Okay, I officially hate school. We got our book report yesterday for English, and I chose the CD project (because I hate puppets and I hate talking in front of crowds) where I need to get four songs that are related to like our theme, personality of the main character, or anything that reminds us of the book. But the problem is, I don't know any songs, since I only listen to classical music. Ugh... And it's due next Friday.
And then I have a science fair report, which is doable, except we need to write about connections between our project and a field of interest. And what connections are there between rotting and music and rotting and art (well, I already wrote about the project One Third by Klaus Pichler). Psh. I hate my school.

Anyway, response time (that name was awful)!

Sleepwalkingluna14: Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. :)

Sparklegem8: Thanks a lot! For KC, I think it'll have to wait a bit, because I need to reread them (I haven't read them for a while) to get to know the characters again and such. But it probably will be written, just later. :)

shut up and kiss her: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. 3

And without further ado, here's the next chapter (which I'm not really pleased with)!


During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-rimmed hat, the man only had one eye in the middle of his head.

Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands. –p. 40 The Lightning Thief


The bell rang for recess. "Dismissed!" our teacher said.

We all ran out with a lot of pushing. Just a bit more of this, and the door would break down. I really wouldn't be surprised if that happened.

My head was still swimming with a bunch of numbers with no meaning. I bought a bag of chips and walked along the playground munching on them.

Our school's playground was on the upper floor next to the parking lot. It probably wasn't very secure because of that, since the parking lot was always open and strangers could just easily come in. I still remember our torturous assembly on it.

"Please be careful on the playground," our principal, Mr. Alvarado said. "The parking lot is always open, and strangers can come in."

Then why don't you just close it and let people street-park? I thought.

"So when you see a stranger, quickly tell a teacher who will be supervising on the playground. Make sure you don't talk to the stranger, because…?" he let us finish.

"Stranger danger," we all said. I felt like we were back in kindergarten.

"And now moving on to other matters…"

I spaced out the rest of the time. Anyway, I didn't think that it would actually happen, especially a stranger with only one eye.

I poured the rest of the chips down my throat and kept walking. I looked for something to do, which was hard, since I didn't have any friends, and the ball room (where all the balls like soccer balls and basketballs are, obviously) was closed.

The swing sets were occupied by some girls who were gossiping about who likes who and whatnot. I didn't really want to join.

There was a rumbling sound behind me.

I looked behind me, wondering if a strange truck had snuck up behind me. Instead of the truck however, I saw a big man, over six feet tall, in a black trench coat with a black hat that hid his face. When he tilted his head, I swore I saw a red eye in the middle of his head, looking at me hungrily.

I backed up and tried not to be rude. "Um… Hello?"

The man didn't say a word.

I kept walking, hoping that the man just came here by an accident and was going to leave soon—hopefully very soon. But no, of course he had to keep following me.

"Are you lost?" I asked.

The man shook his head slightly.

Then maybe he was here to pick someone up? But then again, I didn't know anyone who knew an over six-foot-tall man who only had one eye. "Are you looking for someone?"

"Yes," he rumbled. "He's right here."

I got kind of freaked about that. I hoped he didn't mean me. I walked at a faster pace, hoping to lose my new stalker. Thought that worked? Not even a bit.

"Hey, Jackson!" a kid called. "Who's that new big bodyguard of yours?"

His group started laughing and high-fiving each other. Clearly they weren't following the rule of telling a teacher when a stranger came. Oh… good idea.

I scanned the area for a nearby teacher, and I found one talking on her phone. Typical.

"Um, excuse me?" I said running over. The man caught up to me in a few steps.

"Yeah, hold on, someone's calling. Talk to you later," she said and hung up. "Yes?"

Clearly she didn't notice my new "bodyguard." "I have a stalker."

"Huh?" she said with a confused expression. Then she looked back. "Oh, hello! We've heard that you've been… ah, disturbing one of our students here. May we ask you to leave peacefully?"

The man didn't move a muscle.

"Hey, Clara, I heard that a strange man was here," another teacher said running up to her. A few more teachers followed.

One, who I recognized as my teacher, Mr. Columbus, said, "I'm sorry, but if you have no business here, we have to ask you to leave. If you don't, we'll have to call the police."

The man growled. I saw his red eye again, and I knew that I wasn't seeing things. It was real. The man stormed away muttering something about losing a meal.

Mr. Columbus looked at me. "Are you okay?"

I stayed frozen for a second before answering. "That man had one eye."

"Sorry?"

"He had one eye," I repeated. "A big red one, in the middle of his head."

He shook his head. "You probably were seeing things. It's impossible that that man only had one eye."

"I saw it!" I said, getting a bit annoyed. "When he tilted his head, I saw the one eye right here!" I pointed at my forehead.

The teachers sighed and just told me to go enjoy the rest of my recess.

Some kids asked what happened, and I told them about the man with one eye, and they stared at me with a scared look before laughing.

When I got home, I told my mom about the whole event, and she gave me the same scared look, like she's been caught at doing something bad.

"We'll switch schools," she said. "Nothing serious."

"But I didn't even do anything wrong this time!"

"I know, Percy," she said. "Just trust me. We'll move schools. It's for your own good."

Again, I didn't know what she meant. I just assumed that she was the overprotective mother. Of course, I was wrong (not that it was unusual or anything).


I blinked. I saw my reflection bouncing off the door, but that wasn't what I was looking at. Slithering through a crack through the door was a long scaly rope. But it had eyes. And it moved. Ropes weren't supposed to move on their own, were they?

I yawned, just as the teacher turned off the lights for nap time. I saw the rope go into one of the cots and the teacher put me down on that cot. Was that even safe? I didn't know.

My eyes grew heavy and they closed on their own. I felt something cold and scaly come into my hands. I grabbed it out of instinct and squeezed it. I heard a hiss and something licking my hands. I squeezed the thing tighter as I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I saw that I had the rope that I had seen before the nap. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I recoiled back. I finally realized what the "rope" actually was. I remembered seeing it in a book that my mom read to me.

"A snake?" I mumbled.

The snake wasn't moving. Its eyes were locked on something distant in space.

Doesn't seem harmful, I thought as I grabbed it again.

I started tying it into a knot and pulled both of the ends hard. When the teachers came to wake us up, I quickly hid it behind my back.

"What's that behind your back, Perseus?" my teacher joked at she folded up the cots.

"It's a rope!" I lied. "But it looks like a snake."

"Really?" she said smiling. "But don't play with toys when its nap time, okay?"

I nodded, bobbing my head up and down like a bobble head. As the teachers left us alone for us to play, I kept playing with the snake, like pinching it and untying the knot and tying it again. I tried poking its big eye with my finger, and then pulled away quickly.

I opened its jaw and peered inside. "Yuck," I said gagging at the smell.

Its fangs were huge, and peering into its mouth made it seem endless. It smelled pretty bad too, like its last meal. I quickly closed its mouth.

I started tying it up again when my mom came to pick me up.

She screamed. "Percy, what are you doing?"

I looked at my snake. "I'm playing with a snake."

"What?" the teachers came in to look.

"Where did you find that?" my mom said holding me in her arms.

"I saw it come through the door," I said pointing at the door.

My mom shook her head. "You shouldn't play with snakes. What if they're poisonous? They could kill you!"

"Sorry, Mommy," I said. "Then what happens to the snake?"

"We'll bury it outside," she said. "That way you know that you actually cared for it, and it'll go back to nature."

"Okay, Mommy!" I smiled.

"We're so sorry," the teachers said. "We didn't see the snake come in. And Percy said that it was just a rope shaped like a snake… I thought that was weird, but I didn't know that it was real!"

"It's okay," my mom said. "He's perfectly fine, and it won't happen again. Right, sweetie?"

I nodded earnestly and my mom held my hand as we walked out the door.