I can't believe I forgot about this chapter. XP I'm trying to sort it by how far it is in the books, though some of them will be left out (though I might write it later). So don't mind it if the order gets kind of messed up.


All I could think of was that the teachers must've found out the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they realized that 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. – pg. 12 The Lightning Thief


"Hey, Grover," I said unpacking my things in my dorm. "Guess what? I got some candy from my mom's work."

Grover raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure it's okay?"

I shrugged. "She gave me some extras that didn't get sold. Come on, let's dig in."

I tore open the bag of candy and placed it on the floor. I ate all the blueberry sour strings while Grover ate a candy cane. He bit out a huge piece and gulped it down like an apple.

"What are we going to do with the extras?" Grover asked pouring some jellies down his throat.

"I dunno. Will we have extras?"

Apparently, we did.

I stopped eating after I found out that I ate all the blue candy, and Grover had nearly fainted from eating so much.

"Uh, Grover? You all right, man?" I said uncertainly.

"Foooood," he mumbled.

"You just had a lot of candy!"

I gathered up the remaining candy and saw that some other guys in our dorm were staring at it.

"One piece of candy for a dollar?" I suggested weakly.

They nearly stampeded over and grabbed whatever they could.

"Here you go," one guy said. "You're the best!"

"Thanks so much Percy!" another said.

"You're awesome!"

"These are great!"

I looked in the bag. I still had some candy left over. I counted my money and counted it up to roughly twenty-five bucks (in roughly thirty minutes). Then again, I could be wrong because the numbers were swimming around in my head. As you can see, I suck at math… especially since I don't even pay attention to Mrs. Dodds during class.

I looked around in my room. My roommates were all munching on candy and Grover was still on the floor moaning, "Foooood."

I sighed and got the biggest piece of paper I could find. With a blue marker, I wrote in huge and messy letters, Selling Candy for a Dollar a Piece! First Come, First Serve! I posted it outside our door.

"Hey, Perce," Grover said sounding like he just woke up. "You know that's illegal right?"

"You make it sound like I'm going to get arrested."

"You might as well be if they tell Mrs. Dodds about it."

"It's the boys' dorm! I'm not going to get caught. And besides, I'm not the type to follow rules," I grinned.

There was a knock on the door.

I opened it and saw a line of students with money. I got out my bag of candy and they greedily snatched at it and gave me their money. I didn't even count to see if it was correct—I didn't have a chance.

"Thank you!" I said and took down my hastily made poster. I tore it into small pieces and scattered it into different trashcans so I wouldn't get caught.

"Success!" I said holding up my money.

Grover shook his head. "I knew I shouldn't have let you do that."

"Hey, easy twenty bucks."


"Hey, Grover!" I said barging into our dorm room.

Grover looked up from his copy of Tom Sawyer. "Yeah?"

"Uh, can you help me with the essay?" I said sheepishly. "I tried reading the book, but I didn't get too far."

"How far did you get?" he asked putting his book face down on his table.

"One paragraph."

"At least you improved from one sentence," he grunted. "But you need to read the book and summarize it for a part of the essay!"

"Exactly!" I said. "So can you tell me what the book's about?"

Grover held dup his hands. "Whoa there, Perce. I know that you're my best friend and all, but that's like cheating."

"Who else do I ask?" I exclaimed. "The Internet?"

"That's also another form of cheating," Grover said.

"I can't read!"

"Technically, you can. It's just that you have trouble with it."

I sighed and got out my copy of Tom Sawyer. I tried to read, but my dyslexia kept getting in the way.

"Are there any audio books?" I complained.

"The library's out," Grover said. "Believe me, I checked."

"Why can't they have dyslexia-friendly versions?" I complained throwing my book across the room. "I'll be back."

I hoped that it would work. The essay was due tomorrow, and I haven't even started reading the book, much less writing.

I went to the library and got on a computer. I opened up Google and started searching for essays of Tom Sawyer. I clicked on links until I found a good one.

"Excuse me," I said to the librarian. "Can I print this out?"

I took the copy and rushed the back to the dorm, clutching it to my chest.

"I'm back," I said grabbing a piece of paper and a pen.

"So what did you do?" Grover asked curiously.

I looked at him skeptically. "Promise you won't tell?"

"Promise."

I showed him the print-out and started copying down the essay.

Grover tutted at me. "Wow."

"Too bad Mr. Nicoll wants it handwritten. What kind of English teacher asks for a handwritten final?"

"Neat handwritten final," Grover put in.

I rolled my eyes. "Mr. Nicoll knows full well that my handwriting is sloppy."

"He probably wants it handwritten because he doesn't wants students doing what you just did."

"Then tell the librarian to be more secure about printing."

Grover thought about it. "Yeah, I guess that's true."

"Pass it up!" Mr. Nicoll said.

I passed up my essay and Mr. Nicoll stared at it as if it were from outer space.

"Percy Jackson," he said. "For the first time in months you did your assignment."

The class started snickering.

"Yes, sir," I mumbled. I prayed (not sure to whom) that I wouldn't get caught.

When we got them back graded, I looked at mine and was surprised by my grade.

"What'd you get?" Grover whispered.

"I got a C+ for messy writing," I said slamming the paper down hard on my desk.

Grover took a look. "It says, 'Your writing is too messy, so I had a hard time reading what you wrote. But the parts that were readable were good, so be glad that you got a C+ and not an F.'"

"What the heck," I muttered.