Chapter Text
Odysseus wrote on the black board, “The war wrapped up rather quickly after the death of Hitler. Germany surrendered on May 8th 1945, though Japan didn't quite want to give up. So,” He set the chalk down as he turned to address the uniformed children. “Does anyone know what America's response?”
A few hands went up, from the back of the seated students a disguised Grover pointed at an olive skinned young girl with dark hair who had her hand up.
“Bianca?” Odysseus called her name.
“In August they dropped two atomic bombs on the country. One on Hiroshima , the other on the city of Nagasaki.” Bianca Di Angelo answered.
“Correct.” Odysseus nodded. Before he could say anything more the bell rang signaling the end of class. He removed his glasses as he addressed the leaving students. “Alright, everyone going home for Christmas, enjoy your vacation. The rest of you enjoy your weekend, remember Monday we'll be hosting a winter dance. And sadly no you can not wear anything other than your uniforms.” he chuckled a bit at the groans from his students. “Bianca, if you and Grover could stay behind please?”
Once the classroom had emptied Odysseus came around to the front of his desk to stand before the two. “Biance, Grover here has brought something a little concerning to my attention.”
“Am I in trouble, Professor Athanatos?” Biaca asked, looking a little nervous. “I told Grover I was fine.”
“No you aren't in trouble, he's just concerned with how much Dr. Thorn has been singling out you and your little brother, Nico was it?” Odysseus asked.
He and Grover had been undercover at the school for a couple weeks now looking for new demigods. With the camp numbers dwindling a little every day they were getting desperate. Chiron's tail hair was even falling out. Odysseus was feeling a little spread thin between helping Percy recover from that summer and helping the remaining campers prepare for a possible war. Grover had already been here a week longer than him and had sent word of two demigods at the school. With a little magic and manipulation of the mist Odysseus had taken position as the history teacher for the older siblings class. He'd wanted to send Grover back to camp but no amount of arguing with the satyr would change the boy's mind. So the pair of them infiltrated West Over Hall, almost immediately Odysseus got the sense of monster. Specifically from the aforementioned Dr. Thorn. Odysseus knew the man was no man but a sort of monster, what he wasn't sure. When he realized he was Odysseus wanted to immediately dust the bastard, however in a school of children there was only so much he could do. Plus with two potential demigods at risk they had to be careful.
Bianca looked down nervously, “He… hasn't done anything bad. He just asks weird questions like if we know who our parents are, how long we lived in that hotel before coming here.”
Odysseus arched a brow in curiosity. “Hotel?”
Before the girl could answer the door was opened and a little boy about ten hurried in, he looked exactly like his sister. Since coming here, Odysseus had only seen Bianca up to this point. Seeing the boy hurrying toward them, Odysseus was hit with a sense of dejavu from roughly forty years ago during one of his more extended stays at the Lotus Hotel and he saw the same boy running around looking for his sister. He hasn't aged a day past that.
“Bianca, what's taking you? You promised to play Mythomagic with me.” Nico De Angalo said approaching his sister. He looked up at Odysseus and recognition filled his eyes as he smiled up at the man. “Mr. Ody? When did you start teaching here?”
“Not too long ago, Bambino.” Odysseus returned the kid's smile. “Still into Mythomagic I see.”
“Yeah! I'm still missing the Hades action figure but he's so hard to find." Nico nodded.
“Thanks for worrying about us, Professor Athanatos, but we can take care of ourselves.” Bianca said, grabbing her little brother's hand. “Come on, Nico, let's go.”
She pulled the boy away behind her leaving the classroom and the remaining occupants behind.
“You know them, Ody?” Grover asked, looking at the immortal king.
“Yes, and if they were in the lotus hotel for as long as I think then things may have just gotten a little complicated.” Odysseus nodded. “Much as I don't want to, we may need to call the others for this one.”