See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. - Percy Jackson

Does truth have a moral?

So, yeah. Our cat was a goddess. What else is new?

My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.

Ella is nervous,” the harpy muttered from her perch on the railing. “The elephant. The elephant is watching Ella.

With my sister perched on my arm, I walked to the elevator. A business man with a rolling suitcase was waiting by the doors. His eyes widened as he saw me. I must’ve looked pretty strange—a tall black kid in dirty, ragged Egyptian clothes, with a weird box tucked under one arm and a bird of prey perched on the other. “How’s it going?” I said. “I’ll take the stairs.” He hurried off.

I was glad to be with her, but it also kind of hurt, and it hurt when I wasn't with her, too.