"Oh-mmm how did I not know about this place?"
"Well, we were more concerned about not blowing up the city so…"
"Yeah…thanks for the Pizza, Percy."
"Anyways, Silena, how far did you get?"
"The cannon."
"OH. That. Did you-"
"Yes, I included an apology in there, Percy."
"So I start from Yancy? Well, nothing much happened there until the field trip so…"
"Wow. You really have something against field trips, don't you?"
"No! Field trips clearly have something against me."
My mother (the most awesome person ever) didn't even bat an eye when I told her what had happened. She talked to the school, and they made it very clear I wasn't welcome back for sixth grade. My mother didn't seem put down in the slightest. "Maybe somewhere closer to home", she suggested. I'd thought she'd finally crack and admit I was a literal crazy kid after I'd told her what led to me being kicked out this time. "Mom, how can you be so calm about this? The cannon just exploded!" My mother sighed, and seemed uncomfortable talking about this but not unsurprised. I knew she could take anything in stride and was really understanding, but this was something else. I'm pretty sure I'd be freaking out once I had more time to process what had happened. Even my own memory about yesterday was spotty – I recalled me and Silena near the cannons, and I'd told her something, and then – boom. I'd asked Principal Johnson why he thought I had anything to do with the explosion (I obviously did not) but he'd just blinked and said, "Silena didn't do anything." Which, yeah, I guess… But shouldn't they have looked into it more? I mean, who keeps loaded cannons at a historical tourist spot? I chalked up the memory loss to either trauma or my brain glitching. Yes, that's a thing. My brain skips stuff sometimes, which was apparently an ADHD symptom? It was annoying to deal with, because now I knew I hadn't made the cannon explode but something had.
The next few weeks at home with my mom were actually really nice and relaxing. No bullying jerks, homework or exploding stuff. Normal. Peaceful. Usually, my stepdad, Gabe, turned the entire flat into a chronic drunk's idea of paradise, but this time I didn't see much of him. He'd landed some promotion at the appliance store he worked at and was out celebrating with his friends the entire day. "Kid be one of them crazy terrorist, Eddie", I heard him slur to our building super late one night. Oh, so that's why he'd been avoiding me. He was scared I'd blow him up, nice.
Thinking about the explosion got me thinking about Silena. It didn't seem like she was in trouble, but I sure hoped no one would decide to find out who else had been near the cannons. She was the first and only real friend I'd ever had. I didn't want to be responsible for her getting in trouble, especially since I had the feeling nothing would have blown up if I hadn't been there. Weird stuff like that always happens around me. Up until last month, I'd never been able to control any of it. Now, though, I could make things vanish. Disappear. Poof. Small objects only, far as I knew. Small objects only, as far as I knew. I wished I could've made the cannon vanish because now I had to go to another new boarding school, where probably everyone would have a bone to pick with me. Still, my mom seemed hopeful, as always. "Percy, come on!" I heard her yell from outside my room. During school months, Gabe turned it into his study – though I don't think he's ever actually studied anything in his life, so it still smelled of bear, sweat and bad cologne. When I went out and saw her standing by the car with a smile, I almost told her about my new vanishing trick. Almost. If I told her, she'd worry about me even more, thinking I'd actually gone crazy, just as some of my old schools had said. "Let's go, mom", I said instead. "The school said classes start from next week, so we'll need to get you supplies today, Percy," my mom muttered. After the cannon incident, it'd been hard to find a school that would take me in. Yancy Academy for troubled kids, seemed to not mind at all. I tried to be optimistic about this school and not let the troubled kids part get to me as we drove towards it for the admission. "Are you sure Gabe won't mind?" I asked. The Camaro we were in was his, after all. In response, mother just sighed and continued driving, which I took to mean that he would mind, but she'd deal with that later. "I can't on the weekend because the store's asked me to come in to check the Halloween stocks." Oh, right. "We can buy them today, it's fine", I told her.
My mother worked at a candy store, remember? Halloween was a busy time for her.
I'd actually helped her out once two years back during Halloween. I didn't feel like going trick-or-treating, so I'd joined her at the store and we'd both had tons of blue candy that night. I was jumping around like crazy near the end of it. There was this one candy -
"You're getting off track a bit there, babe."
"I'm recording, not reading off of a script! What do you mean I'm getting off-track?"
"There is a not-so-pleasant reason for the recordings so..."
"Fine, fine, I'll tell them about Sour Sharks later."
"Mr. Jackson, I believe you will find Yancy Academy perfectly adequate for your special… needs." The man who'd interviewed me looked like a giant sloth. He'd introduced himself as Mr. Skrattle, the middle school math teacher and I could see my mom struggling to keep a straight face after hearing the name. Clearly, he also handled the admissions. "So, you have dyslexia friendly reading material?" My mother asked. "That's wonderful!" Mr. Skrattle blinked. "Oh, no… I meant his more ah- violent tendencies." My mother tensed up as I let out a groan. Oh, great. Another person who thinks I was secretly a terrorist. "My son does not have any violent tendencies, Mr. Skrattle", mom said firmly. The sloth dude seemed a bit unsure but did not give up. "Ah, but the records- see just last term he"
Mom cut him off. "Are you saying an unarmed eleven year old was able to accidentally fire a cannon that had been disbanded decades ago?" The man looked uncomfortable now. "Ah, I didn't mean- I'm sure it was a misunderstanding", he stammered out. I smirked. Though she was the kindest person ever, my mother could be stern if she had to be. I'd seen her talk down Gabe, and sloth-dude was no match for her. He hurried through the rest of the process and with a hasty "We hope to see you here soon, Mr. Jackson", shooed me and mom out the door. As we walked towards the gate, I paused, taking a look around the school. I walked around the side of the school, while my mother went in to take a look at the inside. The building itself looked unimpressive to me, with its dull grey color but fit in well with the surrounding upstate New York buildings. There was a small garden with a fountain in the center in front of the school building which was where I waited for my mother. There were small pebbles littered around the side of the fountain. I focused on one of them, wanting it to disappear and snapped my fingers. Sure enough, it vanished. I picked up one of the rocks from the water, and thought about it being dry. Somehow, this felt different. There was a tug in my gut and- "Percy?" My mom's voice cut in. I froze and dropped the rock back in. "What're you doing?"
"Nothing, mom. The rocks just looked cool." My mother's multicolored irises bored into mine, as if they were searching for the truth. Yet again, I wished I could tell her about this ability of mine. I'd seen a strand of water come off the rock. It was beautiful. But my mother had always insisted I was normal, that there was nothing unnatural or wrong about me, and I knew telling her this would shatter her belief. "Come on, then", she told me, walking out the gate.
"Shopping for school supplies was weird-"
"And by weird he means-"
"Sils, please."
"Yeah sorry, carry on."
Shopping for school supplies was weird that year. Mom took me to this small store near our apartment instead of the usual Walmart. The old lady at the counter kept staring at me like I was about to steal something, which was annoying. Mom didn't seem to notice though, she was too busy going through this specific list of stuff we needed to get for Yancy. "Percy, honey, could you get me a ruler from that shelf?" I walked over to where she was pointing and picked one up. My gaze fell on the glass shelf where the counter was reflected. I didn't realize what was different, but suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Wait, I thought suddenly. Where's the- "Would you like to see our special collection, boy?" I stared at the old lady who was no longer at the counter but had instead shown up right in front of me. Her thin hands poked at the stationery dispassionately. "This is all…mundane. Our real special stock is at the back, boy." I blinked and let out a "Uhm-no, I'm fine, thanks" but she didn't seem to hear me. Her black beady eyes gave me a once-over. "Come, boy", she said in her raspy voice and grabbed onto my wrist. I tried wriggling out of her grip but her bony hands were stronger than I'd expected. "Ma'am I really don't want to see anything special", I said again, "but thanks for the offer!" Still, she appeared to not hear my protests. "Our special collection is to die for", she told me, and something in her voice made me feel extremely uneasy. I tried to attract someone's attention but the few other customers that were there didn't seem to realize anything was off. My mother was on the far side, still going over the list. The old lady walked me to the counter, behind which was a large black door marked… "Elpmoyse olyn" Okay, that probably spelt "Employees only" I realized a second later. I was extremely weirded out by now.
I was about to start screaming for help, when my mother appeared out of nowhere and pulled my arm out of the old woman's grip. "We were just about to leave, thank you", she said, the items in a bag on her other hand. "Would you mind ringing these up?" The old lady blinked and said, "Those are free. We have sale now. Would you mind coming to check our special collection at the back?" Mom shook her head, "No, we're really short on time right now." She dragged me out of the store and into Gabe's car and hit the gas immediately. I could see the old lady at the door of the store staring at me with her black eyes. I wanted to ask my mom a dozen questions but it was clear she was pretty stressed already, muttering something about "they found out". I didn't want to add to her troubles. That night, I had a very strange dream. I was back in that small store, but my mother wasn't there. The old woman had red eyes now, and her hands had become long bony claws.
The school year started pretty normally, all things considered. Sure, some of the kids had clearly been in juvie before, but most of them were actually pretty chill. My roommate Grover was this scrawny guy with crutches who had some sort of muscle disease. He was really into recycling and environmental stuff - kept telling me about how humans were destroying the planet by throwing away tin cans. Still, he was nice enough, and definitely better than sharing a room with someone like Derek. Grover and I actually got pretty close over the first few months. He was in most of my classes and somehow always knew exactly what to say to the teachers when I got in trouble for not paying attention. Which happened a lot, especially in Mr. Skrattle's math class. The guy really had it out for me after that admission interview. I told Grover a lot about the weird stuff I'd seen, leaving out only my vanishing trick. At the mention of Silena, he'd let out something like a snort, which made me laugh. "Come on, G-man! Is it that surprising a girl would be friends with me?" He chuckled nervously at that "Ahaha no, no, Perce of course not." I still liked telling him stuff because he'd never once called me crazy and as far as I knew, did not think I was a terrorist.
Then in November, this new Latin teacher joined - Mr. Brunner. He came in on a motorized wheelchair and had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons he'd bring to class. Latin quickly became my favorite subject. For some reason, the letters didn't swim around on the page as much when I was reading Latin. Mr. Brunner also never made me feel stupid when I took time to answer, unlike certain other teachers.
Winter came around and things started getting weird again. Mr. Skrattle had a 'nervous breakdown' during an eight-grade class – apparently, he kept muttering about "hellish beasts" and "too much power". They replaced him with this leather-jacket wearing lady called Mrs. Dodds. She looked like she could've been someone's grandmother, but the way she moved reminded me more of those nature documentary videos about predators stalking their prey.
The weirdest part? She seemed to absolutely hate me. Like, she'd give me detention for breathing too loud in her class. Grover got really nervous around her too, always muttering under his breath whenever she passed by. I caught him sniffing the air once after she left - told me he was checking for "sulfur". Environmentalist stuff, probably, I thought.
I tried focusing on the good stuff though. Mom visited me twice over the school year, and both times I got blue candy. Grover and I would hang out in the library during breaks - well, he'd try to help me study while I complained about Mrs. Dodds. Mr. Brunner's classes were still awesome. He was organizing this field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for our grade. He called their exhibits a "treasure trove" of historically significant objects. One of the girls from our year, Nancy Bobofit called it "old timey crap". She also made fun of Grover's muscular disorder. On an unrelated note, there was a hallway incident between me and Nancy Bobofit which led to me being put on probation.
I really hoped this one would go better than my last field trip, because at this point, I'd run out of schools in the state. Hopefully, nothing would get blown up this time.
"Famous last words, Percy."
"Oh, shut up."
"Ok, I thought we blew up a lot of stuff, but Percy seems to hold the record – fish tank, school bus, what's next, a building?"