Our Children the Heroes

For a moment, there was total silence.

"Could you . . . repeat that?" Athena asked Sally.

Sally cleared her throat, trying to hold back her emotions. "Percy Jackson & the Olympians."

"Well, we know it's clearly about us," Artemis said, signaling her fellow Olympians. "But who's this . . . Percy Jackson?"

The gods muttered in agreement.

Dionysus frowned. "Isn't your surname Jackson?" He pointed at Sally.

"Oh, yeah," Apollo said. "Could you two be related?"

"He's-he's my son." Sally said, closing her eyes.

The other fellow parents looked at Sally with curiosity, with the Olympians as well.

Athena cleared her throat. "Well, the Fates did tell us it would be about our children. And I, for one," She gave Sally a suspicious glance. "am curious to see who this Percy Jackson is, and what he has to do with us."

Sally gulped.

Hestia approached Sally and gave her a warm smile. "I'm sure he's a good son, raised by a good mother. We musn't judge until we know more. Am I right?" She looked at the other gods like a mother glaring at her son for misbehaving.

The other gods hesitated, but nodded.

Hestia sat next to Sally and gave her a reassuring smile. "Your son, Percy."

Sally calmed down. "H-his full name is Perseus."

Everyone looked shocked, mortals and immortals alike.

Zeus sat forward. "Why would you make your son be my son's namesake?"

Sally bit her lip. "I know my son's a demigod."

No surprise there.

"That still doesn't explain why you gave him that name." Artemis said.

"Who's his godly parent?" Hermes asked.

"Why is your son on the book?" Hera asked.

"Why is he so important?" Athena asked.

All these questions were overwhelming her, causing her to hyperventilate.

"Enough!" Hestia shouted.

The Olympians quieted down.

"She is only a mortal," Hestia said. "She does not know all the answers. None of us do. That's why we are here. To learn of the future. Leave the poor mother alone."

She looked at Sally apologetically. "Excuse them. They are so full of themselves, they tend to forget to be humble and tactful at times."

"Hey!" some of the gods protested.

Sally breathed deeply. "Thank you, Lady Hestia."

Hestia tilted her head. "You know of me?"

"Of course. I know Greek mythology. You're one of my favorite goddesses."

Hestia's aura glowed brighter at that compliment. "Why, thank you! I rarely ever get noticed, much less being favored!"

Sally smiled and looked down at the book. Do these pages really tell the life of her little boy? The book she was holding was really thick. She hoped it was one of those books where the main protagonist's life would be told, his hardships, his love, but in the end it all ended with him watching his grandchildren play in a backyard or something. She really hoped it was that kind of story. But this wasn't a real story. This was real life, to happen in the future.

Hestia saw the worried look on her face as she looked at the book. She held out her hand to her. "Would you like me to read first?"

Sally looked at her. "Oh, no. This is my son's life we're reading about. I have to know. I have to know he's okay. My poor baby . . ." Her eyes welled with tears.

Hestia decided to sit next to her throughout the reading. "How old is he in your time?"

Sally sniffed. "He just had his first birthday."

Hestia looked at her pitifully. "Whenever you're ready, you may read."

Sally took a shaky breath. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

Some of the fellow mothers looked at her pitifully. Sally purposely avoided the gazes. She hated being pitied.

She opened the book again to the first page.

"Percy Jackson & the Olympians," she read. "The Lightning Thief."

Confused looks at the book title among the mortals. How can you steal lightning?

Zeus was most preoccupied about the title, gripping his master bolt. Could it be that . . .

The Olympians weren't any different, though Athena was frowning deeply. Hmm . . .

"I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher" Sally read, confusion all over her face.

There were mixed reactions at the chapter title.

"Excuse me?" Demeter asked, chuckling.

Apollo, Hermes were laughing their thrones off. Poseidon was laughing lightly, along with a few others.

"How do you accidentally vaporize your pre-algebra teacher?" Frederick asked.

"What is pre-algebra?" Maria asked.

"Oh, right, you're from the 1940s," Frederick said. "Well, algebra is an advanced level of math where-"

"Keep reading!" Ares shouted, bored as Hades.

Sally looked down and kept reading.

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

Athena frowned her eyebrows. "It seems it's in your son's point of view."

Sally nodded sadly. Of course he wouldn't want to be a half-blood. Who would?

The other parents looked down in realization. Is this how our children feel? How they will feel?

That got the Olympians thinking. They'd lost many of their demigod offspring after the war. Mainly Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. In their time (except for Hades, five years earlier than them), 1945, there wasn't a single living half-blood child of either of the three anymore. They all fell, all for going at each other's throats.

It made the Big Three feel . . . well, not so Big.

But of course, in Hades's case, there were still two . . .

Unknown, except for a certain funeral-dressed woman.

"If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life."

"That's somewhat good advice," Athena said. "But it'll only take you so far, if your scent is very strong."

Sally nodded in agreement.

"What I'm still trying to understand," Frederick said, "is what do our children have to do with this?"

"Well, it would help if you let the woman read," Beryl told him.

He glared at her in disapproval. She did have a point though.

"Being a half-blood is dangerous."

Understatement of the century, everyone, everyone, in the room thought.

"It's scary."

Helen got angry, remembering how her children were put at risk thanks to that freak.

"Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways."

Sally flinched at that statement of her son. She hoped he wasn't speaking from experience, watching others like him fall.

"Hey," Paul said. "You okay?"

She looked at him. He was smiling gently, but his eyes were filled with worry.

"I'll be fine," she said. "Thanks, Mr. Blofis."

"Call me Paul." He grinned at her.

"Okay. Thanks, Paul. I'll keep reading."

Just so casually, a certain three-pointed spear-a trident-started glowing dangerously bright, which, just so casually, belonged to a certain god of the sea.

Amphitrite frowned at him. "What's with you?"

Poseidon looked at her. "Oh, uh-nothing."

He let go of his trident and put it on the pedestal he'd made for it in his temporary throne.

"If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened."

"It's like this book was written for normal people," Garriet Underwood said. "For mortals."

"Well, I guess that'll save me a lot of questions." Paul laughed.

"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."

"Who's they?" Paul Blofis asked.

"Monsters," Athena informed the mortal.

Paul gulped. First gods, he thought, now monsters. Okay. Why not?

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

The mortals could only suppose the child meant others like him. Half-bloods.

"My name is Percy Jackson."

Sally breathed deeply. Playing with her son, feeding him, changing his diapers, was one thing. But reading his future thoughts? She doubted any single mothers group could give her advice about that.

"I'm twelve years old."

"Oh, gods." Sally said. He's still just a kid. Please let him be alright.

"Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York."

Boarding student? I choose to send him off to a boarding school? Sally thought. Would he be safer there? And why a private school for troubled kids?

Helen looked at Frederick. "You see? We could do that with Annabeth too. Less risky."

Frederick looked at her. "We'll talk about it later."

Helen huffed, but kept quiet.

Athena, who was watching the interaction between the mortal couple, said nothing. She continued eyeing them, while listening to the story.

"Am I a troubled kid?"

Please don't be, please don't be, please don't be, Sally thought.

"Yeah. You could say that."

Sally cursed. Then she covered her mouth shyly. "Excuse my French." she said, her cheeks red.

Poseidon's heart fluttered at seeing her face. He didn't know why, but he was suddenly captivated by the mortal woman, loving the way she swiped her hair from her face, how she stiffly put her arms on her lap, and her beautiful sea-blue eyes. Especially those eyes. They reminded him of his domain.

Unknown to him, another man who's name also happened to start with P was also captivated by her.

Amphitrite, who saw Poseidon's dreamy look at the mortal, growled in irritation and smacked his husband.

Unknown to either of them, Aphrodite giggled maliciously. Love is in the air, she thought giddily.

Hermes smirked. "I'm liking his sarcasm."

Apollo laughed. "Yeah."

Artemis glared at him. "That's not a trait worth praising."

"Are you kidding? Sarcasm is the best! It's like the nicest way you can insult someone! It's perfect!"

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Continue reading, Sally."

"I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it,"

Sally's heart clenched painfully at that statement, along with her throat, trying to choke back a sob.

Seeing her so heartbroken, Poseidon looked down sadly too. He loved seeing that face but not sad. He didn't know why, but he was also starting to focus on the child they were reading about.

"but things really started going bad last May,"

"Wait," Athena said. "What year did you say you were from, Sally?"

"1994." Sally said.

"And in the story, your son's already twelve?"

"Yes, that's what he said."

"Then that means the story takes place in the year 2005." Athena said.

"My year," Beryl said.

Some of the listeners sat straight, curiosity already shining bright now that they had a specific time.

"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."

All the gods smiled at "ancient Greek and Roman stuff."

"That sounds exciting," Athena and Frederick said.

They both looked at each other, and looked away, a little forcefully.

Helen glared at the wisdom goddess in jealousy.

"So he's on a field trip," Sally said. "Okay. Nothing to worry about."

"I know—it sounds like torture."

Almost all of them laughed, except Athena, who huffed, and Frederick, who frowned.

Sally smiled warmly. She was only reading about him in eleven years, but she already loved him even more.

Poseidon didn't know why, but he was starting to warm up to the kid.

"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. 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."

The gods looked at each other. That sounded awfully like Chiron, even though this was fifty or so years from the future.

"He sounds cool. Maybe I want to be that kind of teacher." Paul thought aloud.

"You want to be a teacher?" Frederick asked.

"Yes. I just received my diploma. I've already caught the eye of a couple of schools. I'll be an English teacher. You?"

"I'm a professor. I teach American history. Although, I don't approve of jokes and games. School should be taken seriously."

Paul arched his eyebrows. "I don't disagree with that. Schoolwork should be taken seriously, of course, but it's not wrong to have fun once in a while. Otherwise, how will the youngsters stay interested in the class?" Paul said.

Frederick frowned, but didn't say anything.

"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."

"He sleeps in class!?" Frederick and Athena protested.

"He has Roman armor and weapons?" Maria asked.

"He smells like coffee?" Beryl said, her eyes half closed.

Sally smiled. "Oh, Percy." she said half sternly, half fondly.

"You approve of his behavior?" Athena demanded.

"Of course not." Sally said. "But it reassures me that he's a kid. He makes mistakes, he's immature, just like all of them. He's not nervous. He's not gloomy. He's not paranoid. He's not looking over his shoulder, afraid that a monster will come and try to kill him any moment. That's a huge relief. Now I know that his beginning in life won't be bittered and full of pain from being a half-blood, at least the majority of the time. You have no idea how relieved I am that he will have a chance to enjoy his life, not just fight for it."

She crossed her arms. "I thought that you," she looked at Athena passively, unimpressed. "would understand that, being the wisdom goddess."

Stunned silence. Keyword stunned: never in their immortal life, had Athena, the goddess of wisdom, lost a debate.

Athena was just sitting in her throat, her jaw dropped.

Apollo had his hand over his mouth.

Hermes was biting his knuckle, using all his godly willpower not to bust out laughing.

Poseidon didn't even try. If he had been at the bottom of the sea right now, his laugh would've been heard all the way to Mount Olympus.

After Poseidon took it out, the rest couldn't help it.

The other goddesses were trying not to smile, failing miserably.

The male gods were laughing their immortality off. Ares was pounding the arm of his throne.

"No, no, no-AH HA HA HA HA!" Hermes put his hand to his forehead, crying in laughter.

Zeus coughed. "Huh-well, I say we-we continue-hmm."

Athena looked at her father in shock. Even he was mocking her.

Athena, the goddess of wisdom, the outsmarter, was outsmarted.

Athena turned to Sally Jackson sharply and was about to respond, but then Elm Underwood stepped up.

"Seems to me that no one knows everything," Elm said, backing up Sally. "Not even the goddess of wisdom."

Athena's cheeks burned gold in fury. Her eyes dilated like a snake about to strike.

"Oh well. I guess no one is perfect." Maria said, checking her nails.

The gods continued laughing. Athena shook with fury, and had half a mind to blow all the women who'd insulted her to smithereens.

"Not even the gods." Beryl added that last part, smirking maliciously.

That shut the rest of the gods up.

They reluctantly stopped laughing and glared at the mortals, particularly Beryl.

"Keep reading," Zeus said coldly.

Sally did, but not without smiling gratefully at her fellow women. They smiled at her in return.

"Hey," Paul said.

Sally looked at him.

"That was pretty damn brave, standing up to her," Paul smirked, complimenting her. "I thought for a moment she'd go all Old Testament God on us like Jehova and vaporize us."

Sally blushed. "Oh, it was nothing. I was just defending my son. Any mother would've done that."

"I don't know," Helen crossed her arms. "Maybe just let her insult him, so she doesn't, oh, I don't know, blow us up?"

Sally stared at her for a moment, then looked back at Paul. "I take that back. Any good mother would've done that."

"Yeah," Paul said, chuckling. "And besides," he looked at Helen. "Her son's just a kid. You're telling me that if someone is abusing your children, in any way, when they're still young, you're just gonna let it happen, so you don't suffer any consequences?"

Helen looked near as death-glaring as Athena. Before she could open her mouth though, her husband beat her to it.

"Let's all calm down. Sally, please excuse Helen. Would you please continue?"

"Sure." Sally looked at Helen, frowning. "But I'm still expecting an apology."

Helen was beyond indignant. To say that her husband didn't even try to defend her, and that she owes an apology? Hmph!

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

That melted Sally's smile right off her face. "Oh, no."

"Boy, was I wrong."

Sally breathed deeply.

Some of the other mothers felt pity towards her. The males weren't feeling any better.

She kept ignoring them.

"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."

Stunned silence for a moment.

Then everyone busted out laughing.

"Seriously?" said Artemis, not laughing, but highly amused.

Hermes and Apollo began laughing again. Ares was grinning from the violence, Aphrodite, Demeter, Hera, and the other female goddesses were giggling under their sleeve. Zeus had the tiniest hint of a smile, Hades was grinning, and Poseidon was laughing too.

Sally didn't know how to react to that. Part of her wanted to laugh, part of her wanted to lecture future Percy. She stayed quiet, with a small smile.

Paul didn't approve either, but that didn't stop him from laughing. Frederick was frowning all the way through the paragraph though. Darn right he was expelled. The kid sounded like quite a troublemaker.

"Revolutionary War?" Maria asked. She was from the 1940s, after that problem, but she didn't know much about American history.

"It began in 1775 and ended in 1783," Frederick answered, relieved to talk about a subject he knew about. "Also referred to as the American War of Independence."

Maria nodded in understandment.

"She was always like that." Beryl muttered. "Always getting expelled. Always having to find her a new school, the little troublemaker."

The other parents looked at her with curiosity.

"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."

The room burst with laughter again.

"I hope this kid is my son!" Hermes cried.

"Me too!" Apollo said.

"Eh . . ." Dionysus said.

Sally sighed. She really wasn't looking forward to the future.

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

"Nooo," Hermes said. "Tell us more!"

"Oh, gods." Sally sighed. "Percy."

"This trip, I was determined to be good."

That sentence made Sally smile. Regardless of the trouble he'd experience, she knew she'd raise him to be humble and try to mind his manners.

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

Elm gasped. "Grover!?"

The others looked at her. She had her hands over her mouth, staring at the book in shock.

"You know him?" Sally asked.

"He-he's our son." Garriet, one of the satyrs, said, clutching his reed pipes.

"My little satyr," Elm said.

"Oh, dear." Ferdinand sighed. "That note wasn't kidding."

The other parents looked at each other. Were their children going to show up somewhere in the story? How?

Maria shook her head. "All of our children? No. Impossible. My children-my dear Nico and my sweet Bianca-we are from the past. My children couldn't possibly be in the twenty-first century. Most likely they'll be mentioned, or they'll be old demigods by then."

Beryl shrugged. "No idea where is or what happened to my daughter. Nor care."

Helen looked at her. "Your daughter doesn't live with you?"

"Nope. She ran off years ago. She left me. She can disappear off the face of the earth for all I care, the little brat."

The other mothers gasped.

"How could you say that?" Sally and Elm shouted. "That's your daughter you're talking about!"

"Yeah, I'm her mother," she hissed. "I'm not gonna stick for her. She didn't stick for me, or stayed, for that matter. Judge for all I'm worth, but she left me first."

The other mothers, indignant beyond comparison, were about to respond, but Zeus slammed his master bolt on the floor. "Enough!"

Everyone looked at him.

"You can settle your differences later," Zeus said. "Continue reading, Sally Jackson."

Sally, still miffed from Beryl, kept reading.

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

"What?" Elm said, even more angry. "That girl is bullying my little satyr?!"

Garriet frowned.

"Grover was an easy target."

The parents huffed and glared at Sally, who started getting uncomfortable. It wasn't her fault her son thought that.

"He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated."

Elm looked down in sadness. "He's so insecure." she said to her husband.

Garriet didn't respond. He was thinking of his son, the one he left on the hill, looking so sad, so devastated, seeing his father for probably the last time.

An unbearable guilt was growing inside him. Maybe he should've stayed, raising his son into a full-grown, proud satyr.

"Please, keep reading, Miss Jackson," Garriet said.

Sally looked at the couple sympathetically, and continued.

"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."

"Ha, yeah right." Dionysus said.

Ferdinand stroked his beard. "Judging by that description, he's probably in his middle or late twenties."

Aside from the gods, his brother, and his sister-in-law, everyone looked at him perplexed, but said nothing.

"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."

Garriet and Ferdinand chuckled.

"Good cover, my boy." Ferdinand said.

"He's a keeper." Garriet said, pride now in his voice.

Elm was starting to understand Sally. The future worry for her son.

The other people, who didn't know exactly the truth, felt sorry for Grover. And they couldn't understand how Grover's family-his father, his mother, and his uncle-were being so inconsiderate and ignoring the state of their son/nephew. As if it was a completely unimportant subject not worthy of acknowleging.

They did say they were satyrs, but no one other than Sally knew what satyrs were. They assumed it was just something related to the gods, like half-bloods. Aside from Elm, who looked greenish, and had elfish features, they looked exactly like them.

That is because both Garriet and Ferdinand were faking to pass as humans, considering that they were about to leave for the search of Pan. They were wearing jeans and climbing boots, and hats to cover their horns.

They didn't know. It was always misinformation that led to jumping to conclusions.

"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."

The satyr brothers laughed, while Elm groaned.

"What?" Paul asked.

"He inherited the Underwood tastes," Garriet said, smirking.

"Ah, yes." Ferdinand said. "A true Underwood loves enchiladas."

"He's always asking me to make enchiladas for dinner," Elm groaned.

The others laughed.

"Way to blow your cover," Dionysus muttered.

"Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair,"

Elm dug her nails into the palms of her hands. Garriet and Ferdinand had a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"That's disgusting!" Hera said.

"Not the hair!" Aphrodite said, covering hers as if any moment someone would throw her flying peanut butter sandwiches.

"and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation."

"What did he do?" Hermes asked casually, like 'What's your favorite TV show?'

"Nothing I want to know just now," Sally said.

"The headmaster had threatened me with death-"

"What?!" most people shouted.

Paul and Frederick looked beyond shocked. What kind of member of an educational system would do that?

Sally tried to calm them down. "Let me finish first!" she shouted.

She looked down and kept reading.

"by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip."

"Ohhh," most people said.

Frederick and Paul calmed down after hearing the rest.

"But still," Paul said. "They're sixth-graders. Why would the headmaster blame only him if any of those things happened?"

"Probably out of gaining a bad reputation," Frederick said. "Misbehaving, insulting the teachers, getting in trouble with the other students, not doing his homework-"

"We get it, brainiac," Hermes said. "Shut up already."

Frederick wanted to argue, but he didn't want to get on a god's bad side.

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

"Yes, please do," Ares said. "I'm bored."

"Oh, wow," Hermes said. "Everyone, listen up! News of the century! Ares is bored!"

The room filled with laughter.

Ares took out a dagger. "I am gonna shove this dagger up your-"

"Ares!" Hera said. "Language?"

"Why? We're all adults here!"

"Behave!"

Ares grumbled, but stayed in his seat.

Most of the mortals were looking at each other in confusion. The gods, the all-powerful Olympians didn't seem to be what they expected them to be. In fact, Ares seemed more immature than the mortals, and he has lived a hundred times more than them. That didn't set up quite a good image.

"Grover tried to calm me down."

"Oh, good." Elm said. "So they're friends."

Elm smiled at Sally, who smiled back.

"It's okay. I like peanut butter."

"In your hair?" Aphrodite demanded, disgusted.

He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch."

Elm's cheeks were turning greener, getting angrier.

"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat."

"Don't," Sally said, hoping Percy wouldn't get in any much danger.

"Do it!" Ares yelled, exasperated at the lack of action. What's the use of having fists if you're not gonna use them?

"I'm glad your son's protective of mine," Garriet told Sally. "But he shouldn't get in trouble himself. Bullies just aren't worth it. Especially mortal bullies."

Sally agreed with him. Others (cough, Ares, cough) was groaning at the "sissy advice" and "backing down."

"You've already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."

Sally winced at that. Poseidon felt sorry for her.

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

Ares grinned. Exactly! So why hold back?

Sally shook her head disapprovingly.

Elm and Garriet slightly wished he'd done it.

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

Sally gulped. "Oh gods."

"Yes?" Apollo said tauntingly.

"Quit teasing," Artemis reprimanded. "Can't you see she's worried for her son? Honestly, you men, driving women crazy all the time . . ."

You can see where the argument was going. Before it went there though, Sally continued.

"Mr. Brunner led the museum tour."

The gods were still suspecting that was secretly Chiron. He's never really changed over the centuries. Never have them, now that they think about it.

"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."

Sally continued reading, her voice neutral. Garriet and Elm were immediately more interested in the story the moment their son showed up, the Chase couple talking among each other every now and then (what was Frederick's wife insisting him about so much? wondered Sally) Maria, the woman from the middle of the twentieth century, with her long hat and sunglasses, with a black dress (was she off to a funeral back in 1945?), her expression unreadable, Beryl Grace (she was still annoyed at that woman of her poor parenting) looking at her, her expression bored, with the occasional glare towards Zeus.

Paul, looking at her smiling warmly, and all the other gods seeing and listening her read. (Although she looked down at the book the moment she realized Poseidon was looking at her with a familiar, lovestruck light in his eyes. She tried to hold down her feelings for him-

The last thing they needed was to give Percy a full-blood little brother. The thought of that made her cheeks burn red, though she wasn't disliking the little daydream inside her head.

She snapped out of it. and looked over at the woman who had said absolutely nothing after introducing herself.

May Castellan.

She herself was looking at her with deep curiosity. She had clear blue eyes, and long, flowing golden hair. She had a sundress even. When Sally noticed her watching, she blushed and quickly looked anywhere else.

There was almost nothing in common between the two women.

Except their two only children.

Sally expected that she'd have no problems with any of the mothers. Well, except maybe Beryl. But she was sure that she'd have no problems with May.

Oh, how wrong she would be.

"It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years."

Athena smiled. "Longer."

"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."

"That's sad." May said quietly. Unfortunately, no one was talking, so they all heard her.

"Why? It happened a long time ago. Nothing to do with us." Beryl told her.

"So? Maybe not us, but it had to do with someone. Maybe her own parents. Isn't that sad enough?"

"Nope." She focused on the book again.

"No one?" she asked the other parents. They avoided her gaze.

"I think it's sad." Sally told her.

May looked at her. She smiled at her appreciatively. "Thanks."

They thought they would be good friends.

Unfortunately, the relationship of both of their respective sons' would soon ruin that.

Hermes, Poseidon, and Paul were looking at them dumbfounded. She's something else, they thought.

"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,"

Sally smiled. She was glad her son was curious and interested about learning, if not even a little.

"-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."

Paul frowned. "Shouldn't she be the one telling the other kids to be quiet? She's the chaperone! She's looking down on Percy for doing her job better than her."

"Hey, yeah!" Hermes said. "That's not fair!"

"Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old."

Dr. Chase raised an eyebrow. That's an . . . interesting look, for a teacher.

"She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker."

"What's a Harley?" Maria asked.

"It's a brand of motorcycles," Surprisingly Beryl answered her. "Mostly, it was the 'bad boys' and all those punks like my daughter that would ride them."

Maria nodded, although she was still a bit confused. Punks?

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

Sally frowned. She wasn't liking this "Mrs. Dodds" but not for normal parent reasons. It was never for normal parent reasons.

"Nervous breakdown?" Frederick said. "None of my colleagues or me have experienced that. And we teach college kids."

Some laughed at that, which surprised Frederick. So he could be funny at times (Even though he meant that last part a hundred percent serious.)

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

Hermes glanced at Hades. "She yours?" he asked.

He growled. "How should I know?! This is the future, Delivery Boy!"

Hermes's eye twitched. "Watcha call me, Gloom Head?"

Hades hovered his helm over his head an inch threatingly. "Exactly what you heard, fool!"

Hermes summoned his caduceus. "Then why don't ya say it to my face, Corpse Breath?!"

"Enough!" Zeus commanded.

The two gods looked at him. He motioned over to the mortals.

They glanced at them.

They were watching with sick horror. Both Hermes and Hades were emitting an aura so strong, it was starting to affect them physically. They were mortals after all. They were starting to resemble Elm the dryad.

The two gods glared at each other, but sat back down, thus, the powerful aura vanishing.

The atmosphere among the immortals was dangerous to the point of toxic, among the mortals. Demigods had a higher resistance to their auras, being half-gods themselves, but mortals had no defenses against them.

But it was more than that. The other gods were glaring hatefully at Hades. And even he knew why. It was still among fresh memory that Hades's demigod children had been on the Nazi side. Hell, one of his sons had been the leader of them. Poor Adolf, Hades thought. His mind was corrupted by power. He lost his way.

Adolf Hitler had been a good leader in the beginning. Keyword: In the Beginning. He wanted the best for his people, to tear down what oppressed them, until he became the oppressor. He had been an excellent politician, an awful dictator, and even worse, a terrible war tactician. The United States wanted to kill Adolf Hitler so badly, but because of his inability to form good battle plans, they were able to win the war.

But unknown to the mortals, Adolf Hitler counted on his power from being a son of Hades. He overestimated the power of Hades, and underestimated that of the children of Zeus and Poseidon among enemy lines.

All of that was in the past now. But that still did not make the Olympians glad to see Hades. And likewise.

The mortals kept their eyes on them, still looking a little sick, until Dionysus said, "We promise not to vaporize you, so keep reading!"

Hesitantly, they went back to the book.

The gods, without a doubt, the most chaotic, temperamental, easily-offended, family in ever! Well, they have been here since ever . . .

Sally cleared her throat, and continued where she left off.

"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."

"Harsh!" several gods shouted, and they'd never been to school.

Paul was beyond flabbergasted. The nerve of this teacher! He knew he shouldn't be judging other teachers' methods, but he couldn't help it. A month? What had he even done?

Sally was thinking among the same things.

Dr. Chase, however, was unimpressed. He'd given worse punishments for students not writing their names in their papers.

"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."

Sally's eyes squinted at that sentence. She knew his son was kidding, but maybe . . .

"That's horrible!" May said. "Can a teacher really do that?"

Maria looked at her, frowning. "Really? I thought she was being generous."

May looked at her, shocked, until she remembered that she was from the 1940s. Of course she would think that. Things were a lot looser for teachers back then.

"He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."

That confirmed her suspicions. Mrs. Dodds was a monster in disguise.

Garriet and Ferdinand whispered to Elm, "Monster."

She nodded in understanding and turned to warn Sally, but when she turned and glanced at her, Sally motioned her lips to her, I know.

Huh. For a mortal, she was good.

Maybe too good. Could she be . . .

She turned and whispered her suspicions to her husband and brother-in-law.

"Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art."

The gods kept looking at each other whenever "Mr. Brunner" popped up.

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

Apollo and Hermes looked at each other and smirked. He's got spunk.

Frederick frowned. This Percy had quite a mouth. If his daughter was involved in this story, he dearly hoped she wasn't friends with that kind of boy. She was quite a handful already. The last thing she needed was being friends with kids like him.

Maria looked quite surprised. In her day, if you answered like that to your teacher, you'd be sent straight back home with your buttocks all sore and red.

May looked disapproving. She hoped her little boy Luke wouldn't have that kind of relationship with his classmates. When he'd grow up, of course.

Wait, she asked. How old is he in this story? Eighteen? Nineteen? Yeah, nineteen. He's ought to be heading for college now. I hope he enters whichever one he wants, May thought with wishful thinking.

Beryl sneered at the memory that frase triggered. "Will you shut up?" she had shouted at her from the other side of the apartment before slamming her room door shut. Right after she would throw the wine bottle at it, breaking it into small shards of glass, only to have her clean it up later.

Percy really reminded her of her own child. And she hated it.

Sally sighed. Percy sure had inherited his father's temper, all right. She unconsciously glanced at Poseidon before focusing on the book again.

Poseidon frowned. Why did she give me that look? The 'I blame you for that' look. What did I do?

Paul was also noticing the attention she was giving the sea god. For some reason, it really bothered him whenever she would give him a quick look, then go back to the book with a small smile on her face.

Yep. It really bothered him.

"It came out louder than I meant it to."

Hermes shook his head. "Of course it did."

Beryl shrugged. "So the kid has a big mouth. What's the big deal?"

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

The gods were curious to see what Chiron's interaction would be to this child. Especially after that kind of incident.

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

The gods and some of the parents chuckled.

Oh, Chiron, Hermes said. You and your ironic statements.

"My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."

Hestia felt a twinge of sympathy for Percy. She could relate to him for not liking to be in the spotlight.

"Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

Dionysus turned to Hermes and Apollo. "Twenty drachmas he gets it wrong."

"Dionysus!" Hera lectured. "You will not place bets on this reading!"

"The hell I can," Dionysus said. "Shut up, you old hag."

"WHAT'D YOU CALL ME?"

Dionysus turned his attention back to the two. "Twenty drachmas the twerp's wrong."

"Why the sudden urge to bet?" Apollo asked.

"I'm bored." Dionysus said.

Hermes grinned. "Don't underestimate the cleverness of youngsters, Diony. Apollo here can tell you from experience."

Apollo's smile melted at the bitter memory and glared at Hermes. When he had been a toddler, he stole Apollo's sacred cows, but escaped his wrath by gifting him the lyre, which he had made.

Nevertheless, that didn't stop Apollo from caressing his lyre very gently, holding it level to his face.

"Do we have a deal?" Dionysus said, not caring.

Hermes grinned. "Deal."

Sally highly objected on betting (especially about her son) but she bit her tongue and continued.

"I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it."

"Ha!" Hermes shouted. "Told ya! Now pay up, Wine Dude!"

Dionysus grumbled, but gave him the cash.

"Ah ah ah!" Apollo said in a soft sing-a-long. "You betted on both of us."

He growled, but gave another twenty drachmas to Apollo.

"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Of course it was that one." Hestia sighed.

The five brothers and sisters all cringed roughly at the sick memories of their youth. They weren't exactly have fond childhood memories.

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because . . ."

"Because he was a paranoid psychotic cannibal?" Demeter said.

Her brothers and sisters nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly.

"But when I hear the words 'paranoid psychotic cannibal'," Poseidon muttered, "He's not the first immortal that comes to my mind."

He looked at Zeus.

Some of the other gods said "Oooo," and "Burn!" (Apollo and Hermes) while the goddesses rolled their eyes by such childish behavior. But Poseidon did have a point though. Zeus had taken a page out of his father once.

To say the least, Athena didn't like being reminded the fate of her mother.

Zeus growled. "Don't cross me, brother."

"I'm not 'crossing you'" Poseidon said. "I'm just telling the truth."

"Argh!"

"Keep reading, Sally," Poseidon winked at her.

Sally turned as red as a tomato, and hid her face behind the book. All she wanted was to avoid the attention of the sea god, only to fail utterly. Her actions, her shyness, was only causing the Lord of the Seas to adore her even more.

Amphitrite glared at Sally, believing that the mortal was doing it on purpose.

Paul's insides were churning painfully. He was looking at the sea god distastefully.

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

"God?!" The gods yelled, indignant.

"KING!?" Zeus yelled, grasping his master bolt.

Sally's body temperature increased. She was extremely glad her baby wasn't here with her right now. She had no idea what they would've done to him right now, and frankly, she didn't even want to imagine.

"It was just a mistake," Hestia said. "I'm sure Ch-I mean, Mr. Brunner-will correct him. Calm down, family."

The gods huffed angrily, but let Sally continue.

Sally sighed, relieved. She hoped her dear baby wouldn't piss the Olympians off even more.

She would hope in vain.

Oh, the poor mother.

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked."

"See?" Hestia said. "No reason to be angry."

"Titan," I corrected myself. "And . . . he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods."

Said brothers and sisters, minus Hestia, stood up straight.

"So, um, Kronos ate them, right?"

Their straight backs loosened as soon as Sally said that.

Without anyone noticing, Hestia smiled at her brothers and sisters, mocking them. This is why you shouldn't have a big head.

"But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead."

"Indeed." Zeus said.

"So either Kronos was really stupid, or Zeus looks like a rock." Hades said, looking off into the distance, feigning deep thinking.

Even though the Olympians really hated Hades, they couldn't help laughing at his joke.

Poseidon approached Hades and gave him a high-five.

Zeus glared at him and Poseidon. "The two of you really want me to unleash my wrath, don't you?"

Poseidon put his hands behind his head. "Oh, calm down, little brother. Can't you stand some teasing?"

Zeus's face turned red. "Call me little brother again, I dare you."

"Little brother."

Zeus unleashed his master bolt, but a force blew the master bolt apart.

Then the voices of the Three Fates sounded from everywhere.

We wouldn't do that, if we were you, Zeus.

If you unleash any power, there is the risk of you killing these mortals

Who are important to the future of the Olympians, you, and Olympus

So calm your temper, all of you, if you want to keep living through more millennia

The voices stopped. The gods were more terrified than the mortals, for a change.

These mortals are a key to our future? the gods looked at them in shock.

Zeus coughed. "W-well, continue, mortal."

Sally nodded, astounded.

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

"Ugh," Demeter cringed at the memory.

"Something which neither of them have shown any gratitude for, even after all these millennia," Zeus said dryly.

"Ha! As if we're gonna be grateful living the first years of our life in a stomach while you were enjoying life on Mount Ida!"

The others agreed. Even Hestia.

Zeus rolled his eyes.

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

"'Eew' is correct, girl," Hera said, her arms crossed.

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

The gods looked flabbergasted.

Athena looked at Sally. "Your son just described one of the most violent wars the world had ever seen, in just a couple of sentences."

Sally smiled. "My Percy is special that way."

"Some snickers from the group."

"Why?" Artemis said. "He got it right."

"Mortals, right?" Hermes said.

"Hey!" some of them objected.

"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.'"

The gods frowned at that. The mean mortal girl was treating them like nothing. They were the Olympians!

"She has a point." Beryl said.

The others looked at her.

"Excuse me?" Hera asked.

"I mean," Beryl said. "I know you were a big deal in Ancient Greece and all that, but what use is it to learn all that stuff now?"

"Our children," Surprisingly, May Castellan responded. She had been quiet so long, some jumped when they heard her voice. "To them, it could be life or death if they don't know their Greek Mythology."

"Yeah, I get that," Beryl said. "But not to us mortals. We don't acknowledge you as real now, even."

The gods's fists clenched, and the goddesses's faces were turning golden.

"Now wait just a minute," Hermes said. "We're the Olympians. Everyone knows us!"

"When was the last time people actually believed in you, though?" Beryl said. "Oh yeah, about five thousand years ago."

"Beryl," Helen hissed. "Do you want to end up vaporized?!"

Beryl didn't care. She just wanted to watch how Zeus and the rest of his oh-all-mighty family's pride got hurt. She believed it was all his fault for ruining her life, leaving her with two children that eventually left her, alone, with nothing.

It's all his fault, Beryl thought as she glared daggers at Zeus and Hera. All their fault.

"It is not wise to challenge us, mortal," said Athena coldly. "We may not be able to hurt you, but there are other ways in which us, the gods, have their revenge." She looked among the rest of the Olympians. "Many ways."

Some of the mortals gulped. But Beryl barely even blinked.

With a shiver, Sally looked down to keep reading.

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

"Nope." Beryl said, popping the P. The gods looked even more furious.

"Busted," Grover muttered.

Even though they were still angry, Hermes and Apollo chuckled.

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

"Like Dionysus at midday?" Poseidon asked.

The Olympians and mortals (even though they were taking a risk laughing at a god) couldn't help with their laughter.

Dionysus's face turned even redder.

"You'll pay for that," Dionysus snarled. He was still pissed at Hermes and Apollo. Poseidon taunting him was the last straw.

"Oh yeah? And how will you do that, old sot?" Poseidon said, taking a sudden special interest in his trident.

"The next demigod child you have will have to deal with me." Dionysus smiled cruelly.

Poseidon looked at him. "You wouldn't dare."

Purple fire flickered in his eyes. "Try me."

"Fine. We'll see if you keep your word, or cut and run, drunkard."

Dionysus sneered.

"Sally?" Paul looked at her, worried. The moment Dionysus threatened Poseidon to take out his anger to his next demigod child, Sally's face turned pale in like, ten seconds flat. "Are you okay?"

"W-what? Oh, y-y-yeah, I'm fine!" She hastily went back to the book. Paul, frowning, decided to ask her about it later.

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

"Don't all teachers?" said Paul, smirking.

"I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

Athena snorted. This one isn't that bright.

"Why does that not surprise me?" Frederick mumbled. This Percy was sounding like the usual troublemaker that would eventually get expelled. He hated those students, who didn't know when to take things seriously.

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson."

"Ha!" Frederick said. "I wouldn't have given him a quarter of credit."

Paul frowned. Sure, his explanation wasn't all detailed, but he did his best. That's what matters more than credit.

"Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine,"

"False!" Dionysus shouted. "I made wine, and as far as I know, I wasn't anywhere close to being born then!"

"which made him disgorge his other five children,"

Said five gods shuddered.

"who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach."

The others started looking sick as well.

"The gods defeated their father,"

Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades smirked smugly.

"sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains to Tartarus,"

"Damn right we did." Poseidon said.

His brothers nodded. Despite of the three brothers's differences, one thing all three agreed, is that they would always, for all eternity, be glad they slaughtered their father.

"the darkest part of the Underworld. With that happy note, it's lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you escort us outside?"

"Happy note?" Hera asked, unamused.

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

"Aren't they always?" Artemis said.

"Hey!"

The majority of the women laughed and the ones closest to Artemis gave her high-fives.

The guys, both mortal and immortal, had an indignant look.

Sally chuckled, and kept reading.

"Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."

Sally sighed. "I knew that was coming."

"I knew that was coming."

The room filled with chuckles.

"Like mother like son." Apollo said, chuckling.

"Nothing wrong with that," Hera said.

Poseidon and Paul agreed with her, but they kept that to themselves.

Sally however, had a warm smile on her face. She wished her baby boy was with her. She missed him. Although she wouldn't mind meeting the Percy in the book, either.

"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."

Huh, Athena thought. So he isn't completely brainless, I'll give him that.

"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."

Athena huffed. Never mind.

"What you learn from me," he said, "is virally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."

The gods looked at each other. Could Chiron already know he's a demigod?

"I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard."

"We push our students for them to reach the true potential they don't know they can reach." Paul said with a smile.

Sally smiled brightly at him.

"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."

"Cool." Paul said, ecstatic.

"Excuse me?" Frederick shouted, livid. "That couldn't be any farther than being a proper teacher!"

Paul was ignoring him now.

"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."

"C minus!?" Athena screeched.

Sally's heart dropped at reading that. She knew Percy would most likely receive those traits, but nevertheless, she hoped he would at least have some good luck.

Paul frowned. "He's dyslexic and has ADHD. Why does his teacher keep pushing him? He must know that this is much harder for him than the others."

The gods looked at each other again. They knew exactly why he was asking him to try harder.

"No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better."

"Why?" Paul said. "I don't understand."

"I think I do," Sally said.

Paul looked at her. "You do?"

Sally nodded. "For him, it's life or death. Arrogance and ignorance, are what kills you most than claws or teeth in the life of a demigod."

Athena, even though she was still angry at Sally, nodded in agreement. Knowledge is power.

"And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly."

Sally looked down.

"It gets easier with age, if that helps." Paul said. "I've been starting to teach kids like that. Most of the ones with the biggest issues are the youngest."

Sally smiled at him.

"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."

He probably has, the gods and the people who knew him thought.

"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."

The gods perked up at that. They were curious to see how much would change fifty years from now.

"Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city."

The people looked at Zeus.

"What?" He asked.

"What are you so angry about?" Hera asked.

"In case you haven't noticed, everyone," Zeus muttered. "This is the future! I don't know what's happening!"

Poseidon gasped. "I finally admits he doesn't know something!"

The gods laughed, while Zeus was glaring daggers at him.

"Read!" Zeus glowered at Sally.

"I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas."

They looked at Zeus again, but said nothing.

"We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in."

Now they looked at Poseidon.

"Great, they're having one of their fights again," Artemis said, rolling her eyes.

"Awesome!" Ares shouted. Nothing like a family fight to lighten his mood.

Poseidon and Zeus just glared at each other.

"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."

Apollo chuckled. "This kid is pure gold. Just like yours truly here. I wish he was my son."

Then his eyes widened. He looked at Sally up and down. Not bad, he smiled. Not bad at all. He teletransported in human size right next to Sally, looking like a college student. He had an arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"Say," he said, giving her a blinding grin. "We wouldn't be knowing each other in the future, would we?"

Her entire face turned tomato red.

Apollo was about to say more, until a humongous wave threw him off her and he flew twenty feet away.

"Sorry," Poseidon said, his left eye twitching. "Didn't mean to do that."

Apollo flashed back to his throne. "Didn't mean to do that? What, do you suddenly have the desire to douse someone in a wave?"

Poseidon looked at Sally with a forced smile. "Keep reading, Sally."

Sally, still flustered, went back to the book.

And while all this was happening, Paul frowned when Mrs. Dodds was mentioned. What a poor excuse of a chaperone!

Dionysus glanced at Hermes. "One of yours, I presume?"

Hermes seethed. "Hades no!"

"Hey!"

"Oh, suck it up, Corpse Breath! Be thankful that's all people say your name for!"

A cold dark aura emerged from Hades, but Hermes ignored it.

"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."

"You are not loser freaks!" Sally and Elm shouted in unison.

They just looked at each other and smiled. Whether a human or a nymph, mothers will be mothers.

"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."

"Believe me," Athena said, rolling her eyes. "We know."

Sally glared at the wisdom goddess, but she thought she'd angered her enough, so she kept her mouth shut.

"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?"

Cue the laughter.

"That's my goat, Grover." Ferdinand said.

Elm was starting to understand Sally. While she didn't exactly approve of such behavior, she still couldn't help but be fond of her dear satyr baby.

"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."

Sally's eyes widened, from the first time being mentioned.

"I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home."

"Awww," the women cooed.

"Mama's boy," Ares said.

"Ares!"

Sally felt a warm feeling in her chest. Her son loved her, very much. She couldn't help but stop the tears from coming. She loved Percy, she'd do anything for her sweet baby.

"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."

They cooed again.

Sally smiled. That was exactly what she would've done.

"I wish my children were like that." Hera glared at Ares and Hephaestus.

Ares grunted.

Hephaestus looked at her. "Do I even need to say it?"

She huffed.

"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 café table."

Hephaestus got a wicked look in his eye and his hands started to build something automatically.

Aphrodite thought, There he goes, off into Blacksmith Land. And he wonders why I constantly cheat on him.

"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."

Elm's teeth chattered in anger. Her husband and his brother weren't much better.

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

"Ugh." Beryl sneered in disgust at that description.

Everyone looked disgusted at that definition. Yes, Cheetos existed in the 1950s, so they DID know what Percy meant.

"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."

Sally glared disapprovingly at Poseidon. He definitely got that from you.

Poseidon thought to himself, There it is again! What did I do?

"A wave roared in my ears."

Athena frowned. "A wave?"

Sally read it again. "Yeah. A wave."

"O-kaaay." Hermes said. "Weird."

"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!"

Sally gulped. Please don't make the connection, please don't make the connection, please don't make the CONNECTION!

They didn't. They gods were just as confused as everyone, thank . . . them?

Athena however, was thinking. Hmmm . . .

"Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us."

"Materialized?" Maria asked.

"He probably just didn't see her coming." Helen said.

Hades wasn't so sure.

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

"—the water—"

"—like it grabbed her—"

That got Athena into thinking more. Black hair . . . green eyes . . .

She glanced at Poseidon.

Oh no.

Some of the gods were also starting to look at Poseidon suspiciously.

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

"Basically, Hermes's immortal life in a nutshell." Dionysus said.

"I'd hate to see your life explained in a nutshell, Fat Drunk." Hermes answered.

All the men Ooooo'ed, while the women rolled their eyes.

"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."

Sally didn't know why, but she was starting to feel goosebumps from that.

"There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"

That didn't make the feeling better.

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

"NOOO!" Hermes shouted. He got out a notepad and wrote while shouting, "THAT'S STRIKE ONE!"

Everyone looked at him.

"Strike one?" Zeus asked.

"YES! Rule #5: Never guess your punishment! It's the basics of all!"

"There's a rule book?" Athena asked.

Hermes ignored them all and went back to his seat. "Read, Sally."

"That wasn't the right thing to say."

Ares chuckled. "Yeah, no shit."

"ARES!"

"Bite me." He said, checking dirt of his nails with his dagger.

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said."

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

Elm and Garriet looked at the book in surprise. Their son was taking the blame in order to protect Percy.

"That's so brave of him." Elm said, smiling.

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

Elm beamed. Garriet just looked with a prideful look in his eyes.

"She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled."

Hermes and Apollo chuckled.

"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."

"I wanna kill her," Elm hissed.

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

"Bet it's not as good as mine." Ares said.

To prove his point, he glared at the first person he saw, which happened to be Poseidon. Only for him to give his own death stare, and scare Ares off half his immortality.

The others laughed while Ares grunted in shame.

"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?" Poseidon asked.

"How'd she get there so fast?"

The others laughed.

"Are you two related?" Hermes asked playfully.

Sally gulped. And Athena noticed.

"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."

Sally frowned. "I wouldn't be so sure."

"I wasn't so sure."

Hermes grinned. "Like mother, like son, I guess!"

"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 Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel."

The gods and Grover's family looked at each other. Was it happening what they thought was happening?

"I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall."

"Okay, now that's weird." Helen said. "Did she run all the way over there?"

Sally was starting to agitate.

"Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop."

Please let it be a T-shirt, please. Sally prayed.

"But apparently that wasn't the plan."

Damn it!

"I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section."

Athena frowned.

"Except for us, the gallery was empty."

"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."

Sally dropped the book. Her eyes filled with tears. And with that, she started sobbing.

The gods looked at each other seriously. A monster attack. Her son was most likely already dead.

Let her grief, Zeus told the other gods in their heads. They had to give her that, at most.

Sally had one of her arms on her chest, the other one tangling her head desperately, as if messing up her head was the answer to all her problems.

Why? she thought. Why does it hurt so much? Her chest felt like it was on fire. Scientists say that feelings come from the brain. But then why was the pain in her heart? Every time it beat, it sent a painful feeling in her chest. As if it was leaking just as many tears as her eyes.

The other mothers were there to comfort her. Some that knew what was happening were crying as well. Seeing their children in a life or death situation, that would break them. But to read it, to read the terror, the deed, and the result, that was . . . that was a whole new level of pain.

After a long time, she managed to control herself, even though the tears were still coming out.

Poseidon wanted to comfort her. He hated seeing her like that. But he was also feeling a sense of loss, even though he didn't know why. Why does he? Why does he care what happens to Percy? Why . . .

"I-I'm-I'm sorry." Sally said. "I can't-I can't read anymore. I-I just can't."

Poseidon stood up, and shrinked himself down to human size. He approached her and gently took the book from her.

"Hey."

She looked up at him.

"He's going to be okay." He smiled at her.

"H-how d-do you know?"

Poseidon looked down at the sea-green book. Like his eyes. Like Percy's.

"Something tells me your son isn't so easy to kill." He smiled at her. "Just a . . . gut feeling."

He gave her one last warm smile, and returned to his throne.

Sally wouldn't take her eyes away from him until he'd stop reading.

Poseidon found the page where Sally left off. It had a tear drop on the name Percy Jackson.

He continued reading.

"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 . . ."

"Definitely a monster," Hermes said. "Most of them hate us."

"And when he says most," Apollo said.

"I mean all of them."

"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?"

"Get away with what?" May asked. "He hasn't done anything wrong."

Sally couldn't agree more with her.

"The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil."

She hugged her arms around her chest, another sob in her throat.

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

"Wrong, Perce," Hermes said. "You're dead wrong."

The others looked at him.

"What?" he asked. "To soon?"

Poseidon threw him a wave.

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

"Thunder shook the building."

"So you're stalking twelve-year-olds now, Zeus?" Hades asked.

Zeus glared at him.

"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said."

Poseidon stayed looking at his name with the now drying tear drop. Then he continued reading.

"It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

"What is this, the Spanish Inquisition?" Apollo asked.

"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."

Despite the serious atmosphere, the laughs couldn't be helped.

"Oh, Percy," Apollo laughed.

"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."

More laughs. Frederick was seriously starting to dislike this Percy.

"Or worse, they were going to make me read the book."

The laughs got even more harder. Even Sally couldn't help but chuckle a little.

Athena looked like someone had hit her puppy.

"Well?" she demanded."

"Ma'am, I don't . . ."

"Your time is up," she hissed."

That wiped Sally's smile clean off.

"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."

"WHAT!"

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

"A Fury." Poseidon glared at Hades. "Do you mind explaining why you would send one of your most savage of criatures to go after a twelve-year-old?"

Maria looked at Hades in shock. He did? How-how could he-why would he do such a thing?

Hades shrugged, uncaring, which shocked Maria more. "I dunno. Ask future me."

Poseidon kept glaring at him, livid.

Sally was shaking. My baby, she cried. My poor, poor baby.

Elm had her arm around her, comforting her.

"Then things got even stranger."

"Really?" Beryl 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.

"A pen. Seriously? What're you gonna do with a pen? Write on her?" Ares taunted.

Poseidon frowned. A certain writing instrument was resting on Poseidon's shirt pocket. Before all this, he was planning on going to Camp Half-Blood, for him to safe-keep it . . .

Could it be . . .

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

"Mrs. Dodds lunged at me."

Sally shrieked.

"With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear."

Sally could've sworn her heart stopped for a moment.

"I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore."

"What?" everyone asked.

"It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day."

"Anaklusmos." Poseidon said with a smile. "Of course."

"Whoa!" Paul said. "Really?!"

"That's-crazy." Frederick muttered.

Sally breathed deeply. He has a sword. He's armed. He has a chance.

"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."

"Pussy," Ares said. Next moment, he was doused in salt water.

"Hey!"

"Keep your mouth shut, and you'll stay dry."

Hermes glanced at Apollo. "How long was that?"

Apollo checked the chronometer. "Four seconds. Wow, Uncle P. You broke a new record."

"She snarled, "Die, honey!"

"Who the hell says 'Die, honey!'" Ferdinand said, exasperated.

"Alecto." Hades said, a little bored.

"And she flew straight at me."

"No," Sally moaned. "No, no, no . . ."

"Absolute terror ran through my body."

Just like me, sweetie, Sally thought, crying.

"I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword."

"Swinging a sword comes naturally?" Helen said.

"For a demigod, yeah." Poseidon said.

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

Sally fainted.

"Help!" Elm shouted.

Apollo and Hestia were there immediately.

In just a moment, thanks to Apollo, she was already waking up.

"W-what happened? Percy? Percy! Is he-?"

"He's okay," Hestia muttered, smiling. Her eyes were shining brightly. "He just defeated his first monster?"

"Just let it be his last too, and I'm good." Sally said.

Hestia laughed. "I'm afraid demigods aren't that lucky. But he's okay now."

Sally had a huge sigh of relief. Her baby was okay. For now, but he was okay.

"Hisss!"

"So that's what happens when they're defeated." Frederick muttered.

"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."

The danger was gone, but the goosebumps were still with Sally.

"That's creepy," May said. "Very creepy."

"Tell me about it," Elm said.

The gods were still shocked.

"He defeated a Fury," Zeus said. "A twelve-year-old kid. Those monsters have been known to killing heroes who've trained their whole life!"

"Which makes it more humiliating that they were defeated by a kid," Hades grumbled. "What will it be of my reputation?"

"Yes, like your reputation's sooo honorable and well-known," Poseidon said.

Hades glared at him.

"I was alone."

"Wait, what?"

"There was a ballpoint pen in my hand."

"The Mist is still affecting him?" Demeter asked.

"I believe so." Athena said.

"Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me."

"Yeah, it is." Hephaestus said, adding another deadly mechanic to his gadget.

"My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something."

"Magic mushrooms? And this kid said he didn't have an imagination?" Hermes said, chuckling.

"Had I imagined the whole thing?"

"Sadly, no." Hestia said.

"I went back outside."

"It had started to rain."

"Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head."

"If he's anything like you," Elm told Garriet, "he's also awful at lying."

"Hey!" Garriet shouted as Ferdinand laughed his furry ass off.

"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?" Poseidon asked, interrupting himself.

"I said, "Who?"

Others kept chuckling.

"You gotta stop doing that." Hades said.

"Our teacher. Duh!"

"That's not their teacher," Apollo said. "That's the Mist."

"We know, idiot," Artemis said, sharpening her arrows.

The mortals kept looking at each other. The mist?

"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."

"Here we go," Elm said, grinning.

Garriet bleened. (groaning and bleating at the same time) "Ble-e-e-e-e-eh."

"He said, "Who?"

"But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me."

Elm laughed. "He's just like you."

Garriet however, was smiling. "I don't see what's wrong with that."

Hermes looked at the couple. "Your son needs better lying skills."

"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."

"Thunder boomed overhead."

People glanced at Zeus again.

"I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved."

The gods smiled. Oh, Chiron.

"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."

Poseidon laughed, startling those around him. Oh Chiron, he said. Just give him Riptide already.

"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?"

"See, now Chiron," Hermes said, "Now he can lie."

"Of course he can lie," Apollo said. "He's had thousands of experience to learn."

"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?"

Sally frowned. Why is the Mist still affecting him? Will he be okay? Oh Percy, you're gonna make my hair gray twenty years before it's supposed to.

Poseidon closed the book. "That's the end of the chapter. Who wants to read next?"

"Me." Athena stood up. She had her theories now, if they read further, she will know more.

"Of course you want to read next." Hermes said, laughing.

"Shut it." Athena said. She held out her hand. "The book."

Poseidon looked at Athena with an eyebrow raised. Then he shrugged.

Just as the book was about to reach her hand, a white flash of light erupted in the middle of the circle they had made.

When the light disappeared, it revealed to show . . . .