DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON! I DON'T EVEN LIVE IN NEW YORK! WARNING EVENTS ARE SWITCHED! OOC AND OC! THALIA MAJOR OOC! J.K. ROWLING ONWS THE TITLE!

Happy birthday whatch-ama-call-it!

The morning of May 20, 2008, James Reid woke up on his birthday to the busseling sound of New York City

*Yawn* 'Yay it's my birthday!' He thought without smiling.

When he could feel his body, he got out of bed and went to the bathroom (not to use it). He got to the mirror he tried opening his eyes, but they were sealed shut. So he turned on the water, ran his hands under it, and rubbed his hands over his eyes. The water felt good and got the gears in his mind to starts turning for the day. So when he opened his eyes he still couldn't see "Oops, the lights are off." He said in a grumbly voice.

When he turned it on, he still couldn't see because the light was too bright. "Ahhhh!" He screamed as he put his hands back over his eyes, protecting them from the light.

When his eyes adjusted, he looked at the mirror. He hardly recognized himself at first. 'Who tha…oh that's me.' He thought.

With his glassy blue eyes he looked at his jet black hair. "Is there a bird in there?" James asked himself, running his fingers through it.

'Where's my comb?' He started going through the drawers, and found an electric blue comb.

SWITCH VIEW

I lived between W 28th street and W 29th street, so I had a good view of the Empire State Building. When I looked up I saw the huge building in the reflection of the mirror. I wondered what was at the top for a minute.

Then I focused back on myself. After I brushed my hair, I made sure it wasn't a dream that I dyed white stripes in my hair.

But my mom was right, the stripes thinned. Yesterday, as a birthday present, my mom let me dye my hair. This was a little weird because my hair already looked like it had been dyed black. I told people it was natural, but only a few people believed me. I got my hair dyed for two reasons: 1.) So when people, like my principal, say to go bleach my hair back to its natural color I can actually say something besides "This is the natural color!" 2.) I wanted to.

I asked for small white stripes coming from the middle of my head to the end of my hair, now a few strips every here and there. But I didn't mind, it looked a little better.

It was a Tuesday, but me and some of my friends got today off. All of them were sick, except for Ariadne, a girl that moved here from Greece after she lived there for three years. I have to admit, I was jealous. I've always wanted to go to Greece and see…well everything.

So it was just going to be me, my mom, and Ariadne. What could go wrong?

Since I was still in my pajamas, which was a Marvin the Martian shirt and loony toons pants, I decided to go down stairs to get some food.

But when I got in my room, it was worse than usual. We lived in a condo, so the walls were white, but I still could put posters up. The posters I had weren't screamo bands like everyone thought I listened to, they were bands like Thousand Foot Krunch, Flyleaf, KJ-52, Avenged Sevenfold, and bands like that. But they were all over the place, some of them were on the floor, some were hanging by a nail, and some I didn't even see.

"Mom, were you in my room?" I asked. Sometimes she would go in my room looking for who-knows-what. And this time it looked like she was more determined then any other time.

"No. Why do you ask?" She said. I heard someone else downstairs with her. "You should get dressed, and come downstairs."

I didn't know who she was talking to, but I knew one thing, I'm not going down there in my pajamas. And since it was my birthday, I was going to dress nice. Black jeans, black jacket, and black long shirt with a faded brown arrow head across the front. Next I put on my bronze chain necklace that always made me feel better, my bracelet with things that reminded me of every year since I got it, and my "to do list" (blank besides the words "TO DO LIST").

Then, I went back in the bathroom to brush my teeth and straighten my hair. Now that I had everything, I went downstairs, avoiding everything on my floor. In the hall I saw the pictures of my mom and dad. My Mom, Bridget, says dad died a few years ago, but I don't know if I believe her. They looked so happy. Why would she say he's dead?

Avoiding those thoughts I went down stairs.

There was a wall on both sides for some reason, but I stopped when I heard my mom and Ariadne talking.

"What kind of signs has he shown?" My mom asked voice shaky.

Ariadne responded with, "None that I can say, but when I'm around him…" She sounded almost scared. "I don't know, but you have to trust me. Otherwise-"

"I'll give him to you."

'Give him to you?' Like a prize or something? Were they talking about me? "But make sure he's okay."

She giggled, witch was good considering the subject. "Okay. But you still have to dr-"

"I'm hungry." Way to ruin the mood Dylan. Dylan is my little brother and he's like eight or nine. I can't ever remember, hell I probably couldn't remember how old I am now if it wasn't my birthday today.

"…ive" Ariadne finished after a few seconds.

"Okay. We'll get some food on the way." Bridget said, "Do you think Dylan might be one to?"

I didn't feel like waiting anymore, if they had something to say they could say it to my face.

When I turned I saw Ariadne standing. It was weird to see her wearing what she was. A purple dress (A/N: I'm no good at describing dresses, jewelry, and houses sorry) a few necklaces put together, and what looked like every wristband I've ever seen her wear, witch made it look like her dress had very, very, very colorful sleeves. Pink, red, blue, green, yellow, black, white, and orange you name the color she probable had it. And to top it all off, her shoes stood out so much. Bright orange converse that could blind the sun.

Next, my mom was wearing her favorite dress. A beautiful white dress that she only wore on special occasions. She was still wearing her wedding ring. Being married only once, guess who it was. Anyway, she had on white high heels (never got why girls wear them), a few necklaces (separate), and a four leaf clover for good luck. Which, for all I know, it's magic because she's had it since I gave it to her the year Dylan was born, and she's never put it in water. The four leaf clover was put on a chain after four years of being in her pocket.

But apparently, Dylan was going with us because he was wearing pants. He was wearing blue jeans and a black shirt with dragons coming at each other like they were in a fight.

"Wow! Not just pants, but blue jeans too." I said in my normal voice. All of them looked at me, "How much are you paying him? Five? Ten?"

"Twenty dollars, actually." Mom said, not noticing it was a joke, "Where do you want to go first?" My mom pushed her long brown hair out of the way.

"We should go eat first." Ariadne said, playing with her silky blond hair.

"Pizza!" Dylan shouted in excitement. "Pizza, pizza, pizza!"

"Okay." Ariadne agreed.

"Fine with me." Mom said.

"Great, it's settled. Pizza it is." I finished.

After a few more minuets of getting our suitcases, brushing our teeth and hair, we left, locking, turning off, and closing everything.

The ride was quiet. No one talked, no music played, no one even laughed. Just silence.

FF 4:01p.m.

"Today's been fun. Thanks." I said as we were walking out of Starbucks. We sucked our drinks down as fast as we could, getting brain freezes along the way.

"No problem" Ariadne said cheerfully, "Ms. K?"

"Yes?" Bridget responded.

"We should go." She said. That's the thing that's been bugging me all day; I don't know what they were talking about this morning.

Mom sighed, "I suppose so." She looked sad. Do they have to kill me or something? "Come on, last stop. Everyone to the car."

After half an hour later, we found the shiny white Camaro. I loved it. It was comfortable, always smelt good, and it was just way awesome. "Okay, everyone in." The last drive was much like the first, mostly quite, but this time Ariadne was reading fanfiction and was laughing every now and then.

I didn't know where I was, but I liked it. It was cloudy, foggy, and cold, just how I like it. We pulled up next to a strawberry field, which smelt really good.

"Everyone to the hill." Mom finally said.

There were a bunch of hills, but I got my stuff, and followed everyone else. We didn't go up any of the hills I thought we would, instead we went up the hill that was opposite of the fields. I loved the feeling I had; it was like I had three energy drinks , but I don't get hyper when I have energy drinks. When we got up the hill we were surrounded by trees.

"I love being here!" Ariadne said while she hugged a tree.

"Tree-hugger." I said, we both laughed.

"I got you a present" Mom said, and pulled out a small box.

"What is it?" I asked. I grabbed it and waited for her to say something.

"Open it." She said with a big smile.

I did. And I loved what came out. A camcorder, the kind that has a strap on one side and a screen that moves on the other.

My mouth dropped. "Holy crap!" I wasn't expecting that. "How much was it?"

"Price doesn't matter." She said calmly.

Then I straightened, and asked, "Why? What's going on?"

She put her hands on my shoulders, and I looked up at her, "James… did you hear us this morning?"

I don't know why ,but I said "No…okay, some. Why? I didn't understand any of it."

She put her hand over my mouth to make me be quite. And then I guess it all came out, "Jamesyourademigod!" I felt my eyes get really big.

"I'm…I'm…wh…huh?" I couldn't get complete words out.

"It's okay, but can you get out a 'goodbye' I have to go."

"Good…" I had to force the word out, "Bye." And with that, she was gone.

I felt broken. For the first time in years I felt alone, yet Ariadne was next to me. And for some reason I didn't want those moments to end. It was sad, really, thinking that I might never see her again.

"Come on. Chiron will be wanting to see you." I felt scared. What was going to happen next?

Wow! Now was that a long chapter or what? How was that for a first chapter? Don't worry most of the others will be shorter. If I get enough reviews I will force my editor to well edit the other chapters. P.S. I've had this chapter since February 16th, 2011.