Megan's POV

This was really turning out to be the worst day ever.

It had started out pretty average. First was Art. There wasn't much to do in Art. Scraping the wooden board had given me bleeding knuckles. Next was MP. MP was our English Teacher, he was by far the worst teacher that I had ever met. At first, he had seemed pretty nice and harmless, but his true nature was revealed when our It's a Wonderful Life started. It's a Wonderful Life was a movie made by Frank Crapra (His actual name was Capra but we changed it into Crapra after realizing how boring and generally pointless the topic was). MP made us study it and write an essay afterwards. The worst part of the whole excruciating torture was the actual watching-of-the-movie itself. Every 3 seconds, MP would pause it and go into a very detailed explanation about why each character did what, why said what they said, etc. After the peak of the movie started, MP would stop the movie every 2 seconds in average. This got to the point of such extreme detail that MP started connecting the points into previous conversations and rewinding the movie until we started watching backwards instead of forwards. This was not the worst thing that happened today though.

As soon as lunch was over, Ms. Liu (Our Form Tutor) told us all to sit down in our form room seats. This was a strange request, but we filed in quietly anyway. "Okay, now. May I introduce to you the newest member of our class, Mr. Nico Di Angelo."

"No you may not!" Hugo whispered loudly. There were a few quiet snickers.

The new boy stepped into the room. He was tall and lean, with jet black hair that just touched his shoulders. His dark chocolate eyes roamed the classroom restlessly. His eyes met mine and slid away. Suddenly he seemed to see someone from across the room, and froze. Something seemed to burn in his eyes but he quickly blinked and it was gone. I looked to who he was staring at. It was Anson. A ghost of a smile slowly slid across his face before being replaced by his usual annoying smirk. His face flickered, and it was momentarily replaced by someone else's. The man was older than Anson, with a mane of hair and different coloured eyes. Then, Anson's usual face was back. I must be losing it. I turned back.

Ms. Liu was addressing the class again, "Now, do you want to introduce yourself, Mr. Di Angelo."

Nico Di Angelo tapped nervously in a strange rhythm. I think it was morse code. "Whoa," He said quietly, "Being with Leo's really rubbing on me." I had no idea what that meant.

He fiddled nervously with his tie. "Hi, guys. I'm Nico Di Angelo. I am Italian. I have one sister, she's in year nine right now." Nico cleared his throat, obviously unsure of what to do.

"Okay. Welcome to Dulwich, man." Chad nodded. Nico was now officially accepted into the guy circles. Chad was the most popular guy in the whole class, if he accepted someone, that someone would be generally accepted with everyone. One of the people who wasn't accepted by Chad was Anson, and Moses, a kind-of nice guy who didn't really understand English. Chad just didn't like his vibe.

Nico fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. He strode purposefully towards the aisle. Wait. No, no, no, no! The only empty seat was next to me!

Sophia and Shelly both looked at me with pity. They knew that I didn't want to sit next to some new guy I didn't even know. This is so sad.

Nico slid into the seat next to me. I knew he was fidgeting with the sleeves again. I risked a glance. He was staring intently at Anson. Some secret communication happened between them. They seemed to be interchanging threats. Anson was still smirking amusedly, and Nico was almost growling. It was a low sound, quiet but threatening. He noticed me staring at him and immediately stopped. "Hi, I'm Nico."

"Hi?" I tried to sound sophisticated but the word came out more like a question.

Next lesson, PE.

Right now, the topic we are doing is T-ball. I actually quite like T-ball. It is one of the only PE Subject that I don't completely embarrass myself in.

Ms. C lined us up into separate teams. I was in a group with Chad, Nicole, Sophia, Nicholas, Sewon, Shelly, Olivia, Ashley and Nico. Strangely, Ashley and Shelly seemed to be bickering loudly over something that no-one cared about. Nico was staring at them intently. A twinge of jealousy shot through me but I pushed it away. It was irrational.

First batter was Sophia. She lined her feet up with the boundary lines and smiled confidently. Swinging the bat with all her might, Sophia hit the ball with a loud crack, sending it soaring over the fielder's heads. As soon as she hit the ball, she dropped the bat and ran towards the first base. Everyone on our team cheered. Next was Lee, and then Jasmine, Ashley, Shelly, Sewon, Nico, me, then Nicholas and Chad. Nico, surprising, was actually pretty good at this. He cracked the bat and it flew all the way into the outfield. He ran the full house. I noticed Sewon, Chad and Nicholas all studying Nico. After he crossed the home line, they nodded as if accepting him into their group.

Lee beside me muttered, "the new boys good at this. He's kinda cute." I felt a twinge of something gnawing at the pit of my stomach. First I couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was, then I realised. It was jealousy.

After school that day, I walked home, carrying my clarinet in one hand. Just as I was about to walk out of the classroom, I heard a commotion in an empty classroom next door, I went to investigate.

Nico was there, along with Anson, and they seemed to be arguing. Nico had his hand fisted in the starch material of Anson's uniform, and was snarling at him through gritted teeth. I couldn't hear what they were saying but it looked intense. I crept closer. Muffled and barely audible, I managed to catch a few words of their conversation.

"…doing here. …Manticore…Mr. D…dead!"

"The General…seven demigods…three of the Big Three…won't save them all. One of Hades,…one of Zeus…one of Poseidon. No protector."

"…gonna kill…. Annabeth…kidnapped…hurt…Luke…dead!"

Nico slammed Anson against the wall. He was radiating a dark aura, powerful and dangerous. In that second, Anson seemed to change. First, his hair lightened and turned a shade of blonde, and then his back humped and something began sprouting out from behind him. With one hand tipped with silver, he slashed across Nico's face, snapping his head backwards. Nico stumbled backwards, taking something from the waistband of his trousers. It was a sword, a real life sword. It was glowing a dark glow, sucking the warmth and light from the room. The thing that had been Anson growled and backed away. It moved towards Nico, snarling aggressively. "I should have killed you back in Westover Hall."

Nico didn't even bother answering. He swung his sword in deadly arc. The thing dodged and quick as a flash, darted its tail under Nico's guard and plunged its stinger into Nico's chest. I gasped. Nico's face turned green and he sunk down on one knee, crumpling to the floor. I screamed; the thing turned around. "Hello Megan, spawn of Apollo."

I scrambled away and down the corridor. There was chattering coming from an opposite hallway and I backed away towards it. Three people rounded a corner and crashed into me. It was Sophia, Ashley and Shelly. Sophia took in my pale face and shocked expression and asked, "what is it, Megan?" I gasped, "Nico was in that classroom. Then Anson did something, changed, and hurt Nico." Ashley snorted, "yeah right. Anson, the wimp, hurt Nico Di Angelo. Last time I checked, he was about twice Anson's height. I'm gonna go see."

She stormed towards the classroom with Shelly and Sophia trailing behind her. I gulped and followed them. In the classroom, Nico was still lying on the floor, motionless. Anson-thing was no-where to be seen.

Ashley snorted, "see, theres nothing." I crept towards Nico. Suddenly, a shadow dropped in front of me and I shrieked. Anson was standing in front of me again, strange tail and monstrous features gone. "Megan, what are you doing here?" I stumbled away, covering my face, "stay away from me." Anson growled. He changed. Sophia and Shelly swore under their breath. Anson's tail whipped forward and I only managed to dodge it.

Sophia was whispering in Shelly. She nodded. Sophia then raised her head and her eyes flashed with defiance. "Hey Anson, look at me you big ugly stupid thing." As she ranted at Anson, who fixated on her in confusion, I saw in the corner of my eye Shelly creeping along the floor towards Nico. Instead of helping him up as I thought she would, Shelly lifted up Nico's long black sword and the black aura seemed to flow around her, enveloping Shelly.

Anson was still staring at Sophia as if she had grown a second head. Shelly crept around Anson and just as Anson was about to get bored of Sophia's speech, Shelly plunged the sword into Anson's back. But no! Anson had moved. He snarled and tossed Shelly aside, the sword falling out of a gaping wound in his side. Shelly landed at the side of the room, she wasn't moving. I screamed. Ashley was running towards Shelly, but the thing was in her way. It snarled, a putrid smell wafted towards me. Ashley screamed and covered her face with her hands. Suddenly, the direction of the wind changed. Nico's sword that had previously been abandoned on the floor flew up into the air, plunging into Anson's back. I covered my mouth in shock. Anson crumbled to the floor, literally. He dissolved into yellow powder that sifted to the ground.

I gasped. Nico on the floor next to me coughed and I knelt down next to him. "Coat pocket." he gasped. I reached into his left coat pocket and brought out a small Tupperware lunchbox. Inside were small cubes of a brown food that looked suspiciously like homemade Turkish Delight. Nico took some out and stuffed them in his mouth. Almost immediately, he looked better. He could stil barely walk, so he leaned on my shoulder and I lead him towards Shelly, who was still lying motionless on the floor. Nico forcefully opened Shelly's mouth and stuffed some Turkish Delight inside. After a while, Shelly began to come to. She smacked her lips and said "Seriously, I faint and you guys force feed me caramel coffee candy." "No," Nico replied doubtfully, "we didn't. Its' ambrosia. Look, since that thing attacked us, we can't stay here. Our ride should be here soon."