AN - 5/8/15: In honor of my story's first two followers, and story favoriter (if that is a word) I am releasing this chapter early, and in honor of the weekend. I hope you all had/have and awesome day (I ended up seeing a baby goose my one teacher rescued in my school and had a breakfast food party in history). I really do appreciate the support you give or will give for any readers who will be reading this when more of the story is posted. It brightens my day and those three alerts I got really made my week. Thank you again and enjoy the story. I am always open to ideas and suggestions, or just any comments on this. I hope you enjoy the story, especially as it is starting to pick up now. Bye for now :)
Edit: Typo fix 5/9/15 -Thanks for telling me! I appreciate it, I have gone over this so many times and retyped that it kind of all blurs together at this point. 6/17/19: Thanks Horus!
"Be sure to write me every week. I packed you two some extra stamps and envelopes so no excuses. All of your forms are filled out and handed in so don't worry about those. Everything should be packed, but if something is missing be sure to tell someone or I can send it to you." Sally was gradually drifting toward the doors, drop off time coming to a close. "Oh, look at you two, so grown up. You are going to do great, but like I said if you need anything-"
"Mom, don't worry, we got you the first time." Percy said with a smile. I could tell he was nervous about Sally leaving us here alone, but he was doing a good job of hiding it for her sake.
"Oh alright... I love you two, I will see you at winter break." She stopped fretting with the strap of her purse and pulled Percy and I into a big hug. There were a few other kids in the lobby saying goodbye to parents, but most were alone or already heading to their dorms.
We each hugged her back and after what felt like forever, she let go. I understood her concern, this would be the first time we were going to be off alone somewhere for so long. After the last number of mishaps that had gotten us kicked out of our last few schools, I knew she had all the more to be anxious. Honestly, I was right there with her. It would take that much longer to get to safety if something happened. The further away we were from the city, the more limited our potential escape routes were, and even more miles between us and Camp if all else failed and we needed to go there as a last resort.
"I'm going to miss you." She squeezed in one last quick hug before reluctantly exiting through the front entrance back out to the car. Once she was out of view I turned to Percy.
"Dorm room time?" I prompted, holding up my paper. Percy just shrugged, nodded, and started leading the way to where we were told the dorms were. Once we came to the split in the building where the boy's and girl's dormitories were divided we said a few parting words, promised to meet up at dinner, and were on our way.
I found room thirty-five fairly easily and after knocking to check if anybody was home, I took out my key. A few seconds spent fiddling with the lock and I was in. Inside the room was empty and unsettled. There were two beds on opposite sides of the room but neither had luggage near it yet. I set my bags down and started unpacking.
My mind wandered as I set up my space, purposefully choosing the bed closest to the window for if I ever had the need to make a quick escape. I was getting closer and closer to the age at which I had died. A sense of dread was beginning to curl around in my stomach and I couldn't help but think: would it happen again soon this time as well? The chances of something happening were getting higher and higher. I had no weapons aside from the steel hunting knife I had managed to procure over the years, but nothing good against monsters.
The other issue was that I was protecting Percy alongside everything else. He was already looking to be a powerful demigod to be reckoned with. Add in some training, and he would become a fantastic fighter. If I was right about who his father was? Well, we would be in even more danger than I had first predicted we would be in by now during my first few years here.
What would Chiron think if a girl who was supposed to be dead showed up at Camp again half a century later? Would I have to die again to set things right? The opportunity to eventually see Chiron again would be great even despite all my fears. It would almost be like seeing your father again after years of being apart. Maybe this time I could even make it known who I was to the rest of the camp without such dire consequences.
I was snapped out of my thoughts by the door opening. In walked a girl about my age with dirty blonde hair reaching down to her shoulders, dragging in her luggage. I quickly rose from where I was sitting next to my open suitcase and helped her with her things.
"Hey, I'm Allison. I take it that you're my roommate?"
She gave a grateful nod as I saved one of her bags from teetering over onto the floor. "It looks like it. I'm Amy, nice to meet you." Amy was about my height, which was to say about five foot, maybe a little taller, with chocolate brown eyes. She had some freckles across her nose and a number of string friendship bracelets decorated both wrists. I wonder what happened to my old bracelet.
I helped her set up her bed and move the nightstand someone had stuck in the perfect spot to stub toes on. Afterward we chatted about ourselves as we finished unpacking, getting a better feel about who the other was. We talked about what we liked to do, where we came from (this life's details of course), our families, basic stuff like that. She didn't seem like some of the other kids I had spotted around here during drop-off: picky, stuck up, or with obvious issues which might cause unneeded friction right off the bat.
I discovered that Amy was also from Manhattan, had a younger brother who just turned eight, and that she owned a golden retriever named Bynx. I was happy that I appeared to have a fairly good roommate as this school was for "troubled kids". I could tell we would become friends fairly easily this year.
Percy and I met in the cafeteria for dinner and chatted about each other's afternoons once we had gone our separate ways. Percy's roommate was named Grover, who he described as pretty nice, if not a bit older looking. I filled Percy in about Amy and then we moved onto how this school year might go, along with how we would inevitably be kicked out.
Percy was betting that there would be some type of penguin invasion somehow caused by him. Don't ask me how he got that idea, but we had been coming up with progressively stranger and stranger causes for our usual predictions. We debated how long we would last too. All of this was just the basic start-of-the-year discussion for us. We had classes early the next morning, so after hanging around for a while exploring the hallways following our meal we parted ways, giving a quick hug and wave before going to our rooms.
The next morning I woke with enough time before I had to leave to not be rushing around. I took a short shower, pulled my hair into a quick attempted braid to get it out of my face, got dressed, hid my knife in my boot as usual, and threw on my book bag to leave for my first class. English with Mr. Nicoll was in room twenty-three in the classroom building. Mr. Nicoll was a short, stout man with big eyebrows and a strong jaw that stuck out a bit. How it was set made him have the appearance of a constant grin or having a proud expression on his face, almost like a dolphin. His eyes told a different story; I could tell he wasn't too excited about a whole new year of teaching delinquents.
With a quick check of the chart at the front board I found my seat. Soon more kids filed in tiredly and took their seats. I was happy to see Percy when he walked in. He checked the board and took his place a few down in the row behind mine. We exchanged a brief smile and wave, then turned our attention to Mr. Nicoll as he started class.
Second period was Science with Mrs. Davis in room forty-two. I climbed the stairs with Percy, who was going to his History class on the same floor. His room came up first so we said our goodbyes and I found my way to Science.
I had always enjoyed this subject, doing different experiments and learning about different scientific laws and such always interested me. It was kind of ironic, being a demigod but still enjoying the subject. I knew that some of the stuff was just information influenced by the Mist. For example: Apollo's sun chariot versus Earth's rotation causing the sun to cross the sky. Science was always a tricky subject to reconcile with mythology, but it was fun nonetheless. There were a lot of new things being taught that had not been in my old classes at this age to keep it interesting.
Amy shared that class with me too, so we ended up sitting next to each other and played the "get to know you" games that were always done on the first day. By the end of class I already really liked Mrs. Davis; she had a quirky sense of humor and seemed like a nice person. Science was followed up by Lunch. Percy and I met up at the table we sat at the night before and talked about what we had missed of each other's schedules. Directly after Lunch was Gym, which I found a bit odd as it didn't really give us much time to digest our food.
After that we ended up having Math together with Mrs. Williams. Just from the first ten minutes I could already tell this class would be an interesting one right from the get-go. There was a pest in the class who went by the name of Nancy Bobofit, and she made it known very quickly. She had curly red hair, bright orange freckles, crooked teeth, and somehow already developed her own group of girls as a following. I knew instantly we would not be getting along. The teacher seemed nice enough, but she had an anxious look about her as if she was constantly expecting something bad to happen. She may have been a bit odd, but she was pleasant overall. Percy being in this class was a big bonus, as I could keep a better eye on him with the more classes we shared, and we could work on our homework together.
History with Miss. Steinmetz was next, then Latin with Dr. Ford. Percy shared this with me too, and since I had already learned some Latin from Camp I was hoping it would be fairly easy to pass. It was the last class of the day so we got to enjoy free time until dinner.
As the days passed I grew more accustomed to life at Yancy Academy. The pine trees around the school reminded me of the ones back at Camp. Some days during free time I would sit under them with Percy, his roommate Grover Underwood, and occasionally Amy. She and I spent a good amount of time together chipping away at homework and doing bracelet things. She taught me how to make multiple different types, just like the various ones she sported and I found that I was actually fairly good at them when shown examples. We would hang out in our dorm on occasion as well.
After only a few occasions spent around Grover, I grew suspicious of him. He was a bit scrawny, but tall. He would wear a Rasta Cap sometimes- especially if we were expecting rain -clunky sneakers, and had a bit of a wispy goatee. I hadn't noticed it before but he was in all of Percy's classes, and thus in a majority of mine. Grover had a note that excused him permanently from Gym class due to a muscular disorder in his legs, and he would always walk differently. I had seen enough satyrs at camp to recognize their gait when I saw it. The time we got drenched rushing between buildings and our next classroom deciding to smell like wet goat was a good indicator too.
A few weeks passed with just a few rough interactions between Nancy and us. Nancy liked to pick on people, one of her favorites quickly becoming Grover. He was an easy target for typical middle school bullies: he would cry when he got frustrated and with his "disability" he was often easily singled out. I would try to mediate the fights, but sometimes I just had to step in and throw a few jabs at Nancy to make her feel stupid and back off. I admit it, it's bad but sometimes I enjoyed that, making her feel stupid by using her own words against her, or saying a few choice words to thwart some of her haughtiness. I mean, I have been "alive" longer than her and everyone in her group, so it may not be fair, but they would just set themselves up. Besides, if they go around making fun of others, they open themselves up as fair game in my book. If you can dish it out you have to expect to take it.
A good number of students who attended this school had that similar puffed-up attitude, whether it be from how much money their families had or their supposed reputation. I had experience with a fair share of kids like them in my first go-around so I tended to know just what to say to take them down a notch.
The way Percy and I would work to keep the bullies away from Grover achingly reminded me of Nick and how he would sometimes get into fights doing exactly that for others. It was memories like that which made me think back on my old life more frequently. I still mourned for what I used to have, even if it came with its drawbacks, but I had my mother, Nick, Chiron, things that just... mattered. That is not to say that there aren't things in this life, as I had taken to calling it, that mattered, but back then it just seemed more real. Some of the memories were happy though, like how Nick used to joke around, doing impressions of teachers, but others just made me feel like part of me had permanently died on that mission.
One day, midway through the week, we got a sudden change in Latin Teachers. Doctor Ford appeared fine the day before, but then he just vanished. He was replaced by a middle-aged man in a motorized wheelchair, who wore a frayed tweed jacket, had bushy eyebrows, and thinning brown hair. What struck me most were his intense brown eyes, it was as if they could see into your very soul and had thousands of years of experience. I could recognize that man anywhere, and what itmeant for the future scared me. The prospect of going back to camp was suddenly unnerving, and I was dreading that part of my life starting up again. I had grown accustomed to living on the mortal side of life again in these past years. This was the man who had guided me through some of the toughest times in my life: Chiron.
The day he arrived started normally enough. Percy and I had walked to class after meeting in the hallway along the way as we usually did. We came in, took our seats, and after fishing out my supplies from my bag I looked up to the front of the room only to freeze at the sight before me, blood draining from my face. We locked eyes but I quickly broke contact, wracking my mind for any reason why he was suddenly here and if he recognized me. Of course he remembers you, stupid! He's Chiron for Zeus's sake. Chiron kept sending glances in my direction as everybody filed into the room, clearly as shocked to see me here as I him. Percy seemed noticed that something was up because I registered him putting his hand on my shoulder from his desk and leaning over.
"Is something wrong, Ally? You look really pale all of a sudden." He asked in a hushed tone.
"Uhm, no. Nothing's wrong. I just feel dizzy." I whispered back, not daring to look at the front of the room.
"Maybe take a drink of water. That usually helps me when I get dizzy." He offered, passing me his bottle.
"No, no. Thanks, but I'm good." I managed, pushing the bottle back into his hand just as the bell rang and class began. Students pulled out their books and pencils, putting a stop to their conversations. Well, I take that back, there were a select few students still talking.
"Hello class, I am Mr. Brunner. It is very nice to meet you." Mr. Brunner, eh? Chiron continued on to give us directions and explain about today's lesson, as if his sudden appearance was nothing out of the ordinary. Well it might not be to them, with the Mist and all. For the most part I was distracted, thinking about Chiron's presence here and of its implications, with any hopes I had of absorbing the day's lesson already gone out the window and halfway to Pittsburg. I found myself tapping my fingers on my knee and my leg bouncing up and down all throughout class, desperately trying to appear unbothered while internally it felt like I was about to explode. It was something I tended to do when nervous or too filled with energy, always have, and that certainly wasn't going to change now in the face of Chiron suddenly commandeering my Latin class.
Once the bell rang I hurriedly gathered up my books and left the room, not even bothering to slow down to wait for Percy. This school year would be more interesting than I originally thought. If Chiron was here then that meant Grover was indeed a satyr, and that he called Chiron about a demigod. A powerful one too if Chiron decided to make the trip up here himself. They know about Percy.
The year progressed relatively well after that; Percy had only been called down to the Headmaster's office five times in half a year and myself only twice. Chiron got better at hiding the glances he sent in my direction than he did on his first day at Yancy. I was pretty sure he didn't know I still had my memories, otherwise he no doubt would have tried to talk to me in private. I most certainly did not try to give any indicators to prove that wasn't the case either. Grover's sudden increased interest in me after Chiron's arrival was something I noticed though. Hopefully he just believed I was a normal demigod.
I got myself into the habit of jogging around the school grounds each morning; if Chiron and a satyr were here, things were going to pick up very soon and I owed it to myself and to Percy to be ready. This was just the calm before the storm, literally. Ever since December the weather started to act funny, as if the sky and sea were fighting each other. Something was going down on Olympus, something big. Mortals were even noticing the changes if our start into studying how many planes were taken down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic this year was any indication. A tornado was spotted close too, just upstate from us.
Something which even further asserted my theory that something going down was Yancy employing a new Math teacher. Apparently Mrs. Williams had a nervous breakdown or something, poor woman. Our new Math teacher was this little lady from Georgia named Mrs. Dodds. She always wore the same black leather jacket, even though she looked to be about fifty.
From her first day at Yancy I could sense something different about her, her aura felt somewhat familiar. I couldn't place why, but it was something I hadn't sensed in a long time. Right off the bat she hated Percy and didn't seem to acknowledge my existence. Her punishments were harsh toward him. I got roped into them occasionally too, as she couldn't just ignore a student "acting out" with other faculty and students around.
I tried my best to keep Percy out of trouble around her, but they were like oil and water. There was a strong feeling nagging at me that she was a monster, and a powerful one at that. If she was capable of just suddenly appear in the school like she did and not arising suspicion or questions, like Chiron was able to, she had to be. What stumped me was why she was here with Chiron so close, and if she was here for just Percy, then what was she waiting for? She could just attack and be done with it, stop risking her life by staying near Chiron. One thing was clear though, she knew Percy was a demigod.