I was never expecting my summer vacation to take a wrong turn – hell; I was never even expecting to find myself in a weird situation. Anyway, if you're reading this and you're – well – like me, you really need to find your satyr straight away. You really do not want to get attacked by a monster. Anyway, before I go into any more details, I'll tell you what happened.

I'm Charlene Moore. People call me Charlie just out of respect. I'm a tomboy and I don't like frilly pink things. I'll tell you one thing: I can beat up any boy trying to hurt me in any way. I'm ADHD. My dad is an author – you know those authors who write fantasy and stuff. I'm seventeen and I've never kissed a guy. Maybe it's my intimidating height. I'm pretty tall and have auburn hair which is cut in a pixie bob. I'm never one for keeping my hair too long. I mean, what's the point? You'll just have to tie the Goddamn thing up. Anyway, let me get to the story. It was a warm summer day. A sea-breeze was blowing through the windows of our four-storey beach house in the Hamptons. We were having breakfast in our large dining room. It wasn't always that we could actually go on a vacation properly.

See, my dad not only worked as an author but he was also a CEO of a publishing house. So there are always the privileges of having a summer house in the Hamptons and a brownstone mansion in New York. Dad was talking on the phone with some guy who wanted to publish a book. I played with my food and waited for Dad to finish talking. You might be wondering where my mom was. Well…I really don't know. I mean all I knew that she was a very beautiful and a very powerful woman who was a geek at heart. She had fallen for my dad when he was gathering information about the Greek Goddess of Magic, Hecate, for his next book. I guess after some time, I was born and my mom had left me with Dad.

When Dad and I talked about Mom, his eyes would have that twinkle and he would smile in a dreamy way. He told me that my mom had amber eyes – my eye color. He told me he was a magical woman. I honestly really wanted to meet my mom. I looked out at the sea from the windows and felt myself grow calmer. Whenever I thought about Mom, there was this sudden need to know who she was. This would make me feel energetic. Sometimes, I had this feeling that I could do almost anything if I put my mind to it. When I told this to my dad once, he'd told me that it was one of my mom's traits. "Once she puts her mind to something, she's determined to do something about it – even if it means something really impossible." My dad told me.

"Miss Moore, you haven't eaten your breakfast," The butler asked, looking tense. "Is it bad? Don't you like it?"

"I do like it…I'm just waiting for Dad to finish his call." I told him, smiling.

"Yes, yes…I'll have Marie to take a look at it. I'll give you call after that." Dad said, hanging up. He looked stressed. "Dad, why do you take calls during our vacation?" I asked, trying not to make my voice sound accusatory.

"Charlie, honey, they need me at the office with all the stuff going on and all those manuscripts being piled up." Dad replied.

"Anyway, I want to go to the beach after breakfast. So if you need me…well, I'll be where you need me." I said. Dad nodded. There was no point in arguing with your hyperactive child. Finishing my breakfast, I got up and headed upstairs to my room – sorry – floor. I had the whole second storey to myself. Its walls were colored a soft blue – like the sky. The carpet was plush lavender. There were two big windows on the left wall facing the sea and the beach. A chaise lounge stood next to one of the windows. The windows had light green curtains. My bed was a four poster one. It had sea-green covers and blue pillow cases. Off to the right was my bathroom and walk-in closet filled with beach clothes, shoes, accessories and makeup – which I don't use. There was an LED TV stuck on the wall facing the bed. There was a shelf full of movies under it.

I got inside the walk-in closet and decided what to wear. Being a tomboy, I like checkered shirts and white tank-tops. I don't wear much of the pink stuff. I avoid pink but I wear other colors. Dad's assistant had taken me for a shopping spree after this house was furnished and ready for use. She and I had an argument over whether I should wear pink clothes or not. Finally, when I'd told her that I'd be calling Dad, she huffed and finally bought the clothes I liked.

I picked out a white swimsuit, blue denim short-shorts and a blue-and-white checkered shirt. After dressing up with those, I put on a pair of flip-flops. I walked over to the door of my room. I stopped for a minute. Just for that time, I felt as if something was watching me. I looked behind me and saw that my room was empty. Stupid me, who else would be in this room other than me? I shook my head and headed out of my house.

Outside, it was pleasant. The sea breeze was cool and soothing. I noticed that there were other people on the beach as well. Some of them were playing volleyball. A couple was strolling together, holding hands. It was a normal morning in East Hampton. I walked towards the water and kept my eyes in the endless horizon of the ocean. Something about the sky today reminded me of the mother I never knew. Thinking of that made me feel sad.

Shaking out of the thoughts of my nonexistent mother, I kicked off my sandals and walked towards the water. It was cold and soothing at the same time. I waded around till the water was up to my knees. It was like I was one with the sea. Again, I had the feeling of being watched. I turned around and saw that there was a small puppy standing near my flip-flops. It yipped at them like they were alive.

My heart melted at the sight of it. If there was one thing I had a soft spot for, it had to be puppies and kittens. When I reached the place where the puppy was, I realized that it was a small Chihuahua. I honestly loved Chihuahuas. "Hey, puppy, are you lost?" I asked, trying to scratch the puppy's head. It started to bark at me really loudly. Hell, even at one point it tried to bite my hand off! "Okay…I get it you don't like me." I said, looking at the animal weirdly. "Where's your owner?" I asked. At that moment, I felt someone tap my shoulder.

I turned around and saw a plump woman. She had frizzy red hair and warm brown eyes. She gave me a smile. I noticed that her teeth gleamed unnaturally. "I see you found my son." She said. "Erm, yeah…He doesn't seem to like me." I told the woman as the dog walked over to the woman. The woman picked up the dog and started to scratch behind its ears. "Ah, yes, he really doesn't like demigods." She said.

I didn't know whether I heard her say the word 'demigod' or not but I was getting a weird feeling. She looked at me with those warm brown eyes. They had a strange twinkle in them. "Is there something you need to ask, sweetie?" She asked in an ever-so-sweet voice. Something about that tone was creepy. "Um…about what you just back there…Did you just say demigods?" I said. At the last part, the dog started to bark really loudly. It tried to jump at me. Panicking, I took a step back. The lady acted like her dog was doing a cute thing – not almost jumping at a teenage girl. "Oh my, you must want to walk." She said, putting the dog on the ground.

The dog started to bark at me and advanced towards me. I took another step back. Was it my imagination or was the dog growing bigger? I certainly wasn't imagining it any more. Its head started to change into a lion's one and its body looked like a farm animal whose name I forgot – a goat I think. It had a long diamondback snake-headed tail. It glared at me with its red eyes.

When I looked back at the lady, I gasped. Instead of the plump woman with the frizzy red hair, there was a – a thing with a human head. Her skin color was scaly green. She had a forked tongue and fangs sticking out of her mouth. She hissed with laughter. "Attack her, sssson." She said. The lion-headed monster opened his mouth and literally blew fire towards me.

I put up my hands, hopelessly trying to shield myself from the fire. Miraculously, I could only feel the heat and the most awesome part was it didn't burn me to ashes like I expected it would. I looked up and realized my hands were still in the same position. A huge sphere of white light seemed to be covering me. No matter how much the monster tried to breathe fire towards me, it hit the spherical shield and simply got absorbed.

When the monster tried to attack it, the shield vanished and I found myself under a 100 pound monster that most probably was going to mangle me to death. I braced myself, preparing for death.

That was when something weird happened. I heard someone yell and the monster looked up. It made a big mistake because the next minute, the creature was dissolved into a pile of ashes. The other creature was hissing with agony. "Noooooo…The Hunters of Artemis! They killed my son!" She wailed. I didn't know what she meant by that but when I looked down at where the weird-looking creature had disintegrated, I saw a lone arrow sticking out of the sand.

"Yes, Echidna, you must leave this half-blood alone." I heard a girl's voice say. I turned around and saw several girls standing behind me. One of them was wearing a silver crown on her head and looked fifteen. She had one of those punk haircuts and wore a shirt that said Greenday beats Justin Bieber. Another girl stood beside her.

She was younger than the punk haircut girl – probably about twelve. She had auburn hair and luminous grey eyes. They reminded me of something – the moon I guess. Behind me, Echidna growled. "I will be back for you, half-blood. And when I will, I will make sure you don't survive." She said, pointing at me. She then vanished into thin air.

"What…" I trailed off. This was the first thing I'd said, ever since I encountered the monster lady named Echidna and her seriously weird-looking lion-headed son. "You must have a lot of questions." The girl with the luminous grey eyes stated. I nodded in answer. "Thalia set up camp. Phoebe, can you order the wolves and the hawks to come here? We might need to send this one to Chiron's place…that is, if she agrees to join us." The little girl commanded the others.

The girl with the silver tiara around her punk haircut nodded and helped the other girls set up tents. The girl named Phoebe whistled and a flock of hawks and a pack of wolves showed up out of nowhere. I watched all this, feeling seriously confused.

"Come, child. We must talk." The little girl told me. It was a little awkward being called 'child' by someone younger than me but nevertheless, I followed her because I had a lot of questions. I'd noticed that it didn't even take that much time for the girls to set up camp and as we entered one of the fancier tents, I wondered who these girls were.

When I entered the tent, I gasped. It had pelts of different kinds of animals and weird-looking monsters I never saw before. There was a live silver deer sitting near one of the bigger silver chairs. The little girl sat on the chair and the silver deer put its head on her lap. She stroked her head.

"Sit, child." She said, gesturing towards the empty chair facing her. I immediately sat on the chair, not wanting to cross her. "Um…who are you?" I asked. "Who am I? Hmm…I'm Lady Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt and of the Moon." She replied, smiling at me. "Y-Y-You're a goddess? But you look too…too young!" I said. "Ah, yes…I can take different forms, you see. This is just what I prefer." She told me. "Are you hungry?" She asked me.

I shrugged in response. I had to admit making that weird spherical shield made me feel a little tired. "Let me ask Thalia to get you something, then." She said. She called the punk haircut girl Thalia and told her to get something for me. The girl nodded and came to us in minutes, holding a tray full of sandwiches, burgers, tacos and two glasses of lemonade. "Stay back, Thalia." Lady Artemis told her. Thalia nodded and stood beside me.

"Eat something, girl." Thalia told me. I took a taco and bit into it. "Now, child, tell me your name." Artemis said. "My name's Charlene Moor. I go by Charlie." I said. "Wait…isn't your dad Paul Moor – the author?" Thalia asked. I nodded. "I like your shirt." I said timidly.

For the first time, Thalia smiled. "Thank you. Let me guess, a Greenday fan, as well?" She asked. I nodded. All the time during our conversation, I could guess Artemis was smiling. "Now, dear, you must have some questions." She said. "Okay…first thing, she said I was a 'demigod' and later a 'half-blood'. What do they mean?" I asked.

"That means you're a child of a Greek or Roman god. Judging by the fact that we found you now, you're a Greek goddess' daughter. My father's Zeus, the god of the sky." Thalia said. "So…you're telling me that my mom was a Greek goddess?" I said, incredulously. I really didn't want to believe the crap they were telling me but after what I saw today, anything's possible.

Artemis nodded. "There's a safe place for people like you...But there are other options as well." She told me, her luminous grey eyes twinkling. "First…I want to know about the safe place." I said. "Well…it's called Camp Half-Blood and it is run by the centaur Chiron. It's basically the – almost – safest place for demigods like you." Thalia explained. "So…if I go there…will I get to know who my mom is?" I asked. Thalia nodded. "Or you could join us…You could be immortal…until you fall in a battle, that is. You could hunt monsters. The only slight thing is that you would have to swear off of monsters." Artemis told me.

The offer sounded tempting – being immortal and all that stuff – but something was nagging me. I wondered if I should voice it or not. I chose to voice it. "So…even if I join you guys…Will I get to know who my mom is?" I asked.

At this, Thalia hesitated. "Well…I can't guarantee you that your mom would send a sign if you join us…" She replied, trailing off.

I realized I saw a flaw in this whole I-can-be-immortal-if-I-swear-off-of-boys thing. I would never get to know which goddess is my mom. So I decided to make the decision. "I think I want to go Camp Half-Blood." I said.