As the days went on, it seemed less likely that the whole school had come together to play a practical joke on Percy and Sophie. So that left only a few explanations.
1) they were crazy. delusional. deranged. and had hallucinated the entire thing
2) .....Ok...so maybe Percy couldn't really think of any other explanation.

He didn't know what he would do without Sophie. He figured if he was slowly losing his mind it was nice to be losing it alongside his bestfriend.

Sophie and Percy knew Grover was lying. Sophie said her great intuition never steered her wrong. Percy had rolled his eyes and said her intuition had nothing to do with it. Grover was just a terrible liar.

Percy continued to have nightmares about the museum. In his last one, he had dashed infront of Sophie  with full confidence and tried to stab the Fury with a ballpoint pen. Not a sword. The Fury easily snapped the pen between her talons. He thankfully woke up right before they were inevitably killed or eaten or whatever the monster had intended to do to them.

The three friends had been on their way to class when Nancy Bobofit roughly bumped her shoulder into Sophie. Luckily Grover steadied her before she could fall, but Percy lost it. He ripped Grover's cap off of his curly head and chucked it as hard as he could at the back of Nancy's head. Which apparently was pretty hard because she fell flat on her face.

His grades had also plummeted, but the final straw had been in English when Mr. Nicoll asked him why he was too lazy to study for the test. He called the teacher an old fart, earning a loud laugh from Sophie at the back of the class. She however, was not laughing later when Percy told her that he was not allowed to return to Yancy Academy next year.

Sophie's feelings were slightly hurt when Percy expressed how much he did not care that he would not be returning next year. She tried not to take it personally, she knew Percy didn't mean it that way, but she was afraid that his expulsion would mean the end of their friendship. And that made her sadder than she would ever like to admit.

Sophie and Percy were sitting on the bench outside the school watching as cars drove past, it was an early Sunday morning and the two of them were bored.

"Yellow car!" Sophie called pointing to the one that drove past.

Percy groaned rolling his eyes "How am I supposed to find an orange car?"

Sophie just shrugged playing with the rings on her fingers "Dunno. A van maybe?"

The girl moved over so her head was on Percy's lap as she pulled apart the daisy she had. She was staring up at Percy, her beautiful brown eyes a golden color. "You doing anything for the summer?"

Percy shrugged "Dunno. My mom might take us to Montauk, but I'm not sure if Gabe will let us go. Said it costs too much money, you doing anything?" He asked playing with one of her blond locks.

"Maybe." Sophie said "Uncle Rodger said we might go visit Nanna. There's an Ice rick near her, since the lake won't be frozen over this time of year. He also said we might go down and visit Dad if social work allows it."

"How do you feel about that?"

"About what."

"About..." Percy said "You know, seeing your dad."

Honestly she wasn't sure what to feel. She hadn't seen her dad in what? Four, five years. After her mom had taken Leila (and not returned with her), her dad had called the police, yet social work didn't trust Sophie to live with him, they said it wasn't safe, hence why she was living with her uncle.

She always felt like a burden to her dad, and like her mom had said plenty times- she was never planned. Sophie's dad tried to be good with her, he just wasn't and it wasn't entirely his fault. He never really had a father figure growing up.

So Sophie said "It might be nice, I've missed him a bit. But I prefer living with Uncle Rodger." She did, her uncle was an amazing guardian.

Percy nodded looking back towards the road, he stared for a minute before calling out "Orange van!"

Sophie twisted her head to see an orange construction van driving past.

"Now you have to find green." Percy grinned.

She groaned sitting back up and adjusting her skirt. She wasn't nuts on the skirts, she'd rather wear cargos, but they weren't her least favorite. There were worse.

"Where do you live?" Percy suddenly asked.

Sophie turned to face him "Sorry?"

He quickly shook his head holding his hands out in mock defense "No not like that. So we can meet up in the summer."

"Ohhhh."

"Yeah."

"Yeah I live in the city," she said. "In an apartment off of Shepard's Ave. You know the coffee shop on that corner? Across from that is the pizza place and next to that is-"

"The book store?" Percy said excitedly. "And then on the street behind that is the burger place, and across from the burger place is the apartments?"

Sophie nodded "Yeah well I live there."

"In the apartments!?" Percy asked his eyes lighting up.

Sophie shook her head "No, above the book store."

Percy smiled "I live in the apartments."

"Sweet. We can meet up-"

A voice called from behind "You have to come in now!"

Sophie hopped up from the seat and grabbed Percy's hand dragging him into the building.

After the blood had rushed to their heads, the two begrudgingly sat up and tried to focus on studying.

That was until Percy threw the textbook across the room.

"No more!" Percy cried, his voice muffled from the pillow that his face was in.

Sophie dropped her book flopping on the bed next to him "Like what's the point in school? When am I going to need to know the periodic table? Or about Greek gods?"

Percy blew his messy hair out of his face. "We could go talk to Mr. Brunner," he suggested.

"No thank you." Sophie shivered.

"Why?"

Sophie gave Percy an 'are you serious?' look. "Uh, how about the fact that when we were about to become dark angel food, he shows up out of nowhere, yells 'wahoo!' and throws a pen at you. I should have got the pen!"

Percy rolled his eyes and grabbed Sophie's arm, pulling her towards the door. All while ignoring her protests.

Sophie and Percy reached Mr Brunner's office and saw that the door was ajar. Voices coming from inside halted them from entering. And one of those voices was definitely Grover.

"...Percy and Sophie sir, I'm worried."

"...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 them." Mr. Brunner said. "The boy needs to mature."

"But he may not have time. They both may not have time. The summer solstice deadline. And Sophie sir, if-"

"The issue can be resolved without either of them. Let them enjoy their ignorance while they still can."

"Sir, they saw her..."

"Their imagination."

"but...both of them?" Grover said.

"The Mist over the rest of the students and staff will be enough to convince them."

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

Fail at what?

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

Percy dropped the Mythology textbook to the floor, and the voices ceased.

Heart hammering in her chest, Sophie picked up the textbook and backed away from the door with Percy. A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door. Percy's eyes darted around looking for an escape. He paniced when Sophie grabbed him and pulled him into a room.

He pulled her into the corner and they both crouched. Percy could feel sweat drip from his brow. They heard the slow sound of clop clop clop, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside their door.

"My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice," Mr. Brunner spoke.

"I could have sworn..." Grover said.

"Go back to the dorm. You have a long day of exams tomorrow," Brunner told Grover.

Even after the footsteps had long ceased, Sophie and Percy waited in the dark for what felt like forever. Sophie was the first to speak.

"What the fuck? I don't want to fucking die!" She hissed.

"Filter." Percy said. Sophie rolled her eyes (still looking rather scared.)

Percy walked Sophie back to her dorm first, still carrying the Mythology book that had almost just ruined their lives. When they arrived at her door Sophie turned to Percy and said, "So am I supposed to just go to sleep knowing we're going to die or...?"

"We're not going to die." Percy said, trying to make himself believe it.

"Night Perce," She waved, softly closing the door behind her.

"Night Soph," Percy whispered out. He stood staring at her door for a few moments, thinking about everything they'd overheard from Brunner and Grover, and although he couldn't make sense of most of it, there was one thing he was now certain of.

On the last day of term, Percy sat waiting outside Yancy for Sophie and Grover to join him. After Mr. Brunner had basically called him a hopeless freak in front of the whole class, he was ready to just go home and see his mom.

He spotted Sophie clumsily coming down the steps of the school, struggling to hold her backpack and duffel bag that was slightly open; the top of a hockey stick poking out.

"Need any help?" He asked, silently laughing at her.

Sophie dragged her bag down the rest of the stairs dropping it at her feet when she got to the bottom.

"You got everything?" Percy asked.

Sophie looked at her bags "Everything but the ball I hit out the window."

Percy snickered.

Him and Sophie had been in her dorm, and Sophie thought it would be a good idea to play hockey. It was not a good idea. The ball flew across the room hitting the window and breaking it.

"Have you talked to Grover today?" Sophie asked, trying –and failing- to zip up her bag.

"No," said Percy, "But he said the other day he'd be taking the bus." Percy looked at her while she nodded. Her eyes were sunken in and tired, and he was sure he had a similar look about him as-well.

Percy saw Grover coming down the steps towards them. Still put off by Grover's strangeness as of late, he avoided looking at him and instead craned his neck to see the Greyhound approaching down their street.

"Rides here. Let's go," He picked up Sophie's bag off the ground and threw it over his other arm, making his way towards the vehicle. Sophie followed behind him with a smile.

Grover sat across from Percy and Sophie on the bus. Percy watched as he continuously glanced down the aisle, as if he were expecting something bad to happen. Sophie tried to ignore Grover's odd behavior. She sat curled up against the window playing with a lighter, somehow she never worried about getting burnt. Percy however, found it very hard to block out Grover's anxious energy, until finally, he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Looking for Kindly One's?" He asked sarcastically.

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat, while Sophie flicked off the lighter too listen.

"What? N-no! no what do you mean?"

"Grover," Sophie put her hand on his knee. "You're a really bad liar." She told him bluntly.

Grover's ears turned pink.

He shook his head and fished a business card out of his shirt pocket.

"Just take this okay? In case you need me this summer."

Grover underwood
keeper

Half-blood Hill
Long Island, New York
(800)-009-0009

"Keeper?" Sophie whispered to herself.

"What's Ha-" Percy started before Grover cut him off.

"Don't say it out loud!" he yelped. "That's just my um, summer address."

Percy blinked at him.

"Why would we need you?"

Sophie winced at the way Percy worded that and resisted the urge to kick him.

Grover blushed and fiddled with his hands. "Look, guys the truth is, I-I kinda have to protect you."

Percy gave Grover a blank stare while Sophie tilted her head slightly. While the three of them obviously looked out for one another during the school year, it was often Percy and Sophie who found themselves defending Grover from bullies, not the other way around.

"Grover," Percy said, "What exactly are you protecting us from?"

The grinding noise below them that followed Percy's ominous question made Sophie jump to her feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard filling the whole bus. The driver pulled the Greyhound over to the curb.

Percy let Sophie go infront as they filed out of the bus. They were on a stretch of country road. On the other side of the road, across four lanes, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

No customers; just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs, knitting socks that looked as if they were made for bigfoot.

She moved her focus from the socks to the old ladies, and was startled to see they were all looking directly at her.

"Are they looking at you or me?" Percy whispered towards her, having also seen the women.

"Lemme see." Sophie turned her feet in and out, shuffling to the side a few feet away from Percy.

2 of the ladies seemed to stay focused in Percy's direction. However, the middle one had clearly followed Sophie's movement. She did the shuffle back towards Percy side and whispered to him, "Both of us," She confirmed.

"What? Do they think those stocks would fit me?" He laughed.

"Definitely." Sophie snickered.

"Not funny guys, not funny at all," Grover muttered, nervously dancing in place as if that would make the bus doors open faster.

Sophie gave him a weird look and focused her attention back on the trio of grandmas. The middle one, who still had her eyes set on Sophie, lifted a rather large pair of scissors and slowly brought it towards her string of yarn.

Time seemed to slow as the old woman lined up the scissor and snip.

A odd shiver ran down Sophie's spine.

The Greyhound doors had finally reopened and Grover forcefully pushed his two friends back onto the bus. They sat back down in their previous seats. Grover was breathing heaving and nervously wringing his hands together. Sophie gave him a concerned look but took her lighter back out watching as the flames danced.

Sophie loved her lighter. Watching the fire swirl about gave her such satisfaction, it reminded her of how she used to go camping with Leila and her dad. It was soothing, and it made her feel less—ADHD-ey?

"Grover," Percy said, "Are you alright?"

"Tell me what you saw," He blurted out.

Percy blinked before telling Grover what they saw.

"Oh gods, Oh gods," Grover mumbled, bringing his hands up to grip his curly hair. Sophie glanced towards him, still wildly confused but nevertheless concerned about Grover's current state. Although she made a face at Grover's word choice, 'gods.'

"And they were looking at both of you?" Grover asked.

"Uhh yeah," Percy shrugged cluelessly.

Grover made a deflated noise and sunk further into his seat. "sixth grade. Oh, why do they never make it past sixth grade."

Sophie's eyes went wide and turned to mouth 'what?!' in Percy's direction.

"Grover what? What does that mean?" Percy asked. Grover gave no response and shook his head dejectedly.

"Grover...the string being cut, does that mean that...someone's going to die?" Sophie asked slowly. She had prepared for Grover to laugh at her silly thought. She would definitely have preferred that reaction anyway. But Grover just lifted his head up slowly and gave her a terribly sad look. He lowered his head again and Sophie could of sworn she heard him say, 'I'm sorry.'

______

Grover made Percy and Sophie promise that they would not leave the station without him.

The promise apparently meant nothing to Percy.

When Grover went to the bathroom, Percy grabbed Sophies duffel bag and threw it over his shoulder before making a run towards the street. Sophie reluctantly followed.

"Percy!" She called catching up with him, "What are you-"

Percy flagged down a taxi and threw the bags into the backseat. He turned around and seized Sophie by the arm, basically throwing her into the cab as well. Sophie huffed and blew her hair out of her face, as Percy threw himself in after her and gave the driver directions.

She crossed her arms and watched as Percy tried to avoid her gaze. Her staring wore him down before he finally blurted, "I'm sorry!"

"You made us leave our handicapped friend alone at a bus stop."

"I said I'm sorry!" Percy said again, clearly feeling bad now. "I just couldn't stand him looking at us like that. Like he was already deciding what flowers to put on our caskets."

"He clearly doesn't know you very well then. You'd obviously want blue flowers. Hmm maybe blue roses, do you like azurea's?" Sophie joked.

"I'd rather not think about the theme of my own funeral Soph," Percy said.

"I'd host you a great funeral, it would be like a disco party, and I'd give the best speech ever."

Percy looked at her "Do they give speaches in funerals."

Sophie shrugged.

They did at her sisters, her dad gave her a speech. Then so did her uncle.

The two settled into a comfortable silence after they saw the weird looks the driver was giving them through the rear view mirror. It had started to rain outside, making the driver roll up his window. As a result, the car began to lightly fill up with smoke from the cigarette the driver was smoking. Percy dramatically held his breath.

When the cab had come to a stop near Percy's apartment, Percy ushered Sophie out of the car aswell, not wanting her to be stuck breathing in the scent of tobacco alone.

They ran through the now heavy rain, towards the steps that were covered by awning overhead. Percy suggested that Sophie come in and wait til the storm settled down, so she wouldn't have to catch a taxi in the pouring rain. Sophie agreed, hoping to meet Percy's mom as she seemed like such a wonderful lady.

The two entered the small apartment. Sophie was unsure if she should leave her bags at the door, but when she heard a voice from the living room that made Percy tense up next to her, she decided to hold onto her belongings to relieve some of her anxious energy.

Gabe Ugliano- a fitting name, Sophie thought- was sitting playing poker on the couch with his buddies. The TV was blaring and empty beer cans were scattered on the table.

"So, you're home," Smelly Gabe said, without removing the cigar from his lips.

"Where's my mom?" Percy asked.

"Working, Got any money?"

Wow, Percy was right. This guy was bad.

"No," Percy said plainly.

Gabe finally looked up from his poker chips. His gaze moved from Percy to Sophie and he looked her over critically.

"Who's this you got here?" He asked taking a drag from his cigar. Sophie squirmed and avoided his gaze, but she thought if she looked she would see him smirking. She debated greeting the man politely, but thought better of it. She knew it would be better for Percy, as well as herself, if they kept this interaction as short as possible.

Percy balled his fists and stepped to the side to block his stepdad's view of his friend. Sophie heard Gabe give an amused huff.

"You took a cab here, I know you got money," Gabe said gruffly. He snuffed out his cigar and looked as if he was about to rise out of his place on the couch.

Percy panicked and reached deep in his pocket to pull out the wad of dollars in change he had from the cab ride.

"Fine," Percy said bitterly, slapping the wad of bills on the table, "Hope you lose."

He lead Sophie in front of him and started to head towards his room.

"Saw your report card boy!" Gabe called, "I wouldn't go actin' smart with me now."

Sophie heard one of his buddies say something that had Gabe slapping his knee and laughing. She didn't hear what, but she figured Percy did, based on the way he went rigid and grit his teeth.

He ushered Sophie to his door faster, and slammed the door once inside, making Sophie jump.

"Sorry," He apologized.

"It's okay," She said, rolling her shoulders trying to act more comfortable as to not make Percy feel bad.

"I should've made sure he wasn't home," Percy said, more to himself.

Sophie quickly looked around his room for something to bring up to distract him, but found that the room was bare of anything she'd expect a teenage boy to have.

Percy must have noticed her confusion and said, "Yeah, he sorta makes this his office when I'm away." To prove his point, he opened his closet door and an array of Percy's clothes, comic books and other miscellaneous items spilled out from the closet. Percy winced at the mess that now lay beneath his feet.

"Ah," Sophie said, "Now this room screams Percy Jackson." She threw her bag in the corner and kicked a shirt out of the way and sat down on his bed next to him.

They sat in silence for a moment. Sophie thought it was comfortable, she looked around 'his' room inspecting his stuff.

"Gabe really is bad hu?" She asked looking at all his step dad's stuff.

Percy nodded "I don't even know why my mom married him, she doesn't seem to love him."

"Yea I-"

The door handle rattled and Percy froze and turned his head towards the door, but to his relief a kind and loving voice filled the room.

"Percy dear, do you-"

Sally Jackson's eyes widened slightly at the sight of Sophie. "Oh hello," She smiled at the girl.

"Hi mom!" Percy smiled the brightest Sophie had seen in days. Mrs. Jackson strode into the room and wrapped her son in a tight hug. "Oh Percy how are you? Oh look at that! You've grown again since Christmas," She held her now embarrassed son at arms length to examine him. "Oh and you must be Sophie," She said turning to greet said girl.

"Oh, yes, it's nice to meet you Mrs. Jackson," Sophie smiled.

"You can call me Sally dear, Percy talked about you a lot in his letters-"

"Ok ok, thanks mom missed you too." Percy said, becoming red from embarrassment.

Sally winked at Sophie and made her way to sit on the bed. "I've got a bag of sweets and some time to kill, I'd love to hear about both of your school years."

Percy practically ran to grab the bag of candy and sat down next to his mom. Sophie followed suit and sat next to him. Sally listened as the two recounted all their good and less than stellar moments from Yancy. Ofcourse leaving out the monster attack and all of Grover's weirdness the last few days.

"Will your parents be worried you haven't come home yet?" Sally asked Sophie.

"Oh, yeah I should probably go. My Uncle expected me a few minutes ago. Thank you so much for having me," She smiled.

Sophie was about to leave when Sally spoke up again "Dear, what's your second name again?"

Sophie found the question a bit strange but shrugged it off. Sally probably wanted to know her son's best friend's second name. "Sophie Jones."

Sally nodded thoughtfully "And your uncle, Rodger Jones?"

Sophie looked at her for a second a bit perplexed "Yes." She said slowly.

Sally nodded again and told her to wait, then she left the room and headed into the hallway.

Sophie looked for a second where the one and only Sally Jackson had been stood a second ago.

"What just happened?" Percy asked from beside her, also looking at where his mom had been.

Sophie shrugged watching as Sally came back round the corner and back into Percy's room.

"Thank you for having me Sally, but I should probably get home now." Sophie said politely.

"It was so great to finally meet you. Why don't you write down your house number. Percy will give you a call to make sure you get home alright." She gave Percy a discreet, sly smile that made him look down at his feet.

It was still slightly drizzling when Percy stood with her and helped her waved down a cab. He looked in the front window to make sure the driver was a semi-normal looking guy, before saying goodbye to Sophie, promising that they'd see eachother again soon.

Neither one of them aware of how soon that would actually be.

Mr. D's at it again LMAO I love how theres so many copies of the sun and the star, its my fav book tbh. I also love HoH (house of Hades)

What's ur fav book?