Bella Jackson Daughter of Posideon

Meeting the Fates

I breathed, quietly this time, a small sigh of relief.

I finally put the pieces together. Greek mythology is real. Mr. Brunner was a centaur (maybe, I don't really know. It's an educated guess). And Grover was in on it too. My thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Brunner's voice.

"Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

"Same," Grover said cautiously. "But I could've sworn..."

"Go back to yours and young Persephone's dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

"Don't remind me," Grover said miserably.

The lights finally went out in Mr. Brunner's room.

They waited for minutes that felt like several hours before Bella dubbed it safe enough to leave.

Finally, they silently slipped out of the classroom, into the hallway, and made their way back to the dorm.

Grover, the sneaky bastard, was lying on his bed innocently, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night and not talking about them behind their back.

"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You ready for this test tomorrow?"

They didn't answer, too wrapped up in their thoughts trying to put more puzzle pieces together.

"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"

Oh, you know, they just secretly eavesdropped on you and found out they might die... but yeah let's worry about exams. But they decided to not say that, as that would cause even more problems than they could possibly handle.

"Just... so fucking tired," Percy half-lied. He was honestly about to drop dead of exhaustion. So much for making Grover feel better. I know, he's a great friend.

But Percy turned so he couldn't see that he was lying and set about getting ready for bed.

Bella partially understood what they'd heard downstairs. It was just more and more pieces for this huge puzzle that she was trying to solve.

But one thing was absolutely clear:  they're in some kind of danger.

The next afternoon, as they were leaving the three-hour Latin exam, going over all the Greek and Roman names Percy misspelled on the exam in his head, Mr. Brunner, for whatever reason, called me back inside.

For a split, terrifying second, Percy was worried he had deduced that it was them who had eavesdropped on him last night . That, thankfully, wasn't the problem.

"Percy," he started until he saw my glare. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's...it's for the best."

His tone was kind enough, but his words still made him fill with disappointment, at himself. At himself  at Mr. Brunner because he thought he was different, Percy thought he would keep believing that he would do great things. And even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing their test could hear him. Nancy Bobofit was about to smirk, before she abruptly stopped and looked down at her desk from Bella's withering glare, daring her to do something.