My name is Issy Dias and I am positive I'm crazy. Well most of the time, I mean if you were constantly getting hunted by monsters and other "mythical" creatures you would wonder if you were going mad too! It didn't help that for a long time only I could see the monsters. And then there are the dreams. Of people I don't know and places I haven't been. For so long I thought I was crazy, and then I saw it. I was in Washington D. C. at the time and it was a gusty with a storm coming in. A newspaper page blew into my face and quite a bit of it into my mouth. While trying to wipe my tongue l glanced at the page. I froze . On the page was a boy that I had seen many times in my dreams. I could not read it but that face only a couple of years older than me, had haunted me as long as I could remember. I raced back to my cousins' house to ask my cousin Emilia to read it to me. I hand her the paper and let her read it. She looked at me critically.

"Why would a squirt like you want to know about some psycho kid?"

"Just read it, will you." I managed to get out.

"All right Sissy Issy" She sighed "Percy Jackson, missing, suspected of being involved with the disappearance of his mom, blah blah blah. Happy now?"

Strangely enough I was. Something in my nine-year-old mind clicked. I was not insane.

Mumbling I asked "Where is he from?"

"New York, it says why? Are you stupid enough to go looking for a crazie?" Emilia laughed "Of course you are, I mean you are Sissy Issy."

I walked out of the room resolving to go to New York as soon as I could.

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It takes a year but, when I'm almost eleven I get a scholarship to some private school. I am Hispanic and therefore a minority. The school wanted to look kind and accepting so I got in. Kids made fun of me of course. but, after a while they leave me alone. I don't really have any friends so I usually eat alone. One day the strange kid Jake Hooverman limps over to me. He is a few years older than me but, in my grade. I do my best to avoid eye contact, I'm picked on enough. He comes over anyway and starts talking.

"Hi. Do you know what the English homework is?"

"No, it's my worst subject."

"Oh." He looks down at my uneaten chips "Are you going to eat those?"

Jake becomes my first friend. We study and eat lunch together. He doesn't complain even when I insist on teaching him knitting. The year goes by quickly with blank faces and mediocre graded. Until June.

"Hey Issy did you understand the Math lesson at all? I sure didn't"

"Jake it's all review."

"I know! But that doesn't mean that it makes sense!"

I laugh. "C'mon, let's go to the library."

We get about halfway to the library before I stop.

"Wait a minute, I think I heard something."

Jake stops too and looks nervously down the hallway. The back of my neck starts to tingle.

"Somethings wrong."

He starts walking quickly. At the end of the hall I make out a figure. As it comes into the light I realize that it's one of the cafeteria workers. All I can think is "Oh my gosh, it's an evil lunch lady!". Except she's not a lunch lady anymore. She is still wearing her hairnet and apron but, her legs are giant snakes and she is hissing not very nice things.

"Not again" I whisper while my hand reaches toward my ankle where horrible scars still remain. A few years ago I was attacked. No one knows what really happened. Except me.

The evil lunch lady smiles and hisses "Finally, I have waited for weekssss. Now that I am sssssure, I am quite eager to kill."

As she charges toward me I do the only thing I can: I swing my extremely heavy bag. It's filled with almost anything imaginable, textbooks, clothes, water bottles, binders, knitting needles,you get the idea.I hit her in the head and she collapses almost instantly. I grab Jake's arm and we run out of the run off the school campus and into the city.

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The thing is I have no sense of direction and am constantly getting lost. Put me in the middle of a big city with a map and I will manage to find the shadiest backstreets and most confusing maze of alleys. "Any... idea... where...we're...going...Jake...?" I wheeze.

"Not... a... clue..."

We were not in the best shape. While trying to catch my breath at a grimy bus stop I start to really panic. "What... the heck was that?"

"I'm not entirely sure. We really need to get out of the city."

"If we stay here we can lose ourselves in the crowd!" I argue.

Jake hesitates. "Just trust me on this, we need to get to Long Island."