F: This is an F story not an A story. Right, A?

A: yep! This story is being written by F, not me.

F: though I don't own anything from PJO or HoO.

A: if she did, then she'd be super rich and she would buy me a herd of llamas for my birthday. right, F?

F:Um, I might do that….

A: You would buy me lots of llamas if you were rich, right?

F:

A: right?

F: sure. I guess.

A: yay!

F: I'm just going to start my new story now.

"Class, I would like to introduce our newest student, Atalanta Greene." The teacher, Mr. Thompson said. I stood in front of the rows of kids, wishing I could melt into the floor, or at least that the other kids would stop staring at me like I was from outer space. "Would you like to tell the class a little bit about yourself?"

"Not really." I muttered. I didn't want to piss off the teacher on my first day at this new school, but I also didn't want to lie. Though I knew how important it was that things go well at the new school. My mom was running out of schools that would take me.

"Alright," Mr. Thompson raised an eyebrow, but he didn't argue. "Then you may go to your seat." I walked to the only empty desk at the back of the class, and slid into the seat. I was right next to a girl with blond hair streaked with red, who was doodling on the desk. She looked up at me as I sat down.

"I'm Sadie. Welcome to BAG." She whispered with a slight British accent as Mr. Thompson started talking about math or whatever.

"Thanks."

"Did you just move to Brooklyn?"

"No, just switched schools." I said, hoping she didn't ask why I had gotten kicked out of the last school. Sadie was about to say something else, but the teacher interrupted her.

"Miss Kane, did you have something to add?"

"No, sir. Sorry." Sadie said quickly, straightening up.

The rest of the day was pretty normal. A couple of kids teased me about my name, we got a pop quiz in science, and I couldn't read anything in the textbooks. I have dyslexia, so all the letters on the pages turned around and switched places so that it was impossible to tell what the words were.

That night, I walked the twenty-nine blocks home and up the seven flights of stairs to my mom's tiny apartment. She works three jobs to afford the place. She works as a computer tech person by day, a waitress by night, and a student by later at night.

I never knew my dad. Sometimes I wonder what he was like, and if things would be different for us if he was still around. Mom hates to talk about him. All she's ever told me was that he was a mechanic, and that he "had to leave" whatever she meant by that.

My mom's always tired, with bags under her eyes and her hair mussed, so it makes me feel awful just to look at her. I always think I should be doing more to help out with the finances, but my mom insists that I don't. She says I deserve a nice childhood. I say I already graduated from childhood. She just shakes her head and looks sad at that, but I don't understand why.

I slung my backpack off and tossed it onto the couch. I spent the evening doing homework, and made myself macaroni-and-cheese for dinner. Mom wouldn't get home until late, probably not until after I was in bed.

It was about eight-o'clock that night when I remembered that mom had asked me to pick up more eggs from the store. I couldn't let her down on the one thing she had asked me to do. I pulled on my dark blue hoodie and scuffed white sneakers. I tied my curly black hair up in a ponytail automatically. I also gave green eyes and a freckled face, and I always wear jeans, no matter what the occasion.

The grocery store was only a few blocks away, so I got the eggs and was already on my way home in less than ten minutes.

I was just about to push open the door to my apartment building, when a bang came from across the street.

I turned around. There was nobody there. The thumping bang came again. "Hello?" I called, taking a few steps forward. The sounds were coming from the alley across the street. I had turned back around, and was just about to head inside and forget about it, when something horrible emerged from the alley.

It was a dragon, with a dozen scaly heads, all of it's cat eyes trained on me. One head turned up towards the sky, and shot a column of flame into the air. I screamed and stumbled back, pressing my back into the brick wall of the apartment building.

"What the h***?" I screamed. The monster lumbered forward, its huge heads all turning in different directions. It shot another blast of flame at me, and I dove to the left to avoid it, bruising my shoulder and scraping my elbow as I landed on the concrete. I scrambled to my feet, stumbling away. The monster shot another blast of flame at me, singing the hairs on the back of my neck.

I ran down the street, blindly skidding around corners and dodging people. The monster didn't seem to bother anyone else. They got out of its way, but nobody else seemed to be really concerned with it. I actually heard one person mutter, "Stupid kid should keep that dog on a leash."

Dog? It wasn't a dog! But I didn't have the time to stop and tell that guy how wrong he was.

I dodged fire blasts and sprinted across streets. I glanced back at the monster. When it saw me looking, it opened one of its mouths and shot a spray of acid at me. It splattered on the sidewalk and singed my pant leg. "Fire and acid?" I screamed. "That's not fair!"

I would've been dead then, but… was that a… a griffon? Carrying a boat? With people in it? They were coming right towards me! The boat landed in the middle of the street, and four teenagers leapt out.

I was surprised to see Sadie from my school was one of them. There was also a dark skinned boy with dark hair in a button-up shirt who was holding a curved sword, a bronze-skinned boy in a workout shirt with a lot of amulets and rings, and a girl with short dark hair who was holding up one hand with a… fireball on her palm. There was a fireball in her hand.

I must be going nuts. That was the answer. I was a lunatic. A total lunatic.

"Why-" I ran towards them. Crazy or not, they might be able to help me. "Never mind. Just-"

"Atalanta?" Sadie yelled. "Get behind us! We can take it."

Sadie and the others with her attacked the monster. The boy in the workout top pressed his hand to one of the monsters heads, and it disintegrated into gray dust. He grinned, but two more smaller heads just appeared where the old one used to be. His grin disappeared.

The girl holding fire shot some at the monster, but that didn't seem to hurt it. The flames just bounced off its scales. Sadie raised one hand and shouted something in a language I didn't know. A blazing symbol appeared in the air in front of her, and the monster reared back like it was in pain.

But the monster swung one of its heads, sweeping them all of their feet. It advanced on them, but they were all still on the ground, struggling to get back up.

There was nothing I could do. They were going to die. I didn't know them, but they had saved my life. I could escape with the monster turning all its attention on them, but I knew I couldn't. I looked down at the grocery bag, still in my hand. I pulled out the carton of eggs.

It probably wouldn't help, but I had no better ideas….

The egg splattered against the hydras scales. I threw another and it smacked it in an eye. "Hey! Ugly! Big green and scaly, getcher a** over here! Leave them alone, stink bomb! Thats right, I'm talking to you! Eat eggs, you dumb lizard!"

I threw another egg at it, and it cracked on its side. The monster made a harumphing sound and turned towards me. "Leave them alone! Over here, fatso!" I tossed three more eggs at it. It roared in anger and blasted flames at me, headed straight for my face, but I heard a yell from the other side of it.

A glowing symbol appeared in front of me, and the flames stopped a few feet from me, like there was an invisible shield between me and the monster.

I couldn't see what was happening, because the monster was between me and the others. It turned, and reared up and blasted flame, but someone shouted another strange word in another language, and it collapsed, bursting into gold dust.

When the dust and smoke cleared from the air, they all stood there, unharmed. My mouth was open, and I was gaping at them. I couldn't help it. I knew they must have just done magic. That was the only explanation. Magic. What.

"Who are you people?" I asked. "Who are you really?"

"I'm Carter Kane." The boy with the curved sword said, stepping forward. "This is Walt Stone and my girlfriend Zia Rashid. And this is my sister Sadie Kane. But I'm betting you already knew that one."

"Yeah." I nodded. "Great. More important question: was that magic?"

"Yes." The girl named Zia nodded. "We're magicians of the house of life, following the path of the gods. You're probably a magician too, since that thing was attacking you. You should come with us."

"Uh, okay." I said. "I have no idea what half of that meant, but I'll take your word for it."

I climbed in the boat with them, and the griffin (I think I heard Carter call it "Freak") started to flap its wings. The boat lifted off the ground, swinging from side to side. "Woah." I grabbed the side of the boat nervously.

"Don't worry, its safe." Carter assured me.

I nodded. "Where exactly are we going?"

"To Brooklyn house." Walt said. "There you can learn about Egypt and magic and things like that. Its the safest place for magicians to learn magic, other than maybe the first nome in Egypt, but thats a long trip."

"Right." I wasn't even pretending to understand what they were talking about now.

We landed on the roof of a warehouse in Brooklyn. "Why are we at a warehouse?" I asked, puzzled.

They all gave me weird looks. "You mean you can't see it?" Sadie asked. "It's like three feet from your face."

"What is?" I asked. "There's nothing here but an empty roof!"

"Not exactly." Carter waved a hand, and a shiver ran through the air. Then a huge mansion appeared on the roof. I could only see it out of the corner of my eye, which was weird, but it had balconies and a big patio and a swimming pool with an albino alligator in it.

"Woah." I muttered. "Thats weird and awesome at the same time." They lead me through the mansion, which they called "Brooklyn house" and introduced me to the other kids there. I also met a money named Khufu who has this thing for the letter "o", and Carter and Sadie's uncle Amos.

I didn't understand why I was here, but it didn't feel right, like I was in the wrong place. But there was no reason to feel that way! According to the others I belonged here, I was one of them, and they must be right…. but every time they said the name of a god or a spell, I thought, that's not right. That's not what its supposed to be.

I might not know where I was supposed to be, but I knew one thing for sure: I wasn't a magician, and I certainly wasn't Egyptian.

Okay, so sorry that this was just with the kane chronicles so far. I promise that PJO/HoO will come in a chapter or two from now. This really is a crossover, I'm not lying! Atalanta isn't a magician, she's right, she's a greek! But the greeks/romans aren't in the story yet, though they will be.

Remember to please leave a review/favorite/follow me or this story if you like it so far.