Chapter 1: We Get Ice Cream

JACKSON POV

It was pretty much a normal day. Macy Evans was beating the crap out of an Ares kid twice her size at the Arena. Kim Trix was banging her drums so loudly that her cabin seemed to tremble. Katie Knapp was totally beating Connor Stoll at on-on-one soccer, and Percy and Annabeth were down at the beach, holding hands and flirting. Meanwhile, Travis Stoll was napping on the bench.

Rule Number One at Camp: Never sleep in a public area. I chuckled as I silently slid Travis's wallet out of his pocket, and removed a twenty. Travis grunted in his sleep and I froze for a second, to make sure he was still in a doze. Then I silently slid the wallet back into its home.

Quickly moving away, I scanned the camp. My eyes passed over 13-year-old Macy, who was standing on top of the unconscious Ares kid, cheering, and fell on my best friend, Jake Kellams.

Jake and Jack. I know, it's funny. But we are two peas in a pod, even though personality-wise, we are polar opposites. He's quiet around most people, whereas I am loud and somewhat obnoxious. Yet as I walk towards him, he breaks into a huge smile that makes his blue eyes gleam.

"Nice, man!" he says as he sees the stolen twenty. "Where did you get it?"

"Nicked it," I said simply. "Let's get some lunch. Where do you want to go?"

"Hmm…" he taps his chin as he thinks. "Subway?"

"What? And eat a perfectly normal, healthy lunch? Nah, we're going to Cold Stone." I looked around. "Where's Nico?"

On cue, Nico appears out of the shadow of a tree. Jake shuddered. "You've gotta stop doing that, man."

"Sorry," Nico says, not sounding sorry at all. "Where are we going?"

"Cold Stone. I wanna get chocolate wasted!"

Jake and I follow Nico back into the shade and he grabs his arms. The three of us melt into the shadow. In a second, we're in New York, standing in the Cold Stone Creamery on 42nd Street.

Jake shook his head like he was trying to get water out of his ears. "I hate doing that," he grumbles.

We order our ice creams (Dark Chocolate Death for Nico, Raspberry Fudge Swirl for me, and Cake Batter for Jake) and sit at a table.

"Soooo…" I said casually. "Nico, how's Thalia?"

Nico blushed crimson. "None of your business."

I grinned. Messing with Nico was one of my favorite pasttimes. "Come on, Nico, I want to hear about your forbidden love! Its like that terrible movie, Nightlight-"

"-Twilight," Jake corrected me.

"Yes, that, and you're the depressed vampire and she's the depressed human chick! Nico, tell me," I said softly, leaning in close so our faces are inches apart.

"What?" Nico grumbled.

I stared seriously at him. "Do you sparkle?"

Nico flicks his spoon at me, splattering my face with ice cream. Jake and I roar with laughter.

"You suck," he said grumpily. "How would you like it if I shadow traveled back to Camp without you two?"

"Oh we'd love it," I said casually, picking a one-dollar bill out of a kid's pocket as he walked by. "We still have four- well, now five- bucks left, we could go to Dylan's Candy Bar. Besides, you wouldn't want that on your conscience." I suck on my spoon triumphantly at the look on Nico's face.

All of a sudden, Chiron appears in front of me.

"AGH!" I yelled. Customers looked at me like I was insane, which, now that I'm thinking about it, is a pretty close guess on my mental state of mind.

I stared at the Iris-message. Chiron looks very worried, and even angry.

"Uhh, hi Chiron," I say casually, hoping to not get in trouble for leaving camp. "What's up?"

"I need you to come back immediately."

"But we haven't finished our ice cream!" whined Nico.

"Now. No buts." The Iris-message vanished.

"What was that?" Jake asked.

"I don't know, but we should get back ASAP," Nico said, wolfing down the rest of his ice cream.

I eat mine in a flash, aggghhh brain freeze, and toss it toward the garbage across the store. It bounces on the edge and in. "Yesss! Three pointer!"

Nico grabbed our arms again and we arrived back at Camp-Half Blood.

The camp was in a state of panic. Annabeth was crying onto Chiron's shoulder- well, actually his side, he's so tall. The Stoll brothers looked angry, but I don't think it was because they figured out who was stealing their money. Clarisse looked angry, too, just angrier than normal. Most of the other kids were just standing around in shock.

"What the heck is going on?" asked Jake, staring around at the camp.

"I don't know," I answered, and I ran over to Chiron. He was still comforting Annabeth. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Chiron stared down at me, a grave look on his face. "Percy has just been kidnapped."

Sorry the first chapter is so short, guys, and thanks to everyone who submitted a character! So how do you like Jack? Do you think Nico can sparkle? Has anyone been to the Cold Stone on 42nd Street, and are Dark Chocolate Death and Raspberry Fudge Swirl real Cold Stone ice cream flavors? More importantly, who kidnapped Percy and why? Find out next chapter, but before you do… REVIEW! Thanks! New chapter up later… could be today, could be tomorrow.