The Lightning Thief (Argo/hbh's Version)

Just a normal school trip. I hope

Okay so now we're in 6th grade. We went to a school named Yancy School for Troubled Children or something like that. I'm not sure. We met a boy, Percy Jackson. He seemed nice. Just as troubled as we are. Got kicked out of 6 schools in 6 years. He also has ADHD and dyslexia (Although I don't have dyslexia. Only Anathea and Percy have it.), so we went from being a duo that no one wants to take care of to a trio that no one wants to take care of.

Here's when shit got weird. It started with us. Duh. So our class was on a field trip to some museum. Something with Art. Boring. 

But Mr. Brunner went with us so that should be ok. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.

But I'm trailing off. So most Yancy field trips were close to living nightmares but now that Mr. Brunner was there I had some hopes. So before we went, Percy, Ana and I made this small oath that for once we wouldn't cause trouble. We'd stay silent, only talk when we're ask and we'd stay with the group. This was our one chance to show that we can behave and we'd let nothing go wrong. 

Boy I wish that were true. 

So Anathea and I were playing our game of chess. (Did I tell you I was in the present time? Well actually now we're back in the present time. Or at least where our story continues because it's all in past tense.)

We were on the bus when Nancy Bobofit was throwing small pieces of sandwich to our friend Grover again. Grover is an easy target. Nice to everyone he sees, cripple and has to walk with crutches. But boy he can run if it's enchilada day. 

So Nancy was throwing sandwich at Grover and Percy and I didn't bother. What Anathea thought of it was basically unreadable. I didn't even know what I was thinking of it, to be honest. I didn't like that it was happening, but I also couldn't do anything about it.

See, there was a reason we made our little oath. Our headmaster threatened us with suspension of we'd mess up on this trip. And Nancy was happily making use of that.

Anathea's leg started bouncing up and down now that our game of chess has ended and her distraction was over. For some extra information, Anathea is not the person to sit still for just as little as an hour or so. She wants to be outside, free, not in a place where you literally can't move. This bus ride was no exception. I placed a hand on Anathea's leg.

"Calm down Thea."

"Yeah, calm down Julia. What's it that's making you so nervous?" Nancy said. I saw Anathea's face get just a bit pale, although I didn't know why that would happen. I was about to speak when Mr. Brunner said: "That's enough, Nancy." "Hmpf. What is it even that you have against Julia?" 

I saw Anathea looking away. I heard Percy mumble: "I'm gonna kill Nancy." As she continued throwing sandwich at Grover again. The rest of the bus ride went relatively normal. I saw Anathea putting on her headphones and closing her eyes. She's not sleeping. She's just.. doing her thing I guess.

When we arrived all three of us were happy that we finally got out of that cramped bus. Mr. Brunner led the tour and showed us orangish brown pottery that dated from 2 to 3 thousand years ago. Sometimes he'd ask some questions. I noticed that most of the questions that Mr. Brunner asked were asked to one of us three, but I didn't say anything of it. Most of the questions were answered right anyway.

"Nerds. Oh wait, you guys suck at every other subject. Leave it." Nancy Bobofit said. "Don't say that, please." Anathea said, a little louder than she probably meant to. Anathea, standing up to Nancy? I mean a calming voice and the fact she said please didn't make it sound very.. efficient, but it was something.

Percy was looking at Nancy with a stare that would burn through fucking wood. "Guys... we're on probation.. no murdering please.." I said. I look anxiously at Ms. Dodds, our pre-algebra teacher. That woman freaked us out. She hates the three of us, she loves Nancy Bobofit. But what she does is the crazy part.

For detention once, she let us erase pencil streaks from math books until midnight. When we were talking Percy said to Grover: "That Ms. Dodds is non-human, she's crazy!" And Grover looked dead serious and then said: "You're right." Anyways.

Mr. Brunner talked about some big statue that we were standing in front of. He asked us some questions, and Nancy, of course, made a weird comment about a naked guy. 

"Please shut up!" Percy said, and just like Anathea, a little louder than he meant to. The group laughed. 

"Percy, do you have a comment on this?" Mr. Brunner asked. "No sir." Percy answered. Mr. Brunner pointed towards the statue. "Now that we're talking, could you perhaps explain us what this statue is representing?" 

I could see Percy's relief, probably because he recognized the statue. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" "And why did he eat his kids?" "Well..." I could hear Percy thinking. 

"Kronos was the king god, and-""God?" Mr. Brunner asked. 

"Titan." I whispered to Percy. "King Titan." Percy said out loud. "And he didn't trust his kids so he ate them. Except for Zeus. He uhm.. He fought Kronos and won, I think." 

"And Heja, could you please tell me what happened after that?" Mr. Brunner asked. Oh shit. For a split second my brain gave up on me. Then I remembered it. "Then he made something like a potion that made him barf up his kids, right? Then Zeus was reunited with is siblings, Hera, Hestia, Demeter, Poseidon and Hades." At the comment of Kronos barfing up his kids I could hear some people talking. "Eww that's gross."

Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?" 

"Busted." I muttered. "Shut up." Nancy hissed. At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears. Then Percy answered Mr. Brunner's question with "I don't know, sir"

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?" 

The four of us were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said: "Percy, Anathea and Heja." I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then we turned towards Mr. Brunner. "Sir?" I said.

Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. "You guys must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told us. "About the Titans?" Percy asked. "About real life. And how your studies apply to it." "Oh." I said. "What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you guys." 

"Alright." I said, although from the inside I wanted to scream. This guys was pushing us so hard. He expected the best from us, and then even better. Didn't he know how much trouble we had with all that remembering and spelling and stuff? How are we supposed to know the difference between Charon and Chiron, or Ephialtes and Epiales, and I'm not even starting about all those names that end with '-eus' Zeus, Odysseus, Perseus, Peleus, Theseus and that's not even half of it. (Orhpeus, Morpheus, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Erechtheus, and go on).

Although I don't have dyslexia so I'm not really having trouble with it. Anathea and Percy tho.. Let's not start about that. Back to the present. We mumbled something about trying harder and Mr. Brunner told us to go to eat our lunch.