"Just write a book" they said. "It'll be easy," they said, "Everyone gets published these days." Yeah, well, it's a little harder when your editors are gods that will turn you into a gecko and use you as a ping pong ball if you don't write them exac...
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I HAD ALWAYS BEEN TOLD I HAD AN OVER ACTIVE IMAGINATION. I believe in monsters under the bed until I was ten. In fourth grade, I was convinced that there were pegasi (shut up, Percy, it is not "pegasuses") living in the forest around my school. Kindergarten I saw a two headed snake. Which would just be a cool find if not for the fact they were on opposite ends of its body, Cat Dog style.
But this, though? This was different. Usually it was stuff that I could believably see as me imagining things. I got bored, so my brain made up something that would interest me. I did not hallucinate evil teachers that turned into bat ladies and tried to murder me (and over what? Shoving Nancy Bobofit? Be serious.) Especially when bubbly, kind Mrs. Kerr had apparently been our teacher this entire time.
More importantly, while Mrs. Dodds had seemingly disappeared without a sign, there were still signs that the fight had happened. There was a still a cut on my ear. A vase had been broken during our trip, though thankfully no one made the connection to me. And, of course, Percy had also remembered it.
Everyone else seemed to genuinely believe that Mrs. Dodds never existed.
Percy and I took two different routes. I attempted to collect any proof of Mrs. Dodds existence. Unfortunately, I only had a few things that included her name. A couple tests and quizzes and my binder where I had written the name of my teachers with their subject so I would remember them better (yeah, I didn't think that one through very well. Sue me.) The first I had thrown out because I was too embarrassed to look at my constant C-minuses. The second would probably have been taken as me making my own evidence.
Maybe I could get answers in the school records. Unfortunately, I can't legally access that, and there's no way I was going to learn hacking in a few months.
Percy, meanwhile? He just decided to spring Mrs. Dodds onto everyone. He dropped her name constantly in the middle of conversations. I think he meant to be subtle, maybe to pretend he had just misspoken.
It didn't work.
Soon enough, people started avoiding him, and me in turn. For some reason. They acted like we were starting to go insane.
Well...everyone except for Grover. Unlike like everyone else, who seemed to genuinely believe that Mrs. Kerr was the real Mrs. Dodds, it was so obvious that he was lying. Every time Percy did his little Surprise Dodds trick, Grover would pause for a moment before he acted confused. He would fumble over himself, avoid our gaze, and start making those little braying noises he made when he was nervous.
I suppose I should have pushed that further, but I don't know. I felt guilty about bugging him. He seemed so genuinely scared about our questions. It seemed like I was just harassing him at this point.
