Chapter 29: In Trouble With Mrs. Dodds.
As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned to both Percy and me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if we'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. Now, honeys-------
"We know," we both grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."
That wasn't the right thing to say.
"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.
"Wait!" Grover yelped. It was me. I pushed her." We stared at him, both stunned. We couldn't believe he was trying to cover for us. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.
She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.
"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.
"But------"
"You-----will----stay-----here."
Grover looked at both of us desperately.
"It's okay, man," we told him. "Thanks for trying."
"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at us. "Now."
Nancy Bobofit smirked.
We both gave her our deluxe we'll-kill-you-later stares. Then we turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at us to come on.
How'd she get there so fast?
We have moments like that a lot, when our brains falls asleep or something, and the next thing we knows we'd missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left us staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told us this was part of the ADHD, our brains misinterpreting things.
We wasn't so sure.
We went after Mrs. Dodds.
Halfway up the steps, we glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between us and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to know what was going on,
But Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.
We looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside of the building, at the end of the entrance hall.
Okay, we thought she's going to make us buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.
But apparently that wasn't her plan. We followed her deeper into the museum. When we finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.
Except for us, the gallery was empty.
Chapter 30: Mrs Dodds a fury.
Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.
Even without the noise, we would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds.
Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it . . .
"You've both been giving us problems, honey," she said.
We both did the safe thing. We said, "Yes, ma'ma."
She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you both really think you guys would get away with it?"
The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.
She's a teacher, we thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt us.
We both said, We'll-----We'll try harder ma'ma."
Thunder shook the building.
"We are not fools, Percy Jackson, James Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. It was only a matter of time before we found you both out.
Confess, and you both will suffer less pain."
We didn't know what she was talking about.
All we could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy we'd been selling out of our dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized we got our essays on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away our grades. Or worse, they were going to make us read the book.
"Well?" she demanded.
"Ma'ma, I don't . . ."
"Your time is up," she hissed.
Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice Percy into ribbons.