Nell

I wasn't sure what I was doing, what I was making, or even how. My hands were a blur of motion, at least until they caught fire. I dropped the, whatever it was, and tried to pat out the flames but they wouldn't go out so I took a deep breath and counted to three. "One...two...three." The flames died and I examined my hands for scorch-marks, luckily there were none.

My worst fear was that my friends would find out, I hadn't even told Leo, the new kid at school. He had a way with building things too and we had become automatic friends, he was funny but skinny dirty. He smelled like motor oil all the time, which was fine with me, and his hands were always black but at least he took a shower every day. Not that I had ever seen him take one, eww, I didn't like him like that. He was more like a brother to me. The storage closet door opened and I hid the thing I had been making behind my back but then sighed when it was only Leo.

"Dang girl, why you so jumpy?" he said.

I shrugged, "Wasn't expecting anyone to come in."

"And why does it smell like fire?"

"Smoke, it smells like smoke. Fire doesn't have a smell."

"You'd be surprised," he mumbled.

"It smelled like that before I came in here," I said quickly. If he only knew what I had done, he wouldn't want to be near me.

"What's this?" he asked, taking my contraption in his hands.

"No, Don't!" I yelled, but too late and he pressed the button on the side. The wires sprang out and wrapped around his wrists, ankle's and mouth and started working their way around his body until he was a mummy except for his eyes and nose. "Oops," I whispered and reached over and pressed the button again and instantly the wires retracted into the sphere.

Leo looked at me with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open, "How did you...Awesome!" he grinned. "Can I do it again?"

"No, I don't know how many charges I'll get out of it and I want to use it on a certain someone." I couldn't see my face but I imagined it was pretty scary. I felt my skin beginning to get hot and I silently counted to three again and cooled down.

"Whoa, Nelly, don't be turning to the dark side on me," Leo said stepping back playfully and putting his hands up.

I glared at him, "I told you not to call me that, it's Nell."

He sighed dramatically, "Fine...Nelly."

I lunged for him but he was quick and darted out the door as I chased after him. We were both panting and laughing as we came to a stop at the same time, me giving up the chase and him giving up running from me. We had run halfway across the huge campus while the teachers shouted at us to slow down. I looked over at him, it was Friday (free day we called it), which meant no uniforms and he was wearing the strangest assortment of clothing, between the hat, the plain white shirt, Jeans, and an old army jacket he looked incredibly odd yet he pulled it off and looked good in it. The most interesting thing he always wore (much to the displeasure of the teachers) was a tool belt, but it was always empty, which I didn't get because I had seen him secretly pull things out of it. I had asked about it once but he just gave me a look that I could have sworn said, "You're not ready to know that yet."

Magic tool-belt? I had thought after I had first seen him take a spool of copper wire out of it and hand it to me.

We walked back to the cafeteria where we sat for breakfast, alone at our table in the corner. Halfway through the meal a little kid with buckteeth and large round glasses came up to us and plopped down. "Hi," he said quickly then stared at us. I hadn't figured out why a kid like that was at a school like this. The school was for troubled and problem kids. Gary was just a normal geek who had a tendency to talk really fast. He was really our only other friend.

"Hey, Gary, what's up?" Leo asked.

I closed my eyes, that was the worst thing you could ask this guy. Immediately he shot into a very in depth explanation of a science project he was working on. I managed to tune him out but Leo seemed genuinely interested. My mind wandered and I found myself in a blazing room as a five year old, crying. The flames where surrounding me, eating away everything I had ever known. Then the door broke down and a firefighter burst in, he scared me with his big red suit and mask on. He took the mask off when I pulled away from him, it was smoky and he started to cough but he managed to say, "It's alright, I'm here to help you. I'm gonna get you out of here." He had been so kind and as he carried me out I asked about my mom but he hadn't answered.

The smoke did bother me but not as much as it should have and when the Paramedics checked me out they were stunned that I hadn't even been burned and I had only been slightly affected by the smoke. I didn't think I had started the fire, I had just been playing with screwdrivers my mom had left lying around and when I looked up the fire was there. The whole house seemed to burning. My mom's body hadn't been found but she never came to get me either. "She could still be alive," I said aloud, not meaning to.

Leo and Gary both looked me and Leo asked, "What?"

"Nothing," I said quickly, "I-I'll tell you later." Then I stood and walked back to my dorm where I face-planted my pillow and began to sob, I didn't know why though.

The door burst open and I heard Leo say, "Okay, so what did you mean by what you said in the cafeteria? Wait, are you crying?" He never knocked, he just came right in whenever he wanted, which I suppose was okay since I didn't have a roommate. We had only known each other for five months but it felt like we had known each other for forever.

I groaned, "Go away Leo Valdez, I don't want to talk about it right now."

But of course, he didn't go away, he hauled me to my feet and forced me to walk with him out to the metal working shop where he sat me down and crossed his arms, puffing out his bottom lip like our teacher, Professor Daltwargon. "Now listen young lady," he said mimicking the creepy man's cold voice, "You'll tell me what I want to hear and you'll do it this instant." Leo grinned when my frown broke and I smiled. "So, you gonna tell me or not?"

I couldn't stop myself and the words flowed from me like a river. Why was I telling him this? I didn't tell him that I could summon fire but when I was done he sat very still, which almost scared me to death but then I saw that his mind was working a million miles an hour. Suddenly he shrugged and his hands pulled a few things from his belt and he began absently building but he didn't say anything for a few minutes and to my relief, what he did say had nothing to do with my story. Then I thought maybe he hadn't heard it, but I knew better, he didn't have anything to say about it because he knew there was nothing he could say to make it better.

"You never finished your breakfast, you know, I made that specially for you."

I laughed, "You didn't make anything you can't cook."

Then he raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah? Obviously you have never witnessed the awesomeness that is Leo Valdez. I'm gonna have to make you my favorite spicy tacos, you'll love them. My mom taught me how to cook before..." he trailed off and his eyes went distant but then he snapped back, "Okay, let's get to class before we're late."

Leo

I wished I could smell monsters like the Satyrs could, it would make this job a whole lot easier. Luckily we'd made it five months without an attack, though I suppose that wasn't bad, we weren't exactly children of the big three like Percy and Jason and Nico. I had started going to school there in the middle of November and now school was almost out. I hadn't attended an actual school since the Wilderness School but I seemed to fit on perfectly fine here, everybody loved me, they all tried to be my friend but I was like, dramatic head swish, "No, I'm here for only one person, I can't be friends with all of you. I sorry, team Leo all the way baby." I mean, that didn't actually happen, but it did in my head.

After I started talking to Nelly everyone decided they didn't like my jokes after all. Once they tried to dunk my head in the toilet but I caught my hair on fire and started screaming bloody murder like a madman before they could. Man, that was fun. They never wanted to go near me again after that but I didn't blame them. I got what I was looking for, getting close to my half-sister, now I just had to protect her for the rest of the school year and get her back to Camp Half-Blood.

How was I supposed to know the monster was our very own Professor Daltwargon. Of course, I should have known it was him, anyone with a name like that had to be a monster. Apparently Manticore's knew how to play really good teachers because I didn't see this guy until he was right on top of me.

"Say away from her Demi-God, she's mine. I've been watching you these last five months, I wasn't intending on having two Demi-God's as an after school snack but the more the merrier," he growled.

I ducked as he whipped his tail around and shot a spike of poison at me. It missed, barely and I shot a fireball at his head, sending him back twenty feet. He should have burst into flames but when he didn't I ran for it, right into the crowded cafeteria. Surely he wouldn't follow me in there. He didn't but I knew he was waiting for me to come back out and there was only one exit. I sat next to Nelly and tried to act normal but...

"What's up with you? Why are you all sweaty?"

"Huh? Oh, I was...working out," I flexed my nonexistent muscles and she laughed.

"So, the years almost over, are you going to be heading home to your parent's?"

"Um, not exactly, I go to this camp that's only for special people like you and me," I told her. "Maybe you could come with me."

I could see her thinking about it but then she said, "I would have to talk to my foster parents about it and I don't think they would let me go, they can't exactly pay for things like that."

"Oh, you don't have to pay anything," I said quickly.

She cocked her head, "Really? What kind of camp doesn't make you pay to go to it?"

Just then the door opened and Professor Daltwargon slipped in, unnoticed by the others student's, and glared right at me. "Um...um, I think you're going to find out sooner than I was hoping."

"What?"

"Quick, I'll distract him, you run as fast as you can, get outside, leave the campus."

"But-"

"Go," I cut her off and headed toward the other side of the room.

Nell

I should have known something was wrong when Leo came in sweating and panting like a dog, but I wasn't expecting this. After he told me to leave campus he took off but I lost his small form in the crowd of students in for dinner. I looked at the door, wondering if I should do as he said and that's when I saw the bully I had made the wire trap for, Leslie Thatcher, and I wondered if she was who Leo was running from and I pulled out the trap but then I noticed Professor Daltwargon glaring into the crowd, searching. That's when the fire started. I couldn't tell what was on fire or how it had started but the students started stampeding to get out. The teacher was caught off-guard and was almost run over before he managed to get out of the way.

"This is why it's stupid to only have one door," I mumbled under my breath and joined the crowd.

I made it outside finally but I didn't see Leo. I turned back to just barely get a glimpse back inside, and what I saw horrified me. There was Leo, only his hands were ablaze and his eyes were dark with an animal ferocity that made the back of my neck tingle. The fire in the room had spread rapidly but the thing that made my heart stop was the creature standing in front of Leo.

It had the head of our professor, the body of a lion and the tail of a...scorpion. Was that a Manticore? Maybe my Greek mythology classes had been worth something, or maybe they were playing tricks on my mind, but one thing was for sure, that was either a real monster or a very, very clear hallucination. Either way, I thought the Manticore was Persian.

Everyone scattered in every direction trying to get away from the building. I tried to get back to see inside but there were too many flames and the other teachers were swarming us trying to herd us away. The fire was huge now, if Leo was still in there then there was no way he could survive long. I had to get back in so I slipped past the teachers and ran toward the flaming building, but that's when things exploded, literally.

"Leo!" I screamed. The teachers had successfully gotten my peers outside the gate by then but no one seemed to have noticed Leo or I was missing. I turned and found myself face to face with a drooling Professor Daltwargon only he was a Manticore. I heard sirens in the distance, not sure why that registered in my mind. Then I thought about Leo, "How did you survive the explosion? What about Leo?"

His form flickered and he became his normal self again, "Ha! That little Hephaestus brat, oh I think your brother is quite dead by now."

My brother? I wondered. "He...he's not my brother."

"I think you'll find that he is," the monster spat and I flinched away. "Yess, you will make a fine, tasty meal."

My brother. Suddenly it made sense, the reason we were so much alike, yet we looked nothing like each other. Then an idea came to me, I still had my wire trap in my hand, it was about the size of a golf ball. "Wait, I forgot, sir," I tried to sound as if I hadn't actually seen him as a monster and it seemed to work. His attention was turned away from killing me momentarily. "I got you something I thought you would like."

I held out the sphere in the palm of my hand and he looked at it uneasily and asked, "What is it?"

I shrugged, "It's a massage ball, here, if you press this button it vibrates and you can massage any sore spots, try it."

He took it gingerly, obviously wary of my invention but to my surprise, and his, he pressed the button. Within seconds he was wrapped up like a mummy. I could see the shock in his eyes but he quickly recovered and with a roar he turned back into the Manticore, breaking many of the wires.

That was when it hit me, Leo was dead, my brother and best friend was dead and it was all because of this monster. I let the anger take over and my hands burst into flame, then the fire spread over my body.

I saw the surprise on Professor Daltwargon's face and one of his lion paws broke free and he swiped away the wires around his mouth. "Wait, you...what? No!" he screamed. I blasted him with as much heat as I could, the metal turning cherry red but he only roared at the sky, barely even scorched by the flames. Then he started to gag and I saw a bronze arrow protruding from his mouth, then he began to turn to dust. The smoke was so thick I wondered where the arrow had come from and if whoever had shot it had seen me in flames. then my mind went fuzzy and I collapsed to the ground, my vision darkening around the edges of my sight and I felt like I was going to be sick but I leaned over and let my head hang and slowly I started to feel better and the darkness went away.

Just then a large man fell though the smoke and landed on his feet on the ground near me, he was burly and strong, almost animal like.

"Wh-where did you come from?" I asked staring at him.

He looked at me, "I flew, where's Leo?"

I looked at the burning building, the blood draining from my face, "No."

I ran toward it but the big guy grabbed my arm, "Wait, I'll go."

Right, of course I couldn't go in, I wasn't supposed to be fire-proof, but he couldn't he couldn't be fireproof either. "But he's dead, there's no use. Professor Daltwargon said he was dead."

"You can't trust what any monster says." he ran toward the building calling, "Leo! Leo, cam you here me? Where are you?" Then he turned into a giant bird, an owl? And dove into the flames. Why would he do that?

If you liked or disliked this please let me know why, :-)