Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Look, I’m not going to claim I'm a holy saint or whatever, but I'm not cruel. Unfortunately, I was friends with cruel kids.

Don't even ask me how I became friends with sixth graders, especially the most immature ones in their grade. One day I was sharing an answer key that I ‘borrowed’ from Mr. Nicoll’s desk (in my defense, that man was too strict for me to keep up with) with some nosey girls, the next I had to get dragged around like a dog by them.

It was embarrassing, but I couldn't do much about it. I didn't have any friends other than them, and being a loner was too boring for me.

I guess they thought having an older friend would give ‘em some protection against kids they picked on. If that was their plan, they should've befriended an older kid in the school, not a seventh grader a few months older than them.

Now, because of this misfortune, I had to sit with them on the bus as we headed to our destination.

Sophie Howard, a girl with curly and tangled brown hair and eyes that reminded me of moldy cheese (take that however you will), was gushing to me about all the ‘handsome’ boys in the school she had a crush on.

Never have I wished I had hearing aids, but there's always a first time for something.

Sophie was supposed to be sitting properly in her seat, but instead she was almost standing just to blab to me and Nancy since we sat in front of her.

I sort of hoped the bus driver would stop the bus suddenly, just so Sophie would lurch back and hopefully bite her tongue.

Okay, maybe that was a bit much.

Nancy Bobofit, a redhead girl with freckles that might as well be acne scars, wasn't even listening to her. Instead, she was downing a monstrosity that would give the lunch ladies a heart attack; a peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

I wasn't even trying to be mean. Nancy had shoved a piece of that sandwich (with mayonnaise) into my mouth last week, and I kid you not, I spent thirty minutes in the bathroom gagging, not knowing whether or not I'd actually puke. I missed a test review because of that.

Worst of all, she was chewing with her mouth open. The irritating sound came with wads of food, which were getting in Grover Underwood’s hair, one of the boys sitting in front of us.

Some even managed to get on my lap, and I had to keep quickly brushing them off like Nancy was diseased. She might as well be.

Grover was a nice boy, I guess. Though, he was an easy target. Scrawny, a crybaby, and he had an anxious look on his face all the time. Exactly Nancy’s type to bully. Even worse, Grover had some sort of muscular disease that literally exempted Grover from P.E for, like, forever. Even more fuel for teasing and picking.

Though the boy sitting next to Grover was a different story.

Percy Jackson, a boy with black hair and sea green eyes, wasn't exactly Nancy’s usual victims. Though, he was dyslexic and had ADHD, so I guess that's what she decided was worth picking on.

I'm really glad I never told her I had those exact same things. She'd never shut up if she knew.

But back to Percy.

He had a temper. The people Nancy picked on usually didn't fight back, but Percy definitely did. He always seemed ready to go toe to toe with anyone, like a really paranoid dog. The only people he seemed less tense around were Grover and Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher.

It was weird.

I think that's why Nancy needed an older friend to save her ass, but you would not catch me dead getting between those two once something started. That was Grover's job.

Speaking of something happening between Percy and Nancy, I caught a glimpse of Percy starting to get out of his seat, probably to give Nancy a piece of his mind.

The only reason there wasn't a fight on the bus was because Grover knocked some sense into him. I couldn't hear much, but Grover said something about probation. Makes sense, Percy always walked into trouble. Thankfully, Percy sat back down after that.

Just to make sure Nancy wouldn't actually get on Percy’s last nerve, I decided to step in just a bit.

“Sophie, whatcha think ‘bout Marcus? He any good?” I asked.

Sophie’s nose scrunched up like a bunnies, “Ew, Mattie. Of course not, he's the worst boy here.”

I cringed slightly. Nancy and Sophie thought Mateja was too weird of a name, so they only called me Mattie. It's not that I minded nicknames, just… I hated Mattie.

Though, I'd never tell them that, since then I'd have to explain some stuff that would definitely give them a reason to turn on me and bully me relentlessly.

“What!” Nancy basically broke the sound barrier, “Marcus is the best. You can't be that blind, Sophie.”

“I’m not the blind one!” Sophie huffed.

They started fighting like cats and dogs. I slumped in my seat, shutting out their back and forth arguing over whether Marcus Sullivan, Nancy’s crush, was ‘handsome’ or not.

I looked out the window, focusing on anything my eyes landed on.

We passed by a dollar tree. God, how I'd kill for a Dr Pepper right now. I forgot to bring one (or three) for the ride, and while Sophie gave me one of her waters, I really missed the fizzy feeling on my tongue.

Suddenly, my face hit the leather of the seat in front of me hard. The driver had stopped suddenly since a car decided to cut in front of the very obvious school bus.

I rubbed my nose, soothing the sting since I couldn't do anything about my annoyance.

Though when I looked back to check on Sophie, it was really hard not to laugh; she had landed on her back, her necklaces all messed up.

Sophie whined when she sat up, obviously having bit her tongue by accident. I only giggled when Nancy started mocking her.

Chapter Text

After who knows how long, we finally got to the destination of our fieldtrip; the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now, it sounds a bit boring, I know. But I had a feeling it wouldn't be that bad.

The trip was being led by Mr. Brunner. Like I mentioned before, he's the Latin teacher at our school. Well, the new one at least.

I had Latin last year, and I absolutely bombed that shit. But thankfully, they still let me pass to the next grade if I agreed to re-take the class, which was nice, but sucked since I had to do extra work to make up for it. Though, I actually had hopes that I'd pass this year.

I didn't do well in boring classes, I'd fall asleep or pay little to no attention after ten minutes. Mr. Brunner's class wasn't boring at all.

He was this older guy with a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning brown hair and a scruffy beard (I always wondered if it was itchy), and he reeked of coffee, but in a good way.

You would think he'd be a total bummer, but he was pretty cool and his jokes were actually funny (take that Mr. Nicoll). And he had this cool collection of Roman armor he'd keep in class for us to see. Hell, sometimes he'd even dress up in the Roman armor, shouting “What ho!” and challenging the class to name every Greek and Roman person who ever lived, their mother, what god or gods they worshiped on the chalkboard.

It was awesome, even if I tried avoiding participating since I'd just embarrass myself. He even promised me if I passed this year, I could paint a design on his wheelchair.

When we got off the bus, kids were already shoving each other to go faster. The kids in my grade were especially trying to get through first. It was really annoying.

Mr. Brunner led us through the museum. We walked through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues, and glimpsed encased old black and orange pottery.

Sophie thought it would be funny to yell and see how loud her echo would be, but I literally clapped my hand over her mouth and dragged her until we were out of the galleries. The bus ride was enough of her voice.

Right now we were gathered around a freakishly tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top. Mr. Brunner mentioned it was a grave marker. A stele, I think. It was for a girl our age. You know, not uncomfortable at all.

Mr. Brunner went on about the carvings. I'm sure it was interesting and all, but everyone would not shut up. Their conversations were less interesting by far. All they were talking about were lunch, spending money, some inappropriate jokes about the statues around us, etc.

Maybe I should've considered my grandparents' offer of being homeschooled.

I hoped Mrs. Dodds, the pre-algebra teacher, would say something, anything, to get the kids to shut up already. But I doubted she would. She only ever seemed to pick on kids she didn't favor. That was the good thing about being Nancy’s friend, Mrs. Dodds thought Nancy and any of her friends were angels sent from above that could do no wrong.

Mrs. Dodds was this little old woman from Georgia. Though, not the sweet grandmother type. More like… Shit, what's her name? Oh! Right, that grandma from Grandmother’s house. You know, the killer? I don't know how it makes sense, it just does.

She always had this black leather jacket that looked odd on a fifty year old woman and scowled like someone made her eat one of Nancy’s sandwiches. She'd come around half way through the school year, since the original math teacher had a nervous breakdown in the middle of class.

Anyways, Mr. Brunner was still talking about Greek funeral art. I felt Nancy nudge me. When I looked over, I already saw Nancy and Sophie giggling at a statue of a naked guy on the stele.

“Must've been cold when they made this,” Nancy grinned like she'd made the best joke ever.

Percy suddenly turned around to look at us three, obviously irritated, “Will you shut up!”

I almost felt bad, since Percy’s voice hadn't exactly been quiet. Everyone around us laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story, eyeing us four.

“Mr. Jackson,” Mr. Brunner raised a brow, “did you have a comment?”

Percy looked like a tomato.

“No sir,” Percy said, his eyes darting away to the floor.

Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele, “Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents.”

I glanced at the picture. It was familiar, I think I saw it in one of the books Mr. Brunner gave to me before. Shoot, what was it…?

“That’s Kronos eating his kids, right?” Percy said, a relieved look on his face as he looked at the carvings.

Oh, right.

“Yes,” Mr. Brunner seemed to want more, “And he did this because…?”

“Well…” Percy rubbed his arm, “Kronos was the kind god, and–”

“God?” Mr. Brunner asked.

“Titan,” Percy corrected himself, “And… he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters–”

A chorus of "Eeeew!”'s and “Gross!”'s came from the other kids around.

“– so, there was this big fight between the gods and Titans,” Percy continued, “and the gods won.”

Some kids snickered again.

Nancy leaned over to Sophie, “Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job application, ‘Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.’”

As much as I hated to agree with Nancy, I sort of did. I didn't see a point where I’d actually needed this in real life. It was interesting, don't get me wrong, but…

“And why, Mr. Jackson,” Mr. Brunner said, ”to paraphrase Miss Bobofit’s excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

“Busted,” Grover muttered.

“Shut up,” Nancy glared, and I just knew she'd get him later.

Mr. Brunner was one of the only teachers I knew that actually caught Nancy when she acted out. And I know she’s my friend, but I was a bit glad Mr. Brunner actually said something about Nancy’s behavior. At least he was fair.

“I don't know, sir.” Percy shrugged.

“I see,” Mr. Brunner looked disappointed, “Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan’s stomach.”

I scrunched my nose. I wondered how that would've felt; growing up with your other siblings in the stomach of your father for who knows how long, then getting rescued by a brother you probably didn't even know existed. Hell, did the gods even know they were in their father's stomach the whole time, or were they just stuck somewhere warm and definitely horrible smelling and thought, ‘oh yeah, this is our life’?

“The gods defeated their father, sliced him up to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld,” Mr. Brunner continued.

“On that happy note, it's lunch time. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?” Mr. Brunner smiled, like he hadn't just been talking about ancient Greek cannibalism and violence.

The class drifted off like baby chicks following their mom. The girls were holding their stomachs, and the guys were roughhousing, pushing each other around.

Chapter Text

Everyone was gathered on the front steps of the museum, watching the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.

I was watching Nancy trying to pickpocket something from a woman’s purse. Did I forget to mention she was a kleptomaniac?

And unfortunately, she was pretty good at it.

I glanced up at the sky. The clouds were a lot darker than I'd ever seen them. I wondered if we'd have a bad storm later on. Hopefully it wouldn't happen until we were back at Yancy.

Nancy came back with a wallet, already taking out all of the bills she could find, only leaving the ID’s of Samantha in there. Poor woman. I held onto my drawstring bag (I forgot to mention I had one the entire time, right?) much tighter. I didn't need Nancy’s sticky fingers in my bag.

“Score.” Sophie grinned.

They were already splitting the money, the wallet discarded on the ground. Nancy threw it as far as she could.

“Want some?” Nancy had two twenty dollar bills in her hand.

I didn't even say anything, she just shoved them in my hands. I sighed, pocketing them before anyone else saw them and asked where the hell I got them from.

I thought for once things would calm down and stay relatively peaceful.

… Then Nancy opened her mouth again.

“Look, the charity works are on the fountain.” Nancy snickered.

Sophie and I looked over. Grover and Percy were sitting together, eating their lunch and minding their own business.

Suddenly, I remembered how Nancy looked at Grover in the museum. Oh shit.

“Wait!” I called after Nancy and Sophie, but they were already walking over to the boys.

I glanced over at Mr. Brunner, hoping he’d notice. Unfortunately, he was reading a paperback novel with an umbrella over his head, looking comfortable.

I groaned. Damnit, of course they'd pick a fight now. I quickly put my lunch down, following after them.

I caught up just in time to see Nancy drop her food on Grover’s lap.

“Oops,” Nancy grinned, that awfully fake sweet tone thick on her voice.

Sometimes she reminded me of Mrs. Dodds with that tone.

I expected Grover to say something to calm Percy down. Again, I was wrong. Grover didn't even have time to say anything before Percy stood up.

Now, I don't even know what happened. One second, Percy put his hands out as if he was going to grab Nancy, the next Nancy was pulled into the fountain. Yes, pulled, not pushed.

Nancy screamed, the only reason she didn't hit her face flat on the concrete being because she put her hands in front of her.

“Nancy!” Sophie gasped, covering her mouth.

Nancy, drenched in water and breathing heavily, managed to sit up. I quickly climbed in, even though I really hated getting into water. She took my arm and I helped her to her feet.

“Percy pushed me!” She screamed loud enough to catch the attention of everyone who hadn't already looked at us.

After Nancy was out, I was already in front of Percy.

“What the hell was that, Jackson.” I will admit that I might've been in the wrong for getting in his face.

“I didn't do anything!” Percy’s eyes narrowed.

Before I could call bullshit, Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.

I could already hear the kids watching the show whispering.

“Did you see–”

“–the water–”

“–like it grabbed her–”

Mrs. Dodds made sure Nancy was alright, promising to get her a new shirt from the Museum gift shop and a towel to dry off with. As soon as she was done comforting Nancy, Mrs. Dodds turned to Percy and I.

“Now, honey–” Mrs. Dodds started.

“I know,” Percy grumbled, “A month erasing workbooks.”

Mrs. Dodds frowned deeper, “Come with me.”

“Wait!” Grover yelped, his voice trembling slightly, “It was me. I pushed her.”

Mrs. Dodds glare switched from Percy to Grover, making Grover's whiskery chin tremble.

“I don't think so, Mr. Underwood.” Mrs. Dodds sweet tone seemed to fade.

“But–”

“You will stay here.” Mrs. Dodds hissed.

“It's okay, man,” Percy told Grover, “Thanks for trying.”

“And honey,” Mrs. Dodds turned to me suddenly, “you’re coming too.”

“What?!” I was completely stunned, “But I didn’t do anything!”

“Honey,” Mrs. Dodds voice was clipped.

“Percy’s the one who pushed Nancy in!”

“Honey, you’re coming whether you like it or not.” Mrs. Dodds hissed.

I snapped my head over at Nancy and Sophie. They both looked surprised, since Mrs. Dodds never held Nancy and her friends accountable for anything.

“Honey,” Mrs. Dodds barked, “Now.”

I looked back over at Mrs. Dodds. She was at the museum entrance at the top of the steps, definitely Impatient. Percy was already walking to her.

For an old lady, she was fast.

I swallowed, throwing one last desperate glance at Nancy and Sophie before reluctantly hurrying up to follow after the two, not wanting to be in further trouble than I was already in apparently.

When I finally caught up to them, Mrs. Dodds and Percy were inside the Greek and Roman section. That's odd. I thought if anything, Mrs. Dodds would've made Percy buy a shirt from the gift shop for Nancy. And I was still confused as to why I was here. Was it because I got in Percy’s face, did she see Nancy give me those two twenty dollar bills?

The three of us were the only people in the gallery.

The air was tense as Percy and I stood in front of Mrs. Dodds. She wasn't even looking at us. Instead, she had her arms crossed as she glared at a big marble frieze of the Greek Gods.

There was this weird look in her eyes, a stare of loathing. That gave me slight goosebumps, though I hoped none of the two noticed.

The noise Mrs. Dodds was producing from her throat wasn't helping either. It sounded sort of like… growling?

“You've been giving us problems, honey.” Mrs. Dodds said, the growling intensifying.

Percy swallowed, “Yes, ma'am."

I chose the safer route, which was keeping my mouth shut and pretending I wasn't there.

Mrs. Dodds tugged at the cuffs of her leather jacket, like she was itching to do something.

“Did you really think you could get away with it?”

She was now staring straight ahead at Percy. That loathing look hadn't left her eyes at all. Look, I've seen teachers hate students a lot in my old schools, but this was… weird. It looked like she actually wanted to hurt Percy.

“I’ll– I’ll try harder ma'am," Percy stammered, obviously noticing the look too.

Thunder struck, shaking the building. I swear the atmosphere became more tense in a matter of seconds.

“We are not fools, Percy Jackson,” Mrs. Dodds said, “It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you and your accomplices will suffer less pain.”

My first thought was ‘great, my teacher is on mushrooms or crack’. Something had to be wrong with her. She was crazy, talking like Percy did something unforgivable instead of just shoving her favorite student into a fountain. Nancy didn't get hurt, just a bit soaked and humiliated.

“Well?” She demanded.

Were her teeth always that sharp and yellow?

Percy’s eyebrows furrowed, deeply confused, "Ma'am, I don't…”

“Your time is up.” Mrs. Dodds hissed.

And now was the time where I thought I was on mushrooms. Her eyes began to glow, like coal in a furnace. Her fingers stretched (that creeped me out the most in all honesty, since it reminded me of salad fingers), resembling talons. No, they were talons. Her jacket melted, slowly reforming into large, leathery bat-like wings.

Usually, I really love bats. Right now was definitely not one of those times.

Mrs. Dodds suddenly lunged at us. I barely dodged out of the way in time, since I was still processing what the hell just happened.

Percy was on the other side of the gallery by the time I backed up against the wall. I thought I saw him catch something, but I was too busy keeping my eyes on the thing that would cause my impending death.

She lunged again. I panicked. Now, it wasn't my best plan, but I took my bag off and threw it straight into her face. I hoped my two hard cover books would do anything.

She did flinch back, hissing in pain since my bag crashed right into her nose. But when the pain wore off, I felt the annoyance and anger radiating off of Mrs. Dodds.

She charged on me, and I am not ashamed to admit I started running in absolute fear. Do not even try to convince me you wouldn't do the same, liar.

I yelped when Mrs. Dodds pounced on me, my body hitting the ground hard. Her hands were on my shoulders, digging into them. I tried to thrash around, but that did as much as hitting her with my bag. I only managed to face her instead of lying on my stomach on the floor.

This is it, I thought, I die by the hands of a shriveled raisin.

Mrs. Dodds raised one of her hands, ready to shred my throat.

Suddenly, Percy somehow managed to come in the nick of time. He charged into her, shoving her off me. They both tumbled, falling onto the floor.

Now, explain to me this; Percy was just swordless not even a minute ago. Now, he was very much wielding a bronze sword. It was the same one Mr. Brunner always used on tournament day, which I'm pretty sure none of his students had access to. How the hell did that happen?

Mrs. Dodds growled, her wings spreading open.

She snarled, “Die, honey!”

Mrs. Dodds dived right at Percy, aiming for his throat.

I thought Percy was a goner.

Turns out, Percy didn't end up missing Mrs. Dodds. He managed to make contact with her shoulder, slicing through her like a knife does through butter. Gross comparison, considering Mrs. Dodds was the butter, but whatever.

A loud Hisss! noise came from Mrs. Dodds as she crumbled like sand, the dying screech that came from her unbearable in my ears. Even after she disappeared, I thought, somehow, she'd come back and kill us for real.

But no. Percy and I were left alone, with no sword and no Mrs. Dodds.

Not a word was shared between Percy and I as we walked back outside.

Everything was so… normal. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map over his head. Nancy was still standing there with Sophie, complaining to her about how cold she was.

When she saw Percy, her face twisted in annoyance, “I hope Mrs. Kerr whopped your ass.”

“Who?

“Our teacher, duh!” Nancy said.

Who the fuck was Mrs. Kerr, because I know for certain I've never heard that name, not even last year. Percy asked Nancy what she was talking about, but she just rolled her eyes and turned away.

After Percy was gone, I finally found myself able to talk, “Nancy, who’s Mrs. Kerr?”

“What? You too?” Nancy scrunched up her nose.

“Did Jackson do something to your brain in the museum?" Sophie said, fully serious in that sentiment.

“What- I- No? We've never… It's never been Mrs. Kerr. It's Mrs. Dodds.”

Nancy and Sophie looked at me weirdly, like I was genuinely insane.

After a few more failed questions, I finally gave in the towel and told them to forget about it.

Chapter Text

The past few weeks had been weird.

Ever since what happened at the museum, everything felt like life decided to chuck me like a football straight into the fiery pits of paranoia, fear, and a bit of mirth in some weird way.

No one, and I mean no one other than Percy, remembered Mrs. Dodds. They were all convinced that Mrs. Kerr, this perky blonde woman that I had never seen in my life until the field trip, had been our actual pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.

I kept it on the down low that I still remembered Mrs. Dodds. Nancy and Sophie were convinced that the weirdo’s little delusions rubbed off of me somehow when Mrs. Kerr talked to us in the museum, and I went along with it for the sake of simplicity.

Percy kept trying though. He made random references to Mrs. Dodds every once in a while, like he thought this was all like a collaborative joke that the entirety of the school was in on. Hell, if it was, it would be one impressive joke.

But there was one person who gave me some hope; Grover.

I learned fast that Grover was a really, really terrible liar. Sure, when Percy tried to trip Grover up, he'd say the same things as everyone else, but Grover always hesitated. He knew something, he had to.

I spent my days and nights finding ways to distract myself. Sophie’s rants became easier to listen to, Nancy’s pranks weren't as boring, I studied in my free time (yes, really), and I prayed every night to have dreamless sleep.

But no matter what I did, the memories of the museum were always there. It was a lot creepier than I'd like to admit.

The bad weather hadn't stopped either. Actually, it might've been getting worse. I heard from Sophie that a window had been blown out in the freaks’ room.

Then maybe two or three days later, the biggest tornado spotted in the Hudson valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.

When I was helping Nancy with some work in Social Studies, she mentioned something about an unusually high number of planes going down in the Atlantic this year.

Even worse, Percy started acting out more than normal. Every time Nancy went to tease him, he exploded with only a few insults here and then. Sophie and I had to drag Nancy away more times than I could count just so an incident like what happened at the museum wouldn't repeat.

One day, I heard from one of Nancy's friends, Martha Smith, that Percy called Mr. Nicoll an old sot. Not that I disagreed, but what caught my attention the most was that Percy wasn't going to be back next year. He had been expelled.

Part of me really wanted to be glad. No Percy meant no more fights between him and Nancy, which were getting really annoying to deal with recently.

But another part of me felt a bit bad for the kid. I'd seen him struggle during exams, trying hard to actually make good marks instead of his usual C’s– now D’s– but the struggling never ended up being worth it. Plus, I'm sure Grover was staying here at Yancy, so those two wouldn't see each other anymore.

Maybe his next school would be better for him?

On the day of our Latin exam, I was actually dying at my desk. No matter how much I had studied, I still doubted I'd actually make a decent grade.

I was worried. What if I flunked? What if Nancy and Sophie found out about my little problems? What if more stuff like what happened at the museum happened in the summer? What if-

Okay, stop. I just needed to calm down and focus. Spiraling right now wouldn't do me any good.

I tried to focus, but I caught a glimpse of Mr. Brunner waving Percy back into the class. Now I'll admit, I was pretty nosey sometimes.

“Percy,” Mr. Brunner started, "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's… It’s for the best.”

While his tone was kind, Mr. Brunner's words felt harsh. And despite trying to be quiet, I wouldn't doubt that half of the kids in the class could hear him.

Nancy, in her classic fashion, smirked at Percy and made a sarcastic little kissing motion with her lips. I kicked her leg, telling her to knock it off and focus on the test, otherwise we'd both fail.

“Okay, sir.” Percy mumbled, his shoulders slumped.

“I mean,” I wished Mr. Brunner would stop talking, “This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.”

I knew Mr. Brunner didn't know what to say at the moment, but honestly it would've been better if didn't say that.

Percy’s hands were tight fists as he looked down at the ground, and I could swear he was trembling a little.

“Right,” Percy nodded stiffly.

He looked like he'd run out crying any second.

“No, no.” Mr. Brunner sighed, knowing his words were being taken the wrong way.

“Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say… You're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be–”

“Thanks,” Percy blurted out, "Thanks a lot sir, for reminding me.”

“Percy–”

Before Mr. Brunner could say more, Percy was already out the classroom door and god knows where.

When I finished the test, I had this pit in my stomach. I wasn't sure how badly I'd done. All I hoped was that I'd at least get a passing grade.

Mr. Brunner threw me a tight smile when I turned in my test, obviously still troubled from the whole talk with Percy.

The rest of the day, I spend my time in Nancy and Sophie’s dorm, sitting on one of their beds. I was just sipping my Dr Pepper, though for the first time in my life it felt bland on my tongue and didn't make me feel any better.

What was going on this month?