OK, so this is my first story. It's a year after the whole Kronos thing and the other Titans are starting to get restless.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Chapter 1

Paging Dr. Slayer!

When you're a half-blood things are never normal. We are usually magnets for trouble, whether we caused it intentionally or not. Even though I'm not a trouble maker, guess who always gets blamed in the mortal world? Yep, me, Aran Aggio.

My seventh grade school year was going really well, for once. I did better in my classes than I normally did and I was not the center of attention. I figured it had to do with surviving the previous summer, when we defended Mount Olympus from Kronos and his minions. I was there fighting, and it was pretty gosh darn nerve wracking.

It was my first year at camp, and the day before the final battle I was claimed by my mother, Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and War. That was alright because I was friends with a lot of the Athena campers, which would turn out to be my half-siblings. During the battle I ended up saving our counselor and my other siblings a couple of times. No one really expected it from me, a little eleven year old. I was in a trance practically; anticipating, strategizing and fighting like never before. It probably had to do with Percy. He was an inspiration to all of us. I wanted to be as great a fighter as he was when I grew up. I was off to a pretty great start.

But my life never really got interesting until the year later.

My day started out as it usually does for me. I woke up to my alarm: a vibrating phone. Chiron, our activities director at Camp Half-blood and an immortal centaur, says we shouldn't use them for calling purposes. Calling with a cell is worse than shooting up a flare. The monsters can zero in on your exact spot and you get an all expenses paid face rearrangement. That was why a demigod invented texting, a safe alternative for contacting other half-bloods.

Unfortunately for me, I am terrible in the morning. As soon as my alarm kicked in, I immediately turned it off, rolled over, and went back to sleep. It wasn't until my friend's stepdad came in and woke me up fifteen minutes before the bus came that I actually realized that I needed to get up. "Aran! Come on, it's the last day of school. If you're late, I'm not driving you in, so get up!"

Now a thing that you should know; I live with my best friend Lauren Strite, daughter of Apollo. My dad was so cruel to me and when I found out that I was a demigod I never went back to that jerk. I don't know why I didn't get away from him sooner, but it was one of the best decisions of my life. Lauren and I became close during the battle for Olympus when she healed my broken arm. She was pretty cool and a great marksman and healer. After the battle was over we headed back to Camp Half-Blood, a safe haven for demigods with reinforced magical borders that prevents monsters from entering. At the end of camp, two weeks later, Lauren said that if I wanted I could live with her family and go to her school. I turned it down at first because I had pretty much been at camp itself for a total of five days before we left for Olympus and I still wanted to have fun at camp. Then during her winter break I Iris-messaged her and accepted the proposal. I was driven to her house by Argus, the camp's bodyguard that doesn't speak and is covered in eyes, like completely covered, and moved in. I stayed in the guest room which wasn't too small, but it was fine with me. I was welcomed into her school, Sagamore Middle School, and started right after the winter break was over.

In her bright yellow house lived Lauren, her mom, her stepdad, and me. Her parents were cool too, almost the polar opposite of my dad. They were fun to hang around and could be serious when they needed to. They didn't even mind me bringing a sword to school! It wouldn't harm mortals because it was celestial bronze and celestial bronze only harms monsters, gods, and other demigods. I also kept a sword at their house in case of emergency.

Lauren's dad was the God of Poetry, Music, Prophecy and Light, Apollo. He fell in love with Lauren's mom, Lucy, and they had Lauren. Apollo couldn't stay because he was a god, so he had to leave, but after Lauren was born Lucy found Jake, Lauren's stepdad. They got married when Lauren was four and Jake even knows about the Greek gods and such. They saved Lauren from a monster at one point by cracking a bat over its head and knocking it out then throwing it off a cliff. I thought they were cool because of that. In their garage Lauren and I store our weapons: swords, bows, and arrows.

It was awkward in the beginning living there and especially with Lauren's dad because I didn't really have good times with my real dad, but eventually everything settled out and they became like family to me. We went out together and did stuff like a family. Even though we weren't, they were definitely the closest people I've known.

Anyway, her stepdad always used that line as a joke and I never realized how big of a threat it was until the last day and also the biggest day of tests. The teachers always give out a test in their class on the last day of school. I think it's because they don't want us to enjoy the summer.

I sprang out of bed and put swapped my sleeping clothes for proper clothes, my gray shorts and white t-shirt for blue pants and my orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. Lauren Strite and I had planned on being driven to camp by her mom after school, so we thought of wearing our camp stuff for the last day. I brushed my teeth and patted down my always messy blond hair. I did a quick search with my gray eyes to see if I missed anything then ran out the door. I was stopped by her mom on the way out in her waitress work uniform. She worked at Olive Garden and as far as I know she's the best one there. Her blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her hazel eyes shone in the morning. She had a kind smile and was the nicest lady on the planet. "So you and Lauren are coming back here for me to drive you guys to camp?"

"Yes Mrs. Strite," I said with a smile.

"Aran there's a waffle here for you if you want," Jake said standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He was still in his plaid red and brown robe and hadn't changed yet. His brown hair was also a mess, like mine. And his brown eyes were halfway closed.

"He can't, he's gonna be late if he doesn't WALK!" Lauren yelled from behind me. Apparently some people don't like to take it easy.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going." I said.

"Ok, have fun you two," Lucy said finally and moved out of the way. I smiled and made my way out to the bus stop that only Lauren and I went to. Lauren ended up sprinting ahead to wait and I walked behind her. Her blond hair was also pulled into a ponytail and her blue jeans and Camp Half-Blood t-shirt hung on for dear life. She made it there way before I did so she started tapping her foot and looking impatient, which she was, but we laughed anyway at her charade.

School was pretty dull, as usual. First period I had a science test and I felt like I did really well. Then was math, my second favorite subject. We had another test and I finished with twenty minutes to spare. Third period was technology, my absolute favorite subject. I built so many things out of just wood that my teacher said I didn't even have to take the final exam. I did anyway, though, because I couldn't get enough of building and designing. I was also my half sisters' manager of what went up around Olympus, which probably helped.

Finally I had lunch. I found Lauren outside of the café waiting for me. She looked at me as I turned the corner and I saw her light brown eyes. She smiled as I walked over to her. I waved and we walked into the café and sat at our usual table. "I can't wait to get back to camp," she said to me.

At that point I checked to make sure I had my bead necklace. I did, thank the gods. We both had a bead necklace with one bead on it, an Empire State Building with all the names of the fallen etched in Greek going up the building in a spiral from the battle. "Yeah I can't wait to play capture-the-flag again," I said.

We were hanging out during lunch eating at our own table, like always, talking about random things like the dark side of the moon and Apollo's sun chariot. This was one of the only periods we had together, the other being art and music. We sat farthest away from the windows on the opposite wall. I was about to get up to throw my lunch out when the ground shook and a loud "ROOOOOAAAAAR" filled the school. I glanced at Lauren and she was thinking the same thing I was: Oh boy.

We hadn't had a monster attack all year, so it figures on the last day of school something would happen. The only problem was that we didn't have our weapons; they were in our lockers on the other side of Sagamore Middle school. She started to get up and the whole window wall shattered and came down. Cafeteria food went flying all over the place; I got a peanut and jelly sandwich in my face; kids screamed and ran out the exits while Lauren and I stared at the drakon that just crashed through the side of the building. "That's it, we run," I told her. She nodded and we ran for our lockers.

It was pretty hard to get to them. While we were going one way, the whole school was going the other way trying to get out. I turned corners and ran as fast as I could, my messy blond hair sticking in all kinds of directions. Lauren pulled ahead only because I got slowed down plowing into a couple of sixth graders. Was I that annoying last year? I thought to myself. Finally we came to our hallway of lockers. They lined the sides, so it wasn't that easy to find ours.

Finally I came to my locker while Lauren was at her locker on the opposite side of the hall. Lauren already had her bow out and clipped on her quiver full of celestial bronze tipped arrows around her waist. She ran off while I was still getting my sword clipped on. It became a new thing at camp to clip your weapon holders around your waist. I thought of it. It was easier to get your weapon out and more comfortable.

I caught up with Lauren as she waited by the corner of the cafeteria. She was poking her head around the corner trying to see into the café. She saw me coming and told me, "You take point; I'll go around the other way. It's got armor that only protects its front, so I'll fill its back with bronze."

I nodded and she ran the other way to go fill it with bronze. Unfortunately that meant I had to distract it. Without armor, not that it would help if I got sprayed with acid.

Now we had drakon fighting courses at camp, but that really didn't help when we fought it. They were like giant armored snakes. They didn't have wings, some could shoot fire and all could spit acid. Only celestial bronze could kill it, and that's what all demigod weapons are made of. That didn't make it any safer.

It was still thrashing around, eating tables and flinging food everywhere. It was a sickly shade of yellow that matched the acid it was spitting out. Its scales did actually come up, leaving exposed spots around back. I saw Percy fight one of these last year, so it couldn't be that hard, right? Nope.

As soon as I stood in the un-dissolved doorway it turned to face me. Thankfully I didn't look at its eyes, or I would've been scared so much I wouldn't be able to move. The bad part was that it spat acid that I had to dive to avoid. I glanced behind me and saw the doorway dissolving. "Ok buddy. Get out of here now and I won't have to kill you," I told it. It just spat more acid, so I took that as a no. The bad part was that I couldn't possibly kill this thing. I tried to think of what to do to keep its attention on me. When I came to a blank (which is unusual), I desperately took out my sword and charged it.

Everything was going good until its tail swatted me away. I flew and landed upside down on the far side wall opposite the gaping hole in the cafe. Then I slid down and laid prone on the ground. I could feel a couple ribs broken. My sword flew out of my hand and I heard it land somewhere behind the drakon. At this point I thought Hey Lauren, now would be a good time to kill it! It lunged at me and I saw my life flash before my eyes thinking Oh my gods I'm gonna end up as drakon feed. Good thing my mind was wrong.

Just before the drakon reached me it turned into dust and its scaly mold crashed around me. It was hollow on the inside but I was still blasted by the dust it turned into. My chest hurt as I got out of the pile and I figured that maybe I broke more ribs than I thought. I just had to walk through the corpse to get out. What I saw, though, didn't help me feel better when I got out. I was scared after that attack. Now I was petrified.

My sword that had flown out of my hand had ended up given Lauren a nasty cut down her thigh. She was sitting against a wall trying to put pressure on it. She knew what to do if she got hurt; she was a daughter of Apollo after all. I wasn't too worried, but I hadn't looked at her face yet. Her face looked pale and she looked sweaty. I hadn't noticed it at first, but there was a trail of her blood on the ground. When I saw that I thought that this would be her end. I ran over to her and said, "Hold on Lauren. I'm gonna get you out of here."

She must have seen my face because she said, "I'll be fine. Just get me some shirts from the lost-and-found."

I took a couple shirts out of the lost-and-found bin on the other side of the café and gave them to her. Her hands shook as she worked to wrap the wound. Her blue pants were tainted red around the cut and her light orange t-shirt stuck to her sweaty body. I always had some ambrosia in my pocket so I took some out and gave it to her. I don't know how she didn't pass out. I bit my lips as I moved, my chest screamed with pain. I started to help her up, but no amount of biting my lips would help this time. We both fell back down to the ground and groaned in unison. "My ribs! Dang it!" I said.

"We can't eat any more ambrosia or we'll burn up. I'll try to get us some help Aran," Lauren said.

"No. You can't even get up. Don't push yourself anymore."

"But –"

"Lauren. There's no way. There's just no way." I said to her shaking my head. She knew it was true. "To think that we can face an army of monsters but nearly die from a stupid snake," I said laughing a bit, which hurt incredibly. Honestly, we looked as pale as ghosts and were practically a waterfall of sweat. "Oh, I'm so cold," Lauren said. It was true, I was getting cold to. This might be the end of us I thought. A tear trickled down my face as I thought of all the things I'd done in my short demigod life.

I was on the verge of passing out from the pain when I heard a girl yell, "There! I found them! Oh gods, they're hurt. Come on Percy they need us!"

With the last of my energy I said to Lauren, "You first. I'll….be….fine." I was barely conscious at that point. Black dots were clouding my field of vision. I managed to see a boy come around the corner and run over to me.

Then everything went black.

Hope you all liked it. Review!