101A/N: Here's the second chapter that Shadow Priestes wrote.
DISCLAIMER: As I have said again PJO and HoO doesn't belong to me.
II. She is still miffed
While the people of the past were confused were the demigods of the future laughing in amusement at the title, which is most of them.
"I think most of us had wished for something like that to happen." laughed Travis while Katie wondered how she ended up marrying that guy, but they son was a clear prof that she did. The thought of being a married mother still shocked her, thought she knew that she was not the only one. They all were feeling somewhat of a relief that they will make it to become adults with a family, something not all demigods manage to have.
"She is still mad about that one." Enysswe whispered to Henry who nodded to his cousin remembering all the rants they needed to hear while on they math and law classes. The drawback for being related to the king of the Underworld is that he has a large variety of teachers to pick out for his children and grandchildren.
"Continue Perseus." Lance said to the man who nodded.
"Nath, now." Misty whispered to Nathan who carefully moved the fingers on his right hand while the girl chanted a spell in her head which made the air vibrate in such a slight way that not even Zeus himself would notice.
This was also part of the plan with which the Fates have come up with, with the spell and air vibration would the reading of the books be more clearer, namely when someone was reading would the sound wave be carried outside. They hoped that when the minor gods, goddesses and magical creatures who lived up here would hear these stories and that there is a child from the Big Three himself who cares for all living beings. Hear about the fate of their future children and that there is a chance for a better future for them, that then Kronos would never gain supporters to help him raise. Luckily was her spell blocking out most sounds from the outside till she takes it down, but they will wait for that till the last chapters of the fifth book.
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.
"So true." said all demigods and legacies from the future, they expressions grim.
"Is it rallying that bad?" Athena asked as she looked worriedly at her two children.
"With all those monsters hunting after you?" Malcolm said as he remembered the first monster he saw, a Cyclops, the only ground why it hadn't found him was because his smell had been at that time still faint, and his father had lead him inside the Antiquity Store and it had unknown to them saved him from death.
"Or mortal parents who either see you as a burden, are scared from you or blame you for being left by you all." Annabeth said bitterly as she remembered how her own father had seen her as a type of burden which was forced on him.
"The same goes for us also, strangely seems our scent similar in strength to that of a half-blood and thus monsters, mostly the rough ones are constantly after us for revenge." Misty said sadly, having stronger powers then most legacies was fun, but also dangerous.
"Well, try our case, dad seriously needs a new hobby which doesn't involve getting every creature or god he meets angry enough to try killing him." Luke said groaning while the gods exchanged unbelieving glances, hoping that the boy doesn't belong to them.
"You try then living in the Underworld, grandfather; dad and aunt Hazel are always busy trying to calm the monsters." Enysswe said in annoyance.
"Uhm…thanks En." Sally said.
"Can I continue now?" Perseus asked, this was till now only one sentence.
"Yes." Henry said.
"Yay, my dad can read." Perses cheered at which a good number of people broke out laughing while Perseus raised his voice to drown them out, his face red as a tomato.
If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:
"Oh no!" yelled all the future legacies in panic.
"What is it?" Hermes asked curiously.
"Uncle Percy's advices are just as bad as his plans." Ace said remembering all the warnings he had gotten from his parents when he was little, if his uncle had a plan then if would fail, if it was a stupid plan you have a chance to survive it.
"So just like by Theseus." Orion said while trying to look innocently at his brother.
"Love you to." Theseus replied glaring while they father smiled at his boys much to Triton's annoyance. His father tended to pay more attention to everything then his heir, was it really this hard to be proud of him?
close this book right now.
"Told you." the nine chorused.
Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.
"As if…" Travis stated saying.
"…that would ever happen." finished Connor for his brother.
"I love my kids." Hermes whispered to Apollo who finally managed to get rid of his blush.
Being a half-blood is dangerous.
Many nods could be seen.
It's scary.
Again nods at which the gods exchanged guilty glances and Andromeda rested her head on her husband's shoulder as support.
Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.
"In other words the usual." Orion said trying to lighten the mood, but then his eyes accidentally caught those of Artemis and he turned immediately away before her twin could notice.
If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction,
"What is that?" Apollo, Hermes and Perses asked together making some people smile at the little boy while Artemis rolled her eyes at her brother, though secretly was she also curious.
"A fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and theoretical—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical, cinematic, or musical work. Fiction contrasts with non-fiction, which deals exclusively with factual or, at least, assumed factual events, descriptions, observations, biographies, histories." Annabeth explained hurriedly, but only a few truly knew what she meant.
"In short a story that is half true or fully made up by someone." translated Will helpfully to the people of the past who were now all nodding in understanding.
great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.
"He is slightly pessimistic." Hera pointed out.
"That is our dad for you." Sally said smiling at the queen who was surprised to say at least then usually tended the demigods to have the same dislike for her as she had for them.
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.
All demigods and legacies nodded gravely at this, when a demigod realizes what they are they scents immediately turns stronger making it even easier for the monsters to find them.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
"You didn't warn us." Apollo and Hermes said together grinning.
"Idiots." Artemis muttered at the duo.
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.
No one of the past asked what that was.
Am I a troubled kid?
"Yes!" the nine kids chorused while Annabeth raised an eyebrow at the thought of reading her future husbands thoughts.
Yeah. You could say that.
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 mentalcase kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.
"Ancient!" yelled most of the gods with the past heroes while the Roman demigods looked up at the mention of a Roman exhibition.
"Well, seeing that it is a good deal in the future should we not be that surprised." Amphitrite said speaking for the first time, if her niece could deal with it and even Hera was trying, then she should also try attempting to deal with the situation, maybe it would turn out for the better.
I know—it sounds like torture.
"It does not." Athena snapped with Annabeth and Malcolm.
"Those two are certainly yours." Poseidon stated which earned him a glare from the goddess.
"Hold your tongue Fish Brain." she growled.
"Try me Owl Head." he shoot back.
"Perseus continue before this goes on for the upcoming three hours." Zeus told his son while the kids sent by the Fates grinned, some things would never change.
Most Yancy field trips were.
But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.
All those who knew Chiron's field name perked up at this while the others were confused why some of the children sat up straighter.
Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair.
"A wha…" Ares clapped his hand over Hermes's mouth.
"Don't you dare to get that girl start ranting again about something only Miss-Know-It-All will understand somewhat, and you are still in for your brat getting near my daughter." Ares growled to his half-brother who glumped.
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 stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.
"Hmm…"
"What is it Hercules?" Theseus asked his cousin who looked deep in thought.
"Doesn't this man sound familiar to you?" Hercules asked the other who after exchanging glances with his brother nodded, looking over at the last member of they group could they see the familiar frown on Perseus's face.
"That sounds like a good teacher." Jason whispered to his comrades who nodded, even Octavian did it, but reluctantly.
I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.
Boy, was I wrong.
"Well, you kind of jinxed it so no surprise there." Frank said while the others nodded, the Romans still felt slightly uneasy surrounded by so many Greeks, but still, if they children could get along in the future then this meant that they might also be closer one day so why not try getting along.
"You are absolutely right with that." Chris replied with a grin which Frank returned, yes they might manage.
See, bad things happen to me on field trips.
"Only on field trips?" those who knew Percy Jackson asked.
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.
"Excuse me!" Annabeth and Malcolm stated indignantly while some of the other teens broke out laughing.
"Not bad." Clarisse said, on those school trips she had been forced to go were they never around weapons.
"And this is why we love your dad." Michael said laughing with his friends and even Apollo and Hermes tried to stay in their thrones.
"That really sounds like a fun guy." Dakota said grinning.
"I wonder what he was aiming for if not the bus." Reyna wondered, she was still annoyed because she knew that this man and the blonde girl sitting with them in the throne room had destroyed her home, but she didn't want to go for revenge in front of the gods and her son, this word made her blush, got along with them so she will need to wait and see if they get some answers.
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.
Again, many bust out laughing as they imagined how everyone's faces must have looked when they found themselves inside the water tank.
"I love this story." Lance laughed, uncle Percy was always great with making people laugh.
"And before you get worried it was right after feeding time so the only thing that happened was that the sharks were confused why there are so many people swimming in they tank and making noises." Luke explained when noticing the look on his mother's face.
"At least got no one hurt." Hestia said relieved.
"This kid is pretty interesting." Dakota said laughing as Jason nodded beside him furiously, he would not mind meeting this guy.
And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.
"No, we want to hear more!" whined Apollo, Hermes, the Stoll's, Chris, Dakota, Frank and Jason the past heroes saw the looks they were receiving and thought better about it to comment and Andromeda was already scolding her son.
"Quit it guys." Katie snapped as she hit both Stolls while Clarisse glared at Chris who immediately shut up at this, but glared at his son who was snickering at him.
Meanwhile had Reyna stopped her fellow praetor and centurions from making themselves look like idiots while Artemis took care about her brothers. When it was quiet again started Perseus to read, though he had no hopes for finishing the chapter in this century.
This trip, I was determined to be good.
"Wish you luck for that one." all those who had ever decided this by a field trip mumbled.
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-andketchup sandwich.
All demigods from Camp Half-Blood started growling and glared at the book with venom in they eyes.
"Uh…I take that you know this Grover guy?" Orion asked unsurely.
"Yes, he is one of the satyrs at camp and a really good friend of us." Annabeth said when there was a strange sound.
"A faun, you use those useless creatures, Greeks are truly meow…" Octavian immediately covered his mouth with both of his hands, looking mortified as everyone was staring at him in confusion, except nine people who were laughing.
"Octavian…was that a cat?" Jason asked the blonde who glared at him before turning his murderous gaze to those who were laughing.
"You were warned to choose your words wisely, though we had no clue that this would happen." Nathan laughed.
"You mean that he will be meowing as a cat whenever he is trying to say something bad about the Greek?" Reyna asked blinking.
"Take that immediately down you oink." this time everyone broke out laughing.
"I would say more like sounding like a bunch of animals." Misty said giggling while her grandfather fell out of his throne.
"Never knew that the Fates had such a great sense of humor." Apollo said while wiping away a few teardrops from the corner of his eyes.
Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny.
He cried 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.
"Chiron did a good job on the cover story." Chris said nodding in approval while the Romans were still confused asto what use the fauns had.
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.
"Grover!" the Greek demigods groaned.
"Knew it, squeak."
"Octavian, was that now a mouse or a rat?" Dakota asked innocently while the blonde glowered at him.
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.
"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.
"Go for it kid, maybe then we get some action going on here." Ares stated, he was getting bored here.
Grover tried 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 get blamed if anything happens."
"Nice try uncle Grover, but you should have learned that dad seems to be running around with a neon light above his head saying, 'I'm Here come and get me'." Sally said smiling which made some people flinch.
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.
At this exchanged everyone worried looks while some only shook they heads.
Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.
He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues 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.
"At least is he appreciating them." Athena said not noticing how her grandchildren leaned together.
"This will only hold till a couple more sentences." Sally whispered to her brother who nodded.
"She will definitely not react positive and neither will grandma Amphitrite or uncle Triton." Luke whispered back, there were still some tense situations between they dad and his older brother. Amphitrite was mostly fine with them because she figured out that they dad was literally the best punishment for they grandfather with his knack for getting into trouble.
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 everybody 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.
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 had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.
The legacies of the future turned to the two cousins from the Underworld with raised eyebrows.
"You don't want to know." Henry replied and they nodded, turning back to the book.
From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.
"If that would be the case then she would like him." Henry whispered to his cousin.
"I doubt that Percy is a devil spawn, we know that he doesn't belong to that good-for-nothing-god." Demeter said in annoyance, earning herself a cold glare from Hades, her daughter, adopted grandchildren and Apollo. The later made Artemis and Hermes who were sitting the closest to the Sun God exchange confused glances.
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.
"Honey!" Hades brought out in shock as he leaned forth in his temporary throne.
"Are you alright brother?" Poseidon asked the blackhead who was still looking wide eyed.
"Honey…" he repeated before leaning back in his seat, one hand on his face. "If I'm right then is that woman no mortal, but Alecto, she always uses this word. It gets annoying after hundred years." he groaned and now was everyone looking shocked.
"Then I think it doesn't help much that she still uses that word." Enysswe said sheepishly.
"Or that she is still wishing to massacre our dad." Luke added in so that only his friends would hear.
One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight,
At this all troublemakers shuddered while Hades, Enysswe and Henry rolled they eyes, the first two looking pretty much alike which of course made Apollo feel uncomfortable while his son was looking warily at his future daughter, curious about her father.
"Of course is she creative, she is mostly working in the Fields of Punishment." Hades said and the others nodded uneasily.
I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."
Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.
Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele,
"So mature." someone commented.
and I turned around 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. I said, "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?"
"Ugh, why that one!" groaned the five siblings and they families looked at them sympathically.
"There are a dozen stele pictures and he picks that one." Hades said and Persephone leaned against her husband to stop his shuddering.
"It was the most disgusting place to live in." Hera said, her face looking slowly the same colour as Triton's skin.
"Agreed, it was dark, a gross combination of warm dampness and with the limited space had we the chance to get to know each other too well." Poseidon said in a disgusted tone.
"Perseus, I think you should continue before they throw up." Theseus said hurriedly to his cousin who nodded, they had really no clue that this still weighted so much on some of the gods.
"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—"
Perseus hurried with continuing before the gods could object, but most of them were still busy staring at the oldest five who were still stuck in the memories about they harmful childhood.
"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 to eat instead.
"Uhm… I always wanted to know how one could confuse a baby with a rock?" Hermes and the Stolls asked the same time before grinning at each other, the brothers really liked it that they seemed to share a few things with they dad.
"Well, usually I would say that the person was either blind, dumb or the kid looked like a rock to begin with." Hera said while crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Though we know that father was anything, but blind." Poseidon said calmly.
"And he was not an idiot either." continued Hades.
"Which only leaves the fact that my brother and husband looked like a rock when he was a baby." Hera said as she got a high-five from both Hades and Poseidon while Zeus glared at the three of them.
"Oh, so this is the truth behind the story when uncle Jason nearly sent out the whole Twelfth Legion to find Nathan when they played hide-and-seek in a rocky place and he couldn't find him." Michael said laughing, but it soon turned into a yelp when an embarrassed blonde zapped him while Jason looked red as a tomato, his friends laughing except Reyna who only shook her head.
"So, this is inheritable?" asked Connor, but he only got some glares from Zeus, Hercules, Perseus, Jason and Nathan.
"Does that mean that I looked like a rock when I was a baby?" Perses asked his mother who only shook her head, but then she looked thoughtful. "Though, I think you come more after my side of the family." at this Perseus started spluttering at his wife while the others broke out laughing.
"Nice pick little bro." Apollo laughed.
It took everyone five minutes to calm down.
And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"
"Ugh…thanks for the reminder." Hera shuddered.
"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.
"Try to be there and then you can comment." Demeter said angrily, those girls had nothing to talk about, it were not them who went through that hell.
"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."
"Did he just…" Will was about to say, but En started giggling.
"Don't bother, uncle Percy is a master in this." she said grinning which made her mother blush, it was not all day even for a demigod to meet they daughter and find out that they have her with two other guys and you are one of the mothers.
"Uhum…" was his intelligent reply.
Some snickers from the group.
"He did get it right so why are they laughing?" Annabeth asked in confusion.
"People tend to be narrow minded." Misty said shrugging.
Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"
"I'm starting to wish that this bimbo would be here." Clarisse growled, she really would love to beat her into a plump.
"We all agree." come it from everyone in the room.
"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.
Everyone laughed at this.
At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.
Those who knew who he was smirked in amusement, those were more like horse ears then radar ones.
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,
"Thank you again for that brother." Hades replied sarcastically, that mix was not only adding to the disgustingness of the situation, but also made the five of them smell for a whole of two months like it to!
"You are perfectly welcome brother." Zeus replied missing the sarcasm directed into his direction.
which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach.
"The worst childhood experience." Demeter said shuddering.
"That is also why your father freaked out when I got pregnant and had my morning sicknesses." Amphitrite explained to Triton who nodded carefully.
At the same time outside where most of the minor gods and goddesses gathered together with the satyrs, dryads, nymphs and other nature spirits started to look green.
"This would certainly explain why most of them are so moody." said one of the dryads, she would hate it to live in her father's stomach and then to get out like that.
"Now we know why Lady Hera was so dangerous when pregnant." Janus's left head replied while the right one looked ready to throw up.
"Still would like to know why we got a note to listen to the reading of some books." another god said and many nodded.
"This is because these books could have valuable information for us." snapped Hecate at them all. "If these books were sent by the Fates themselves with a chance to change the future, something we all know is not allowed, then we should hear all of them till the end, we don't need to do anything else, those inside the palace are reading so sit down and listen." she finished and noted with satisfaction that everyone had quitted down and were not again paying attention.
The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, 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?"
"I fail to see the happy note here." Dakota said in confusion while looking at Gwen who patted him on the back.
"Just ignore it Dakota." she said to her fellow centurion.
"You know that it would be hilarious if Lily could have also come?" Lance whispered to his friends.
"True, but someone needs to divert attention from our disappearance." Henry added while holding back a shudder, yes, his mom come mostly after her mother, but when she got really mad was she pretty much just as scary as granddad Pluto.
"Someone really needs to learn how to change topics." Katie said blinking.
"Yeah, I doubt that those five will want to hear about food anytime soon." Will said while watching his father make the five oldest gods swallow a stomach medicine.
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.
"Yes they have." all those who knew that it was Chiron said together which made those who didn't know confused.
"You must learn 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 accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."
I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.
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 run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.
"That sounds really fun." exclaimed the Roman demigods and even Octavian needed to agree that he would have liked it if his teachers would have done such a thing in one of they classes.
But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder
"So the usual demigod package." Chris said while the others nodded.
"So they now have names for them." Orion noted grinning.
"Seeing that it stands in the book." Artemis said while rolling her eyes so she didn't notice how Orion blushed, but Apollo did and sent the hero a glare.
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. 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.
"Something tells me that he has." Gwen said sadly while the future legacies looked over at two of they cousins to see if they knew more.
"She had been one of my aunts." Enysswe whispered sadly so that her grandfather Apollo doesn't her or her mum for that matter, both of them would be incredibly sad mostly that she was sill a little girl at this part in time.
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.
"Father, about what are you and uncle fighting about?" Triton asked in confusion while everyone who did not know the truth, so nine people exact, were staring confused at Zeus and Poseidon who only exchanged confused glances with each other having no clue what they were again fighting about.
Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something 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."
Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"
There was a round of laughs at the random question.
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 about 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 in a taxi and head home.
The girls and women cooed at this while the boys rolled they eyes at them.
"See, this is how a mother-child relationship should look like." Hera said while looking at her two sons who were doing they best to ignore they mother which annoyed her, Triton on the other hand was also trying to look everywhere then in his mother's direction and Persephone pulled closer to her husband. She will not deal with her mother's usual rants regards her pick in the case of a lover.
"I like spending time with mom." Perses said happily to his mother.
"Good child." Hera huffed in annoyance when she suddenly heard a telepathic voice in her head which made her turn in the direction of her grandniece/step granddaughter. 'Sorry for startling you Lady Hera, though you will not manage to have a perfect family without trying to correct past mistakes.' she heard the melodious voice speak in her head. 'What do you mean child?' Hera asked back. 'I'm not sure about uncle Ares at this point, he might need time, but you may have at the current moment better chances if you talk things out with you second son, it might help if a hurt doesn't get carried on for to long.' and with that Hera felt the girl withdrawing from her mind and looking at the queen with a small smile she saw on occasions on her brother's face. She needed to give her right, Ares was a complicated case to handle, but maybe she could make amends with her other son whom she treated wrongly.
Hephaestus was waiting for his half-brother to continue reading the book when he suddenly felt the presence of his mother enter his mind. He had half a thought to ignore her like he tended to do, but usually when one speaks telepathically one also transfers a glimpse about they strongest emotion at the time of entering and the feeling he got from his mother was guilt and a slight fear. 'What do you wish mother?' he asked curiously. 'Can we please talk with each other when we take a break?' she asked and the god found himself nodding, although reluctantly because his mother never wanted to just talk, she only ranted about a perfect family or how her husband was cheating on her.
She'd hug me and 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.
"I think you made a good pick Annabeth." Katie whispered to Annabeth who looked over at her two children who when noticing they young mother smiled back at her nodding which relived her that at least he was a kind guy.
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 cafe table.
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.
There were again many grwols from those who knew Grover.
"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.
The confused looks were waved away, indicating that it was not important and that they should continue.
I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper."
"That's useless." said Clarisse and Ace at the same time before looking at each other, Clarisse had ignored the fact that one of those kids was hers since the introduction, but now she needed to notice the fact.
But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.
At this Poseidon, Athena, Theseus and Orion all sat up straighter, they eyes wide while Triton looked at the two children who nodded to him, confirming his suspicions. Not the way one imagines meeting his nephew and niece, but in this family can no one complain.
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—"
Perseus suddenly stopped in his reading and looked with wide eyes and Theseus and Orion before continuing, this will lead to a bunch of screaming so he signalled to Andromeda to cover they son's ears.
"—the water—"
"—like it grabbed her—"
"Poseidon!" screamed Amphitrite in anger as she glared at her husband.
"Percy is our brother?" Theseus and Orion asked at the same time.
"No! My daughter will not marry a Sea Spawn!" Athena yelled while Annabeth paled, Malcolm winched while the others tried to ignore the arguing around them.
"Grandmother Amphitrite, if it helps in the future you like our dad because he is your perfect revenge on granddad, because dad had a knack to make others want to kill him." Sally intervened earning herself a groan from her grandfather and a frown from her step-grandmother, but at least was the martial fight done. "Also grandmother Athena, I think at the end of the last book you will realize how much dad cares about our mom." Athena only huffed, but didn't say anything more.
Perseus took this as his cue to start reading before a new argument breaks out.
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.
"Oh, she certainly did." Hades drawled while Poseidon glared at him.
"Don't you dare Hades and why exactly are you after my son? Is it not usually Hera or Zeus who hunt after our kids?" Poseidon asked.
"You will soon know why." Misty said bitterly, her poor granddad Hermes, he will hate most of the happenings in these books when he finds out that one of his children would become the key to the raise of a monster.
"Now, honey—"
"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."
"Wrong thing to say." chorused all the troublemakers.
That wasn't the right thing to say.
"You don't say uncle Perce." Lance said while rolling his eyes.
"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.
Tension was slowly building inside the room and also outside by the minor divinities who all had a funny feeling in they stomachs.
"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. 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?
"Well, she is kind of your uncle's co-worker." Connor said.
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 staring 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 pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but was absorbed in his novel.
The tension got worse now that they knew that Percy was alone with a Fury and absolutely no training, but at least they knew that he will be fine seeing that two of his children were sitting here.
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.
Except for us, the gallery was empty.
"It is alright, he will live, someone will save him." Poseidon muttered looking pale.
"I think now I know what you meant." Amphitrite said while smirking at her husband, she might just give this demigod a chance if he should be born this time around in the future.
"And if one imagines that this was one of his calmest experiences." Luke said to his friends while his grandfather let out a strange noise.
"Yes, I may start liking this demigod." at this exchanged both Orion and Theseus a look with each other not sure if they wanted to be liked by they stepmother if it meant that they would give they father constant heart attacks.
"That is a first." Triton said stunned while Athena still looked angry that her daughter would marry her rival's spawn, Triton was not counted in that category, but that was another complicated case.
Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. 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...
No one would have felt surprised if she truly did, most monsters wanted to do just that.
"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 would 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.
"Normal teacher yes, monster teacher…only if they work for Hades and you happen to be either his kid or grandchild." stated Hephaestus before he noticed something, his wife was strangely to quiet, but looking at his side he spotted her looking intentionally at the children from the future. He knew that look, it was the look she wore when trying to analyze romantic feelings in a person she was gazing at. Great, she was planning to mess around with some love lives, hopefully only by those who don't have a kid present, Aphrodite tended to overdo such things and some of those actions ended badly.
I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."
Thunder shook the building.
Again were all eyes on Zeus who only shrugged, he could not know why he was doing this in the future.
"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.
"You and us all mate." replied Connor.
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.
"Wow, uncle P your son is great." Hermes said laughing with Apollo.
"I can't wait till he gets to camp." Travis said as he exchanged a grin with his brothers.
Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet
"Dad's/granddad's work." replied Travis, Connor, Chris, Lance, Misty and Ace proudly which made Hermes beam.
"I'm the best." Hermes said grinning while Apollo pouted.
"I'm also great." the Sun god muttered when he noticed someone looking at him, looking up was he met with intense dark eyes.
"Apollo, acting somewhat more like your age is more appealing then acting like a little kid." Hades said to his nephew to stop a childish argument from breaking out, but he had already turned away so failed to notice the renewed blush gracing the other man's cheeks, but Artemis did together with Hermes. What was wrong with him?
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.
There was again laughter while Athena, Annabeth and Malcolm looked a bit put out because of the book comment, but didn't comment, though Annabeth looked over to her children.
"Sorry, he didn't read it, but you got him the audio book version." Luke said to his mother who nodded, at least he kind of had read it now.
"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.
"Nice comparison." Frank said, but covered by the glares he received from the others.
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.
"Alecto." stated Hades, Persephone, Enysswe and Henry nodding.
Then 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.
"Huh?" asked everyone in confusion.
"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.
Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.
Poseidon started slowly hyperventilating which made some of the others look worriedly at him while Orion, Theseus and Triton were wondering if they father would be this worried about them.
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.
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.
"Excuse me?" exclaimed mostly everyone inside and outside of the throne room, swinging a sword did not come naturally even to a demigod.
"Yep, that is our dad, a natural born swordfighter." Sally said proudly at her father's skill.
The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hiss!
Stunned silence regained over everything, did the book just say that a twelve years old demigod who didn't know what he was, had no training had just defeated a Fury? This was something no one of them could ever imagine.
"Not a bad from a beginner." Ares needed to admit with Clarisse nodding along her father.
"That certainly was not bad." Triton said in a stunned tone, his future half-brother certainly sounded different from the others.
"Bested by our own little brother." Theseus said to Orion who could only nod.
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.
"Let me guess, Alecto is still angry at him for that." Hades said to his grandchildren.
"She certainly is." Henry replied.
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 had started to rain.
"Strange, it seems as if there is a strong wall of mist being pulled up." Annabeth said with Malcolm nodding in agreement.
"Mist?" Hercules asked in confusion.
"A kind of illusion because in the future mortals don't believe in the truth behind myths so helps the mist to hide us from them." Katie explained.
"I see."
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."
"Who?" asked Poseidon, Triton, Theseus, and Orion which made Perseus laugh.
"I can see the family resemblance." he said grinning.
I said, "Who?"
Now everyone understood and broke out laughing while Poseidon and his sons blushed in embarassment.
"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, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.
"Connor, give Grover an appointment at four in the afternoon, Monday. We need to teach that satyr how to lie." Travis said to his brother who wrote up the appointment.
"Leave my satyrs alone." Dionysus snapped making everyone jump, they had forgotten that he was there.
'At least he cares about fauns.' Dakota thought while looking at his father.
"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'd never moved.
I went over to him.
He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil 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?"
"At least one of them knows how to lye." Will said to the others who nodded.
"And with his is the chapter finally done." Perseus said as he pushed the book over to Theseus who sat on his other side.
To be continued…