Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries

58) We Had A Bonding Moment! I Cradled You In My Arms!

Once class was finished, I stayed in my seat, fiddling with my bag.

When everyone had left, I stared at Umbridge, "You told me to stay here?"

"When I tell you to do something, Mr. Jackson, you do it," Umbridge said.

"No means no, Umbridge," I said. "I will not spend detention with you, I will not say good afternoon, and I will not respect you."

"I am your teacher, Mr. Jackson," Umbridge took in a breath, about to continue.

"I have the feeling that you aren't going to teach me anything I don't already know," I tilted my head. "I know you hate us demigods, but you should know, the theory behind defense is the first thing we learn at camp. Run if you can, defend if you can, attack if you can, and if you can't do any of those, you're dead." I pursed my lips. "You have nothing to offer me but annoyance. And I know teachers test you, but all you're going to do is test my patience."

Umbridge scowled, "I do not wish to teach what you already know, Mr. Jackson, but I believe you need to learn some respect."

"I'll learn respect if you learn it, too," I said, standing.

Umbridge frowned, "Perseus, why should I respect you? What have you done to deserve my respect?"

"Dolores, why should I respect you?" I raised my eyebrows. "What have you done to earn my respect?"

"Students should respect their teachers," Umbridge said, as if that was a good enough reason.

"Teachers should also respect their students," I said lowly.

Umbridge glared at me, "I want you to spend another detention with me, Perseus, for it seems you need some more, ah, hands-on learning when it comes to respect."

"I will write more lines if you want, but I won't write lines with you," I told Umbridge, and found that I meant it. At what point did it become apparent I'd rather face pain than face Umbridge? I don't know, but that belief still hasn't changed, even years later.

Umbridge seemed to ponder it for a moment (I think she didn't want to spend much time with me, either), "Fine. If you write double the amount of lines as last time, and I want you to change the wording. I must always respect my superiors."

A single word changed, but everything changed. It went from a simple fact of I will to a necessity. I must.

"That's nice, because I do respect my superiors," I said, and I meant that, too. I respected Luke, who was the better fighter. I respected Chiron, who knew just about everything. I even respected Voldemort, who fought to survive. They were my superiors in many ways, and I respected them for that.

"But you said you didn't respect me," Umbridge raised her eyebrows.

"Exactly."

I gave Umbridge a disrespectful nod, turned, and left before she figured it out and yelled at me.

***

I didn't feel like going to my room, where it would ultimately feel too stuffy. I instead fled to the safety of the lake, where I could watch the water, and could maybe stop my hand from hurting so much.

I sat down at the base of a tree (the nymph, Ashley, had been dormant for a while at this point. She wouldn't come out again until after my sixth year), and stared out at the water for a moment. Then, I slipped out some parchment and the cursed quill, and began to write.

I must always respect my superiors.
I must always respect my superiors.
I must always respe —

"Hey."

I flinched, the quill dashing across the parchment. I cursed and dropped the parchment, grabbing my hand instead.

"Crap, sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Draco said, crouching in front of me, his eyes wide as he saw the quill on the grass. He glanced at the paper, saw the mark from my near heart attack, and frowned.

"How many do you have to write?" Draco stared at the parchment.

"Double the amount as the detention, but I don't have to sit with her," I said, glancing at my hand, watching the big white mark disappear.

Draco looked at me in concern, "That's... that's gonna last, Percy. And... and there'll probably be more."

"Yeah," I said. "But I really don't want to be stuck with her. I don't like her."

"I don't, either," Draco said.

We sat in silence for a moment, and I stared at my hand. After the many lines I've written, the back of my hand was still bright red, and the lines were standing out slightly.

"How am I gonna stop people from seeing the mark?" I wondered aloud, holding my hand out in front of me.

Draco pondered it for a moment, pulled out his wand and a quill, then tapped the quill and muttered something beneath his breath. The quill transfigured into a fingerless black glove (the black the same shade as his quill) and handed it to me.

I stared at the glove, "I'm gonna look emo."

"It's what some campers wear when they use swords," Draco supplied. "You can say you've been training a lot, and that you didn't want to get blisters. People will believe that. Also, you're too colorful to look emo. You wear blue undershirts."

"I want to look emo though," I complained. "I want to be the hottie Keith Kogane!"

Draco blanked, "Who's Keith Kogane."

My jaw dropped, and I gaped at my boyfriend, "You haven't seen Voltron?"

"What's Voltron?"

I grabbed Draco's hand and pulled him up, "Come on, we're gonna watch it in my room while I finish my lines."

You guys remember that camp I went to last summer? Well, the same sort of thing might happen again. I'm gonna apply for another camp, this one two weeks long and in July, and it's much the same thing, just less caves and more nature (as if caves aren't nature). It'll be really cool. The same friend who went with me last time plans on applying this time as well. I didn't think he'd be able to because he has a job, but he said he'd request time off, and if they didn't give it to him, he'd quit. Best part is, I think he was being serious. But nah, it looks really cool, it also looks like it might be air conditioned. That's just amazing to me. Air conditioning. I love it. Sometimes it's really hot in my room in spite of the air conditioning, so I hope it's better there. But if I do get selected, I will warn now, there won't be updates for two weeks. Even if we do have reliable service at this location (it's at an actual research station, not some weird cabins down a barely beaten dirt road in the middle of Nowhere, Missouri), I won't have the time to keep up with chapters, and we may not be allowed to bring our phones. But I'd learn about fish and birds and bats and maybe grass I really don't know what it's about but it's nature.

Anyway, I hope you guys have had a delightful Tuesday, and I'll see you on Thursday CT. Love ya!