A War is Coming | Percy Jackson

02: We Get Threatened by Three Old Ladies

The weeks following the field trip to the museum was...my god...a freaking nightmare!

No one believed us that there was a teacher named Mrs. Dodds at school.

If it wasn't for the fact that I had nightmares about it, that my siblings lived it too, and the fact that Grover was a terrible liar, I probably would've thought I had imagined the entire thing.

Due to the fact that I wasn't sleeping properly, I was a lot more irritable than usual. Annie was a lot more bloodthirsty than normal.

The weather was still acting up. A freak thunderstorm blew out the windows in Percy's dorm-room, again. The biggest tornado had touched down in Hudson Valley, fifty miles from Yancy.

In social studies, one of the current events we studied was the unusual number of small planes going down in the Atlantic, which made me feel bad for the casualties.

Bobofit seemed to sense that we were on our way to being expelled decided to keep picking fights with Percy to hurry the process along.

Annie kept picking fists fights with anyone who seemed to get in her way. I had to pull her off an older boy because she had him in a head-lock.

I just sank into a depression and I couldn't be bothered to do anything because I knew it was hopeless, considering that I knew we were going to be expelled.

A week later, I was correct.

The headmaster had invited us down to his office and called us one-by-one in to explain to us that we've been expelled.

"That's fine," I had told the headmaster after he finished talking. "The food's not fit for human or animal consumption anyway." I got a week of detention for the comment.

The food wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either.

The headmaster sent home three letters detailing that we weren't invited back next year, which is the politest way of saying were were expelled. I was guilty because I honestly tried hard for Mom but I just couldn't do anything, no matter how hard I tried.

I didn't care if I had to go to public school and put up with Ugly Gabe and his poker parties, I just wanted to go home and get through my life unharmed.

The day before exam week, I decided to try and study with Percy. Maybe if I got good grades, it would make up for my crappy behavior before we left.

I grabbed the Cambridge Guide to Mythology and my messenger bag before leaving my dorm room.

I was only halfway down the hallway when I heard arguing:

"Of course she existed! You're just refusing to believe me!"

"You're an idiot, Jackson! Just like your stupid sister and brother!"

"They're not stupid, dumb ass!"

Now who could that be? I wondered, almost rolling my eyes. I went to the open dorm and looked in. It was Annie arguing with her roommate.

"Hey, Annie, let's get going," I called to her. I looked at the other girl, who's name I actually forgot. "We have...things to do, like climbing the flagpole in the middle of a lightning storm, like the idiots we are." We left the girls' dorm, Annie grabbing her sketchbook that Percy managed to buy her for Christmas.

"How did you know it was me?" asked Annie.

"I heard fighting and wondered 'now who could that be?'" I said.

Annie groaned, "If only people believed us that Mrs. Dodds actually existed."

"Grover knows that Mrs. Dodds existed, he's just lying to us for some reason," I said.