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THE only person they dreaded to saying good-bye to was grover, but as it turned out, they didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to manhattan on the same greyhound as they had, so there they were, together again, heading into the city.
During the whole bus ride, grover kept glancing down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to them that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when they left yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen happen. Before, they'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the greyhound.
Finally, percy couldn't stand it anymore. "Looking for kindly ones?" He asked and pandora lifted her head from percy's shoulder and looked at him and grover.
Grover nearly jumped out of his seat, "Wha— what do you mean?" He questioned and percy confessed about he and pandora eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.
Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"
"Oh.. not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?" Pandora questioned, Grover winced. "Look, percy.. dory.. i was just worried for you, see? i mean, hallucinating about demon math teacher.."
Percy and Pandora shared a look. "Grover—" He cut percy off, "And i was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you two were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and.."
"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar." His ears turned pink, from his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? in case you need me this summer."
The card was in fancy script, which was murder on percy and pandora's dyslexic eyes, but they finally made something out like: Grover underwood, keeper, Half-blood hill, long island, new york. with numbers at the end.
"What's half—" Pandora started,
"Don't say it aloud!" Grover yelped, "That's my, um.. summer address." Their hearts sank and they glanced at each other. Grover had a summer home. They'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at yancy.
"Okay," Percy said glumly, "So, like, if we want to come visit your mansion." He nodded. "Or.. or if you need me."
"Why would we need you?" It came out harsher than percy meant it to, grover blushed right down to his adam's apple, "Look, Percy, dory, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you." Percy and Pandora looked at each other then stared at him.
