Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except the characters I made up, like Thalia, Sammy, Trevor, Gwen, etc., but even those are named after characters in the PJ or HoO series. All credits go to Rick Riordan for being such an awesome writer and thinking of Percy Jackson in the first place!

This is my first fanfiction, so please review and tell me what you think.

I was only four years old when almost my entire family moved to Manhattan, New York. We had previously been living in a small town in the Oakland Hills, but I don't remember too much about it.

Some vague memories surface occasionally, like an elephant in black armor surrounded by teenagers with weapons marching by. I also remember watching a group of people in bed sheet-looking outfits walking by to this big building near my school. I suppose it had seemed pretty normal to me at the time, but now, as I look back on it, it doesn't make sense. What would an elephant be doing in such a small, overlooked, Californian town, where we don't even have a zoo, along with a bunch heavily armed kids? It wasn't like the town was a military base or anything.

My parents called that place "New Rome." They had gone to college together there, gotten married in New York, and had three kids: my older brother Luke, me, and my younger brother Charlie. My mother worked as an architect and my dad as a marine biologist. When we moved, they had found new jobs in Manhattan. Mom works in the Empire State Building a lot, for some reason.

We have a really big family, with lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. We're not all really related, but it just feels that way because we're all so close.

Let's see, there's Aunt Piper and Uncle Jason Grace. Aunt Piper is a saleswoman. She's so successful persuading people to buy things, or anyone to do anything, really. Uncle Jason is a pilot for New York Airlines. He really enjoys the job, and it's almost like he can control the winds.

They've got three kids: Reyna, Gwen, and Tristan. Reyna and Gwen are fraternal twins and my best friends. They're really into fashion and makeup. Reyna has chocolate brown hair and electric blue eyes, while Gwen has silky blonde hair with startling green eyes, like me.

Tristan is a little annoying, but otherwise okay. He's twelve, three years younger than Reyna, Gwen, and I. The Graces live right across the street from us, so we see them the most often.

Next is Uncle Frank and Hazel Zhang. We kids are actually supposed to call her Aunt Hazel, but she thinks the title makes her seem old, even though she's only thirty-seven. She has her own magic business. Her stage name is Hazellina, and she's especially popular among younger kids. I asked her how she does her tricks, but she never tells anyone anything.

Uncle Frank is large and stocky and he keeps his hair in a military haircut, for some reason. He wasn't in the military in any way that I know of, but he seems to like it, so I don't say anything. He's handsome, in his own way, with broad shoulders and lots of muscles. I think he's written a few novels, but otherwise, I have no idea what he does for a living. The few times I've tried to ask, he just shut me out.

They have four kids: Emily, Penny, Jonah, and Connor. Jonah is fourteen and Emily is seventeen, and they're both really into sports. Jonah plays basketball and Emily is really good at soccer. They both have cinnamon brown hair and light brown eyes with flecks of gold in them. They could almost be twins, except for the three year age difference.

Connor is my age, and Gwen has a huge crush on him. He's tall and bulky, like Uncle Frank. He plays on the high school football team and I go with Gwen to watch his games sometimes.

Penny is nine and Hazel's part-time assistant, but even she doesn't know most of the magician's secrets. On the stage, she prefers to go by her full name, Penelope. She thinks it sounds more professional.

Next is Uncle Leo and Aunt Callie (short for Calypso) Valdez. They live a couple blocks over and own a place called Leo and Calypso's Garage: Auto Repair and Mechanical Monsters. The last part is a little bit of a joke. Uncle Leo named the place, and he's a real funny guy. He's got curly black hair and bit of a mischievous look in his eyes. Some would describe him as impish, especially his grin.

Aunt Callie is really sweet and pretty. They're both in their early forties, but she looks only twenty-eight. She's fashionable without trying, beautiful without makeup, glamorous without effort, and basically the person every woman aspires to be. She's practically a goddess.

They also have three kids: Esperanza, Elsa for short; Sammy, whose middle name, Arion, sounds like a horse name; and Trevor. I don't like Esperanza much; she's rude sometimes and just blurts stuff out without thinking about people's feelings. Then again, she's only eleven and she kind of idolizes me, so maybe she's not that bad.

Sammy is seventeen, two years older than me, but we're still really close friends. He's like another older brother to me, except kinder and more thoughtful than Luke. Ironically, he's best friends with Luke. He and I ask and give each other advice all the time.

Sammy has curly black hair like his father and dark dreamy eyes, like his mother. His skin color is rather pale, and there's a spray of freckles across his nose and cheeks.

Trevor is sixteen, and he and Sammy hardly look anything alike. Trevor's hair is cinnamon-colored and he has an olive complexion. His eyes are also dark brown, but they're more like Uncle Leo's than Aunt Callie's. His have a rather sneaky and mischievous look to them, one that would cause teachers to immediately put him in the front row, and give him a stink eye when he hadn't even done anything yet. He also has a really great singing voice, which I found out when he had to do a solo after his partner ditched him in the third grade talent show. Trevor is like his father, joking a lot, but he can also be serious and sensitive sometimes. I'm sorry to say that I've had a not-so-little crush on him ever since Uncle Frank, Hazel, Uncle Jason, and Aunt Piper, and my parents, my brothers, and I moved from New Rome to New York.

I've been told that my parents, Uncle Jason, Aunt Piper, Uncle Leo, Uncle Frank, and Hazel go way back, all the way to their teen years. Supposedly, they were all really close friends in high school. Most of them are ADHD and dyslexic, except for Uncle Frank, who wasn't dyslexic and won a ton of spelling awards when he was younger. Fortunately, I didn't inherit dyslexia from my parents, but I'm still ADHD.

A bad thing about having a large family is that you have to get them all gifts for Christmas and their birthdays. I've been doing this since I was eight years old. Luckily, I save most of my money, unlike Charlie, who spends all his allowance and birthday money as soon as he gets it. He usually ends up having to get cheap gifts for everyone, like a small package of candy, or a pencil, or a fake felt mustache. I buy nicer presents, like jewelry or cosmetics for the women and older girls, and small sports equipment for the boys.

On a brighter side, I get a lot of presents too. And birthday money. That's where I get most of the cash to pay for presents for people who give me cash. So the money was basically being recycled.

I was really looking forward to the holidays this year. I thought it would be nice and quiet and we could all have some quality family time. I really had no idea just how wild it would get.

Christmas was coming up in a few weeks, but I had already gotten presents for the family. Now all I had to worry about was surviving school until Winter Break. The teachers had really been loading the up homework on us, since it was the end of the semester. I'm usually a pretty good student, getting A's and B's most of the time, but lately, I've been slipping. My A average in English dropped to a B last week, while my B+ average in science dropped to a B-. I was working extra hard to bring my grades up, but I was afraid it wasn't going to be enough.

Dad and Mom had told me that if my overall grades for my core classes were all B's and above by the end of the semester, I got along with my brothers, and I showed that I could be responsible enough, they would let me have my own room. I currently shared with Luke and Charlie, but we had an extra guest room that we hadn't used for years. My brothers are pigs and since their side of the room is so messy, and I'm OCD, I'm constantly picking up after them. I was looking forward to having my own place.

After school on the day before Winter Break, we got our report cards in the mail. I left Luke's and Charlie's in the mailbox and hurriedly ripped mine open. I skimmed it quickly and breathed a sigh of relief.

English B+

Math A

Science B

Social Studies A-

Physical Education A

Art A+

I had gotten all B's and A's, no C's. I had also been getting along pretty well with Luke and Charlie, and I did all my chores for the last few months. I personally felt that I deserved that room.

When Mom and Dad came home that night, I showed them my report card.

"Wow, you did very well, honey," Mom complimented, running a hand through her blonde hair to untangle it. Her stormy gray eyes sparkled with happiness.

Dad peered over her over shoulder and smiled, showing perfect white teeth. His rather messy black hair needed to be cut, in my opinion, and his sea green eyes were bright and playful-looking. People often tell me I look a lot like him, and that's true. I have straight black hair, and green eyes. I'd rather be a blonde, like Mom. Gwen is blonde and she looks way better with green eyes than I ever would.

"Yes, very good," he agreed. "And I've noticed that you've been getting along better with your brothers and finished all your chores lately." His smile widened. "I think someone is going to get their own room."

"Yes!" I squealed excitedly, dropping the report card. I jumped up and down and gave Dad a big hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!"

After dinner, I got to work moving all my stuff into the guest room. There was already a bed, but I liked mine better, so Dad and Luke helped me switch them. What the boys were going to do with the other bed, I had no idea.

The new room pretty big and the walls were painted light blue. Besides the bed, there was a closet and a private bathroom with a sink, tub, toilet, and cabinet. I moved my bed around for a while before I finally found a good spot for it. One wall, I dedicated completely to pictures and posters. Some of photos showed Reyna, Gwen, and I, a few with Sammy, and lots of family pics. I hung up a large mirror, too, even though there was already one in the bathroom

It was past midnight by the time I finally finished moving stuff into and organizing my new room. I took a quick shower (in my new bathroom) and flopped onto the bed. I was bone tired, but luckily, tomorrow was Saturday, so I could sleep in.

The next morning, I woke up at around ten. Mom and Dad had already left for work, and my brothers were still sleeping, so I dragged myself down the stairs and over to the kitchen. I went into the freezer and toasted a couple of blueberry Eggo waffles. When they were a nice golden brown, I took them out and smeared butter on them, put some whipped cream, poured maple syrup, and topped it with fruit. Then I took my masterpiece breakfast into the living room to enjoy.

Our living room was pretty nice. It was big, with a recliner, a low coffee table, a couch, and a love seat. A large carpet with a maze pattern occupied most of the floor space. There was our new 52" flat screen TV on one of the pale green walls. A few nature paintings done by Mom hung on the walls to brighten up the place, but they made me feel sad, as a reminder of things I had missed.

As I munched Eggos, I turned on the TV. There was nothing good on. I flipped through several idiotic cartoons, boring news channels, and old comedies before finally shutting it off.

I finished my breakfast and went into the kitchen just in time to see Luke stumble down the stairs.

He's seventeen, two years older than me, with messy blonde hair and gray eyes, like Mom. Reyna likes him and thinks he's soooo dreamy, but I have no idea what she sees in him. Besides, he's two years older than her, too, and I think she should find someone else.

As a brother, he's not too bad and pretty cool. He's thoughtful and considerate, and he really, really likes Emily. This is another reason why I advised Reyna to back off. She doesn't know about Emily and I'd rather keep it that way.

I glanced at the clock. It was almost noon.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," I said, putting my plate in the dishwasher.

"You're the one who's the sleepyhead," he retorted. "I woke up at seven this morning."

It didn't look that way. I took in his messy hair, tired eyes, and pajamas. It seemed like he'd just gotten out of bed.

He must've seen my skeptical look because he sat down and took some time to explain. "What I meant is that I got up at eight, did something, then went back to sleep."

"And what was that 'something' that you did?" I asked curiously.

"None of your business," he said coldly, turning away. Suddenly, I noticed his puffy red eyes. How could I have missed that earlier? Then he sniffed a little.

I was amazed. My brother, the big, tough guy that everyone in our family admired, had been crying.

I sat down next to him. "Okay, spill. What's wrong?"

"Well," he began carefully, "I asked Emily out."

Major alarm bells went off in my brain.

"So . . . ?"

"So she rejected me," he said glumly.

"In favor of . . . ?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to know, and I don't care!" he said harshly.

"It's okay, Luke," I said, in an attempt to comfort him. "There are plenty of other nice, sweet, pretty girls out there."

"I don't want just any nice, sweet, pretty girl," he grumbled. "I want Emily."

"Well, we always want what we can't have," I said, shrugging.

"Yeah?" he snapped. "Like you want Trevor and can't have him?"

I looked at him in surprise. The only people I'd told were Reyna and Gwen. How had my brother found out?

"Yes, I know about that," he continued. "And from what I hear, your love life isn't going so well either. When's the last time you've talked to him? Two, three months ago?"

My face burned.

"This is not about me," I shot back. "This is about you and your pathetic love life."

"My love life is not pathetic, missy. And it's getting a hell of a lot further than yours is."

I could not believe my brother was acting this way. He'd never been like this before. I stood up angrily.

"Really?" I said mockingly. "Getting rejected by a girl is having a good love life?"

"No, but at least I had the courage to try. You've been staring at Trevor for what, ten years now, you're still not doing anything."

"Because I don't want to get turned down by the guy of my dreams, like you did."

"So you're too scared to try, then, huh?"

"You know what, Luke? I don't want to deal with all of your love life crap. It's not my fault you got denied by Emily."

Just then, Charlie came in. He was eleven, four years younger than me and dressed in a red T-shirt and jeans. His black hair was combed neatly, as usual, and his gray eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"What's going on?" he said, looking first at me, then at Luke. I was standing up, staring daggers at Luke. Luke's fists were clenched and his eyes were still red and puffy.

"Luke got dumped," I said casually.

"I did not get dumped, idiot!" Luke shouted, standing up so he could be eye level with me.

"Dumped, rejected, what's the difference?" I shrugged. "Besides, dumped is probably better, because at least you got a sliver of a chance with the girl, and not none at all, like you."

"Why you little—!"

"Stop, guys," Charlie interrupted, holding up his hands.

"He right. I'm leaving. It isn't worth the trouble talking to you." I sneered at Luke when Charlie wasn't looking and he shot me a look of hatred in return.

I walked upstairs and texted Sammy.

Me: u busy?

Sammy replied almost immediately.

Sammy: no, why?
Me: got in a big fight with Luke. Can I come over?
Sammy: sure
Me: b there in ten minutes
Sammy: ok
Me: one last thing
Sammy: what?
Me: is Trevor at home now?
Sammy: yes. Why?
Me: no reason. See u

Since Sammy had said that Trevor was going to be there, I decided that I wanted to look good. I wanted a cool and fashionable look, but not a look that gave away the fact that I wanted to look cool and fashionable. I dug through my closet and finally decided on short white jeans, a faded loose tie-dyed shirt, and a casual pair of black sandals.

Then I went downstairs. Luke was in the dining room, eating breakfast. His back was faced towards me and I was tempted to startle him a sharp remark about how he couldn't a girlfriend. Charlie was nowhere to be seen. He was probably off playing with his friends.

I exited the house and slammed the door on the way out. Then I went into the garage to get my bike. It was a couple years old, but because I washed it frequently, it still looked fairly new. It was blue and white and I rode it at least once a week.

I wheeled it out of the garage, put on my helmet (also blue and white), and hopped on. Then I headed over to Sammy's house.

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Please review!