DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THIS, ALL RIGHTS GO TO RICK RIORDAN
Chapter 2
Percy POV
I accidentally vaporize my pre-algebra teacher
"I'm sorry what did you say?" Leo asked snickering along with many other campers. I sighed this was going to be a long story… "Leo do me a favor and shut your face" Piper said before I could say anything. "can I start now?" I asked "yes son go ahead" my dad replied.
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 you about your birth and try to lead a normal life. I shut the book and started to get up when my wise girl pulled me back down shaking her head. Being a half-blood is dangerous. Most of the time it gets you killed in painful nasty ways.
"Preach man, preach" some campers in the back yelled, causing the camp to nod their heads.
If you are a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these pages if you feel something stirring inside stop reading immediately. you might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sent it to and they'll come for you. Don't say I didn't warn you. "Wow, Percy very dark. hey, Dad is it too late for us to back out now?" the Stolls asked their dad. Hermes sadly shook his head.
My name is Percy Jackson. I'm twelve-year-old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding school Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in Upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid? "Yes, yes you are" Thalia replied"
Yeah. You can say that. "HAHA, I told you!" I can start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but Things really started going bad last May, when our 6th-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan, 28 mental case kids into teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. I know it sounds like torture most yancy field trips were.
But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hope. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smell like coffee. "Is that Chiron?" one of the younger campers asked. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman are armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep. I hoped this trip would be okay. At least, I hope that for once I wouldn't get into trouble. Boy, was I wrong. Thief, bad things happen to me on field trips. I got my 5th-grade school, 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. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, 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.
"Wait wait wait wait! Can we see that?!" Apollo asked laughing. The rest of camp was laughing as I read that part in my life. I looked over at my mom as she was smirking at me. I sighed and gave in. Apollo got up and made a screen pop up and snapped his fingers and the memory appeared
Memory: we see little Percy with his class in the aquarium about to go to the shark pool. While everyone was distracted Percy had walked up to the tank and started to have a small conversation with the sharks. "Hi sharky! Im Percy!" said little Percy in a cute voice. "Hello there little prince, how are you doing?" Percy giggled at being called little prince not realizing the fact that the shark talked back to him.
"Look everyone, Percy thinks he's talking to the fish, don't you know that fish can't talk. You're such a loser Jackson '' said the school bully Johnathon. Percy was about to fight him when he heard the sharks voice again "wait my lord, do not fight him yet, let us help you." The sharks told little Percy the plan and Percy was excited.
Everyone watched as the class walked onto the catwalk and Percy stayed close to the levers. The lady in charge of this tank asked Percy to pull the lever on the right to bring out the food for the sharks. As Percy walked up to the levers he thought to himself 'pull the lever Kronk' and pulled the lever on the left. As the catwalk fell the lady yelled "wrong lever!" (AN: hehe see what I did there?)
They fell into the shark-infested below and the plan began. The plan was that the sharks would try and scare all the little children by charging and grab Percy and bring him to the other side of the tank. It worked…
The scene changes to the fifth grade trip to the Saratoga battlefield and Percy was admiring the revolutionary cannon. He was across the battlefield which was about 1 mile away from the buses. He had strayed away from the class and was pretending to be in the revolutionary war, manning the cannons. When all of a sudden he yelled "FIRE!" and the cannon did just that. He watched in shock as the bowling ball size projectile flew across the battlefield and right into his school bus. Luckily no one was inside. He turned around to see his class staring at him with shock. His teacher looked like he was about to explode with anger. "Sorry..'' little Percy said and then the bus blew up behind him.
END MEMORY
"NOO WAYYYY!" Leo yelled loudly, "you are now my most favorite person in the entire world!" The entire camp was laughing, Apollo and Hermes were on the ground clutching their stomachs while My dad was wiping tears from his eyes saying "that's my boy!" I couldn't help but smile at the comment. I looked around and all my closest friends and was enjoying the friendly laughs all around. "Percy you didn't tell me that's how it happened?!" My mother exclaimed, I blushed and replied "well I thought you would think I was crazy if I said that the sharks were talking to me." She shook her head. "Ok, can we get on with this book now?" grunted Zeus. "Yes, uncle ill start reading now" I replied.
This trip, I was determined to be good. All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freshly, red-headed kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter and ketchup sandwich. "Ew who puts that on a sandwich?" Piper asked. Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. "I do not cry when I get frustrated." Grover said while pouting, "haha sorry G-Man, but you did" I replied to him.
He must have held back several grades because he was only a 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 type of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny like every step hurt him but don't let that fool you. You should have seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria. "Satyrs are always so interesting," Mr. D said. Apollo looked at him in disbelief, "you're paying attention?" Mr. D just shrugged.
Anyway, Nancy bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly hair and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The Headmaster threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. "I'm going to kill her" I'm almost got up but Grober pulled me back down and tried to call me down " it's okay. I like peanut butter" he dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. " That's it." I started to get up, but Grover told me back into my seat. " You're already on probation" he reminded me. " You know who gets blamed if anything happens." Looking back at it, I wish I'd decked Nancy bobofit right then and there, in-school suspension would have been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. "Mom, is it too late to go do that?" I asked my mom. "Honey you aren't allowed to go deck this girl." My mom replied. Thalia leaned over to me and whispered in my ear so my mom couldn't hear "Don't worry, I'll get her for ya, I have no problem" I grinned and decided to keep reading before my mom caught on
Mr. Brunner led the Museum tour he wrote up in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big Echo e galleries, passing marble statues and glass cases full of really old black and orange Pottery. it blew my mind that this stuff has survived for two thousand three thousand years. He gathered us around a 13 ft tall stone column with a big Spinx on the top and started telling us how it was a grave marker, Stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say because it was kind of interesting, but everyone around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give you the evil eye. Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was 50 years old. She looks at me enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. "Oh, I like this chick haha" Ares commented, obviously forgetting the fact that Mrs. Dodds was a fury.
She had come to Yancey halfway through the year when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Figured I was the devil spawn. 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 day after she made me erase answers out of old Math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds Was human. He looked right at me real serious and said "you're absolutely right". Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy bobofit Snickers something about the naked guy on this daily, and I turned around and said "will you shut up?" it came out louder than it went to. The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped the story. "Mr. Jackson." he said, did you have a comment?" My face went totally red. I said "No, sir." Mr. Brunner pointed to the opening of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?" Thalia and Nico sniggered "This will be interesting"
I looked at the carving and felt a flash of relief because I recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" "Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..." "Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—" "God?" Mr. Brunner asked. " GOD?! our father is no god!" Zeus exclaimed. I'm sorry uncle it was a small mistake.
"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"
Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me. "—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won." Some snickers from the group.
Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'" "And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?" "Busted," Grover muttered. "Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears. I thought about his question and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."
"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"
The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses. Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson." I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?" Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. "You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.
"About the Titans?" "About real life. And how your studies apply to it." "Oh." "What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."
I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard. I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C– in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly. Annabeth grasped my hand in hers and squeezed it slightly for comfort while Athena was muttering on how much of a kelp head I was just like my dad.
I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral. He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.
The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. Zeus and Poseidon looked at each other and rubbed the back of their necks.
Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. 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.
"Detention?" Grover asked. "Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius." Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?" "really Grover? Thinking with your stomach?" Clairese asked I leaned over to Grover and whispered into his ear "don't worry about it I'm glad you didn't get all philosophical"
I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me. "What a momma's boy you are," Ares said laughing. Before he could blink many shoes were thrown at him by my mother and Aphrodite which made him shut up. "Yes, I am a momma's boy" 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 cafe table.
I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap. "Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos. "She sounds like she needs some beauty assistance," said Aphrodite quietly.
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. "Why is it every time you talk or describe something it always ends up being related to the ocean?" Leo asked. "What can I say? The sea doesn't like to be restrained" I said winking at my dad who had a proud smile on his face. "But that doesn't answer my question," Leo asked again which I ignored and continued to read.
I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!" Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"—the water—" "—like it grabbed her—" I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.
As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—" "I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks." "You had to guess what you were doing didn't you?" Hermes asked me, shaking his head, I just shrugged. That wasn't the right thing to say. "Well duh!" exclaimed the Stolls. Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said. "Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her." I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said. "But—"
"You—will—stay—here." Grover looked at me desperately."It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying." "Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now." Nancy Bobofit smirked.
I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. "Ooo can we see this stare?" One of the Romans asked. I shrugged and gave them the stare but had to turn it down because I've gotten better because of Lupa in the wolf house. Everyone flinched and I felt bad, but hey they asked for it. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast? Uncle Hades looked at me with regret, after the first war he told me he was sorry for sending the furies after me. I told him it was no big deal everything turned out fine after.
I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. I wasn't so sure. I went after Mrs. Dodds. Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel. "Chiron, I always wondered, why didn't you interfere?" I asked Chiron, He slightly blushed and rubbed the back of his neck "Well, I wanted to make sure that you were a half-blood and that she was a monster, so I had to let it happen." seems fair enough.
I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan.
I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty.
Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. "Growling?" Reyna asked. I just put one finger up saying "wait for it"
Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it… "You've been giving us problems, honey," she said. I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am." "you were being polite? The world is ending!" Thalia said, putting a dramatic hand to her forehead. Rolling my eyes I splashed her with some water, she responded by grinning evilly and shocking me with lightning. "Are you two done yet?" Annabeth asked, "yes" we replied in unison.
"Does this happen often?" Jason asked, "unfortunately, yes it does" Annabeth sighed.
She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am." Thunder shook the building. "We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain." "What could she possibly want from you, Jackson?" Octavian sneered. I ignored him once more.
I didn't know what she was talking about. Some people sniggered at that and I just shrugged.
All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book. "Oh seaweed brain"
"Well?" she demanded. "Ma'am, I don't..." "Your time is up," she hissed.
Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. Reynas eyes widened with shock that he is about to battle a fury at such a young age.
Then things got even stranger. Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. "What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.
Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day. "Riptide!" a young camper whom I used to help train exclaimed making me smile
Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. She snarled, "Die, honey!" And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!
Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. "See this is what I mean 'sand castle in a power fan' i just don't understand you sometimes Percy," Leo said with his hands in the air. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me. I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.
Had I imagined the whole thing? 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? Thalia asked. I said, "Who?" "Oh no, I'm thinking like kelp face!" "Our teacher. Duh!" I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was. He said, "Who?"
But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me. "Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious." Thunder boomed overhead.
I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."
I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it. "Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?" He stared at me blankly. "Who?"
"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher." He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at YancyAcademy. Are you feeling all right?" "way to make me feel crazy there Chiron!" I told him with a slight glare but he can see my grin right through it. Chiron laughed and then apologized but I just waved it off. "Alright, guys that is the first chapter, who wants to read next? I kinda want to take a nap, I don't know when the last time I slept was."
"How about this," Poseidon interrupted, "Let's get one nice long night of sleep and we will continue first thing in the morning. The time still won't move so we are safe until morning." I agreed immediately and dragged Annabeth and my mother with me to my cabin. While we were there my mom hugged me again and asked the question I've been dreading to answer. "Percy why do you and Annabeth look so bloody and tired, you guys look worse than the rest of the seven." I flinched but tried to cover it, I failed miserably. I looked into my mom's eyes and told her everything. New Rome, the trip across America, all the way to Tartarus which was where we were pulled out from.
By the end, the three of us were in tears and holding each other closely. "We should get some sleep now, good night mom, see you in the morning" my mom took the other bunk across the room, and Annabeth layed next to me and we slept for the first time in so long and thank the gods, there were no dreams.
Well, there you go, everyone! That is the second chapter of my story, hope you enjoy! As always I'm open to any criticism that you think you make the story better. Also, let me know if there are any moments from the book that you want to hear certain reactions to! xx