Disclaimer: I do not own any of the books or characters.

A/N: Hey, my story is getting loads of views, so I'm definitely going to carry on. :)

Apollo caught the book, opened it to the right page and started reading.

"THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly."

"He needs to see a doctor" Apollo said, flashing into a nurses uniform. "Don't worry; he'll be fine in no time!"

"Actually, Apollo, the weird experiences are probably monsters. The mist will cover it up and it will probably be weird, like Mrs Dodds." Hephaestus explained to Apollo, who looked kind of stupid.

"Oh"

"This twenty-four / seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me."

"Nobody cares enough about you to do that. It's only for cool people." Ares rudely said.

"Is that why it's never happened to you?" Annabeth glared at Ares, who, surprisingly backed down.

"Sorry"

"The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs Kerr – a perky blonde woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip – had been our maths teacher since Christmas."

"That would be weird." Jason said thoughtfully.

"It was." Grover confirmed, who was there.

"Every so often I would spring a Mrs Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.

It got so I almost believed them – Mrs Dodds had never existed.

Almost.

But Grover couldn't fool me."

The said person blushed, a very dark shade of red at the end of the sentence, especially with everyone looking at him. "You're not seriously that bad, are you?" Frank asked Grover, who just somehow went even darker red.

"When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum."

"Duh, you were nearly killed!" Nico said, who got a murderous look from Poseidon and Annabeth. He didn't know which one was scarier.

"I didn't have time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat."

"That poor thing" Aphrodite said sympathetically. "Hades, stop giving Percy nightmares!"

"The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out all the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever seen in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls over the Atlantic that year."

"Why are you two fighting? Innocent human lives are being wasted because you two can't play together? This is stupid. If you two don't have a good reason to fight, I will not be a part of it, and you two would have to fight without the brains!" Athena moaned.

"There probably is a good reason, so don't worry." Zeus told Athena, who had calmed down enough to listen to the story.

"I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class."

"You said he improves?" Athena asked Sally, who just nodded. "He better do before he gets even dumber."

"Finally, when our English teacher, Mr Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good."

Annabeth started giggling after the paragraph. "Old sot means an old fool."

Ares complained about that. "Come on! At least say a something like, 'you mother fu...'"

"Ares! I will not have that type of language in front of kids!" Hera screamed.

"The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy."

"Wow." Hermes said, impressed. "Six schools in six years, that's got to be a record."

"Fine, I told myself. Just fine.

I was homesick.

I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to a public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.

And yet ... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees."

"He likes his cabin better though, with the smell of the sea in his cabin, the view of the sea right outside his cabin and the woods as well." Annabeth told Poseidon, who beamed, thinking of how he could make his cabin better for Percy.

"How do you know that Annabeth?" Athena asked politely, not wanting to know what she thought the answer was.

"We've basically been on nearly all the same quests; it's given us time to talk." Annabeth shrugged, silently pleading the book not to have some of their talks.

"I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend"...

Grover smiled.

..."even if he was a little strange."

Grover's smile slid right off his face. "What a good friend Percy is." He grumbled to himself.

"I worried how he'd survive next year without me.

I'd miss Latin class, too – Mr Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.

As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr Brunner had told me about this subject being life – and – death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him."

"That's the worst thing he could have done. The more suspicious he gets, the more monsters he will attract." Artemis grimaced. Percy really is different to other males. Who knew?

"The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards."

"So, is that what it feels like, every time you read?" Frank asked Annabeth, who just nodded.

"Why, don't you read or anything?" Annabeth asked back, curious.

"No, I do read, it's just that I can read perfectly. The only thing wrong with me is lactose intolerance." Frank told her. Everyone laughed at his luck, as he said "And I like Ice-cream as well."

"There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it. I paced around the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt."

"Take off the shirt then" Hermes suggested to the book, which wasn't wearing the shirt.

"I remembered Mr Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old-eyes. I will accept only the best from you Percy Jackson.

I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book."

Athena breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat 'F' I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking that I hadn't tried."

"Aaah, trying to impress Chiron. So sweet!" Demeter surprisingly. Aphrodite looked like she thought the same, which would be the first time ever. She just kept her mouth shut.

"I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.

I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said '... worried about Percy, sir.'

I froze.

I'm not usually an eavesdropper,"

"Liar. You eavesdropped on Bianca and Zoe when I was there." Nico pointed out to the air.

Artemis, noticing the name, Zoe, asked Nico "Who's Bianca?"

"My sister" Nico looked like he was going to cry, so Annabeth and Thalia sandwiched him and started comforting him.

"HADES!" Zeus roared again. "Another child? That makes it three now, so you are worse than me."

"But Zeus, all of my children are from before the pact was made. Nico and Bianca were in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, and Hazel was dead." Hades faded off towards the end, not knowing or caring what Zeus was shouting at him about.

"Can we please get back to the book?" Poseidon asked, wondering what would happen to his son by the end.

", But I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.

I inched closer.

'... alone this summer,' Grover was saying. 'I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too – '

'We would only make matters worse by rushing him,' Mr Brunner said. 'We need the boy to mature more.'

'But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline – '

'Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can.'"

"I don't know what Chiron's talking about. Percy's still blind and ignorant to most things, especially the gods." Thalia said, and left Jason, Piper and Leo to wonder how much the gods hate him.

"'Sir, he saw her...'

'His imagination,' Mr Brunner insisted. 'The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that.'

'Sir, I...I can't fail in my duties again.'"

"Stupid Satyr, can't protect anyone" Zeus kept grumbling into his beard. He made sure Thalia couldn't hear

"Grover's voice was choked with emotion. 'You know what that would mean.'

'You haven't failed, Grover,' Mr Brunner said kindly. 'I should've seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next autumn – '"

"That's a nice thing to hear about you from your favourite teacher and best friend, isn't it?" Poseidon's voice was filled with sarcasm.

"The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.

Mr Brunner went silent."

"Of course he did, why would he carry on if he heard a strange noise outside his door?" Athena asked, not really believing the stupidity of someone.

"My heart was hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.

A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow."

"That's because it probably is an archer's bow, dumbass" Thalia said to no-one, she just wanted to say it.

"How would he have known at that time though?" Annabeth asked Thalia.

"I don't know, but, you have to admit, Percy is really slow at catching on to things." Annabeth just blushed, getting what Thalia was saying, and nodded her head in agreement.

"I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.

A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on."

"Wouldn't Chiron be able to smell him, though?" Apollo asked Athena, who decided to keep it simple for him.

"Percy's smell would be everywhere, so Chiron would only think that it's his old smell, not actually him."By the end of that, Apollo was looking even more confused than before.

Poseidon gave a simpler version. "Everywhere smells like Percy." Apollo then understood it, whilst Athena just scowled at Poseidon.

"A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.

'Nothing,' he murmured. 'My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice.'

'Mine neither,' Grover said. 'But I could have sworn...'

'Go back to the dorm,' Mr Brunner told him. 'You've got a long day of exams tomorrow.'

'Don't remind me'

The lights went out in Mr Brunner's office.

I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever."

"It was probably five minutes, knowing Fish Face" Nico told everyone, who all agreed.

"He's getting better" Annabeth tried to defend him, but it was quite hard.

"Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to my dorm.

Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam noted like he'd been there all night.

'Hey' he said, bleary-eyed. 'You going to be ready for this test?'

I didn't answer.

'You look awful.' He frowned. 'Is everything okay?'

I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed."

"He may not be able to read your expression, but I bet that he could read your emotions." Dionysus said fondly, thinking of the Satyrs.

"I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.

But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.

The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr Brunner called me back inside."

"It's too bad Poseidon," Hermes sighed. "If he didn't get caught, he would have been a good thief. It's a shame, what this worlds coming to, isn't it?" After Hermes had finished, Poseidon just asked Apollo to read.

"For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem."

"Hooray! Percy still might be a thief! He could make me proud" Hermes said whilst wiping a tear from his eye. Poseidon was going to shout at Hermes, that Percy was not a thief, and then probably soak him in water for good measure, (and a little fun) but Paul and Sally got there first.

"My son is an honest young man," Sally told Hermes, who was just a little surprised. "Yes, he may have done a few wrong things, like blowtorching a national monument, or blowing up a gym, but it's been to either save him, or save others. He is a good young man." Sally looked like she was nearly crying by the end, but Paul was there to comfort her. Frank, Hazel, Jason, Piper and Leo all thought the same thing: He's done what?

"'Percy,' he said. 'Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best.'

His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

I mumbled, 'Okay, sir.'

'I mean ...' Mr Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. 'This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.'"

"Chiron really needs to learn how to be sensitive." Aphrodite sniffed. "That isn't really the best way to let someone go."

"My eyes stung.

Here was my favourite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.

'Right,' I said, trembling.

'No, no,' Mr Brunner said. 'Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be – '"

"Wow, even I know that was a little bit insensitive." Hermes whistled.

"'Thanks,' I blurted. 'Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.'

'Percy – '

But I was already gone.

On the last day of term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.

The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies."

"I wouldn't call and of us here a family of nobodies." Hephaestus grumbled into the air, while everyone else looked like they thought the same.

"He doesn't know about us yet, it's only a matter of time." Poseidon stated calmly.

"They'd asked me what I'd been doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.

What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the autumn."

"At least he cares about his education. That's a lot better than some people." Athena looked relieved, while everyone looked at her weird, like, can you believe her?

"'Oh,' one of the guys said. 'That's cool.'

They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed."

"People can be mean." Piper frowned, knowing more than anyone how mean people can be.

"The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover but, as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city."

"What a coincidence," Dionysus yawned, at least showing that he was listening. The Brat's life might be interesting.

"During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.

Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore.

I said, 'looking for Kindly Ones?'"

"Bet you were scared so much then." Thalia teased Grover, who blushed red and was starting to hate this chapter.

"Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. 'Wha – what do you mean?'

I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr Brunner the night before the exam.

Grover's eye twitched. 'How much did you here?'"

"Only ALL of it!" Grover moaned, thinking of how stupid he'd acted back then.

"'Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?'

He winced. 'Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ... '

'Grover –'

'And I was telling Mr Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs Dodds, and ...'"

"Better." Hermes said, while giving another slip to Grover. "Another appointment about lying. This one's to teach you not to over work the lie. Because then it becomes obvious that your lying. An..."

"Just shut up Hermes, and read Apollo, now!" Artemis commanded to the boys, who straight away did what they were told. Artemis was scary.

"'Grover, you're a really, really bad liar.'

His ears turned pink.

From out of his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. 'Just take this, okay?' In case you need me this summer.'

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:

Grover Underwood Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800)009-0009

'What's half – '

'Don't say it aloud!' he yelped. 'That's my, um ... summer address.'

My heart sank."

"Why?" Grover wondered. Nobody had an answer for him.

"If we keep reading, we will probably find out." Annabeth summed up.

"Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy."

"Oh," Grover said cheerily. "At least he doesn't think that I'm a spoilt Brat."

"'Okay,' I said glumly. 'So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion.'

He nodded. 'Or ... or if you need me.'

'Why would I need you?'"

"Percy!" Sally shouted while Paul groaned beside her. "Why would you say such a mean thing?"

"It came out harsher than I meant it too.

Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. 'Look, Percy, the truth is, I – I kind of have to protect you.'

I stared at him."

Just like everyone in the room. "Why would he think that when he's gotten into fights for you. He nearly got killed by a Fury, because of what Nancy did, to you" Poseidon asked Grover. Grover just blushed.

"All year long, I'd gotten into fights keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.

'Grover,' I said, 'what exactly are you protecting me from?'

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell of rotten eggs."

Aphrodite summed up everyone's thoughts. "Eew."

"The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road – no place you'd ever notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars."

Grover just started muttering about the pollution of the world, until his voice got drowned out by Apollo.

"On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old fashioned fruit stand.

The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood-red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice."

Demeter had a dreamy look on her face when all this was mentioned.

"There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen."

Poseidon groaned. Was Percy ever going to get a break? "Why? Not the Fates. Let him see Alecto again or something. Why the Fates?"

"I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me."

The whole of Olympus was silent. All the gods, (except Poseidon, who was freaking out) were trying to work out how the young Demigod is still alive.

"I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

'Grover?' I said. 'Hey, man – '

'Tell me they're not looking at you. They are. Aren't they?'

'Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?'"

"Not funny Percy, not funny at all. Please stay safe, please." Poseidon muttered to himself, until he found out the book had carried on.

"'Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all.'

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors – gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath."

Just like the whole of Olympus. Even the Demigods didn't know this bit.

"'We're getting on the bus,' he told me. 'Come on.'

'What?' I said. 'It's a thousand degrees in there.'

'Come on!' He prised open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back."

"NOOO! Get back on the bus Percy, please." Poseidon begged the air.

"Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic."

Poseidon looked like he was about to incinerate someone, so Grover went to him and whispered something. Poseidon looked a lot better after that.

"Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for – Sasquatch or Godzilla."

"How can he still be making jokes at times like that?" Piper asked the Demigods, who all just shrugged.

"That's Percy for you. Always lightening the mood when times are dark." Annabeth answered quickly. Athena scowled, knowing something was up. They can't be together, so how does she know so much about him?

"At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

'Darn right!' yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. 'Everyone back on board!'

"Couldn't he have done that a little bit quicker?" Poseidon asked Athena, who scowled like she got poked in between the eyes.

"No, you dumbass. The Fates must've stopped the bus, specifically so that Percy sees them cutting the string."

"Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.

Grover didn't look muck better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

'Grover?'

'Yeah?'

'What are you not telling me?'"

"Only that your whole life as you know it is a lie, your father is one of the Olympian gods, oh, and that you are now destined to die." Nico summed up thoughtfully

"He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. 'Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?'

'You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs Dodds, are they?'

His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs Dodds. He said, 'Just tell me what you saw.'

'The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.'

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost – older."

"He is very good at spotting little things, isn't he?" Hazel asked the Demigods, who all nodded their heads at once.

"He said 'You saw her snip the cord.'

'Yeah. So?' But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.

'This is not happening,' Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. 'I don't want this to be like the last time.'"

"Oh, and you wanted the first time to happen, did you?" Thalia looked hurt, while Grover tried to explain himself.

"'What last time?'

'Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth.'

'Grover,' I said, because he was really starting to scare me. 'What are you talking about?'

'Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me.'

This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.

"How well did that promise turn out?" Nico asked Grover, who looked a bit pissed off.

"Not as well as I'd hoped."

"'Is this like a superstition or something?' I asked.

No answer.

'Grover – that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?'

He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin."

"And, there you go. Another chapter down." Apollo said cheerily.

"Right, I suggest that we all get some lunch now, it's already 1.00 okay? We'll continue the book after.

"FOOD!" Hermes, Apollo and Leo screamed, and charged into the Olympian kitchen. Artemis followed with all the other Gods and Demigods, muttering about how idiotic men are.

"I'll do us all a massive pizza to share." Sally offered, then settled on when nobody refused.

Once everyone had eaten as much as they could, everyone sat down again. "Who wants to read now, then?" Apollo asked, who had the book in his hand.

"I will" Said a voice that was behind everyone.

A/N: Cliff hanger! I've left it open, so that you can decide who's coming in. Review you answer, or just PM me. The person with the most votes will come in! Good Luck!