Luke POV

"Okay. I get it, Algerbra sucks, but how the hell do you accidently Vaporize a teacher?" Nico glanced at Percy, who shrugged. "The same way you get

turned into a flower by Persephone." He responded. "You dug up her garden or something?" Nico asked.

"Knowing Percy, this will involve a stupid plan which ends up working after almost or killing someone." Thaila Pointed out.

Look I didn't want to be a half blood.

"Name someone who does?" I thought to myself. Everyone looked at me, "Oh...I should mention. No thoughts

are private. Just untill it get's creepy or someone is a heavy curser. Sorry guys. Not even mine..And thats scary." Star added cheerfully. "Oh joy."

Annabeth muttered.

If your reading this because you think you might be one my advice is:

"No!" Thalia, Annabeth, Nico, and Rachel yelled. "No offence, but your advice kind of sucks..." Rachel said, the rest agreed.

"You guys suck." Percy...pouted? Strange.. "You're strange Luke!" Percy protested. Oh yeah. The thought thing. Opps. Hehe.

Close the book right now. Believe whatever lie you mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.

"Wouldn't work. It might hold the monstes off for a while, but..." Annabeth pointed out.

Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.

"Exibit A" I said refering to myself.

If you're a normal kid and think all this is fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if something is 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.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

"Hmm...I think Ke$ha said that in a song. Yeah, she did. It was all, 'I loved you, I warned you RAH!'" Star laughed. "Are you always this..Um..Annoying?" Thalia asked. "Yeah..I think so." She nodded.

"My name is Percy Jackson."

"Hey if you have a kid named Michael, he'd be Michael Jackson. Hahaha." Star said. "No comment." Percy said.

"That was technically a comment." Annabeth said.

"Oh you know what I mean." Percy chuckled.

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.

Am I a troubled kid?

"Yes." everyone, except me said. Hey, I don't know the guy. "Cuz' you tried to kill me everytime we meet." Percy said.

Yeah. You could say that.

"Ha. I love how you even admit it." Thalia chuckled.

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 mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.

"That sounds like fun" Annabeth said.

"Yeah...Fun..." Percy srunk in his seat.

I know—it sounds like torture

"Really Percy?" Annabeth sighed. "hehe. Yeah." He said.

Most Yancy field trips were.

But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.

Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair.

Brunner..Isn't that what Percy had first called Chiron?

"Yep."

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.

"Well...I suppose thats good..Kind of.." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.

Boy, was I wrong.

"Oh thats ne-" "Shut up Thalia."

See, bad things happen to me on field trips. 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.

"Okay..Now Im curious. How the Hades do you accidently fire a War cannon?" I questioned Percy. "Well I was

curious what wou-" He started but was cut off by Annabeth. "Star. Just read."

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.

"That sounds...Dangerous..." Star giggled.

And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.

"Aw I wanted to hear more." Nico whined.

This trip, I was determined to be good.

"Percy and Good don't belong in the same sentance. Especially if they are talking about behavior." Rachel grinned.

All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover

"I'll kill her!" Thalia yelled. Just about everyone who knew Grover looked pissed.

in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

"Thats really gross. Who would eat that? Whats next, Broccoli and pudding?" Annabeth wrinkled her nose.

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.

"Wow. That was the most flattering discription. Ever." Nico laughed.

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. 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.

"But school enchiladas are usually nasty." Star pointed out. And I agreed, little smushed up things in plastic bags. Percy shrugged, "He eats tin cans...So yeah. In my oppinion thats a step up." True. Very true.

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

"I don't think thats legal..."

by in-school suspension

"Oh. That might be legal"

if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.

"That sounds boring.." I pointed out. "Oh trust me. If this covers Percy's thoughts...It probably won't be." Annabeth laughed.

"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.

Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."

"You would say that!" Nico laughed. "You know he's not here right Nico?" Thalia asked. "Well duh. But still, he

would say that."

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."

Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.

"First, you would deck a girl? Second why not? Third you sound dramatic right there." Star said.

"Well first I never would really hit a girl, but we are not sure if she even is a girl. Second, not enough time. Third, I know right?" Percy said,

In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.

"Draaaa-matic." I singed in my head.

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.

"Probably longer.." I said.

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.

"Worst mental image ever. I keep picturing Ares as a old hag." Rachel laughed.

She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.

From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. 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.

"The suck-ish part is, she still does the whole 'honey' thing." Nico sighed.

One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."

"Ha. My uncle sent me a sweater for Christmas. Your's sent a bloodthirsty killer." Star laughed.

Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.

Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"

It came out louder than I meant it to.

"Good. I hope everyone heard it." Thalia glared.

The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.

"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"

My face was totally red.

"Your face is always red. Red when you first kissed Annabeth, red when people find something out, red when someone says something you know is true..."

Star said. Woah...Did she say kissed Annabeth? How much did I miss. "Hey! Must I remind you, she kissed me." Percy pointed out. Annabeth laughed and

rolled her eyes.

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?"

"I wonder how he ate them... 'Oh, I'd like a Hades sandwhich with a side of Poseidon. Go light on the Zeus though...Im watching my Calories.'" Star rolled

her eyes. "I believe he just picked em' up and threw them in his mouth..." Nico said.

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.

"And he did this because ..."

"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,

"Fail." Thalia said.

and—"

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Ha he called you out." Rachel laughed.

"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.

And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"

"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.

"That is really gross..." Thalia said.

"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."

"You turned like the biggest war ever into a three second sentance." I chuckled.

Some snickers from the group.

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 hate to agree with her...But yeah. For humans its like 'wtf do I need this for?" Star said.

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted!" Nico laughed.

"Busted," Grover muttered.

"You guys would make a cute couple.." A voice said from behind us. We spun around quickly. "My son would never! Shut up Aphrodite!" A voice I reconized

as Hades hissed. "Omigods! Its the Gods." Star yelled. Sure enough it was them, Apollo, Ares, Aphrodite, Athena, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Artemis,

Demeter, Hera, Dionysus, Hermes, and Hephestus. And..Chiron? Oh well. "We wanted to see this." Zeus glared pointedly at me. Hermes stared at me.

Most of them were looking at me, except Mr.D who was flipping through a Wine magazine. "Well..Fine. But let me warn Poseidon. Percy is always

centimeters from death. Just so you know." Star pointed out. And for the first time the gods turned to her. "Who is the Human?" Zeus asked annoyed.

"One of my employees." Hades shrugged. "The human has a name. Starryluv, but you may call me Star. And I am here the whole time." She nodded her

head. "I luv your name! Well not really. But I love, the luv part! Its sooo cute!" Aphrodite squealed. "What the.." Star asked. Ares and Hephestus made

crazy sighns near their heads. "Come on lets read. I don't have all day." Athena sighed.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.

At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.

"Actually Horse ears.." Apollo pointed out.

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, 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.

"Yeah. It sucked too. He would purposefully eat spicey foods in attempt to burn us." Poseidon shuddered.

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,

"Well then." Hades raised an eyebrow.

it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

"Did he say Mrs. Dodds?" Hades thought. I guess nobody told him about the thought thing. Percy and Annabeth

started randomly giggling.

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.

"When don't they?" Artemis asked.

"Umm...I can try a Haiku on that.." Apollo suggested.

Everyone groaned.

"Read faster! Please." Zeus said.

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

"Maybee..."

and had seen everything.

"I wouldn't say everything..." Thalia said.

"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 wish Chiron would push Percy down stairs..." Hades thought. "Hades!" Poseidon yelled. Percy looked horrified. Everyone else was giggling.

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!'"

"Oh my us! They are talking about Aphrodite!" Apollo whispered to Hermes.

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.

But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder 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.

"Might have been" Artemis said frowning.

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,

Everyone glanced at Zeus.

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.

"Anger issues." Percy mouthed to Nico.

Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers.

"How dare they! I ought to-" Artemis yelled looking outraged. "Come on sis, it's just pigeons! They are soooo annoying. They probaby didn't mind

anyway!" Apollo said. "Stop calling me sis you moron." She gritted her teeth.

Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse,

Hermes perked up, "Anything good?"

and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.

"Of course she wasn't" Percy agreed with himself.

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."

"HaHAHAHAH!...We know." Nico said. Thalia laughed while Percy rolled his eyes.

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?"

"No! Mine!" Star yelled. Everyone stopped to stare at her.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Umm...Can you be silent?" Mr. D grumbled.

"Come at me bro!" She responded.

"Lets continue reading before the human kills us all with annoying-ness." Zeus said.

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,

Poseidon smiled slightly.

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. 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.

"Lucky Sally." Hera said glaring at Hephestus.

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.

"That stupid little b-" Thalia was cut off by a glare from Zeus.

"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.

"Nobody is that ugly!...Is she?" Aphrodite winced.

Percy nodded.

I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.

"And the Fish Powers start..." Rachel trailed off.

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.

"I warned her about that! Its waaaay too suspicious but nooo." Hades said.

Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"

"—the water—"

"—like it grabbed her—"

"That does sound kind of cool." I said. Everyone looked at me like they forgot I existed.

I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.

Poseidon groaned.

As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy

"Eww."

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. "Now, honey—"

"Honey is too fattening." Aphrodite shuddered.

"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."

That wasn't the right thing to say.

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.

"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."

"Aww. Hahaha." Thalia laughed.

I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.

"Don't blame him." Annabeth sighed, "She scared me too."

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.

"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."

Nancy Bobofit smirked.

"With her messed up teeth..."

I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.

"Oooh Supah Scareh." Apollo thought. "Mines is better." Ares thought.

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?

I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something,

"I warned Alecto about them drugs..." Nico trailed off. Leaving us all to wonder if he was joking. "Note to self, Drug test all employee's" Hades thought.

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.

"Pssht. More like the mist." Thalia said.

I wasn't so sure.

I went after Mrs. Dodds.

"Hades your moron. He was freakn' twelve!" Poseidon thought a hint of anger cutting his mind tone. "Hey, why don't we just speak outloud?" Star blabbed.

"Oh so now im blabbing? Screw you Bleach blond bastard!" She yelled half hearted. I havn't known her for long, but I could tell she was the kind of person

you listened to only if you were bored. Several people chuckled. "I resent that.."

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 Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.

"In my defense that book was very good." Chiron said. "Which one?" Athena asked. "And before we end up in a book talk lets keep moving.." Star said. We

mostly agreed.

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.

"No she's gonna molest you in a dark alley way." Star said sarcasticly. "Puh-leeze! If I was going to be molested in a dark alley way, it better be by

someone better looking than that." Percy frowned. "How about Rocky? He looks like your dad when you tried to make a statue.." She suggested. "Ew. Just

no. I deserve to be molested by someone better." He nodded his head. "Are you guys really arguing over...?" I trailed off.

But apparently that wasn't the plan.

"Mother fu-" Poseidon started but was cut off by Zeus. "Foolish human, perhaps you should get rid of this thought thing?" The god king suggested.

"Perhaps you are correct." She mocked his proper tone. And with a snap of her fingers the only voice I could hear in my head was my own.

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.

"Hah! I knew it..." Star grumbled.

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.

Everyone threw glances at Hades. "It's not like I trained her to act like that or anything..."

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...

"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.

"Please tell me you did the safe thing?" Hermes begged. I still couldn't look at him.

I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."

Percy and Hermes laughed. And I couldn't help the pang of anger that struck me. Hermes never even..

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.

"Hades...If that thing..." Poseidon let his threat be known.

She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.

Everyone raised an eyebrow at Percy.

"I was twelve I had no clue math teachers wanted to kill me.." He tried defending himself.

I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."

Thunder shook the building.

"Whoops." Zeus shrugged.

"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.

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.

"Seriously? With a murderous math teacher looming in your face all you can think of is your illegal candy stash?" I laughed.

"Once again..Twelve...Demon Teachers..." Percy grumbled.

Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet 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.

Athena looked horrified. And for a second I thanked anyone we couldn't hear her thoughts.

"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. 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.

"Oh she sounds gow-Jus!" Star said sarcasticly.

"Are you frikin' deaf you weirdo? She sounds hideous! But I wouldn't expect you to know that with your silly fake highlights." Aphrodite huffed.

That suprised us all. Not the Aphrodite not knowing sarcasm part (That was obvious) but the fact she was actually mean to someone who didn't insult her ridiculous high heels.

We all whipped our heads towards Star who shrugged, "She still won't get over me dumping my boyfriend around Valentine's day."

That explained it. "Hpph." Aphrodite inspected her flawless nails.

Then things got even stranger.

"Just out of curious habits, how can that get stranger?" I asked.

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.

"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.

"Hey! You shouldn't call Aphrodite Chiron. She might be getting a manucure." Star grumbled low enough for the goddess not to hear.

Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.

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.

"Hehehe."

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.

"Slice her man!" Ares yelled. "We thought you hated sea spawn?" Athena asked. "That's different. Only I get to

kill him!" Ares covered up.

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.

"Violent Men. What a shock." Artemis rolled her eyes.

The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!

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.

"Tell me about it." Nico compained.

I was alone.

There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.

"HAHAHAHHAHA. That makes you sound soooo freaking crazy." Star giggled.

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

"Drugs are not good kid. They can kill your kind. But if your a god like me you can get messed the hell up!" Apollo whispered to us. Apollo a drugie? Might

explain why he's so happy all the time. "Shut up Apollo. You know you have never even seen a 'drug' before. And your idea of getting 'messed up' is when

you fall and skin your knee." Artemis snorted. "Aw. You ruin everything." Apollo sighed.

Had I imagined the whole thing?

I went back outside.

It had started to rain.

"Looks like you need a...UMBRELLA ELLA ELLA EH EH EH-" Star started but was quickly silenced by several people with piercing glares.

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."

"What?...Who?" Thalia asked.

I said, "Who?"

"Thalia. Don't think like a boy." Artemis sighed to a horrified Thalia. "Was I really that ba-" Percy didn't get to finish because of everyone bombarding him

with "YES"'s.

"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.

"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."

"Ooooh he's good." Star pointed out.

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?"

Star slammed the book shut. "That is the end of the chapter. Im tired. So im just gonna go for now. You guys do whatever I guess." she disapeared with a

purple star fading slowly as she vanished. "She is waaaay too Dramatic." Zeus said. "Remind you of anyone Brother?" Poseidon asked. "Hades? Yeah he's

a bit dramatic too." Zeus said. Everyone mentally face palmed.

~Chapter Finished.

PHEW. That was long. I didn't mean to intentionally offend anyone with my writing, and If I did leave a review and you will get a sincere sorry. And yes,

the Charectors are supposed to be OOC so before you flame me for that also remember this. And that Star charector, she is like my main personality and

pisses me off too lol. As for Luke, I suck at his personality, because mostly in the book he is a psycopath killer with a urge to murder. So it's a bit difficult

to get a 'Kind' 'smart' 'witty' Charector out of him. But I will do my best to include more of his personality. There definetely wasn't enough in this chapter.

ALSO IM LOOKING FOR A BETA AND A CO-AUTHOR. YOU OR YOUR CHARECTOR WILL BE DISPLAYED

LIKE MINES (STAR) You know kind of like a co-host :D