Chapter 1: Beginnings
Tessa POV
I walked down the halls of her new high school. My eyes were glued to the map they had given all of the freshmen in an effort to find my way around the massive labyrinth of school. I was new here, to this area. I had lived a number of states over in Kansas before my mom and I had moved to New York. So, this display of being utterly clueless as to where I was kind of acted as a reflection of my entire life lately.
"Ah, here it is, Biology Honors, room 1660." I looked from the map, to my schedule, to the room number on the side of the old, wooden door. Satisfied that I knew how to get through my new schedule, I turned around, still staring at the map to find my way to first period Spanish II Honors.
I found myself stumbling back a few seconds later after colliding with another person. Looking up, I found a boy staring back at me. He was probably about my age, maybe a little older judging by the wisp of beard on his chin. He had curly hair and a cap on.
"Sorry! Sorry, let me help you." His eyes were wide and forest green as he fumbled around picking up my scattered papers and handing them to me.
"No, it's okay, really, I'm fine. Thanks for your help." Once I had the mountain of materials resting precariously in my arms, I looked at him again. He smiled sheepishly at me. I smiled back at him.
"I'm Quinton, by the way, but you can call me Quin."
"Teresa, but call me Tessa. I would shake your hand, but…" I gestured to the mound in my arms. Quin laughed.
"No problem, Tess. Can I walk you to your class?" I nodded yes and led the way to Spanish, quite liking my new nickname.
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Time skip: Three months later
Worst day ever. Six different assessment, placement, or surprise tests and I was just getting to lunch. Huffing and cursing my teachers under my breath I plopped down at my table. Quin nudged me with his elbow.
"You good Tess?" he asked. Clary, my best friend aside from Quin, leaned forward across the table waiting for my answer.
"I'm fine, just…I don't know, frustrated." Quin and Clary nodded understandingly. I was dyslexic and had ADHD, so having Spanish and English in consecutive order gave me a headache in general. It was even worse on test days.
"School is evil," I whimpered, sinking down into my crossed arms resting on the table.
"You'll get through it, you always do. You're a genius, remember?" reassured Marcus from my right side. Marcus kept telling me that I was smarter than everyone else in the room put together because of my test scores. Really, I was just extremely good at guessing, some answers just made more sense than others did. I didn't have the heart to tell him this though, seeing as he had such a difficult time in school. He had the heaviest case of ADHD I had ever seen or heard about, mine was challenging, but his made it utterly impossible to focus on anything. He tried though, for his friends and family, he tried.
"Thanks Marcus," I mumbled, still not lifting my face from my arms. Quin chuckled at my antics. Despite the darkness against my eyes from my heavy sweater, I could feel when he reached over me to get to my lunch. I jerked my arm out and caught his wrist in seconds.
"You know better than to try to steal my food." I glared at him playfully. It was true though, everyone knew that books, music, and food were the most important materialistic things in my life.
"Sorry, Tess," he winked at me, not looking sorry at all. In fact, it looked like he had just gotten away with something. I narrowed my eyes at him, not believing for a second that he had just given up on pulling something off. My eyes widened as I realized I caught sight of three other hands reaching for my blue Sour Patch Kids. I whirled and snatched them off the table before my three friends could reach them. I moved fast out of desperation to preserve my favorite candy for myself.
"Mine," I said pretending to be menacing and angry. Clary laughed.
"Sharing is caring," Marcus pointed out. I laughed.
` "Don't care; don't share," I countered.
"Quick, Angel," said Quin using Clary's nickname, "do Bambi eyes."
"No, Clary, don't you dare use Bambi eyes on me," I demanded. It was no use, Clary turned her pleading green eyes on me and I crumbled.
"Stupid peer pressure," I grumbled handing out pieces to my friends.
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Time skip: After school
I walked home with Quin, since my house was on the way to his apartment, and went upstairs to see my mom. My mom, Diana Gray, is amazing, just so you know. She has dirty blonde hair, whereas mine was very dark brown, almost black, and gray eyes, where mine are grayish-green, depending on my mood. She was so sweet and caring, despite being practically disowned by her family and losing her husband, with me as a daughter.
I ran upstairs to find her, but found the entire house empty. Frowning, I checked again, looking everywhere and yelling out for her. I was getting unsettled, now. Taking out my phone, I dialed her number and held it to my ear waiting for her to pick up and tell me she was out shopping and forgot to leave a note.
I was only half surprised when I got her voicemail. I had a bad feeling about this; my gut was telling me something was wrong. So, in times of need, I turned to the same person. I dialed his number and held up my phone again.
"The fabulous Quin Coleman is speaking, how may I help you?"
"Quin."
"Ah, Tess, how are you?"
"Quin, listen, my mom's missing, I can't find her, but—" I cut myself off as I found something crumpled on the ground.
"Tessa? Tessa, what is it, what's happening?" I knew Quin was serious because, since I had met him, he never said Tessa, only Tess.
"It-It's a note, from my mom," I stuttered out as I smoothed it out.
"Okay, Tess, breathe for me, what does it say?"
Tessa,
Call Quin and tell him that it found us, they found us. Run to camp, I'll be fine, your father prepared for this, I'll see you in a few months. Go to camp, train, and prepare.
I relayed the information back to Quin over the phone in a shaking voice.
"Tess, stay where you are and don't move, I'm coming over. Stay there."
"Quin, hurry," I pleaded.
"Of course."
Less than five minutes later, Quin threw open the door, not bothering to knock, and rushed inside awkwardly to find me slumped against the back of the couch note and phone still in hand.
Despite his leg muscle deficiency, which gave him an awkward gait, he was deceptively strong. I felt him pull me up, supporting most of my weight with his arm slung around my waist, before I blacked out.
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Time skip
I woke up being jostled around by the uneven rhythm of Quin's car tearing down unfamiliar streets. I groaned, still not completely aware of everything that was going on around me.
"Quin, what's happening?" I asked frantically. I didn't know where we were and I didn't like that.
"Calm down, Tess, we're going to a safe place."
"What? Where? What's going to happen to my mom?" He glanced at me briefly, before returning his attention to the road.
"Geez, Tess, one question at a time."
"What's going to happen to my mom?"
"She's going to be fine, she's safe."
"Where is she?" I pried.
"Somewhere safe, she'll come back, but, until then, you're going to camp," he said finally. His explanation didn't really answer my questions, but he had that look on his face that was a sure sign he wasn't going to budge. I huffed and sat up straight in the passenger side seat. We were driving alongside a forest, nowhere I've ever seen, and it was getting dark out.
Soon, the storm that had been predicted this morning rolled in. Lightning was forking across the sky, thunder crashing, and rain pouring down on our car, blurring the windshield.
Suddenly, Quin jerked the wheel and pulled the car off the road. After parking it in the dirt, he opened his door with a creak and stepped out. Puzzled, I stared at him until he stuck his head through his open window and beckoned to me. Hastily, I fumbled with the seatbelt before managing to unbuckle it and climb out.
Quin turned to me, a goofy grin on his face despite the storm and gestured to the dark line of trees behind him, spreading his arms wide.
"Welcome to camp." I frowned in confusion.
"What camp?"
"Camp Half-Blood, of course," he amended as if I should have known that.
"Of course," I retorted sarcastically. I was cold, soaked to the bone, terrified, and Quin was break dancing on my last nerve.
"Quin, I am giving you five seconds to explain before I take your car, drive home, and leave you here." Quin's grin faded as his eyes locked onto something behind me.
"That five seconds deadline might have to be extended a smidge," he said, pointing to something over my shoulder. Frowning once more, I turned to see these…things coming closer. In the heavy rain I could only make out the blurry line of their figures. I saw something glinting in the weak light even as the sun sank. As they loped closer with uneven steps I could make out details that were utterly…wrong. I was hallucinating, obviously, that was the only explanation.
The creatures were paler than milk red ruby red eyes and dagger-like fangs. They sprinted towards us at unlikely speeds on their…legs? Their left legs were dark brown and shaggy, like a donkey's leg, complete with clip-clopping hooves. The right legs were metal, though shaped like a human leg, was that gold? No, bronze, they look bronze.
Suddenly, something in my brain clicked and their name sprang to my lips, but it was Quin who said it aloud.
"Empousai," he hissed, "well, crap." He turned to me again, looking agitated, almost afraid.
"Tess, no time to explain, run to that pine tree, up on the hill there, see it? Run to it. Right now, Tess, right now." I had never seen Quin so serious, but, I knew that I wouldn't, and couldn't, leave my best friend out here with three empousai.
"Sorry, Quin, not negotiable, I'm not leaving you." Quin turned to me to argue, but the monsters reached us. With reflexes I didn't know I had, I whirled on my toes and slammed my heel into the side of the closest empousai sending it spinning back to the ground. Twisting to face the others, I noticed that Quin was kicking out on them with more strength than was available with his leg condition.
Deciding I had more pressing matters, I faced the other empousai.
"Half-blood," she snarled at me like it was the worst insult she could muster. "You lot are all revolting monsters," she hissed.
I stared at her.
"Really? Have you looked in the mirror lately?" She roared at me, baring her fangs and lunged for me. I ducked and stuck my leg out, tripping her so she fell to the ground. I drew back a hand to punch her, but I didn't want my hand anywhere near her mouth.
She lifted her hands to scratch me, so I jerked back and spun again, this time slamming my elbow into her throat. She fell back to the soggy grass again. My body screamed at me to sink down to the ground myself and move as little as possible, but something at the edge of my vision spurred me into a sprint.
Quin was a few yards away from me, cornered by the other two empousai, and he was losing. I watched as one caught him on the back of the head with their fist and he swayed on his feet.
"No!" the hoarse shout was torn from my throat and I flung myself in front of him as if to bodily protect him from the monsters. I was exhausted, but I stood my ground.
"Help!" I shrieked, I was losing energy quickly and I knew I couldn't fend off these monsters that weren't even supposed to be real. For a moment, I wondered if I was hallucinating. That changed when a fang dragged down my arm, splitting the skin. I hissed in pain and my vision turned blurry around the edges.
I began to collapse as I saw five other figures clad in bronze armor come running down the hill towards us. Three engaged with the monsters and forced them to retreat away from us. Two others approached Quin and hefted all six foot of him up, an arm around each of the strangers, and led him away from the battle.
One figure had swiped their sword through an empousa's midsection with skill after dodging a flurry of slashes. She vaporized into dust with a screech and the person turned to me. I felt weak; I could feel my blood draining out onto the grass from my arm. I felt myself being lifted up by two strong on arms.
The last thing I saw before blacking out was a pair of concerned sea-green eyes looking down at me.
Hey, guys, this is a new idea. I am literally in love with the idea of Percy having a younger sister to protect, so I decided to give him one. A lot of the characters I have made up including Tessa are either names from other books, (Marcus, Diana, Tessa, Clary) or names of people I know (Quin). I hope to continue this, but I don't know if it's going to be a story, or a series of unrelated oneshots about Tessa's experiences at camp. This is after the HoO series. I LOVE REVIEWS! (Yes, I am begging)
-Phoenix