From that day on, Mrs. Dodds never showed up again. Nobody had any recollection that she had taught at Yancy Academy. Everyone insisted that Ms. Kerr had been their teacher since Christmas. Percy asked each person in his grade if they knew Mrs. Dodds. Not one person did. Percy was convinced the other students were playing a prank on us, trying to make us feel insane. He claimed that Grover seemed off whenever he mentioned Mrs. Dodds to him. Grover did seem a little weird, but that was how he always acted in my opinion. Unlike my brother, I hadn't questioned anybody about Mrs. Dodds. I just wanted to forget. I wanted to forget the field trip, I wanted to forget Ms. Dodds, I wanted to forget that glowing sword, I wanted to forget that horrible monster, I wanted to forget it all. It wasn't the healthiest option, but hey, I didn't say you should follow my example. I never spoke a word about the experience, and if Percy ever did, I would argue and yell at him. Why would I purposely talk about the most terrifying experience of my life? The only time she roamed my thoughts was when I couldn't control it. In my dreams. Nightmares really, and she was in them every night. I couldn't remember the last time I had a decent night of sleep. Once my head hit the pillow, images of that gruesome monster flashed before my eyes. If they get too bad, I walk over to Percy and Grover's room with a pillow and blanket and crash on the floor. And even though he wasn't in the state of denial as I was in, my brother had been affected too.

He got more violent, getting into fights with Nancy and her obnoxious group. Almost all of his grades dropped to an F with the exception of gym. I constantly saw him getting reprimanded by his teachers. Homework was like a foreign concept to him, he never did it. And although neither of us mentioned them, he got nightmares too. Although they weren't as frequent as mine, I still heard when he would wake up in the middle of the night, panting and breathing heavily. One night he had a really bad dream and was whimpering in his sleep while he was tossing and turning. He was shaking and gripping the blankets. I had been sleeping in his room that night and I heard him from the floor I was sleeping on. I walked over to him and heard him whispering incoherently. I caught a few words like my name, Mrs. Dodds, sword. It got worse though. He started thrashing and speaking louder. Tears started pouring down his face. I started to shake him, saying his name loudly over and over. He finally shot up and saw me sitting next to him on his bed. He crushed me with a hug while he began to sob. I was so scared and confused; I just held him and helped calm him down. I had only seen my brother cry on a few occasions. When he broke his wrist in the third grade, when his first goldfish died, and when we said our final goodbyes to Mom when we started school. Other than that, I had never seen a tear being shed. So when he began to break down in my arms, it terrified me. He told me to sleep in his bed with him that night. He's still never told me what he dreamed about that night.

The teachers got so fed up with him they finally told him not to come back next year. And since my grades also weren't doing so hot, I wasn't invited back either. Although both of us were overjoyed to see our mother again, we were both going miss Yancy Academy. I wasn't going to see Grover ever again. He was probably the only person I had let in besides Percy. Percy and Grover might have known each other longer, but we were still close. He let me draw and doodle all over his crutches, he always bought me some cookies or other treats from the lunch line with his extra money. And he always kept me Percy and I out of trouble, or as much as he could. Sure, he was awkward and weird, but he was a good friend. Plus, there were so many memories Percy and I made there. When we would climb on top of the roof and watch the stars together, whenever we played pranks on each other resulting in our never ending prank war, when we tried to find secret doors and rooms on the huge campus. As much of a pain in the butt Yancy was, we still had fun there and kind of cared for it.

Final exams were coming up soon and even though I knew I wasn't coming back, I thought I might as well try to get a good grade on the final. Maybe it would make Mom less upset whenever she found out we weren't allowed back. I had been highlighting in one of my textbooks when Percy burst through the door. "What's wrong? What happened?" I said, quickly getting out of my seat and rushing over to my brother.

"Brunner and Grover. They-They were talking about you and me."

"What did they say?" I asked.

"They said we were in danger or something. They needed to protect us. And Grover said something about his duties and they were talking about something called a Kindly One, I didn't understand any of it." Judging by the skeptical look on my face he grabbed my shoulders and shook them lightly. "I'm not making this up, Atty. I heard them say it, I swear.

"Well maybe you're- "

"I'm not going crazy." I closed my mouth as he finished my sentence. I looked in his eyes and saw pure fear. I sighed and told him I believed him. "Thanks, At." He said as he took his hands off my shoulders. "What the heck is going on? First a demon teacher attacks us, now our friend and my Latin teacher thinks-or knows that we're in danger." I ran my hand through my hair.

"Maybe it's a good thing we're leaving Yancy. None of this stuff happened before we came. I say once we get out of here, we forget about all of this." I argued, sitting down on my bed.

"I can't forget." he murmured quietly a moment later.

"What?"

"I can't just forget this, Atty," I repeated louder. "I can't just leave Yancy and pretend that all of this never happened. I can't just act like what we saw wasn't real. We both know it wasn't just our imagination."

"Well sometimes it's easier to just block out the bad things." I said, starting get angrier.

"Yeah? And sometimes it's easier to forget things if you actually face them!"

"Face what? Face the fact that your teacher turned out to be a demon? That's insane, Percy!"

"But it happened! You know it did! I won't just do what you do and not even say a word about her!"

"I can't help it! Even just thinking about her makes me want to break down and cry! Blocking her out is the only thing keeping me from losing my mind!"

"You think I want to remember her? I was there too, Atty! It's not always about you, you know!"

"I know that!"

"Well, it sure doesn't see like it! For once in your life could you worry about somebody other than yourself?" He shouted.

I stared at him shell-shocked. Not because I was surprised he had said that to me, but because I knew he was right. I stared down at my hands in shame. He wasn't wrong. I'm selfish and stubborn and only care about myself. Percy does everything he can to make sure that I'm fine every day of my life. I'm an awful person, and an even worse sister. How could I be so inconsiderate?

"Atty-Atty I'm sorry. I didn't mean that." He apologized.

"Yes you did. And it's ok, you're right. I'm selfish." I told him quietly. "No, no you're not. You don't just worry about yourself, you think about me too. You're just scared, I get it. I'm scared too." Percy looked at his shoes and we stood in silence for a few seconds. I spoke up again shortly. "I know. I know that we can't forget. But you know me. Pushing it out of my head is the way I cope with stuff like this. Not that something like this has ever happened to us…" He nodded his head in agreement. "I get it. You don't have to make excuses. I just got mad, I'm sorry." I bit my bottom lip, a nervous habit I've always had. "We should get to bed, it's getting late." "Yeah, we should. Night, Atalanta." he teased as he started walking out the door. "Goodnight, Perseus." I said with a smile and he shut the door.

Testing passed by fairly quickly. Unfortunately, Ms. Fitch didn't disappear as well. Boy, was she happy when she found out I was leaving. As a little going away present she decided to pile some extra homework on me every day so I could "not fall behind at my new school." But our last day at Yancy finally came. I put the small amount of items I had a packed them into my black suitcase. I walked to Percy and Grover's dorm room, the talk of what other kids would be doing that summer flooding into my ears. I knocked twice on their door and was greeted by Percy also holding his suitcase.

"Ready to go?" he asked. I sighed and looked around the hallways of Yancy one last time.

"Yep." I replied back.

Grover, who was apparently riding the same bus as we were, boarded the Greyhound and started driving back towards Manhattan. I had gotten the window seat this time, leaving my brother to sit uncomfortably in between Grover and I. I noticed that Grover kept looking at the others who were riding the bus with us, fiddling nervously with his hands. Percy seemed to have noticed too, because the next thing he said to him was, "Looking for Kindly One's?" I kicked his leg, telling him to shut up. He had told me a few nights before the conversation he heard Grover and Mr. Brunner having. He glared at me then turned back to Grover who was freaking out.

"Wha-What do you mean?" Percy told him that he had eavesdropped on the two of them.

"How much did you hear?"

"Not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"

"And what's the Mist?" We both asked.

"Look…Percy, Atty…I was just worried for you guys, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers- "

"Grover- "

"She-"we both began, but Grover interrupted by saying, "And I was telling Mr. Brunner that you guys were overstressed or something because there is no such person as Ms. Dodds…"

"Grover you're a really, really bad liar." Percy told him.

"Plus, I don't even have Brunner. Why would you tell a teacher, which I don't have, that I was overstressed?" I explained. Grover turned plae when he knew he had been caught. With shaky hands he took out a dirty and crumpled up business card from his shirt pocket. "Just take this okay? In case you two need me this summer."

Percy held the card between the two of us so we could read it. I blinked and rubbed my eyes as I tried to read the elegant print. At some point I made out the words:

Grover Underwood

Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800)009-0009

"What's Half- "Percy and I started. "Don't say it out loud!" He exclaimed. "That's my summer address." My mood plummeted. Grover was one of the rich kids? I mean why would I assume otherwise? Everyone at Yancy had their fancy homes for different seasons, rich parents, and designer clothes. Everyone except the Jackson siblings. Why would think Grover would be different?

"Oh." I said in disappointment. "Okay. So, like, if we want to come to your mansion." Percy said in the same sad tone as me. Grover nodded his head and I turned to look out the window. I couldn't look at him the same way.

"Or…or if you both need me."

"Why would we need you?" He said rudely.

"Percy, stop." I said quietly, still looking out of the window. "Look, guys, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you." I that I spun my head and looked at Grover incredulously.

"Excuse me?" I asked. Percy and I were the ones that made sure Grover was okay. We were the ones that fought off the other kids bullying him. We were the ones scared to leave him alone, in fear that he could get hurt. Him, protecting us?

"Grover, what exactly are you protecting us from? Percy questioned him.

At that moment the bus shuddered, smoke swirling from the dashboard, the horrible smell of rotting eggs filling my nose and making me gag. The driver uses what little gas the vehicle had left to pull us over to the side of the road. He tried for a few moments to tinker with the engine, but no luck. All of us were ordered to get out of the bus. We were surrounded by nothing, just countryside and green hills. No other cars were driving around us, leaving us by ourselves. My eye caught an old looking fruit stand on the opposite side of us. The items being sold actually looked rather decent. Ripe blood oranges, big watermelons, and large boxes of cherries were sitting around the stand, making me mouth water and stomach grumble. Surprisingly enough, nobody had gathered around the stand. There were only three elderly women, sitting in a rocking chair under the shade of a large tree. "What the heck?" I said as I saw that the women were knitting the most gigantic pair of socks my eyes had ever seen. They almost looked like small blankets. The old woman on the left was knitting one of them, the woman on the right knitting the other pair, and the one sitting in the middle with electric-blue yarn in her thin hands. They each looked very old. I mean a thousand years old or something. There cheeks were sunken in; there skin clinging to their bones, color seeming to have left every part of their body. And they were each staring straight at my brother and me. I turned to see that Grover was trembling, looking almost as pale as the old women.

"Grover? Hey, man- "

"Tell me they're not looking at you two. They are, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?" He joked. I laughed and said, "Those socks could fit a giant. I mean, what is the point in knitting socks that big?"

"Not funny, guys. Not funny at all." He started shaking more. I watched as the elder in the middle took out a pair of long, sharp silver and gold scissors. She took the yarn and rolled out a fairly lengthy piece. "We're getting on the bus, come on."

"What? It's a thousand degrees in there?" Percy said.

"Yeah, I think I might burst into flames if I step foot into bus." I agreed.

"Come on!" Grover yelled as he opened the bus doors. But Percy and I stayed put and watched as the women cut the yarn in two places, the sound echoing for miles. The other women crumpled up the socks as I said, "Darn it. Maybe we could have used those socks to suffocate ourselves when we see Smelly Gabe." Percy smirked and turned around as the driver said we could get back on. Once we boarded, I started to feel sick all of a sudden. The room was spinning slightly and felt dizzy. Percy and Grover looked to be feeling the same way as I did.

"Grover?" Percy inquired.

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling us?" I turned my head to Grover, interested in hearing his explanation as well. He looked nervously between the two of us, and then stared at the passengers of the bus once more. "Percy, Atty, what did you see back at that fruit stand?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like…Mrs. Dodds, are they?" I stiffened, and Percy saw. He reached over and squeezed my hand.

"Grover, please tell me they're not like Mrs. Dodds." I pleaded. Grover looked like he had just seen a murder or something. He looked completely terrified of those old women. He seemed like he wanted to scream, but instead he calmly said, "Just tell me what you saw." "The middle one took out her scissors, and cut the yarn." Percy explained. Grover looked like he might've cried and my brother told him that. He made a motion that sort of resembled crossing himself, but it was different, seemed more ancient in a way. "

"You both saw her snip the cords." He said.

"Yeah. So?"

"Grover what's wrong? It was literally just a couple of old ladies building the world's biggest pair of socks. What are you scared of yarn or something?" I joked, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work as Grover whispered to himself, "This is not happening. I don't want this to be like last time." Percy and I shared a confused look then turned back to Grover. "What last time?" Percy interrogated. "What's happening?" I asked.

"Always sixth grade. They never get past the sixth grade. But why can't she at least get to middle school?"

"She? Like-Like me, she?" I panicked. What did he mean I can't get to middle school? What's wrong with me? "Grover, what are you talking about?" Percy said equally scared. Grover stared at us with wide, urgent eyes. "Let me walk you guys home from the bus station. Promise me." Percy and I both told him we promised, fearing what his request could mean. "Is this like a superstition or something?" Percy wondered aloud. Grover stayed silent. "Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does it mean somebody is going to die? "Percy asked. Again he didn't answer. "Grover? Are we…are we going to die?" I said shakily. Grover just looked at the two of us with a sympathetic look on his face. I squeezed Percy's hand like he had done before. What's going to happen to us?