Tidal Magic- PJO & HP crossover WTM

Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death

As the screen was about to turn back on Jade grumbled, "Sometimes I feel the uncontrollable urge to strangle Chiron."

Surprising to those in the room Dionysus snorted in amusement and replied, "Cheers to that." as he flipped through a magazine with one hand and sipped on a Diet Coke with the other.

No one was able to act on their shock because the screen turned back on and the narration from the books started up again. 

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of summer school the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-- a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-- had been our pre-algebra teacher since the second week.

Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.

It got so I almost believed them-- Mrs. Dodds had never existed.

Almost.

Jade sat back in her seat with a small smile and asked, "Grover, right?" From his place resting against her left shoulder, Percy answered, "Who else?"

Grover tossed his hands up from his place in the row of seats behind them exclaiming, "Come on!"

But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.

At the same time, Hermes and Jade both said, "You've got to get better at lying." As they heard each other they whipped their heads towards each other so their eyes met.

When everyone else saw the staring contest commence, Percy spoke up asking, "But, Mom, you're a terrible liar." Jade scoffed as she kept staring at Hermes. Replying to her son she said, "I've been lying about my identity for, like, 20 years. And the only reason you found out now was because of the Fates."

Knowing her words were a bit harsh Jade broke off the staring contest.

Ignoring Hermes's quiet cheers of victory in the background, Jade turned to look at Percy as she said, "However, I would have told you eventually. I just wanted you to be old enough to not freak out too bad." Percy nodded at his mother's explanation. Making sure he'd get the elaboration to that explanation he asked, "You'll still tell me stuff, right? Even with this whole watching thing?" Jade smiled at her son. "Of course, Percy."

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.

I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.

I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.

Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't sure what it meant, but I had heard my mother mumble it on the rare occasion that she talked about people at her work.