Act 1 - we'll always have each other
River Jackson's life changed the day her Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner, took the class on a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at Greek and Roman stuff.
Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a wheelchair. He had thinning hair, a scruffy beard, and a frayed tweed jacket. He told stories and jokes and let the students play games in class. He was a fun teacher and River's favorite class. She loved learning about Greek mythology.
River thought this was going to be a fun field trip. But, she was very wrong.
She had to deal with Nancy Bobofit throwing chunks of peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches at her friend Grover.
River could see her twin brother, Percy, getting so angry at Nancy, but he couldn't do anything because he was already on probation.
"Riv, do something," Percy said.
"No," River responded. "I'm not going to get in trouble. Mrs. Dodds hates us."
Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher who always wore a black leather jacket. She looked around fifty years old, and mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She loved Nancy Bobofit but hated River and Percy.
"I'm going to kill her," Percy muttered.
"It's okay," Grover tried to calm Percy down. "I like peanut butter."
Nancy threw another chunk of her lunch at Grover.
"That's it." Percy stood up but Grover pulled him back into his seat.
"You're already on probation, Percy," Grover reminded him.
"We all know who'll get blamed if anything happens," River rolled her eyes.
When they arrived, Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair guiding the class through the big galleries of art.
He gathered the class around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphynx on top and started talking about how it was a grave marker for a girl their age. He told the class about the carvings on the sides. River was trying to listen to what he was saying, but everyone kept talking. Percy told them to shut up a few times, but Mrs. Dodds just gave him the evil eye.
Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.
Nancy snickered something about the naked guy on the stele. Percy turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"
It came out pretty loud. The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped talking.
"Mr. Jackson," he said. "Did you have a comment?"
Percy's face turned red. "No, sir."
Mr. Brunner pointed to a picture on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"
"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" Percy said.
"Yes," Mr. Brunner said "and he did this because..."
"Well... Kronos was the king god, and—"
"Titan," River reminded him.
"Yes, Titan," he said. "And... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. Later when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad into barfing up his brothers and sisters and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," he continued, "and the gods won."
Behind them, Nancy mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on a job application, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"
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𝚖𝚢 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜 ✶ clarisse la rue
Fanfiction"i would've married you, if you had stuck around."
