Wow. Percy doesn’t have very good friends in this chapter. Everyone keeps telling him that a perky blonde named Ms. Kerr is now his pre-algebra teacher. Weirdly though, the fellow students just look at him strangely, while Mr. Brunner and Grover keep insisting that there IS no Ms. Dodds, there never WAS a Ms. Dodds, and we have ALWAYS been at war with East Asia.
I can’t imagine why Percy feels confused. Gas lighting will do that to you. Not that he’s blameless for being a jerk though. I have to, and I HOPE this was an exaggeration when he mentions getting sent into the hallway in every class. Either that, or he’s way angrier than and ADHD could possibly explain or excuse. The weather keeps getting worse as well. That doesn’t help his mood. It doesn’t really surprise me that he’s feeling a lot emotions with everyone looking at him like a crazy person, especially with Grover CLEARLY showing that he’s not being straight with him.
It doesn’t really make his wit very good though. One of his teachers asks him why he’s being lazy, Percy calls him an “old sot,” for which he says, “I wasn’t even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.” Not really, Percy. Not that much.
And I think it’s interesting to point out that there are a few thing these books are knowns for, and humor and characters are among the elements they’re best known for. But so far there’s been very little humor, and the characters aren’t very likable. Percy is the most likable, and at the moment, while he has every right to think that people are messing with him, he’s still handling it like kind of an angry jerk. Not that he doesn’t have reason to be upset, but he’s not dealing with it well right now.
Finally, Percy gets the new he expected. His mother gets a letter informing her the he’s not being invited back. For all his anger, his reaction I can understand. Angry, but he also wants to go back home. At the same time, though, laments how he’ll miss his friend Grover and Mr. Brunner, even if both of them are really screwing with him.
We also get a the first example of something Riordan does with his books that frankly gets old for me fast. He refers to his “obnoxious step-dad and his stupid poker parties.” This seems odd, but it’s never “his parties.” It’s never “his stupid parties.” It’s “his stupid poker parties.” He feels the need to go into unnecessary levels of description multiple times, even after it’s already been done once. Again, this sounds like a nitpick, but using twice the number of words for something you’ve already described gets old fast. Plus it doesn’t sound like things people would actually say.
To his credit, Percy does want to do his best for his finals in Brunner’s class. Then again, if he’s using the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology, that might be a reason why he sucks at that class. Have these people never heard of Edith Hamilton. Anyone? Anyone?
So he goes to ask Brunner for help, which begs the question why he never did before, but I digress. Then he accidentally eavesdrops on Brunner and Grover talking about Percy, mentioning how he’s in danger and that he and they know what he is. Then Brunner tells Grover that they’ll act like it’s just his imagination. Wow. Douche move. There’s a crisis going on that has to dealt with by the summer solstice. Also, we now know what Ms. Dodds was. A Kindly One. In other words, a Fury. Furies are incredibly dangerous and deadly. That really strains credulity in the notion that he won that fight.
Percy stupidly makes a noise, and hears snuffling and a clopping noise in Brunner’s office. Kinda hard to see how one of them isn’t a centaur, so that starts to answer some questions. He sneaks back to his room to find Grover there, acting like he’d always been there.
So Percy takes his final and bombs it, and Brunner calls talks to him at his desk, IN FRONT OF THE REST OF THE CLASS that it’s for the best that he’s not coming back, and that it was only a matter of time. Then he tells him that he’s not normal, to which Percy storms out, which, yeah, I can definitely understand. Holy crap that’s a terrible thing for a teacher to do. It’s in front of everyone to the degree that Nancy Boba Fett can hear it well enough to taunt Percy for getting kicked out.
What a super great thing for a teacher to do.
So he miserably realizes that all the other kids in his class are going to have grand vacation plans because they’re the kids of rich people, which begs the question how his mother is able to afford his tuition. When he leaves to go home, he learns he doesn’t have to say goodbye to Grover, since he’s taking the same bus with him to go home.
Grover proves to be pretty terrible company. He looks over his shoulder and acts like he has a body in the trunk and they’re going by a police precinct ever other block. When Percy confronts him, and asks if he’s looking for Kindly Ones, Grover straight insults his intelligence and sensibilities by doubling down on the lie that he hallucinated the whole thing, in spite of the fact that Percy tells him what he heard in the conversation with Brunner, I can’t imagine how he thought he thought he’d convince him on any level.
Then Grover hands him his, I dunno, business card, I guess, for himself, listing his location at Half Blood Hill. He yells at Percy not to say it out loud. For some reason. Then he tells Percy he’s supposed to protect him, and I have a hard time not laughing out loud at the concept. Certainly from Percy’s perspective, there’s no reason to think he could do anything for him, especially since Percy has protected him from bullies all year.
Before Grover can go into any description, which he doesn’t seem to be willing to do anyway, the bus breaks down. Yeah. That sounds like a Greyhound. Everyone gets off the bus and waits, on the roadside. Then Percy sees a three old ladies knitting massive socks with a hug ball of electric blue yarn. I mention that because it’s apparently critically important that you know exactly what color to make the yarn.
Grover, too scared to even look in the direction of them, asks Percy if they’re looking at him. Percy then stupidly makes a joke about them, not really the smartest thing to do. Grover chides him for the joke, the first thing he’s done this chapter that I can get behind, and hauls tries to get him back on the bus. Percy sees one of the old ladies cut the yarn, making a loud snipping noise. If you haven’t noticed, these are The Fates, goddesses so powerful that not even Zeus himself could influence them. Then the bus driver pulls something out of the engine, which somehow makes the engine on the bus start back up again. Don’t ask me. I don’t know how that’s supposed to make it work better, but apparently it does.
Grover isn’t handling this well, as seems to be his way. He insists on walking Percy back to his apartment. Were that all he did, it might not be that bad. However, he compounds things by going into a full-on panic attack, saying, “Why does this always have to happen?” and “Always sixth grade. They never make it past sixth.” This, not surprisingly, freaks Percy out something awful, because how could it not? It’s never comforting when your best friend, who’s clearly been hiding things from you, suddenly freaks out and talks like you’re going to die.
Percy catches on to the concept, and asks if the snipping of the yarn means someone is going to die. Grover reacts by looking at Percy like he’s making funeral arrangements for him.
This chapter is little more than a bridge to what comes next. Considering where Percy starts, that’s to be expected. If he’s going on adventures, there has to be a reason for him to leave his school and go to said adventure. But there’s a big problem here. No one in this chapter is particularly likable. Percy by far is the most sympathetic here, as all he really wants (and frankly needs) are some honest answers that the two people he trusts the most refuse to give him. Not only that, they’re deliberately lying to him to the point where he’s questioning his sanity. Even if there’s a legitimate reason that can justify them not telling him everything, it’s hard to imagine that there’s not a better way than gas lighting him.
But Percy isn’t blameless himself either. Mouthing off needlessly at teachers and getting yourself kicked out of school isn’t exactly helping make him look good. Obviously the incident at the museum wasn’t his fault, but getting into fights most certainly is. That doesn’t mean that he’s made his character irredeemably unlikeable, far from it. But it does mean that he, like everyone else, isn’t handling this well.
But at least he has ignorance of the dangers as an excuse. Brunner knows full well what the score is, and insists on keeping him in the dark. Grover doesn’t help by not at least acting like he understands that his is confusing and difficult for Percy.
Unfortunately, all these things combine to make this chapter a bit of a chore to get through. I know there’s a reason for why all of this is happening, but Percy doesn’t have to be put though this. In The Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter didn’t know important details about himself when it was important because of enemies, not because the two people trusted most were keeping vital information from him. Regardless of how necessary it might be, they’re being incredibly unfair to Percy.
We also have a problem in that, as I stated, there really hasn’t much in the way of humor. It’s about fifteen pages of pain an misery as Percy is left to think that not only is he a failure, but he’s also losing his mind.
Score: 3:10 We’re close to getting to things Percy needs to learn but wow, this was a pretty miserable chapter.
A Balloon and Something Bad Happens 
