The Lightning Thief (Argo/hbh's Version)

Good grades and resisting eavesdropping on Mr. Brunner and Grover? Neither.

Percy's POV: 

It felt like I was in a 24/7 hallucination. Anathea, Heja and I all remembered Ms. Dodds but no one else did. Not even Mr. Brunner or Grover.

For the rest of the entire school year it seemed as if the school was playing some kind of freak joke on us. Each time we'd mention Ms. Dodds, our pre-algebra teacher, everybody would look at us as if we're crazy. "There is no Ms. Dodds." We heard that sentence each and every time. I was starting to believe it. That there's no Ms. Dodds. But one thing made me realize that there was in fact a Ms. Dodds. Grover

Each time me, Heja or Anathea would ask for Ms. Dodds to Grover he always seemed to hesitate before claiming that she doesn't exist. Something was going on. Something happened at the museum. But I don't know what. And it frustrated me.

I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat. 

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in 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.

I also snapped a few times against Heja and Anathea. I felt like I was an outsider. The two girls knew each other since they were 9. I felt like they were cutting me out, even though that never happened. I was just in a bad mood. 24/7. 

Nevertheless the two never left me. They're good friends. They tried to help me with my homework, study for my tests. But it never helped. 

One time I finally snapped. 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. 

The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.

At the same time Heja and Anathea had caused some havoc in their math lesson, with Ms. Kerr. I wasn't sure what happened, but I guess that since it was with Ms. Kerr they'd snap at her as well. Anyway, the two got a opposite-of-invitation-for-next-year-letter as well. Although I have no idea to who the letters were send. 

I got a few question marks when the two asked me to go to my house once the school year was ended, but I thought nothing of it. Of course I'd let the two come over. I'd love to show them my home, even though it wasn't much. I'd love to let them meet my mom, Sally Jackson. And I'd love to see how Anathea would deal with Smelly Gabe. 

I was homesick. I wanted to be back with my mother. I told myself that it's fine that I'm going home. I wanted to be home, even if it meant having to go to some weird public school and having to deal with Smelly Gabe every single day. I'd had my friends with me, although I wasn't sure how Grover was gonna survive Yancy's without us. 

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, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.