First story! Make sure to give me your opinion, please. It's appreciated!

Disclaimer: Percy Jackson belongs to Rick Riordan. Star Wars belongs to Lucasfilm. I don't own McDonald's, either. I think that's everything, but just in case, I don't own anything except my own characters.

People think being a half-blood is sooooo cool. Did all of y'all miss that first sentence in The Lightning Thief? Be happy if you're normal and shut up about wanting to be a demigod. We have our up times, but in the end, it usually leads to untimely demise.

On that happy note, hi. I'm that really weird girl who likes yelling at people and reading and Star Wars. I arrived here at camp a little bit before The Last Olympian was published, which a month after all the summer campers left. In fact, I was one of the only demigods to cross the border after August. We'll get to that later, though.

My name is Emily Cadence. That's my first name. My last name is Lasicola-Parkenson. See, my mom, Jennifer Parkenson, adopted me. My birth name was Emily. Mom had always wanted a daughter named Cadence, but she really liked my birth name, too. Also, for some reason, she decided to get married while in the process of my adoption. Half of the papers said Jennifer Lasicola and half of them said Jennifer Parkenson. So my full name is Emily Cadence Jennifer Lasicola-Parkenson, since she decided to add a middle name as well. When I was little, I read a book about a girl with three names. Amateur.

I'm 11 years old, have ADD, live in Fort Worth, Texas, and just entered seventh grade, or something like seventh grade. I've been homeschooled all my life, so we don't really have grades. I'm usually just in whatever grade my friends Cooper and Isabella Buzzard are in. They're not brother and sister, but they could be, with their matching blond hair and blue eyes.

Cooper and I met in a hole-in-the-wall homeschool co-op I used to go to in fifth grade. He has ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia. At first we were the Star Wars/Hunger Games (the books) geeks, random fact nerds, best friends, but I've recently developed a crush on him. We can only text now, since I'm doing full-time homeschool, but we're still really close. Isabella was super shy before I officially met her, but she's stuck to me like superglue now. She has this thing with her legs, so she needs crutches to walk. She's about a year younger than me, and super smart, especially with history. That's how she got into fifth grade at eight. She doesn't have a phone, so our moms organize weekly "playdates" (we call them hang times) for us to catch up, and for me to see how many of my old classmates still remember me. I get the phone number of whoever doesn't and prank call them.

My life was really nice until seventh grade.

My mom was driving me to the weekly hang time when I got a text from Cooper. "What's up EmCay?" it said. Cooper likes to call me that.

"On my way to hang time with Isabella." I texted back.

"Ok. Be right back," he texted. I told him I'd be waiting. Mom and I listened to my favorite CD as we drove. He didn't text back.

We arrived at Isabella's house and I was surprised to see Cooper's bike in the driveway – he lives about a block from Isabella's house. Isabella opened the door right as I was about to knock, hugged me, and rushed me up the stairs to her room. I was about to ask what the hurry was when Isabella opened the door on Cooper and knocked him over.

"Oh god, Cooper, are you okay?" I asked.

"Nothing's broken. And I'm probably not dead," Cooper replied, rubbing his jaw. "That's five times you've tried to kill me in the last five minutes."

Isabella smiled sheepishly. "Sorry," she said.

"So," I said to Cooper. "Why are you here?"

He shrugged. "No idea. A certain Isabella invited me over for reasons she won't explain." I accidentally dropped my phone, which I'd been carrying since the only pocket in my jeans big enough to hold it had ripped. Cooper and I leaned down to grab it at the same time and bumped heads. I stood up, pretty sure I was blushing, while Cooper kept one hand where I had hit him and used the other to give me back my phone. Isabella gave a nervous-sounding laugh, the kind she does whenever I talk about Cooper. She doesn't like boys, so this kind of stuff kind of stuff weirds her out a little.

"Seriously, everyone is out to get me!" Cooper complained. I blushed even redder and Isabella laughed for real. Probably she knew how embarrassed I was. I elbowed her. I had been trying to keep my crush on Cooper a secret – at least from him – but that plan was out the window now. So I just pretended it never happened.

All of us sat down on Isabella's bed. A girl named Lilly had forgotten about me, so I put her information into my phone and made a mental note to call her. And one on my notes app, because I'm really good at forgetting things. We chatted for a little while, succeeded in keeping Cooper from sitting on Isabella's favorite stuffed animal, and ate some cookies Isabella's mom brought up. The tray of cookies was on my lap, so Cooper and Isabella had to scoot right next to me to get one. Maybe I'm too young to be thinking this, but I wished Cooper would stay right next to me.

There was no way, of course. After Cooper got his cookie, he would go back to his place, mainly because Isabella loves her mom's cookies and goes crazy whenever she gets her hands on them. Eventually, though, she calmed down. You wouldn't think it would be possible after seven double fudge chocolate chip cookies, and a huge chocolate chip muffin she had right before I got there, but she managed. For my sake, I think. I noticed Cooper didn't scoot as far away from me now.

About an hour later my mom came up and told us that Isabella was sleeping over tonight. Cooper wasn't staying overnight, but his dad had said he could stay until nine. Isabella packed enough of her things for a night and the next day, then Mom put his Cooper's bike and Isabella's backpack into the back of the truck. There were two suitcases in there too, filled with books that Mom would donate eventually, or so we thought. I have since learned their true purpose.

Along the way, Mom took, like, trillions of wrong turns and we ended up at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Or we thought they were wrong turns. After a few minutes of fiddling with the GPS to mislead us, Mom held up two plane tickets and revealed that the sleepover would actually be for two weeks and in Manhattan, New York. Cooper didn't get to come, which was a bit disappointing, but we were still super excited.

We were supposed to meet Cooper's dad at the McDonald's for lunch. He was going to take Cooper straight to another friend's house since he (Cooper's dad) had a date with his new girlfriend. Once we got there, Mom ordered a Spicy McChicken for herself, a Grand Mac and large fries for Isabella, who's always hungry, and double cheeseburgers for Cooper and I, mine plain and dry, meaning no ketchup or pickles or stuff like that. Blegh.

Cooper's dad wasn't here by the time Isabella was half finished, so my mom texted him. Isabella was super upset because at the time, they were testing Grand Mac and Mac Junior in Texas, and she had just come to the conclusion that they wouldn't have them in New York. We tried to comfort her while we waited for Cooper's dad to text back.

He did around ten minutes before our flight. "Plans changed. Take Cooper with you. Ticket is on me," Mom read.

"Oh my god!" Isabella and I exclaimed at the same time. We're weird like that. Cooper grinned.

Luggage was a slight problem, until Cooper's grandmother, a really nice lady who was only in her fifties, brought a suitcase she had packed. She had even included his favorite stuffed animal, a cat he called Bubbles. We had a good laugh over that. Mom revealed that those suitcases were actually filled with clothes for her, Isabella, and me.

On the plane, Cooper, Isabella and I sat on one side of the isle. Isabella got the window seat. Mom sat on the other side next to a college-age guy. Mom bought us pretzels and a Sprite for Isabella. Cooper and I stockpiled ideas for prank calling Lilly. Isabella chipped in every once in a while, but the pop top had come off of her soda can and she was trying to open it with her teeth.

I eventually decided to pretend I was giving her a trial version of a fashion magazine. Knowing Lilly, I figured she would say yes, then I would mail her a selfie we took that I had printed out, in which she looked really irritated, with a note saying something like "Remember me?" As I predicted, she agreed enthusiastically. The exchange went something like this:

Me (in a really good British accent): Hello, would you like a free trial issue of Style Today magazine? It's totally free for one issue.

Lilly: "Style Today? Is it a fashion magazine?"

Me: "It is! Would you like a free trial issue?"

Lilly: "Sure!"

Me: "Alright. What's your name and address?"

Lilly: (This information has been withheld for Lilly's safety.)

Me: "And your email address, please."

Lilly: (Withheld. Lilly doesn't really use her email, but still.)

Me: "Thanks! You'll be receiving your free trial issue of Style Today within four to six weeks. Have a great day!"

As soon as Lilly hung up (without saying thanks), Cooper burst out laughing. "Style Today? That's a terrible magazine name! And you mentioned it was free three times!"

I shrugged. "I've always thought people who give magazine trials would stress that. And Style Today is a wonderful name." Cooper just rolled his eyes. I hoped they had magazine-sized envelopes somewhere near our hotel.

I'm going to copy and past a couple more chapters that I already have written out and then go to bed.

Fun Fact: My spell checker used to say "y'all" is not a word. The "Add to Dictionary" button fixed that.