In the first chapter of Rick Riordan’s novel Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, our narrator, Percy, has a strange run-in with his math teacher, Mrs. Dodds. He tells us that she’s always hated him, but on this specific day while their class is on a field trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art her anger is even more pronounced. His math teacher pulls him into another section of the museum, the Greek and Roman section because Percy was involved in an altercation with Nancy, but instead of being yelled at for his actions, Mrs. Dodds pushes him, growling with an evil “look in her eyes [that] was beyond mad.”

Mrs. Dodds’ eyes begin to glow red and she develops bird-like talons and large wings. She tells Percy, “It was only a matter of time before we found you out,” which only confuses him further. Just before this beast “with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs… was about to slice” Percy, Mr. Brunner (his Latin teacher) throws Percy a pen. The pen turns into a sword and Percy slices Mrs. Dodds and she disappears right before his eyes. Percy is confused and shaken by the events.

The only people who know about Mrs. Dodds, and the events from the day, are Mr. Brunner, Grover (Percy’s best friend), and Percy; however, when Percy collects himself and returns to the group, no one seems to know who Mrs. Dodds is. At first, he thinks everyone is playing a trick on him. Instead of Mrs. Dobbs, there’s a new teacher Mrs. Kerr. Even the next day at school, no one knows who Mrs. Dodds is and looks at him strangely when he asks.