First, this story is set at the beginning of September, so it's almost two months before Percy disappears.

I don't own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus. That honor belongs to Rick Riordan.

Reviews are greatly appreciated!

Enjoy!

I

Peyton

My day was going perfectly fine—normal, even—that is, until the giant, fire-breathing snake came and blew up the science lab.

Up until my last class of the day, biology, everything had been completely fine. Now, it was only my second week as a freshman at Goode High School in the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York, but I had changed schools a lot, so I had already worked out a daily routine. Despite being ADHD and dyslexic, I enjoyed school. Even if I often got kicked out of them. This year, I was determined to make it all the way through the school-year without getting expelled.

I should've known my luck wouldn't hold.

My two best friends Hal Evans and Aaron Fax, who had known me since childhood, caught up with me right outside the door. We walked in together just as the bell rang. The class was a mix of freshman and sophomores. I found my seat in the back next to one of said sophomores. He had tousled black hair and brilliant green eyes. I couldn't remember his name.

"Peyton Gates?" the teacher called my name after Hal and Aaron.

"Here," I called loudly.

A few names later, the teacher called out another name. "Percy Jackson?"

The sophomore next to me called out, indicating his presence. Percy Jackson. I would have to remember that name.

The teacher's assistant started setting up several chemicals on a work table along the wall by the windows to my left. As the teacher—who reminded us all that her name was Ms. Carp—started passing out worksheets and droning on about our first lab of the year and all about safety and what not, I completely zoned out. I wasn't the only one. Hal and Aaron sat at the table in front of me, flicking a paper football back and forth. At one point, the football landed on Aaron's head, right in his tousled mop of brown hair.

Percy was the only one who didn't look bored.

In fact, he looked agitated. He kept glancing warily at each kid in turn, at Ms. Carp, and out the windows. He was gripping a plain ball-point in his hand, his knuckles white. I looked at his pen closer. On the side there was writing. Anaklusmos. It wasn't English, but I immediately knew what it meant.

"Riptide," I murmured.

Percy's head swiveled in my direction. He had turned white as a sheet. "What?" he whispered urgently.

"That's what your pen says. Riptide. Right?" I told him. I didn't understand why he looked so freaked.

"Uh, yeah." Percy muttered, his eyes narrowed slightly and he gave me a suspicious look.

I was about to ask him if he felt sick or anything, because he looked more frantic than ever, but then I heard the noise that made the hairs on the back of my neck stick straight up.

The noise came from outside the windows, a deep growl that quickly turned into a roar. Percy immediately shifted in his seat, and turned towards the windows, brandishing his pen like a weapon. Nobody else seemed to take notice of the commotion outside. I tapped Aaron's shoulder in front of me.

"Aaron, Hal, did you guys hear that?" I asked them in a whisper.

"Hear wha-?" Aaron cut off, the worksheet in his hand fluttering to the floor, as another roar ripped through the chatter of students working on the lab. This one, much louder than before. Hal seemed to have heard it too.

Then the windows exploded.

Thirty terrified students may not have noticed the earlier growls and roars, but they definitely noticed when the entire left side of the room burst in a mixture of brick and glass. Chemicals spilled and test tubes fell to the tile floor and shattered. Screams erupted from everyone, and students quickly took cover under the tables. Ms. Carp and her assistant had disappeared behind her desk.

I looked next to me for Percy, but he was gone.

I looked back towards the windows, or rather where the windows had been. From outside, something came slithering into the science lab. I froze as I recognized it as a huge, 30-foot serpent, with blazing orange eyes, and inky gray and green scales.

I didn't think anything could shock me any further…until I saw Percy with a bronze sword, standing in front of the beast. The other students didn't seem to notice Percy's weapon, or the beast. It roared. Smoke curled up from the corners of its mouth. Before I could issue a warning to Percy, the snake blew a white-hot column at fire straight at Percy. Percy rolled to the side. The fire blasted apart a table instead, charring it to a blackened heap, and terrifying the few students that had been hiding under it.

"Peyton, get down!" I heard Hal hiss off to my right. I was still frozen. I felt Aaron's hand wrap around my wrist, and he yanked me under the table with him and Hal.

"What is that thing?" Hal demanded.

Aaron and I didn't answer. We didn't have one. I watched, terrified, as Percy lunged at the beast as its head was turned to a petrified student. Percy stabbed his bronze sword straight into the serpent's left eye. It howled and roared in pain, swinging its massive head from side to side. It turned its gaze on Percy, who didn't flinch at all. In fact, Percy didn't seem scared one bit.

"Where did Percy get a sword?" I heard Aaron whisper.

I stared at him. "You can see the sword?"

"Yeah, I can see it. It's right there!" Aaron replied, dumbfounded, as if I'd just asked him the most obvious question.

"Hal, can you see it?" I asked timidly, tucking a strand of dark brown—almost black-hair behind my ear, the way I did when I was in an awkward situation. Seeing a classmate take on a huge snake with a sword was definitely an awkward situation.

"Heck yeah, I can see it. That is so cool." Hal whispered the last part, partially awe-struck. I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Hal to think that a serpent eating science equipment was cool.

I looked back towards Percy just in time to see him stab the serpent's other eye. The serpent roared and went into flamethrower-mode. Tables went up in an inferno. I crept to the wall behind me and grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall and blasted it towards any blazes, being careful of the serpent. I looked over at Hal and Aaron to see that they were hurrying students to the open door and ushering them out into the hallway.

Those were my boys. Completely immature and flicking paper footballs one minute to rescuing ADHD kid another minute. It made me think about when I first met the two of them.

At the time, I had been seven, almost eight. My mother had been working at one of the butcher shops down by the Meatpacking District near High Line Park. It was a Saturday, one of her busy days. Her latest boyfriend, Robert, was at home with me. My mom was constantly trying to find 'the one' ever since my dad left before I was born. Well, every time my mom thought she had finally found her soul mate, he turned out to be a first-class jerk. The problem with Robert was his temper. He would always yell and get furious at the littlest things.

The day I met Hal and Aaron, I guess what I did wasn't so little, but I had been seven. Seven year olds do stupid stuff all the time. Especially ADHD seven year olds. This time, I had accidentally flooded the bathroom. I had been filling up the bathtub. I had just been trying to give my toy pony a bath.

When Robert discovered what I had done, he yelled at me. Yelled at me louder and harsher than he ever had before. I cried and ran outside to the little yard behind the apartment building. A lot of kids played back there. There wasn't much. Just a large sandbox and a single swing. But it was enough. Today, though, there were only two boys out there.

Now Hal and Aaron weren't brothers, but they may as well have been. They were very close. I found out later that they lived right next to each other.

When I ran outside, crying, clutching my toy pony—rightfully named Mr. Pony—to my chest like it was my life-line, well they both noticed something was wrong. They had been eight at the time, Aaron only a month older, while Hal was six months older than me. They had comforted me, played with me till the sun started to set. My mom came home, saw how happy I was, and immediately became acquainted with Mrs. Evans and Mr. Fax.

As it turned out, my day hadn't been completely spoiled. My mom dumped Robert and I met my two best friends.

I flashed back to the present when I felt a hand grab my arm. Aaron was giving me a concerned look, but I just shook my head at him and told him I was fine.

Aaron had changed from his eight year old self. His hair was still just as tousled as it had ben, but he had grown up. His brown eyes were serious, but intelligent. He was at least six feet, a good five inches taller than me. All that height was evened out by corded muscles covering his entire body. And though he didn't joke as often as Hal, he was easy going and smiled often.

Hal on the other hand, hadn't changed much. He still played pranks a lot and was constantly goofing off. He had blonde hair, that went just below his ears and blue eyes that were constantly moving from one spot to another. He wasn't nearly as tall as Aaron, but still had a few inches on my 5'7 height.

I saw Hal, getting the rest of the kids out of the room. I took a look around. There were still some tables on fire. There was a thin layer of smoke in the air. And, oh yeah, almost the entire left wall was missing. I saw Percy, standing in a puddle of chemicals, kicking around what looked like a pile of sawdust. Percy looked up at me with his green eyes. He lifted his sword, touched a pen cap to the tip, and I watched in disbelief as the sword shrunk into the same ball point pen I had seen him fiddling with earlier.

"Come on," Percy said to Hal, Aaron, and I.

We followed him out of the room and into the hallway with a bunch of shocked ninth and tenth graders. I could hear the wail of a fire truck in the distance.

Several students were asking what happened. Ms. Carp looked just as clueless as I felt.

"I think the chemical table got bumped. Must've caused some sort of reaction resulting in the fire. The chemicals were near an electrical outlet." I said, evening my voice so it made it seemed like I knew what I was talking about.

To my surprise, the whole class, even the teachers, started nodding their heads. Percy gave me a look of respect, then went over to talk to Ms. Carp. A minute later, he came over to us.

"Come on, you three." Percy said, starting down towards the English department.

"Wait, we're not just going to ditch the rest of school." Aaron protested. "Especially not to follow someone we barely know."

Percy smirked. "Don't worry, I've got it covered."

"Come on guys, its Friday. I'm cool with ditching. Besides, it was last period. It's not like we've got anything better to do." Hal said persuasively, giving his best dimpled grin.

I exchanged a look with Aaron, smiling at him. he stood firm for a moment, before groaning and giving in.

"Okay, Percy, you're in charge. Where are we going?" I asked.

Percy grinned hugely. "Well, first, I'm going to get us excused for the rest of the afternoon," Percy paused, giving us all a knowing look. "then we're going to go to my favorite place in the world."

Okay, I want honest opinions, what did you think? Well, I would really appreciate if you would leave your thought, good or bad, in a review. I have to know if I should continue or not. Reviews are everything to me!

Any guesses on Aaron and Hal's parents? Leave those in a review too. If I get any right answers….well how do you feel about a little contest?

If you answer right, in a review or PM, by next Thursday, I will put your name in as one of the siblings for Hal or Aaron, depending on whose parentage you got right. There can be multiple winners. If you do win, I'll PM you, and you can give me any name that you wish to give me, your own name if you want. I'll provide more details when I have some winners.

Here's a hint: Hal is blonde. His Dad is the parent. Aaron's parent is the mom. (Psst, minor gods work too)

Sound good? Confused? Just PM if you have any questions.

PLKEASE REVIEW!

-DaughterOfPoseidon333