DISCLAIMER: I don't own Percy Jackson.

"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death." Will began

"This does not sound any better than the last one," complained Posiden.

"Well let's read and find out," Will said "It can't be that bad."

Will is what people call an optimist. He always looks on the bright side even in the darkest of times.

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

"Sorry Percy," Chiron said

"It's okay," Percy said

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

"Have a question. Where did she come from? She just appeared out of nowhere. Like, hello." Percy asked

Chiron just chuckled.

"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."

"That is psycho behavior," Aphrodite said. "I would know."

"It got so I almost believed them. Dodds had never existed. Almost. 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."

"You are a terrible liar, Grover," Percy said

"Really, I thought I was pretty good." Grover joked.

"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."

"That is how the nightmares started," Percy said

"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."

"That would be my doing," Zeus said

"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."

"And that would be my doing," Posiden said

"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."

"PERSEUS JACKSON, WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO YOU!" Sally yelled

"Calm down, Mom," Percy said in a soothing voice

"No, I will not calm down and you need to answer my question, " Sally said in a slight yell.

"I wasn't feeling the best like I said and everyone was so annoying," Percy said through gritted teeth

"That was all you had to do. Wasn't that hard, right?" Sally said

"Jeez, Mom you are starting to sound like Annabeth," Percy said

"And I love it!" Annabeth said, "Anything to make your life hell."

"You don't make my life hell, well sometimes," Percy said

"But you love it." Annabeth teased

"Get a room, lovebirds," Clarisse growled.

"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."

Sally glared at her son and mouthed "We WILL talk."

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

"That was the best news I got all year," Percy said grinning.

"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. 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 am not strange, far from it," Grover said defending himself.

"Sure Grover, Sure," Percy teased.

"I worried how he'd survive next year without me."

"Thanks for sharing your concern, man," Grover said

"No prob," Percy replied

"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. The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room."

"Anger issues, much?" Athena said with a smug look on her face.

Percy's gaze shifted toward Athena. He rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue on the top of his mouth. "See this is why you are one of my least favorite goddesses. Because you are so determined to embarrass my dad it gets embarrassing for you."

Everyone just stared at Percy with their mouths wide open and Posiden high-fived Percy.

Will took this as a cue to start reading.

"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."

"I learned eventually," Percy said

"And it's a good thing too," Chiron said

"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."

"And I still only accept the best," Chiron said

"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 have a question," Annabeth said

"Shoot," Percy replied

"If you were to retake the test how do you think you'd do?" Annabeth asked

"I'd fail," Percy said

"Why?" Annabeth asked

"Because I don't remember any of that crap," Percy said, "All I know is how not to die."

Annabeth chuckled.

"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."

"Percy eavesdropping! I can't believe that happened. " Nico said his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You should have been there. He was really loud." Chiron said.

"That's Percy for ya." Annabeth said, "Loud, Annoying, and unsmart when it comes to life or death situations."

" 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."

"We eavesdrop all the time, 24-7." Conner and Travis Stoll said in unison.

"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."

"I was quite mature at twelve," Percy argued.

"Seaweed brain, you're not even mature now." Annabeth laughed.

"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- " "Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can." "Sir, he saw her... ." "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-"

"There were a few times when that goal had a very slim chance of happening," Percy said.

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

"That was insanely stressful. I almost passed out I was holding my breath for so long." Percy said, "I was shaking."

"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."

"My nerves were very right," Chiron said and winked at Percy.

"Your nerves have always been right, Chiron," Beckendorf said politely.

"Thank you, Beckendorf," Chiron said with a smile.

"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."

"I hate tests/exams." Grover said "No offense Annabeth."

"None taken," Annabeth said.

"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. 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. 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."

"Cause you were in danger, and you still are," Chiron said.

Percy shuddered. It was insane that monsters were still after him, relentlessly pursuing him until he died or was torn apart by them.

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

"Sorry, Percy," Chiron said.

"It's okay, Chiron," Percy said. Percy was getting tired of telling everyone it was okay.

"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 favorite 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. "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."

"Son, you're not normal," Posiden said trying to help but not really succeeding.

"But is that necessarily a good thing?" Percy asked.

"No, I guess not," Posiden said a frown on his face reappearing.

"Percy-" But I was already gone. 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 rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies."

"Your family is not a family of nobody's," Clarisse said. "For one, your mom makes the best cookies known to humans, demigods, and gods, two your dad is a god, one of the Big Three might I add."

"They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the 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. "Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool." They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed. 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."

"I was not worried about that at all." Grover said "Nothing near that."

"But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?" 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 dead-line?" 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."

"He is a really bad liar." Annabeth said, "He couldn't tell a good lie for the life of him."

"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." 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?"

"You heard it here folks," Luke said "Percy doesn't care about Grover."

"Shut up you don't know anything," Percy said standing up.

Luke saw this as a test and said, "What are you gonna do? Splash water on my face."

"Don't underestimate me," Percy said his expression darkening.

"Okay, Let's start shall we?" Annabeth said. Percy sat down between his Mom and Tyson.

"It came out harsher than I meant it to."

"Sorry, Grover." Percy changed into a shade of light pink and squirmed around in his seat.

"It's all good." Grover said, "I'm sure you didn't mean 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."

"But in the end, it all worked out. And for the record, I think you did a pretty good job too." Percy grinned at Grover.

"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."

"The worst smell ever," Grover said and Percy nodded his head in agreement.

"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."

"Which I really don't recommend," Percy said. Laughter bubbled up out of Annabeth's throat and Athena shot Annabeth a glare.

"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."

"Oh my gods" Posiden breathed "Please protect him from all evil and dangers, though I know that is impossible."

Percy shot a sideways glance at Posiden.

"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."

"He is dead, guys! Percy is dead!" Posiden let out a nervous chuckle. He received weird looks after he said that."

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

Percy erupted in laughter. "You should have seen it go! It was twitching so crazily!"

Gover looked down at his lap and his face turned pink.

"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."

"Admit it, That was funny." Percy winked at Grover.

Grover grinned in return and said, "Not even funny now."

Percy started pouting.

"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." "Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back. Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic."

"That is really not good. I'm surprised you are still alive." Hades said, casting skeptical looks at Percy.

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

"Crap." Posiden muttered.

"Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. "Grover?" "Yeah?" "What are you not telling me?" 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?" His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds."

"Cause they are," Grover said

"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."

"I know that gesture!" Percy said, "I used it on Gabe."

The room erupted in laughter.

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."

Thalia looked at Grover sympathetically and said, "It wasn't your fault."

"Thanks, Thalia." Grover smiled at her.

"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.

"It ends there," Will said

"Are you kidding me!" Posiden said, "The suspense I feel!"

Percy laughed. "I'm still here aren't I."

"Unfortunately, "Zeus muttered

"I heard that!" Percy said.

"I don't care," Zeus said "I need wine. I feel like Dionysus!"

There were a few laughs among the gods.

"Who will read next?" Will asked

Nico raised his hand, "I can." Will passed Nico the book and smiled at him. Nico blushed.

"The next chapter is called, Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants." Nico cleared his throat, "Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants."

AN: I'm so sorry I haven't been publishing I've been so busy. I hope you can forgive me.