A/N Facts are stubborn things. Now that they have found out about Zeus's stolen master bolt, Let's see what would be their reactions!

Chapter 8: Old ladies knit a yarn part 2.

Apollo's Pov.

To say that Poseidon was hurt would be an understatement of the year. Even I am not happy with Athena. How can she insult him just like that? He literally supported us when we needed it and now she is treating him like trash. Blaming him for something, he didn't do. Before I could put forward my thoughts, Andrew spoke up," No, Lord Poseidon did no such thing. The entire thing was a big misunderstanding between the big three, which would have caused a three-way war between them. As to who stole the bolt? Well, it took us the entire quest and still could only find half of the truth. It was not until we returned did we found the culprit. So in short, don't jump to conclusions that early otherwise you will regret it very badly. "

I could see father gulping at Andrew's warning. I guess the words of a son of Athena are not something you can take with a grain of salt. "I think we should continue," Hestia cleared her throat,

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."

Theseus groaned. "He didn't learn how to give an encouraging speech even in future, did he?" " Nope, Chiron sucks at those things. Contrastingly, Percy can give those even in her sleep. She is that good!" Nico admitted. " Yeah! How is ' let's burst some monster heads' inspiring? " Jason questioned.

We cheered 'Yay!' at him." You guys love those long speeches like those presidents do, Our Percy knows how to keep them short, precise and motivating, Which is what an ADHD- addled bunch of kids like. If you ever give one of your kind of speech... I think you remembered what happened. Don't you?" Jason made a face and I decided I don't want to know about that experience. Then a question came to my mind Why are they talking as if they are of two different worlds?

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

"I am going to kill him!" Andrew muttered. I smirked. Seems like the Son of Athena has a soft spot for the daughter of Poseidon!

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.

"Chiron you really need to practice those speeches," Amphitrite said gently. Chiron nodded" I will do my best!" It is hard to make Chiron uncomfortable.

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—"

"Of course, you are not normal! You are the first and only daughter of Poseidon to date!" Will replied. Sally smiled at him. Her smile is soo beautiful then Damn if Poseidon hears he will castrate me!

"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.""Percy—"But I was already gone. On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. The other kids 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.

"Oh Percy, if only you knew that your father is not just rich but also an extremely powerful god!" Hestia muttered.

Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.

"In a way, you are related to nobody." I pointed out.

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."

"At least they are polite!" Hestia commented.

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

"And I take my words back!" Hestia sighed. Sally gave her a genuine smile and I almost stopped breathing altogether.

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.

"Stalker alert, Percy!" Conner exclaimed only to get his foot stamped by a pair of hooves. Poor kid groaned and Hermes winced.

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.

"Sometimes I hate it when she can read us like a book!" Leo groaned.

But there was nobody to tease him on the I couldn't stand it anymore.

" Uhhuu, Why do I have a bad feeling about it?" Hazel frowned

I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"Grover nearly jumped out of his seat.

Sally groaned. "She really has a big mouth? I need to teach her how to behave with others!" Everyone else laughed at poor Satyr's reaction while Grover turned red.

"Wha—what do you mean?"I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.

Hermes's eye twitched. I guess he didn't like her confessing her crimes.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?""Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"

"So literally everything," Grover replied.

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."

"That is the understatement of the millennium! Here Grover. This is your appointment recipient. Come at 8.30 sharp in the evening. Ok !" Travis said handing him what looked like a piece of parchment. Grover nodded glumly.

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 card was in fancy script, which was murder in 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 should not talk like that, daughter of Poseidon!" Hera grumbled with disdain in her voice.

It came out harsher than I meant it to.

"At least, she admits when she is wrong." Hestia nodded without looking at Hera. This has always been Hestia's way of showing her disapproval towards Hera.

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.

"She is very loyal. Too loyal, If you ask my opinion!" Athena narrowed her eyes. Poseidon bit his lips to stop a sarcastic comment from passing through them. " Well, her fatal flaw is loyalty. It saved her as many times as it caused her troubles. We have accepted her as she is." Andrew said nodding.

And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me."Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"

"Monsters! Banes of demigod's existence etc. etc. Take your pick" I replied.

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.

Aphrodite turned green.

The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway. After a few minutes of clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody 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 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.

My mouth watered. I waved my hand and a small feast came in the middle of the room. Everyone helped themselves with the food. Well, Everyone except Grover, who looked as if he will puke any moment. He is acting weird.

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.

Uhu. That is suspicious! I thought moving the grapes away from me.

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 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.

Now everyone left their food and looked like they wished they had not eaten. "She saw the fates! How is she not dead?" Will gulped. Andrew shot him a glare, which was half-angry, and half-worried. Then he turned towards the Satyr who was already getting angry glares from family and several other gods and goddesses. "Grroverr!" Andrew looked as if he was ready to burst.

"Relax, Andrew and everyone. You have to see the obvious. The fates cut the thread of the same colour as that of the eyes of the person who is going to die. Isn't it? And Percy's eyes are sea green, not electric blue." He reasoned

That made us stop and think about it. What he said was true. Percy has sea green eyes and the thread is electric blue, so whose could it be? "I think we will find out about it sooner if we continue with the chapter." Everyone nodded.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me. 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, Grov—""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!" Poseidon looked as if he was having a fever.

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

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."

" Yes, yes get inside! Get away from them as soon as possible!" He shouted at the book. Athena rolled her eyes by looked concerned for him.

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

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

" She never listens to anyone, does she ?" He groaned when Andrew shook his head.

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

That made Poseidon smile.

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!"

"Now that stupid metal box is working!" Theseus grumbled. Like father like son.

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!" It was Thalia.

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, Grov? 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.

"Of course, they are much worse than a mousy Fury. " Athena said waving her hand. Hades narrowed his eyes at her for calling his fury mousy but refrained from speaking, as he didn't want to bring Poseidon's wrath on his head.

He said, "Just tell me what you saw.""The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."

"She really knows how to make a big and important event look like a regular thing." " That's our Percy for you!"

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.

Athena blinked not having thought a daughter of Poseidon to be so attentive.

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."

"Has Lord Apollo of our time given us permission to hit someone?" Thalia asked me. " No, he hasn't. " She refrained from her blood lust by giving a murderous glare to Grover, which could make her Uncles proud. Poor Satyr!

"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."

"Ten dramchas, She keeps her promise!" I betted Andrew. He agreed." You know that I know her a lot better than you, Lord Apollo" He warned. " Yes I know but you just said her fatal flaw is loyalty, isn't it ?" "As you wish." He shrugged.

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.

" Depressing much!" Nico commented. " Look who is saying!" Grover shot back.

"And the chapter ends," Hestia said closing the book.

Ok, so I have a few announcements.

1. I am sorry, but the next chapter Grover unexpectedly loses his pants will also be in 2 parts. The reason is in point 2.

2. There were supposed to be some question-answer rounds in this part but due to the chapter becoming excessively long, I could not include them. So that round is in the next chapter. Also spoiler alert, Gods will find out about some of the important things about the future, so keep tuned.

3. My college is going to begin on 1st July, So I won't be able to update it on Thursday.

4. Relating to the fourth point, I will be updating both fanfics on Sundays and Saturdays. Starting with this Sunday, which is a bonus for you, right?

5. Lastly, I am sorry I couldn't update it on Thursday because as I told you earlier, my classes are going to start so I went to buy the books and copies required.

I rest my case. Amen.