Chapter 2
It was one of those mornings where Grover walked me to school. He was still in his Bermudas and Nike shirt. He was wearing his usual flip-flops, the only pair he ever wore out. Most of the time, he would be inside the house cleaning things up or taking orders from May.
Anyway, Grover was carrying my lunch bag while we went to the bus stop. Before I got on the bus, he blew into the bag like he always did and then passed it to me. Then I ran up the bus after saying 'goodbye'. Today, our journey to the bus stop was unusually quiet. Grover hadn't said anything today. Just now, he only stopped on the way to say 'ouch' because he had stepped on glass.
On normal days, he would be blabbering on and on about Camp Half-Blood or Chiron. Sometimes, though rarely, he would talk about the angel again. Though I knew every angel conversation ended with him sobbing. On those days, my lunch would taste especially bad. I concluded the wonderful taste of the lunch came from Grover's breath.
I sat in my usual corner of the bus – away from everyone else. The whole school despised me. I had once told a good friend about Grover and everything he said. I told him it was our secret. And apparently, in his dictionary, 'secret' meant something the whole world was to know. My schoolmates started giving me nicknames, "Greek Freak", "Teacher's pet" and even "Corrie the crazy". I became an outcast there too.
After much consideration, I joined the Greek Mythology class. After the nicknames, I decided if I joined this class, the name would suite me even better. Both ways I had to be called something. So I took up Greek Myths class. The teacher's name was Mrs Starch. She had frizzy hair and her skin was very wrinkly. Her hands looked like they went through a leather factory and her eyelids looked like they had been glued together.
It was hard to believe no one said anything the moment I stepped in. I thought I was in for it. But the class stayed silent. At that moment, a low voice boomed throughout the auditorium. "Page 89, Kronos! Mitch, read it!" Mrs Starch bellowed in her hoarse voice. Now I understood why they didn't say a word.
Mrs Starch paced around the auditorium with her head held high and her glasses at the tip of her nose. Mitch, the 'lucky' fella, continued reading till the end of the paragraph before she called my name. I was still flipping frantically flipping through the pages, asking around for the page we were at. When she called my name, my hair stood on end. I shot up from my seat. The kind soul next to me whispered the page number. Immediately, I flipped to it and read out the next paragraph.
The paragraph was all about how Kronos ate his children, why Kronos ate his children and where Kronos ate his children. The whole thing was practically about Kronos' eating habits. They included a picture of Kronos in an old artwork. I muttered under my breath, I'm glad I'm not a child of Kronos.
That night, Grover came into my room. He told me more about the angel. He told me more about me. During his conversation, a phrase hit me. You are a demigod, Corrie. One of your parents is a god. That night, when I slept, the phrase kept repeating over and over again in my head. One of your parents is a god…god…god…god…
Maybe I had spoken too soon.