Strange

Chapter 2: Full Names and a Challenge

1:40 pm, Wednesday, September 1st 2010

It was Madeline Thomas' first year of teaching at Goode High, and she was determined to make it a good year. She was the new teacher for Goodes AP Ancient History course.

She had earned her PhDs in Ancient History and Teaching only the year before at Harvard, and was the valedictorian of her class. In her mind, she is undoubtedly the best candidate for the job.

Madeleine prided herself on her knowledge, but unfortunately over the years she had grown cocky and arrogant, believing that no one would know more than her.

So she stood at the front of the stuffy classroom on September 1st, watching her class of juniors rudge in for the last block of the day. It was the Juniors A class. Right before she had had Juniors B. She checked her watch. Two minutes till the bell. At one minute to the bell, a hooded student rushed in and sat in the back.

She paid him no heed.

The bell rang, signaling the start of class. She clapped her hands, bringing attention to her. "Hello class!" She chirped cheerfully.

She was met with an unenthusiastic mumble, and she resisted the urge to growl. Brushing aside her class's response, she picked up her clipboard. "I'm going to start today's class by calling roll. When I say your name please say here, nothing else."

There were only 11 juniors in the class, which at a school that normally had about 25 students per class made it one of the smallest. Fortunately, it also meant roll took up very little time. Many of the students however, mumbled their responses refusing to meet her eyes. She bristled with every disrespectful reply. Her seniors in the morning had been so much better than these kids.

"Now I have a seating chart assigned. Do not grumble or argue, I don't wanna hear it. Everyone please grab your books and go to the back of the class. I will point to a desk, and call your name. That is your desk for the remaining term."

The seating chart was her pride and joy. She put the students who were bound to be trouble in the front row, so she could keep her eyes on them. She put the more well behaved, and seemingly smarter students in the back. She figured that the further away they were, the less she would have to deal with students who thought they knew more than her.

She walked to the desk at the right. She laid her hand on it and called "Perseus Jackson."

"Just Percy." A voice replied.

"Pardon me?" She said, looking up to face the offender. It was a tall guy, with his hood up. His chin was up ever so slightly, and she nearly growled at his disrespect and rudeness.

"Don't call me Perseus. Call me Percy."

"If you wanted me to call you something other than Perseus, you should have told me when I called roll. But you have missed your chance, and I need you to sit down now Perseus." She chided.

"Well maybe you should have told me that! I don't like being called Perseus, and I'm not gonna answer to you if you call me that." He stalked over to her while he talked, getting up in her face.

"Sit. Down. Your name is Perseus, and you will go by that in my class from here on out." She said.

Perseus was trembling, eyes murderous and fists at his side. Mrs. Thomas moved onto the next desk, and ignored him; he let loose a low growl and sat in his chair. He sat there with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes drilling holes into the whiteboard.

By this point she had finished with her seating chart and looked over at the brooding boy. She couldn't help but let a triumphantly smug grin crossover her face. It only lasted a moment though before she schooled her features, and launched into her lesson.

While she was handed out the unit pre-test she spoke to him again, right as she put the teat on his desk. "Perseus, hood off."

He didn't respond, just continued to glare at the paper.

"Perseus."

He growled, a low and angry sound, but flipped down his hood. She narrowed his eyes at his hair when she finally saw it. There were streaks of grey running all throughout his hair and Mrs. Thomas definitely knew the rules about hair dye.

"Perseus, I expect the next time you are in my class, that you do not have those highlights. It is against school policy to have dye in your hair."

"This isn't dye." He replied not even bothering to look up from his test.

"Perseus lying isn't good. Those horrendous streaks will be gone when I see you next, understood?" She said, temper flaring

The knuckles of his hand holding his pencil were white, and he was trembling again. He was staring at the board in front of him, too furious to meet his teachers eyes.

"PERSEUS!" She snapped, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to look at her. His eyes were murderous and narrowed into slits. "Disrespect will not be tolerated in my class. Those streaks will be gone when I see you again, and if they are not I will give you detention and tell the principal. Do you understand?"

He clenched his jaw, before nodding his head. She looked at his test, and sighed. "Why are you only on question 2? We do not have all day Perseus"

He muttered out an answer. "What was that?" She asked.

"I said," he growled out "That I'm dyslexic."

She narrowed her eyes. "If you are dyslexic then maybe you shouldn't be in this class. You're required to do a lot of reading and writing in this class, you are aware of that."

He stood up out of his chair, causing the chair to clatter to the floor. Mrs. Thomas stood staring the teen down, who was staring at her completely furious. "Test me then."

"Pardon?"

"Test me orally. This unit is on Ancient Greece so let's see how much I know and if I even deserve to be in this course." The words were spoken as a pure challenge, and Mrs. Thomas felt her anger boil up.

"Fine." She said. "Name the Twelve Olympians."

Perseus smirked. "Zeus, Hera, Poseidon," he squared his shoulders, "Demeter, Ares, Athena," his smirk grew wider, "Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus," his smirk turned upwards until it was almost crooked "Aphrodite, Hermes, and Dionysus."

"Name the nine muses, and what they are muses of." She said, making sure this question was harder.

"First is Clio, the muse of history. Then Euterpe, the muse of music. Then Thalia," he laughed lightly before continuing, "the muse of comedy. Then Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. Then there's Terpsichore, the muse of dance. Then Erato, the muse of love poetry. Then Polymnia, the muse of sacred poetry. Then Urania, the muse of astronomy. Finally there's Calliope, head muse, and muse of epic poetry." He looked at his teacher with a raised eyebrow, daring her to ask her next question.

This continued on for almost ten minutes, and each question got progressively harder and harder. Mrs. Thomas was determined to prove that he didn't belong in this class, and Percy was determined to prove her wrong.

Finally she decided she would trick him. "Who was Horus?" She asked, sure that she had tricked him, and therefore won.

He simply raised an eyebrow. "Horus was not a Greek God. He was an Egyptian god of the sky. He was well known as a protector and ruler of Egypt. The Egyptians believed that their pharaohs were the living Horus. He is one of the most important Egyptian gods out there."

She spluttered indignantly, and before she could reply, the bell rang. Percy saluted her, before rushing out of class. The rest of the class filed out and she stood there furious and embarrassed.