Field trips to Yancy Academy were by far entertaining, but the one to the Metropolitan Museum of Art surely takes the cake on the entertaining side of things, I suppose if you think of almost dying as entertaining.

For your information, I don't think near-death experiences are entertaining, but then again, it sure spices up my boring-as-hell life.

I should probably introduce myself.

I'm Evadne Jackson, also known as Addie. I prefer Addie because my twin sister prefers Annie compared to her full name, Ianthe, and our twin brother, Percy, prefers to go by Percy instead of his full name, Perseus.

As you can see by Perseus, Ianthe, and Evadne, our mother apparently loves Greek mythology. Are we Greek? I don't know. The only thing our mother told us was that our dad got lost at sea. I think that's code for he died.

Where was I again? Oh, right.

I was on a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where things had gone from boring to terrifying in about 0.02 seconds flat.

I should probably start at the beginning.

My class was on a field trip and Percy was determined to be good this time around, since bad things always happen to the three of us during field trips, which always end up with us getting expelled.

Exhibit A: During our fifth-grade field trip to the Saratoga Battlefield, Percy had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon and somehow hit the bus with it. Meanwhile, Annie had to get into one of her famous, or infamous, verbal fights that involved Annie almost getting shoved over the stair railing in the Masonic Saratoga Monument. I got in trouble for almost breaking something in General Philip Schuyler's House, which for the record, I didn't do, but I was closer and my siblings already got in trouble, so I might as well get blamed for something anyway.

Exhibit Bat: During our fourth-grade field trip at Marine World, before Percy accidentally made our class swim with the sharks, Annie had, of course, threw some boy into the glass wall of the coral reef exhibit when he decided to pull on one of my braids. That action put us in the Bad Book when someone snitched on us by saying that we're triplets. So, of course we're lumped together as the bad seeds when one of us gets into trouble. Then I got in trouble for sneaking off the tour to go play with the Interactive Salt Marsh which soured everything else and I was made to stand in front of the tour so I can be watched better. What took the cake was Percy accidentally knocking into a lever and dropping us right into the shark tank.

Anyway...bad things happen to us on field trips and this field trip is no different.

Right now, our bully, Nancy Bobofit, seemed like she was trying her damnedest to make sure that we have a miserable time...even if it was unintentionally.

Things seemed fine, which in hindsight, was a red-flag.

Our Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner, was leading the tour. He was a man in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard. He wore a frayed tweed jacket that always smelled like coffee. He also had an amazing collection of Roman armor and weapons.

Our other chaperon was Mrs. Dodds, a mean little old lady who was fifty years old. She wore a black leather jacket despite being fifty. She came to Yancy halfway through the school year after our last math teacher had some sort of breakdown. I figured that Mrs. Dodds had intimidated the school-board into giving her a job because no one in their right mind should've hired her.

It seemed like when Mrs. Dodds first looked at Bobofit, she thought that Bobofit must've been sent from heaven and when she looked at us, she figured that Percy, Annie, and I crawled out of hell or something.

Once she made Percy erase answers out of old math workbooks. On another occasion, Annie was made to clean out the chalkboard erasers. There was one occasion where she made me scrap gum out from underneath the desks.

Mr. Brunner was talking about Greek funeral art, which Annie was absolutely enthralled by. She was even at the front of the tour, listening. Art was one of the things she loved. She said that it was the one thing that kept her still and since it didn't involve reading or anything like that, it was one of the things she loved, besides poetry.

I was standing next to Percy.

"Will you shut up?" snapped Percy, his voice echoing in the hall.

I looked over to see that Bobofit and her lackeys were snickering about something.

The group was laughing and Mr. Brunner stopped talking.

"Mr. Jackson, did you have a comment?" asked Mr. Brunner.

"No, sir," replied Percy, sounding embarrassed.

Mr. Brunner pointed to the stele, "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

I looked at the carving.

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

"Yes," replied Mr. Brunner. "And he did this because..."

"Well..." started Percy. "Kronos was the king—"

I pretended to cough into my elbow, "Titan," I corrected and pretended to cough into my elbow again,

"Titan," corrected Percy, "And...he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right?"

I noticed something going on with Annie. It looked like Mrs. Dodds was trying to drag her away, but Annie was refusing. I ditched Percy to go over to Annie's side.

"Leave me alone, you crazy bat!" shouted Annie.

I blinked and noticed how Mrs. Dodds was standing next to Mr. Brunner, like nothing happened.

My classmates busted out laughing.

"Miss Annie Jackson, did you have a comment?" asked Mr. Brunner, turning his attention to Annie.

"No, sir," mumbled Annie, was looking at the ground as if the more interesting thing that existed.

"Well, it's time for lunch," said Mr. Brunner looking at Percy and Annie. "Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

We started following, but Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson and Miss Annie Jackson, a word please."

I stopped by Percy and looked at him worried.

"Go on, Addie, we'll catch up," said Percy. "Besides, it's Mr. Brunner. He's harmless."

I nodded and followed along with Percy's roommate and best friend, Grover.

Grover...is an interesting guy.

He's scrawny and cried when he got frustrated. He was also the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy chin-beard. He also had some muscular disease in his legs that caused him to walk like it hurt. However, that didn't stop him from running to the cafeteria when it's enchilada day.

I got outside and looked up at the sky to see a huge storm brewing. I found Grover at the edge of the fountain.

"Where's Percy and Annie?" Grover asked me, sounding a little worried. I chalked it up to him worrying over being bullied. Annie and Percy were his biggest protectors.

"Mr. Brunner wanted to talk to them," I said as Mrs. Dodds passed out the school lunches from a cooler in the storage compartment in the bus. I grabbed Percy's and Annie's sack lunches. Before I could grab mine, Mrs. Dodds grabbed my wrist.

I almost squealed in surprise. Mrs. Dodds glared at me and for a moment, I thought I saw hell-fire in her eyes. Before I could actually process what I had seen, she seemed to go back to normal. I grabbed my lunch and hurried over to the fountain, as far away from my classmates as possible.

Grover followed after me.

I sat down and opened my lunch. I had a ham-and-cheese sandwich, along with an orange and a small bag of chips.

Percy and Annie emerged from the museum. They looked up at the sky. It was kind of strange that we seemed to notice the weather, while no one else did. The weather across New York has been off since Christmas. We had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. Once, half the windows of the girls' dorms had been busted by a very loud clap of thunder that seemed right above Yancy. Apparently the windows in the boys' dorms had been busted too.

Percy and Annie came over, sitting down at the fountain.

"Do you think a hurricane might be coming in?" Annie asked, grabbing her lunch as I handed Percy his lunch. She pulled the strap of her messenger bag up further on her shoulder. Her messenger bag had blue-and-white stripes with a nautical wheel encircling an anchor on it.

"Probably," I said shrugging.

"Detention?" asked Grover.

"Nah," said Percy. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off of us sometimes. I mean – I'm not a genius."

"Give him some credit, he finally realized it," joked Annie.

"I know," I replied in mock shock. "It's about time he realized it."

Grover did his weird, phlegmy bla-ha-ha laugh that always made me cringe.

I looked at Annie, "What was up with you earlier?"

"Oh, Mrs. Dodds was trying to kidnap me," said Annie like it was no big deal. "She tore a hole in my arm warmer, though." She held out her arm and turned it around revealing a hole in her black-and-blue striped arm warmer, which our mother got her for Christmas. "Oddly enough, no one, but you, seemed to notice."

Grover made that 'blah-ha-ha' laugh that caused us to look at him.

"It's not funny, man," snapped Percy irritated.

"I wasn't laughing," said Grover. "It's just weird that's all."

I was worried over that. "Should we tell someone that a teacher was trying to kidnap you, Annie?"

Annie shook her head, "No. It's fine. Just another month and we're out of here."

Percy nodded and looked at the street. I knew what he was thinking.

"Do think about it, Perce. She'll just send us back," I told him. I did want to see our mother and hug her, but I know that she'll be disappointed if we came home early.

"With that sad look too," Annie added.

Bobofit appeared in front of us, with her gang following behind like lost animals. She dumped her lunch on Grover's lap. "Oops," she said.

Annie abandoned her lunch and grabbed the front of Bobofit's shirt, "Apologize!"

I must've blinked because the next thing I knew, Annie was sitting on her butt on the ground and Bobofit was on her ass in the fountain.

Percy and I looked at each other.

"The triplets pushed me!" Bobofit screamed.

Mrs. Dodds was in front of us, smirking like she finally had a reason to get us expelled. After making sure that Bobofit was fine, Mrs. Dodds turned to us and said in a sickening sweet voice, "Now, honeys—"

"We get it, detention for a month," Annie grumbled, standing up.

"Wait!" Grover yelped, jumping up from the fountain. "It was me. I pushed her."

Mrs. Dodds scared the hell out of Grover, but here he was, taking the fall for us. It was actually nice of him to do that. She glared at Grover and snarled, "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood."

Grover started, "But—"

"You. Will. Stay. Here," ordered Mrs. Dodds.

Grover looked desperately at us, like he didn't want us to go.

"It's okay, man," said Percy, "Thanks for trying."

"Now, honeys," replied Mrs. Dodds.

Bobofit smirked and Annie flipped her off when Mrs. Dodds's back was turned. I glared at Bobofit promising her grievous harm later. We turned to face Mrs. Dodds but she wasn't there. Instead she was at the entrance of the museum, way at the top and gesturing impatiently at us to move our asses.

It was strange how ADHD worked. It's like your memory is finished building a puzzle, only to find a piece missing, leaving this hole in the picture that is just frustrating to look at.

That's how my mind worked.

Annie started, "How did she—?"

"Get up there so fast?" finished Percy.

I nodded in agreement, and we hurried up the stairs. Halfway up the stairs, Percy stopped in his tracks and looked behind him. I looked back to see that Grover was looking really freaked out, like he wanted to help us but he was helpless.

What was so worrying about us getting detention? We've had it many times before.

We continued up the steps, but we noticed that Mrs. Dodds wasn't there anymore. When we got inside, Mrs. Dodds was inside the building at the end of the entrance hall.

"Okay, this isn't so bad," said Annie. "We just got to a new shirt for Bobofit."

"Yeah, but Uggo isn't going to allow us to pay for it," I pointed out.

"There has to be something on clearance," said Percy.

Gabe was a tight-ass with money. By that, I mean that he gambles his money away, and pays for cigars and beer.

Facing the wrath of Gabe was something that we tried to avoid, but something about him set both Annie and Percy off. I just wanted to avoid Gabe, so I think I got most of our mother's temperament, but even being a doormat wasn't good or healthy. I just wanted to avoid conflict while my siblings seemed to thrive on it, Annie more so.

Mrs. Dodds was going farther into the museum so we followed after her.

Annie was beginning to grab at her straight black hair, and started tugging on a lock.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Something isn't right," she said.

We continued on from the other sections until we hit the empty Greek and Roman Art Section.

Mrs. Dodds was looking at the marble frieze of the Greek gods, as if she wanted to turn it into rubble. She was making a strange growling sound, which was usually directed at us.

"You three have been giving us problems," said Mrs. Dodds.

"All right," I said.

"Whatever you say," said Annie.

"Yes, ma'am," replied Percy.

Mrs. Dodds was tugging on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you three think that you could get away with it?"

I frowned. Okay, maybe I did cheat on my math test using the guy next to me, but I made sure to write some false answers so it wouldn't look like I had cheated.

"I didn't do anything," I lied.

"He deserved it," replied Annie.

"We'll – we'll try harder, ma'am," replied Percy.

Thunder shook the building and I grabbed onto Annie as I covered my head with my arm worried that the building will come tumbling down on top of us. Annie ducked her head.

Ha ha. Two twelve-year-old girls afraid of a little thunder storm? Yeah, well, it was embarrassing at the time, but now, with our circumstances, it makes sense.

"We are not fools, Perseus, Ianthe, and Evadne Jackson," said Mrs. Dodds. "It was only a matter of time before we found you three out. We were expecting one or maybe twins, but triplets does complicate things."

What the hell is she blathering on about? I wondered.

"Confess and you three will suffer less pain," said Mrs. Dodds.

Less pain? What the hell did that even mean? I was sure corporal punishment was banned from school many years ago.

Maybe the teachers found out where I had hidden my Christmas candy that Mom had gotten me from Sweet on America and had thrown it away. Or maybe my roommate had tattled on me about the age inappropriate book that my English teacher had lost a week prior, that somehow got wedged under my bed.

"Well?" demanded Mrs. Dodds.

"I really don't..." I started to say.

"Your time is up," hissed Mrs. Dodds interrupting whatever I had to say.

Her eyes began glowing red, her fingers started stretching, turning into talons, and her jacket seemed to turn into leathery wings.

Annie shrieked and backed into the nearest wall. She sank down onto her butt, staring up at the monster that was formally my math teacher.

Mrs. Dodds swooped down and came at me, I screamed and ducked, causing Mrs. Dodds to get her talons lodged into the wall. She struggled and Annie got up and hit Mrs. Dodds with her messenger bag. She grinned and hit Mrs. Dodds again, causing her to screech in indignation. I think Annie really wanted to do that.

Mrs. Dodds managed to dislodge herself and I ran over and tackled Annie right before Mrs. Dodds swooped in and sliced her to ribbons.

"Hey, Ugly, don't touch my sisters!" Percy shouted.

He ran over, holding a sword and swung at Mrs. Dodds. The sword sliced right through her very easily. She screeched.

Now, I imagined that blood and other gore would've come spilling out of her, but she turned into dust. Dust! The smell of sulfur and a dying screech wafted from her. I could feel the chill of evil in the air. I still had the feeling that I was being watched.

Percy was now holding a pen.

"What the hell?" asked Annie.

"I did always say that she was a monster," I pointed out jokingly.

Except I always thought she was a human monster, not a monster-monster.

"Except she's a monster-monster, not a human monster," replied Annie as if she knew what I was thinking.

It dawned on me. "What the hell just happened?"

"I don't...I don't know," replied Annie.

"I think we should go before we get left behind," said Percy.

We agreed with that and left the museum. It started raining, however the rain didn't calm me, like it usually does.

Grover was standing on the fountain with a map held over his head. I pulled my hood up and we went to him.

"I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your asses," said Bobofit. She had a towel around her from her earlier dip in the fountain. I was confused over who she was talking about.

"Who?" asked Annie.

"Our teacher. Duh!" replied Bobofit.

"Who the hell are you talking about, pizza face?" demanded Annie.

Bobofit made it obvious that she rolled her eyes and walked away with her gang following her.

"Whatever," I muttered. She was obviously going to be no help.

"Where's Mrs. Dodds?" asked Percy.

I nudged him. Did he forget that he had turned Mrs. Dodds into dust?

"Who?" asked Grover, but he had averted his eyes.

"Not funny, man," replied Percy. "This is serious."

Thunder boomed overheard and I flinched, grabbing onto Annie's arm.

"There's Mr. Brunner," said Annie.

Percy went to talk to him, but after a few moments came back, looking troubled.

"What happened?" Annie asked him.

"He said that there is no teacher named Mrs. Dodds," said Percy. "And he told me that there was never any teacher that went to the school named Mrs. Dodds."