CHAPTER ONE ━━ ADIOS, MRS. DODDS

EVER SINCE EURYDICE RAMIREZ could remember, she had always been a weird kid. She could hear the whispers from her teachers over the years. Things like that she was simply too emotionally mature for a child her age, and that her tendency to be content to fade in the background was strange for a child. Not to even account for her fascination with the dead.

Sometimes, she swore that she could see things that weren't there. But whenever she tried to consult any adult about it who wasn't her mother, they acted like she was crazy. Sometimes she even heard voices when there was nobody there. But every single guidance counselor she had ever had just chalked it up to her anxiety and nothing more. Just adding even more to her strangeness. She was always a weird kid, and there was no explanation for it. Until there was.

If you connect to any of this, she urges you to stop reading and consider your options for a moment. If you even happen to connect to any of this, she suggests you stop reading now. And give into the lies your parents made up about you as a kid and try to live your life as normally as possible, because that was not how her life had turned out. So she suggests you stop reading now and go on with your life like normal.

And maybe, just maybe if you connect with her a little too much. You're like her, and like the countless other demigods thrown into a life that they've never wanted. But before she gets into any of that, you need to know how this all started. It all started on a fateful eighth grade field trip to Manhattan to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Maybe that field trip sounded like utter torture for a kid like her, looking at a bunch of ancient greek and roman stuff for five hours surrounded with a bunch of rowdy twelve year olds. And it was torture, actually.

The only thing that made this field trip bearable though were her two best friends Grover Underwood and Percy Jackson. She had always struggled with making friends as a kid, but with Percy she didn't even have to try. Most of the kids in school never wanted to go near her because she talked to the air sometimes. But not Percy. He just seemed even more determined to be her friend when the others in school stayed away from her.

They had known each other since they practically in the womb, which was a long time. Their mom's had met in this single mother group thing that they had bonded in and then became best friends. Which means that she didn't even have to try when it came to Percy, because he was like a built in best friend created for her specially from the gods. Him and Grover were the only two people at Yancy who really, got her.

Her and Percy had been a duo, up until Grover. He was one of the only other kids at Yancy who didn't see her and Percy as weird at all, and not just because all three of them were at the bottom of the school popularity food chain. They bonded over this cool game called Mythomagic that had mythological monsters and most of all, the greek gods. It had soon become her favourite game of all time, even rivaling her favourite horror games.

Grover was one of the few people who didn't think Eurydice was weird for hearing things, and that Percy was weird for seeing things. And it had always been like that, just the three of them against the world. She could almost convince herself that she had only been hearing things that weren't there, until it all changed before she was even ready for it.

She squinted in confusion at the various greek statues situated throughout the museum as Mr. Brunner who was leading this trip went on about something to the class that Eurydice wasn't paying attention to. Mr. Brunner was this nice older man in a wheelchair who was their latin teacher who let the class play games in class and made jokes. And was also one of the few classes she didn't have to keep Percy from falling asleep in. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armour and weapons, which was another highlight about him.

She had nearly completely zoned out while staring at an Athena statue, trying to make sense of what the gods were supposed to look like as Mr. Brunner went on about the gods. "What you see here, they are not fiction. They are not fantasies. What you see here are the truest and deepest parts of yourselves." She heard Mr. Brunner continue to rattle on in the background as she looked around the room curiously. Sometimes she wondered how different the gods would look like modern day, since their statues didn't really give them much to go off of.

She wasn't sure what Mr. Brunner meant by what he said, but it was a good enough metaphor. Really it was. She has to give him credit for that. "Friends... the gods... the monsters.. The heroes, you see here in this room are reminders of what we are capable of." The man finished with a  smile as the class looked down the worksheets on their clipboards. She scribbled her name onto the top of the worksheet messily, she has never been good at writing on clipboards. She preferred writing where she could sit at least, so this was just a pain to her.

She didn't really see how they could be like the gods, all of them in the end were only just humans. But she wouldn't lie when some of those stories, the ones that ended in a happy ending instilled some hope in her. She had never been a fan of the gods, not the christian one either. But she held a specific love of greek myths because of her mother. She remembered her mother taking her to a greek exhibit at the museum when she was younger. She had gotten free tickets from a friend of hers, so that was the only other time they could afford to go to the museum.

Her favourite statue had to be the one of Orpheus, he had always been her favourite hero. He probably still would have been her favourite even if she hadn't been named after the Eurydice in the countless myths and retellings.

She heard Mr. Brunner faintly clear his throat to get the class's attention. "Now, on your worksheets. I want you to choose one of the subjects you see on your sheet and describe it. Not just how it looks, how it makes you feel." He instructed, encouraging the class to get up and look around the museum. She tapped her pencil on the page of her worksheet as she watched a few of the other students walk away amongst themselves.

She stares at the page in thought as she tried to think of what statue in the room she thought was interesting enough to write about. Which was hard considering how many of the statues there were. And she's never been good at remembering things, so she may not even remember some of the statues names even if she tried to recall them.

She noticed Percy only a few feet away from her staring intently at a large statue of Perseus, who coincidentally so happened to be his namesake. Out of all the countless greek heroes, Perseus was one of the few who has managed to get a happy ending. Unfortunately for Eurydice, hers didn't get one. Once when she had asked her mother why she had named her Eurydice, she was vague about it.

But when she asked her about it again when she turned eleven, she finally answered her. "I didn't name you after her because her story was a tragedy, you know." Her mother, Alison Ramirez said to her one night after presents and cake. "What?" She squinted her eyes at her mother in confusion. "But wasn't that the entire point of her and Orpheus' story? A tragic love story?" She titled her head at her in confusion.

Her mother just laughed sweetly. "Oh, no. Honey no, why would you ever think that? I'd never name you something tragic without a meaning behind it." The woman had threaded her fingers through her daughter's dark hair. "It's because of what their story represented. Orpheus and Eurydice, it represents that there is value in trying, even if we fail. You know why Orpheus was a hero? He isn't one because he succeeds. He is one because he tries." She ruffled her daughter's hair with a warm smile.

She narrowed her eyebrows at her mother in concern. "Are you sure it wasn't just because Eurydice died and that you're just lying to make me feel better?" She said to her mother in suspicion. She just snorted at that. "Oh, really? You think so? Why would I ever do that?" She frantically settled her hand to her heart, looking dramatically offended by her daughter's accusation. "Mom." Eurydice whined with a laugh. "Can you just get to the point?" She said bluntly. 

Her mom chuckled. "I'm getting there." She muttered as she cleared her throat. "The point is, Eurydice had faith in Orpheus even if he didn't succeed. She trusted him even if he failed to take her home." The screws in her head seemed to be moving at that explanation. On her realization, her mother continued. "Orpheus and Eurydice may have not made it to a happy ending, but I named you after her so you could try. Be one of the ones who gets to a happy ending, even if you could fail. You'll know that you have tried." She smiled reassuringly at her.

"But you're tough, so I know you won't fail." Her mother said confidently to her with a wink. And Eurydice smiled despite not believing it herself. "Thanks, mom." She muttered with a small smile as her mother kissed her head softly. She didn't believe in herself at all, but if her mom always did maybe she would start believing. Struck with a sudden inspiration she started writing about the statue of Orpheus, people always say write what you know, right?

She started to scribble down a few sentences together as she heard some kids near her start to laugh at someone. She looked around in confusion until she spotted Percy, looking very confused as a few of the kids in Nancy Bobofit's group mocked him as Mr. Brunner reprimanded them. She glared at the group as she quickly walked over to Percy, where Mr. Brunner was attempting to do damage control on Percy's self esteem. "Pay them no mind." Mr. Brunner muttered to Percy as Eurydice approached.

She immediately went to Percy's side in concern. "Are you okay? What happened?" She said quickly immediately in confusion. The blonde just smiled at her. "Thanks for the concern Eury, but I'm not hurt. Maybe just my self esteem..." He muttered with a sigh as she winced slightly at his words, not sure what to say. She was thankful for Mr. Brunner comforting him instead. "When you're ready to hear what the gods have in store for you, they'll tell you." He said to him, sounding oddly comforting even if his wording didn't really make sense to her. "I believe in you." He said to Percy, although she wasn't sure if he was just talking to him.

Suddenly Mr. Brunner pulled something out of his pocket, a pen. "And I believe you'll be needing this." He said to the boy, passing him a pen. "Tis a mighty instrument." The man muttered with a smile as he rolled away in his wheelchair. "That's a pen." She whispered in absolute confusion, while Percy looked even more lost. Until they both realized that Percy didn't have a pencil. She could see Percy's attempt to not laugh at her, judging by the look on his face. And she commended him for trying at least.

Percy muttered to her in equal confusion. "What do you think that was all about?" He muttered to her, as she shrugged her shoulders. "I really don't know, Mr. Brunner is a strange guy. I like him." She said with a chuckle, as Percy gave her a look. "Yeah, I'm gonna try to not think about it too hard in case trying to understand his metaphors fry my brain or something." He muttered, lunch shrugging as the two walked outside to lunch.

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Percy was recounting what had happened before lunch to Grover as the three of them grabbed their lunches out of their paper bags. They sat right beside the fountain as she took a bite of out her grilled cheese sandwich. She couldn't care less that her sandwich was cold, it still tasted good so it really didn't matter to her.

She took another bite as Grover attempted to comfort Percy. "There are all sorts of schools of thought about what drives that kind of bullying, childhood trauma, feelings of inadequacy." Percy sighed in response. "Look. I get that Nancy has issues. I'm just getting tired of her taking them out on me." He frowned as Eurydice nodded in agreement. "He's right! Nancy's kind of a prick. She probably won't get a wake up call until someone does something." She sighed in annoyance. "She probably won't stop until some poor kid switches schools." She muttered angrily underneath her breath.

Grover shook his head at her. "No way Eurydice! That is not a good idea. Come on, Percy. You could make an appointment to see Mr. Kane. He's really good at—" Grover tried to salvage the situation but Percy cut him off. "I was thinking more like shoving Nancy into the nearest dumpster." He said with a smile on his face at the thought of the look on Nancy's face if he did that. "Ooh. I'd pay to see that." Eurydice muttered with an equally enthusiastic smile.

Meanwhile Grover, ever the cautious disagreed. "Oh, no. No, no, no, no—no. If there's one thing I know about bullies is that you should never, ever stand up to them." He said with a shake of his head. Eurydice gave him a look of confusion, and some concern. "Uh, Grover. That's not what the anti-bullying assemblies say." She murmured bluntly to him in confusion. "That doesn't sound right." Percy narrowed his eyes at their best friend. He was confused as to why Grover didn't want them to stand up for themselves, when clearly it was what was right.

But then again, Grover's kind of right because then they could get in trouble for standing up to Nancy if she told on them. And that wouldn't be pretty, and it wouldn't be fun for anyone expect Nancy. Their other teachers were inclined to believe Nancy, and lately it seemed like Mrs. Dodds only seemed to like Nancy because she found every single time in her class to ridicule him in some way no matter what he did. If she wasn't so anxious about being kicked out of Yancy, she would have done something to Nancy already.

Grover sighed at that. "Look, you guys. I know this place is hard for people like us. But we're not gonna be here forever." He insisted with a shake of his head. "There are better places out there." He reassured them with a smile, even though Percy didn't seem convinced. While she just seemed to doubt that there were other places that would be better for them. She doesn't think there's any world where they don't get bullied.

"I guess so." She muttered. "We only have to tolerate this place until we graduate. Which is... in how long again?" She muttered with a repressed sigh. One thing about her, is that she is really bad at being optimistic. She was better being realistic than blindly believing everything will go right, and maybe it's a little of the anxiety too. Although she would never admit that to anymore.

Her hopes of being picked on less were shattered as all of a sudden a sandwich flew at Grover's head. He groaned in pain as Nancy Bobofit just stood there beside the fountain with an arrogant expression of evil on her face. Her red hair made her look even more like the devil to her. She gave the other girl a dirty look as she looked over at Grover in concern. "Oops." The redhead had the audacity to say. Percy had enough of her at that point, before she and Grover could stop him he was already walking across the courtyard towards her.

She gulped worriedly, as she watched Percy walk towards her angrily. Sometimes Percy was way too impulsive for his own good, while Grover was recovering from the initial shock she stared in concern as everyone in the courtyard looked in their direction. Her mind started to flood into a million different thoughts all at once in her convene for Percy. The thoughts in her head were overwhelming. She didn't even register some of them as her own. For a second she thought she was going to go crazy until she saw Nancy fall into the fountain.

Her eyes were wide in shock as she saw the redhead completely drenched in the fountain water without Percy having even touched her. Her thoughts were stopped, only by the fact that Percy hadn't even touched the girl. How could she have fallen in without him pushing her? It looked like Percy had been about to do that. But she knew that Nancy wasn't that evil, well she guessed. She didn't seem like the type of person to embarrass themselves to get someone else in trouble.

It just didn't make sense and she couldn't wrap her head around how the girl fell into the fountain. She had heard the girl scream out angrily. "Percy pushed me!" To her she sounded like a child when they weren't given their toys. Some of the other kids went over to help Nancy as she heard an odd voice that she knew was her own. "Get out of there." The voice said ominously, as she swerved her head around in confusion to see where the voice was coming from.

The voice sounded almost ghastly, like something clearly not alive had said it. But that didn't make sense, ghosts weren't real and only crazy people heard voices. It just might be her imagination or something really is wrong with her, which she doesn't doubts because there is a lot of things wrong about her. What the voice had said... now that she thought about it sounded like a warning of some kind. But it didn't make sense, a warning about what?

The thought of it being something bad made her feel uneasy. Her loud thoughts were interrupted by a new voice, sounded suspiciously similar to Mrs. Dodds voice. There was a loud droning noise as she watched Percy stare intently at the pen in his hands. She stood up in confusion, to make sure she really wasn't hearing things like she always was. "We are not fools, Percy Jackson." She heard the substitute teacher say as she walked closer towards Percy.

She could barely make out Percy's voice over the loud droning in her head blocking out their voices. Something had been blocking out her vision too, and as soon as she attempted to stand up and run over to him there was a flash of light.

In the flash of light she had watched Percy's pen turn into a sword and stab a gargoyle looking Mrs. Dodds in the chest. Holy shit. She thought to herself, rubbing her eyes in disbelief as she tried to make sure that she hadn't been hallucinating.

While she was processing what she just witnessed, Percy had been knocked out cold on the floor. "Grover, look Percy!" She yelled over to him, horrified as she saw Percy knocked out onto the floor cold. Before her or Grover could pull him up from the group, a group had formed around him. "Is he dead?" One of their classmates blurted out as she stared at them