Skip to near the end of the school year, and Percy is complaining about how confused he’s been over the Dodds/Kerr mix-up.  He knows it wasn’t his brain playing tricks on him, because Grover keeps acting shady every time he brings up the issue.  Why Grover or Mr. Brunner don’t talk to him about this matter, I don’t know.  I mean, I get that they’re trying to keep him out of the half-blood world, but they’ve kind of failed spectacularly at that since he’s already been attacked once.  And they see him descend into failing grades and behavioral problems based on what he’s seen and the disconnect between that and the real world.  Wouldn’t it just be all around better to let him know that he’s not crazy?

Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests,

Percy claims to have dyslexia (though we know it to be half-blood signs popping up) and he uses that exact word, giving the impression that he’s been formally diagnosed with it.  He’s been in six schools in six years.  I know there’s bad teachers out there, but this is a school for kids with issues.  One would think that here, at least, they’d have teachers who can deal with learning disabilities and realize that it’s not the same as ‘laziness.’

Percy gets informed that he won’t be coming back to Yancy next year, though he can finish out this year.  Since he’s got to take his finals, he goes to see Mr. Brunner and ask for help studying.

I’d never asked a teacher for help before.

That’s…kind of a big problem.  Does this include never receiving help?  He’s diagnosed with a learning disorder and ADHD and he’s never got any individual attention or help with his school work?  Instead, people just kick him out of schools?

Again, are there no lawsuits in this world?

Anyway, he overhears Grover and Mr. Brunner talking about him.  They talk about trying to keep Percy alive over the summer, which understandable confuses Percy.  But he says nothing.  Then the next day he takes his exam, Mr. Brunner calls him in after to give a few meaningless encouraging words, then skip to random people talking about summer…

Good heavens, does this book have ADD, too?  This chapter is all over the place.  It’s just a mishmash of time skips and partial conversations, plodding along until something actually happens.  Get to the actual story, please.

After the end of term, Percy and Grover get on a bus back to the city, and Percy admits he overheard Grover talking to Mr. Brunner that day.  Blah, talking, bullshit, OH THANK GOD, THE BUS BROKE DOWN.  Does that mean something’s going to happen now?  While stuck out on this country road, Percy sees three old ladies knitting sweater-sized socks.  Grover freaks out because they’re looking right at Percy, then one cuts the yarn.

“Just tell me what you saw.”

 “The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.”

That’s the first thing you mention, Percy?  Not the enormous size of the socks, the fact that they’re unnaturally ancient, or even the entire fruit stand they were sitting behind?  Nope, you jump straight to the one detail that’s relevant?

Well, I guess I shouldn’t complain at anything that moves us along.  Grover freaks out about the snipped yarn and wants to walk Percy home, to which Percy agrees.

Good lord, what was this chapter?  I’ll admit, I like these books, but did I just black out during this chapter in the first read-through?  So much padding, so much pointlessness and time-skipping.  And honestly, once you throw in a monster attack in your first chapter, slowing down that much and expecting me to get freaked out over old ladies knitting is a bit of a stretch.  If you’d opened with that, I’d find it creepy, but we already had disintegrating monster attack.  You don’t go backwards from that.