Chapter Text
His first clue should have been that Mrs Dodds had been far too interested in him than any other kid.
Now, it wasn't unusual for a teacher to single him out. But even then, there was at least one other kid who drew the ire of those teachers.
Mrs Dodds seemed to have eyes only for him.
The second clue definitely should have made him realise something was up. Something more than the usual weird that seems to surround him. However, no one else seemed troubled except him. But he was sure that the Latin teacher, who was there at the start of the term, was replaced within a month.
The current Latin teacher, Mr Brunner, had also seemed to have taken note of him. However, he gave off the vibe of considering him a pet project rather than the source of all the problems in class. But that doesn't make it any less weird.
The final nail in the coffin was what happened on the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Everything was going par for the course until they reached the Graeco-Roman section. Mr Brunner, the mythology fanatic that he is, was 30 minutes into what was gearing up to be a multi-hour lecture on the influence of Graeco-Roman culture in Western civilisation.
Full disclosure, he wasn't paying that much attention to his lecture. But in his defence, Mr Brunner had already given different versions of the same topic too many times. He assigned many an assignment on a similar topic to warrant any form of rapt attention.
He wasn't alone in not paying attention to Mr Brunner, though. A quick scan told him that more than half the class was only pretending to pay attention, and that wasn't counting the ones outright ignoring him entirely.
Knowing that making the unruly kids pay attention was a lost cause, Mr Brunner was not paying them any attention.
But Nancy Bobofit and her group of delinquents were making Percy irritated with all the chattering. He was this close to telling them off when Mr Brunner, seemingly taking pity on them, decided to mix things up by asking them a question.
Three guesses on whom he picked.
No prizes for guessing that it was him. Now, Percy wasn't the worst at Latin and Greek-Roman stuff, but being picked first every time was getting annoying. Is it too much to ask to be ignored by teachers and allowed to blend into the background?
Mr Brunner was pointing at a motif on earthenware and asking him what it depicted. Taking a look, he was glad to note it was one of the more easily recognisable scenes from Greek mythology.
"That's Kronos eating his kids, I believe, although I am not sure why it shows all five kids being eaten at the same time, since all the stories we discussed have them being years apart at the very least." He answered, already knowing that his mind was about to wander in 3 different directions.
He always liked to keep his answers as brief as possible to minimise rambling.
"Excellent. And Kronos ate his kids because?" Mr Brunner prompted, seemingly not satisfied with the short answer.
Resigning to his fate Percy continued, " His father, Ouranos or Uranus (cue immature giggling), cursed Kronos as Kronos was dethroning him by cutting him into pieces along with his brothers. Ouranous prophesied that Kronos would be overthrown by his own kids, as Kronos and the other titans had overthrown him. So, when Kronos had his kids with Rhea, Kronos, remembering his father's curse, ate his children when Rhea presented them to him. She saved the sixth child, who grew up to become Zeus, by presenting a rock instead of the baby. How Kronos didn't notice is confusing (maybe young gods looked very rock-like?) So Rhea was able to hide away with Zeus, raise him with ideas of overthrowing Kronos, and bide her time. After growing into his powers, Zeus was brought by Rhea into the titan household as a cupbearer. Using this position, Zeus was able to free his siblings from his father's stomach by feeding him a special
Concoction. And together with his siblings, and a few titans loyal to Rhea, Zeus fought a great war against the Titans, eventually dethroning Kronos by cutting him up as he did to his father and threw the pieces into the deepest parts of the underworld along with the other imprisoned Titans."
Nancy chose that moment to be a wise ass and made some comment about why this mattered in real life. Which, if Percy had been honest, would have been a fair question, but she didn't have to be so rude about it.
Mr Brunner must have had exceptional hearing for a middle-aged guy because he, unlike other teachers, always seemed to hear things that other grown-ups would never catch. Today was no exception.
"And why, Mr Jackson, to paraphrase MS Bobofits ill-phrased question, does the story of the Titan King devouring his children matter in the real world?"
Percy was at a loss. He had an answer, but some instinct told him that wasn't what Mr Brunner wanted to hear. He tried his luck anyway, "it basically shows how betraying his family came back to bite him in the end".
"Well, Mr Jackson, that is certainly one way to look at it, but I was hoping for something about the nature of prophecies. Things aren't always what they seem at first glance. Maybe if Kronos had understood the words of the curse differently, things might have ended with much less violence. On that happy note, Mrs Dodds, if you will please escort the students out for lunch," finished Mr Brunner.
The students started filing out after Mrs Dodds, but Mr Brunner held him back for a word
"Mr Jackson, I am glad to see that you think outside the box, but I expect you to understand the real answer to my question. Who knows, the knowledge may help you greatly in the future. Even if it doesn't, I have a feeling you will enjoy reading about it nonetheless. I will send you some resources on the topic that I found particularly fascinating. Unfortunately, I don't have any audio versions for them. Maybe you can ask your friend what his name is? Mr Underwood, yes? For help."
"Sure, Mr Brunner."
"Now off you go, don't want you to miss lunch"
*line break*
Getting out and finding his best friend, Grover, was easy. Maybe because Grover spotted him as soon as he passed the doors of the museum and into the courtyard. Grover had an uncanny ability to luck Percy out of a crowd. He didn't know how he pulled it off since Percy wasn't exactly running around in high-vis clothing and wasn't particularly tall. But Grover's ability had made life easier on too many occasions for Percy to think of it as anything other than a godsend gift.
As expected, Grover, the loyal friend that he is, was waiting for him without touching his own lunch. Percy wasn't sure how he managed to find a loyal friend in his roommate so quickly after coming to Yancy. Percy was never the best at making friends. Although he had a likeable personality, his being punted from school to school every year made it impossible for friendships to last.
Therefore, the easy friendship with Grover was for Percy the best thing about Yancy, with Mr Brunner being an admittedly distant second. Bless that man's tenacity to encourage Percy, but at the end of the day, he was a teacher, and Percy was a teenager with adhd and dyslexia.
Percy was, for the first time in his life, determined not to get kicked out this year, only so that he won't have to say goodbye to Grover. Maybe, if he gets kicked out, he could convince Grover to change schools with him. Percy knew he was being a bit selfish, but something told him Grover wouldn't be entirely opposed to the idea. Percy prayed he wouldn't have to find out.
Percy joined Grover, who was sitting by the fountain.
"Any trouble with Mr Brunner?" Grover asked him as Percy was sitting down.
"Nah, he seems to like me. Too much if you ask me, always giving me extra work. I mean, most of the stuff he suggests turns out to be interesting. But why always me, man?"
"I have no idea", replied Grover.
Now, people have accused Percy of being oblivious, but he swears he isn't. But it may be true that Percy sometimes pretends not to notice Grover's odd behaviour.
The almost too small-to-notice beat of hesitation before he said Mr Brunner's name. The odd tendency to use names when discussing the Greek myths. Which he incidentally shared with Mr Brunner. Which part of Percy's brain found it too curious and wondered if it was more than just a coincidence. But neither Grover nor Mr Brunner had behaved in a way that made it his business, so he just let it be.
Grover was able to distract him from his thoughts and the strange irritability that seemed to plague Percy since winter break. Now percy was not new to being somewhat of a hot head, but this was unusual even for him. Grover seems to have noticed the same if the worried looks he got when he snapped were any indication. But Grover, being the good friend that he is, never called him out on it or snapped back when he said things he didn't mean to say to him.
Percy loved his best friend. Seriously, sometimes he wants to hug him and never let go. Something deep within Percy that he didn't fully understand called on him to protect and defend Grover against the world.
It must have been this deep-seated emotion that caused what happened next. In his defence, Percy tried very hard not to react in anger to Nancy's increasingly persistent attempts to bully Grover over his disability. Like, yeah, the guy uses crutches, but other than that, he's an unassuming guy if you ignore the beard that was a bit too formed for a seventh grader. Percy couldn't understand people's behaviour most of the time. Incidentally grover was one of the few people whose behaviour he truly understood. At least most of the time.
This time, Percy even struggled to understand Grover's behaviour. Not the part where he didn't respond to Nancy's taunting. Nor the part where he tried to calm Percy down. But the part where he jumped to defend him against Mrs Dodds when she descended upon them, after a sudden burst of anger from Percy, Nancy found herself in the pool.
He ignored the kids muttering about the water moving as he tried to calm the torrent of anger inside him, which wasn't satisfied by what happened to Nancy. It wasn't enough, it sang. Humiliate her. Huh, that was new. The voice inside him, which was his but also wasn't, was never this clear in its intentions. As he saw Grover intercept Mrs Dodds, he decided to pin that thought for later.
Grover rarely intervened on his behalf anymore. After the first few times, Percy made it clear that he didn't want Grover to fight his battles. Grover rarely stepped in unless things got out of hand too much. So why was Grover coming in now??
It seems Mrs Dodds wasn't at all interested in Grover. She pushed past him and came in front of Percy.
"Follow me", said Mrs Dodds. Seeing no other option percy followed her back into the museum. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Grover trying to catch Mr Brunner's eye, and seemingly failing to do so.
In the meantime, Mrs Dodds has reached the top of the stairs and is waiting for him. Hmmm, that was a bit too fast for a woman of her age. Suspicious...
Percy wasn't an idiot. He may be oblivious at times and miss things because of spacing out. But he has noticed the strange happenings around him that others seem not to notice. Large horse-like things that flew onto the roof once. The strange one-eyed man who seemed to follow him sometimes when he was younger. The way the water at the beach behaves oddly near him, almost like it matches his mood and emotions.
He knew there probably was an explanation for this. Something his mom seemed to know, if not fully, at least partially. He had asked once, and his mom had told him that he would know the answer one day, when he was ready. He had needled his mother for more answers, and after some complaining about children who are too curious for their own good, his mom had said that sometimes knowing the truth was dangerous, and this was one of those times. She promptly went into stories about Greek history when knowing too much led to less-than-stellar events.
That was also around the time she started bringing him audiobooks, Greek myths and classics. Hmmm, a lot of emphasis on Greeks.
Percy caught up to Mrs Dodds and followed her into the museum. In all these thoughts, Percy almost forgot what he was in trouble with Mrs Dodds for. He wasn't that nervous about the punishment. While Mrs Dodds had a reputation for being petty with her punishments, no one had ever complained about her being malicious. Although why she was doing it in the museum was a bit confusing, it gave him a bad feeling in his gut.
She led him back to the Graeco-Roman section (again with the Greek thing). His bad feeling just got a whole lot worse. She came to a stop near a fireze depicting Hades kidnapping Persephone. She looked at him with barely contained fury. "Percy Jackson! Did you truly think you could get away with it"?
"Get away with what?" He blurted out before he could stop himself.
"Your time is up. Confess now, and maybe the gods will show you mercy," she steamrolled on.
Percy was still at a loss for what she was talking about. But he was getting the impression it wasn't about what happened with Nancy. "Mrs Dodds, what are you talking about? Confess to what?"
Mrs Dodds snarled at him, and in front of his eyes, she started to transform. Her leather jacket morphed into large, leathery wings, and her fingers into clawed talons, until, before him stood a terrifying monster from the myths.
At this point, several things became clear to him. One, Mrs Dodds definitely wasn't mad about the Nancy thing. Two: Mrs Dodds was a myth come to life and looks suspiciously like the erinyes, servants of Hades. Three, she thinks he did something terrible in her world. Four, she seems to have decided to eliminate the problem, the problem in question being Percy himself. Things were not looking good for him.
After a few moments of pure terror, he realised his only option was to stall and make a run for it. Maybe she won't attack him in public.
Mrs Dodds- the fury- seemed to be marvelling in his terror. He felt very much like food being played with, and he didn't like the feeling one bit. What the hell, he will stall and try to find more information.
"Mrs Do–er, Ma'am, I swear I have no idea what you are accusing me of. Maybe you could tell me, and then I can confess if I did it."
"You have stolen from the gods, and now you shall pay the price for it", the fury snarled at him.
"What the? What do you mean, gods?" The Greek ones? They exist? Percy thought as his mind scrambled to find a way to convince her that he hadn't stolen anything. He was not going to process the existence of gods while at gunpoint (talon point?) and being accused of grand theft. Oaths are supposed to be solemn right? Maybe that could work
"I swear I did not steal anything from the gods. I swear I did not even know gods still existed. You have to believe me." He shouted at the fury.
Maybe it was the sheer terror and confusion that she sensed that made her pause and consider him for a moment.
"You swear?" She asked, perplexed.
"Yes! What do you want from me?"
The fury formerly known as Mrs Dodds seems to be thinking. "This changes things. I am going to humour you for now, godling. But beware, you have not proved your innocence to me yet nor to the gods. Your trainer is coming; I must depart. Remember, this is not over."
Right after she said that, he heard Mr Brunner's wheelchair round the corner. Just as he turned the corner, Mrs Dodds lunged into the shadows and disappeared.
Mr Brunner approached him, his expression concerned. "There you are, Mr Jackson. Please refrain from running off on your own. Mrs Kerr and I have been quite worried. Come with me"
Percy was even more confused now. Who in the world was Mrs Kerr, and why was Mr Brunner pretending like he didn't see Mrs Dodds? Was she referring to Mr Brunnerr when she said 'your trainer?
"Who?" He asked the Latin Teacher.
"Your pre-algebra teacher, of course, are you quite all right, Mr Jackson? Maybe you should ask your friend Mr Underwood to keep an eye on you for the rest of the trip."
At that moment percy felt a strange sensation wrap around him. Mrs Dodds isn't real, Mrs Kerr has always been here, it seemed to say. But then his voice-not-voice was back, pushing against it. No, Mrs Dodds was a fury; Mrs Kerr is not someone you have met before. Eventually, his voice won out, but his gut told him to pretend like he believed Mr Brunner. So he went along with him to Grover, whom Mr Brunner asked to keep an eye on Percy, as he said before. Grover seemed to be as nervous as when he left with Mrs Dodds. Maybe he knew what she was. Percy knew Grover was the best way for him to find out the truth. But first, he needed time to process everything he had learnt and realised today. So he went and sat next to his best friend, who was definitely hiding things from him. But Percy knew that would give Grover a chance to explain things; the only problem was, would he take the chance or not?