His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear.

Poseidon paused, "He couldn't have waited until after the test? Or pulled you aside when everyone else was leaving?"

"Apparently not." Hermes sighed.

Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

Artemis cringed, "I can't believe I'm saying this... but I'm starting to hate this girl."

Reyna, Zoe and Thalia nodded.

I mumbled, "Okay, sir."

"I mean…" Mr Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."

All the demigods cringed.

"That's just... painful." Silena grimaced, and Piper nodded in agreement, "Ouch."

"Chiron really needs to learn some tact on how to speak with demigods." Poseidon muttered.

Percy glanced up at his father, a hint of amusement in his voice, "Says you."

Poseidon paused, before he remembered what he told Percy when they first met, and the god turned red, "I'm sorry, Percy."

"It's fine." Percy smiled up at his father.

My eyes stung.

Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it.

"Ouch." Leo shook his head, "Feels bad, man. Really bad."

"Yeah." Hazel agreed. She didn't really like any of her teachers in particular, but she would probably feel hurt if they told her that. She couldn't even imagine how bad it would feel to actually have a teacher she liked telling her something like that.

After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.

"I don't think he meant it like that." Michael sighed, and Beckendorf nodded, "Yeah, we know that he meant that the school wasn't suitable for a half-blood anyways. But Chiron isn't exactly the best at these kinds of talks."

"He's immortal... he trains so many of us..." Pollux trailed off. He didn't have to continue, but everyone knew what she was going to say; Chiron had to watch so many demigods die, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Right," I said, trembling.

"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say… you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"

"And he just made it worse." Will shook his head.

"We really need to teach Chiron how to give pep talks." Apollo stated, but Artemis cringed, "Anyone but you! The last thing we want is for Chiron to start spouting limericks or haikus while trying to comfort children."

The demigods all burst into laughter at that thought, as Apollo pouted at his sister.

"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."

"Percy—"

But I was already gone.

"That's just painful." Reyna muttered, "I wouldn't want to be in your shoes."

"Thanks a lot." Percy let out a small laugh.

On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.

The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month.

Rachel glanced at Percy; that reminded her of the time when she had invited Percy to go on a holiday with her during the Titan War. She wondered if any of the books would cover that kiss she gave Percy before he flew off with Beckendorf; she was sure that Annabeth would lose her cool if she learnt about that.

They were juvenile delinquents, like me,

Grover snickered, "You were a juvenile delinquent. For like two weeks."

"More like a terrorist." Annabeth added.

"It wasn't my fault!" Percy pointed at Ares, "It was his fault!"

"Yeah!" Grover chuckled, "He's a crazy kidnapper!"

Frank just looked at Ares in bewilderment, "My dad kidnapped you?"

"Not really." Percy waved him off, "I think you guys would get it at the end of this book."

but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities.

Piper and Rachel both cringed. There was a reason they didn't like to talk about their families.

"Don't worry." Percy grinned at them, "You guys are awesome!"

I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.

Zeus glared at Percy, but the boy wasn't even focused on them. He and Annabeth were sharing a grimace at the word "nobodies", remembering the arai and the curses they suffered from in Tartarus.

Frustrated at the lack of attention, Zeus was about to shout at him for calling the gods "nobodies" when Thalia sighed, "Father, Percy didn't even know who his dad was, let alone he was a demigod. Leave him alone."

"I'm not sure if I should feel offended or not." Triton grumbled, but Amphitrite patted his back, "I'm sure Perseus didn't mean to call us nobodies."

"Percy, Lady Amphitrite." Percy tried to correct the goddess, "And I'm really sorry if I offended you two. As well as all the other gods and goddesses. I wasn't aware that I was even remotely related to you."

"No worries." Amphitrite smiled at the boy, and Triton raised an eyebrow; Poseidon's demigod children usually didn't apologize that quickly. A lot of them had inherited Poseidon's bad temperament.

Maybe this one was different? After all, Artemis seemed fond of him... for some reason...

They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.

"That's nice, trying to include you in their conversation." Hestia shot Percy a small smile.

What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the autumn.

Hermes paused, and read the sentence again, before he frowned, "You were twelve at that point in time... right?"

"Yes?" Percy raised an eyebrow, and Hermes blinked in confusion, "Why did you have to get a job when you were twelve? Like... isn't the minimum age of employment fourteen... or something?"

"Err... I mean, it's just small things. I didn't have actual jobs." The Son of Poseidon curled in on himself when he felt everyone's gaze on him, "I... It should probably come up later."

"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."

They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.

"Rude." Piper snorted, and Hestia's smile fell.

The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to.

"Stalker!" Leo, Connor and Travis yelled, but Dionysus sighed, "Liam, Caitlin, Tobias, keep it down."

"But my name isn't -"

Calypso shut Leo up, "You know he's like that!"

He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.

"Such a coincidence! I wonder why?" Chris snickered, as Grover grinned at Percy.

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.

"Because bad things always happen when Percy's around." Annabeth teased.

Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased.

"By your classmates?" Persephone asked, and Grover nodded, "Yep. Percy was right when he called them "mental-case" kids. They yell and scream, throw things around the bus, they don't buckle their seatbelts... it was a mess!"

But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Cue Percy doing something stupid!" Thalia grinned.

I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Everyone, save for the satyr, burst out laughing.

"That's one way to ask. So direct!" Rachel snickered, as Leo smacked the floor with his hand, laughing far too hard to make any coherent sentences.

"Percy!" Grover bleated, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"

I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr Brunner the night before the exam.

"No! Don't ever confess!" Hermes and his two kids yelled.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"

"Oh, not much." Connor laughed.

"Oh…not much.

"Ah crap, I think like Percy."

"Connor!" Percy whined, "I'm not that bad, right?"

"Most of the time, you're okay. But at times... you're pretty bad." Hazel sighed.

What's the summer-solstice deadline?"

He winced. "Look, Percy…I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers…"

Travis clicked his tongue, "This is a terrible lie!"

"Grover—"

"And I was telling Mr Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs Dodds, and…"

Chris shook his head, "And don't add details when you're trying to lie! Then you'd have to keep track of all the details and that makes it harder to continue a convincing lie!"

Hermes nodded, "We need to give him lying lessons."

"Leave Grant alone." Dionysus grumbled, "Continue reading!"

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."

"See. Even Percy agrees!"

At this point, Grover was just tired of pointing out that this had occurred six years ago, and Juniper hugged him.

His ears turned pink.

From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,

Persephone frowned, "Why is it in a fancy script?"

Since Chiron wasn't around, she turned to Dionysus. The wine god just shrugged, "It's funny watching them flip the cards around, trying to read whatever's on the card."

"Dad!" Pollux groaned, "It's really not funny! You have no idea how much we-"

Pollux paused, and looked like he wanted to cry at the thought of his dead brother. It didn't help that he was sitting next to another half-brother from the Roman camp who was also killed in another battle, "- struggled trying to figure out just what was on the card."

Dakota could tell that his Greek half-brother was upset, and reached over to pat him on the leg comfortingly.

"Fine. Fine." Dionysus waved his hand, "I'll change the font to something more readable."

but I finally made out something like:

Grover Underwood, Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800) 009-0009

"What's Half—"

"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um… summer address."

"Well... he's not exactly wrong." Jason stated.

My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.

Grover sighed, "Well... we're not that rich. But the strawberries does give us enough income to run our camp."

"Were you really upset over that?" Annabeth asked, and Percy sighed, "I don't know... I guess I thought that Grover was like me, and he wasn't like... friends with me out of pity or something."

"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."

He nodded. "Or… or if you need me."

"Why would I need you?"

"Ouch. That's harsh." Dakota shook his head, drinking down some more ghostly Kool Aid.

It came out harsher than I meant it to.

"Sorry, Grover." Percy apologized, but Grover just waved it off, "Yeah, I get it, man. Don't worry about it."

Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."

I stared at him.

All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.

"That kind of reasoning does seem logical." Apollo nodded in agreement.

"You lost sleep over me?" Grover turned to Percy, who just shrugged, "I mean... yeah? You were pretty much my first friend like... ever. I didn't want you to get hurt, since it would be pretty much my fault since I got expelled."

Hazel raised an eyebrow, "But your teacher was terrible! You have ADHD and dyslexia!"

Percy just shrugged helplessly, "Still. I called my teacher a bad name. My fault."

And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.

"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"

"Pretty much... I don't know... every single mythological monster in existence." Thalia sighed, and Poseidon looked like he was going to throw up.

"Names have power, Perry." Dionysus muttered, and Annabeth shook her head, "And someone, Percy never got that memo."

"No, William H. Seward got it." Percy snickered. It took Annabeth a second to understand what Percy meant, and she laughed, leaving the others confused once again.

"You still remember that?" Annabeth asked, and Percy grinned, "I mean... it was pretty funny."

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet.

"Uh oh."Pollux muttered.

Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.

Aphrodite, Silena and Piper cringed at the thought of rotten eggs.

The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

"Ouch." Leo muttered, as Beckendorf wondered what had gone wrong with the bus.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

"Old fruit stand for old ladies who knit socks." Travis nodded, "Understood."

"Fruit is great!" Demeter nodded, "Did they have cereal?"

"Enough with the cereal!" Hades groaned, and Nico snickered under his breath.

The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood-red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice.

"That does sound nice." Juniper commented, "Cold drinks on a hot day while stranded on the road."

There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.

"Ah yeah." Leo nodded, "The infamous Socks of Death."

He and the Stoll brothers started laughing again.

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

"Err... why do I have a feeling that's not just normal yarn?" Hazel asked uneasily.

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 gods all froze as they realized just who Percy had seen.

Percy just groaned; he was pretty sure that Grover had told Chiron about the Fates, but no one else knew about it.

"Percy!" Annabeth cried out, "You saw the Fates!?"

"I mean... yeah?" Percy squeaked out, as his girlfriend glowered at him, "And you never told anyone?!"

"Well, excuse me, I had other priorities at the moment!" Percy defended himself. Annabeth sighed, and slumped back against him, knowing full well that, yes, Percy did indeed have much more important things to worry about at that point in time.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.

"Percy." Poseidon muttered, "I think you should get out of there as soon as possible."

"Sorry dad. No can do. This was six years ago." Percy replied.

Amphitrite and Triton just stared at Percy, wondering how the heck he wasn't dead yet.

I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"

"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"

"With Percy's luck... they probably were." Thalia cringed.

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"

"Percy, it's not the time for joking." Katie berated.

"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."

"Agreed." Triton muttered.

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.

"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."

"Yes." Artemis and Apollo both nodded, agreeing with each other for once, "Get on the bus."

"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."

"Now's not the time to be stubborn, boy." Athena growled.

Hestia shook her head, "Athena, if the Fates wanted him to see that... there's nothing he or the satyr could do. Don't get mad at him over something he can't control."

"Come on!" He prised open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.

Everyone flinched, but Percy just sighed, "It wasn't my thread."

"And you know that, how?" Triton questioned his half-brother, but Percy shrugged, "I mean... I'm alive right now... right? Plus, electric-blue isn't really my colour."

"That's true..." Annabeth mused, "So... it was his?"

All the Greek demigods knew who Annabeth was referring to, and Percy nodded.

Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.

Despite the severity of the situation, they knew that Percy was still alive, and some of the demigods snickered.

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.

Beckendorf frowned, "I don't think there's an engine part that can just be thrown out like that."

Hephaestus nodded in agreement, "The Fates must have tampered with the engine, somehow, to make Percy see them cut a life thread."

The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.

Poseidon patted Percy's shoulder comfortingly.

Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling me?"

"Honestly. A lot." Percy grumbled, "No one told me anything."

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like… Mrs Dodds, are they?"

"Honestly, I wish they were like Mrs Dodds." Grover sighed, "Then Percy could just slice em to bits."

"But he gave Riptide back to Chiron." Dakota stated, taking another swig of Kool Aid, "So he has no weapon."

"Maybe Percy can drown them." Leo grinned.

His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs Dodds.

"Much, much worse." Hades sighed.

He said, "Just tell me what you saw."

"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."

"Well... yeah. That happened. Grover, were you expecting Percy to see something different?" Thalia turned to Grover.

Grover bleated nervously, "I was honestly hoping I was just hallucinating or something. Magic mushrooms, ya know?"

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost— older.

Will sighed, "I wonder how on earth you can pick up miniscule details like that... and yet you and Annabeth-"

He was cut off when Annabeth threw a pillow at Will's face, but Apollo slapped it out of the air just in time.

He said, "You saw her snip the cord."

"Yeah. So?"

"It's a big deal." Leo stated, "A very, very big deal. A humongous deal. A super -"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it." Calypso interrupted Leo before he could drone on with more synonyms.

But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.

"Crap. I think like Percy." Leo laughed, and Percy groaned, "Are you guys going to continue to make fun of me."

"Yes." Thalia stated, in a very serious tone, before she snickered.

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."

"What last time?"

"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."

Annabeth sighed, "Grover. You're going to scare him away."

"Yeah. I think I did." Grover nodded nervously, despite knowing that they all got through this.

"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."

This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.

"At least he didn't swear on the Styx." Poseidon muttered; he had a feeling that his son wouldn't keep that promise.

"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.

Grover bleated, "I wish."

No answer.

"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"

"Percy's being perceptive again." Thalia shook her head; honestly, reading his thoughts, it was no wonder he had been the first one to figure out her fear of heights.

"And yet, he's so oblivious." Katie shook her head in amusement at how long Percy and Annabeth had danced around each other.

He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.

"Grover!" Everyone sighed, and the satyr groaned, "I know! I'm sorry!"

"Well... that was ominous. but at least we know Percy's fine." Hermes put up a fake smile; he had a feeling he knew who's string had been cut.

"What flowers were you thinking about?" Nico asked, and Grover stared at him, horrified.

"Hmm..." Percy hummed, "I think I'd like moonlace."

"Percy! Bad thoughts!" Annabeth smacked him on the shoulder, but Percy whined, "But moonlace is pretty!"

"Where are we even going to get moonlace?!" Nico asked, and Annabeth glared at him, "Don't you join in with Seaweed Brain's stupid antics!"

Calypso looked at Percy guiltily. He still remembered the flower that she gave him to plant... and yet... she had done something that nearly got him and Annabeth killed.

"So... who's going to read next?"

"Me!" Apollo grinned at his friend, and Hermes tossed the book over.

"Wow, I didn't know you could read, brother." Artemis snickered. Apollo glowered at his sister as he easily caught the book in one hand, and flipped it open.