we'll go down in history, remember me for centuries
***
In where Hester Sāto joins a quest to return a stolen lightning bolt while trying to learn her godly parentage and control her dangerous curse.
(pjo 1-5)
(part i of the "heroes" duology)
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Chapter Two: Does Backstabbing Hurt? Asking For A Friend
(I Accidentally Vaporise My Pre-Algebra Teacher, Pt. 2)
***
Hester's last day at Yancy Academy started just like her first day—in the principal's office.
She remembered that first day well—the wooden chair being uncomfortable and creaky, her mom's jacket nearly swallowing her whole, not fitting her just right yet, her body tense like a spring as she tried to shrink into herself and not touch her aunt as she talked to the principal and had her niece be accepted into Yancy, then assuring her she'll be okay at Yancy and would make friends here. Hester thinking her aunt was lying, that she would never be okay at Yancy, that she would never find friends here. That she'd be too terrified of accidentally killing someone with one accidental touch to ever be close to anyone.
Turns out, her aunt had been right. She'd been okay, more or less, and she made some good friends, if you ignore she made said friends only in her last year at Yancy and would never see them again after it.
If only she could have left Yancy and into whatever high school awaited her with a stellar academic record. Unfortunately, that was not to be thanks to that... incident during the field trip.
Hence the full-circle back to the principal's office, as she sat in that creaky wooden chair with Percy and Grover on either side of her on their own chairs, the principal, vice-principal and Mr. Brunner on the opposite side, like they were on two sides of a battlefield. Hester fiddled with the sword charm, it and the scythe mercifully cool now instead of being burning hot like they had been yesterday, as her leg bounced with an anxious rhythm, wondering if the dim light hid the dark circles underneath her eyes,
She hadn't gotten much sleep last night. Not with her mind running with what Mrs. Dodds was—what she knew that Mrs. Dodds had been real—and what she'd called her.
Daughter of the Underworld.
Why did she call her that? And what did it mean?
Hester twisted the sword charm again. She couldn't think on that. Not when she should be focusing on what the principal was saying, why she, Percy and Grover were in here for.
To be decided whether or not Percy would be expelled from Yancy because he pushed Nancy in the fountain, as she had blabbed to the first teacher in Yancy about it when they returned to the school. But Percy had been adamant he hadn't touched her and Hester had vouched for him—because it was the truth. He hadn't touched her.
And yet, something had pulled Nancy into the fountain...
"The truth can be so very hard to determine," the principal said, causing Hester to be pulled back into what was going on. "But in this case, the truth seems very hard to deny. Mr. Jackson, a number of your classmates saw you, Mr. Underwood and Miss. Sāto arguing with Miss. Bobofit. Yet, you have offered no other explanation for how she ended up in that fountain other than, uh..."
