Before I could even force the words past the lump of anger in my throat, something changed.
The moment stretched.
The laughter echoing through the museum corridor dulled into a distant murmur, as though someone had thrown a heavy blanket over the world. My pulse thundered in my ears. Every heartbeat felt impossibly loud, drowning out everything else.
Nancy was still laughing.
Grover was still wiping jelly from his face.
Mr. Brunner continued talking to another group of students about the importance of Greek civilization, blissfully unaware that anything unusual was happening a few yards away.
Yet the air itself felt...different.
Heavier.
Charged.
I blinked, trying to clear the strange sensation from my head.
The lights overhead flickered—not enough for anyone else to notice, just enough to make me question whether I'd imagined it. A cool breeze swept through the gallery despite every door and window being sealed. It carried the faint scent of rain and saltwater, completely out of place inside a marble museum hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean.
The fountain at the center of the exhibit rippled.
Not from a tossed coin.
Not from anyone touching it.
The water simply...moved.
Concentric circles spread across its perfectly calm surface before fading away.
"What...?"
The word barely escaped my lips.
Nancy was still grinning.
"Oh, look!" she mocked, pointing at Grover. "He's gonna cry!"
Her friends burst into another fit of laughter.
The heat inside my chest surged.
I didn't raise my fists.
I didn't take a step forward.
I didn't even think about doing anything.
I only wished, with every fiber of my being, that she'd stop.
The air shimmered.
At first, I thought it was just the sunlight filtering through the museum windows.
Then the distortion grew stronger.
It danced around Nancy like heat rising from hot pavement during the middle of summer. The space surrounding her blurred and twisted ever so slightly, bending the light in impossible ways.
Nobody else seemed to notice.
My heart skipped a beat.
Something wasn't right.
The fountain answered.
Water climbed upward.
Not much.
Just a few thin streams that floated against gravity for a fraction of a second before curling through the air like translucent ribbons.
I stared.
There was no logical explanation.
Water wasn't supposed to move like that.
Nancy finally noticed.
"What is—"
She never finished.
The water exploded.
Not violently.
Almost gracefully.
A column of crystal-clear water surged from the fountain like a living thing. It arched through the air with uncanny precision, twisting around statues and display cases without splashing a single one.
Students gasped.
Someone screamed.
The stream curved directly toward Nancy.
Her smug smile vanished.
"What the—"
Splash!
The water wrapped around her waist before giving one impossibly strong tug.
Nancy let out a shriek as her feet flew out from under her.
One moment she was standing.
The next she was airborne.
She landed in the fountain with an enormous splash that drenched everyone nearby.
Water erupted in every direction.
Coins clattered across the marble floor.
Nancy surfaced seconds later, coughing and sputtering while her perfectly styled hair hung across her face in dripping strands.
"My clothes!" she shrieked.
"They're ruined!"
Silence followed.
Then—
Someone snorted.
Another student laughed.
Within seconds nearly half the class was struggling to hold back hysterical laughter.
Even a few of the teachers looked suspiciously close to smiling.
After everything Nancy had put everyone through, seeing the class bully unexpectedly take a swim felt like justice delivered by the universe itself.
I stood frozen.
I hadn't moved.
I hadn't touched her.
I hadn't even been close enough to shove her.
Yet somehow...
It had happened.
Grover stared at me with wide eyes.
"Percy..."
"I didn't do anything."
"I know."
His voice sounded uncertain.
"I think."
I looked down at my own hands.
They were shaking.
Not from fear.
From confusion.
The warmth inside my chest slowly faded, replaced by an unsettling calm.
Had I imagined everything?
The shimmering air.
The floating water.
The impossible current.
No.
I knew what I'd seen.
Even if nobody believed me, I knew.
Nancy climbed out of the fountain soaked from head to toe.
Water streamed off her clothes in steady rivulets.
Her mascara had run, leaving dark streaks beneath her eyes.
She looked furious.
She jabbed a finger directly at me.
"You pushed me!"
"I was ten feet away."
"You did something!"
"I didn't even move."
"Liar!"
"I didn't."
Our argument barely lasted three seconds.
Because another voice cut through the gallery.
"Perseus Jackson."
Every muscle in my body stiffened.
That voice.
Cold.
Sharp.
Precise.
I turned slowly.
Mrs. Dodds stood at the far end of the exhibit.
Our algebra teacher somehow looked even smaller than usual, dressed in her perpetual black leather jacket despite the warm weather. Her eyes locked onto mine with unsettling intensity.
Most teachers would've rushed to help Nancy.
Mrs. Dodds didn't even glance at her.
She only looked at me.
Her expression wasn't angry.
It was...hungry.
A chill crawled down my spine.
"There has been..." she said quietly, "...quite enough excitement for one afternoon."
The words sounded perfectly ordinary.
Her tone did not.
Each syllable carried an unnatural weight, as though something ancient lurked beneath her calm exterior.
The laughter around us faded.
Students instinctively stepped aside as she approached.
Her heels clicked rhythmically against the marble floor.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Every step echoed far louder than it should have.
She stopped only a few feet away.
The smell of chalk dust and old leather clung to her clothing.
Her thin lips curled into a smile that never reached her eyes.
"Mr. Jackson," she said pleasantly, "would you be so kind as to accompany me?"
Every instinct screamed at me to run.
I didn't know why.
She was just a teacher.
A strict one, sure.
Maybe even a creepy one.
But nothing more.
Right?
Yet something deep inside me whispered otherwise.
The warmth that had summoned the impossible water now shifted into a cold knot in my stomach.
The Greek statues surrounding us suddenly felt less like artwork and more like silent witnesses.
Watching.
Waiting.
As though they had seen this moment countless times before.
I swallowed hard.
Mrs. Dodds gestured toward a nearby hallway leading away from the other students.
"Come," she said softly.
"We need to have a little conversation."
I had the unmistakable feeling that once I stepped into that hallway, nothing about my life would ever be ordinary again.