So... does anyone like to play pretend? Let's pretend I didn't totally abandon this story and everyone following/favoriting/reviewing it for almost two months... I don't even have a good excuse for once. My computer was having issues for a while, and not displaying FanFiction correctly, but that problem's been in my past for a couple weeks now.
Oh, and I've discovered a weakness of mine... the comma splice. It's been plaguing me for forever, and I hadn't even known until recently. In this chapter I really tried to cut down on it, but I think I might have slipped up a few times. So if you spot any severe cases of comma splice, I apologize, and I apologize for any comma splicing that may or may not have happened in the past. XD
Thanks to ALL of you for your patience, and double thanks to osnapitzsofia, Mandi2341, KeyofNostalgia, MidnightEevee, and Guest for reviewing! :D
When I found out my class was going on a field trip to an orchestra hall on March 16, I was a little scared. The last time I went on a field trip, I ran into a guy with furry legs and accidentally made the wall explode. Oh, and I got expelled, too. That wasn't good.
I started at a different school after Christmas, and I kind of wanted to finish a year of school for once. Sure, it's cool to switch schools once or twice, but when it happens fifty gazillion times, it gets super old. I'm serious, I did the best I possibly could: I didn't get in trouble during class, I didn't beat anyone up, and I wasn't rude. I wanted to finish at least one grade. I think Mom felt the same way, because when I brought home the permission slip for the field trip and said I didn't want to go, she said right away that I didn't have to.
"Are you serious? I don't need to go at all? Then I guess I don't need this." I reached for the permission slip so I could rip it up into tiny pieces, but Mom grabbed it away from me at the last second.
"You're going to turn this in, though."
"Why?" Didn't she just say I didn't have to go?
"Percy, I know why you don't want to go on this trip, but your teacher doesn't. If you don't turn it in, she'll ask why, and I don't think we want to tell her. So we'll turn this in-" she took a pen and quickly signed her name at the bottom- "but when the day comes, you can stay home sick. I think I can take a day off sometime soon, so I'll schedule it for that day."
"But how do you know I'll be sick?" I asked. I was getting a little confused, but Mom seemed like she knew what she was doing.
"I don't. But even if you aren't, I will tell your teacher that you are so you can stay home."
I was finally getting it, and I really liked what I was hearing. "So I can lie? To my teacher?"
Mom started to nod, then she looked at me and said with her most serious face on, "Just this once, Percy. Don't think I'm okay with you doing it again."
I was cool with that.
On the day of March 16, things didn't go like we planned. Mom woke me up early like it was a normal school day, and I started getting changed like I always do, but then I remembered that I wasn't supposed to go to school, and I ran to the kitchen half-dressed.
"Mom! Today's the field trip, remember! I get to stay home!" Then I saw she was wearing the Sweet on America shirt that she has for work. "I thought you were staying home?"
"I'm sorry, Percy, I can't." Mom really looked sorry, and I knew she was. "One of the people who was supposed to work today had a relative die recently, and the funeral is today. She called everyone who wasn't supposed to work today, but all of them are either out of town or sick, except for me."
"I… I…" I tried to think of a way I could stay home anyway. "I can stay with Gabe! I won't bug him and I'll just stay in my room all day!"
"He already left for work, and he won't be home until later tonight," Mom replied.
"Then I can stay home by myself!" I tried, even though I was pretty sure it was useless. I didn't want to go on that stupid field trip!
"No, you can't. I'm sorry, it's not that I don't trust you, it's that it isn't… safe." That was Mom, with an answer for everything.
So that was how I found myself on a bus, headed to the orchestra hall. I wasn't alone; I was sitting next to a guy named Garrett, but that was just because no one else wanted to sit with him. For good reason, too. Garrett was weird. He always brought a Tupperware container full of scrambled eggs and grape jelly for lunch, and I don't know how he could stand to eat it.
Oh, and he would always accidentally spit in your face when he talked to you. Right now he was telling me about some video game he liked to play. It sounded stupid. I wished again that I could be at home. If I had magical shoes, like in that old movie the Wizard of Oz, I'd click my heels and be home in seconds. Then I'd wash my face fifty times to get off all the spit.
Garrett asked me if I wanted to hear about the other game he liked to play. I said no.
The orchestra hall was a big building, and there was a long sidewalk going up to it from the street. I don't know why they wouldn't just build the building close to the street so people wouldn't have to walk so much. I guess they wanted it to be all nature-y, because there were a lot of trees and flowers and stuff on the long path to the door. It didn't look that pretty, though, because there was still some melting snow, and since it was warm out everything was drippy. An icicle dripped on my head one time during that walk.
When we finally got in, it was really dim, and for a few seconds I couldn't see anything because it was really bright outside and my eyes weren't used to the darkness. It was crowded, and I kept running into people and getting knocked around. Then I stepped on someone's foot and they glared at me, because they were all dressed up nice and stuff. I think we were supposed to dress nice for this trip, now that I think about it, but I was just wearing an old sweatshirt and jeans.
After a few minutes of stumbling around, I heard someone say my name. "Percy? Is Percy Jackson here?"
"I'm right here!" I said really loud, and one of the chaperones made their way over to me and led me to the rest of my class.
"Stay with the group. It's for safety reasons," she said. I wanted to tell her I was trying, but she probably wouldn't believe me. I can tell when grown-ups don't like me, because most of them don't and I'm used to the stuff they do.
We took another walk through a big long hallway with tons of people, then we came into another room that was kinda dim, only not as much as it was in the hallway. The room was huge. In the front was a big stage where people with instruments were sitting, and then there were seats. Rows and rows of seats that went up all the way almost to the ceiling.
Even though I didn't want to be here, I had to admit it looked pretty cool.
I sat down in my seat, in between two guys named Zach and Nathan. I was relieved when I saw that Garrett was all the way down at the end of the row. No more spit for me.
The chaperone who was sitting behind us told us that the concert would start soon, and we could talk but we should get quiet when all the lights turned off except the ones on the stage. Since Zach and Nathan weren't really friends of mine, I didn't talk to them; I just waited patiently in my seat. The only thing was, it felt like two hours had passed and the lights hadn't turned off. I was starting to have a really hard time sitting still, and it didn't help that I kind of had to go to the bathroom. I had gone before I left home, but I still kind of had to go.
Never mind. I really had to go. I could have just left by myself and tried to find it, because I probably could eventually, but I'd get in trouble. And I didn't want to get in trouble, so I turned around and asked the chaperone, "Where's the bathroom? I need to go."
She didn't roll her eyes, but I think she wanted to. "Are you sure you really need to go?"
I nodded furiously. "Yes! It's going to be an emergency."
"Fine. Follow me." She stood up and we both went to the end of the row of chairs, and I made a couple people mad because I tripped over them, but I made it and so did the chaperone. I followed her over to the very side of the big room, where there was a door going back out to the hallway. She led me down the hallway to a section that was slightly off to the side, and there were two doors and a drinking fountain.
"I take it you know which door to go into?"
"Yeah," I said politely, even though she wasn't being polite. She was acting like I was stupid.
"Can you find your way back by yourself when you're done?"
"Yeah!" I really wasn't sure if I could or not, but I needed to go so bad I was almost hopping up and down right where I was standing.
"All right, then." She left, and I ran into the boys' bathroom to relieve myself. It felt even better after holding it in for so long.
After I washed my hands (because I was trying to be polite today, remember?) I went back out to the hallway of darkness and tons of people. There was no one in the hallway right now, and that made things a little harder, because I'd thought I would find my way back to the big orchestra room by following the people to the right door. Now I was alone in a hallway with a lot of doors, and I had to try and guess which one was the right one.
I chose one randomly and went in, but it was a really small room, and it was completely dark, so I knew it wasn't the right one. When I turned around to leave, the shoe I'd put in the heavy door to stop it from closing slipped and the door slammed shut! Now I had no light! I needed to find the doorknob so I could get out, but in the dark, I couldn't tell which way the door was and which way the wall was. I ended up tripping over a bucket, and I tried to catch my balance with something that kind of felt like a handle or a lever and was attached to the wall. I only pulled it down, though, and I still fell. I scraped my hands on the concrete floor.
I guess I could've tried more to find the door, but my hands were bleeding and I was frustrated and I just gave up. I leaned against the wall and sat in a ball, hugging my knees and trying not to cry. I didn't want to cry. I've been through worse than this… maybe. Besides, someone was going to notice I was gone soon, right? Then they'd come searching, and I'd get found eventually.
But what if I starve first? What if I… um, do that thing where I don't have enough water? Dehyberate? Something like that. And what if there were poisonous chemicals in the air in here? My breath started to come quicker, and I covered my mouth with my hands and tried to breathe deep so I could calm myself down.
I don't know how long I sat in that room in the dark. Long enough for my hands to stop bleeding, because when I brushed my hair back with one hand, I didn't feel any wetness. I think I might have ended up crying at some point, too, so I was sure I looked pretty ugly. Guess it's a good thing I was in the dark.
My stomach growled. I started to worry again, and then I heard noises. Voices. The door opened, and people came in. It was still dark even outside the room I was in, but the people came in had flashlights, and they shined them all over, talking really loud. One of the flashlight beams landed on me, and I had to squint because I guess their moms never taught them to not shine lights in people's eyes.
"Who are you?" a voice I didn't know asked.
"Percy Jackson," I said, but my voice sounded too quiet, and too shaky, like it was obvious I'd just cried.
"What are you doing in here?" they asked, but someone else interrupted.
"Why don't we get the lights on first?" They shined their flashlight over at the wall pulled up the lever I'd accidentally pulled down. The lights in the hallway turned on. The guy who asked me who I was grabbed my arm and pulled me up, then he dragged me out to the hallway.
"Now what were you doing in there?"
"I went to the bathroom and I didn't know how to get back and I went in there and it was dark and I couldn't find the door," I explained quickly.
The guys who had dragged me out of the room looked at each other like they didn't believe me, and I sighed. How was I supposed to tell the truth if no one would believe me?
That was when my teacher ran up, and when she saw me she frowned. "There you are, Percy. Thank you for finding him, but I will deal with him now."
"We found him in the power room. He was the one who turned off all the lights and made the entire orchestra hall go dark," said one of the guys.
"He was always one to misbehave," my teacher said, and she looked embarrassed and mad at the same time. "I will make sure it never happens again, and I will punish this boy in the way he deserved for ruining the trip for the rest of the class, and being an inconvenience to you."
The guys both nodded, and my teacher dragged me away. "The concert was canceled, and the rest of your class is sitting on the bus. When we get back to school, we're going to have a talk with the principal."
The talk with the principal didn't go so great. See, it involved a word I don't like so much.
A word called "expelled."
