Annabeth's POV
I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER
I choked back a snort.
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.
Are you kidding? Why ever not? *sarcasm*
If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.
Oh wowwwwwww. Nobody knew that!
But seriously?
I wished I knew that when I was a kid. I should have just ignored all the spi, spide, spider, spiders. *shudders*
Being a half-blood is dangerous.
You think?
If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on.
I KNOW it's real, but I'm still reading! I have a feeling Apollo sent this to me.
But... were there were really people who went on with their lives while demigods were being slaughtered?
But if you recognize yourself in these pages- if you feel something stirring inside you- stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know, it's only a matter of time before they'll know, too.
Heck, yeah.
Your scent gets stronger and you reach your full potential because you recognize yourself for who you are. And then the monsters make fresh meat out of you.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
I smirked.
"Ooh, my death is on your hands~," I said mockingly.
"Beth? You all right?" Kelly asked.
"Uh-huh." I bopped my head and returned to the book.
My name is Percy Jackson.
I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids.
Am I a troubled kid?
"No! You're not!" I practically yelled.
"Ann?" Malcolm frowned at me.
Was Anne of Green Gables the 'Anne with an E'?
Well, I was Ann without an E.
Yeah, you could say that.
"No, Percy, you're not. You're just a half-blood!" I sighed, sympathetic.
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 school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.
My eyes glazed over from trying to take on so much English at once.
I rubbed my eyes and reread it, more carefully this time, before moving on.
This was torture on my eyes.
I know- it sounds like torture.
I grinned. What was he- a mindreader?
Most Yancy field trips were.
But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.
Wait. Mr. Brunner?
Wasn't that something Chiron had talked about?
He said, "My name is Mr. Brunner, and I will be teaching you about..."
He had stopped when he saw me. Maybe he was telling a friend what to say?
Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair.
"WHAT THE ! ^($T&* *!^ &*#%*!%* &#%%*! #(#(*! &*(^971^(! (curse words have been removed for your benefit.)" I shouted.
CHIRON HAD THAT WHEELCHAIR!
"Annie!" Kelly plugged her ears. "What's wrong with you?!"
"Sorry." I said sheepishly, staring at the ground.
He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he's be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class.
"CHIRON!" I yelled. He literally had ONE job: to teach.
And he let them play GAMES!?
He also had this awesome collection of Roman weapons and and armor, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.
"Ha!" I laughed.
Athena would have been disgusted, but I could relate, ADHD and all.
I hoped the trip would be okay. I hoped, for once, that I wouldn't get in trouble.
Why did he get into trouble so much? Okay, now I was seriously curious.
Boy, was I wrong.
How? How?
I NEEDED TO KNOW!
See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school,
fifth-grade school? Why not just fifth grade? I'm getting suspicious...
Also, what did it mean by bad things?
Could a monster have already found him? Was his aura that strong?
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.
"Pwafaha!" I sputtered, laughing. How could one 'accidentally' hit a school bus?
I knew right then that he was no son of Athena. We were smarter than that. He was just a knucklehead, Ares maybe.
And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... well, you get the idea.
Oh, yes, Percy Jackson. I got the idea.
This trip I was determined to be good.
"BWAHAHAHAHA!" I exploded. He was a DEMIGOD! How could he be considered, 'good' by mortals?
All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomanic girl,
I hated her already.
hitting my best friends Grover
"WHAT!?" I wanted to kill Nancy! Hitting Grover? Grover's the only reason I'm alive!
on the back of his head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.
Ewwwww. Who ate like that?
Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated.
That sounds like the Grover I know *wink wink*.
He must've been held back several grades because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disorder 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.
I stifled a snort. Yes, this was DEFINTELY Grover.
Percy had NO IDEA.
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 the headmaster had threatened me with death
"WHATTTTTT!?" I screamed for the millionth time. But still! This book had so many surprises!
I would have NEVER guessed that the headmaster was the monster! What would happen then?
Nancy Bobofit knew, but she didn't do anything. Was she a monster too?
by in-school suspension
Ohhh. That makes sense.
if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.
Huh. Well, that wasn't much better.
"I'm going to kill her."
" DO IT! DO IT!" I cheered. I was being weird, but this book was so interesting, I couldn't help myself.
Grover tried to calm me down.
"BOOO! BOO GROVER! KILL HER!" I was screaming my head off and stomping my feet.
"It's okay. I like peanut butter."
Awww. Friend material, that Grover.
He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.
"That's it."
This Percy kid had a fierce temper, that's for sure. That's Athena, Ares, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus.
I had already ruled out Athena, the Big Three were out because of the vow, so... Ares? He didn't seem like the Ares type, but that was the only choice.
I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.
"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You'll know who'll get blamed if anything happens."
Looking back on it, I wished 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.
I was hooked. What trouble? But sadly, I had to go and eat.
It had taken a LONG time to get this far, because of my dyslexia.
After lunch, I continued reading.
Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.
I found that sort of ironic. Chiron, a figure in Greek mythology, was leading a field trip about Greek mythology.
He rode up front
WAIT. Did he figure out that 'Mr. Brunner' was a centuar? He said, 'RODE'
in his wheelchair,
Ohhhhhh.
guiding us thorugh 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.
Oh yeah? Well, demigods have been around for EVEN LONGER. And even if the pottery is admittedly a symbol of Greece, we demigods protect Greece and its myths. The pottery is just something like a souvenir, while we demigods are ultimately the ones that work and sacrifice ourselves for the sake of-
Oops. Sorry.
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.
I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me kept talking, and every time I told them to shut up, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.
Oh, I had a bad feeling about Mrs. Dodds.
Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher who always wore a black leather jacket,
Huh. A monster teaching math with a leather jacket? Leather is like the mortal form of animals skins..
even though she was fifty years old.
Wow. She was OLD.
She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.
I bet!
She had come to Yancy the year before, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.
Really? Or is it just the doing of a monster?
From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was a devil spawn.
Okay, now I hated her.
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.
One time, after she'd made me erase answers it of old math workbooks until midnight,
AHHH! Midnight? I'm not even sure my mom would enjoy that!
I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human.
He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."
"GROVER!" I shouted. Poor Percy would be scared out of his wits!
Mr. Brunner kept talking about funeral art.
Finally, Nancy Bobbofit snickered and said something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"
Yes!
Nancy: 0
Percy: 1
It came out louder than I meant to.
Oops.
Nancy: 1
Percy: 1
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."
Awwww. I could so relate!
Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"
I bet I could ace this question.
I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"
"Yes..." Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because..."
I smirked. Well, at least he'd gotten the question!
But I knew what Chiron wanted. He wanted Percy to see how important this was.
"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"
"GOD!?" I yelled. How stupid could this kid be?
The gods would have his head for that comment!
Doofus.
"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.
Set him straight, Chiron!
"Titan," I corrected myself. "And... he didn't trust his kids, who were the baby gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"
"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.
"Humph!" I said. Weak stomached girls. I could handle this, no problemo.
" -and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."
Wow. Good job summing up centuries of war in a few sentences.
Some snickers from the group.
How dare they!
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 paraprahse Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"
"Busted!" I screamed.
"Busted," Grover muttered.
"WHAT!? I'm GOAT BOY NOW? Oh, just SHUT UP!"
"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.
"I am not BOBOFITTTT!" I howled.
At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.
I calmed down enough to say, "Yeah, he does." without screaming.
I thought about his question and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."
Well, how about this?
THEY'RE HECKING ALIVE!
Ahem.
"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods had been growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch."
Yeah, that's Chiron. Always so positive.
(NOTE! I skipped some stuff here because...um... I'm just lazy that way. HEHEHEHEHEH please don't kill me!)
The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.
Gods, that sounded so fun. Nothing like watching people walk on a sweaty day? Super interesting.
Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city.
Um, so maybe not so sweaty. This was Zeus at work if I'd ever seen it.
I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York had been weird since Christmas.
We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfire from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.
If this wasn't Zeus's doing, then I wasn't a demigod.
This was definitely Zeus and Poseidon, at it again.
Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers.
That's because it's magic, dummy.
Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.
To heck with Mrs. Dodds! Why!? Why wasn't she seeing it?
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.
I understood the guy. Being kicked around... yeah. It was tough.
"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."
Yeah, you are. I thought. You're a demigod. It takes pure genius to just stay alive.
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,
Really, this kid was expecting too much. I mean, this was Grover- Grover!
he said, "Can I have your apple?"
"See?" I said to no one in particular.
Brade, an Athena boy, stared at me, cocking his head.
I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.
Huh. I wonder why. Ares kids usually are very possessive,
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.
My mid was blown. I had to reread to make sure I had read it right. Did he.. CARE about his mom?
Didn't his mom hate him? Didn't he fight with her everyday?
The only explanation is that the mother must not know that his dad is Poseidon.
Lucky kid.
She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years
SCREEEEECH.
Hold up.
SIXTH SCHOOL IN SIX YEARS?
There was NO WAY he was an Athena kid.
and I was probably going to get kicked out again.
I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.
Well... that was good? THis was just so unfamiliar to me I didn't know what to think.
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.
I snickered. Café table? That was new.
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.
I swear to all the gods, I would kill this girl if I ever got my hands on her.
So what if celestial bronze didn't work on unimportant mortals? I would find a way. I would wring her neck if I had to.
Oh. When I started having thoughts like that, I knew I had been spending too much time with the Ares kids.
"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if someone had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.
I felt bad for the Cheetos.
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.
I'm hoping on Styx that it was figurative. Like, 'a wave of anger' not the Poseidon kind of wave.
Because if this Percy kid was a child of Poseidon, well, his dad and my mom had some problems.
We would NOT be friends.
I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"
"That's what you get!" I yelled. Even if Percy was a son of Poseidon, he at least had a sense of judgment.
Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.
Oh gods.
Some of the kids were whispering:
"Did you see-"
"-the water-"
"-like it grabbed her-"
Well, there was my proof. This dude was an algae pot. A sea spawn. A sand hand. All of the above.
I didn't know what they were talking about.
All I knew was that I was in trouble again.
You bet you are! That Percy... he was dead meat.
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."
That wasn't the right thing to say.
What made you think it was, PERCY JACKSON!?
"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.
"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."
Oh wow. Grover, you would die!
I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.
And she would probably kill him too!
She glared at him so hard his whiskey chin trembled.
"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.
"But- "
"You- will- stay- here."
Grover looked at me desperately.
"It's okay, man." I told him. "Thanks for trying."
No, it's NOT okay! AGHHH!
CHIRON!
"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."
Nancy Bobofit smirked at me.
I swear on the Styx, if I ever meet her...
I gave ger my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. THen I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.
How did she get there so fast?
Um, hmm, let me think. Maybe because she ISN'T HUMAN?
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 misinterpretrating things.
"I wouldn't be so sure." I murmured.
I wasn't so sure.
I blushed. How could I be like a fish face? How!?
I went after Mrs. Dodds.
Cue the scary music.
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 too absorbed in his novel.
CHIRONNNNN!
You literally had ONE job: to look after Percy. I know he's His Royal Pond Muck's son, but seriously!? I don't want ANY demigods getting hurt? I'd fight for him, sure. But die for him? Eh... But still! ONE JOB!
I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was one 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.
But apparently that wasn't the plan.
Yeah, obviously! What did you think? Use your brain! Oh, right! You don't have one. That's something you inherited from Lord Saltwater over there.
I followed her deeper into the museum.
*spoiler alert* HE'S GONNA DIEEEEE
But really, what if he died? But there were like, literally a 100 pages ledt. He couldn't die! Actually he could. He could spend the rest of the book as a ghost. BUT. On to happier thoughts.
When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.
Except for us, the gallery was empty.
BEEPBEEPBEEP! Monster alert! Monster alert!
Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crosed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods.
Wow. I had to admit, Mrs. Dodds had GUTS, attacking Percy in front of a source of Greek gods.
She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.
Even without the noise, I would have been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds.
Something about the way she looked at that frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...
Wait. She's attacking in front of the frieze?
I would have thought she would stand in front of a sculpture of a monster or something, to draw power from that.
But the only reason she would attack in front od the frieze is that she's controlled by one of the gods...
"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.
I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."
NO MA'AM!
She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"
What it? Did something happen that I wasn't aware of?
The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.
You got one thing right, clam face!
And it's not good.
She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.
Wrong, Percy. Run while you can! You don't have any experience! You're gonna die!
"DIEEEEE!" I screamed to support my thinking, and Diane looked at me like, are you okay and are you sure you're not dying or have a weird sickness that makes you crazy and un-Annabeth like? 'Cause like, I remember you as that boring girl who told me to shut up with my reading aloud so that you could do your precious math problems.
Then her eyes darkened and she looked away, sniffing contemptuously.
Well, sorry Diane, but no. I'm perfectly fine.
Diane was... well, let's just say we have a rocky relationship.
If we were to ever, for some reason, dance, we would die- sorry, I meant dance- to songs like 'I Hate You' and "I Want To Punch You NOW' and 'Slap Your Trap' and so on.
I said, "I'll- I'll try harder, ma'am. "
Thunder shook the building.
"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time beo=fore we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."
I didn't know what she was talking about.
It tortures me to say this, but yeah, me neither.
All I could think of was that the teacher must've found out the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.
Oh my- PERCY JACKSON!
"Oh gods, Percy! YOU'RE A CRIMINAL!?" I screamed.
"Zip it, Anna. I'm working on my MATH." Diane sneered. I shook my head at her, like, 'not cool, bro' and went on reading.
Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now were going to take away the book.
Or worse,
I had to stop there because I was rolling on the floor laughing.
He sounded like Hermione Granger when she said, "Now, if you two don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with a clever idea to gets us killed."
Wait for it...wait for it...
"Or worse, EXPELLED."
Oh my gods, they sound the SAME!
they were going to make me read the book.
And now I'm Ron!
"You need to sort out your priorities."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
"Well?" she demanded.
"Ma'am, I don't..."
"Youre 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 was a shriveled hag with bat wings and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.
"What the ****!?" I yelped, ignoring Diane's hiss of annoyance, Kelly squeaking and covering her ears, Malcolm glaring at me, and Brade's gapes.
Because this? Oh, so ironic. This was a Fur- Kindly One. That description fit a Kindly One perfectly.
Oh, how was Percy going to survive?
I didn't really want to, since I was pretty sure I knew what would happen. (hint: SLICE SLICE! AHHHHHHH! SCREAM!) And it would end with Grover not getting his searcher's license.
Sad, sad. But not as sad as the death of Percy Jackson, who I was just getting to know.
Then things got even stranger.
Is that so?
Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.
"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.
Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.
"Ah!" I squeaked.
With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear.
Wait. WHAT? How did he live?
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. Bruneer's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.
Well, slightly better odds, but there's still NO WAY he can beat a Kindly One.
Mrs. Dodds spun around toward me with a murderous look.
My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.
Now, that would be bad, right?
She narled, "Die, honey!"
And she flew straight at me.
"AHHHHH!' I scremaed, covering my eyes.
"Shush!" Kelly hushed me.
"Whatever, Killy Kelly." I muttered.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" She hated her nickname.
I pretended not to hear and went back to reading.
Absoloute terror ran through my body.
Well, I don't blame you!
I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.
Ha! As if it was going to do any good. I mean, this Dodds person was a Fury- Kindly One, and Percy was a demigod with zero training! He was so going to die...
My thoughts died as I read the next sentence.
The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!
"WHAT OH MY GODS WHATTTTT JUSTTTTT HAPPENEDDDDDD AHHHHHHH!" I yelled.
"Annabeth?" Frez came out of the bathroom in a robe. "What happened?"
Frez was a teenage girl about my age, with hair so dark red it looked black. She had bright green eyes and a freckle or two. Frez's real name is Fresina, but call her that and you'll wind up in a sweage, your dead body floating off somewhere.
She told me.
Frez is like my best friend, so hopefully she wouldn't say anything about me cursing and yelling.
Hopefully.
"Just... interesting book." I said lamely.
"Huh? Well, whatever. You all! Move back! I AM CHANGING!" Then she grabbed her clothes, grinning as everyone jerked back (except me) and sighed (I did do this).
Diane groaned dramatically. "Gods, Frez, will you- "
"Zip it, lock it, throw the key to Annie over there."
I beamed innocently, and held out my hand. Diane screamed, "ARGHHHH!" and stormed out.
I shrugged and started reading again.
Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized in 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.
Oh I knew how it felt, for the Mist to destroy your sense of real and no real.
My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.
"MAGIC MUSHROOMS!?" I howled.
Kelly huffed, still miffed by my Killy Kelly comment, but didn't say anything since Frez was there.
Frez. I guess I should explain a bit more about her.
She was half god, quarter American, quarter Spanish.
Her mom, obviously, is Athena. Her dad had an American mom and a Spanish dad, so... yeah.
She's fierce and is kind of a rebel, but super loyal to her friends. It's actually sort of funny.
Friends, Frez.
Anyway.
I made friends with Frez when I started liking Luke... liking him, if you catch my drift.
I can't talk to Luke about my problems with it, gods forbid, and Thalia... she isn't here any more.
So, Frez. I talked to her, opened up completely, and BAM. We're friends.
She has this regal look Spanish people have, like, Hello, estúpido idiota. I'm going to kill you, so stay still for it to not hurt so much. Want a napkin for all the blood?
I had a feeling she'd get on jolly with Percy.
Speaking of our little Percy...
Had I imagined the whole thing
I went back outside.
It had started to rain.
Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."
Who?
I said, "Who?"
I gagged. I could not be thinking like a sewage breath.
"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?"
"Bet he'll fail at lying," I said.
"Well, I think that too, so move out, sister." Frez winked at me.
"Never!" I teased, hitting her playfully on the back.
I felt so calm, so safe right now.
A/N
FREZ X ANNABETH IS NOT HAPPENING! PERCABETH FOREVER!
Frez is just there to show how peaceful Annabeth is.
Also, do you think a Frez fanfiction would be okay?
I went back to the book as Frez started chatting up a storm with Kelly.
Let's see... where was I?
But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.
"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."
Thunder boomed overhead.
I knew it! Grover would ruin the lie.
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."
YES! That's how you lie~
I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't noticed I was still holding it.
Yeah, that's how you do it.
Kill a monster with a pen and not even realize you're 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 leaned 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?"
DUN DUN DUNNNN!
So, well, GREAT! I am DONE with this! Might sound rude, but when I posted this, it deleted, and then it happened AGAIN! So this is my THIRD time writing this!
I know, right? SO ANNOYING.
Did you like it? You should, since you read so much of it *wink wink*
As always, review please!
