Carmen

Chloe and Carmen were in the Westwood Conservatory dining hall eating breakfast like usual, when something very unusual happened. The three most popular girls in their school came over and started talking to them. The leader of their pack, the one named Kelli giggled,

"Hey girls what's up?" Carmen rolled her eyes but they didn't seem to notice

"So I don't know if you're trying to stand out or blend in but either way it's not working. " Said the one on the right.

Carmen started walking away from them and muttered through clenched teeth "Just ignore them." but they didn't stop there

"Tammi say you're sorry... Sorry for them!" The last one said snickered

"Okay, just stop it!"Carmen yelled. It came out a little louder than expected and they looked kind of hurt.

"We just wanted to be your friends, but now you hurt our feelings." Kelli said in a "sad" voice, and Carmen could have sworn she saw her eyes flash red. Of course, it had to be their usual wrong place, wrong time. Right then Mrs. Hodges came over and said, "Why don't you girls go in the hallway and work things out. You seem to be causing quite a commotion in here."

"fine" Chloe sighed and they walked out of the room. As soon as they were out of sight all three of them transformed into what looked like your classic vampire only with red eyes, a bronze leg and a donkey leg, not to mention, Kelli's hair was fire.

"Now that we're alone, ready to be fed upon?" What used to be Kelli growled.

"Run!" Carmen yelled. She grabbed her sister's hand and ran out of the boarding school they'd been going to for the past year. And truthfully She was kind of glad; Schools weren't really Carmen and Chloe's thing, they never stayed for longer than a year before something exploded. Once the girls got outside they stopped in their tracks, they had no idea where to go but they didn't have time, the monster-girls got to them. There was no escape, Kelli pushed them down and asked, "Where are you going, thought you could run away?"

Carmen kicked the monster in the face with so much force it exploded into white dust. Tammi struck, her claws cut a gash in Carmen's leg, but She couldn't let the wound slow her down. Chloe and Carmen ran away as fast as possible and the two remaining monster-girls exploded into fire.

"Carmen, Chloe are you guys okay?" A boy asked as he ran out of the school.

"Yeah, kinda" Carmen said.

"We need a cab."

"Um ok." Carmen said, "You lead the way." And they started walking away from Westwood Conservatory and towards town.

Jasper led the girls through a thicket of trees, which he claimed was a short cut, and when they came out on the other side there was a small, grassy, hill. They climbed the hill, still following Jasper, and when the three of them reached the top they saw the highway. Chloe, Carmen and Jasper slid down the hill to street level. Jasper reached in his sweatshirt pocket and pulled out a golden coin that fit perfectly in the palm of his hand. He placed the coin on to the street where it immediately started to sink through the ground, as it sank he said words in a language Camen recognized,

"Greek?" She asked and Jasper nodded. Suddenly a hazy, smoke woven taxicab with three old ladies appeared right where the coin had been.

"Aaah!" Chloe squealed. The girls reluctantly followed Jasper into the cab and sat down. Carmen reached for a seatbelt but found a black chain in its place,

"Who are they? What is this?" Carmen asked and wrapped the chain around herself.

"They are the Gray sisters, Tempest," the driver waved, "Wasp and Anger" the two others waved as well, Jasper explained "and this is their taxi." Carmen examined the old ladies and noticed something very odd, between the three of them there was one eye and one tooth and they all seemed to want both,

"Anger give me the eye I'm better at giving directions" Wasp argued.

"You? Why not me? I'm the driver!" Tempest argued back.

"But Tempest you have the tooth and it's not fair to give you both." Anger yelled to them, but they kept on arguing,

"I want it this time 'cause you had it last time!" Tempest said

"You had it last time not me!" Wasp yelled back.

"Can't I just have both?" Anger asked,

"No!" Tempest and Wasp yelled back.

"Worth a shot." Anger sighed. They kept on like that until Jasper finally yelled,

"Enough!" The Gray sisters went silent "OK ladies we need a ride to half-blood hill, now." The taxi zoomed down the highway as Wasp, who ended up with the eye, yelled directions to Tempest. The car kept almost crashing into telephone poles and streetlights as they swerved down the street.

Eventually the taxi slammed to a stop and Carmen, Chloe and Jasper got out. The car sped away and seemed to fade into the distance, in front of them was a hill with a tree on it and for a moment Carmen thought she saw a glimmer of gold on one of the lower branches.

"Jasper I think now is a good time to explain, like everything." Carmen sighed.

"Oh gods" he muttered, "I guess it's time. You have ADHD and dyslexia, right?" Carmen nodded uncomfortably, wondering how he knew, she hadn't told anyone about that. "and you recognize Ancient Greek?" She nodded again "That's because you are a Demigod." He told her. She laughed,

"Demigod?"

"Half Greek god or goddess and half mortal. ADHD is your reflexes, your fighting reflexes and you have dyslexia because your brain wasn't meant to interpret English it was meant to interpret Greek. I was sent to protect you and bring you back here."

"Ok. But where is 'here' exactly?"

"Camp half-blood the only safe place to be, for now anyways." Jasper told her. Carmen got a confused look on her face and asked, "Wait Jasper, why didn't we ever notice any of this before?"

"The 'mist'. It changes what mortals see so it makes sense in their minds." He told her. It was a lot to take in, Carmen told herself it was too crazy to believe, but for some she did. She took a step forward and said, "Then what are we waiting for?"

Jasper and Carmen walked past the pine tree and down the hillside to camp half-blood. Chloe started following them down but stopped when she saw paradise; There were strawberry fields and a big white house with sky blue trim and even from up there you could here hear the pale blue waves crash against the sand in a relaxing lull. There were cabins in an U shape and a forest of trees, it was beautiful.

"Come on Chloe, we don't have all day." Carmen teased and they ran off. At the bottom of the hill, campers wandered around the cabin area, Carmen noticed that the cabins were all very different looking. One cabin was messily painted red with barbed wire on the roof along with a stuffed boar's head over the door. And a few down there was a cabin that looked like a life size dollhouse with pastel blue and green, lace curtains, and a pink door. Jasper led the girls to a big house with a wrap around porch and blue trim.

"Whoa your leg!" Jasper exclaimed.

"Oh yeah I might need some help with that." Carmen responded, she hadn't really been thinking about the bloody cut on her lower leg. Jasper handed her a small yellowish square and told her to eat it. Carmen put the square in her mouth and it suddenly tasted like _, Carmen's favorite food since she was little. Carmen could feel her leg healing and she could walk much easier than before.

"What was that stuff?" She asked Jasper.

"Ambrosia, the food of the gods." He told her. Then, a man in a wheelchair came over and talked to them, "Jasper is this her?" He asked.

"Yeah this is Carmen." Jasper said back.

"Good, give her a tour." The man in the wheelchair told him and he wheeled away.