by Amy Laine
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Grover had no idea how long he’d been in that stuffy cave. He would have preferred to go back into the Underworld with Percy- at least he had Percy. All he had right now was a filthy giant Cyclops and a veil.
“Are you done with that veil yet?” Polyphemus called down the sort-of-not-really-hallway. Grover looked at the veil in his hands. He would be in big trouble if Polyphemus caught him unraveling.
“We can get married when this veil is done.” He remembered telling Polyphemus so they didn’t have to vow their love.
“No I told you! 7 More days!” Grover called back in a feminine voice. Polyphemus switched his tone to make it sound like Grover’s. “’No I told you! 7 More days!’” He mimicked perfectly, sounding displeased.
It wasn’t right, the way the big guy could copy people’s voices. Grover flashed back to the Cyclops lair in Brooklyn. Annabeth, Luke and Thalia were with him. Grover blinked. Don’t think about that right now.
Polyphemus grumbled as he stirred his pot of sheep in the kitchen. “We eat sheep tonight! I hope you like chicken sauce on your sheep.”
Grover’s heart caught in his throat. He was going to have to eat meat? “I’m a vegetarian!” He called down the hall once more. Polyphemus stumbled into Grover’s little room.
“Then I bring you grass. But don’t you think it weird that Lady Cyclops doesn’t like meat?” He wrinkled his nose and shrugged. “What make you happy beloved.”
Grover nodded his fear climbing up the GROVER IS REALLY SCARED SCALE.
He really hoped that Percy would get here soon. In the meantime, he would try not to get eaten.
Grover studied the veil once more. He had to try. Maybe he could make an empathy link between Percy and him- it was risky, but last he checked they basically ran their lives on risky.
“Come on Percy, get here sooner…”
Being With Sammy Valdez
Hazel Levesque hated her life. The only good thing about her ‘journey down the road’ as her mom called it was Sammy Valdez. Sammy was her best friend, and if you had to say it, her only friend in the 1940’s.
Sammy was small for their age, but that didn’t bother Hazel at all. He was always making jokes saying, “I’ll always be 5’6 and you Hazel will look down on me and say, “Is that a speck of dust?”
Hazel always told him that would never happen; she would never think of Sammy anything less than human. His black hair was always so perfectly wild, like he had practice making it look like he hadn’t combed it and his brown eyes always reflected his emotions, which in his case was always happy and full of positive energy.
St. Agnes Academy for Colored Children and Indians was the school Hazel and Sammy attended. Sammy was small- or ‘the best size to be’ as he called it: 5’6”. His short curly brown hair always looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, and his smile was crooked immediately letting you know, “This guy can not be trusted.” And that’s exactly why Hazel found him endearing.
“Ms. Lamarr,” Sammy greeted her at the entrance of the school. Hazel blushed as he extended his hand formally. She took it.
“Sammy, did you study for the noun test?”
Sammy took back his hand quickly and he did his best to imitate looking aghast. “Hazel- have you ever known me to study for anything?”
Hazel smiled and tightened her hair ribbon. “I don’t know Sammy.” They walked down the long hallway, and turned right. Sammy always walked her into her classroom first. “I thought maybe scientists kidnapped you and implanted your brain with the ability to study.”
Sammy laughed and opened the classroom door for her slightly. “A problem kid like me that can study? I think you’re a ghost now.”
Hazel adjusted her canvas bag and waved at Sammy goodbye. “We’ll talk more at lunch!” He promised as he ran down the hall to his classroom.
As soon as Hazel opened the door her day just collapsed like dominoes. Some kids eyed her and looked away. The popular girls at their table were doing arithmetic, but she caught the words, “witch”, “poor” and “gems”, coming from their mouths. There were a few, she cared not to mention.
Mr. Haden clapped his hands from the front of the room. Hazel noted that his hands were pale and white from the chalk on the chalk board- it was disgusting, because this teacher never washed his hands, not even to eat.
“Attention Class!” He shouted above the noise of the other students. Hazel froze halfway to her cubby. She turned around and looked at Mr. Haden. Mr. Haden was a tall bald guy that hated her guts.
“Attention Class!” He repeated more firmly this time. He looked at Hazel. “And also Ms. Levesque.” He scowled like he didn’t even want to look at her.
Hazel found that she was blushing some more, only this time not because of happiness, because of embarrassment. The popular girls giggled and twirled their pearl necklaces around their necks.
Marissa walked by with her boyfriend. “Hey Eddy,” She said as she looked Hazel’s way, “You know the definition of witches daughter right?” Eddy grinned his eyes glinting evilly.
“No, I don’t. Tell me Marissa.” Marissa shrugged her petite shoulders. “I don’t need to tell you. It’s right there!” She pointed at Hazel. “Utterly and forever dumb and just plain wrong.” She smirked as Mr. Haden cracked a smile from the front of the room.
Hazel unfroze and whirled around. She stuffed her lunch into her cubby, but that wasn’t the reason she turned around. She didn’t want anybody to see the tears flowing down her cheeks.
Mr. Haden must have decided that was enough humiliation for one day. “Class direct your attention to the front.” It was obvious that there were undertones in his voice. He meant: “She’s not worth paying attention too.”
Rufas in the front row ‘accidentally’ snapped his pencil in half and had to go to the back to get a new one. On the way, he bumped Hazel off her feet, and she went sprawling backwards and slammed her head on May’s desk.
“There’ll be more of that later.” Rufas promised through his teeth as he scavenged the pencil drawer.
Hazel dried the tears off her cheeks and looked at the teacher. Of course nobody was going to help her. Her head throbbed and she was sure she had a minor concussion at the least.
Mr. Haden explained their newest project and how much it would be worth. “You may get in groups of three.” He frowned for a moment, a totally fake worry crease spread above his brow, and then he clasped his hands together.
“It seems we have an odd number in this class. Hazel why don’t you do this project on your own?” He said this like it was something she should be proud of. Hazel nodded sullenly, because this thing happened all the time.
Somehow, she got through her classes managing to control her anger, from all the jabs and taunts. All the teachers except Mrs. Karrat treated her with disrespect, and she didn’t think it was okay. Mrs. Karrat only did because she was a lazy, plump lady that didn’t pay attention to anybody. It wasn’t like she had anybody except for Sammy. He was the only that didn’t resent her as the others did.
She didn’t blame them for it though. She didn’t want to hang out with herself anyways- who want’s to be friends with the witches (Queen Marie) daughter?
Each day, it was like that. Each day, she went through the same tortures and went home listening to her mother talk to herself in that same ancient creepy voice that wasn’t hers.
Each day, she tried to stay out of everybody’s way but it was hard to do if they tormented you enough.
One day in particular the boys had been especially rough with her- they wouldn’t leave her alone, not to mention the girls twirling their hair on their fingers as they snorted at Hazel in contempt.
Hazel stumbled out of the gym with bruises all over her arms and legs- dodge-balls could be hard if they wanted them too be. She limped to her bathroom stall to change when Marissa shoved her aside.
“This stall is reserved
.” She smiled sweetly.
Hazel didn’t protest. She averted her gaze and crept down to the next one. Lisa stepped into it quickly- “Taken!”
Soon all the bathroom stalls were shutting and Hazel had no where to change. “Better hurry up- you can’t take more than 2 minutes changing!” One of the girls shouted helpfully through her stall.
Hazel’s face paled and she clutched her school clothes tightly to her chest. RING! The bell rang and all the other school girls ran off laughing. One of them flicked the light switch so it turned off after they left. Hazel got dressed as quickly as she could, alone and in the dark.
When she came out, her face was wet with tears and her shirt was on backwards.
“Rough day?”
Hazel turned around. Immediately a smile crossed onto her lips. “Sammy!” Just saying his name had that affect on her.
Sammy crossed his arms and pretended to pout. “What did you think I was Rufas or something?”
Hazel tapped her chin and made look like she was sizing him up. “You? This small little twig?” She gestured to Sammy’s figure.
Sammy shrugged. “Anyways, if you’re wondering why I’m out here in the hall in the middle of class- I got sent outside again. Ms. Karrat said I was being lazy but I don’t know if she’s taken a look at herself in the mirror before in what…decades?”
Hazel tried hard not to laugh. “That’s so mean!” She protested. Suddenly Sammy had his “I’m-Serious” look on.
“Not meaner than what those girls did to you. I was watching Hazel- why don’t you fight back?”
Hazel picked at her black dress uneasily. “Well, they don’t know what they’re saying. It’s almost true anyways.” Sammy took her hand and brushed a curl out of her face.
“Hazel Levesque it will never be true. You’ll always be perfect to me.” Hazel’s insides glowed and she felt like her mother had just given her a cup of hot chocolate and spread a warm blanket over her as they sat by the fire together.
“I um…” She stammered unsure of what to say. Then Ms. Karrat opened the door. “Mr. Valdez! Report back inside immediately!”
Sammy waved his hand at the teacher. “Fine.” Ms. Karrat narrowed her beady eyes. “Say ‘fine ‘ma’m!’’”
Sammy rolled his eyes at Hazel and then turned to face Ms. Karrat. “Fine ma’am.” He droned our the syllables sarcastically.
“Catch you later.” He promised Hazel and went back into his class. Oh dear Lord! Hazel had forgotten the time- she’d probably missed all her next class!