A / N: This story ... never mind, I'll let you read it for yourselves. You might notice one or two demigods from the books, but I made up the majority of the characters. Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is Rick Riordan's, anything you don't is mine.

1

I drummed my fingers impatiently on my laptop keyboard, waiting for my nail polish to dry while breathing in the smell of freshly made pasta that was wafting up into my bedroom. I heard the clinking of multiple plates as the many dishes were washed. I blew my hair out of my face impatiently. This is what my life is like. My Dad and I live in a small apartment above an Italian restaurant in lower Manhattan. The owners of the restaurant are Mr and Mrs Balboni. They are old friends of my Dad from Italy (that's where he's from). They're nice enough. They're just like family. They let us rent the apartment for a small fee, and basically every night they gave us dinner sized 'free samples'.

I lifted my laptop off my lap using my fingertips and got up from my bed, hearing the springs creak wearily. I had been trying to do homework, but my hyperactive brain didn't really cope well with that. I had ADHD. Serious ADHD. I mean, I was good in class and all, I just hated the idea of using your time off school to do more things for school. I glanced around my room. Blue number one ribbons littered my pin board from multiple sports carnivals along with a few faded pictures. Running was one of the few things I actually enjoyed. It gave my time to think, the repetitive pounding of my footsteps putting my mind at ease.

I looked in the mirror, a simple square of reflective glass with a wooden border. A slim girl with a strong, lithe, frame stared back at me, built like the great long-distance runner that she was. Her features of electric blue eyes and long wavy black hair was the only thing I really noticed. No one else looked at the rest anyway. Just that face. I knew I wasn't ugly, but everyone else thought that I was stunning. Not that it rose my self-esteem. I could be popular if I wanted, but to be honest, I hated attention. I wasn't that type of person. I mainly stuck to myself, doing all the activities set in my way alone, not accepting any help. To be fair, I hadn't always been like that. There was to be a whole different Maia Lightwood that was into everything and had heaps of friends, but that girl was long gone. Suddenly a sharp knock on the restaurant door broke me out of my reverie. Silence. Then another knock. I frowned. The restaurant wasn't open on Sundays. I climbed out my bedroom window and onto the fire escape, resting my hip on the rusty railing. On peering down, I saw it was my Latin teacher, Mr. Gleeson. I suppressed a laugh, thinking of what he'd said to me on my first day of school.

'It's always a good sign if you've made friends on your first day,' he'd said.

I'd replied, quoting one of my favourite movies, 'If the only friend I've made is my Latin teacher, that's kinda depressing,'

We'd laughed about it afterwards, though we both knew it was a tiny bit true. Then I bit my lip. Why was he here? I'd passed all my tests and got good marks...

"Dave, it's for you!" Mrs Balboni trilled, her voice echoing up the stairs.

"Coming!" came my Dad's muffled voice from the kitchen.

I went to climb back into my room until I heard a loud "Maiaaaaaa!" from across the street. I turned around to see Seamus Temple from my school leaning against the broken window of a shop across the street, his aviator sunnies dangling from one hand, an empty beer bottle in the other.

"Hey baby," he called, grinning lazily with drunk pleasure.

I rolled my eyes and climbed back through the window. Seamus had been asking me out for months, but to be honest, he was a complete jerk. His family was extremely rich, and they owned a more than a dozen of houses all around America, which just made Seamus feel even more superior. Just because all the others girls were all mooney eyes over him, didn't mean I had to be. For them, he was the perfect barbie boy, complete with the blonde hair and blue eyes, which, apart from him being a total dumbo, was not my style. Actually, I'd never been interested in boys that way. The only downside was that the other girls at my school hated me, because to them, rejecting Seamus was a criminal offence.

I turned my attention back to the more pressing problem. The fact that my Latin teacher of all people had just arrived on my doorstep for no apparent reason. I heard the thumping of footsteps as Mr Gleeson made his way upstairs, beginning to make small talk with my Dad. I crept out of my bedroom and pressed my ear to the kitchen door. Dad and Mr Gleeson were talking in hushed voices now, so I could only catch snippets of their conversation.

"What is it?" Dad muttered.

"One of them has caught up with you," Mr Gleeson answered severely.

To me it meant nothing but nonsense, but I could almost hear my Dad catch his breath.

"Does this mean...?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yes. It's time Maia knows about her Mum,"

My heart froze. My Dad never talked about Mum. She left us. She abandoned us. My dad hadn't told me anything about her, except that she left just after I was born and only came back to give birth to my little sister Emma. Then she left again. Mom and Dad met in Italy, but they moved to New York when I was born. I can't even believe she had the nerve to come back when she found out she was pregnant with Emma. Emma. Emma was a long story short. Last year she disappeared, and we just never found her. One of those mystery cases I guess. It was Thanks Giving and all the kids were playing hide and seek, yelling and screaming in excitement. We found all of them except we never found her. It was like a nightmare coming to life. The police sent out heaps of search parties out to look for her, but with no result. She was only eleven. Way too young to... to get lost. We were as close sisters as you could get, too. It was one of those rare circumstances where two siblings actually got along. Everyone said she looked like a mini me, with us both having our startlingly blue eyes and jet black hair. Her disappearance was basically the reason I ended up like this. As soon as she went missing, my life started to go down hill. I went to a school for 'special' kids, and got expelled from most other schools. The thing was that everything that happened wasn't my fault. In year seven I got expelled for stealing my maths teacher's new motorbike, when really, I just asked and he'd actually said yes. This year was similar. I'd gotten expelled for sabotaging a school excursion just because I read all the museum plaques in Greek. And that wasn't even the worst thing I'd done. Is it true that I'm a troubled teen? Maybe. Personally, I think that's a little harsh. I wasn't troubled, I was just sad. And lonely. Definitely lonely.

There was a knock on my door, and Dad poked his head in. I had a inkling on what was coming next.

"Maia? Pack a bag. You and Mr Gleeson are leaving," he said sternly, but it seemed to be hard for him to say the words without his voice breaking.

Actually, I hadn't known that was coming next.

"What do you mean, leaving?" I said shakily.

I would've thought it was I joke if I had not seen my Dad's expression. Was he actually just shipping me off? Was that why Mr Gleeson was here? Here would he be taking me? The questions pounded my brain so much that it hurt.

"Maia. Do as I said. You're going with Mr Gleeson. Just pack,"

That's when I did the why-it's-not-fair-tell-me-more-I-don't-want-to-leave thing. When I finished I caught my breath and looked defiantly up at Dad.

"Why?" I said with finality.

He hesitated. "Because you are a Demigod. Don't ask," he added when I opened my mouth. "Mr Gleeson will tell you all you need to know,"

I caught my tongue. Demigod. The word rang in my head. Demi = half. God = ...well, god. It wasn't hard to do the math. Still, it made exactly the amount of sense as when Mr Balboni gave me pasta in a taco.

Mr Gleeson came into my room (something that did not earn him any brownie points) to stand next to Dad, like Dad had asked for backup. Dad nodded at him and retreated back into the kitchen. I looked at him and ... well, I screamed. I know it wasn't the best reaction, but what would you do if you saw that your Latin teacher was part farm animal?

Something was seriously wrong here. For one; he had no pants on. Two; where his legs were meant to be there was a pair of furry hind quarters and hooves. I back up against the wall, breathing heavily.

"Calm down Maia. Pack,"

"You... You're..." I stuttered wildly.

"Maia," he said firmly.

"Um, is that, like, a costume?" I said weakly, knowing full well that it wasn't.

"Maia Lightwood. You must pack," he repeated, louder this time.

I could hear the urgency in his voice, so I swallowed and nodded. In about a minute my world had been turned upside down. That was how pathetic my life was. I started to pack my clothes into my Sportsgirl duffle bag, along with a couple other souvenirs.

Dad poked his head in again. "Come,"

I bit my lip and followed. Mr Gleeson leaped ahead, his hooves only touching the stair since on the way down. I cuddled myself into my blue hoodie. Dad pushed open the creaky door of the restaurant, lifting it up a little when it stubbornly refused to open. Dad won the battle of the door, and we stepped outside where Mr Gleeson was waiting. His furry legs were leaning against a bright purple car that had TAXI printed in yellow on the side, like a car that's a taxi wannabe. Meanwhile Mr Gleeson was casually devouring a tin can through teeth that really shouldn't have been able to chew it.

"Maia, get in the taxi," he said.

"What? You want me to follow a half donkey?" I retorted, my voice still shaking a little.

I was not following a... whatever he was, into a car alone. Dad gave me a stern look, but Mr Gleeson didn't seem fazed.

"Half goat actually. Some satyrs would trample you for such an insult," he replied calmly. "Just please get in the taxi!"

I got in, or more like I was peer pressured by one person to get in. God, that doesn't make sense does it. Once in the car/taxi, I had a feeling things were going from bad, to worse.

"Satyr? Like from the myths?" I asked, racking my brain for anything I remembered from my history class.

"Yes, but do I look like a myth?" he said incredulously, taking the wheel.

I sighed. "Ok, no,"

I turned over my shoulder at looked back desperately at Dad. He gave a small wave, but he too seemed to only just be holding it together. I could tell he was thinking the same thing. We'd already lost half of the family, we shouldn't leave each other too. I blinked back on coming tears and turned back to look at the road. The car lurched and squeaked as it took to the asphalt.

"Where are we going?" My voice was breaking.

"The only place safe for half-bloods,"

"Half-bloods as in Demigods?" I queried, hoping that asking stuff would take my mind off leaving.

"Yes. Camp Half-Blood,"

Wow. Now he just made me feel like some sort of half breed. Hold on. Did that mean that my mom wasn't mortal? My stomach lurched just as much as the wannabe taxi. I gave a furtive glance at Mr Gleeson, but his face showed that discussion was over.

Most of the trip was in silence. I looked at my reflection in the window, terrified eyes, and a sharp angled face. It was hard to tell in the reflection but I was pretty sure my skin was a lot paler. Basically, I looked a mess. My clothes were torn and I'm not sure where my shoes had gone. I wanted to go home, but I couldn't. Everything had changed.

"Maia, don't look out the window," said Mr. Gleeson suddenly

Naturally, I looked out the window, and that was my first mistake. A monster was peering in at me. Not just your typical spiky monster, but a monster with nine necks, each topped with it's own scaly snake head, and I hated snakes.

"What is that?" I squeaked.

"I vaguely remember telling you not to look,"

I rolled my eyes, but my heart wasn't in it. I was terrified. "But what is that thing?"

"A Hydra. If you were stupid enough to cut off a head, two more would grow in it's place." he said, somehow managing to be calm.

"Oh, because I was totally thinking of doing that." I said sarcastically, smiling weakly.

He floored it. I decided this car definitely couldn't be normal, because I doubted any car could go that fast. I was sure that the speed cameras must have been going crazy. I could hear the clicking of claws on the road pounding after us. Suddenly the Hydra lunged for the tyres and the taxi screeched to a halt as the tyres deflated with a sharp hiss.

"Was that meant to happen?" I asked, trembling.

"Erm, no. But the magical barrier is just at that pine tree over there, it protects the camp from monsters. The Hydra won't be able to cross it. You'll be safe there. When I open the door run straight to the pine tree and you'll be safe." he told me, and expression of terror crossing his face for a split second, but was then replaced with scary calmness.

He was speaking that rapid machine gun fire way of his, which always took me a few seconds decipher. My head was about to explode. Hydra? Magical barrier? Demigod? When he was either History teacher, or goat dude, he was confusing.

"And you?" I said, hoping he wouldn't go and commit suicide for me or something because that was the way it was looking.

"I'll be following." he said grimly.

That's when the car door came ripping off its hinges.

"Run!" he yelled.

I ran. Blood trickled from a new cut above my eye, emitting a large amount of oozing liquid, but I kept running. My sneaker caught on a branch and I was pulled back. I heard the clattering of claws behind me. I tugged my foot desperately. The branch won and my sneaker came flying off the branch as well as my foot. I followed its fall as it landed right in the eye of one of the scaly monster heads. The Hydra hissed and shook the shoe of it's face. Great. Now I'd made it angry. Not pausing to cover my foot, I continued running. Small rocks and twigs cut my bare foot as I sprinted to the tree, it's bristly leaves swaying in the wind. I heard someone shout out, and went to turn around but I remembered Mr Gleeson words. Run. Black spots danced over my eyes. I saw a big house, with honey suckle growing around it. A pretty thing in the midst of a crisis. For everything that was going on, the cottage seemed out of place. That house was the last thing I saw, before I blacked out.