Before The Olympians

4th Grade

I'm SO EXCITED! I love, and I mean love the ocean. Me and mom go to Montauk all the time, and I love it. That's why I'm so excited for this school field trip. We are going to the aquarium! How cool is That?! I haven't even messed up at all this year either! Only that one time I accidentally knocked a whiteboard off the wall where it landed on my teacher. Woops.

*Two days later*

I couldn't sleep. TOMORROW was the field trip! But Mom was tucking me into bed despite my protests. "Mom, I can't sleep now. I'm almost passing out just thinking about the aquarium!" I told her pleadingly.

"Yes you can sweetie, you just have to try real hard. Can you do that for me?" she asked, and I could hear the exhaustion in her voice from a double shift at work.

"Alright mom, I'll try. But don't count on anything, I feel like I could run to China and back." I said.

"Do you even know how far China is?" she asked a grin creeping up her face.

"Nope" I stated matter 'factly.

"Well then how do you know you can run that far?" She asked before she started tickling me.

"Mom!" I screeched between giggles. "s-stop!" I yelled dragging out the "o" sound. Pretty soon we were both collapsed on my bed laughing, and looking up at my fish covered ceiling. Mom had painted it blue and stuck pictures of fish all across it; I adored it.

"I love you Percy, you know that right? With all my heart." She asked me.

"Yeah mom, 'course I do. I love you too." I said still catching my breath from giggling so hard.

"Alright, good." She said before lifting me up and placing me in between the sheets, and tucking my body in tightly.

"Goodnight, my sweet Perseus." She said walking to my bedroom door.

"Good night mom." I responded as she flicked the light off and closed my door only leaving it open a crack... She new I hated having my door closed all the way.

*The next morning at school*

"We are going to get on the bus in ten minutes but I need you to be on your best behaviors." Mrs Asghar said staring directly into my eyes, with her coffee brown ones, as she said best behavior. Her name was pronounced like Oz ( from The Wizard of Oz) - h- are. I remember because she had to tell me twice before I could say it. At first I pronounced it like Asgard because the letters got all scrambled.

"Yes Ms." I responded with the rest of the class. We loaded on the bus, and I sat in the front. Normally I would try to avoid attention, but I wanted to be the first off the bus. Mrs. Asghar sat next to me, effectively trapping me between the bus wall and herself.

When we got off the bus, and were walking into the aquarium building I could hardly contain my excitement. I was almost shaking it was so bad. When we got inside and Mrs. Asghar said we could look around for a bit, I ran straight up to this huge glass viewing area that had some bottle nosed dolphins inside. Suddenly I was really sad.

"Please, please let us out lord." One pleaded with me.

Another said "Come play with us!".

I wanted to let them out so badly but they wouldn't be able to go anywhere. It wasn't like their tanks were connected to the ocean or anything.

"Perseus, why the sad face?" Mrs. Asghar asked me.

"They just locked these dolphins in here, I didn't realize their tanks would be so small. How can people keep them here like this? They should be in the ocean. That's where they want to be." I said glumly.

"How do you know they don't want to be here?" She asked me.

"Umm... I don't know, just a feeling I guess." I responded.

"You know these dolphins were rescued, and brought here right? They would've died if they hadn't been brought here." She said, but it didn't make me feel any better.

"How about we go look at the sharks? The sharks are born in captivity." She said trying to cheer me up. It worked; sort of.

"Alright." I said and we started walking away from the dolphins, and toward a tunnel. I was amazed when we walked under the glass. It was amazing to see the sharks all around me. As soon as I entered the tank, they seemed to be attracted towards the glass. They swarmed and I heard over ten voices in my head.

"Hey!" one yelled

"Ooooh, sea spawn." said another.

"You look nice." was barely heard over the explosion of voices.

"I like his eyes." said a deep voice.

"Hey kid, do you have food?" asked another.

"Ummm, no." I said awkwardly.

"Hey, its okay the glass is really strong. No need to be afraid." Said Mrs. Asghar.

" I'm not scared" I said walking further into the tunnel, and the teacher wandered off to go check up on other kids. The sharks seemed disappointed in my lack of food and lost interest quickly.

"Hey, come back." I said quietly, a couple of them returned and started talking to me.

"You from around here kid?" asked a hammer head shark. No one else was in the tunnel so I wasn't scared of being seen.

"Sort of, I live in Manhattan." I responded.

"You know you should visit more often. We don't get sea god spawn here often, it's refreshing." A tiger shark said.

"Maybe I will ask my mom." I said.

"Hey kid, do you want to give us a bit more room?" Asked The hammerhead.

"Sure how do I do that?" I asked, confused.

"Percy, who are you talking to?" Asked Mrs. Afghar, she had the rest of the class behind her and they had all just gotten inside when the hammerhead shark hit his whole body against the glass, and a small crack appeared. Letting a little bit of water leak through. But then the pressure caused a larger crack to appear. A Voice played over some speakers I didn't know were there.

"Please evacuate the shark tunnel as quickly as possible." The voice said. But our teacher was stunned, and only a couple of kids ran out before the loud voice started counting.

"In 10 seconds the automatic doors will start to close. 8, 7" More kids ran out of the room, but the majority were still confused

"3, 2, 1" said the voice. And garage like doors started closing kids were screaming now, and the crack in the glass got bigger, and bigger. But our teacher was frozen in fear. Suddenly the glass collapsed and water came pouring in.

Our class took an unexpected swim.