Riley sat beneath a shady tree, sketch book in hand. She was tired and bored that day, so she didn't really feel like talking to her friends. Her pencil scarred the blank page with its granite lines. To tell the truth she had no idea what she was drawing. In fact, Riley was paying so little attention to the picture, that she might as well have been making scribbles. So much was on her mind. Why were three people following her around like lost puppies? They'd been at school for two months! They should know how everything worked by now!

Damn it!, Riley thought, slamming her pencil down. Even drawing doesn't help! In despair, she buried her head into her lap, and hugged her knees to her chest. Riley hated worrying about things. It wasted her time and didn't help anyone. But this situation just simply wouldn't leave her alone!

"Hi Riley!"

"Gah!", the girl screamed and jumped in her seat.

Speaking of which…

Riley whipped her head to see behind her. Right there, at the foot of the tree right next to her, was Jessica. She was one of the people she was having a problem with. Freshmen were usually annoying without the obnoxious attitude and the tendency to follow you around everywhere you go, but Jessica was the worst.

"Jeez! Don't scare me like that!", Riley shouted in protest and caught her breath.

"Watcha doin?", Jessica asked, rocking back and forth on her toes.

Riley sighed. "Well, I was drawing," she answered. Looking down at the paper, Riley was surprised to find that she did draw something moderately decent. It was a wolf running through a snowy wood, leaping over a small hill. That annoyed her. Normally, she couldn't draw any kind of animal for her life, and it took an annoying situation and a frustrated attitude to make it possible.

"Wow, you're good," Jessica complemented, leaning over Riley's shoulder.

"Thanks," was the emotionless reply. Now, don't mistake Riley for rude. Usually she was quite happy to hear complements about her art, but she was a tad miffed at the fact that she could only draw something with fur when she was in a bad mood. Closing the book of blank pages (save for a select few) Riley stood and began to walk off.

"So Riley," Jessica said, ignoring the girl's obvious desire to be left alone and following her. "What do you want to do?"

"Sleep," she replied honestly. Jessica giggled

"Yeah, they should give us longer time to sleep in."

"Uh-huh," Riley answered with no emotion. Normally she was the liveliest on the particular subject, but Jessica had discovered this rather quickly and the conversation tired in Riley's interest.

"School should start at like, twelvein the afternoon," she continued, refusing to acknowledge that Riley wasn't interested. There weren't many ways to get Riley to interact with others in conversation unless you got her into a speech about how much she hated something or if she was talking about anime. Jessica could pay better attention when it was just regular teen whining.

"Yeah."

"Anyway," Jessica said, realizing that Riley wasn't going to cooperate, "So what did you think of the history test?"

"I did good I think, but I didn't study for it," she said. Even bragging wasn't fun anymore. Riley's best subject was history as long as she actually read the chapters.

"Hm, lucky," Jessica muttered. Apparently she failed it. She started to rattle on about how she hated school, and history, and tests, but Riley pretty much just ignored her. As they walked, Riley's miscolored eyes were drawn to one of her friends. Danielle was standing a few yards away and had already noticed her.

'SOS!', Riley mouthed to her. Danielle looked pityingly at her friend, but went back to the conversation she was having before. In return, she got a deathly glare from Riley. She was rather famous for those, mainly because she could hold it for twenty minutes when she felt like it. But Jessica didn't give her opportunity to. She'd apparently spotted the other two people who wouldn't cease to bother her. Riley inwardly groaned, but didn't give the effort to hide how annoyed she was as Jess dragged her away.

"Hi Riku! Hi Nico!" Jessica spouted happily as Riley was pulled over.

"Hi Jessica! What's up?" Riku asked.

"Hey," was all the hyperactiveteen managed to get out of Nico. Surprisingly Riley sort of liked Nico, when she was in an honest conversation withhim that didn't seem so forced like with the other two most of the time. Riku was alright too. He was smart and kind, but the relationship that should'veexisted between Jessica and him was so obvious even to Riley that she literally almost gagged whenever they were around each other. Another thing that was better withNico than with the others was that he at least had the decency to look like he really didn't want to be there. Although he never said it outright, he made it obvious that Riley's suspicions were true that they were following her. Whenever she looked at him, and he happened to be watching her, he might as well have had "I haveto do this. It's important. I don't want to, but I'd appreciate it if you'd refrain from making my job harder than it has to be," written across his forehead with a bright red marker. Riley appreciated honesty a lot more than genuine awkwardness that would've existed if she wasn't sure if what she'd suspected was true.

Jessica ignored the half-hearted greeting from Nico as expected and started talking to Riku. In some way, it made sense. Rikuwas senior to her only by a year instead of two like the Riley and Nico. (Oh and she was obsessed withhim. That too.) With both Jessica and Riku distracted, Riley was hoping she could get away from them, but the glare from Nico terminated the slim hope completely.

Why does he choose now to actually put in some effort, Riley thought with despair to herself. She'd tried to get away from them before. Nico had simply alerted Jessica, who'd run after her and made an excuse to bring her back. Then she'd made an effort to actually keep Riley in the conversation which was much worse. Knowing when she had been beaten, Riley sighed and walked over to the wall that the three stood around and plopped onto the concrete floor.

Ugh, why couldn't they conspire somewhere on the grass! They could've at least had the courtesy of letting me ignore them while sitting comfortably! Riley thought bitterly. Flipping her sketchbook open for what must've been the fiftieth time that day (she didn't do most of the homework, so when the class graded it she was drawing) Riley began scratching in the first traces of a fight scene. After a couple of minutes of scraping her pencil along the page, Nico sat down beside her.

"Not participating in the ever-so-interesting conversation?" Riley asked.

"You expect me to?" Nico answered with a smirk.

She smiled. "If you replace the word expect with the word hoped."

"Sorry."

"Liar." Nico laughed. See? she asked herself, Earnest conversation. Why can't the other two be that way? The subject was dropped and Riley continued to draw as Nico watched with the hopes that she didn't notice. Too bad for him.

"Do you mind not doing that?" Riley said in annoyance, looking up from her rough sketch.

"Doing what?" the accused sixteen year old asked, taken aback.

"Breathing down my neck while I draw."

"I was not!"

"Yeah you were! Don't watch me while I draw."

"What's so bad about watching you?"

"It just… bugs me okay!"

"How can someone wa- "

"Jeeze why don't you two just go find a dark corner and start making out already?" Jessica said from in front of the two juniors, smirking.

Riley could feel her facial features begin to impersonate a tomato. Nico wasn't much better off.

"Nothing was happening Jess," Riley said as calmly as she could and closed her sketchbook. "And if you'd look at the evidence between you and Riku I think I have license to say the same only more so." She muttered the last part so no one could hear and stood.

"I'm gonna get my books for next period," she said and strode toward the lockers. Jessica was covering her mouth in shame of her own comment.

"Uh… Nico you know I didn't mean-" the sentence was cut off by Nico lifting himself off the ground and trudging away in the opposite direction of Riley. He didn't say anything, but his silence proved that he was angry enough. "Aw crap!" Jessica smacked her forehead. Riku simply shrugged.

~*~

Riley strode over to the lockers that sat along the outside wall of the school with her hands balled into tight fists. Anger was probably one of Riley's worst problems which she'd inherited from her father. Although they both refrained from lashing out at people, it still wasn't that hard to make them angry. After getting the lock off, Riley began yanking out her books from the metal casket. Her fingers clamped along the bound pages tightly and practically threw them onto the floor near her bag.

Idiot Jessica, Riley thought in wrath, we were in a reasonable argument. Just because I happen to like him better than the other two doesn't mean anything is going on. To tell the truth, this had been happening for quite some time now. It had been two months since the three had transferred in February. Nico had shown up in class randomly one day (the teacher hardly had any warning of it) this was strange especially since it was such a small school and he already knew the other two people that came on the exact same day. Riley lived in a small town where hardly any crimes were committed. It wasn't very important or famous, so there was no reason for three people who already knew each other without being related would come there all at the same time. Since then, the situations only got stranger.

Like now for instance.

Riley was shoving the books from her last class back into her locker when she suddenly had a feeling that something or someone was watching her. Her spine shivered at the premonition. Only a select few times in her life had Riley had this feeling; most of which simply being a child freaking out for no particular reason (or so she thought). Twice before then had sudden suspicion been true. Once, when a strong wind had almost knocked Riley out of her favorite climbing tree, and the second, oddly enough, came before Riku, Jessica, and Nico were transferred into the school. It was like a sixthsense that would involuntarily turn on and off. As for now… well Riley was pretty sure that the hot, steamy breath that cascaded along her spine wasn't a cause of her imagination.

With a long gulp, Riley turned to find a… dog. A very large, pitch black, mastiff with teeth bigger than hairbrushes. It wasn't very comforting to the sixteen-year-old that they were being showed off because the dog had a very hungry look in its beady, pitch black eyes. Trying to swallow her absolute terror (and doing a poor job of it) Riley calmly looked around the yard in search of someone who could help her. Not a soul could be seen. So Riley resorted to the only thing she could think of: screaming like a banshee.

The freakish thing apparently didn't like the grating noise, so it tried to charge her in an attempt of ramming her body against the lockers. Riley, however, had somehow gained expert physical abilities in the past two seconds (despite her pathetic performances in P.E.) and sprinted to the side. Several sounds could be heard after that: a roar, creaks, crashes, thuds, booms and that horrid noise of ripping metal. All of which were the results of the hellish creature colliding into the lockers. After wrenching its gigantic head from the very large dent that it made, the dog turned to see Riley sprinting in the opposite direction. In rage it roared and Riley turned around for a split second before crashing into something.

It was Nico. Riley stared at his dark eyes. They were glaring at the beastly creature. Without looking at her Nico said, "Get out of here. Go find Riku and Jess. Tell them to come." No arguments were made, and Riley sprinted off to find her annoying stalkers. When she was several yards away, Riley glanced back to witness Nico and the deformed mastiff pacing each-other in circles. Only then did Riley notice the long, onyx sword Nico's fingers were clasped around.

Not once did it cross her mind to wonder where the hell he got it.

Still running, Riley found Jessica and Riku standing by the wall where she'd left them. She stopped and bent over panting. The two stared at her in worry, afraid that they knew what was going on. Unfortunately they found that they did.

"Lockers… big dog… Nico… sword… help…" Riley sputtered out through her panting.

Not even bothering to wait, the two began to run faster that Riley knew possible to the lockers. A second later, Riley's heart stopped pounding like the drums at a heavy metal concert. Looking around, she noticed that all of her fellow students were gone. Something was probably going on, like a fight or a dance competition. (It's odd, but it has happened before. It was so ridiculous that everyone was watching.) Whatever the reason was, there was absolutely no one there. Still it wouldn't take long for the bell to ring, and then the high-schoolers and middle-schoolers would haveto get their bags. Just for reference, they normally left their backpacks and books by the lockers. By the lockers with the freaky monster hanging around.

Riley looked back in the direction that Riku and Jess had just run, and made a quick decision. Then she ran after them. It took a minute, but Riley came upon the three still attacking the massive beast. Apparently they weren't very good at fighting it despite the fact that they had three on their side and only one on the other.

Three wasn't doing so well, but maybe four could make a difference. Riley thought for a moment. She examined the yard and laid her eyes on the shed that served as the school's storehouse. An idea formed in her creative teenage mind. Quickly, she sped off towards the wood and metal building. Fourteen years at the same school was finally paying off, for Riley knew that there was a ladder to the top of the huge shack just in case someone kicked a ball up there. With great effort, Riley made her way through the discarded playing objects that had rusted over the years without use. She never did understand why they couldn't fit them into the shed, but what can you do? The ladder was sitting in a corner (the shed was against the gate that blocked the kids off from running from the school) and looked particularly painful given that it was old and made of wood that had begun to chip, but Riley swallowed her fear of splinters and scaled it to the roof of the shed.

From twelvefeet off the ground, Riley could see the fight perfectly. This time, she noticed both Riku's and Jessica's weapons. Riku had a huge scythe and Jess was holding a pistol in her hand. I don't think this day can get any stranger, Riley thought but pushed it aside and put her simple plan into action.

"Hey!" she shouted to the brutish dog and it turned its massive head to her, "Hey Fuzz-face you looking for something?!" It was a horrible insult but nonetheless it was enough to piss the monster off. As Riley predicted, it bounded in her direction and began its attempts in climbing the shack. The impact of its paws on the building almost caused Riley to fall from her position. Thankfully, she didn't.

Looking from the dog to her three classmates, Riley gave them a look that clearly said 'Hurry up.'Riku, bless his heart, was the only one to get the message and started sprinting towards the animal. Nico and Jessica exchanged looks before Riley's intentions dawned on them, and they ran after Riku. Riley couldn't even count how many times she'd thanked whoever gave Riku his speed, because it took about fifteen seconds before he'd reached the shack and raised his scythe against the beastly canine. Well… Riley had second thoughts about it being a dog, because apparently it had the worst sense of smell ever. By the time the thing started to turn around, Rikuspun and slashed the beast in two with his scythe.

Then it disintegrated into dust… okaaay.

Riku stood there for a second, arm mid swing. Finally he lowered his weapon and smiled at Riley. "Thanks for the help," he said. "It's been a while since we last fought so we were a little more reckless than we should've been."

'Last fought'? They do this on a regular basis? Riley stared at Riku as he patted the dust off his navy short sleeved shirt. Nico and Jessica finally reached the building and looked back and forth between Riley and Riku.

Nico sighed and looked up at Riley, who still had bewilderment inscribed across her face. "Thanks for the help Riley, I'm not sure how we can pay you back for that."

"An explanation would be nice," Riley suddenly said.

The look on Nico's face was clearly regret. He had a smile on but it was the kind that said 'sorry'. Jessica was shifting her wait from foot to foot and looking in the opposite direction with her hand rubbing her arm. Riku was apparently finding the ants that were crawling along the floor quite interesting.

"Look," Riley sighed, "today's been a living hell for me, and as far as I see it, I've just saved you're lives. A little lecture on what the hell's going on is the least you could do. Besides, that dent in the lockers isn't going away any time soon. So if you want my help in explaining how that got there without mentioning the gigantic dog, you'll have to tell me what's happening. Don't think for a moment that I don't know that you guys and that dog are somehow connected. I might not have the best grades in the world, but I'm not an idiot by anyone's standards."

"I know," Nico said, "it's just that if we do explain, chances are that you won't believe us."

"After just seeing a dog three times larger than I am, I'm about ready to believe anything. So you might as well tell me now before the excitement goes away and I regain what little bit of logic I normally have in my head."

A few seconds went by before Nico sighed and looked as if he was about to givein, but that's when the bell rang. The three strange high-schoolers looked over to the field. They could see the students making their way towards the lockers.

"Dammit!" Nico cursed. "Has Chiron taught either of you how to manipulate the mist yet?" he asked Riku and Jess. They shook their heads.

"Mist?" Riley cocked an eyebrow.

"We'll tell you later," Nico said, turning back to Riley, who was still on the roof of the storehouse. "As for now, we need to get out of here."

"You're ditching?"

"You are too."

"What?!" Riley had never ditched school a day in her life. She hadn't planned on it either for any other day besides Senior Ditch Day when nobody cared. (I'm not sure if many other people do this, but that's the last day of high school where there technically still is school but there's never anything to do, so nobody goes.)

"Unless, you have an explanation for the … six screwed up lockers and scarred concrete, I suggest you climb down that, and start climbing the fence," Nico told her. Riku and Jess had begun scaling the chain link barrier as soon as Nico confirmed that they were ditching.

"But where are we going?" Riley asked desperately.

"To your house," was the simple answer. "We'll explain it to you there. Or better, your parents could tell you." Nico almost flinched at Riley's miscolored glare.

"What do my parents have to do with this?" she asked, her voice sounding like it was shrouded in darkness.

There was that smile again. The one that looked as if it was saying 'sorry'. Riley had a horrible thought in her mind, but she pushed it aside.

"Fine," she agreed, and made her way towards the ladder. The students were almost to the lockers, and Riley really wanted some answers. That and Nico had the sort of expression that said that if she wouldn't ditch on her own, he'd drag her with them. She had no choice.

"Hurry up!" Riley could hear Jess urging them from the other side of the short fence. Whatever kept people from ditching school on a normal basis by doing what they were now, Riley would never know. Nico and Riley climbed over the six foot tall gate and leapt onto the ground on the other side.

"I just realized how bad it would look once they realize that all four of us left at the same time," Riley thought out loud.

"You care?" Nico asked.

"I wasn't referring to my friends," she told him, already knowing how Nico took her comment, "I'm talking about the teachers. They'll know something's going on."

"I'll ask Chiron to do something about it," the Italian sixteen year old told her.

Riley thought that she recognized the name, but let it go. She'll get her answers when they reached her house. "Whose car are we taking?"

"I don't have a car," Nico told her. "I have a bike."

"Riku and I carpool with our classmates every morning," Jessica said.

"Guess I'll be driving you two then," Riley sighed. "Nico you follow us to my house K?"

Nico nodded, and with that they all ran off to the school's parking lot. It took some doing, but they all made it by the cameras that were set up around the school. Riley wasn't that worried about it in the first place, since no one really watches anyway, but Nico and the rest weren't having any of it. So they figured out a way to sneak past them.

As quickly as possible they fled from the education building in their respective vehicles, Riley in her deep blue Lexus with Jessica and Riku, and Nico on his sleek, silver and black Harley. It took around fifteen minutes of maneuvering through traffic to reach Riley's home. Surprisingly, Rikuand Jess said nothing the entire time. Still throughout the course of the drive she was playing hard rock music just to drown out the roar of Nico's impressive but irritating bike. She was also trying to guess what her parents would haveto do with the giant dog that tried to dismember her in just the past hour. After to what Riley considered to be too long, they finally reached her home.

After a minute of fumbling withthe lock, Riley swung the wooden door open. "Mom!" she called, "I'm home!" With no difference in her mood, the teenage girl strode into the living room which was to the right of the front door. Jessica followed her with her head hung and Riku with Nico deliberately trudged onto the tile floor and refused to go anywhere near the carpeted living room. They could all hear thumping and rushing up the stairs of the two story building and assumed it was Riley's mom. Riley herself simply sat on the dark leather couch and waited for her mother. She seemed to be angry. Needless to say, her three schoolmates were feeling pretty awkward.

Finally, a middle aged woman with blondhair and slightly overweight figure poked her head over the white banister. She gavea hard questioning look at her daughter but then saw her three guests. Slight realization could be seen through her blue-grey eyes. Silently, she descended the stairs and walked into the large room withher daughter. Still, nothing was said. A cat jumped up on the couch next to Riley and looked at the three strangers with bright green eyes. Riley attempted to pet her but the mutt of a feline leapt at her hand and ran from the room.

"Stupid cat," they heard her mutter.

If they didn't know the context of the situation, Riku, Nico and Jessica would've assumed that they were there in preparation to going to a movie or something. Too bad though.

"I'll go call your dad," the forty-something-year-old said and walked into the kitchen. Riley still sat there and didn't say a word.

"Um…" Jessica finally stabbed the silence at its heart. "Can we… I don't know… do something?" she asked.

"There's a cabinet sort of thing over there," Riley said jabbing behind her with her thumb. "It has DVD's in it if you want. Or you could go find the dog. He's probably outside. Or if you're hungry, help yourself to food in the kitchen."

"Okay, thanks," the blond freshmen said awkwardly. Apparently she liked the idea of finding the dog better, for she walked towards the other end of the living room where there was a sliding glass door to a backyard.

"Um…" Riku mumbled, "I'll go with her." Riley didn't say anything. The door screeched as it was opened then slid closed, leaving Nico and Riley. The silence was so prominent that they could hear the ticking of a clock in the upstairs hall.

"You're not going to play with the dog?" Riley finally asked, giving her classmate a piercing stare.

Nico shifted but answered withpathetic humor, "I'm not one for hanging out with Riku and Jessica by myself. It's painful." Riley quirked her lips in a half smile, but it soon disappeared.

"You can sit down you know," she told him for he was still standing right next to the door on the tile.

"I prefer to stand."

Riley shrugged. "Suit yourself."

They sort of stayed like that until they heard the front door opening. Nico moved out of the way and onto the carpet, finally. Riley looked away from the TV which she'd turned on to see who it was. "Hey Dad," she said.

Riley's father had dark brown hair and blue eyes. His face was slightly wrinkled with age, but at the corners of his eyes were crows' feet. Apparently he smiled a lot. Much unlike now. Now, he stared at Nico with contempt. He knew what was going on, and he dreaded it.

He's probably the normal parent, Nico thought. He nodded to the middle aged man and held out his hand for him to shake. It was left hanging in the air for a minute before Nico realized that the man had no intention of having any contact with him if he could help it.

"Uh…" Nico mumbled awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck, "I'll go get Riku and Jess." He walked so fast to the backyard door; he might as well have ran.

Riley was left alone with her father. They simply stared at each other. "Mom's upstairs," Riley finally said. In a way, she wanted to put off the truth as long as she possibly could. Seeing that his daughter wasn't going to say anything else, the father sighed and made his way up the stairs to get his wife.

Five minutes later they were all sitting in the living room. Riley sat in between her parents on the couch, Riku chose a leather chair to the left of the couch, Jessica sat on a flower patterned brown chair on the other side of Riku, and Nico pulled up a large Beanbag that he could hardly keep from laying on. Nico felt particularly awkward since the father of the family could clearly see him unlike his so-called 'friends'. No one said anything for a while. They couldn't find a place to start. Finally, Riku, being the most mature of the group, said "Well I guess by the expressions on your faces, you both know why we're here."

"Yes," Riley's father (who she told them was named Austin Carter) replied. "You're here to take Riley to that camp all the way in New York." The sentence felt like a gigantic boulder landing on Riley's head. This is the first I've heard of any camp, she thought.

Riku nodded and continued. "A satyr who was sent a little farther from here felt the presence of a powerful half blood while he was on his way back to camp with a child of Demeter. He couldn't come find out who it was himself, so Mr. D sent us to get him to… uh… stop pestering him." Riley's jaw dropped open. WHY IN ALL OF HELL ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT GREEK MYTHS NOW?!!! "Anyway, we sort of… kept an eye on the schools around here for about a month before we felt a powerful presence. One that none of us had ever felt from a demigod before. It came from Riley's school. So we all applied and got in without much difficulty. Nico, being in Riley's class, was the first to confirm that the aura came from her."

"What in hell's entire name are you people talking about?!!" Riley suddenly shouted.

"Riley," Nico finally spoke, "I've watched you for two months now." (Somehow that didn't seem very comforting to Riley.) "I've noticed that you like reading about myths and legends and stuff a lot. Have you ever noticed and character traits you might have that resemble any of those gods?"

"NO!"

"Well… you're one of them," Nico said simply. Riley's jaw was set to 'catching flies mode' again.

"Not exactly one of them per say," Riku finally gained control of the conversation again. "But one of them is a parent of yours." That didn't do anything to help Riley's expression. Riku sighed. "Let me try again. We, that is, Jessica, Nico and I, have deities for parents. I'm sure, since you apparently know much about them, you can guess which ones."

"But there are hundreds of different mythologies!" Riley complained.

"If you limit it to the Greek gods," Riku smiled.

Riley looked at the three of them for a moment. There was no way to tell from looks so she thought of their personalities. Riku was easiest. "Athena?" she said, pointing at Riku. He nodded withthe smile still on his face. Next she tried Jessica. Not many of the gods (she imagined) were as hyperactive as Jessica. At first she guessed Aphrodite but then thought better of it. Jess never flirted withany of the guys. Instead, they flirted with her just from how naturally fun she was to be around. "Hermes?" Jess smirked and bobbed her head to say yes. Now it was Nico's turn. He was… a little difficult. His personality seemed to switch sometimes. Usually he was quiet and kind of cold, but when he talked to her, he was kind and smiled a lot.

"I can't figure it out," she finally said.

Nico raised an eyebrow and Jessica blurted "But it's so obvious!"

"Sorry but I can't guess," Riley shrugged

A smile spread across Nico's features. "My dad's Hades," he said. Riley was sure that she'd need surgery on her jaw soon if more surprises came.

"But," she finally said, "what does this have to do with me and my… 'aura'?"

"Everything" Riku answered. "Now that we've told you that our parents are gods, I guess that you've accepted them as real." Oh… I guess this guy's taken a speech class cause he made me believe in myths first before accepting that they're these guys' parents, Riley thought in admiration. "And since you're so familiar with them, you know what they most liked to do right?" A grimace and a nod were the answers to his question. "So people like us pop up all the time around the world," he continued, "Naturally they need a place to stay. So satyrs are sent out to find these people and bring them to our camp that we mentioned. Camp Half blood it's called. Oh, and in case you haven't figured it out, 'halfblood' is the term that identifies us as half human, half god." Riley's head was spinning at this point, so when Rikufinally stopped talking, she couldn't even come up with a decent question.

"Why…" she finally started, "Why do half bloods need a place to stay? Can't their normal parents take care of them? I mean… I know some wouldn't want a freakish mutt of a human being for a child, but why can't those that have accepting parents stay with them?"

"You just found out why about an hour ago," Nico said.

"What? So you're all attacked by giant dogs? What sense does that make?"

"The dog that attacked you is called a Hellhound," Nico answered, "and no, we're not attacked by them, well, not all of us anyway, but we're destined to be attacked by monsters."

This was sounding more and more ridiculous to Riley. "When did this turn in to a crappy horror film?"

Nico sighed again. "Not things like werewolves, The Boogie Man, and vampires… well… oh never mind. The things that attack us are Greek monsters."

"Things like the Minotaur and Medusa?" Riley inquired.

"Exactly."

"But didn't they die? I mean, Medusa had her head lopped off by Perseus, and the Minotaur was killed by Theseus wasn't he?"

"Yeah so?" Nico said. Riley just looked at him, confused beyond all reason.

Riku sighed. "Monsters don't have souls like we do," he told her, "they pretty much just rest for a while and then come back to the world for us heroes to kill again."

"So you're heroes now? Pick a title dude!" Riley groaned.

"All right, we demigods have to kill monsters that were said to be killed thousands of years before. One kid, a son of Poseidon, faced the Minotaur twice himself. Some monsters take longer to regenerate than others though. Like that same kid also fought Medusa and she still hasn't been seen again."

"Of course," Jessica said, thinking, "some monsters really don't come back. Like Medusa had two sisters didn't she?"

"Yeah, the Three Gorgons," Riley answered for her.

"Well Percy (the kid he mentioned) said the Medusa talked about her sister's dying, but not from being murdered."

"And with that, we come to how the gods still exist," Rikusaid. "You see, all of this Greek stuff, came about with the existence of the West. A few years ago, the West was in serious danger from the number one enemy of the gods."

"Kronos," Riley confirmed. Riku nodded.

"You see, the West, is the key to the gods' lifeline. If the influence of the West, and the west in general dies, then the gods go with it. However if the influence of a god, or monster leaves the west, then they'll leave too. Like can you even remember the names of Medusa's sisters?" Riley had to admit she didn't know.

"Okay, but Dad mentioned something a while ago about the camp you're talking about being in New York. Why there? I mean, why wouldn't the camp be in Greece with the gods and everything?"

Riku laughed. "What makes you think that the gods are still there?"

"Huh?"

"You see this ties in to what I've been talking about. Mount Olympus isn't confined to only the actual Mount Olympus in Greece. It moves. The prominent country of the West used to be Greece am I correct? But later that changed didn't it? It went to Rome, and the gods moved with it. Later to other countries. I can't recall which ones in the exact order but I think you can figure out which one is the most powerful now."

"America?"

"Yes. So not only did the home of the gods move, Mount Olympus, but everything else came with it. Such as the Underworld," Riku looked at Nico who nodded. "The normal entrance to the Underworld is in California. It's always as for west as you can get."

"Where's Olympus?" Riley asked.

Jessica smirked. "You went on the US Historic Study Tour in the eighth grade right?" she asked. Riley nodded. "I assume you spent a while in New York too right?" The sixteen-year-old winced. To tell the truth she didn't like New York very much. It was too crowded. But she nodded. "Well then you obviously went to the Empire State Building then. If you go up to the guy at the desk on the ground floor and ask him to let you to go up to the 600th floor, he'll give you a key (once he believes that you're not joking with him anyway). You take the elevator to the 600th floor and you'll find yourself on Mount Olympus." There was no doubt in Riley's mind that she'll need that surgery on her jaw later.

"Okay, you know what?" Riley finally asked, "I don't even care anymore. Just tell me why that dog attacked me and I'll be fine."

"We've been trying to tell you," Nico sighed. "Monsters always come after us because they can smell our aura. I'm not sure how they do it, but apparently satyrs can too. Demigods can sometimes feel it with gods or reallystrong half bloods. So that's why we were sent to come get you. The satyr we mentioned first smelled your presence miles away from here. We even felt it when we got near the school. Needless to say it's a miracle that you were never found before now."

"So you think that I'm some ridiculously strong, superhero type of thing, and if I don't come with you, I'll be found by a bunch of scary beastly things and die," Riley stated.

"Sounds about right," Nico confirmed.

"Were you dropped on your head when you were little?"

"You were just accepting it a while ago!!" Nico yelled.

"Yeah, because it didn't involve one of my parents cheating on the other!" Riley screamed at the Italian boy. The two stood up and looked like they were seriously about to hurt each other, when Riley felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked back and found that it was her father's. With no exaggeration involved, Riley could've swore that she literally felt her heart sink. "You?"

Austin Carter sighed. "That was the night that I figured out that I wasn't good at holding my alcohol."

"So what?" Riley choked, barely keeping her tears in. "You got drunk and screwed some woman that you hardly knew over?"

The forty year old grimaced. "That sounds about right."

"So… so then," the girl fixed her gaze on who she thought was her mother. She sighed.

"No, Riley I'm not you blood mother," she said. "Your father… did what he did before he met me. It was only a few weeks after we were married when you appeared at our door. You were about two years old by then."

"So… who took care of me before that?"

"We don't know," her mother answered. "We took you to a hospital for them to take your DNA and find out whose child you were. The results were your father's and someone else's that couldn't be recognized."

Riley couldn't find the strength to speak. She could feel the sting of tears in her eyes. Nico noticed this and sighed. "Riley, we all had to go through the same thing. Not a single demigod can make it through their lives without some bumps in the road." The girl still said nothing. Instead, she spun on her heel and walked towards the stairs. No one attempted to stop her as she retreated to her room. They all knew that she needed to be alone.