Percy pov
This has been so weird. Once when Amara entered the museum it was like everyone had forgotten about miss Dodds and then this new teacher comes out of nowhere.
It is almost like she is an imagination...
But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying. Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.
But Amara will not tell, she just talks about something else immediately after speaking that Mrs. Kerr just told her nancy gets a year's detention.
The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows of my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.
I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.
Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good....it did make Amara chuckle a bit before giving me a scolding glare.
The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy. Fine, I told myself. Just fine. I was homesick. I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.
And yet . . . there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, and the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. But I worried most if I leave Amara...as a friend yeah definitely a friend who is cu...BACK TO THE STORY.
I'd miss Latin class, too - Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well. As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life and death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him. The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.
There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.
The door knocked and opens. My heart warms up and I smiled seeing Amara enter rubbing her eyes and holding a weird Teddy bear in her arms.
"Hey still studying for that test Percy?" She said yawning. "Yeah at least let me try to get a good grade before I leave," I said
"Where you will go, Percy? " She asked sitting on my bed.
" not sure....but definitely to my mom," I said as she smiled at me. "Well if you're having trouble you can ask me or Mr Brunner," She said
I nodded and left the room
Amara pov
I wait for Percy in the room as ship explores. I had to pretend he was a toy which help with my insomnia.
Soon Grover came back and was surprised I was there. But we chat till Percy came back shaken but hids it.
Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"
Percy didn't answer.
"You look awful." Grover frowned. "Is everything okay?" "Just . . . tired."
I left the room so the boys can sleep but one thing was for certain. Percy was in some kind of danger.
The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, thinking of the mistakes I must have made, Mr. Brunner called Percy back inside.
He came out later mad but I hugged him. He seems to calm down with the hug. We talk and I told him I will follow him for my bus journey before my parents pick him up.
He was happy and we went to pack. I had already packed everything and Ship hids in my backpack.
Soon even Grover joins me and Percy.
During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased.
But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound it must be because of the...
"Looking for Kindly Ones?" Percy said making Grover nearly jump out of his seat. "Wha — what do you mean?"
Percy confessed to eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam. I was surprised and Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"
"Oh . . . not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"
He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."
"Grover — "
"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and . . ."
"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar," I said before Percy turns to me shocked and Grover. "Yeah Mrs Dodds was real but she vanished in front of my eyes. I thought I was hallucinating and what to understand what was happening....sorry Percy."
His ears turned pink. Percy was a bit mad but accepted my apologies.
Grover fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need
me this summer."
The card was in fancy script, which was strange but my glasses which I wear for my eyesight allowed me to read Greek
Grover Underwood
Keeper
Half-Blood Hill
Long Island, New York
(800) 009-0009
"What's Half—"
"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um . . . summer address."
Percy looked sad thinking Grover must be a rich kid.
"Okay," he said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come to visit your mansion."
He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."
"Why would I need you?"
I smacked Percy's head and glared at him and he said sorry to Grover.
Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I — I kind of have to protect you."
I stared at him. Must be important if he tells in front of me. Percy looks confused for he has been protecting me and Grover from Bullies
"Grover," he said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"
There was a considerable grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.
After a few minutes of clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover, Percy, and I filed outside with everybody else. ship wanted to help but I whispered no for I feel something is happening.
We were on a stretch of a country road — no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with the afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.
The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. I want to go and get something from that place but I saw three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.
The socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of owl-grey yarn.
All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, and bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.
The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me and Percy. Oh no, they are the fates.
I looked over at Grover and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.
"Grover?" Percy said. "Hey, man—"
"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"
"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"
"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all." I said
The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors — gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.
"We're getting on the bus," he told us. "Come on."
"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."
"Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.
Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the owl grey socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for cause it's definitely not me or Percy.
At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life making everyone
"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"
Once we got going, Percy started feeling feverish and Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.
"Grover?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you not telling us?" Percy asked
He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"
"You mean the old ladies? The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." I said and Grover paled. " Crap your clear-sighted....wait You saw her snip the cord."
"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.
"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."
"What last time?" Percy asked
"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."
"Grover," I said because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"
"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."
This seemed like a strange request to percy, but he promised he could I know he going to escape
"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked despite knowing the answer. someone is going to die.
"Grover — that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?" Percy said. He looked at me and Percy mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on our coffin.
I like lavender.