History class was boring.

Normally, Mike McClover would have been playing a discreet game of poker with his friend Xil Berkley during class by passing Xil's iPhone back and forth under their desks. But now, Xil had refused.

The lame excuse Xil had come up with was that if Mike got into any more trouble he would most certainly be kicked out of Rochester's School for Special Children. Mike suspected his friend had actually just gotten tired of losing, as Mike never lost a card game, even on an iPhone.

Come to think of it, Xil had been acting strange lately. Just a couple days ago Mike had walked into the dormitory he shared with Xil to hear his friend talking to someone. But when Mike entered the room, no one else was there, and steam was rising of their contraband hot plate, even though there was no food in sight. Even now Xil was acting jumpy, constantly glancing around and sniffing the air.

Not that Xil wasn't always weird. Xil was one of the stranger kids at a strange school. For starters, he was a vegetarian, but seemed to eat inedible things as well. Mike had once seen Xil chewing on a tin can. Xil constantly limped when he was walking, but could run - or rather trot as Xil had a strange way of running - faster than all but the best athletes. And, although only an ADHD kid like Mike would notice this, even on the hottest day Mike had ever seen, Xil refused to wear anything but long pants or go swimming in the lake.

But whatever the boy's reasons, Mike had no one to play cards with and had nothing to do but sit in class and be completely and utterly bored.

Until a giant dog smashed through the windows.

Glass sprayed the entire room causing kids to scream and use their folders as shields. Then, they saw the more immediate threat and all hell broke loose.

Mike, along with the rest of the class leaped backwards, pressing his back against the wall. The dog crouched in the middle of the classroom, snarling and scanning the row of kids pressed against the wall.

If Mike hadn't noticed his only friend still sitting in the middle of the classroom, just two rows away from the giant dog, he would have become kibble. As it happened, just as the dog lunged at Mike, the boy sprinted towards his friend.

More screams pierced the room as kids moved away from the dog. Xil (who had been muttering into his iPhone) hung up and looked at Mike.

Mike pulled Xill easily out of his chair. "Hey man you gotta move, that dog-thing...it coulda killed you."

"You're the one who almost got killed," Xil replied, surprisingly calm for such a moment. "Now we have to get out of here. There's an extraction team waiting outside."

With that, Xil kicked off his shoes, grabbed Mike's arm, and sprinted to the door.

"What the- what's going on?" Mike managed to stutter before being pulled through the shattered window. He glanced down at Xil's feet and gulped. He couldn't believe it. It was impossible. Instead of feet, Xil had hooves.

That's right. Hooves. Like a horse.

"Please tell me I'm dreaming," Mike moaned, smacking his forehead. Xil gave him a quick sympathetic look before sprinting to the lake.

If Mike had been hoping to see something normal at the lake, his hopes were dashed. Sitting at the lakes edge were two winged horses, carrying two teenagers, a boy and a girl. The teenagers were decked out in some sort of ancient armour, complete with swords hanging at their belts. The boy immediately jumped off and raced towards the school, completely ignoring the confused boy before him.

"Is this him?" asked the girl, jumping off her horse-creature-thing. If you ignored the fact that she looked ready to kill a Spartan, the girl was an average teenager. Long dirty-blonde hair, pale skin, about 5'5". Except for her eyes. The girl's eyes were a startling shade of gray, unlike any eyes Mike had seen before. If Mike had to guess, he would say she was about 16, maybe older, and he was absolutely terrified of her.

Xil nodded, and the girl managed a small smile. "Kendall Jones," she said, somewhat shyly. She stuck out her hand. "Daughter of Athena."

"Whoa, back up." Mike felt like all the air had been knocked out of him. "Athena, like the greek goddess?"

Kendall bit her lip, as if she was about to deliver really bad news. "Adam will be back soon. We'll explain on the way there."


As Kendall had predicted, the boy -Adam- was back in about two minutes. Kendall ran up to him the second he came into view.

"Are you okay?" Mike heard her ask.

"Fine," Adam said, slinging his arm over her shoulders. He stood quite tall, almost 6 feet. "It was actually a pretty small hellhound. And I managed to convince the mist that Mike had released a vicious pit bull into the classroom. He's expelled now, but it could be worse."

Mike groaned. This day was getting worse and worse. His best friend had first refused to play cards, and then kidnapped him after a crazy dog broke into his classroom. Now he was stuck with his "friend" and two crazy teenagers who had developed some weird strain of chicken and horse hybrid. And they'd gotten him expelled.

Mike sank to his knees with a loud moan. "Xil, if your not to busy being a horse or whatever can I borrow your cellphone? I need to call my dad."

"Sorry," said Xil guiltily. "Cell phones attract monsters. I only used it today because it was an emergency. I usually wouldn't use a phone around you."

By this time Kendall and Adam had reached the lake. Both of them looked at Mike sympathetically.

"It's a lot to take in," said Adam quietly. "We should get him back to camp."

The last thing Mike remembered was being lifted onto the back of a flying horse. Then everything went black.