Chapter one:

Nico's POV

I carefully ignored the nagging voice of "my" astounded "foster mother". She was a tall woman with hawk-like eyes and wispy brown hair. Her lips were narrow and looked like they were frozen into a vicious frown. I flipped my dark bangs out of my eyes and sighed. I wished I would have never volunteered for this job.

You see, two nights ago Chiron had had a meeting that required all of the senior campers to attend. I had gone to the very back of the Big House and sat down preparing to ignore the whole thing unless they said something interesting."So we have BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH orphan demigods BLAH BLAH enough campers BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH any volunteers?" Yeah, that's all I heard of Chiron's speech, but because I was so utterly bored of doing nothing new or interesting at camp, I found myself raising my hand. I had looked around the room to find myself and three others. Percy (duh), Annabeth (duh), and Grover. Chiron had cleared his horsey throat here."Mr. Underwood you are already stationed at a school in Los Vegas. Mr. Jackson you're not allowed to participate in camp activities due to that last prank you pulled on the Aphrodite Cabin. Ms. Chase you have to stay behind to make sure Percy stays on his grounding. Mr. Di Angelo you are our lucky volunteer."

So it had turned out that there weren't enough satyrs to check all of the schools and orphanages too, so they needed poor unfortunate half-bloods to do that for them. I had gotten shipped off in a black minivan to an Orphanage in New York.

The building my "foster mother" is leading me into is a tall winding building with only two, maybe three windows. It's dark and scary. I am gonna like it. Being a Son of Hades did that to you. You begin to like things that everybody else is terrified of.

Hawk-Eyes led me into the orphanage. The floors had this wooden, right out of a Horror movie, feel to it. They moaned and groaned with every step. The wallpaper was peeling so the molding yellow paper fit right in with the air of the house. How could little kids live her?

Hawk-Eyes turned to me her, black eyes flashing." There are rules in this household and I expect them to be followed. Rule Number One; you will only answer me with a yes madam or no madam. None of the traditional teenager attitude will be allowed here! Rule Number two; you will wake up at 5:00 a.m. sharp everyday to begin your morning chores. Late and there will be severe punishment! (She snorted here)Rule Number three; you will NOT speak unless asked to. Am I clear?" she sneered in my face.

"Yep." I muttered. Then I felt a sharp sting on my face. She slapped me. She put her hand on her bulging hip and tapped her foot. "Excuse me?" she yelled. I lifted my chin giving her my famous go to the Underworld glare. I don't know why I was so pissed at that puny slap. It had barely hurt. I guess it was the reason. I very rarely gave people the respect of calling them "madam" or "sir". Maybe Chiron, but definitely not some witchy chick I had just met.

She lifted her hand threatingly. Go on. Slap me again, I thought. She did. I took a deep breath and folded my arm across my chest. "You will obey me or I will send you out on the streets!" she threatened me. I couldn't fail my first lone quest. What choices did I have? Go to camp a failure or suck up my pride and obey Hawk-Eyes.

"Yes Madam." I said with absolutely no respect in my voice. Only defiance. We had a glare off for a second longer until she pointed to the stairs."You will sleep with the other children. Last room on the left." she informed me. "Any more disrespect and I will give you a REAL punishment."I resisted the urge to snort here.

I jogged up the creaking stairs and turned to the left into an eerie hallway. It was the same yellow wallpaper but this one was covered with old scary people's pictures. All of the pictures had the same hawky eyes; wispy brown hair has Madam Hawk-Eyes. Again; how could little kids live here?

I hurried down the hall until I reached a dead end. There was a rotting door with old yellow pictures of the sun, trees, and flowers. I quietly opened the door to find about 4 little kids sleeping in one small, lumpy bed. There were two bigger lumps on the wooden floor next to the bed. I softly closed the door and walked to the corner of the room.

I sat down and leaned my head against the wall. There I fell asleep to the soft, muffled snores of the other kids in the room.