Hello! This is my first fan-fiction and I'm not very good, so bear with me please! Also, I so do not own any of the Percy Jackson books or characters. This is my plot and characters so don't steal them! Or I will hunt you down and kill you. With an icicle. Thanks, hope you like it! :)

Friday morning in the library of The Hampton School of Arts

"Hey guys!" I said as I ran up to my friends.

"Hi Marina!" They chorused back, staring at something in the middle of their little table in the middle of the library.

I stopped running and walked slowly towards them, taking a moment to look at them all. Delilah, or Lilah, was slightly swaying side to side, with her light-brown hair swishing around her face. Her blue eyes glinted with excitement. To her right was Autumn, who had long brown hair, blue eyes, and the best complexion around. It just wasn't fair. On Autumn's right was Eliana, Ellie for short. She was the smallest of our group, but the most noticeable with her brown hair dip-died purple. Her blue eyes were shining with laughter, as she pointed to whatever that was in the middle. Lastly, on Ellie's right was Umitoni, or Toni. Toni is African-American, and you can always find her long black hair in a braid. Her golden-brown eyes are almost always focused on some small mechanical device that she takes apart and puts back together. And then there's me. I'm the tallest with long curly black hair that I pin back on one side with a barrette. I have sea-green eyes that change slightly with my mood.

I finally reached them and demanded, "What are you looking at? You didn't properly greet me!"

Lilah, looking a little ashamed, skipped to my side and gave me a hug. "Welcome sister!"

I rolled my eyes as I hugged her back. "That's more like it."

Then, of course, it turned into a group hug, where I was the middle. "Guys! Can't breathe!" I gasped.

"Sorry!" They winced, letting their death grip on me loosen.

Then Autumn spoke up. "Look what I was given by Mrs. Hofmeister!"

"What is it?" I asked, confused. Nothing Mrs. Hofmeister would give us could be good. She was reputed to be the worst headmistress in the whole tri-state area in New York. And we aren't even native New Yorkers! We all are Minnesotans

"Apparently, there's going to be a new RICH student coming here, and they are throwing a party for his arrival! And the whole school is invited!" squealed Ellie and Autumn.

I raised my eyebrows at Toni. "Ookay?"

She shrugged. "I don't really know. I just smiled and nodded."

Ahh... Smart!" I winked at Toni

"Hey! I heard that!" Autumn said, giving me a slight punch to the arm.

"Aw! You know I love you!" We grinned at her.

Autumn gave us one last glare before including us in her discussion. "So, the party is formal and that means dress and shoe shopping everyone!"

"Oh no," we groaned. Letting Autumn shop was scary.

"Well, we could make an adventure out of it," offered Ellie.

We shared a 4-way glance. Ellie's ideas normally ended up dangerous.

Saturday at the mall

"ELLIE! You weren't supposed to tell the poor guy!" Lilah giggled, her hand clamped over her mouth.

"Well, how was I supposed to know," huffed Ellie, affronted.

"The damage is done guys. I'm never going to be able to shop in this store again," sighed Autumn.

We all walked quickly to the door, avoiding each others glances. Once we were free of the clerk's hurt gaze, we flopped down on a bench in the middle of the mall.

"It's okay, we got the dresses," I reassured her. "Now all we need are shoes."

The store in question, I won't reveal its name, was Autumn's favorite for dresses.

"Well, there's always Payless, I guess," shrugged Autumn.

We all groaned. Payless was on the other side of the mall. Just then, I heard a train whistle. I turned to my friends with a huge grin plastered on my face.

"What are you thinking..." asked Lilah warily.

"Let's ride the train to Payless!" I shouted, jumping up from my seat on the bench.

Ellie gasped. "Let's do it!" she squealed.

Toni shrugged. "Why not? Beats walking."

Autumn and Lilah were still on the fence. "But...but...in a mall?"

All of a sudden, the train came into view. It wasn't too big, just large enough for me to fit in one of the cars.

"Pleeaasse? I haven't even been on a train before," I begged, kneeling in front of them.

"Oh, fine," they grumbled.

I signaled the train to stop. "Do you go past Payless by any chance?" I asked the conductor.

He raised his eyebrows. "Yes," he said, confused, like, "Why would 5 teenagers want to know if I go past Payless?"

"Awesome! You just picked up 5 new passengers!" Ellie exalted, climbing into a train car.

We quickly followed and made train sounds the entire way to Payless. Honestly, I think the conductor was glad to be rid of us. Who knows, though! We were probably the most interesting passengers he's ever had.

As we walked into Payless, Autumn squealed. "Look at those shoes! They are PERFECT!"

We stare at her as she flips out over her deep red heels.

"Okay..." Toni said, backing away a little.

Autumn glared at her. "Hey. Go find some black heels. Now."

Toni nodded sharply, saluted her, and turned on her heel to find some black heels.

"Ellie, you too," Autumn said, motioning with her head to follow Toni.

Ellie also saluted Autumn and then proceeded to skip over to Toni. We watched her grab the biggest heels and try them on. She stood up, walked towards us and then promptly fell flat on her face.

"Omigosh! Are you okay?" Lilah and I asked as we rushed to her prone figure on the floor, as Autumn started laughing.

"Uh...can I just die now?" groaned Ellie.

"I give you...a 10!" we heard Autumn shout while clapping.

Toni slipped the stilettos off of Ellie's feet. "Yeah, these are a no."

"What were you thinking, wearing those huge shoes? You know you have horrible balance," Lilah pointed out.

"And why is Autumn clapping?" I asked, pointing an accusing finger at her.

"Yeah. Why are you laughing at me?" asked Ellie, propping herself up on an elbow.

Autumn kept laughing, oblivious to Ellie's question. We stared at her until she realized that we were.

"What?" she asked, finally calming down.

"Why were you laughing so hard? And only a ten? I thought I deserved at least an eleven," Ellie said, sitting up.

"The look on your face was priceless!" giggled Autumn. "Whomp! Down you went!"

"Whomp? I thought it was more of a thunk," said Toni thoughtfully.

"No, you're both wrong. It was a thump," disagreed Ellie.

I raised my eyebrows at Lilah. Why were they discussing this?

Lilah shrugged and then whispered to me, "They're crazy. Who knows?"

I nodded. It was true, they were crazy.

After a few more minutes, Lilah clapped her hands together. "Time to go back to looking for shoes."

Ellie groaned, Toni sighed, and Autumn raised her fist in the air, "Yes!"

Autumn gave us directions after some thought and looking back at our dresses.

"Ellie, look for black or purple heels, but not to high," she cautioned. "Toni, still black heels, Lilah, silver ones. And Marina...hmm...silver or black I guess."

"Aye aye, Captain!" I said, following Toni.

Autumn grinned and then turned to help Lilah find some silver shoes.

Finally, we all had our shoes picked and checked out. Lilah found some silver heels, Ellie found purple ones, Toni and I both got black pairs, and Autumn ended up with her red ones.

"Where to next?" I asked to anyone.

"FOOD!" yelled Ellie. "I'm so HUNGRY!"

As one, we rolled our eyes. Ellie was always hungry. She had hollow legs and could just keep eating. Once, when we were at Lilah's for a sleepover, Ellie ate 10 pancakes by herself!

Lilah shook her head. "Nope! Time to go to my house, my dad's making pasta for lunch."

Ellie's eyes widened. "PASTA!" she yelled, jumping up and down. "Let's go now!"

Lilah shrugged. "Fine by me!"

Autumn smiled. "Well, we found all of our stuff! So let's go!"

Ellie cheered and raced off to the car.

"Uh, Ellie? That's the wrong way..." I said, starting to where the car actually was parked. "It's this way."

"Oh. Sorry," Ellie said, her head hanging. A moment later she was blowing past us yelling, "Last one to the car is a rotten egg!"

Autumn gasped and sprinted after her. "No fair!"

I sauntered after saying, "I've got the KEYS."

Toni and Lilah laughed with me. They were going to be locked out!

Getting ready

"Time for the party!" sang Autumn, twirling around in her sparkly red dress.

Ellie, coming out of the bathroom in her purple dress, grabbed her arm and together they danced the tango, with Toni humming the music. Lilah rolled her eyes and dashed into the bathroom.

"My turn to change!" she yelled.

I presented myself to Toni. "May I have this dance?"

Toni bowed, her gold dress shining in the light. "Of course!"

And so we danced. Or, at least until Lilah came out of the bathroom.

"Lilah! Hurry up!" I called, still dancing with Toni.

"I'm hurrying," she grumbled, finally coming out, straightening her silver dress embroidered with flowers.

I smiled sweetly. "Thank you! You're the best! And here's your partner!" I said, as I twirled Toni to Lilah. "Good luck!"

I grabbed my blue-green dress out of the bag and ran to the bathroom. I quickly changed, shimmying into the silky fabric. Then, I applied makeup sparsely, not knowing how much I should use. I looked in the mirror to inspect myself. I shrugged. Looks good to me!

I came out looking for my shoes and came up empty. That's when I realized I was alone. I heard voices downstairs and knew that they were either planning a mutiny or hiding my shoes. I went with the latter.

I held my dress up with one hand and the other held onto the railing as I counted the stairs. "5 6 7...7 8 9!"

"What are you doing?" I demanded, standing in front of them.

"Trying to find our shoes..." they replied, looking around.

"Huh. Yours too?" I asked, peering around.

All of a sudden, Lilah's face paled. "Cailey," she whispered.

Cailey is Lilah's notorious dog. She steals shoes, socks, anything she can get her paws on.

We give a concerned 5-way glance and then, as one, we rush up the stairs.

"DAD! Does Cailey have our shoes?" asked Lilah, panicked. If Cailey had our shoes...

Lilah's dad looked at us funnily. "I put them in the closet so Cailey wouldn't get them."

"Whew!" we sighed, relieved.

We got our shoes and then posed for a couple pictures.

"Bye!" we waved as we climbed into my car.

"Drive safe!" Lilah's dad called after us.

I cranked the radio and we sang until we got to the school. As I pulled in, we stared at the amount of cars.

"Well, this kid sure is popular," commented Toni.

As I locked my car, we walked to the party-carefully. With our luck, we'd all fall.

We got to the ticket booth and handed the guy our tickets. He stamped them and gave them back with a wink, "Have fun ladies."

We smiled nervously at him and walked away.

"He was just like France from Hetalia!" Ellie muttered to us, as we were trying to find a table.

"Hey! Over here!" a friendly voice yelled.

I jumped and turned while everyone else just turned around.

"Hi Beech!" I called, relieved.

We made our way over to our friend. Beech is on the scrawny side with sandy colored hair. He had a black suit on and was waving energetically at us.

"I didn't know you were coming!" Ellie yelled, hugging him.

Beech blushed and muttered,

"Yeah."

Beech, if you haven't noticed, is very shy and Ellie likes to invade his personal space. Because it's Ellie. And Ellie is special. We sat down around the table and watched people come in, making stories about them. It was very entertaining, especially with Lilah. When we all had apparently arrived, a tall dark man in a suit stood on a platform to speak.

"Welcome. We are so glad you could make it here tonight to celebrate Jackson's arrival..."

I tuned out after that. It was all thank you's and boring stuff like that. So, instead, our table concentrated on dancing in our chairs and singing under our breaths to either One Direction, Justice Crew, or The Wanted.

"Thank you for listening. May the party begin!" he said as he stepped down from the platform.

We cheered silently at our table. The DJ started off with a slow dance, lucky us! We just practiced this!

I got up and bowed to Toni. Autumn did the same to Lilah and Ellie did it to Beech. Toni took my hand and we danced the waltz along with Autumn and Lilah and Ellie and Beech. We got some weird looks, but we're used to that. Once the song was over, we stayed and danced (normally) to a couple more songs before we sat back down. Halfway through the party, we were served cake.

"Cake!" Ellie gasped, digging in.

We grinned. Hooray for cake! It was marble and very tasty. That was when a boy of medium height, blond-ish hair and blue eyes stepped up to the platform.

"Hello," he began hesitantly. "My name is Jackson."

Utter silence followed his words.

He smiled then. He had very white teeth. "I'm very happy you all toke the time to welcome me here. I'm excited to be learning here and I'm sure we will become great friends," he then exited the platform and stood in the middle of the dance floor. "I would like to show you my pet lizard. Her name is ChiChi and she's very sensitive to loud noises, so please be quiet."

Then a large man with what I assumed was the lizard, came to stand by Jackson. "Here she is," Jackson said proudly, holding a leash hat was attached to a large lizard.

Beech gasped, and moved in front of our view.

"Beech," I frowned. "You make a better door than window."

"No! It can't be!" he muttered, looking around frantically. Then his eyes landed on the five of us and his eyes widened. "No! No!"

"Beech, what's wrong?" asked Lilah, her brow furrowed.

"Nothing," he stuttered.

Ellie frowned. "Then why are you blocking our view of the lizard?"

Beech opened his mouth and then closed it. "It's not what it appears to be," he warned quietly.

Autumn shrugged. "I just want to see the lizard," she said, pushing Beech away.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

When he moved away, what we saw wasn't a lizard. It wasn't even a snake.

"Ohmigosh," Lilah said, backing up into Autumn.

It was a two-headed snake, an Amphisbaenia from Greek mythology. All what we thought was true, was wrong.