I have recently discovered the gem that is the 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' Series, and was overcome with the irresistible urge to create my own fic. This is the result. Set sixteen years after 'The Last Olympian.'

Disclaimer: I sure as Hades am not Rick Riordan, and thus don't own PJO. And that makes me :(

Read and Review please and thank you.

Mortal

I am mortal. And yes, that is something that needs to be clarified. That is, if you live my life. You see, while I am mortal, not everyone I meet is. Not every one I've befriended or loved or even hated is. I suppose my parents had to be, but I couldn't tell you first hand as I've never met them. And because of that, because of the Fates placing me in that particular orphanage and causing me to befriend that child, this has happened to me. I am a mortal in a half-blood world...

Chapter 1

My name is Raymond. I'm an orphan who was dropped off the moment I could be on the doorsteps of the 'Good Smiles' orphanage in New York. And my life has turned into a living hell.

When did it all begin? I'm not sure. There are numerous points in my life that you could choose from, but I believe I've narrowed it down to one simple day. I was twelve. Yeah, so I was kinda young, but my world isn't exactly age-exclusive. It was the morning of the last day of school, and I was in a rotten mood. I liked school. Yeah, I know what you're thinking: twelve year-old liking school?!? But I did. I went to this awesome sea-side boarding school in California. The weather was amazing, the view was incredible, and we had so awesome extra-circulars. Surfing, rock-climbing, wrestling, hiking, and so on. You could spend a life-time there and not finish it all. Also, my only friends were at that school. I was kind of a nerd and didn't make friends easily. And of course, I didn't want to go back to 'Good Smiles'. I hated it there. I may have been the weird intelligent kid at school, but at the orphanage I was that horrible kid with the large school tuition. Apparently, when I was left on the doorstep of 'Good Smiles', I had a bank account details sheet with me. The account contained sixteen hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, so that rules out being left because my parents couldn't afford me. But I digress.

Anyway, so yeah last day of school. I blinked as the sunlight fell on my closed eyelids, rousing me from my dream. I wasn't to bummed about that. I've never had a pleasant dream in my life. I can't tell you exactly what happens in my dreams, only that they always leave me with a foreboding feeling. But this one in particular I could tell was a doozey. Flashes of fire and storm clouds, pain and shadows, death and misery remained with me. Just the kind of thing a twelve year-old needs in his life. A groan from across the room roused me from my thoughts as my roommate started to move. As I had no desire to be in the room when the jerk woke up, I quickly dressed and headed out for breakfast.

After one uneventful breakfast and boring last day speech I found myself aimlessly wandering the campus grounds. I do that when I'm waiting for something to happen: wander and layout information that I know. First was my Advanced Mathematics exam in an hour. Next was my Phys'Ed class, where we would have a giant game of dodge ball. Then I had my final exam in Basic Psychology (technically a ninth grade class, but my teachers were running out of things to challenge me with.). That would wrap up the tests, as we had all ready had most of our exams in the past couple of days. That just left the going away speech, three hours of chill time, then the agonizing wait for someone from the orphanage to come and pick me up. But I had a feeling something else was going to happen today. Something strange, random and unbelievable. Something like...

"Yo, Ray J! What's the hey?" A voice shouted from behind me. I turned around to find myself tackled to the ground by a large, brown-haired mass.

"Easy Felix. You want a rival for the title of school 'Gimp'?"

My friends. Typical. A hand appeared in front of my face. I grasped it and was immediately pulled to my feet in front of the weirdest group of people you will ever find.

The lead of the group looked like the sun of a surfer champion. Perfect tan, flawless face, athletic stature, wild sandy-blond hair, muscle shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Just give him a board and the image is complete. That is, if it weren't for his storm-grey eyes that radiated intellect and power. Instead, he preferred to spend his time reading. That was my best friend Peter.

Next was his twin sister and absolute opposite, Abigail. Curled black hair, dazzling white smile and beautiful sea green eyes decorated her face, but that was nothing to her loyal and carefree personality. The butterflies that took up residence in my chest started doing backflips when she fluttered her eyes and me and smiled: that is, until she started doing the same thing to every other organism in site. She, not her brother was the surfer of the family.

Then there was Felix, the guy who had tackled me. He could move surprisingly fast when he wanted to, considering he was crippled and walked with a nasty limp. He was short and a little pudgy, with a slightly darker complexion and the makings of a magnificent black-brown Afro.

Then, to wrap up our little group was Alexis. She looked like a rocker chick in miniature: leather jacket, sparkly shirt, jeans with the knees missing, several silver chains and jewellery, long and crazy black hair, and sky-blue eyes. She was lucky that the school encouraged unique style expression of all ages. And of course, she was very polite, understanding and charismatic, if a little over-competitive.

So yeah, that was our group. The bookworm who looked like a surfer, the surfer-chick who looked like a bookworm, the cripple jokester, and the lady-like rocker-chick. Oh, and then you can just throw me in: the freaky intelligent guy with long blood-red hair in a pony-tail, ice blue eyes and (so I've been told) a vaguely psychopathic look. That was us: the outcasts.

"Hey guys." I said, brushing my fair out of my face.

"Finally! Last day of school" Abby exclaimed, punching the air. "We're almost out of here. I've been waiting for summer for so long!"

"Yeah, since about the first day of school." Peter muttered. I laughed, while Abby glared at him.

"So, what are you guys planning for summer this year." Felix asked, as we started to walk.

"Mom and Dad are taking me and Pete to a camp this year" Abby exclaimed immediately. "They said if we liked it there, we can go back next summer! Oh, I know I'll like it. I wanna go back again already!" The rest of us laughed as Peter let out a sigh.

"I don't know what I'm doing." Alexis said as we swerved to avoid a bridge where ninth graders liked to drop water balloons. "My mom called yesterday and said that she had a surprise and that she would be picking me up today."

"Orphanage." I said, leaving it at that. They knew I didn't like talking about my summer residence.

"Well, I'm heading over to Long Island." Felix said. It might have been my imagination, but he seemed to be looking intently at Alexis as he said this. And for the rest of the day, Felix seemed to be watching her, like he was waiting for something to happen. Something bad...

Decided to end it here, in case you were tired of reading long and boring descriptions. More action/adventure in the next chapter. 20 brownie points to the first one to correctly guess the hidden heritage's in this chapter. (Why do you think I didn't use any last names :P)