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LOOK, i didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advise is: get rich and run away, i mean, that's what i would do but running wouldn't last forever, they'll probably find you and kill you— just saying.

Or, you can take trashy percy advice: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mother or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.

Being a half-blood isn't bad, it has its perks i would say, like this awesome ring-sword— okay, percy's taking over because i keep getting 'distracted.'

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

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. Don't say i didn't warn you.

My name is Percy Jackson and that's my sister, Pandora Jackson.

We're both twelve years old. Until a few months ago, we were both boarding students at yancy academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.

Are we troubled kids?

Yeah. You could say that. we could start at any point in our short miserable lives 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.

I know— it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our latin teacher, was leading this trip, so we had hopes.

Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and scruffy beard and frayed tweed, 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 and buffy to sleep.

I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, i hoped for once me and pandora wouldn't get in trouble.

Boy, was i wrong.

See, bad things happen to us on field trips. Like at at our fifth-grade school, when we went to the saratoga battlefield, we had this accident with a revolutionary war cannon. We weren't aiming for the school bus— well, i wasn't anyway, But of course we got expelled anyway.

And before that, at our fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the marine world shark pool, and pandora pointed a lever on the catwalk and i sort of hit it and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that.. well, you get the idea.

This trip, we were determined to be good. All the way into the city, we put up with nancy bobofit, the freckly redhead kleptomaniac girl, hitting our best friend grover in the back of the head with chucks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

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 in 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.

Anyway, nancy bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew percy and pandora couldn't do anything back to her because they were already on probation. The headmaster had threatened them with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.

"I'm going to kill her," Percy mumbled and pandora glared at nancy, "We have to be quiet about it, we have to plan it." Percy looked to his sister and then nodded.

"Good idea."

Grover tried to calm the both of them down, "It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of nancy's lunch.

"That's it." Percy started to get up, making pandora get up with him but grover pulled them back into their seats, "You're already on probation," He reminds. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."

Looking back on it, percy wish he or his sister would've decked nancy bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess we were about to get ourselves into.

Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelerchair, guiding them through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and orange pottery.

It blew percy's mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.

He gathered them around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling them how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about their age. He told them about the carvings on the sides.

Percy and pandora were trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around them were talking, and everytime percy or pandora told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give them the evil eyes.

Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she's 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 their last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.

From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved nancy bobofit and figured percy and pandora were devil spawn.

She would point her crooked finger at them and say, 'Now, honey,' real sweet, and they knew they were going to get after-school detention for a month.

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

Mr. Brunner kept talking about greek funeral a little. Finally, nancy bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, percy knew pandora was trying very hard to concentrate on Mr. Brunner, so he turned and said. "Will you shut up?"

It came out louder than he meant to. The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.

"Mr. Jackson," Mr. Brunner looked at percy, "Did you have a comment?" pandora watched as percy's face turned red and giggled a bit, "No, sir." Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele.

"Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?" Percy looked at the carving, he felt a flush of relief, because he actually recognized it. "That's kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Yes." Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied, "And he did this because.." He trailed off, "Well.." Percy paused and tried to rack his brain to remember, "Um.." He glanced at pandora who was snickering silently.

"Kronos was the king god, and—" He glared at his sister and turned back to chiron, "God?" Brunner asked, "Titan." Percy corrected himself.

"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!" Pandora glared at the girl then looked back to percy, "and so there was this big fight between the gods on the titans, and the gods won." Some snickers came from behind them.

"Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'please explain why kronos are his kids.'" Nancy mumbled to her friend.

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "To paraphrase Miss bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?" He questioned, "Busted." Grover muttered and pandora grin slightly, "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.

Percy thought about his question, and shrugged, "I don't know, sir." He looked at pandora who also shrugged, "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?" Brunner asked.

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses. Grover, pandora and Percy were about to follow when Mr. Brunner called percy's name.

Percy told grover and pandora to keep going, his sister of course, insisted she stayed, She frowned when she saw the look on Mr. Brunner's face, "You must learn the answer to my question." Brunner told percy.

"About the titans?" Percy asked. "About real life. And how you 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. And you, Pandora." He glanced at the girl who frowned even more.

Percy wanted to get angry, this guy always pushed them 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 challenges 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 percy and pandora to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that they have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and they have never made above a c— in their lives. No— he didn't expect them to be as good; he expected them to be better. And they just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.

Percy 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 told percy and pandora to go outside and eat their lunch.

The class gathered around on the front steps of the museum, where they 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.

Percy and pandora figured it was global warming or something, because the weather across new york state had been weird since christmas. They had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lighting strikes. The two siblings wouldn't be surprised if it were a hurricane blowing in.

Nobody else seem to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket someone from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.

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

"Detention?" Grover asked, "Nah." Percy said, "Not from brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean— i'm not a genius." pandora nodded, "He even added me in there! I mean, come on, i'm a genius. Let's be honest here." Her lips turned into a proud smile.

"Didn't you almost get a d, last year?" Her smile dropped and she glared at percy who had a smirk on his face, "I'm taking away your candy." Percy shook his head. "I'm telling mom."

"Mom isn't going to do anything because, she loves me more. I'm her favorite."

Here's the thing, percy's mom isn't really pandora mom, fleur, pandora's mom disappeared when they were young, and percy's mom has been raising the two alone ever since, she always talked about fleur, just so they don't forget her.

"Can i have your apple?" Grover asked after a while and percy didn't have much of an appetite, so he let him take it. Percy and his sister watched the stream of cabs going down fifth avenue, and thought about their mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where they sat.

They hadn't seen her since christmas. They wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug them and be glad to see them, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send them right back to yancy, remind them that they had to try harder, even if it were their sixth school in six years and they were probably going to get kicked out again.

They wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give them. 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.

Percy and pandora were about to unwrap their sandwiches when nancy bobofit appeared in front of them with her friends— they'd guess she'd gotta tired of stealing from the tourists— and dumped her half-eaten lunch in grover's lap.

"Oops." She grinned at percy and pandora with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid cheetos. pandora giggled at that thought.

"What are you giggling at?" Nancy scowled at pandora who smile dropped and she looked down, Percy tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told him a million times, 'Count to ten, get control of your temper.' But he was so mad his mind went blank. A wave roared in his ears.

Percy doesn't remember touching her, but the next thing he knew, nancy was sitting in her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!" pandora stood up quickly and looked at percy.

"Why'd you push her!" She exclaimed, "I didn't push her!" Percy denied.

Mrs. Dodds materialized next to them, Some of the kids were listening but percy didn't care, he knew he was in trouble again, and if it meant he was in trouble, so was pandora

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 percy and pandora. There was triumphant fire in her eyes, as if percy'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester and was going to blame pandora for it too.

"Now, honey—" Mrs. Dodds started, "I know." Percy grumbled, "A month erasing workbooks." Pandora hit his side knowing that wasn't the right thing to say, "Come with me. You too." She pointed pandora liz.

"What? I didn't even—"

"Wait!" Grover yelped, "It was me. I pushed her." Percy and pandora stared at him, stunned. They couldn't believe he was trying to cover for them. Mrs. Dodds scared grover to death.

She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood." She said, "But— He went to speak but she cut him off, "You—will—stay—here." Grover looked at them desperately.

"It's okay, man." Percy told him and pandora nodded in agreement. "Thanks for trying."

"Honey." Mrs. Dodds barked at them, "Now." Nancy bobofit smirked. They both gave her their deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then they turned to Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at them to come on.

"How'd she get there so fast?" pandora asked and Percy grinned, "Maybe it's our ADHD, our brains our misinterpreting things. I don't know." He shrugged,

"Is that even a word." She questioned and percy looked to her. "is it?"

Pandora shrugged and they went after Mrs. Dodds.

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

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

They thought she was going to make them buy a new shirt for nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan.

They followed her deeper into the museum. When they finally caught up to her, they were back in the greek and roman section. Except for them, the gallery was empty.

"This is weird." She muttered to percy who nodded as 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.

"It got weirder." Percy looked to pandora then looked back at Mrs. Dodds, even without the noise, they 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 and The two shared a nervous look and did the safe thing, "Yes, Ma'am." They chorused. 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,' Percy thought nervously. 'It's not like she's going to hurt us.'

"We'll— We'll try harder, ma'am." Thunder shook the building. "We are not fools, Percy and Pandora Jackson." Mrs. Dodds said and percy and pandora looked at each other.

"Do you think she knows—" The girl gasped to the boy whose eyes widened.

"It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain." They didn't know what she was talking about. All they could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy they'd been selling out of their dorm rooms. Or maybe they'd realized they got their essays on Tom Sawyer from the internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away their grades. Or worse, they were going to make them read the book.

"Well?" She demanded, "Ma'am, We don't.." She cut percy off, "Your time is up." She hissed, Then 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 of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice percy and pandora to ribbons. "It just got weirderer." Percy said.

"That's not even a word! Why the flip is she a bat!"

then things got 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 and a ring in his hand.

"What ho, percy! pandora!" He shouted, and tossed the pen and ring through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at them.

With a yelp, they dodged and felt talons slash the air next to their airs. They snatched the ballpoint pen and ring out of the air, but when it hit their hands, it wasn't a pens anymore. It was swords— Mr. Brunner's bronze swords, which he always used on tournament day.

Mrs. Dodds spun around toward them with a murderous look in her eyes. Percy and pandora's knees were jelly. Their hands were shaking so bad they almost dropped the swords. She snarled. "Die, honey!"

And she flew straight at them. Absolute terror ran through their bodies. They did the only thing that came naturally: they swung the swords at different parts of her body.

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

Mrs. Dodds was a sand of castle in a power fantasy. she exploded into yellow power, 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 percy and pandora

They were alone. There was two ballpoint pens in their hands. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but them.

Their hands were still trembling. Their lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something. Had they imagined the whole thing?

They went back outside. It started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map rented over his head. Nancy bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her friends.

When she saw them, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butts." Percy and pandora looked at each other, confused, "Who?" They asked. "Our teacher. Duh!"

The two blinked. They had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. They asked nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away.

They then asked grover where Mrs. Dodds was, "Who?" He asked, But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at them, so they thought he was messing with them.

"Not funny, man." Percy told him,

"This is serious." Pandora added.

Thunder boomed overhead. They saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never move. They went over to him.

He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pens. Please bring your writing utensils in the future, Mr. Jackson." They handed Mr. Brunner his pens.

They hadn't even realized they were still holding it. Percy and pandora looked at each other then looked at brunner, "Sir," Percy started, "where's Mrs. Dodds?" He stared at them blankly. "Who?"

"The other chaperone.." Pandora paused,

"Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher." Mr. Brunner frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned.

"Percy, Pandora, 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?" He questioned.

☽

They were used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than they could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on them. the students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr— a perky blond woman whom they'd never seen in their lives until she got on their bus at the end of the field trip— had been their pre-algebra teacher since christmas.

Every so often they would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if they could trip them up, but they would stare at percy and pandora like they were psycho.

it got to a point where they almost believed them— Mrs. Dodds never existed. Almost. But grover couldn't fool them. When they mentioned the name dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But they knew he was lying.

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum. They 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 them up in a cold sweat.

The freak weather continued, which didn't help their moods. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in their dorm rooms. A few days later, The biggest tornado ever spotted in hudson valley touched down only fifty miles from yancy academy.

One of the current events they studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the atlantic that year.

Percy and Pandora started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. Their grades slipped from Ds to Fs. They got into more fights with Nancy bobofit and her friends. They were sent out into the hallway in almost every class.

Finally, when their english teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked them for the millionth time why they were so lazy to study for spelling tests, they snapped. Percy called him an old sot. He wasn't even sure what it mean, but it sounded good. pandora called him an toadeater and percy looked at her and she just shrugged.

The headmaster sent their mom a letter the following weeks making it official: they would not be invited back to yancy academy. Fine, they told themselves. Just fine.

They were homesick. They wanted to be with their mom in their little apartment on the upper east side, even if they had to go to public school and put up with their obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.

And yet.. there were things they'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out their dorm windows, the hudson river in the distance, the smell of pine trees. They'd miss grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.

They worried how he'd survive the next year without them. They'd miss latin class, too— Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that they could do well. As exam week got closer, latin was the only test they studied for. They hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told them about this subject being life-and-death for them. They wasn't sure why, but they'd started to believe him.

The evening before their final, pandora had went in percy's dorm, they got so frustrated they both threw the Cambridge guide to greek mythology across his dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling their heads, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way they were going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydicted and Polydeuces. And conjugating those latin verbs? Forget it.

Percy paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside his shirt. He remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson. And you, Pandora.

Percy took a deep breath. He picked up his and pandora's mythology book. They'd never asked a teacher before. Maybe if they talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give them some pointers. At least they could apologize for the big fat F they were about to score on his exam.

They didn't want to leave yancy academy with him thinking they hadn't tried.

They both 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.

They were three steps away from the door handle when they heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely grover's said.

"...worried about percy and dory, sir." The two froze and looked at each other. They're not usually eavesdroppers, but they dare you to try not listening if you heard your best friend talking about you to an adult.

They 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 them." Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy and girl to mature more."

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

"Will have to be resolved without them, Grover. Let them enjoy their ignorance while they still can." Mr. Brunner cut him off. "Sir, they saw her."

"Their imagination." Mr. Brunner insisted. "The mist duties over the students and staff will be enough to convince them of that."

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

"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 and pandora alive until next fall—" The mythology books dropped out of percy's hand and hit the floor with a loud thud and pandora looked at percy quickly and picked up the books as Mr. Brunner went silent.

Their hearts hammering, they both backed down the hall with percy gripping his sister's hand tightly, A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than their wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that suspiciously looked like an archer's bow.

Pandora opened the nearest door and slipped inside with percy behind. A few seconds later they heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside their door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.

A bead of sweat trickled down their necks. Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing." He murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

"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." The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. They waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. Finally, they slipped out into the hallway and made their way back to percy's dorm.

Grover was lying on his bed, studying his latin exams notes like he'd been there all night. "Hey," He said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"

Percy and pandora didn't answer, the latter sitting on percy's bed after taking off her shoes, "You two look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"

"Just.. tired." pandora nodded in agreement as percy turned so grover couldn't read his expression, and started getting ready for bed. They didn't understand what they'd heard downstairs. They wanted to believe they'd imagine the whole thing.

But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about them behind their backs. They thought they were in some kind of danger.

☽

The next afternoon, as they were leaving the three-hour latin exam, their eyes swimming with all the greek and roman names they'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called them back inside.

For a moment, they were worried he'd found out about their eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.

"Percy, Pandora," He started, "Don't discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's.. it's for the best." His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed them. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy bobofit smirked at them and made a sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

"Okay, sir." They both mumbled, "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 a matter of time."

Percy gripped his sister's hand as his eyes stung, Here was their favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling them they couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in them all year, now he was telling them they were destined to get kicked it.

"Right." Percy said, trembling, as pandora rubbed her thumb back and forth, soothingly on percy's hand, ignoring the way her heart stung when brunner said those words.

"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What i'm trying to say.. you're not normal, percy, pandora. That's nothing to be—"

"Thanks." Pandora blurted, "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding us." She started walking out the class with percy behind, "Pandora, percy—" But they were already gone.

On the last day of the term, percy shoved his clothes into his suitcase. The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to switzerland. Another one was cruising the caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like pandora and percy, but they were rich juvenile delinquents.

Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. Percy and pandora were nobodies from a family of nobodies. They asked percy what he'd be doing this summer and he told them he was going back to the city with pandora.

What he didn't tell them was that he and pandora would have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazines subscriptions, spend their free time worrying about where they'd go to school in the fall.

"Oh," One of the guys said. "That's cool." They went back to their conversation as if percy'd never existed.

                                              ☽