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ɪ ᴀᴄᴄɪᴅᴇɴᴛᴀʟʟʏ ᴠᴀᴘᴏʀɪꜱᴇ ᴍʏ ᴘʀᴇ-ᴀʟɢᴇʙʀᴀ ᴛᴇᴀᴄʜᴇʀ

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

The demigods in the great hall nodded while the wizards seemed confused. 'Are they prejudiced too?' The wixen all thought. The gods were worried when they saw their children agreeing. 

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

"My deer Percy is giving advice! Is the world ending?" Astrea exclaimed in fake shock getting laughs and looks from the people in the hall.

"That was actually some good advice though" Annabeth says as she gives Percy a kiss on the check, causing the Aphrodite cabin and The Goddess herself to squeal in happiness.

Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. 

The demigods just continued nodding.

If you're a normal kid, watching this because you think it's fiction, great. Watch on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these scenes – if you feel something stirring inside – stop the movie 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.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

"You didn't warn me" Nico said from between the couch were Astrea and Apollo were cuddling him.

My name is Percy Jackson.

"NO! Its Peter Johnson!" All the campers screamed together.

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

Am I a troubled kid?

"YES" was the answer that came from the campers.

Yeah. You could say that.

" At least he's self aware" Thalia snorted while Aster laughed at the teasing.

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.

"Sounds amazing!" All the Ravenclaws, bookworms, Athena cabin, and Athena herself said.

I know – it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.

Percy could feel the glare coming from the goddess of wisdom. Athena never really warmed up to the idea of Annabeth dating him.

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 armour and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.

"You shouldn't be falling asleep in class Percy!" Annabeth said looking scandalised.

"Thank you for that description of me" Chiron said a bit sarcastically from his wheelchair.

"No prob Chiron"

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

"Jinxed it" The demigods said with amusement

Boy, was I wrong. 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.

"Woah..." all the pranksters in the room looked at Percy with respect and awe. Especially Connor and Travis. Even they hadn't been expelled that many times.

This trip, I was determined to be good.

"Jinxed it again~" sang Astrea

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

"Ewwww" was heard all around the hall and many looked at Grover with pity.

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.

"Thanks Percy" Grover said looking at said boy. "Sorry man" Percy answered with a sheepish look.

"Hold on! You nearly let your cover be blown for enchiladas!?" Annabeth asked Grover who looked defensive. "They were really good okay?"

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

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

Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

"In your hair? Really Grover?" 

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

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

"It'll be explained later onwards in the movie" Percy answered with a small smile

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.

"Preservation spells" Slytherins muttered

He gathered us around a four-metre-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 maths 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 maths teacher had a nervous breakdown.

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

"That's sus" muttered Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter.

"Katie leave that shit back in 2020"

One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old maths 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."

"Groverrrrrrrr" Aster sighed

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! Its Percy for gods sake!" 

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?"

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

The elder gods, five, out of the original six shuddered in horrid memories. 

"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. All the Gods and Goddesses looked at Percy in a horrified manner.

"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.

"Try living through it" Hera said while her siblings bar Zeus nodded along.

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

"Did he just?"

"Yes he did"

Both Athena and Ares looked at him with a shocked face. Its not like Percy just summarised such a long war in two-three sentences. Oh wait. It is.

"I mean i knew it took like 300 something centuries or however long but its not like i would explain in detail is it?" Percy answered

Some snickers from the group.

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'"

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

"Busted," Grover muttered.

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

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

'That's true' all the demigods thought. Chiron somehow always knew everything even if he didn't show it.

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

"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?"

Ravenclaws were all taking notes along with some Slytherins and Hufflepuffs.

"How is that a happy note? Other than the food i mean." Ronald Weasley, the half-brother to Fred, George, and Ginny asked but was ignored.

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

"Ugh, boys" Artemis and Thalia scoffed and then smiled at each other.

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

I knew that was coming.

I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned towards 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.

"They are and they have" 

"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."

"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."

"But what's so important about it? Its nothing but Greek Mythology!" Yelled Hermione Granger from Gryffindor, but to her dismay and anger she was ignored as well.

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 armour 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 I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life.

"I'm sorry about that Percy" apologised Chiron but Percy just waved it off with a smile.

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.

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.

"I have" Chiron mumbled sadly

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.

Hera, Hestia, Aphrodite, and Demeter looked at Zeus and Poseidon with exasperation. 

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 bag, and, of course, Mrs Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.

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.

"Listen to me Percy," Astrea took his face in her hands and made him turn to her, "you are not a freak ok? You're the most loyal, loveable, and stupid person i've ever met, not to mention you're MY brother"

"Thanks sis?"

"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."

"I really am sorry Percy" Chiron said again but Percy being Percy of course waved it off.

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?"

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

"Grover we really need to work on your comforting skills" Ginny said looking at him with a smile

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.

"Momma's boy" Ares smirked but Percy didn't bother to respond. 

"Shut up Ares, she's my mom too, and you don't wanna mess with me again do you?" Astrea said with a dangerous glint in her eyes. Ares gulped and looked away. Even the gods were scared of Astrea and the things she could do.

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

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.

The great hall bursts into shouts going against Nancy Bobofit as Grover blushes.

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

"Dude! You just ruined Cheetos for me" Travis Stoll called out

I tried to stay cool. The school counsellor 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.

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!"

"Your first power usage! I'm so proud! My little baby!" Astrea smothered him with hugs and kisses, embarrassing Percy in front of everyone who watched amused.

Mrs Dodds materialized next to us.

"Very sus" muttered Katie again

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.

"You're always in trouble Perce!" Grover exclaimed

"No i'm not! It just somehow finds me!" Percy replied back a little annoyed

Meanwhile Harry Potter couldn't help but think how similar he was to this 'Percy' kid.

As soon as Mrs Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs Dodds turned on me. 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 textbooks."

"Never guess your punishments" All the pranksters in the hall chorussed

That wasn't the right thing to say.

"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.

"Very loyal friend" Molly Weasley said nodding at him

"Thanks?"

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. I then turned to face Mrs Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.

How'd she get there so fast?

"Uh oh! Monster danger" demigods chorused with little panicked looks but some seemed like they were looking forward to hearing about what happened. Their hero's first monster attack and encounter.

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 counsellor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.

I wasn't so sure.

I went after Mrs Dodds.

Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr Brunner, like he wanted Mr Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr Brunner was absorbed in his novel.

"It was a very interesting novel!" Chiron defended himself

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. 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.

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.

Seeming as if he had realised something, Poseidon turned to his elder brother with a glare. "If i think i'm right about who that is, i will kill you Hades!"

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 . . .

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

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

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

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.

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. 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.

All the bookworms in the hall including Annabeth and Athena glared at Percy.

"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 shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.

"WHAT!?" All the wixen in the hall shouted

Then things got even stranger.

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.

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 any more. It was a sword – Mr Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.

Mrs Dodds spun towards 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.

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 sulphur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.

The demigods were looking at Percy with barley concealed awe. It came naturally. No wonder he was the only person other than Astrea to be able to defeat Luke in a spar.

Meanwhile the wixen were looking at the boy with horror. They didn't think he was doing it for self defense. He just killed someone!

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.

Had I imagined the whole thing?

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 Blaise Zabini from the Slytherin table

I said, "Who?"

"Our teacher. Duh!"

I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.

She just rolled her eyes and turned away.

I asked Grover where Mrs Dodds was.

He said, "Who?"

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

"Grover, after this you're getting lessons in lying from me" Hermes said as he looked at the satyr

"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 it over. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.

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

He stared at me blankly. "Who?"

"Now that's how to lie!"

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

He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned.

"Percy, there is no Mrs Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"

And then the screen goes blank.

"And that's the end of this scene I guess" Annabeth said

"What the hell just happened?" Zacharias Smith shouted from the Hufflepuff table

"It'll all be explained later in the movies" Percy said

"Who want's to continue watching?" Many hands were raised and the movie was started again.

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Sya Notes ! 

First chapter done! Hope you enjoyed it so far. Next update will be soon hopefully.

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