Hello all. So sorry about last chapter. It was not a good one, that's for sure. I would thank everyone who reviewed, but the internet is not working while typing this and I probably will forget to come back and add them in, and my dear mother accidentally deleted every single one of my emails while trying to clear out my old phone.
Disclaimer: Don't own a single thing in bold, or any characters, or anything.
Chapter 2: I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher
Percy was not excited to read books about him. He didn't want everyone to know his thoughts. I am so dead when some of the gods hear my thoughts about them."I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher". He began. Thalia snorted.
"Yeah, accidentally. Oops I swung my sword at your head, but I didn't mean to kill you!" She mocked in a high pitch voice. Percy glared at her.
"I do not sound like that." Thalia stuck out her tongue, and just as Percy was going to snap back, Zeus cleared his throat. "Fine. Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood." Ares frowned.
"Why not?" Frank looked at him as if he were crazy.
"Because we almost die on a daily basis!"
"I repeat, why not?" Ares asked again.
Zeus groaned. "Just read the book." Percy complied.
"If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now, Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life."
"You would only be delaying the inevitable like that." Athena said.
"Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways."
"Good description of our lives," Theseus muttered.
"If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.
Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Dun dun dun!"
"Enough of the creepy sound effects Niccy." Hazel said while laughing at Nico's pout. Percy rolled his eyes at his 'younger' cousins.
"My name is Percy Jackson.
I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.
Am I a troubled kid?"
"Not just yes, but HADES YES!" Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico yelled. Frank and Hazel coughed to hide their laughter.
"Glad to know you have faith in me. I am not troubled." Percy adamantly said. "Yeah. You could say that." Snorts filled the room. "Not one word."
"Read."
"I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. I know- it sounds like torture."
"Really Percy?" Annabeth asked.
"I meant the field trip in itself was good, the people who accompanied me made the trip torture." Percy hurried to explain. Annabeth nodded.
"I understand completely. Like the Arch."
"Wasn't my fault!" Percy decided to read before she could reply. "But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had high hopes.
Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told us stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons"
"Your teacher sure did like Roman and Latin stuff. What about Greek stuff?" Jason Grace smirked. Thalia did the only thing that made sense to her. She punched him in the arm. "What was that for?"
"The Greek stuff is coming, little brother." She said. Perseus looked on at how his siblings interacted. He felt an odd longing to be a part of that. Before he could say anything, Percy continued to read.
"So he was the only teacher that didn't put me to sleep."
Athena rolled her eyes at the same time as Annabeth. "Percy Jackson!" They chorused. Looking at each other, they started to laugh. "Great minds think alike!" Athena said.
"I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped for once I wasn't going to get in trouble.
Boy, was I wrong."
"So you were always in trouble then, little brother?" Theseus asked Percy. Percy grinned at the thought of having an older sibling.
"Never, big brother. I was always the one who did what they were told, was calm, and I never broke the law." At the end of his statement, all the demigods from the future were laughing. Somehow or another, they had all heard of what happened on his first quest.
"See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that… Well, you get the idea."
Zeus looked concerned. "Are you sure that you are my legacy? I can see Hades and Poseidon, but maybe you have Hermes and I mixed up." In response, Percy summoned a small bolt of lightning and Zeus leaned back, defeated.
"This trip I was determined to be good.
All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich."
"Who is the person that decided that peanut butter and ketchup would be a good combination? Seriously, that is just-ugh!" Piper shuddered.
Leo grinned, "Hey Grace, I dare you to eat one." Jason looked at him.
"You first."
"I dared you first!"
"Enough! You are here for a reason! Just read the book." Hera snapped. She was tired of these demigods.
"Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cries when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria."
Dionysus half-smiled. "Ah satyrs and their cheesy enchiladas. They can never get enough of them." Everyone turned and started him. He quickly harrumphed and made a wine magazine appear in his hands.
"Ah, Mr. D? Your magazine is upside down." Piper pointed out.
"I do not care Penelope Martin."
Thalia slowly turned away from the god. "Er, right. Anyway, Percy you description is so flattering."
"Wait until you show up Thals." Percy smirked. The heroes of old watched curiously.
"Why did you call Dionysus 'Mr. D'? Is he a teacher?" Orion asked. Those who had stayed at Camp Half-Blood looked at each other before erupting into laughter.
"Mr. D…a teacher…you're kidding!" Annabeth huffed out. When she managed to calm down, she explained a bit better. "Mr. D is more of a part-time counselor. He manages our camp." Percy thought that was enough explanation, so he started reading again, ignoring her glare.
"Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip."
"Melodramatic much, Perseus Jackson?" Hercules sneered. Percy, for once, did the grown up thing and ignored him, much to Hercules' dismay.
""I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.
Grover tires to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."
He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.
"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.
"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll be blamed if anything happens."
"Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into."
"Please let that mean some freaking action!" Ares complained. Hera glared at him.
"Ares, don't interrupt the story!" She snapped. It's not that she cared for Poseidon's…child, but these books were about her family, and she cared for the legitimate part of it. She sniffed disdainfully at the thought of all of her family's illegitimate children right here in the room with her.
"Yes ma'am." Percy smirked at one of his least favorite gods being treated like a child. Laughing inside, he picked up reading again.
"Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.
He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues,"
"Probably automatons." Annabeth stated. Leo and Hephaestus looked intrigued, but she mouthed later to them.
"-and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.
It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years."
"Much longer than that, Percy, much longer. I don't look it though, right?" Aphrodite said, almost carelessly.
Athena snorted. "So the Pretty Princess does have some sort of cluster of cells forming a tissue commonly known as the brain. However, wheat we don't know is how many cells there are. Pity."
"You think I'm pretty? By the way, I know what a brain is, thank you. It is something that you tend to overuse and thus you forget about you instinct and emotions." Athena was slack jawed by the end of Aphrodite's speech, as were several others. Annabeth nudged Percy to get him back on track.
"He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everyone around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye."
Nico laughed. "Her evil look is nothing compared to Kr-uh…other people's evil look. Ah, carry on Percy." Everyone turned to stare at the child of Hades. The gods in confusion, the futures with a sharp glare, and the heroes of old were just plain lost.
"Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She came to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last teacher had a nervous breakdown.
From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn."
Thalia smirked. "Close enough. You and Niccy, the devil spawns." Hercules looked at his sister, not hearing the teasing tone in her voice. Maybe, just maybe I can get along with this sister. She knows her place, which is over the shrimp and dead boy.
"Love you to Thals." Nico grumbled.
"She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.
One time, after she's made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right.""
"Way to not be obvious Grover." Annabeth said.
Reyna got an irritated look. "I still can't believe that satyrs and fauns are basically the same, but satyrs actually help out and fauns are beggars."
"Well at least the satyrs are teaching the fauns woodland magic and stuff to help out." Frank pointed out. Reyna gave a quick nod.
"Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.
Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned and said, "Will you shut up?"
It came out louder than I meant it to.
The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.
"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"
My face was totally red."
Hazel looked at Percy with an odd expression. "Did you really just use the word totally like a preteen preppy girl? Like, OMG, that words it so, like, old. Like nobody even uses that word anymore. You must be cray cray." All the gods stared as if Hazel had grown a second head, which would have been less weird in their opinion. The demigods, minus the five from the past, were laughing so hard they couldn't breathe. When Percy managed to get his breath back, he read on, still kind of giggling every now and then.
""No, sir."
Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"
I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"
The elder gods all groaned. That was not a good time to be a god. Leo looked confused. Hephaestus sighed. "Just ask us your question, son." All the gods were ready to answer the usual 'was it gross' or how did you survive' questions. Leo's took them by surprise.
"How did you become gods?" Leo noticed the odd looks his way. "I mean your parents were both Titans, but you are gods. Ares parents are both gods, but he's still a god. And like the Primordial's kids were Titans and Giants, why not more Primordials?" All the gods, Athena included were struck dumb. Athena began to mutter about the laws of conservation and something about a…punt square?
"What's a punt square Percy whispered to Annabeth. She looked confused before understanding hit her.
"It's called a Punnett Square. It's something scientists use to determine things about offspring. Like what they would look like and stuff."
""Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because…"
"Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-""
Zeus growled. "Boy, he isn't a god." Percy nodded.
"Got that one right. He's much more violent and stronger." The gods stared at him while Annabeth hit him in the arm.
"Not too much!" she hissed to him. Percy gave her an apologetic look.
" "God?" Mr. Brunner asked.
"Titan," I corrected myself. "And…he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"
"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.
"-and so there was a big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won.""
"He calls a huge war where the earth is basically at war with itself and 'big fight'?" Apollo asked in disbelief. Artemis looked at her brother with the same look.
"You actually said something smart?" Apollo glared at her. Seeing a fight about to happen, the Wisdom goddess quietly signaled Percy to read.
"Some snickers from the group.
Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life-"
Everyone is the room looked affronted. This was their real life.
"-Like it's going to say on our jobs applications 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"
"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"
"Busted," Grover muttered.
"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.
At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.
I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."
"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine which made him disgorge his five other children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to bit, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?""
"So let me tell you about barfing and slicing and then go eat lunch. Good luck, I hope you manage to keep your food down." Demeter said. Nico looked at her.
"What is your view point on cereal?"
"It's okay. Not as good as oatmeal. People these days are beginning to eat more, so I will try some." Nico grinned inside.
"I wouldn't do that. I heard they add some pretty nasty stuff to it." Demeter looked thoughtful. One less crazy step-grandmother.
"The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.
Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."
I knew that was coming.
I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"
Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.
"You must learn to the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.
"About the Titans?"
"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."
"Oh."
"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will only accept the best from you Percy Jackson."
I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard."
"You call that hard?" Hercules sneered. Orion rolled his eyes and made faces behind Hercules' back.
"As Percy said, 'Will you shut up?'" Theseus asked slowly, like talking to a kid. Percy snorted at his brothers' antics, glad to finally have older siblings.
"No, I call battling Gaia herself hard." Percy said before covering his mouth. Annabeth glared, but not at Percy. Her gaze was directed at a certain son of Zeus.
"Zoe was wrong about you," she said while ignoring Zoe's glare and Hercules triumphant smile.
"Why thank you pretty one."
"You are way worse. She must have either under-exaggerated or something because if your head gets any bigger, we may have to deflate it some." Zoe's glare softened and she actually choked on laughter.
" I mean, sure it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted "What-ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk to name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshiped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No- he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts , much less spell them correctly.
"Perseus, your grades are abysmal." Athena said. Percy didn't know what that a word was, but he figured it meant horrible or terrible.
"Not meaning to be rude, Lady Athena, but I have ADHD and dyslexia. It's hard for me to sit still and spell things. I am not very good in school. Oh, and please don't forget to avoid confusion that I am Percy." Athena considered this while Percy continued.
"I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.
He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.
The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.
Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in."
"What is going on with you two now?" Hera sighed. Percy smirked at Annabeth.
"Whatever it is, it has their togas in a twist." Annabeth snorted while everyone else looked lost. Percy decided to explain. "It will come up in this book." Everyone nodded and waited for Percy to start reading again. And waited. And waited. Finally Thalia had had enough.
"Hey Kelpo!" she yelled while snapping her fingers. Percy jumped. "Read."
"Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something-"
"Not mine!" Hermes yelled, throwing his hands in the air.
"-from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.
Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school- the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.
"Detention?" Grover asked.
"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean- I'm not a genius."
Percy looked over at Thalia and Nico. "Not a word." They busted up laughing.
"Well, they haven't said a word," Perseus said cheekily. That got the heroes of old laughing too. Hercules grinned. Here was his chance to kick the demigod when he was down.
"Apparently nobody likes you." He sneered. Percy and Annabeth made eye contact and started laughing themselves.
"Yeah, Nobody loves me! Whoo-hoo!" Percy began to chant. "Nobody loves me! Nobody loves me!" Hercules looked miffed.
"But, besides Nobody, lots of people like Perce!" Thalia said. She had heard the story from the other two sometime after the war.
"Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment-"
"Yeah, sure." Annabeth said, drawing out the words.
"-to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"
I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.
I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought of my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump is a taxi and head home. She'd be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me."
"You care a lot for your mother," Hera said with a soft smile. Everyone's jaw dropped.
"Did…smile…Hera…demigod…" Perseus stuttered out. His stepmother was the number one stepmonster.
"The boy cares for his mother as all sons should. I am not a hateful person as you all believe." Hera sniffed. Eyes were rolled when she said this statement.
"Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table." Leo began to mutter to himself.
"Care to explain, son?" Hephaestus asked.
"There were some coffee shops in New Rome, and I was thinking if we added one to either camp we could have it completely motorized. The tables would automatically clean and rearrange themselves, automatons, and preprogrammed coffee settings. The works!" Leo talked a little more of his café from the future, but he lost most people after the word coffee. Hephaestus would nod and give his input every few minutes.
"I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends- I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists- and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.
"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos."
"Where do you get these comparisons?"Piper asked in disbelief. Percy had a heck of an imagination.
"I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.
I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"
Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.
Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"
"-the water-"
"-like it grabbed her-"
I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.
As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"
"Ugh she still does that!" Nico groaned. Hazel facepalmed. Alecto was never going to get over using honey in sentences. It had lasted over a decade. Chaos help me!
"Who is 'she'?" Hestia asked.
"Uh…I don't know…" Nico said.
"Yes you do." Poseidon said, raising an eyebrow.
"Nope. Sorry." He glanced at his cousin for help, so Percy decided to spare him embarrassment.
"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."
That wasn't the right thing to say.
"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.
"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."
I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.
She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.
"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.
"But-"
"You-will-stay-here."
Grover looked at me desperately.
"It's okay, man" I told him. "Thanks for trying."
"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."
Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare."
"You do not want to see the premium." Jason Grace muttered.
"Is that so Jay-Jay?" Reyna asked, teasing him with an old nickname.
"Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.
How'd she get there so fast?"
"Are you slow or something? She is obviously a monster." Hercules sneered. Thalia smacked him.
"He had no idea of our world. How is he supposed to notice something that he doesn't even know exists?" Zoe snapped. She didn't like boys, but she'd fight against Hercules any day. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
"Supporting boys now, are you Zoe?" Hercules continued to dig his own grave. This is when Percy stepped in.
"Her decisions have nothing to do with you. Leave her alone." Percy growled menacingly.
"I do not need a boy to defend me!" Zoe snapped.
"Well, my bad. I'm just trying to make up for-" Percy suddenly stopped.
"Make up for what?" Zoe asked, dangerously quiet. Everyone was watching while holding their breath.
"Nothing. I am sorry for disagreeing with you, Lieutenant of Artemis." Percy said and slightly nodded his head. Zoe did a double take at his words. A boy being polite? This was so wrong!
"I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me standing at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.
I wasn't so sure.
I went after Mrs. Dodds.
Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pal, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel."
"Chiron! Please do something. A monster is after my son!" Poseidon half-yelled.
"Brother, you are talking to the…"Hades trailed off at the look on his brother's face.
"I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.
Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.
But apparently that wasn't the plan.
I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section."
"Of course."
"Except for us, the gallery was empty."
"Exactly what she wanted." Orion muttered.
"Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.
Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…"
"She most likely did." Hades murmured. He had guesses it was Alecto, his head Fury.
"You know of this monster?" Poseidon questioned.
"Yes, and I ask you not to hate me. This is in the future. Poseidon looked confused but nodded.
" "You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.
I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."
She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you could get away with it?"
The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.
She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me."
"Yes, I am aware of how naïve I was back then." Percy said to all the incredulous looks his way. Annabeth shook her head and slowly patted Percy on the head.
"I said, "I'll try harder, ma'am."
Thunder shook the building."
"Great. Now both of my brothers are ganging up on my son." Poseidon said with a sideways glance at the two, who were trying to look innocent.
" "We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."
I didn't know what she was talking about.
All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized 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."
"Perseus!" Athena scolded. Both Perseuses looked at her. "Ugh. Percy!"
"I have borrowed and read Annabeth's Greek version at camp." He quickly defended. Athena looked appeased.
" "Well?" she demanded.
"Ma'am, I don't …"
"Your time is up," she hissed.
Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons."
Poseidon had been growing tenser during the past paragraph. Now he turned on Hades. "A Fury? Really now brother? I don't send any Cyclopes after your children."
"Dad, it wasn't because I was your son that Uncle sent the Fury after me. That is all I will say." Hades sent a grateful look toward Percy.
"Things got even stranger.
Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.
"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.
Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.
With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword- Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.
Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.
My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword." Hercules wanted to say something, but found himself unable to talk. He looked at the gods and saw that Artemis, Apollo, and Hermes wouldn't look at him. "She snarled, "Die, honey!"
And she flew straight at me.
Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.
The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!
"Nice one, cousin!" Ares commented. All the demigods who knew Percy did a double take. "What is it punks?"
"Did you just complement Percy Jackson?" Nico forced out. Ares nodded slowly.
"You and Percy have some…disagreements. As does Mars and Percy." Frank muttered almost inaudibly.
"Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.
I was alone.
There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.
Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.
My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.
Had I imagined the whole thing?
I went back outside.
It started to rain.
Grover was sitting by the fountain a museum map tented over his head, Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt.""
"The Mist works fast, does it not?" Jason asked.
"That is how it is." Demeter answered.
"I said, "Who?"
"Our teacher. Duh!"
I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.
She just rolled her eyes and turned away.
I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was. He said, "Who?"
But he paused first-"
"He is not a very good protector." Zeus declared. Thalia and Percy traded looks. Zeus still didn't know Grover was the satyr who was chosen to protect Thalia.
"He was a better searcher," Annabeth said.
"Was? Did he die daughter?" Athena asked. Annabeth almost hit herself on the forehead.
"Um…no. He's still very much alive, the search was just called off." Hermes' head snapped over to the demigods.
"You found my son?" He asked, not daring to believe it.
"Lord Hermes-" Percy began.
"Just Hermes."
"Hermes, it will be explained in the…third, no the fourth book. I promise." Hermes nodded.
"-and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.
"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."
Thunder boomed overhead.
I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he's never moved.
I went over to him.
He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensils in the future, Mr. Jackson."
I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.
"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"
He stared at me blankly. "Who?"
"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."
He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"" Percy snapped the book shut.
"Is that the end of the chapter?" Piper asked.
"No, I just closed the book for no reason," replied Percy. Piper responded with a punch to the arm. She laughed when Percy winced. "Dude, your girlfriend is abusive." Percy said to 'Jay-Jay'.
Zeus cleared his throat. Everyone turned to him. "I have decided that we probably shouldn't continue with these books. They may not even be the truth." All the demigods began to protest. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light.
"Hello, Olympians," a kind feminine voice greeted. Hemera stepped forward with Ananke at her side. "I truly hope you will continue to read."
"Yes, my husband did not send them back for nothing," Ananke said, gesturing to the future half-bloods. "This event goes with Fate. It must be done. Do not try to skirt it again, Zeus. Good-bye." They left without another word. Zeus was still speechless. Finally he could talk.
"Change of plans, we will finish these books. They are of the utmost importance. I can't believe you people tried to get me to skip reading them." Zeus huffed. Thalia puffed out her cheeks and crossed her eyes. Everyone had to hold back laughter.
"So Father, who will read next?" Ares asked.
"So glad you volunteered to read, son." Zeus smirked. Frank snorted.
"You mean Ares can read?" he said, looking at Percy.
"Hey! I resent that!" Ares yelled.
"Just read, love. I want to see if I ever come up in these stories," said Aphrodite.
"Fine. Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death," he read. "Socks. Very deadly."
AN: So very sorry to all of you. Thank you for waiting. Prom was last weekend, and I was a co-leader of the Committee. Word of advice: don't be on prom committee. That's over with. Three weeks of college and little over that of high school. Next update will be quicker.
How was that? I can't tell if I put too much dialog in or not enough. It's my first chapter doing this, and I'm scared I messed up. Please tell me what you think. Thank you.