Hi! Thanks for clicking on my story :) I think this is the longest chapter I have ever written, and for that reason it is probably my best, any feedback is welcome. I hope you enjoy the story :D.

*Lighting strikes the computer desk* oh all right, I do not own Percy Jackson or his world.

This story is from the point of view of a child of Hermes.

You know those days when the only reason you wake up is because you think life can't get any worse, heck it might actually get better? That's the kind of morning I had the day after my mom's last breakup. After crying and calling her friends, all of whom were either on dates themselves or sleeping, she had collapsed on the couch and wailed. If I hadn't felt so sorry for her, I would have reminded her that I had predicted that Kyle would be the cheating kind the night they met. Still, I guess no one could have predicted that the relationship would only last a week.

My mom has trouble with staying in relationships that last longer than a month or two tops. Most of the time, she never gets a second date. Sometimes I wish she would just go out and have fun with her friends, other times I just think it's a miracle that I'm an only child. My mom had me the summer after she graduated high school. I've asked her about my dad, she always says that he was the nicest guy she ever dated. To be honest, I don't think she really remembers him. Her story changes slightly every time, the only facts that stayed the time were a) he was handsome (she thinks all of her dates are handsome), b) he a magician that was on tour when they met (she had wanted to be his assistant), c) He loved her enough to marry her. You can see how that last one worked out.

Sometimes I feel bad for her, she's only 29, but she mostly acts like a middle schooler. This particular day, though, there was nothing I could do but make a pot of coffee and run to the bus stop. The buses used at my school are huge. Rumor has is that they used to be used for a prison. Whatever the reason, the windows don't open, you can see blue stripes through the yellow paint, and there's about twice as many kids as you would usually find on a school bus. Who doesn't want to get up at 6 AM for that?

Like most seating with any connection to school, there is an art to picking a seat on our bus. No one except a few smaller kids and 'problem children' sit in the first few rows. I had skipped school two days in a row so I wasn't in trouble yet this week (see how that works? No school, no trouble).The middle rows are complicated and divided among the various social groups. The truth is there is no way to sit by yourself, so you have to choose your group wisely. Nerds and the like target 'stupid' kids like me and put us down using every 5 syllable word they know. 'Good Kids' won't let me sit next to them because they're afraid I'll break something and blame it on them. That left the popular kids (not really an option), and the trouble makers. See this is where it gets tricky; normally I'd try to squeeze in between a good kid group and someone else. Usually this 'someone else' is a Goth kid who completely ignores me and scares everyone else. He, unfortunately, was nowhere to be found. Maybe he went to a Better Place, otherwise known as the local arcade/candy store.

"You know the rules Andy!" our bus driver barked, "You have to sit down!"

Our bus driver is probably the best reason for the rumors about our bus being from a prison. She came with the bus and a voice like a sonic boom. I'd never seen her stand up or even turn around, but I'd imagine that causing her to take her hands off her beloved steering wheel would have dire consequences for me.

I sat without thinking. Big mistake. I was sitting at the edge of the 'trouble makers' group. You might think I'd fit in here, but no. I stick to pranks on people who pick on me, copied homework assignments, and occasionally lifting a few things from the school store. Everything's over priced there anyway. The 'Trouble Makers' in my school are actually the bad kids. The kind of people that will punch you in the stomach just to see what kind of face you make and stay out all night partying. I sank back into my seat when I saw that four of them were drinking coffee. I've had hot coffee poured on my shirt before, and believe me, it hurts.

One of the kids smiled. "Decided to join our little group?" He broke my toe once.

"Missed us?" added another, this was the one who ripped my backpack in two earlier this year.

I tried to decide whether answering "yeah, I would have gotten you a card, but the store was all out of valentines" would get me a laugh or get me pummeled when a senior in the group, Danny, stood up.

"I'm so sick of sitting here with this stupid brake digging into my legs," he grabbed his backpack and glanced at me. "Switch seats with me."

I gulped. Danny sat in the very back, deep into trouble maker territory, next to an emergency brake that was supposedly broken and an 'emergency exit', that according to the rumors, was fake and had never worked. I didn't want to be surrounded by these guys, especially in the very back where no one could hear my screams. That said, if Danny wanted to, he could always pick me up and throw me in the back and I'd be in the same situation. I switched seats.

The back seat seemed like an afterthought of the designers, or maybe the builders. It was smaller than all the other seats, and if I couldn't sit forward with my legs in front of me, you can imagine how uncomfortable Danny must have been. I turned sideways so my feet were in the isle and brushing against the emergency brake. And that's when something happened that made me wish I had stayed home.

The bus stopped. One minute our bus was going 40 miles an hour on a 25 mile per hour road, and the next it was like the bus driver slammed on the brakes with all the strength in her 5'9 body. The bus screeched and might have hit something, and the bus was smoking from underneath. I wondered if it was the traffic or if one of the kids had finally pushed our bus driver to her breaking point. Then the last thing I wanted to hear reached my ear.

"WHO STOPED THE BUS? WHO PULLED THE EMERGANCY BREAK?" Still, the bus driver- I feel bad now that I never learned her name- didn't turn around. She didn't need to, every student on that bus turned for her, and all their eyes landed on me.

"I didn't!" I insisted, "It wasn't me!"

"Too soon, Brainless," a nerdy girl named Gweniver sneered, "no one accused you yet. Guilty, much?"

"No, no, it must have been-" I turned to look at the trouble makers, certain that they had planned this. They stared right back, with a mix of awe and- was that respect? –in their eyes, and I knew that hadn't done this.

"EVERY BODY OUT!" There was a mad scramble to obey the furious bus driver's instruction. Some of the boys had a hard time not tripping because of their baggy pants and some of the nerds slowed down the line with their piles of books, but at last everyone was out of the bus... except me.

"Oooh, no you don't," The bus driver grabbed the back of my collar before I could get down the stairs. "You're not getting away with this." She let me get off the bus but held on to my collar the whole time and marched me a safe distance away. Without letting go, she grabbed a cell phone from one of the juniors and called the school. I tried not to listen, but she still had me by the collar and she was yelling, so I couldn't help but over hear her tragic tale of innocent students' safety being put into jeopardy because of one evil delinquent who lived on adrenaline and the fear he caused in others. More importantly, she was pretty sure that this Andy Kensmen had damaged her bus. Her precious bus, that she had cared for and repaired herself for years, could be seriously hurt by this criminal.

For a second, I tried to lift my legs off the ground slightly, to see if the bus driver would let go at the change in weight. No luck. She just held on tighter and rougher than before. At this point it was becoming more difficult to breath. She must have cut off too much oxygen from my brain, because I began to hallucinate. I saw small dragons, a little bigger than fat chickens, running around the bus. Maybe they were what stopped the bus. Maybe a nearby farmer was experimenting and mutating chickens and serpents and came up with this. Maybe I was insane.

I had to get away from her, first, so I could breath, and also so I could clear my head and figure out if I really was hallucinating. I tapped her shoulder, she didn't notice. "Miss?" I whispered, "Miss?"

She slapped my hand away and hissed "Missus! Missus or ma'am, I've been married 12 years now."

I wanted to ask "really?" but decided against it and whispered, "I have to go to the bathroom. Now."

She pulled the phone away from her ear, "Are you serious? Can't you wait? There isn't even a bathroom."

I shrugged, "I still have to go." Before I even finished my sentence, her face was within an inch of mine and red as a cooked lobster.

"You're already in serious trouble," her voice was even scarier when it was quiet, "but if you aren't back within three minutes, I will personally make sure you are skinned alive."

I nodded slowly, almost unaware of what I was doing. She let go of me. After a few seconds spent marveling at the fact that I was still alive, I raced past the other kids to the woods. Sighing, I sat down behind a large tree and tried to catch my breath.

"Nice job getting away," a voice came from my left.

I looked up and saw a boy a few years older than me with dark hair, standing behind a bush. My first thought was that maybe he came over here for the same reason I pretended to, and wow this is awkward, but then he came closer and I realized that he was here to talk to me.

"Hey," he gave me a half grin, "are you Andy Kensmen?"

I said the first thing that came to my mind. "Stalker." Then I face palmed myself, "oh, sorry, you probably just heard about Andy Kensmen, the maniac who pulled the emergency brake."

He grinned and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Did you? Pull the emergency brake?"

"No," I answered, "Good luck finding anyone who'll believe that though."

The kid shrugged, "I believe you." He stuck out his right hand, "Percy Jackson."

"You already know my name," I shook his hand. I turned and peaked at the bus, which was still smoking. "Since you believe me, and are most likely the only person who doesn't think I'm crazy, do you see a bunch of fat baby dragons running around the bus?" Some of them weren't hanging around the bus anymore; two or three were coming closer to the woods. If I were a bit more paranoid, I'd say they were following me.

"Hm?" Percy looked over my shoulder. "Oh, those aren't dragons. They're cockatrices, don't worry though, those guys have been blinded."

"Oh," I'm sure I had a blank look on my face, "well that's…good."

"A cockatrice can kill you with one look."

"Ah…"

Percy glanced at the bus driver who was screaming into her phone. "She looks mad."

"No kidding."

"So," Percy tilted his head to the side, "wanna skip?"

I stared at him. "You want to skip school? After this? They'll have the police on us faster than you can say 'cockatrice'. Where you even want to go?"

Percy laughed. "I don't know, I thought maybe I could meet your mom."

"What." I stared at this weird, weird guy. "You want to meet my mom? Sorry, but I'm not sure I'm ready to move forward in this relationship."

He laughed again. He sure does a lot of that. "I'd invite you to my house, but it's a long ways away, long long ways away. Besides, I kinda have a message for her. And," he added, "I'm also hoping you have some good food."

I know what you're thinking. Some guy just walks up to me in the woods and asks to meet my mom? Creepy. But he was sort of cool, and well, I didn't want to go back to the murderous bus driver. "OK," I said, "but I'm not sharing the pop tarts."

The way home was shorter than the bus ride, mostly because we walked through private property and didn't stop at intersections. By the time we got to my street, most of the people were at work or school, but I knew my mom would be there because she works from home for a shopping website. I was worried, however, that the local police would notice two kids walking around, clearly not on their way to school (I had left my backpack on the bus, I'm not sure if Percy even had one) and immediately call all the schools in the area. I was contemplating whether or not the police were allowed to just pick up kids skipping class and take them to the police department, when Percy said, "Is that your mom?"

I looked at the house he nodded to. Yes, that was my mother with the top half of her body hanging out of the window of her second floor bedroom. As much as I love her, I'm kind of glad our neighbors weren't there to see her messed up hair, her streaks of mascara left over from the night before, and that she was still in her neon pink dressing gown. I felt guilty for the embarrassed flush that made my face almost as red as the bus driver's had been earlier, but Percy didn't seem to care that my mom looked insane.

"Hi, Mom!" I called, "don't freak out!"

My mom left the window and reached the front door just before we did. "Andy!" she cried and threw her arms around me. I returned her hug, and then walked in so that I wasn't blocking Percy.

"Andy!" she said again, "the school called, they said you caused an accident, and then you got lost in the woods! I should call them-"

"No!" Percy and I said together. "No," I repeated, "that's ok, mom. We were gonna grab some snacks, and then I think Percy wanted to talk to you."

"Percy?" My mom turned and looked at him.

"Oh yeah, Mom, this is Percy…. Johnson?"

"Jackson."

"Right."

"Nice to meet you" Percy smiled at my mom. Mom looked surprised, I didn't usually bring people over, but I guess she was ok with it, because she smiled and said "Likewise", and then went to grab a huge bag of popcorn for us.

Soon we were sitting in the living room, and I was really getting anxious to find out what Percy had to say. He looked kind of nervous, and he ate a lot of popcorn.

"I guess," he started, "I guess I can start by saying I'm a relative, on your dad's side." He turned to me.

I don't know what I expected him to say, but it wasn't that. My dad? He and my mom basically had a one night stand; he never knew she was pregnant. I stared back at Percy, and I think he could tell that I didn't believe him.

"His name is Hermes. He's my cousin." Percy continued.

"So, what?" my voice sounded weird and foreign, "you guys me to come to a family reunion? Listen," I shook my head, "he doesn't even know I was born."

Percy shifted uncomfortably, "Sure he does. And, well, he wants you to come to camp with me."

I rubbed the back of my neck, irritated. "You seem really nice, but showing up and telling me that my dad- who doesn't even know about me- sent you, to bring me to a camp, and it's not even summer….It's just not believable." I turned to my mom, certain that she'd be as weirded out as I was, but she just sat there saying "Hermes…Hermes…" She grinned.

"That's it! Hermes the Magnificent! The magician. Honey, that was your father's name."

Percy choked on his popcorn. "Hermes the Magnificent? The Magician?"

I frowned. "Well just because he knows what my dad's name is, doesn't mean that he's telling the truth."

"It's a pretty unusual name for someone to guess," Percy pointed out. True.

"Even if you are telling the truth," I reached for more popcorn, "you're asking me to leave and go live with my father at some camp for how long? Sounds to me a little like a cult."

"It's not a cult, just a, well, I guess you could call it a family business." Percy fiddled with a loose thread on his chair. "And your dad won't be there, but your siblings- er, half siblings-will." He seemed to gain a bit more confidence and looked me in the eye. "It's a great place, way better than school, especially for people like us."

"People like us?"

"There's some stuff that kind of runs in the family," Percy answered, "dyslexia, ADHD."

Check and check. I'd been diagnosed with those back in first grade.

"Listen," Percy leaned forward, "What if I could prove, first of all, that your dad knows your here, and second, your dad wants you to come to camp with me? Enough to send, a- a sign?"

I stared at him. What did he think my dad was going to send a rabbit in a hat from wherever he was? Maybe the rabbit would have a message written on the collar 'Hey son, sorry I never bothered telling you I was alive or checking to see if you were alive, but it'd be really great if you went to camp with that Percy kid. Thanks, Dad.'

"Sure," I answered.

"What kind of sign?" my mom asked softly.

Percy bowed his head it almost looked like he was praying. Then he took the last of the popcorn (which I was planning to eat by the way) and tossed it into the fireplace. For a split second there were orange flames, and then they –and the popcorn- were gone. He turned and nodded at me, "Look up."

I did, and yelped when I saw something glowing just above my head. "What is it?" I got up and ran around the room, trying to get away from it. My mom gasped and backed up so that I wouldn't run into her. She looked confused.

"It's a caduceus" Percy answered, "Your dad's symbol. So," he gave me a half smile, "I guess this means you're coming to camp with me?"

I frowned at him. "Are you going to explain all of this to me?"

He thought about it. "No. There's a video at camp that'll do that for me."

"Well then," I said feeling suddenly tired, "I guess we should get to camp."

So, tell me what you think! (please?) and enjoy a life filled with PJ books, fan fiction, and movies *nodnod*

I'm not 100% sure about the ending... but I hope you like it,

God bless