Sixth Grade was Never Like This...

Posted on Mon Apr 11th, 2011 @ 3:56pm by Ensign Matthew Lessly

Mission: Episode 2.1 - "Unanswered Questions"
Location: Holodeck One, USS Pandora
Timeline: MD-06, 2000 Hours

OOC: The following post is meant to be a lead in for later use of the program in a different way. It is derived from the first chapter of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan. If you haven't read the book and don't want the first chapter spoiled, I'd suggest not reading this post.

ON: [[Holodeck One, USS Pandora, Shoreleave Day 06, 2000]]

Matt stepped into the holodeck, the program chip John had given him in his hand. He had wanted to see what was on the crystal the moment that John had left, but then things came up with one of the science labs, and by the time he was done with that, it was far too late for him to go to the holodeck and still be able to get out of bed for his shift in the morning.

Inserting the crystal into the slot in the holodeck arch, he tapped a few commands into the display and said, "Computer, save program from data slot one to my personal collection as Lessly three-three-three."

The computer chirped in response. =^=Program saved.=^=

"Run program Lessly three-three-three." Matt ordered.

The computer chirped again and the holodeck blurred out of existence as it recreated the first part of the program. As the program came into existence, Matt could see that he was on an old fashioned Earth school bus, loaded with over twenty students and two teachers. Looking around, he could see most of the kids were talking, laughing, and were seemingly having a good time. One of the other things he noticed was that the holodeck seemed to have adjusted the proportions of the characters and settings so that Matt was approximately the same size as the children on the bus, who were no older than thirteen.

Feeling a tug on his sleeve, Matt looked down to see a smaller kid in a knit cap tugging on his shirt. "Sit down!" the boy muttered. "Do you really want Mrs. Dodds to yell at you again, do you?"

Matt, unsure of how to respond, sat down, sheepishly, and looked the boy over. He looked like a fairly normal kid, except there was something off about his legs. They looked almost normal in the thigh, perhaps a bit larger than the norm, but from the knees down they became much smaller than they should have been. Before he had a chance to say anything, he heard a soft *fwap* as a piece of a sandwich came flying through the air and hit the boy in the back of the head.

Matt instantly turned to see where the chunk of food had come from and saw a short, heavyset, red haired girl laughing. He gave her a 'knock it off' glare, and turned around to face the front of the bus again. No sooner had he settled down than another piece of sandwich came flying at the boy next to him.

Standing up to say something, Matt suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, but he could tell it wasn't the boy next to him. Looking up the long, somewhat wrinkly arm, his eyes finally came to bare with the face of the hands' owner, a woman he could only guess to be Mrs. Dodds. He wasn't sure what it was, but something seemed off about the woman.

"Now, now, Mr. Jackson," the woman said, her voice smooth and calm, though there was a gentle hint of something more, something that sent shivers through Matt's spine, "I do hope you weren't planning on causing any problems, were you?"

Matt wasn't sure what role the woman played in the holonovel, but he knew that she wasn't someone he wanted to mess with. Sitting back down, he mumbled a "No, Ma'am."

An evil smirk crossed the womans' face. "Good." she said, before quickly moving back to the front of the bus.

"How did she-" Matt began to ask but was cut off by the boy.

"She's a teacher, Percy, they do that." the boy responded.

Matt looked at the boy and for the first time noticed a name tag on the boy reading "Grover Underwood." Looking down at his own cloths, he found a similar name tag reading "Percy Jackson."

A few moments later the bus came to a stop and the group of students piled out. Together with Mrs. Dodds, and a male teacher that rode in a powered wheel chair, the class spent the next hour and a half touring the Greek and Roman portions of the museum. After the conclusion of the tour, which had involved Matt being questioned by the male teacher about Greek mythology several times, the class exited the museum to eat lunch on the large steps outside. Matt sat next to the boy from the bus, Grover, who was apparently his characters only friend on the entire trip.

About half way through the meal, the girl from the bus walked up and pretended to trip, throwing her lunch all over Grover. "Oops" she said, then began to walk off.

Before he knew what was happening, Matt was on his feet and the girl, who he now knew as Nancy Bobofit, was on the ground, soaked, and crying. Matt looked around, not sure of what had just happened, but was unable to ask because Mrs. Dodds had appeared out of nowhere, again.

"Come with me... Mr. Jackson." she said, her voice cold, but Matt thought it almost sounded as if she was happy at the same time.

Matt turned back to Grover to see what he would say, but all he got was a worried face and a shrug. When he turned to follow Mrs. Dodds, she was already all the way up at the main entrance of the museum.

"Wha... how..." Matt wondered, aloud. Shaking it off as a glitch in the program, he started up the steep stairs towards the old, wrinkly, and apparently rather speedy, teacher.

Matt followed Mrs. Dodds for several minutes, never quite able to keep up, until they got to the main lobby of the Greek display where a statue of the Greek god Zeus stood, twenty feet tall. Looking around, trying to find where Mrs. Dodds went, Matt finally found her, standing on the edge of the second floor balcony.

Matt's questioning look quickly turned to one of fear as he watched the woman begin to writhe, leathery wings sprouting from her back, her arms lengthening and becoming raw, bird like limbs with talons where her hands had been. He came out of shock just in time to see the woman swoop down at him and swipe at him with razor sharp talons, narrowly missing as Matt dived out of the way.

*What did John get me into?* Matt thought, his breathing heavy and his heart racing. He was about to order the computer to end the program when he saw the male teacher in the wheelchair at the archway.

The teacher raised his right hand, and Matt could see that he was holding a red pen. "What ho, Percy!" the man yelled towards him, throwing the pen in Matt's direction.

Matt was questioning how a pen was supposed to help him when he caught what was supposed to be the pen, but turned out to be a large sword that glowed faintly. Behind him, Matt could hear the female teacher coming at him again. In one solid move, Matt dove, rolled, and came up with his sword, stabbing the woman in what had been her stomach.

"AAAAAGGGGGHHHH!" the woman yelled as she burst into a cloud of dust, her voice echoing around the room.

Matt turned to where the male teacher had been, but he was already gone. Matt was alone, holding a sword that had once been a pen, and covered in the dust of his teacher.

Setting the sword down at the base of Zues' feet, Matt caught his breath and his pulse slowed. He could feel something materialize in his pocket and he put his hand in, pulling out a brochure. The cover was blank so he opened it and read the contents...

"Welcome to the Sixth Grade."

OFF:

A Post by:

Ensign Matthew Lessly
Chief Science Officer
USS Pandora