A/N: This is my first ever story posted on this website, and my first ever Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfiction. This story takes place between The Titan's Curse and the Battle of the Labyrinth. The Heroes of Olympus's plot won't take place as one of its characters is in this story instead. I hope you enjoy this!
You'd think a girl could have a normal first day of seventh grade, right?
Wrong.
Sure, it started off normal. I met up with my friend from the previous grade – Oakley, a beautiful girl with brown hair and striking green eyes. You know, the kind of green you would imagine Harry Potter to have in his books. She was rather small for her age, but her brainpower was huge. It was thanks to her that I passed my exams, we were cramming all night before each one to make sure we aced them.
Anyway, we had a perfectly normal lesson with Mathematics. We were given a pop quiz to see if we had retained any information on last year's exams, each of us in turn. And Oakley and I were both at the top of the scoreboard. All the time, some of the older students were poking their heads in through the classroom windows.
That was disconcerting, but I said nothing about it despite the fact their eyes had been trained on me.
But after that lesson things started to go wrong. At first it was the usual kind of thing you would expect, kids getting swirlies and the like. Grimacing, I prepared myself as I walked through before an arm came out, shoving me onto the floor. "Hey!" I shouted indignantly, looking around but there were no teachers in sight. This was supposed to be a zero-tolerance school and they were letting these kids boss us about!
The girl who shoved me down grinned as if she'd achieved something much more than knocking a mere seventh grader over, though. As I shot her a death glare – which I wished really was a death glare that could actually knock the brunette to the floor and literally suck the life right out of her – she laughed and yanked me to my feet. "Calm down, Wacky, wouldn't want to lose your temper and attract your tutor's attention would you?" she leered, gazing into my eyes.
I wasn't entirely certain but I was fairly sure I saw a little bit of hunger in her gold eyes. Scowling, I shoved her, which was probably going to be the biggest mistake I ever made, but I didn't care. I'd been bullied because of my dyslexia for too long, and I was sick of the fact that people chose to pick on those who were different rather than get to know them. "First off, the name's Wakanda, not Wacky. And second off, I'll tell them the truth if Mr Conaly comes. He'll bring Mr Brunner, and he'll believe me."
I expected her to retaliate, what else would I expect from a bully? But what I wasn't expecting was her covering my mouth and dragging me to an empty, unused classroom. Nor was I expecting Mr Conaly to step out of the shadows.
I swallowed tight. They were both studying me with hunger... and other eighth graders were coming into the room. Once they had all come in, Mr Conaly stood and carefully closed the door. His lips curled into a smirk. There wasn't anybody else... and all of them had this gold look in their eyes. As if somehow they were family.
"So... Wakanda Nicholas," the man said, almost thoughtfully. "I've always had a... fascination for half-bloods." His words confused me a great deal. Half-bloods? Did he mean that I was a witch? My lips formed into a scowl as I stepped forward, wanting to retaliate, before I heard a click of a lock. Not that I cared, I wasn't planning on running. Just getting a little help.
"You've been given lessons on mythology of various branches, correct?" Mr Conaly continued, chuckling as I nodded. That in itself was creepy. But there was something creepier, another person came in through the window. Now I would have assumed he was normal except... he was walking towards me and there wasn't a shadow despite it being daylight. I would have noticed more, but I started to feel very drowsy all of a sudden. A smile curled on the stranger's face, and as I laid my head down on a pillow – one of the girls had gotten one for me as well as a blanket – I was aware of a soft hand on my forehead as I was taken away into a slumber.
The next thing I knew, it was sunset and the same girl was rather forcefully shaking me awake. I swatted at her hand, irritable, before I pushed myself to my feet with a scowl. "You don't want to mess with me," I said shortly before looking around. Every single one of them was still there... and the dream I had featured Mr Conaly. And a sacrifice, followed by an upturned table and a wolf transformation...
Mythology. Mr Conaly. A sacrifice... a wolf?
I put the pieces together after a few moments of silence. "You're... not really called Mr Conaly are you...?" I murmured. As he nodded with a grin, I realised only now just how wolfish his face was. His eyes. "Lycaon?" I whispered, terror filling my blood, my entire nervous system. If that was him... was Zeus a real being as well? I swiftly counted the number of eighth graders... fifty. Exactly the number of his children... which were all dead. The nearest girl had an obvious bite mark, however...
"What are you looking at Wacky?" she snapped, hastily yanking the scarred wrist away. Obviously she was in denial about being bitten. Perhaps some sort of spell was placed on her – was that possible in Greek mythology? There was a goddess of magic, Hecate... at least I think that's what her name was...
Lycaon's lips curled into a smirk, before his form seemed to change. His hair was shrinking... and his hair everywhere else was growing. And he wasn't the only one – each of the students were transforming as well. As I watched them, I did the only thing that seemed remotely logical for the situation. I screamed and ran for the window.
And to my relief two people were approaching it at that very moment. Mr Brunner, I was expecting. But I could have sworn Oakley would have gone home! Without any hesitation I scrambled out, the stranger that came in having foolishly left the window open. Tree branches shot into the room, grabbing one of the lycanthropes, and she thrashed around with a howl as she was pulled outside, but before I could watch further Mr Brunner grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from the commotion.
He led me to this beautiful courtyard that before now I'd never even noticed – though I'd never been outside the school building with the rest of the students, choosing to remain in the gymnasium during breaks and lunch, so it wasn't really that surprising. The aroma from the flowers was incredibly strong, enough to probably disguise our scents to the wolves out there. Tilting my head slightly, I gave an enquiring look towards Mr Brunner, before muttering, "About time you showed up, Vice Principal."
The man simply placed his hand on my shoulder, and I flinched. Anyone would be jumpy after being at risk of being eaten. I glanced around, and saw a large oak tree. The leaves were a level of green that could equal those of Oakley's eyes...
Thought of the devil. The girl just happened to show up as soon as I thought of her, her eyes... well, she had shed tears all right. But they weren't red... rather, they were green like chlorophyll.
Oak leaves. Oakley. I heard the words whispered from her lips to Mr Brunner... something like, "We have to get her to camp..." Camp? What did she mean? Before I had time to think beyond the fact that my best friend could be a tree, the shock managed to bring me to the floor.
