Daughter of Hades, Luke Castellan's Mutual Admirer

Why can I read that?

It was eight o'clock when I heard a continuous banging on the door to the apartment that I share with my Mom. I tried to make them wait, determined to finish putting my lip gloss on. The knocking continued though, accompanied this time by a few whinings of 'Casey!' I chuckled to myself, straightening out my white blouse, checking my hair, and grabbing my bag before swinging open the door.

"You took your time!" exclaimed one of my best friends, Percy.

"Sorry!" I apologised somewhat dramatically before shutting the apartment door and locking it.

"Aren't you going to say bye to your Mom?" asked Percy.

"Oh, she left for work early today," I explained as the two of us descended the many flights of stairs down to the ground floor of the apartment building.

He nodded in understanding, and made small talk until we had reached the ground floor. There stood Grover, my other best friend, as he supported himself with his crutches.

"Grover!" I gushed, dashing over to hug him.

"Hey, Case!" he greeted, as I turned to look at a scowling Percy who was muttering about he hadn't got a hug.

I rolled my eyes but hugged him anyway, pulling back with a sarcastic, "Better?" as he nodded.

The three of us then hopped on the bus that would take us to the museum we were visiting today.

Pulling up outside, Grover started up the steps on his crutches, and I followed, but I turned back once I realised that Percy wasn't walking with us.

I looked at him, concerned, as he stared at the bus stop for some reason.

"You guys! Come on!" urged Grover, already at the top of the steps.

Percy turned round immediately, nodding his agreement, but still looking confused. As Grover headed inside, I waited for Percy.

"What was wrong?" I asked anxiously.

"Nothing just... thought I saw someone," Percy answered, but shaking it off, and telling me to come on.

I rolled my eyes but scampered up the steps anyway and into the museum.

As we were going round the museum I was actually enjoying myself. Normally I find museums really boring, but I guess that there was just something about Greek mythology that did it for me, and I was in my element.

"Hey guys," I said, joining Percy and Grover, "You see that statue there?" I pointed to it.

They nodded so I continued, "That's Hercules."

"Are you going to tell us some wonderful stories about him?" asked Percy in mock excitement.

"Only if you want me too," I made my doe eyes and my puppy-dog pout at him.

"Go on," he sighed.

"Yay! Well Hercules was a son of Zeus but because he was not a son of Zeus' wife, Hera, as Zeus had seduced Hercules' mother, Hera hated him. She sent two snaked to kill him in his cot, but he strangled them both and played with the dead bodies like they were toys. This frustrated Hera and so, when he had gotten married to his first wife, she allowed him to take time to have several children, before sending him into a crazed frenzy in which he killed his wife and children."

"Such an uplifting story," Percy joked, smirking at me.

"Guys!" Grover called, pulling us back over to the group which we were straying from.

We all chuckled but followed him up to a sort of doorway with some writing on in ancient Greek. Mr. Brunner then gestured to a painting. I knew immediately that it was to do with the overthrowing of Kronos by his three Olympian sons Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.

"Can anyone tell me about this painting?" Mr Brunner asked from his wheelchair.

Grover nudged me, but I shook my head at him violently. I was happy to bore he and Percy with my knowledge but I would never say it in front of the whole class in fear of being bullied for being a nerd.

As Grover and I were having our little nudging-shaking head match, Mr Brunner asked, "Miss Thomas?"

I silently cursed in my head before turning to smile at him in question.

"Do you know anything about this painting?" he asked, looking like he knew I knew a lot more than something about it.

"Not an excessive amount," I muttered.

"Come on," he urged, "Tell me what you do know."

I sighed, turning so that I could see the painting.

"Well that's Poseidon," I said, pointing to the trident-wielding man, "That's Zeus," I added, gesturing to the man holding a lightning bolt, "That's Hades," I continued, pointing to the man holding a sword and surrounded by dogs, "And the one who they're fighting is their father, Kronos."

"And why do you think they were fighting him, Miss Thomas?" asked Mr Brunner, smiling at my knowledge.

"Erm, well because they were standing up to him I guess," I answered, but trying to dumb it down a bit, "Kronos ate his children I think, so they overthrew him because they didn't think it was right."

"And do you know what they to him when they overthrew him?" Mr Brunner questioned, now staring intently at me, as was the rest of the class, apparently eager to hear the rest of the story.

"Erm, did they chop him up and throw his remains into Tartarus?" I asked, even though I already knew it was right.

Mr Brunner nodded appreciatively before moving on to talk about demigods. He was explaining what a demigod was- the offspring of a god and a human.

"Demigods are conceived when the gods come down to earth and... how do I put this?"

"Hook up," supplied Grover, earning some laughs from everyone in the group.

"Yes, they hook up with humans," Mr Brunner said, before continuing to say, "Now, there are many famous demigods. Percy Jackson? Can you name me one?"

I looked to my right to see Percy nodding his head along to the music playing in his earphones. I rolled my eyes and yanked them out of his ears, jabbing my finger in Mr Brunner's direction.

"I'm sorry, what?" asked Percy.

"Can you name a famous demigod?" Mr Brunner repeated, and when Percy looked at a loss, he said, "I'll give you a hint, you and one of them have a lot in common."

Then I saw Percy's eyes travel to the doorway thing with the writing, and I was taken aback when the letters began to rearrange themselves to make an actual sentence. I know Percy must have seen it too and was confused. We both have dyslexia and so it's nearly impossible for this to have happened.

The words rearranged the read something about a guy called Perseus.

"Perseus?" Percy guessed.

"Correct," replied Mr Brunner before starting to go on about another painting.

"Could you read that too?" I whispered to Percy.

"You could?" he asked, and I nodded nervously, receiving a 'yeah' in answer to my question.

"Weird," I mused, before Mrs Dodds came by and asked if she could speak to Percy in private.

He shrugged, telling Grover and I that he'd catch up, before following her into another room.

"Well, come on," Grover said, nudging my ankle with one of his crutches to get me moving. I smiled and we made our way back to the group. I was still creeped out by the archway though... why could I read it?