Percy Jackson and the Olympians(with me!)

Chapter 1 the Mysterious Visitors

"Ash! Ash, come on! It's time for school!" my aunt yelled frantically from downstairs.

"All right, Aunt Sarah!" I yelled back. Sheesh. Aunts can get so annoying, I thought as I ran down the stairs while trying to put on my left shoe and pull my hair into a ponytail. Its not as easy as it looks.

"Now you better eat up, big day today," said Aunt Sarah.

"It's really not that big. I don't get why you are making such a big deal about this Aunt Sarah," I replied.

"It's your first time making it through a school year in the last few years without getting kicked out. How is that not a big deal?"

Okay, here was the deal. I had been living with my Uncle Jake and Aunt Sarah in their condo, since when I was about 5 years old and my mom passed away, and I don't even know what happened to my dad. All I remember about him, was what my mom had said about him when I was little, and that I barely remember. All I remember was that she said that he was a really good guy and that she had loved him when she knew him. My eyes and hair were the things I inherited from my father. A lot of the time, when I think about him, I wonder if I act like him. If my habits are like him, my temper probably since my mom almost never got mad, things like that. Sometimes, when I see all the other girls at school being picked up by their dads, I wish I had a dad to take care of me like that, to swing me around and tell me I look all grown up when I wore my first dress or have one to walk me down the aisle one day. But it doesn't matter, because I have my aunt and uncle to take of me and thats all I need. Right?

"Ashley Haynes! Hurry up and eat! Your uncle already left for work, he said good luck today. Megan will be waiting for you at the bus stop by now." Aunt Sarah called from her room where I knew she was getting dressed for job as a florist. It's great because she always comes home smelling like flowers and I can always find some fresh ones at the table whenever I come home from school. Our condo is chalk full of them. My aunt was clearly obsessed. I even have some dried ones hanging from my ceiling. Uncle Charlie was pretty cool too. He is a banker. He isn't one of the major banker who rack in the big bucks, but we are doing pretty well.

"Okay! I'm going!" I yelled after hastily shoving the rest of the blueberry pancake in my mouth and gulping down the orange juice. She rushed out of her room and said while giving me a hug, "I love you, Ash. Now please try to be good, will you?"

I replied, "Of course! When am I not?" With a quick chuckle and a kiss on the cheek, I called, "Bye! Love you! See you this weekend!" while running out the door not waiting for a sappy reply that I knew was coming. She always did it whenever I had to head back to school for the week. Gosh, she could be so clingy.

I ran the next two blocks to the school bus stop and saw my best friend Megan waiting for me just as she always is. She had her gorgeous blond hair pulled back in a head band, just as usual, to show off her pretty blue eyes, and the school uniform of a red and blue pleated skirt and a white button down shirt with a tie and the school sweater. She looked like a super model no matter what she wore. Next to her, I always looked messy, with my loose side-ponytail holding my thick black curly hair, loose tie and sweater thrown over my shoulder, and my side bangs constantly hanging in my green eyes. But though we looked so different, we had been best friends since the moment I walked into my history class and sat next to her this year. We seemed a little drawn to each other.

I had made it just in time, the bus was just pulling into the stop. After sharing a grin, Megan and I jumped onto the bus and grabbed the first open seat. She immediately began talking about Josh Bucking, the boy that had been in love with her since the fifth grade, and since it was ninth grade right now, he had been in love with her for awhile, he apparently sent her three boxes of chocolates and a bunch of roses, each with a note saying he loved her. Boys always seemed to be in love with Megan. It was just a fact of life.

Then, a three boys that I had never seen before, walked onto the bus. One had a lot of pimples, was kind of short, and seemed really nervous. He also tripped a lot, which made a few people snicker at them. The next boy, seemed about 16, well built, brown curly hair, tan, and relaxed. The last boy looked like he came from California, blond hair, tan, tallish, and also well built, but with serious gray eyes, while the other boy's eyes were blue and held amusement in them. The blue-eyed boy looked at me with a smile that I immediately returned, it just seemed to happen without me meaning it.

I wondered about them for a minute, until Megan snapped her fingers in front of my face, demanding my attention so she could talk about how to get rid of Josh so that she could go for the older boys, which took us the entire 15 minutes left of the bus ride and we finally made it to school.

I couldn't stop to see where those mysterious kids had gone since Megan was dragging me to class saying that we were going to be late if we kept hanging around the bus like creeps. I reluctantly nodded and we headed of to our dorms. We were lucky enough to be in the same dorm, it was like one giant room with many beds and a bureau by each bed for us to put our things in and on. People only brought enough clothes to last the week and then they could go home for the weekend. It was a pretty sweet deal, I got to hang out with Megan during the week and Aunt Sarah on the weekends. At all the other schools I had been at, we only were able to go to go home during the holidays and such. It was the first school that I had really liked in awhile. Now lets just hope that I don't screw it up like all the others.

Weird things have happened to me ever since I was little. When I was a toddler, a creepy-looking woman tried to kidnap me, she kind of looked normal but I swear that she had some sort of snakelike legs, she came to the school claiming that she was my aunt, but I started to cry and my mom arrived at that time and took me away. Also, when I was around seven, a man who seemed to have the head of a Doberman (I know it's crazy!) tried to convince me to get into the car with him, but then Aunt Sarah came and yelled at him and pulled me away.

There is also the issue of school, I get kicked out of them, a lot. I just can't help it. My anger gets the best of me a lot of the time and I just can't seem to hold it in. It is always something weird though, and mostly it isn't my fault. Last year was the strangest yet though, my math teacher, Mrs. Krepps, she always seemed to hate me no matter what I did to suck up to her, and she always sided against me on everything. Anyway, she told me to stay after class and to clean the erase the board, so as I was, I felt her behind me, and she stunk, bad. So I finally turned around and she was staring at me and she seemed to be sharpening her fingernails. I know its sounds weird but thats what happened!

"Wow, Mrs. Krepps. Umm, nice nails."

She just looked at me and kept on sharpening them, though she gave me a devilish smile that seemed to say that she knew something I didn't. I finished erasing the board and I turned around to find her less than two feet away, running her (claws?) on the desk.

"Umm, so I'm going to go now. I have to run back to my room and get a start on my homework."

"That won't be necessary, Ashley Haynes."

She then began walking toward me very fast with her nails out and they looked about as sharp as daggers. My first reaction was to scream, but then some instinct kicked in and I kicked her in the gut, making her double over with a grunt. I then thrust my elbow into her back pushing her down onto the ground, thinking that I had her now.

Of course, she then jumped up, and said while panting, "Your faster than you look, Haynes. But so am I."

And then she made a grab for me lightning quick, me only barely missing her and her nails cut through my school shirt and grazed my arm. I screamed in pain, and grabbed something out of her bag that looked sharp. It turned out to be a sword looking thing. So I did the first thing that came to mind. I stabbed her.

She looked at me and said, "You have no idea what you just started."

Then she disappeared in a poof. She just disintegrated! Of course, then someone walks in and you can imagine how that went, me standing in a room alone, holding a sword and my arm all cut up. The school then called Aunt Sarah saying that they think I should get help. It was great. That's how I ended up in Harrington Academy. I was really starting to feel at home here so I just prayed again for luck that I wouldn't mess it up.