Chapter 4
"What did I just agree to?" Helena asked herself, giving an alarmed look to both Percy and Grover; the former of the two having barreled into Helena the moment she walked through the double-wide doors and into the large courtyard: a pretty enough place to rest, with a large fountain the middle, depicting a feminine, robed figure. Water pumped out in the form of the woman's tear, keeping the fountain filled.
She looked around, seeking out Nancy Bobofit, but was unable to see beyond the storm gathering on Percy's face; up above them, thunder rumbled. For a brief moment, Helena wondered if it was her own sister's doing, but she shook herself free of that idea. Percy was attuned to water, could like conjure something that resembled a storm if she ever thought to try, but it was not the element that instinctively reacted in accordance to Percy's emotions. Her dear, older sister could shake the walls, crack the floors, and break a few pots, but her anger had yet to reach out towards the clouds.
Regardless, Helena came to the conclusion that it was not anger that whirled around in those sea-green eyes of hers, but rather sadness, humiliation; a few tears were on the brink of spilling out, casting themselves down Percy's trembling cheeks.
"Percy…" Helena murmured, and in only a few moments, forgot about her impending fight with Nancy Bobofit, and instead focused on comforting her sister. Percy was fast to anger, but never to cry. "What happened?"
Percy let out a sardonic laugh, as she croaked. "Did you not pay attention? Brunner may as well have humiliated me in front of the entire class!"
The two girls nearly forgot about the third member to their trio, Grover, who shifted from side-to-side, as if he couldn't decide which of his crutches to put the most of his weight on. Uncertain on how to comfort her, Grover patted at Percy's shoulder with a hand. "I'm sure he didn't mean it like that," he said, a bit too insistent. Helena gave him a warning look, silently begging him to stop talking, but Grover continued. "He thinks very highly of you, that's all, and expects the best from you."
"Yeah, well, he shouldn't," Percy bit out, temper flaring, as she leveled a glower at Grover, who shrunk back even more than he did with Helena. "What the hell, man?" Percy carried on. "You're not supposed to be defending him. You're supposed to be on my side!"
Helena ran her fingers over her face, lightly tapped at her cheeks and at her nose. Breathe in, breathe out, she coached herself. She grabbed Percy by the arm, soft and gentle. "He didn't mean it like that, Perce. Come on, let's go sit by the fountain and eat, okay? It'll make you feel better." Helena steadied her chest, preparing for Percy to fight against the suggestion, but to her surprise, the older girl relented.
The three of them made their place at the fountain. Percy opened their shared lunch-box, having been the designated bag holder. Helena and she had played rock-paper-scissors about it the night prior. Percy sniffled into her bag of chips. Helena popped out a pack of sour-straws, tearing into the plastic immediately.
Grover side-eyed the amount of stuff Percy had packed tight into the lunch box. "Where did you even get those?" He asked Helena, looking at the sour-straws enviously. "I thought Yancy didn't allow sweets on campus."
"You're right," Percy interjected, still a bit bitter, but a lot happier now that she had a few sweet-and-sour potato chips stuffed in her mouth. "Yancy doesn't believe in happiness, so no, no sweets allowed."
Grover gestured wildly to the contents of their lunch box. Percy huffed, clearly refusing to say more on the subject. Grover frowned. "I really am sorry, Percy. I didn't mean to sound like I was defending him or anything."
"It's…It's fine man, I just. I wish he would lay off me sometimes. His class is the one thing I've got going on for me right now – I'm failing most of the other ones. None of the teachers care here except him, and I know that's why he did it, but he asked the wrong sister. I mean, do you have an answer to his question? Hmm?"
Grover gave an awkward smile. "About that…I can't remember what the question was. I got distracted by…" He stilled, but it was too late. A horrified look crossed his face, his mouth opening, then closing. Helena narrowed her eyes, chewing on her piece of sour deliciousness. A brief thought entered her mind, but by then it was too late.
Liquid seeped down into her hair, red spilling down her shirt and onto her lap; the empty bottle of Gatorade bounced off the back of her head, plopping down onto the ground beside her. "I told you not to pussy out on me, Jackson," Nancy Bobofit taunted out from behind Helena.
"Goddammit," Helena cursed beneath her breath.
"What the actual fuck, Nancy?" Percy reared up, shouting so loud that Helena swore she could hear a piece of the statue crack into two. "What the fuck did she do to you?"
Helena snatched Percy by the corner of her elbow, shaking her head. She got up, straightened her now ruined skirt. "I promised her a fight." Helena glanced around. "Granted, I was expecting sandwiches, but I guess you must have eaten them all."
Nancy growled. "I'm going to pound you to the ground."
"Touch her and I'll knock what's left of your teeth out!" Percy shouted, trying to yank her arm out of Helena's grasp.
"I told you I would handle it, Percy." Helena insisted, turning her head for naught but a split second. Nancy took her chance and in a single, hard push, managed to shove Helena backwards into the fountain. Helena crashed into the water, banging her head against the layers of coins resting at the bottom. A deep fountain, she noted, deep enough for a normal person to drown in. She inhaled the water, feeling it course into her lungs, doing nothing but stirring up a feeling of comfort, of contentment. Tufts of her hair drifted up, dangling in the murky waters.
And suddenly, Helena was seven-and-a-half years old again and swimming in the shark tank she may or may not have fallen into at the aquarium: a school trip, the first of many to have gone bad, but bad or not, Helena would come to cherish the memory – and a permanent dislike for aquariums.
The sharks, solitary creatures by nature, surrounded her, circling her in an innocent curiosity. Helena could have bled in the tank, could have been dying, and it would not be within their instincts to feed, to start a frenzy, and rip off her flesh to sustain themselves. A manta ray had spun around her in a dance, whispering to her with pretty words that needed nothing but a silent connection; a bond between a princess of the sea and her many, loyal subjects who knew her as innately as she did them.
'Princess.' The creatures begged. 'Help us. Free us from this prison.'
Were it not for the staff member hauling her up out of the water, Helena would have stayed in there forever in hopes of trying to figure out a way to get them back out into the ocean, where their kind belonged, and where half of Helena belonged too. She'd been breathing in the water, Helena recalled, and the staff-members tried their hardest to get her to cough up the water lodged down in her lungs, but to no avail. Helena was declared fine, despite a few of the staff members insisting that she'd been all but gulping it in.
Helena was kicked out of that particular school within the following weeks; several of her classmates had testified that Helena didn't fall in, but that she jumped. She denied it then, of course, but it was true. Sally was called up to the school and informed of such – her poor mother who protested until she was blue in that face that her darling Helena would never do such a thing, and that she was a sweet, well-behaved girl. Eight years of constantly having to defend her children made her mother a well-practiced liar. Helena was certain that a part of her mother chose to believe what she said: Helena fell, she didn't jump, she fell. It was easier that way.
It was time to get up. Helena couldn't wallow underneath the shallow waters of the fountain forever. She was needed. And with that, she pushed herself up, decade old coins digging into the skin of her palms. When she broke the surface, the world became so loud and so very bright. Helena soon realized that little to no time had passed at all. Her body buzzed to life with something unfamiliar; a sensation she hadn't quite felt before.
Both Percy and Nancy were too distracted by each other to see her rise up from the waters, hands on her knees, as she wrung out the excess water from her hair. Helena's eyes caught the glint of Nancy Bobofit's hair – and she narrowed them, her blood boiling into a sudden, all-consuming rage.
"I told you not touch her, you dumb cunt!" Percy cried, charging at Nancy, her hand curled into a tight fist. Nancy dodged, laughing, as she hopped up onto the stone bench of the fountain; not the best move in the grand scheme of things. She held up her arm in the air.
"Mrs. Dodds!" She screamed excitedly. "Percy Jackson tried to-" She was cut off by a rope of water circling around her legs. It pulled hard on her ankle, dragging her down against the fountain. Nancy's head bashed against the statue, garnering a genuine shriek of fear from the girl. There was a brief moment between Nancy and Helena as the two girls locked eye contact. Nancy's whose head was bleeding, having left a mark on the gray stone. She would find no sympathy from the youngest of Poseidon's daughters.
Helena, the girl who rarely lost control, lost sense of where she began and the water ended; and she became something else, embraced this strange state of being as she would friend. Violent thoughts of blood, of sharks, of frenzies…of a need for Nancy Bobofit's death consumed her entire being. Helena dropped to her knees, a kind smile on her face, and for a moment – only a moment – Nancy smiled back. Helena lunged, turning Nancy's smile into a muffled scream for help, as she wrapped her hands around Nancy's pale, white throat. The older girl struggled, desperately clawing at Helena's face. Her mouth fell open, inviting the fountain water inside. Helena squeezed harder and harder until – until – until –
Helena was yanked out of the water. She flailed against the grasp of her assailant. She couldn't even speak. She couldn't…She couldn't…Helena wondered if a part of her was left behind at the aquarium, her younger self forever swimming with the sharks, hoping, pleading for a way back out to sea.
A voice cried into her ear. "Stop it, Nelly, stop it!"
Help us, princess, help us.
Helena stopped her struggle, letting her weight fall back into the arms of her sister as she was dragged out of the fountain. Nancy was dragged out by a fellow student, sputtering water, tears pouring out from her eyes. Black spots danced in front of Helena's vision. Percy's terrified face came into focus; the world was starting to become warm again as Helena, the real Helena, was slowly being pulled back to the surface.
"What's gotten into you?" Percy demanded to know, her voice hoarse, as if she'd been screaming. Maybe she had been, but Helena never heard it. Percy's eyes sought out something on Helena's face. "Damn it, Nelly, what's, what's going on with your eyes?"
"Huh?" Helena asked dumbly, mind still somewhat clouded over. Her hands and legs were shaking with adrenaline – and she could feel her heart-beat pulsing from her head and down to her toes.
Percy jerked her head off to the side. Helena tried to look in the same direction, but doing so dizzied her. "Grover? Where is Mr. Brunner? I think something's wrong with Nell!"
"H-He went to the b-b-bathroom!" Grover sobbed, stuttering out his response. He was out of Helena's line of sight. She never even got to talk to him about her realization; doubtful she'd get the chance to now.
Percy's brow twitched; she could have slapped him, Helena thought, and she would have done it were it not for the situation at hand. "Go get him!" She ordered, then stopped, watching in disbelief at whatever it was she was seeing. Helena's face wobbled to the side, noting the pair of crutches Grover had left behind.
"Miss Jackson," Mrs. Dodds's voice growled. A hand dug into Helena's shoulder. She glanced at it as she was turned around, despite her sister's protests. Mrs. Dodds really needed to cut her fingernails; they about three inches too long, curved, and the underside of the nail was covered in grime. "You will be coming with me."
"No, she won't." Percy tried to yank Helena back, but only succeeded in the continuous ruination of Helena's formerly nice blazer. "She needs to see a doctor." Percy demanded. "Please, Mrs. Dodds!"
Mrs. Dodd's clawed hand dug deeper down into Helena's shoulder. "Fine," she gritted out. "But, you, Percy Jackson, will be coming also."
"Fine, that's – that's perfect. That's what I wanted in the first place!" Mrs. Dodds looked around at the courtyard, then ushered the two of sisters inside. Helena still leaned most of her weight on Percy. Mrs. Dodds led them through the building, back towards where most of the Greek and Roman statues were.
The gallery was eerily quiet; devoid of much of its usual patrons. Mrs. Dodds stopped in the middle of the gallery. Helena found herself looking at the statue of Nike. It was as beautiful as ever, despite being headless. "Mrs. Dodds?" Percy said quietly, unsure of what it was their teacher was doing.
"You two have been giving us problems, honey," Mrs. Dodds hissed, her words a verbal whip, lashing out in their general direction. Helena's head rolled back, she felt stuffed full of water. Her sister's touch was so warm. She snuggled into her sister's hold.
"Nell," Percy whispered, frightened.
"W-What?" Helena yawned, stumbling over her words.
"I think our teacher's a demon." Percy squeaked.
"That's real nice, Percy," Helena slurred. "I think I'm gonna…I think I'm gonna sleep for a bit, okay?"
"No, no, not okay!" Percy half-whispered, half-yelled into Helena's ear. She took a glance at Mrs. Dodds and found that her sister's math teacher now sported two leathery wings and her eyes were like gold-and-red color, like hellfire. Pretty, she noted with a small smile.
"Percy!" A voice cried. "What, ho!"
Helena dropped to the marble flooring as Percy yelped. Helena turned, watching through a half-lidded gaze as her sister caught a pen – presumably thrown by Mr. Brunner, who looked at her with such sad eyes that Helena couldn't help but wonder what she did to deserve being looked at like that. Oh…Oh, right. She tried to kill Nancy, but…was that really worth being sad about? Nancy was nothing, she was awful, she had deserved to die at the time! A part of her wanted to go up to Mr. Brunner, to explain her side of things, but that side of her was nowhere near as strong as the one that simply wanted to lie back and nap for awhile.
"Die, honey!"
Mrs. Dodds flew down at Percy, but her sister, having decided to embrace her brilliance, swung upwards, stabbing Mrs. Dodds right through the chest. Helena could see the other side of Percy's pen-sword sticking out through Mrs. Dodds's back. She screeched, clawing at it, as her chest began to crumble inwards; it spread to her arms, up her neck, and into her head as she withered away until she was nothing but fine, yellow powder scattered across the gallery's floor.
"Victory!" She exclaimed, having glanced at the statue across from her. She waved towards it, but was soon distracted by her sister, who knelt over her. Percy's eyes were rimmed red, as if she really were crying now. "Don't cry, Percy." She comforted, patting at her sister's cheek.
"Dude, I'm a murderer, Nelly. I just killed my math teacher! They're going to send me to prison! Oh my god, they're going to send you to prison for trying to kill Nancy. Mom's gonna be all alone…" Percy sniffled, rubbing at her eyes, looking down at the sword as it shifted itself back into the shape of a pen. "At least we'll be together, right?" Percy asked, but found no answer from her sister, who, much like she said she would, decided to fall asleep on the floor.