Hey there! So this is a retelling of Percy Jackson but with a female Percy and male Annabeth. I'm excited to share this with you all and see where it goes. Please keep in mind that the first three chapters will be pretty similar to the original to set up the story. I'm hoping to add in male Annabeth point of view chapters though to break up and diversify my story.

Please let me know what you think!

1. Penelope

My name is Penelope Jackson.

But don't ever call me that; it's PJ.

I've lived with the name for twelve years, but I still have a hard time accepting that my mom named me that. She said it was because she wanted me to be strong and cunning like the Queen of Ithaca in this old ancient Greek book written by some guy named Homer. But if you've actually read her part of the story, it sounds suspiciously like the poor woman had to resort to pranks just so she didn't have to remarry any of the disgusting men that tried to take her kingdom while her real husband was away.

Now let me warn you upfront; I'm not the greatest kid in the world.

I mean, I really try to be a good kid, but something always seems to go wrong. I don't really want to get into detail, but the school I went to last year blamed me for the gigantic amount of repairs that needed to be done to the swimming pool… Anyway, I think I've gotten kicked out of seven different schools now. It's kind of gotten ridiculous how many schools Mom has to call to get me into the next grade level each year. But this year had been different; this year I thought I was finally going to attend a second year at the same school.

Boy, was I wrong.

It all started as we were headed to downtown Manhattan on a big yellow school bus. I had been at Yancy Academy for almost a full year now with no major incidents. Yancy field trips were usually complete torture, but I was insanely excited for this one. We were going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see their Greek and Roman exhibits.

Oh, did I mention that I'm not the greatest student either? I'm totally ADD and hate reading because of my dyslexia, and nothing (not even medication) seemed to help. But when it comes to Greek Myths; I'm obsessed! I guess that's why I get a little annoyed by my name. Because if Mom really insisted on naming me after something Greek; there are SO many better options. Like Andromeda, I could totally have rocked the name 'Andi.' And her story is really cool too. I mean her parents were kind of morons for pissing off Poseidon, but she was rescued by the hero Perseus, fell completely head over heels in love, had some kids and lived a good life. Then to top it all off, when she died she got made into a constellation! Total happy ending.

Wait, what was I talking about?

Right! We're going to the MET. Mr. Brunner was one of the chaperones for the trip, so that was exciting too. He's probably one of the few teachers at my 'school for troubled kids' that doesn't actually treat the students like troubled kids. Mr. Brunner teaches Latin, which I almost failed. But he gave a lot of extra credit opportunities that I took advantage of and I somehow pulled a C to pass the class.

My friend Grover sat beside me on the bus. We weren't very close, but we were both outcasts in an already 'special' school, so we bonded. I think he had Muscular Dystrophy, or at least that was what my mom guessed when I described the guy to her. She told me to be nice and try to make a friend. I never really seem to make friends at any of my schools. Being the class jinx usually chases people away. But Grover was sweet, though he could be really awkward at times. That seemed to make him an easy target.

Right now, this horrible carrot top troll named Nancy Bobofit was throwing chunks of sandwich at the back of Grover's head. Now, Grover and I might not be best friends, but he's all I have so I'm kind of protective of him.

I went to stand up to go punch Nancy in her big nose, but Grover grabbed my arm and forced me back into the seat. "Chill out PJ. She's not worth it. You've been waiting for this trip all year."

I crossed my arms and pouted. Grover was right, but looking back now… I should have just punched Nancy in the face. It might have saved me from the stupidness that I somehow caused inside the MET.

Mr. Brunner acted like our personal tour guide around the exhibits. He rolled around to each item and gave a little speech about what it was, what it was for and how old it was.

Wait, did I tell you that Mr. Brunner was in a wheel chair? Yea, it's pretty nice too. It's one of those high-tech, motorized ones. Some of the kids call him Mr. Wheels behind his back, but when he hears it he never seems to care too much.

Well, our little tour was going great until Nancy decided that the Greeks and Romans weren't worth her time. She and her little clique of horrible evil Barbie dolls began mocking Mr. Brunner's questions. And of course, when I turned on them to try to shut them up, I was the one who got into trouble.

Mrs. Dodds hated me. Everyone knew that, but Nancy was really the only one to try to take advantage of it. She tattled on me to the math teacher at least once a week, if not more. Nancy was like Mrs. Dodds little spy or something. Mrs. Dodds glared at me the whole time we were walking to the next section of the exhibit.

Now Mrs. Dodds is horrible, and I'm not saying that just because I'm failing her class. I mean, math wasn't that terrible at my last school, but I had a nice normal teacher there. This crazy old lady thought she was some biker chick. She had a big leather jacket on at all times, and I swear she had one in every color you can think of. But instead of looking bad-ass, she just looked sad and kind of creepy. The worst part was, she smelled like mothballs and like something had crawled into her jacket and died.

Crap, I forgot to mention the incredible stele that we got to see. It was this giant piece of stone that someone had carved for a funeral marker… I think that's what Mr. Brunner said. It was so detailed; it must have taken the artist years to complete. The pictures on there were telling the story of Kronos, the king of the Titans. He was a really crappy Dad, even worse than my dad who just up and disappeared one day. Or even worse than Stink Gabe, my stepdad; Kronos was even worse than him! But I'll explain that more later.

Ok, so Kronos ate his immortal children because he didn't want to be overthrown by them; like he and his siblings had overthrown their Dad. So Kronos' wife got pissed and hid away her youngest son, who tricked Kronos into eating some mustard mixture. Kronos then threw up all his kids and they killed him and took over. And all those kids Kronos threw up? They were the Greek Gods.

So lunch was pretty boring. Nancy and her demonic Barbie followers terrorized the rest of the class and of course I got blamed somehow when I tried to defend Grover.

I have no idea what happened. Grover and I were sitting on the edge of the fountain talking about the weird expression one of the statues had in the museum when Nancy the goblin strolled by and dumped her lunch all over Grover. I stood up, wanting to push her over; but before I could she was already on the ground.

I swear I didn't touch her!

The bimbo clique started muttering about, me throwing water at Nancy or something. I was so angry I didn't really hear anything else. My temper flared and suddenly the spitting drizzle that had been lingering all day turned into buckets. Everyone screamed and ran to the museum for cover from the pouring rain.

Mrs. Dodds appeared out of nowhere and grabbed my arm really hard as she dragged me back into the building. I looked back at Grover and found him shaking with fear, I think he had tried to tell Mrs. Dodds that it was him who pushed Nancy but my brain had gone fuzzy and I couldn't really remember what happened after I stopped listening to the Barbies' chatter.

"You have been causing quite a few problems, Penelope."

God, I hate when people call me that. I felt my whole body getting hot with rage as I internally screamed at my math teacher that 'the name is PJ! I've been telling you that since the first day of classes!'

"Ow, what the…" Mrs. Dodds immediately let go of my arm. She started wafting her hand like she had touched a burning stove or something.

We were in the back part of the Greek and Roman exhibit now and it was completely empty. I turned to face Mrs. Dobbs to tell her the regular line of 'I'm sorry… won't happen again… I'll see you for my detention tomorrow….' But my voice got caught in my throat when I looked at my math teacher.

She looked almost… evil. Mrs. Dobbs stood there glaring at me, making this horrible growling noise and she flexed her fingers like they were claws.

Alright, I admit it. I was totally scared out of my mind. What the heck was going on?!

"Where is it Penelope Jackson? If you tell me, I might be able to grant you leniency."

I stared at her blankly, not even noticing the use of my full name, "Um… I don't know what you're talking about."

"Tick tock, tick tock…"

"I… I don't know what you want… what are you looking for?" I was so nervous my knees are literally knocking together. I back up a few paces to add some space between me and the demonic looking teacher.

A wicked smile ripped across her face, "Time's up little girl!"

Mrs. Dodds then turned into a gargoyle.

At least it looked like one to me. She was haggered looking, her skin sagged everywhere and her huge dragon wings almost knocked over the stele I had been gawking at earlier. Oh, and she had long sharp teeth like a vampire or something.

I didn't wait around to ask what she actually was… I ran.

But of course, with my bad luck, I didn't get very far. I almost flipped over Mr. Brunner as he rolled into the exhibit. The weird thing is, he didn't look surprised or even that scared.

Mr. Brunner looked pissed.

He gave me a weird look; like he was sizing me up. Then he did something really strange… He threw me a pen.

I stared at him in shock, but then had to dive head first into the floor to get away from the vampire dragon lady who used to be my math teacher. I could hear the back of my jacket rip as she tried to grab me with her long yellow talons.

"What the heck am I supposed to do with this Mr. B!" I screamed as I scurried across the smooth marble floor and ducked behind a headless statue of Aphrodite. I mentally thanked myself for wearing jeans and high-tops today; those made it much easier to slide along the floor than if I had worn my usual cargo shorts and flip-flops.

Mr. Brunner laughed. He Laughed. "Open it and find out, PJ."

I thought of a few choice curse words as I shook my head and popped the cap off of the BIC blue pen. But then it wasn't a pen anymore.

My brain went a bit fuzzy again as I stared at the bronze sword in my hand. It was the same one that Mr. B had used it in class sometimes as a prop. I always thought it was a fake sword, made of bronze plastic or foam maybe.

But it was real.

My small hand seemed to fit perfectly around the handle and the weight of the sword seemed to be gauged exactly for my petite frame. It felt good in my hand; like in some weird way it was part of me.

Now, when I get lost in my head; sometimes a whole class period can pass by or sometimes it's just a few milliseconds. Thankfully, this time it was just three milliseconds.

The thing that used to be Mrs. Dodds took a running start and flew at me; her teeth bared, claws outstretched, and she was hissing like some kind of giant snake.

I was still terrified, but the sword gave me the little seed of courage that I needed to at least swing the bronze weapon across in front of me.

For once in my life, I was lucky.

The sword had swung just as Mrs. Dodds had come into range and apparently I had hit her. Now all that remained of the dragon, vampire, snake lady was her old musty biker jacket and a pile of gross yellow powder.

I looked around the exhibit hall; I was about to yell and scream and cry to Mr. Brunner until he told me what the heck had just happened… But he wasn't there.

I was all alone.

I looked down at my hand, but it was empty. No sword; no pen.

I thought I was going crazy, I mean something was seriously wrong with me. I walked back out to the lobby of the museum expecting everyone to still be hiding out from the pouring rain, but the entrance was empty of students. There were just a few tourists buying tickets.

I walked out to the steps where we had eaten lunch and saw Grover sitting over by the fountain again finishing his lunch. I sat down next to him and looked around at the rest of the class. Everything seemed very normal. Most of the students were still finishing lunch as well, Mr. Brunner was parked at the end of the handicap ramp reading a book, and Nancy and her cronies were picking on another poor classmate of ours.

And everyone was dry.

"Hey Grover; how did you all dry off?"

Grover gave me a weird look, "What are you talking about?"

I looked up at the cloudy sky and saw a streak of lightning zap across it. I counted four seconds before the thunder followed. "Well, it was sprinkling before and then it just started pouring rain right before Mrs. Dodds dragged me into the museum."

Grover now looked worried for me, "Well first off; it hasn't rained yet, though I'm pretty sure the storm's on its way. And second who is Mrs. Dodds?"

I didn't know what to think; I was going psycho for sure. "But we all got caught in the downpour, everyone was soaked. And Mrs. Dodds has been our math teacher all year."

"Um, well if we were all soaked through why are we all dry suddenly? You're dry too you know, so I think you're just imagining things. And Mrs. Kerr is our math teacher. Are you feeling ok, PJ?" Grover looked really scared now.

"No Grover, I don't feel ok at all."

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All types of reviews welcome.

And just fyi, I'm hoping to update this story every Thursday.

Always,

Misha