Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Intro

Future Artemis will be going by Alice to avoid confusion

june 1992- olympus (the solstice)

The olympians were arguing again, mostly over trivial matters. Hestia and Hades were sitting by the hearth, discussing things peacefully and Apollo was sitting forlornly on his throne, but other than that it was practically a warzone of arguing and chaos. The chaos continued until there was a bright flash of light and a group  of teens appeared in a heap.

The teens looked around confused and apprehensive. Unsurprisingly Zeus was the first to react to their presence, and he did so dramatically. “WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT THE COUNSELS MEETING,” he thundered, pointing his zappy stick at the group.

“Those are both good questions,” said a teen who was practically a carbon copy of poseidon. “We can answer the first but we have no idea about the second,” Percy paused as a note appeared in her hand. Glancing it over she sighed and read it aloud, “‘ dear gods, demigods, and mortal we called you here to read books about an alternate world almost identical to this one, we hope that by reading these books you can learn how to be better in the future. Those from the future please introduce yourselves with your name and godly parent. Also some of the demigods are norse

Affectionately from,

The fates.’ ” as if on cue a pile of eight books fell onto Artemis’ lap.

Zeus made a series of outraged noises that went ignored.

 After looking over the books in her lap, the goddess of the moon spoke, “Please introduce yourself now,” she requests gesturing to the group. They glance at each other momentarily before a blond haired girl is shoved forward.

“Annabeth Chase daughter of Athena,” she says, straightening and standing proudly, Athena glances her daughter over and gives a small nod.

Another one of the blonds steps forward, “Will Solace, son of Apollo. He/him.”

“Alex fierro, daughter of Loki. She/her right now, misgender anyone present and it won't matter that you're a god i'll kill you anyways. Genderfluid.”

“Magnus Chase. I'm the son of Frey, my pronouns are he/him and they/them.”

“Nico di Angelo son of Hades, he/him. Before anyone says anything I was born before the oath.” Hades stared at his son in surprise.

“Thalia Grace, child of Zeus. My pronouns are xe and xem, misgender me and I castrate you.” xe said gripping the cuffs of xyr jacket. Hera sat deadly quiet, glaring murderously at her husband.

“You broke the oath,” said the queen of the gods in a deadly tone. 

“We-well you see…” but Hera didn’t let him finish, silencing him with a glare.

“We will… talk about this later,” stated the goddess, an edge in her tone that said, you argue with me and you will be reforming for a long time. “Do you realize what you’ve most likely subjected your child to?”  Thalia stared at her in confusion and surprise, making a startled noise. Hera looks at xem, “I’ve realized it’s not his children’s fault for being born, so I’ve decided to treat you as my own,” the last statement was aimed at all zeus’ bastard children, who looked equally surprised.

“Rachel dare, mortal, they/them and I'm the current oracle.”  Both Hades and Apollo looked happy with this news, albeit for different reasons.

“Artemis, goddess of the moon, I'm just Artemis from the future. She/her.” she thinks for a second, “call me Alice to avoid confusion.”

“Percy Jackson,” she hesitated slightly. “Son of Poseidon.” (a/n she wasn't ready to come out to a room full of gods, as such she will come out when she is ready)

“Before you say anything father,” said Thalia, glaring at the god. “It’s an incredibly good thing Percy was born, otherwise we’d have a lot more problems.”

“I didn’t do that much,” Percy denied.

“Bullshit, you have done so much,” stated Nico. “If you don’t believe us you can see what the gods have to say once we finish reading.”

“Fine but can we just start reading,” percy groaned.

Everyone nods.

“Wait!” everyone turned to Apollo to see what was wrong. He waved a hand and four  large sofas appeared. He  jumped from one and shrunk “we should all sit together.” the group nodded. As they were getting settled there was another flash and a blond man with an aura of calm that emanated from him.

 “Love?” questioned Apollo.

“Yes dear. I'm Frey, and I'm also from the future.” he said, taking the seat on the left of Apollo and gesturing for Magnus to join him, so he  does.  

Here's the seating arrangement:

Will, Apollo, Frey, Magnus, Alex, Percy, poseidon

Nico                                                         Rachel

Hades                                                        Alice

Hestia                                                       Thalia

Demeter                                                Artemis

Hera                                                       athena

Zeus                                                   Annabeth

Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, 

Chapter Text

Once everyone was settled, Artemis looked over the group, “who would like to read first?”

“I will,” said Apollo raising his hand only to flinch and just barely catch the book as it was thrown at his head. He stared indignantly at his sister, “did you have to do that?”

“Of course! It was necessary.”

“Why i-”

“Alright you two, that's enough, Artemis please sit down and Apollo please start reading.”  Hestia's voice was firm, leaving no room for argument.

“Ok Percy Jackson: the lightning thief".  He was cut off before he could continue by a groan from Percy, who just waved for Apollo to continue. Though those sitting near her could hear her mumble ‘of course it's me.’

“I accidentally vaporize my pre-algebra teacher”

“How does one accidentally vaporize a teacher?” asked Hermes, looking baffled.

“It's not that hard,” answered Percy, a small grin adorning her face. “You just have to know absolutely nothing.” 

“You killed your teacher?” questioned Athena, looking equally confused and horrified.

“If Apollo would keep reading it will be explained.” the tone of finality told them not to question the daughter of the sea any further.

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

“Noone does,” grumbled Nico.

“If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:”

Annabeth snorted, “like you could give good advice.” Everyone else from the future minus Percy plus Poseidon, Apollo and Aphrodite glared.

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

“It's pretty good advice, although it probably is not going to work because of a demi-god's natural curiosity,” everyone stared at Athena. “what?”

“Being a half-blood is dangerous.”

“Yup!” Will said, far too excitedly. 

“It's scary.”

“Definitely,” Thalia added.

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

“One hundred percent.” it was Magnus this time, he shuddered thinking of his own original death.

“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.”

“Who the Hades do you think is reading this,”  exclaimed Annabeth, Percy just shrugged her shoulders. Hades scowled as his name was used as a curse. “You are such a seaweed brain.”  the daughter of Athena didn't notice the flinch at the nickname but everyone else did. Now everyone except Ares and Zeus glared.

“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 too.”

“You are so dramatic, Kelpie,” Thalia snarked. 

“Don't say I didn't warn you.”

“You didn't warn me,” chorused Thalia, Nico, Will, Magnus and Alex.

“There was literally no way I could have warned any of you,” Percy deadpanned.

My name is Percy Jackson.”

“I thought it was Apollo,” said Alice in mock confusion, earning a snort from Thalia who had somehow migrated from next to her to in her lap. 

I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at YancyAcademy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.

Am I a troubled kid?

“Yes!” exclaimed the futures, Poseidon looked at his daughter in worry  and thought ‘I wonder what he could have done to make them react like that’. (a/n please note that character's thoughts will talk and think about Percy using male pronouns. She gave them male pronouns so those are the ones that she gave)   

Percy looked to aphrodite who was sitting across from her and gestured to her friends. Sighing dramatically “can you believe this, I've been betrayed by my own friends.”

Aphrodite giggles lighty, “ I know, how could they,” she exclaimed, clutching her chest.

“That's it, Aphrodite is my new best friend.” 

“Yeah. You could say that.”

Percy and crew burst out laughing.

“I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.”

Poseidon looked worriedly at his daughter. “How bad is your life?”

Percy shifted awkwardly. “At that point I had never really had anything good happen, but now I'm happy, I've got two great partners and got into the college I want to go to.” She moved herself into Alex's lap and leaned to kiss Magnus.

“I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.”

Annabeth scoffed, it went ignored.

“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. 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”.

“Is that-”

“Yes Mr. D,” Percy said grinning as Alex attempted to steal the tiny knife that the Hero of Olympus was playing with (she was unsuccessful in her attempt).

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

“Good luck with that,” Alex said, smiling happily with the little knife similar to the one Percy was fiddling with that the aforementioned demigod had handed her.

“Boy, was I wrong.”

“Told you.”

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

“No, no, more,” Hermes exclaimed, everyone ignored him.

“This trip, I was determined to be good.”

Percy burst out laughing ignoring the worried looks she was getting from those who don’t know the story.

“All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.”

“That is a disgusting combination,” groaned Thalia, burying xyr face into alice’s shoulder as if to hide from the description.

“Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. 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.”

“Way to blow your cover, Grover,” groused Will.

“Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death”

“WHAT!” everyone decent screamed.

“Just keep reading,” said Percy gesturing at the book.

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

“I'm not sure that's any better.” mumbled Nico.

“‘I'm going to kill her,’ I mumbled.”

“Please do,” said a majority of the people in the room.

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

“In your hair?” exclaimed Alice indignantly.

“He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.”

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

“Why Grover?” questioned Thalia disappointedly.

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

“Oh.” 

“Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.”

“What?” questioned Hephaestus.

“Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.”

“He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.”

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

“Longer, seaweed brain.” Annabeth did not understand why she was getting glared at.

“He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.”

“Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.”

“Is that why-”

“Yes Nico it is.”

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

“That's Nico,” said Will in a light teasing voice,reaching across the arm of the sofa to hold his boyfriend's hand.

  “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.”

“Is that who i think it is?”

“Yes uncle Hades.”

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

“Real subtle there Grover,” Rachel said with a look of amusement.

“Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.

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

“It came out louder than I meant it to.”

“Of course it did,” Magnus grumbled, amused.

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

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

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

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

“He's not going to know it.” said Annabeth. Percy flinched.

“Well i bet twenty dracma he does,” taunted Thalia

“bet.”

“I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

“Pay up, bitch,'' Annabeth grumbled but dug out the proper number of coins.

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

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

“GOD!” thundered zeus. (pun totally intended)

“Chill. I got corrected. Please continue.”

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"

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

“Now imagine living it,” said Hera with a sniff.

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

“Did you just-” Athena looked absolutely flabbergasted.

“I did,” Percy blushed in embarrassment. “I’m far better now than I was then, my interest was more for norse myths than greek.” Athena nodded in understanding and gestured for Apollo to keep reading.

“Some snickers from the group.”

“Why are they laughing?”

“Because kids are assholes.”

“Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

“I'm pretty sure a lot of the shit we do would never be on job applications,” stated Magnus.

“You're dead,” said Percy, staring at him. “I think it'll be a little bit difficult for you to find any kind of job.”

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

“Shout random trivia,” exclaimed Rachel. “ confuse the enemy.”

Percy looked at her with a bemused expression, “you know, i've done that before, i shouted trivia about norse gods and goddesses.” her face turned thoughtful. “I wonder if they were confused because I was shouting trivia or because it was norse.”

“You are such a seaweed brain.” 

“And you're an asshole, what about it?”

"Busted," Grover muttered.

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

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

Will snorted. “More like horse ears,” he whispered conspiratorially to Nico.

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

“To not get deaded,” Alice muttered.

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

Hades raised an eyebrow, “How the fuck is that a happy note?”

“The defeat of the titans is a happy note,” said Percy, though her tone was questioning. “I guess?” Hades nodded and gestured for Apollo to continue.

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

“Boys are always doofuses,” stated Artemis sagedly.

“Agreed,” this was all the goddesses and all the futures except Nico, Will and Annabeth.

“You are aware that you are a boy right Percy?” said Annabeth incredulously.

“And? I’ve been around enough boys in my life to know that they are doofuses."

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

“I knew that was coming.

“You never told me you could see the future percy!” teased Rachel.

“I know,” percy replied dramatically. “How dare I keep something like that from you?”

“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.

"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."”

“How eloquent Percy,” Frey said, looking at the demigod with an amused grin.

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

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

“I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C– in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.

Annabeth scoffed in disbelief.

“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 was,” said Hermes, having made a guess as to who this ‘mr brunner’ was.

“He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.

“The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.

“Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.

“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.

“Don't look at me, not every thief or pickpocket is my kid, plus if she was my kid she wouldn't be trying. She’d be succeeding.” Hermes grumbled.

“Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.

“"Detention?" Grover asked.

“"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."

“Sure you aren't, it's not like  you managed to get into your dream college a year early or anything,” said Alex sarcastically.

“With my record I still don't understand how I did it.”

“Because you're smart. And when you get determined to do something nothing will stop you.”

“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?"

“Super philosophical G-man,” grinned Thalia.

“I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.”

“You must have been in a really bad mood,” said Frey giving percy a worried look. 

“I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. 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.

Ares coughed out something that sounded suspiciously like ‘mama's boy’, everyone ignored him.

“Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.

“I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.

“What?” screeched  Thalia, enraged.

“Remind me to authorize a group to terrorize her when we get back Thals,” muttered Alice into her partner’s hair.

“Of course.”

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

“That's gross,” exclaimed Dite, looking mildly horrified.

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

“A wave?” questioned Poseidon.

“I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"

“Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.”

“Probably literally too," Nico muttered.

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

"—the water—"

"—like it grabbed her—"

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

“As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc.,”

“That would be too easy,” snorted Alex.

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

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

Hermes looked horrified. 

That wasn't the right thing to say.

“Of course it wasn't,” exclaimed the god of travelers

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.

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

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

“Grover is best fren,” said percy with a grin. “Trying to save lil ol’ me from the scary teacher.”

She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.

"But—"

"You—will—stay—here."

Grover looked at me desperately.

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

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

Nancy Bobofit smirked.

I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.

“Your glare is terrifying,” said Rachel smiling slightly.

How'd she get there so fast?

“Monster,” Alice deadpanned.

I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.

I wasn't so sure.

“Good,” muttered Thalia.

I went after Mrs. Dodds.

“NO, DONT!” exclaimed Nico.

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.

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

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

But apparently that wasn't the plan.

“Of course it wasn’t starfish,” said Alex, petting Percy's hair.

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

Except for us, the gallery was empty.

“Of course it was,” grumbled Thalia, moving xemself in Alice's arms so that xyr face nuzzled into her neck.

Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.

Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...

“She definitely did,” Nico stated.

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

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

“Percy, do the safe thing? Never,” grumbled Magnus.

“You are just as bad as me sunshine.”

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"

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

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

“Totally,” said Rachel with a deadpan expression. 

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

Thunder shook the building.

"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

I didn't know what she was talking about.

“Of course you didn't,” Annabeth once again scoffed. “Your brain is made of seaweed.”

“I'm sorry, would you please remind me which one of us is currently in college.” Annabeth spluttered.

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. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.

“What!” exclaimed Annabeth looking horrified.

“For the record I have read it now.”

"Well?" she demanded.

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

"Your time is up," she hissed.

Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. 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.

“Fury! A fucking Fury! Hades!” Poseidon screeched.

“Peace brother. This was in the future, and I'm sure there was a reason,” said hades, glancing at Percy

“There was, it wasn't the best but there was one.”

Then things got even stranger.

“Stranger than a Fury?” asked Aphrodite.

“In my opinion at the time, probably.”

Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

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

“What's a pen going to do for you?” inquired Demeter.

Pulling a pen from her pocket and twirling it around Percy answered. “Wait and see.”

Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.

With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.

Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.

My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.

She snarled, "Die, honey!"

And she flew straight at me.

Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.

“How in Tartarus does that come naturally,” asked Rachel with a thoughtful and confused expression on their face.

“I think it's a big three thing, although Percy's instincts are stronger than me and Thals,” Nico answered, Rachel nodded accepting the explanation. 

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

Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.

“That's terrifying.”

I was alone.

There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.

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

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

“Magic mushrooms, really Coral?” asked alex”

“Hey I thought I was going crazy,” Percy grumbled indignantly, gesturing for Apollo to continue.

Had I imagined the whole thing?

“No”

I went back outside.

It had started to rain.

Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt.”

“Who?” asked Thalia and Nico, Apollo laughed as he read the next line.

I said, "Who?"

“Great minds think alike, I guess,”said Percy sarcastically.

"Our teacher. Duh!"

“Oh” 

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.

“That's rude,” exclaimed Hera.

I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.

He said, "Who?"

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

“We need to get someone to teach him to lie,” said Will, the rest of the futures nodded. (a/n when i say the futures unless i state Annabeth as well she isn't included)

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

Thunder boomed overhead.

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

I went over to him.

He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."

I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.

"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"

He stared at me blankly. "Who?"

"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."

He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at YancyAcademy. Are you feeling all right?"

“He can lie though,”Alex groaned.

“That's the end of the chapter, who wants to read next?” asked Apollo, holding up the book. Alice raised her hand.

“I'll do it.” catching the book that was just chucked at her head, she shifted her partner in her arms so that she could read.

Chapter Text

Before Alice could begin to read, there was a bright flash of light and two more figures appeared. They quickly introduced themselves as Hearth and Blitz, Magnus's sort of dads. 

Three old ladies knitting the socks of death

“You don't mean-” said Hestia paling, only to pale more when Percy nodded her head.

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. 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. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond 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 pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.

“That must have been weird,” Hearth signed, receiving a nod of agreement from Percy.

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.

“You are psycho Kelpie.”

“So are you, Pinecone face.”

Almost.

“It was grover wasn't it?” questioned Nico.

But Grover couldn't fool me. 

“Told you!” the son of Hades exclaimed, receiving a glare from a handful of people present in the room.

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

“Maybe when we get back to our own time I'll teach him to lie, ‘cause that's just sad,” said Alex, looking thoughtful.

“That sounds like a horrible idea, let's do it,” Percy half shouted from her position flopped across both her partners laps. Magnus regarded both their partners with amusement. They were right, he thought, it's a horrible idea, but he couldn't wait to see it come to fruition.

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

Alice interrupted her own reading with a deadpan expression, “no,” she exclaimed feigning surprise. “really?” 

I didn't have much 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.

Thalia nodded sagely “demigod dreams are the worst,” unsurprisingly all present demigods and Apollo? made  noises of agreement. The demigods looked at Apollo in confusion.

“What?” questioned Apollo exasperatedly. “I'm the god of prophecy, I got blessed with weird vague prophetic nightmares like the demigods, although most of the time they just cover small inconvenient things, sometimes they are scary.”

“oh”

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the HudsonValley touched down only fifty miles from YancyAcademy. 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 in the Atlantic that year.

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.

“WHAT!” shrieked Annabeth, horrified by the mere idea of failing.

“My emotions are super in tune with the weather and most of the schools I've been to haven’t done much to actually help,” explained Percy with a sigh.

 “Percy is actually really smart, in battle and out of battle. I mean you’re in college right?” Alex looked down at the girl in her lap for confirmation. 

“How?” Annabeth looked baffled.

“Well I honestly have no idea, my record is horrible. Lady Athena helped me study some and a lot of my problems in school came from either bullies, my dyslexia or the fact that I was bored out of my mind.  Future Apollo gave me some fancy glasses that tone down my dyslexia, I think he enchanted them.”

“But yes my dear Goblin,” Aphrodite cood at the adorableness that is Alex, Percy and Magnus’s relationship. “I’m working to get a degree.” Percy paused, “keep reading please.”

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.

“It means a habitual drunkard, like D,” said Apollo. Dionysus flipped him the bird, and in return Apollo held up his middle and index finger in retaliation. 

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

“That's the second to last school I ever got kicked out of.”

Fine, I told myself. Just fine.

I was homesick.

Ares scoffed, he couldn't understand how this wimp could do anything worthwhile. 

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

“I thought you liked paul?” questioned Rachel. 

“I do, this is my first stepfather. You're not going to like him.”

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.

“Look Pinecone face, it mentioned your brethren,” exclaimed Will. 

The gods stared at the son of the sun in pure unadulterated confusion. “I hate you,” Thalia aggressively mumbled, glaring at the boy, but there was no real heat behind it. 

 I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.

“He's definitely a little strange,” said Nico with a smile.

 “You do realize that we’re all extremely strange, right Death Breath. Like even by demigod standards we are weird.” Percy grinned at him, at this point were they cousins or siblings? You know what, they were definitely siblings. Percy grinned at her brother. All the demigods laughed.

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

“Sometimes I wonder if he has too much faith in me,” muttered Percy.

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.

“It's nice to know that your instincts looked out for you even before you knew,” said Magnus, smiling at Percy.

“I’m pretty sure the only reason I’m still alive is do to my instincts,” Percy whispered to the son of Frey.

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. 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 assume you know the difference now, right?” questioned Poseidon.

“Yup,” coughed Percy, giving her father a sheepish look. The god of the sea’s expression morphed to worry as he took in the look on his daughter’s face.

I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.

“I hate that feeling,” muttered Thalia, other present demigods making sounds of agreement.

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.

“Good,” murmured Athena. 

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 YancyAcademy with him thinking I hadn't tried.

“I did try,” voiced Percy.

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.

“You’re going to overhear something aren’t you?” enquired Apollo.

“You’ll just have to let Alice read and find out.”

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

“I think that is a completely reasonable excuse to eavesdrop.” said Thalia, the other demigods making sounds of agreement.

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."

“Mature? Percy? Never,” said Nico, grinning as the aforementioned demigod rolled her eyes.

"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline— "

“Summer solstice deadline?” questioned Demeter.

“You'll see,” answered Percy, “it has to do with my first quest.”

“First?” asked Poseidon, wondering what series of events led to his child going on multiple quests.

“You’ll see.”

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

“Cause that worked out so well,” snarked Will.

"Sir, he saw her... ."

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

“That’s going to work sooo well,” groaned Poseidon, the god’s eyes now fixed near permanently on his daughter.

"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion.  "You know what that would mean."

All three of the big three children scowled, “he didn't fail,” muttered Thalia grumpily.

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

“That must have been incredibly scary to hear,” said Blitz.

“Ya kinda,” said Percy, pausing to think for a second. “I think I was mostly just confused.”

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

“Sometimes I wonder what else I would have heard had I not dropped that book,”  muttered Percy.

Mr. Brunner went silent.

My heart 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.

I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.

“Good! Hide!” exclaimed Hermes.

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.

“What?” questioned Apollo.

“You’ll see, be patient,” said Percy

A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.

Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

“What happened at the solstice?” asked Athena, looking intrigued.

“If we kept reading, maybe we’d find out,” grumbled Percy exasperatedly.

"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."

“Oh no,” Rachel said, shaking their head. “Not exams, the worst torture known to mankind.”

The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.

I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.

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

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

“It would have worked had I not just heard him elsewhere.”

"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?"

"Just... tired."

“I'm sure he believed that,”  Magnus muttered sarcastically .

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

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.

Percy snorted, “I feel like some kind of danger is an enormous understatement.” if Poseidon wasn’t worried before, he definitely was now.

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.

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.

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

“Oh no,” said Thalia in dismay. “His pep talks are the worst.”

“You’ve met him?” questioned Hephaestus.

“The book will explain,” answered the huntress with a groan.

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 smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

Alice paused her reading as Nico mumbled under his breath like a mantra “murder is illegal, murder is illegal, murder is illegal. ”

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."

“Have you no tact!” exclaimed Alice, interrupting her own reading. The group from the future all sighed in exasperation.

My eyes stung.

Here was my favorite 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.

“Exactly, he really needed to at least discuss in private, not in front of all the other students, that's incredibly unprofessional of him,” said Rachel, shaking their head.

"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—"

“Cause that is so comforting,” grumbled Frey.

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

"Percy—"

But I was already gone.

On the last day of the 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.

“Such nobodies we are,” said Nico sarcastically.

“I’m a nobody,” replied the daughter of Poseidon with a grin. Most of the gods and anyone who didn't know about her trek through the sea of monsters gave her a worried glance but stayed silent after seeing the amusement on the faces of her inner circle.

They asked me what I'd be 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 fall.

“At twelve?” exclaimed Poseidon going into full overprotective dad mode. “No twelve year old should have to be worrying about those things.”

“It is what it is, it already happened to me so the best you can do is make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Percy muttered, trying to calm her father, it didn't work.

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

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

“That is incredibly rude,” said Hestia, shaking her head.

The only person I dreaded saying good-bye 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.

“Well that’s not suspicious at all,” grumbled Alex in exasperation.

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?"

“You probably scared him out of his wits with that comment,”  commented will.

“I definitely did, I still feel bad about that.”

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 hear?"

"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"

“Oh not much, just most of the conversation,” said Magnus with a fond eye roll.

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 ..."

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

His ears turned pink.

“They always seem to when he’s embarrassed.” said Nico in amusement.

From 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:

“Why are they like that?” wondered Percy aloud.

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

Nico burst out laughing, after seeing the strange looks he was receiving he explained. “I just imagined Grover as a stereotypical rich kid, and I don't know I just found it funny.” some of the others joined in his laughter as well.

"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!” scolded Thalia. 

“I know Thalia, before you say anything, please try to think about it from my perspective.” Thalia thinks for a moment before nodding.

“You are forgiven.”

It came out harsher than I meant it to.

“Good,” Thalia muttered.

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.

All year long, I'd gotten in 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 like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” questioned Poseidon.

Percy shrugged, shifting herself from across her partners to be next to Poseidon. This was a preemptive measure so that he could hold her protectively when he inevitably freaks out. 

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 notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. 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 bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. 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.

Some of the group looked alarmed, but the rest still looked confused.

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.

By the end of the paragraph everyone had figured it out, and as predicted Poseidon gently pulled Percy into his lap, holding her protectively.  Everyone was looking at Percy in worry, but she just gestured at Alice to keep reading.

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.

“No,” muttered Poseidon, face etched with worry and pain. “nonononono.”

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?"

“Percy,” groaned Thalia, drawing out the first syllable and burying xyr face in xyr hands.

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

“Exactly,” said Poseidon, holding his daughter tighter. 

Percy let out a small gasp as the air was knocked out of her. “As much as I love the affection father, you’re crushing me.”

Poseidon looked down at the child in his arms and realized that he was, in fact, crushing his daughter. Needless to say he apologized and loosened his grip so that it was comfortably snug.

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.

“No!” whimpered the king of the sea. “Please no.” he sobbed, clutching his daughter like a lifeline. Hades, seeing the distress on his brother’s face made his way over, taking the seat that had been percy’s and attempting to comfort him. The gods stared horrified, glancing between Percy and the books. The demigods merely looked amused, observing the gods frantic worry as though they knew something others don’t.

“Don’t worry, I don’t think I'll be dying anytime soon,” percy consoled, hoping to comfort the distraught gods.

“What do you mean?” questioned Apollo, who had curled into his boyfriend’s side, and looked greatly worried.

“Well I know multiple people who would raid the underworld to get me back, and I'm about 87 percent sure that both Hades and Thanatos would let them. There is also another reason I'll reveal later.” Percy's grin showed that she was enjoying messing with the gods. “Why don't you continue reading Alice.” 

Alice nodded and continued.

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

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

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

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

“I'm alive, I'm alive, I’m safe, I'm alright,”  comforted Percy, attempting to calm her frantic father. She sighed. “It would probably be best to keep reading Alice, we’ll do one more chapter after this one then take a break, ok?” 

Everyone nodded so Alice continued.

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.

The passengers cheered.

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

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

Poseidon worriedly glanced over his child.

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

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling me?"

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."

“You are very perceptive,” commented Athena absently, obviously shaken by the presence of the Morai.

"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.

“You are a scary observant sometimes,” said Will.

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

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

“Ya, that is an understatement,” snorted Hermes, some of the tension leaving the group.

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

Thalia winced. “Last time?” Inquired Demeter. 

“The book will explain,” said Rachel before Alice continued reading.

"What last time?"

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

“He’s going to scare you isn’t he,” Hearth signed.

"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.

"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?"

“Good guess Kelpie,” grinned Thalia while Percy gave a halfhearted glare.

For those curious it was a you-are-being-annoying-would-you- please-shut-up level glare, but even that would be terrifying if you weren't familiar with the daughter of the sea.

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

“That’s the end of the chapter,” stated Alice. “Who would like to read next?”

“I can,” said Demeter. Alice got up, much to the protest of the demigod in her lap, and brought the goddess of agriculture the book. 

Every one of the gods was looking kinda shaken and Percy and Hades were still trying to get Poseidon to relax. It wasn’t really working, but eventually Percy got sick of it and mumbled into her father’s chest, “Iwasnme,” almost inaudibly. 

“What was that Percy?” questioned Hades, looking at his niece in confusion, unsure of what she had mumbled.

“I-it wasn’t my thread,” the daughter of the sea said shakily, just loud enough that Hades and Poseidon could hear it. Poseidon froze.

“What?” he questioned.

Hades looked puzzled, “The fates have never done anything like that before, I don’t, what?” 

“Percy is really good at getting into situations or doing things that shouldn’t be possible,” said Thalia, laughing lightly. “You’ll see.”

“Why don’t we keep reading now?” asked Hestia. “You can discuss more at the break.” the group nodded.

Chapter Text

so i lost my doc with anything i had for this fic. and as you might have figured out, any motivation to write it. it was fun to write when i wrote it but its not really something im interested in continuing now. im going to leave it here for now, it might end up orphaned i havent decided yet. i had thought id found motivation for this one but while it was a fun early foray into fanfic writing for me, its not something that captures my muse anymore and im not really happy with how its written. im glad that people enjoyed reading it and wished for more but at the end of the day i write for me, when my muse strikes.

i think i might end up writing more of my other two published fics, and maybe rewriting some of them but im not really sure. might clean up my first ever fic and post that and play in that sandbox some more but that was a very self indulgent exploration of gender through the lens of botw link and im honestly not sure yet if its something i want to be public or not.

so as of now im officially marking this fic as unfinished and discontinued, sorry lads