𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓹𝓱𝓮𝓬𝔂 ~ 𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓬𝔂 𝓳𝓪𝓬𝓴𝓼𝓸𝓷 𝔁 𝓸𝓬

stop staring at the statue, nancy.

Madelyn Moore was over it. She was just exhausted.

Now don't worry, this was normal for her. Probably not good for her, but normal nonetheless. Percy kept saying "Dude, you're depressed," but she didn't really care. All she cared about was, well, Percy. In a strictly platonic way. Oh, and also Grover.

All the way into the city for their excursion, Nancy Bobofit, the red haired klepto, kept hitting her good friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter and ketchup sandwich.

Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in Grover's curly brown hair, and she knew Percy and Maddie couldn't do anything back to her because Percy was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened him with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.

And Maddie couldn't do anything because she had strict parents. Like, 'I will beat you if you do anything wrong' strict parents. That's a story for later, though.

"I'm gonna kill her," Percy mumbled. "I'll help." Maddie volunteered.

Grover tried to calm them down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."

He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch, and Maddie began to get up before Grover caught her arm. "They'll call your parents." he reminded her. "I don't want anything happening to you just to protect me. I'm fine."

Maddie rolled her eyes. "What are they gonna do, hit me? I just cry and they think they've hit me hard enough. It doesn't even hurt." she muttered.

Percy gave her a worried look. He was always worried about her. She tried to act like she didn't care about her parents being absolute shitheads, but Percy knew it bothered her. Maddie acted all tough, but deep down she just wanted people who cared about her.

Percy put his hand over Maddie's. "We don't want you getting hurt, okay Mads?"

Mads. Percy was the only one allowed to call Maddie this. She liked it, because when her parents used to love her, they would call her this too. Then it turned to Maddie. Then Madelyn. Then her full name.

Nope, not thinking about that, Maddie thought to herself. Every time she thought about her parents, she broke down. And she couldn't do that in public. Especially not in front of her friends.

Once they got to the museum, a teacher named Mr Brunner led the museum tour. Maddi didn't hate Brunner. He was their Latin teacher, and he was pretty cool. He wasn't strict or anything, he just expected the bare minimum. Maddie was fine with that. Percy was not.

Percy didn't have any faith in himself. He had ADHD and dyslexia (although so did Maddi) so he thought he could get away without doing any of his work. Most teachers at Yancy Academy agreed, but Mr Brunner believed in Percy. He expected him to be just as good as anyone else. Better, even.

Anyway, Mr Brunner rolled his wheelchair (did I mention he was in a wheelchair? well he was.) through the museum, the students all trailing behind him. He gathered the kids around a thirteen foot tall stone column with a big sphinx on top. He started telling them how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about their age.

Percy, for the first time ever, was interested. He was trying to listen but everyone around him was talking, and every time Percy told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs Dodds, gave him the evil eye.

Mrs. Dodds was this little maths teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when their last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.