"You have got to be kidding me." I said to my parents sitting across the table. "Olympus University? You do know that's a college, right?"

"Yes, honey," my mom said. "We're well aware of that."

"And what about my performance in high school made you think I would last even a day at OU? I have a one-point-eight GPA. The minimum to get in there is, like, five-point-nine."

"Look, it's not about the education," my dad said. "We're not sending you there because we know you're smart enough because, frankly, you're not."

"Poseidon," my mom threatened.

"What? He's my son—he deserves to hear it how it is."

"Poseidon!"

"But apart from that," he said, just brushing her off. "like I said, it's not about the education. I'm the vice-president, your uncle Zeus is the president, and your uncle Hades is the Dean of Students. Because of all that, you pretty much get to go to college for free."

"Well, it's not only about the money," my mom added. "We also do agree that maybe a challenge like this might be good for you."

"Or it might be worse than burning in hell," I said. "I'm more betting on my theory."

"You don't have to make it sound so bad, honey. Maybe if you go into it thinking that it will be great, then it will be."

"That's for optimistic people, mom, and this is no time for optimism. You're talking to me about college—the top college. There is no way in hell that I'm going to humiliate myself by suffering with a bunch of nerds for something I really don't care much about."

"Perseus Jackson, all you've done for the last year is you've sat around and watched TV," my dad stated harshly. "You're going."

Normally, I would never give in this easily, but my dad was using his harsh-voice. And trust me, you don't want to mess with my dad when he's using his harsh-voice. All I could do was groan.

"Good," my dad said while tapping the table. "Then it's all set."

And with that, I was enrolled in the top college in America.

So, let me start from the beginning.

Hi, my name is Percy Jackson. My parents split when I was six and until now, I have been living with my mom and her new husband, Paul, in New York.

As my dad has informed you, after high school, I took a year and two months off. Why? Honestly, I never really bothered to fill out any applications to colleges. The idea of going to school for another four-odd years just didn't sound appealing to me. I also wasn't in the mood to be made fun of by teachers and students again for not being able to read or write very well. I have ADHD and dyslexia so clearly school had never been my strong-suit.

Now ignoring college probably wasn't my smartest move considering I was now on a plane to Seattle where I would be attending OU—the top-slash-hardest college pretty much known to man—but it was too late now.

The fact that I was enrolled in a college I had no desire or intelligence to go to wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was the fact that I was on a six hour plan ride with my dad who was giving me every detail about the college that I was being forced to go to. Every. Detail.

"And there are these walls in the courtyard that kind of stack up like stadium seats. Some of the students like to sit there between classes." He paused. "Well, when it's not raining, at least."

I groaned for about the sixtieth time and he ignored me for about the sixtieth time.

My dad switched topics to something about the dorms when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out and looked at the screen:

New Message: Calypso.

I deleted it. Calypso was my crazy ex-girlfriend who hadn't stopped texting me since we graduated. She pretty publicly dumped me when she found out that I almost cheated on her with this other girl. But come, on—I almost cheated. I was caught before I did. However, even though it was very clear that she dumped me, she still texts me almost every day about anything and everything. Most of the time, she just makes up things just to talk to me: Hey, um, I have a question. Doubt it. Percy, I heard this rumor about you! Don't care. Percy, how have things been?! Great, until now. I pretty much just delete them all.

Clearly, the break-up didn't harm me emotionally at all.

"Okay, passengers, we are about to take our descent into Seattle, Washington," the pilot said over the intercom. "The time is now 2:12 PM Seattle-time on Friday, August twenty-third, and it's about sixty-eight degrees. We were lucky enough to be flying in when it wasn't raining." Some of the passengers—including my dad—laughed. I rolled my eyes. "We should be at the gate and getting you folks off the plane in just about five minutes. Thank you for flying with us and have a great time in Seattle."

The intercom clicked off right at the plane bumped on to the ground. "Well, here we go," my dad said.

"Yup," I said. "I guess so."

The taxi ride wasn't too bad. The campus was just outside of the Seattle area so it didn't make for a very long trip. My dad, however, still kept running his mouth about everything to see and do there. I tried to listen but the fact that I had no desire to go to this school made it very hard.

And, yes, I'll admit it: I was a little nervous.

All I kept thinking about was how fast they could kick me out of that place. I'd probably be the first one to ever flunk out in less than a week. I brought this up to my dad on the plane ride and he just told me to try my best. I could tell that we both knew that "my best" wouldn't be nearly good enough. Then he brought up another idea.

"Well, what about a tutor, son? That might actually be—"

"No."

"But if you just were to try—"

"No."

And that was the end of that.

The campus was in full swing when we pulled up. Hundreds of cars and trucks were parked randomly in the parking lot. I noticed lots of students already struggling to their dorm rooms with probably around forty pounds of stuff on their back.

As we pulled up, some students recognized my dad's dark hair and totally unprofessional Hawaiian shirt and waved to him. As they did this, they noticed me as well and just gazed at me with curiosity and confusion.

"What's their problem?" I asked.

He just shrugged. "Eh, who knows with college kids these days."

The cab stopped in front of the entrance and I stepped out. I got some more curious looks, but I just ignored them as I walked around back to grab our bags from the trunk. My dad paid the driver then stepped out as well to help me. As the cab drove away, all I could think of was, No turning back now.

I kept my head down and glumly walked to my dorm with my dad on my tail. As I was passing a huge building that my dad told me was the school's library, a girl with her head buried in a book was walking out and she knocked into me.

"Sorry," I said, looking up for half a second.

She looked up then as well. She had curly blonde hair that was pulled back in a pony-tail and stormy-gray eyes that, at the moment, burned with annoyance and impatience. She rolled them like balls. "Whatever." Then she stepped around me and continued back to her book as if I wasn't ever there at all.

My dad noticed this and chuckled. "So, you excited?"

"Oh yeah," I said. "Overjoyed."