I never wanted to be a demigod, but now… Maybe I do. As far as I knew, my mother had died in a car crash and my dad….. I don't know. I lived on the streets for a while- at least I think- but then I came across the orphanage and they took me in and put me in this so-called , Freshwater Heights Middle. My near death experience happened on a normal school day, with the usual annoying pop quizzes and usual annoying popular girls. I was rummaging through my messy locker when my science teacher, Mr. Benson, stomped up to me. I felt trapped, alone, scared, but mostly on defense mode like I always do when he came up to me for some ominous reason. I even had nightmares about him turning into a monster.

"Floressa." He put on a forced grin.

"Flo."

"Floressa then.I just received the results on your science quiz and-" I cut him off.

"And I have gotten a D, so you have some explaining to do missy!" His different colored eyes flickered dangerously with anger, hatred, but mostly resentment.

"Don't mock me!" He screeches, and I'm almost positive he's going to strike me. I feel tough, determined and ready but I'm not sure why. Weird.

"I'm sorry Mr. Benson. But dyslexia and ADHD makes it hard for me to learn and pay attention." I ramble. "Now I've got to get to math class." I pick up my books and try to scoot around him. He places his hand on my shoulder to stop me from going. His nails are like daggers, piercing into my skin and drawing blood. I bite my lip so I don't cry out in pain.

"Meet. Me. After. Classssss." He hisses in a evil way. "Yessir." I manage to squeak out.

"Good." I look around the hallway. It was deserted and nobody would see how cruel he is. He releases my shoulder and stalks away. As soon as he's out of sight I grab a tissue and hold my shirt so I can see my shoulder. Red blood is mixed with a mysterious green goop. I quickly wipe it away and hurry off to my next class, having no idea it would be the last class I would go to for awhile, maybe forever.

"So, Floressa, can you tell us the answer?" My math teacher, Mrs. Clear, asks me. I bite my thumbnail. "N equals 8?" I guess nervously. My class snickers. "Nope, can anybody else tell me?" I sigh and face-palm my forehead. I'll always be the dumb kid.

I head to Mr. Benson's class after math. I am not looking forward to this. On my way, I bump into my only friend in the whole school, Grover Underwood. "Hey, Grov!" I crack a grin, the first one I've had all day now that I think about it.

"Hey, Flo. Where are you going?" I sigh, remembering my doom. "I have to go to Mr. Benson's class. Something about a science test." Grover's eyes fill with fear. "What?" I ask.

"Nothing!" He answered nervously. "Just worried about your grades!"

"Thanks. Well, I better be off then. Or Mr. Benson will eat me alive!" I joke, now thinking about my nightmares where he does almost eat me.

"Yeah. Eat you alive." Grover jokes along, though his face is serious. "Bye!" I wave to him and weave through the crowd to my psycho science teacher.

"Ah, Floressa." Mr. Benson's sighs as I walk in the dark room.

"Look, can we make this quick, I have got to get to English or Ms. Scarlet will give me another detention slip for skipping class. So-" He cuts me off and waves dismissively at the subject.

"Yes, yes. Fine. Now, let's talk in a more comfortable place. Alone. How about outside? Ok! Let's go, shall we?" I nod and pat my pocket where my hidden pocket knife is. Every time I consider leaving it back at the orphanage, a little voice rejects the thought and I bring it along. It's special; my dad gave it to me. Why not my mom? I don't know.. I just have a feeling its my dad. It has my last name carved into it too. I know violence isn't allowed in school, but what if I'm defending myself? It's different than other pocket knives though. It's longer, and more of a guaranteed death. As I headed down the hall, I saw Grover in English. I smiled and waved, but he just went pale and raised his hand urgently. I gave him a questioning look and walked on.

I suddenly smelled the rotten stench of what smells like rotten eggs and bananas. I hate bananas. I sigh and head out the door to where my teacher was waiting. "Um, Mr. Benson? Why are we out here? This doesn't have anything to do with science. Except ecosystems. I hate ecosystems. Though I can name some biomes! Grassland, desert, tundra, tropical rainfor-" He puts a hand over my mouth and grins evilly for the second time today. I take a step back. Mr. Benson is no longer Mr. Benson. He's a horrible creature with a spiky tail and long claws that ache to pierce someone's skin.

He has turned into the exact figure of the person in my nightmares. A lion man. His shaggy red/brown hair had grown thick and long as a lion's mane. His teeth are sharper and his fingernails too. I'm to shocked to process this for a moment and take a step back. "Floressa, you're coming with me." He says stepping towards me. I take another step back and draw my knife, now I'm really glad I remembered it today.

"Stranger danger." I whisper, mostly to myself to hear my voice. He steps towards me again and I slash at him, cutting his arm. He hisses in more annoyance than pain. "You cannot kill me,young demigod. I have not been able to track down your godly parent, you're clouded from me. But I know it's one of the Big Three." He sneered. Demigod? Godly parent? Was this some kind of joke? I wasn't special.. Was I? I quiver and slash at him again.

"Stay back! I have, um, reinforcements!" I lie,clinging on to my hope that he leaves me alone. But he just laughs evilly again.

"And who would those 'reinforcements' be?"

"Me for starters!" A voice yell's behind the beast and a frying pan comes down on his head. Mr. Benson/ Monster hisses again.

"Oh, a tasty satyr too!" I look at the person who saved me. "Grover?"

"C'mon, Flo! Let's get him!" He yells again a runs toward me. I nod and come back into my defense mode, swinging my knife and taunting the monster. Mr. Benson lunges again, but this time I'm prepared. I dodge easily and cut his leg. He howls in rage and hisses again. His tail shivers and shoots darts at Grover and I. I manage to dodge most of them, but one hits my leg and the green goop pours into my skin. I try to wipe it away, but it already got into my system. I limp over to Grover and hide my discomfort. Grover peers down at my leg and whimpers nervously and suddenly my shoulder that Mr. Benson scratched this morning burns like fire.

"Manticore poison." He murmurs, as if reading my mind.

"That thing is a Manticore?" I ask, parrying another dart. He nods. The Manticore shoots more poison darts at us. I get out of the way, but Grover isn't so lucky. A dart hits him in the stomach and he goes out cold. Rage floods my brain and I give the Manticore a glare that I hope will give him nightmares for weeks, or until I kill him. Which I will. He's knocked out my only friend, only defender and expects me to be so frightened I'll surrender right to his ugly face. That wasn't just about to happen. I run over to the grinning monster and stab him silly, throwing in a punch or two to his ugly face. He swats at me like a bothersome bug and sends me flying into the school wall.

Red spots that shouldn't be there dance in my eyes as I slowly lose conscious. No! I scold myself. You will not act like some girly girl fading away into unconsciousness, waiting for some brave hero to come and rescue you, because it's not going to happen. I slowly get up and retrieve my knife. The Manticore figured I'd be unconscious by now, with the poison dart in my leg and the slam in the wall going 20 miles per hour,well, maybe not 20 miles per hour. I'd be broken up all over the ground. I'll stick with 10 maybe.. The Manticore was hovered over Grover, listing how tasty he'd be. I gathered up the rest of my strength, which was more than I realized and ran to the beast, slicing at him. I cut off his tail, no more poison for me, and sliced him up. He was still so surprised I was conscious and in pain from his tail, that he didn't notice me run to the back of him and plunge my knife square in the back.

"For my parents!" I yell, and he howls and says, "I'll be back you wretched-" Luckily, he slowly disintegrates into a pile of golden dust so I don't have to hear just how wretched I am. I drag Grover to the wall that I was thrown against. Red blood, yellow dust and the green poison is laying on the ground, but somehow, it doesn't freak me out. I shake Grover violently.

"Grover! Wake up! I killed the thing, or him.. Whatever you call him! It's safe now! C'mon, Grov." I think I see something black in the sky.. a plane, maybe?I have bigger matters to worry about, like.. HMMM, LETS THINK ABOUT WHAT JUST HAPPENED! "Manticore...Greek Gods...Pan.." He mutters and then passes out again. His worry lines disappear and he looks peaceful. I yawn. I am pretty tired. I'll just take a quick rest, I thought. I surely deserve it after I killed the monster. And I'll be perfectly fine. I killed the beast, right? No more worries! But something told me that this wouldn't be the last scary monster I encountered. But I was tired and I know I needed some rest. If I stayed hidden.. I pull Grover into the tall grass and he makes a sleepy sound of protest. Once I make sure we're out of sight, I curl up into a tiny ball and quickly fall asleep.

In my dream there were three men sitting in a throne room. One had a striped suit and neatly trimmed beard; another had on a blue tank top, shorts, and a good tan; the last was in the shadows, he seemed to be cowering, though he radiated fear, death and power.

"I can't believe this!" The one in the suit boomed at the mysterious shadow man. "Three, from one god! Especially from one us!" The tan guy spoke next.

"Zeus, calm down. They were born before the law and you know just don't want to admit that Hades was the only one who didn't break the vow. Hades just took her to the Underworld so he would have a part of his late wife that you killed. She was clouded from us because of his magic to keep her from Persephone."He spoke The gloomy one, Hades I think, nodded gravely. Literally. The suited up one, Zeus, sighed. Zeus, Hades…. These sound so familiar! Aren't they Greek Gods? The tanned one must be-

"Poseidon, do you vouch on your behalf for Hades?" Zeus asked crossly, as if he knew that his brothers hated him.. Which he probably did. Poseidon hesitated and gave Hades a look that clearly said, If I say yes, you owe me one, no tricks. Hades nodded, still silent, and Poseidon spoke.

"Yes, I personally vouch for Hades." I opened my mouth to ask what where they talking about but my mouth wouldn't work, neither would my legs. I was air, unsolid. Zeus opened his mouth to reply, but talked in a girls voice.

"Grover, I think she's waking up!" I opened my eyes and saw a blonde girl with stormy gray eyes peering down at me.

"What happened? Is Mr. Benson really a monster? Did I kill him?" I asked, wondering if it was all a dream. She raised a brow and opened her mouth to answer The Question but Grover ran up to us and grinned.

"Flo!" He exclaimed. I looked around to see that I was still outside the school building in the grass. I cringed silently as I felt the pain seep into me.

"Why is stuff in Greek Mythology becoming real? Who's Pan? " I ask, now remembering Grover mutter something about Pan.

"Yes, the gods are still living to this day. They move around the world, following the western civilization, which is now the USA." The blonde girl replies and begins to explain about the Greek gods and how they have affairs with humans, or what she calls 'mortals'. I blink. Was the dream real too? " I'm surprised you're still conscious, manticore poison is deadly and makes you have poison in your blood system. You've been asleep for about...20 minutes. Oh, and I'm Annabeth Chase. My mom is Athena, goddess of warfare and wisdom." Annabeth says with a hint of pride.

"I'm Floressa, but please call me Flo. Do you know who's my godly par-" I stop talking and cry out the pain I was holding down. It feels that a thousand knives are digging into my skin while my lungs turn to fire and my oxygen stops flowing. I cough out some blood. My vision blur's and I hear Grover yelling,

"Get some nectar and ambrosia!" I vaugly see Annabeth bite her lip and call out to me, "Try to stay conscious!" I try, but I feel horrible. Blood rises in my throat. My raven black hair becomes the only color visible as I fall into unconsciousness.