Chapter 1

It was a bright sunny day. Meredith woke up as the early sun rays trickled into her room. She didn't know why, but she was feeling very excited. Then she remembered. Her school was taking the class on a field trip to the woods in Long Island Sound. She had been there before. But this time it was different. Her only friend Juniper was going to be there with her. She jumped off her bed, got dressed and headed out of the kitchen.

She found her mom in the kitchen cooking and quickly had her breakfast before she ran out the front door after giving her mom a quick peck on the cheek just as the school bus turned into the road that she lived in. Little did she know that she wouldn't be seeing her mother for a long time.

Meredith lived with her mom in their two bedroom apartment in the city of New York. She had never known her dad and she never got straight answers from her mom when she asked about her dad. She did not know his name, how he looks or even why he had left them. But her mom always told her that she had his eyes and and the smile wrinkles around her eyes were the same as his too. Meredith was happy that she had at least some sort of connection with her dad.

She got into the bus and scanned the seats looking for Juniper. She finally spotted her sitting all by herself in the last row. "Hi Junie!" Meredith squealed as she made her way to where Juniper was sitting. "H-hi Meredith." was Juniper's unenthusiastic reply. Meredith thought it odd that Juniper was the least bit excited about the field trip but she thought Juniper was in one of her moods when she was very dull and boring and left it at that.

When they finally got to the woods, their teacher pointed to different trees and told them their names and characteristics. It was alright in the beginning but soon, Meredith got bored. "Ugh, this is so boring! Let's go somewhere else, Juniper." she complained and before Juniper could reply, she took her by the hand and started wandering around the woods away from the group before the teacher realized they were missing.

Juniper and Meredith were just sitting down and talking when Meredith heard something. She looked to her right and saw something shimmering like a mirage. "Juniper, did you see that?"

"See what?"

"THAT!" Meredith said, pointing to the place where she saw the shimmering. Then, the shimmer just disappeared as if it had never been there. Just as Meredith was puzzling over the mirage like thing she had seen, a black dog as big as a horse suddenly materialized out of thin air at the spot where Meredith was pointing. Then, slowly, an arch appeared just above the dog's head. There were Greek letterings on the arch. "Camp Half Blood." Meredith read and then she realized that she had just read Greek without ever learning it before. This creeped her out. She turned to Juniper when Juniper spoke up.

"Meredith, I've been meaning to tell you that.. That... You are a demigod"

"A demi-WHAT!"

"A demigod, Meredith, a child of a God."

"What are you talking about, Juniper?"

Just as Juniper was about to reply, a boy walked up to the dog and started petting it. He looked about 18 and had dark messy hair and green eyes like Meredith's.

"Bad Mrs. O'Leary. I told you not to go this far!" he said, talking to the dog. Then, he noticed Meredith and Juniper standing in front of the arch.

"Oh hey, Juniper, you're back already?" He turned to Meredith and said "Hello, I am Percy. And you must be Meredith, right?"

"H-how do you know my n-name?" Meredith stammered too stunned at what was going on.

"It's a long story. All you need to know now is that you are the child of a God and this is the place for people like you and like me." he said, smiling.

"So, you are saying that my dad is a God? And that's why he couldn't stay with me and mom? Is all of this true? Are you like me too? Is Juniper like us too?"

"Yes, Meredith. All of this is true. But no, Juniper isn't like us. She is a tree spirit."

"A WHAAT?" Meredith asked in disbelief.

"Relax, Meredith, I'll answer all of your questions later. Now, we have to meet Mr. D and Chiron. Welcome to Camp Half Blood"

Saying this, Percy took her past the arch and into the valley beyond. Even though Meredith didn't understand most of what he said, she followed him because there was something about Percy that made him seem trustworthy.