Chapter 1 Dreams

I was standing in a long dark hallway made of black stone. The only light sources were several torches with green flames that did little to add lighting. I walked down the hall and entered a large room with large pillars made of the same black stone.

In the center of the room were two thrones with people on them. The one on the right was a little smaller and was mostly blue with golden edging, and A girl with red hair and light green Eyes and smooth pale skin sitting on it. The one on the right was bigger made of mostly green black edging.

Sitting on the lager throne was a man wearing black and Green armor his helmet covering his face and all I could see was two dark green eyes that glowed with power. Then I heard a scream and everything went black

End Dream.

I shot out of bed in a cold sweat. Morning sunlight filtered through my bedroom window. My brother Percy (who I shared a room with) was already up getting dressed.

"Hey man," Percy said. "Bad dream?"

I nodded.

"Well, get ready. It's the last day of school and we almost mad it. We just have today to try not to get kicked out."

I faked a smile and nodded. I got dressed and looked in the mirror. I was wearing plain genes with a black shirt and a green jacket over it. The jacket was a birthday present and I wear it wherever I go.

I sighed, Last day of school. Percy was right, I should have been excited. For the first time in are life, we'd almost made it an entire year without getting expelled. No weird accidents. No fights in the classroom. No teachers turning into monsters and trying to kill us with poisoned cafeteria food or exploding homework. Tomorrow, we'd be on are way to are favorite place in the world-Camp Half-Blood.

Only one more day to go. Surely even we couldn't mess that up.

As usual, I didn't have a clue how wrong I was.

My mom made blue waffles and blue eggs for breakfast. She's funny that way, celebrating special occasions with blue food. I think it's her way of saying anything is possible. Percy and I can pass seventh grade. Waffles can be blue. Little miracles like that. But I personally prefer green, it's a much better color. We ate at the kitchen table while my mom washed dishes.

The waffles tasted great, but I guess we weren't digging in like we usually did. My mom looked over and frowned. "Percy, Ulfr, are you all right?"

"Yeah ... Fine." We said together.

But she could always tell when something was bothering us. She dried her hands and sat down across from Percy. "School, or ..."

She didn't need to finish. I knew what she was asking.

"I think Grover's in trouble," Percy said and told us about a dream where are friend Grover got attacked by a hulking figure. Then I explained about my dream.

She pursed her lips. We didn't talk much about the other part of our life. We tried to live as normally as possible, which I hated but I knew Percy and my mom wanted a normal life so I kept my mouth shut.

"I wouldn't be too worried, dear," My mom said. "Grover is a big satyr now. If there were a problem, I'm sure we would've heard from ... From camp..." Her shoulders tensed as she said the word camp.

"What is it?" Percy asked.

"Nothing," she said. "I'll tell you what. This afternoon we'll celebrate the end of school. I'll take you two and Tyson to Rockefeller Center-to that skateboard shop you like, and after we can go look at yugioh cards."

I smiled, I loved the Yugioh card game. But then I remembered something.

"Wait a minute," I said. "I thought we were packing for camp tonight."

She twisted her dishrag. "Ah, well, about that ... I got a message from Chiron last night."

Percy and I looked at each other. Chiron was the activities director at Camp Half-Blood. He wouldn't contact us unless some-thing serious was going on.

"What did he say?" Percy asked

"He thinks ... It might not be safe for you to come to camp just yet. We might have to postpone."

"Postpone? Mom, how could it not be safe? I'm a half-blood! It's like the only safe place on earth for me!" Percy said.

"Usually, dear. But with the problems they're having-"

"What problems?" I asked.

"Percy, Ulfr ... I'm very, very sorry. I was hoping to talk to you about it this afternoon. I can't explain it all now. I'm not even sure Chiron can. Everything happened so suddenly."

My mind was reeling. How could we not go to camp? I wanted to ask a million and one questions, but just then the kitchen clock chimed the half-hour.

Our mom looked almost relieved. "Seven-thirty, dear. You should go. Tyson will be waiting."

"But-"

"Percy, Ulfr, we'll talk this afternoon. Go on to school."

That was the last thing I wanted to do, but my mom had this fragile look in her eyes-a kind of warning, like if I pushed her too hard she'd start to cry. Besides, she was right about are friend Tyson. We had to meet him at the subway station on time or he'd get upset. He was scared of traveling underground alone. Tyson was a cyclops but I have not told Percy, I was scared he would freak out and try kill him.

We gathered up are stuff, but Percy stopped in the doorway. "Mom, this problem at camp. Does it... could it have anything to do with my dream about Grover?"

She wouldn't meet our eyes. "We'll talk this afternoon, dears. I'll explain ... As much as I can."

And with that we turned and left.

Our day started normal. Or as normal as it ever gets at Meriwether College Prep.

See, it's this "progressive" school in downtown Manhattan, which means we sit on beanbag chairs instead of at desks, and we don't get grades, and the teachers wear jeans and rock concert T-shirts to work.

That's all cool with me. I mean, I'm ADHD and dyslexic, because of my monster instinct, so I'd never done that great in regular schools even before they kicked me out. The only bad thing about Meriwether was that the teachers always looked on the bright side of things, and the kids weren't always ... Well, bright.

Take my first class today: English. The whole middle school had read this book called Lord of the Flies, where all these kids get marooned on an island and go psycho. So, for our final exam, our teachers sent us into the break yard to spend an hour with no adult supervision to see what would happen. What happened was a massive wedgie contest between the seventh and eighth graders, two pebble fights, and a full-tackle basketball game.

The school bully, Matt Sloan, led most of those activities.

Sloan wasn't big or strong, but he acted like he was. Sloan was giving everybody wedgies until he made the mistake of trying it on my friend Tyson.

Tyson was the only homeless kid at Meriwether College Prep. As near as Perc and I could figure, he'd been abandoned by his parents when he was very young, probably because he is a cyclops.

He was six-foot-three and built like the Abominable Snowman, but he cried a lot and was scared of just about everything, including his own reflection. His face was kind of misshapen and brutal-looking.

His voice was deep, but he talked funny, like a much younger kid most likely because he was young for a cyclops. He wore tattered jeans, grimy size-twenty sneakers, and a plaid flannel shirt with holes in it. He smelled like an alleyway, because that's where he lived, in a cardboard refrigerator box.

Meriwether Prep had adopted him as a community service project so all the students could feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, most of them couldn't stand Tyson. Once they discovered he was a big softie, despite his massive strength and his scary looks, they made themselves feel good by picking on him.

I had been doing my best to help Tyson. I knew what it was like to be abandoned by their parents because it happened to me. Luckily my mom (Sally) adopted me. And we were both monsters living around humans.

Anyway, Matt Sloan snuck up behind him and tried to give him a wedgie, but I grabbed him and flung him away. The thing is I put too much force into it and Sloan flew fifteen feet and got tangled in the little kids' tire swing.

He yelled at us calling Tyson and I freaks and made Tyson cry.

"Take it back, Sloan!" Percy shouted.

Sloan just sneered at him. "Why do you even bother, Jackson? You might have friends if you weren't always sticking up for that freak and your brother."

A howling filed my ears my eyes began to burn I balled my fists.

"He's not a freak. He's just..." Percy struggled to find the words. But Sloan wasn't listening. He and his big ugly friends were too busy laughing. I wondered if it were my imagination, or if Sloan had more goons hanging around him than usual. I was used to seeing him with two or three, but today he had like, half a dozen more, and I was pretty sure I'd never seen them before. Then I noticed the smell.

I had gotten use to the scent of monster since Tyson but now it was ten time stronger, and I had a feeling it had to do with Sloan's new buddies.

"Just wait till PE, Jacksons," Sloan called. "You are so dead."

"Just try it!" I yelled back.