Chapter 3: Old Ladies Are Creepy

Authors note:

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to characters or plot of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Those belong to Rick Riordan.

Just been reading the new book and I'm quite disappointed with the portrayal of the characters. Particularly with Percy's nerfing, therefore, I'm going to completely disregard that and portray him how I want (and probably everyone else wants) him to be portrayed.

Bold: reading the book.

Italics: characters that have a future self

'Italics': thoughts and gods speaking in peoples' heads.

No one's POV

"Chapter two: Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death"

"Oh this can't be good." Poseidon grumbled, the chapter hadn't even begun properly and it already spelled danger.

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This
twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle.

"Poor Percy, I don't think the mist was wise here Chiron." Annabeth stated, turning to their teacher. He merely nodded with a slightly sheepish smile and focused back on the reading.

For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me.

Travis turned to his brother with wide grin on his face, he opened his mouth to convey his plans but before he had the chance to speak, a bronze dagger had embedded itself between the pranksters and was accompanied by a glare from its owner.

The Stolls turned to their younger counterparts, who were establishing a plan,

The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.

"Hold on, are you telling me that the mist can create an entire person just fill in for the fury's death?" Frank asked, astonished.

"No, Lauren Kerr is a daughter of Athena I had on standby in case Mrs Dodds suddenly disappeared for unknown reasons. However, I did use the mist to make it seem like she had been teaching at Yancy since Christmas."

Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up,
but they would stare at me like I was psycho.
It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.

Almost.

"I'm 100% sure that it's Grover!" Larry exclaimed.

People jumped, startled. The Romans had been fairly quiet, advised to sit silently and observe by their Praetor.

"Obviously it's Grover, the poor goat can barely lie to himself, let alone another person." Thalia responded, causing both Grovers to blush a deep cherry red and both Annabeths to nod their heads in synchronised agreement.

But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.

I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.

All of the demigods had sympathetic looks on their faces, well acquainted with the nerve-wracking dreams.

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.

"Why are you two so angry, this has got to be your worst fight in about six decades," Demeter questioned her two youngest brothers.

Zeus simply shrugged whilst casting an accusatory glance at Poseidon, deeming it his fault.

Poseidon looked deep in thought, trying to figure out the cause for the violent weather, Athena was doing much of the same.

I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.

"He is very in touch with sea isn't he," Amphitrite whispered into her husband's ear so as to not disrupt the reading and not alert Zeus to Percy's extraordinary power at the mere age of twelve.

Poseidon nodded at his wife's statement, a discrete proud on his face. Triton also nodded at his mother's observation.

Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.

The occupants of the throne burst into laughter, even the more stoic characters had to refrain chuckling.

An affectionate smile bloomed on Annabeth's face, that was her Percy. Annabeth noticed the look on her older self's face and smiled as well. This guy was funny.

The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.

Fine, I told myself. Just fine.

I was homesick.

I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.

"I didn't know Paul played poker." Nico stated, a little confused. Those that had met Percy's stepfather had similar expressions.

"He doesn't, this was Percy's first stepfather, he doesn't like to talk about him." Annabeth replied.

Sally looked down at her lap to avoid Poseidon's worried and questioning gaze, she wouldn't be able to keep anything from him otherwise.

And yet...there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.

"Such a good friend, this boy is something else." Aphrodite murmured to herself. Those that heard her nodded in agreement.

I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.

As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.

Both Chirons had smiles on their faces, touched that Percy cared about his opinion so much.

Annabeth looked at the book in her mother's hands fondly, her boyfriend was always trying his best to please those he held in high regard.

The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.

Hazel had a confused look on her face, the other Romans were just as puzzled.

"He understood everything just fine at Camp Jupiter, he can also speak it fluently."

It was now the Greek's turn to look confused, a Greek demigod should not be able to understand or speak Latin.

The gods were also pondering how this demigod can speak both Greek and Latin. Zeus was growing more paranoid by the second.

Sally was nervously wringing her hands together and avoiding the god's eyes, Poseidon was refraining from looking at her so as to not draw attention whilst making sure neither of his brother's had caught on.

I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.

I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.

I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.

I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.

I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.

I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."

I froze.

I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.

"He's not wrong there." Malcolm stated.

I inched closer.

"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"

"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."

"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead-line— "

Artemis leant forward in her throne, "Why is there a deadline for the solstice?"

"We can't tell you m'lady, you'll just have to wait and find out." Thalia replied.

"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."

"Sir, he sawher..."

"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."

"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."

"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"

The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.

"NOOO!" the children of Hermes and the god himself complained.

Katie smacked the younger pair of Stolls upside the head, "That's what you're worried about? Not about the fact that Percy may be in considerable danger?"

Poseidon was restless on his throne, his wife clutching his hand to try and comfort him.

Despite knowing that he survived well past this point, Annabeth was still worried on the inside. This situation combined with Percy's lack of presence was causing havoc on Annabeth's peace of mind.

Mr. Brunner went silent.

My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall. A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller
than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.

I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.

The tricksters all leaned forward, keen to see if Percy gets caught.

A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.

"No way!" Connor protested, "Chiron can always find us when we are hiding, how come Percy was able to stay undetected?"

Everyone turned to the centaur from the future for his explanation, "Percy had been all over the school for the past six or seven weeks, it made it hard to determine where he was at any given time." Chiron eventually answered. Everyone else nodded, fair enough.

A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.

Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

"What happened at the solstice?" Persephone questioned, no doubt it had something to do with the council meeting that the Olympians and Hades were just in the process of carrying out.

"We cannot tell you milady, some of us have no idea anyway, we weren't around at this point." Nico answered his stepmother.

"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."

"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

"Don't remind me."

The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.

I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.

Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.

"Damn, he is good isn't he." Apollo spoke, being careful that Hermes was the only one who heard him lest he get any injuries from those who didn't appreciate his comments (mainly his sister).

Hermes nodded and decided that he must speak with this boy when he got the chance to meet him.

Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.

"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"

I didn't answer.

"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"

"Just... tired."

I turned so he couldn't read my expression and started getting ready for bed.

"That won't work, satyrs can read emotions, foolish mortal." Dionysus stated boredly, flicking through his wine magazine.

"Surely he had no way of knowing that though, given the fact that Grover is undercover as a normal human," Dr Chase replied. He received nods from his daughters, heroes of old and some of the other gods.

I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.

But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.

The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,

"THREE HOURS!" came from every single demigod present, even the Athena kids, as well as Matthew and Bobby. Leo practically fainted from shock.

"That's just cruel Chiron." Both Chirons merely shook their heads fondly.

my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.
For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.

"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."

His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

Annabeth practically snarled as she glared at the book in her mother's hands. The majority of the room tried not to meet her gaze. The braver of the two satyrs yet still just as obtuse decided to share a memory with the son of Hades to his right.

"She had biggest crush on him at Yancy, those were not sarcastic at all." Nico started to snicker.

He stopped laughing when a dagger embedded itself between their heads and Grover had two pairs of stormy grey eyes glaring at him, one pair considerably more intense than the other.

Athena decided to keep reading.

I mumbled, "Okay, sir."

"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."

My eyes stung.

Here was my favourite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.

"By the Fates brother, you've been teaching young heroes for thousands of years and you still haven't mastered the pep talk?" Poseidon asked slightly exasperated as he covered his face in second-hand embarrassment, much like the demigods from the future who felt bad for their friend's situation.

Chiron merely blushed and looked away from everyone.

"Right," I said, trembling.

"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"

"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.

"Percy—"

But I was already gone.

"Poor Percy." Someone muttered.

On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans.

One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were richjuvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.

"NOBODIES! THIS BOY MUST BE PUNISHED FOR HIS INSOLENCE!" Zeus thundered in outrage. The younger demigods and mortals jumped.

"He had no idea we exist bolt boy, haven't you figured that out yet?" Hades responded, unimpressed with his brother's outburst.

Athena decided to resume her reading to try and prevent a fight. Zeus merely glared at his brother for the nickname.

They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.

What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.

Sally looked down sadly, she didn't know he'd been doing that to try and help and he shouldn't have had to, they would have been just fine. Little did she know, those jobs were forced upon him.

"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."

They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.

"How rude of them, poor Percy." Gwen sympathised.

The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.

I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Laughter resonated throughout the throne room at Percy's extremely blunt approach. Grover just looked miffed at being so ruthlessly startled by his best friend.

After she had composed herself, Annabeth leaned forward keen to get answers and happy that Percy was asking questions.

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"

I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"

"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"

"Not much, just the whole damn conversation," Grover muttered and Chiron patted his shoulder in reassurance.

He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."

"Grover—"

"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."

"Ain't that the truth," Clarisse said as the rest of the room laughed.

His ears turned pink.

From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:

Grover Underwood
Keeper
Half-Blood Hill
Long Island, New York
(800)009-0009
"What's Half—"

"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."

"Oh dear," Rachel shook her head.

"What's wrong?" Piper asked.

"Percy is not the biggest fan of snobby rich people, especially those that abuse and flaunt their wealth to get what they want." It was Annabeth that answered her.

Piper nodded in understanding, she hated those sorts of people as well.

My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.

"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."

He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."

"Why would I need you?"

"Typical boy, not appreciative of what he has, always wanting more." A hunter from the middle of the ranks claimed haughtily as she played with the string of her bow.

Annabeth was about to retort angrily but Artemis beat her to it, "Enough, we do not know the nature of this hero yet, he may surprise us so pay close attention."

Annabeth sat back, satisfied with the scolding the hunter received.

It came out harsher than I meant it to.

Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."

I stared at him.

All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.

Annabeth sent a triumphant smirk at the pack of huntresses, petty at the slander towards her boyfriend from before. She hoped they realised their mistake and just how great a person Percy is.

"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice .There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.

Annabeth's eyes widened and she started to silently hyperventilate. Only a few had realised what was going on, Poseidon had his trident in a vice-like grip and Sally's face was deathly white. Fear and devastation was present in their eyes.

Athena looked at her older daughter worryingly, reluctant to continue and put her through more distress.

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.
All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.

"The Fates." Michael breathed. Gasps resounded around the throne room at this sudden revelation.

Annabeth was on the verge of tears and Thalia was doing her best to comfort her 'younger sister'. The younger demigods huddled together to try and combat the fear at the mere mention of the Fates' names.

Hercules was sporting the biggest grin on his face which his fellow heroes noticed and were positively disgusted by. Everyone else paid them no attention however, their focus on Percy's closest friends who all looked distraught at these findings.

I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"

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

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"

"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."

"Not the time little brother, not the time." Triton said worriedly.

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.

"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."

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

"Just get on the bus Seaweed Brain, please!" Annabeth said desperately, this couldn't be happening, she was going t loses another friend before she even had the chance to meet him.

"Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.

"DAM IT PERCY!" Thalia exclaimed, small bolts of lightning passing through her eyes because of her worry for her cousin.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snipacross four lanes of traffic.

Annabeth and Sally broke down and started sobbing. Poseidon moved towards Sally and held her close as he let some tears roll down his face for the inevitable loss of their child. Percy's friends looked down in despair at what they had just heard. Their leader, friend but most of all brother had just had his fate sealed, the only question was when it would take place.

Hazel broke the silence, "Why would he go on our quest to Alaska if he knew he was going to die?" The gods' heads snapped to her at once, why would they have to journey to Alaska of all places.

"Forget that, why would he willingly go on all those quests and lead us in the war if he knew his fate?" Katie managed to choke out.

Athena felt it was best to continue and try and put this behind them for the time being.

Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.

Some weak chuckles but most people were still haunted by what they just heard, even Luke and he was planning to frame this guy for theft and treason.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.

Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling me?"

"Everything." Clarisse said almost sorrowfully.

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"

"Worse bro, so much worse." Larry stated.

His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."

"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost older.

"He is an observant one, isn't he?" Artemis observed.

He said, "You saw her snip the cord."

"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time.

"What last time?"

"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."

"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."

This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.

"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.

No answer.

"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"

He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.

"That's the end of the chapter." Athena said.

"We will read one more before dinner and then one more before the mortals need rest," Hestia responded, "Who will read next?"

"I will sister." Demeter replied.

AN: And that's the Third chapter done.

Sorry for the long wait, I've had a lot to do recently so I haven't been able to update. I hope you're pleased with the chapter as I've tried to take some advice onboard. I hope to finish the next chapter faster but in case I don't, I apologise in advance for the long wait.

Thank you for reading.