TA-DA! Yeah, Imma geek. Don't hate on the geek though! ENJOYY!

"What? But mother-" I started.

"No butts. You've spent too much time studying alchemy with me, you need to spend some in your father's world. You're going tomorrow."

"But you can't do this to me! I may have forever, but I don't want to spend it at some lame school with dyslexic ADHD kids! Please, let me stay with you mom."

Let me explain what's going on…

Sixteen years ago, I had been born. My mother is the infamous Scathach, who was more than two thousand years old, the founder or karate, and a vampire. My father I had never known, but I knew the name; Hades, the lord of the dead, a non-alchemist, and a known person in Greek mythology.

How my parents ended up together, I don't know, but they didn't stay together very long either – in fact, they separated just after I was born. I guess my dad didn't like the idea of having a vampire/alchemist/immortal daughter.

My mother, Scathach, had taught me alchemy starting at a very young age. I was nowhere near as good as she was, but I could successfully contact ghosts, create golems, and form a spell without obliterating anything. Oh, and I could also see auras bright and clear like a lighthouse. My own aura was pure light – one of the rarest of all auras. By pure light I mean no color at all, just like a light bulb shining.

On the rare occasion I had gotten to come along to see Nicholas Flammel and his wife Perry Flammel, who were top notch alchemists. Perry herself was a genius. She was by far one of the most powerful women I knew.

Let me describe myself – long blond hair that shone red when I was mad, pale skin, my mother's too prominent cheekbones and chin, rosy red lips, and the weirdest of all; I had one emerald green eye, and one dark gray eye. My mom said it was a combination of her and my dad, and also that I was lucky that I didn't end up like other demigods. Apparently normal demigods were dyslexic and ADHD, and constantly pursued by monsters of sort. I guess I could be called lucky that I had never encountered a monster in my life.

I had learned karate, and was the equivalent of a ninja. I knew complicated series of punches that could knock a person dead in two second flat. My weapons; two double-sided curved swords. Both were half iron, half celestial bronze.

My mother and I constantly fought. Our current fight was her wanting me to go to some freak school in New York – which was on the other side of the country (I live in California) – and wouldn't take no as an answer.

"Why?" I breathed. My hair was starting to grow red at the tips, and even though REAL vampires have no emotion, I felt angry for once.

"Because. You've spent sixteen years with me–your whole life –and your physical growing has stopped. You've matured more than any one of those demigods have, but there's some business I need to attend to."

"But why can't I come with you on this business? I don't want to go to some random fighting camp! I could just stay here, alone, even. Please!"

"I'm sorry, Natalie. But you're going. End of conversation."

I stomped off to my room in the back corner of my mom's mini-dojo in San Francisco and slammed the door shut, rattling the door frame. My open duffel bag sat on my bad with wrinkled clothes scattered all around it. I stuffed a dozen random pairs of destroyed skinny jeans in to the bag, a couple off tee shirts, a few tank tops, my Stanford sweater, a pair of high-top black Converse, black flip flops, and my all-white yoga clothes. I threw my toothbrush, a hairbrush, and a few other essentials in before zipping my bloated duffel bag closed, then collapsed on my bed and cried.

I bit down on my lip with my razor-sharp fangs to keep from crying out loud. I lit a small black flame in my hand and blankly stared at it. No stinking demigod would understand me, or what I did. No one would ever understand. I almost considered burning my plane ticket at that moment, but that would be letting my mom down.

I left for the plane an hour later, and arrived alone in New York eight hours later, at 6 A.M. in the morning.

I spent the day wandering around New York aimlessly, and then set out for Long Island an hour before midnight. I took a taxi to the base of the hill where I paid the taxi driver, who drove away with a confused look on his face. Duffel bag in hand, I walked up the hill to observe the camp.

First thing I noticed: A tall pine tree with a golden blanked draped over a low branch with a small dragon coiled around the base of the tree. I lightly patted him on the head, and he nuzzled into my hand. Second thing I noticed: the camp was fairly big – there was a strawberry patch, two rock-climbing walls, and about fifty cabins each styled differently scattered closely to the ocean in the back.

I tugged nervously on my waist-length braid. Next thing I knew, there was some random uber-buff girl standing in front of me.

"Hey, are you lost?" she asked me. Her voice was gruff, and a little scary.

"No."

"Well then… why are you up here?"

"Because my mother sent me here to be with a bunch of kleptomaniac demigods. Is that good enough for you?"

She grabbed me by the back of my shirt and dragged me down towards a sky blue building that stood at least four stories tall. "Rule one, never insult a daughter of Ares," she growled menacingly.

"Or what?"

"Or you get the newbies treatment."

I twisted around and punched her in the lower gut, chest, and right above her right hip. She fell backwards, paralyzed for the moment.

"Yeah? Well guess what? If you mess with me then you end up hurt. Got it?"

She nodded her head rapidly, obviously freaked out that she couldn't move. I pressed a spot on her left shoulder, and she sprung up, suddenly able to move.

"How'd you do that?" she asked, flexing her hands.

"I'm an expert in tae kwon do. So where were you taking me again?"'Oh yeah, to the Big House."I followed behind her the rest of the way to the "Big House". If you think about it, someone wasn't very creative with their naming.

We walked inside to find to men playing a card game I believe is Pinochle. One was small and pudgy with purple-y black hair, and the other was a centaur. They looked up at me from the game and stared.

"Who is this, Clarisse?"

She scratched her head sheepishly. "Someone I found on top of the hill. I never actually caught her name…"

"My name is Natalie."

"Do you have a last name?"

Now that I think about it, I didn't have a last name. "Uh… no. I have no last name."

They all gave me weird looks.

Well I'm sorry, but they didn't have last names when my mother or even grandmother was born, I thought.

"What? Do you, Dionysus, or you, Chiron, have last names?"

"Wait, you know who we are?"

"Well I had to guess that you were who you are counting on your appearances. Plus, Chiron, in Greek mythology, weren't you the only centaur who had any interest in being um… smart?"

He stared blankly at me. "How do you know that?"

"Books. Lots and lots of books about mythology."

"But demigods are dyslexic… how could you read?"

I shrugged. "I'm not a normal demigods – I'll say that much. I'm not dyslexic or ADHD, but I have other things that demigods probably don't."

"Like?"

"Never mind."

"Well, seeing as you know so much about the world of demigods, monsters, and gods, then have you already been claimed?"

"No."

"Do you know who your parent is?"

"Yes."

"Care to tell me who?"

"No. He's a jerk that shunned me my whole life."

Chiron facepalmed. "Most all demigods have that feeling at one point or another about their godly parent. It's normal. But we need somewhere to place you, so can you please tell me who your godly parent is?"

I sighed. "Fine. My father is Hades."

Clarisse, Chiron, and Dionysus gasped. "But the big three haven't had any children other then Nico, Percy, and Thalia! Are you sure?"

"Yes. My mother told me exactly who he was."

He looked quite shocked. "How long have you known?"

I thought about that one for a minute. "As long as I can remember. My mom always told me what a heartless jerk he was and all that."

"Well that would be very… honest about his true nature." Out of boredom, I naturally started conjuring little balls of fire in my hand.

"How are you doing that?" Dionysus suddenly asked.

I extinguished the fire. "Doing what?"

"The fire in your hand."

"Oh, uh…" Great, how do I get myself out of this one? "Magic?"

I will continue this another time, I've already gone over how much I normally write. So, whataya think?