So this is my first ever story. Not sure how good it's going to be. It takes place the summer after the war with Gaea, and I'm obviously assuming that the demigods won. Everything will be canon compliant, and characters will be in character to the best of my ability. Anyway, please review and all that jazz, so that I will know whether or not I should continue! Thanks, and I hope you enjoy it.

I do not own PJO or HoO. Rick Riordan does.

Alec

I was having a perfectly fine day when that dog from Hell decided to show up and ruin it. We only had about a week left of school, and since my AP tests were over, there was pretty much no point in showing up anyway. The only reason I bothered to drag myself out of bed at the ungodly hour of 7:00 AM (I'm not exactly a morning person)was because Victor wanted me to go to class. Victor, by the way, was my dad's best friend and former colleague. He's been looking after me since I was five years old, which I guess I appreciate, but honestly the two of us don't get along all that well. Generally, we just kind of skirt around one another, which is fine by me.

I took a quick shower and made myself some toast. Victor was at work already, so I took the opportunity to eat my breakfast on the couch; Victor probably would have had a coronary if he knew. As I ate, my eyes wandered to the picture above the fireplace of my father and I. It was the last picture ever taken of him. He was crouching down and giving me a hug, his hazel eyes alight with happiness, and with my matching gaze and neat brown hair, I looked just like him (even at five years old). I always got a little sad when I looked at the photograph; I hadn't seen my dad for about eleven years now, but I still missed him and his smiling face like hell.

I finished my toast and drove to school, snagging a parking spot right by the math and science building, where I had my first period class. Little victories. I tried to yank my backpack over from the passenger seat, only to get one of the straps tangled around the hand brake and spend the next minute trying to untangle it. When I finally got that sucker loose, I heard a familiar voice to my right.

"Alec, did we have any homework for chem?" the voice belonged to Steven, a kid with whom I had a bunch of classes. My friend, I guess.

"Are you serious?" I asked him "all we ever do in that class anymore is watch movies"

"Yeah, but didn't Henderson say something about a lab?" Steven persisted.

"That was for extra credit."

"Oh, good. Because I definitely didn't do it," Steven said, sounding relieved. The bell rang, and we walked to first period chemistry. Mr. Henderson turned on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and a bunch of us spent the class period playing cards. Like I said, with AP tests done, there wasn't much left to do in class. This trend continued through Spanish and Calc, and our fourth period APUSH teacher let us chill out on the football field and play frisbee. I was in a decent mood going into lunch, but that's when shit started to hit the fan. I was standing in line at the cafeteria when a giant mastiff barged in through the doors. And when I say giant, I don't mean regular mastiff giant. I mean that thing was the size of a horse, with bared teeth practically falling out of its head, they were so massive. I'm pretty used to seeing weird, unexplainable stuff, so I wasn't as freaked out as I could have been, but the fact that this red-eyed demon dog was staring straight at me wasn't helping me out much. Nor was the fact that the cafeteria had erupted into laughter.

"Is that a fucking Chihuahua? Is this supposed to be the senior prank or something?" This was from Ben Welker, one of our school's resident douchebags who wasn't exactly known for his intellectual prowess, but everyone else in the cafeteria seemed pretty much in accord with him that the monster I was looking at was actually just an amusing little rat dog. Like I said, I've seen a lot of weird stuff in my life, stuff that no one else has ever seemed able to see. But this was just ridiculous. As the thing let out a bark and leaped towards me, I couldn't help but wonder whether I was going to go down in school history as the kid who got mauled by a Chihuahua.

I did the only thing that came naturally to me, and swung my hard plastic tray at the beast. I connected with its nose and it stopped for a moment, probably surprised that I had had the nerve (or stupidity) to go after it with such a meager weapon, and I took the opportunity to bolt to the doorway. I could hear the dog bounding towards me and I knew I wouldn't be able to outrun it for long, so I took a calculated risk and turned around. Not a moment too soon; the thing had just reached me, but its momentum was such that it couldn't stop quickly enough. I dropped to the floor and crawled between its huge legs as it tried to skid to a halt. I booked it back into the cafeteria, looking for anything I could use as a weapon. Damn the school district for forbidding metal utensils! Then, I remembered that the lunch crew might have some knives in the back with which to prepare the food, so I vaulted over the counter as I heard the dog making its way back over to where I was. I heard a cry of indignation from one of the lunch ladies as I pushed past her and into the kitchen. I spotted a huge butcher knife next to a chunk of uncut lunch meat and snatched it, and then I booked it back into the cafeteria. The last thing I wanted was to get trapped by the dog.

At this point, the rest of the students must have realized that there was something bad going on, because their laughter had turned into a panic. Kids were flooding out of the cafeteria, tripping over themselves to get out. Luckily for them, the thing only seemed interested in me. It lunged at me, and I took a swipe at it with my knife. My blow probably should have lopped off its muzzle, but all it did was make a bit of a cut. Black blood flowed out of the wound. The fuck? I thought to myself. Soon, I was back on defense, as all the knife really seemed good for was deflecting the monster's massive teeth when it snapped at me. I took a risk and swung at it again, but this time, it raised a massive paw to deflect my blow and sent my knife spiraling to the floor. Shit. The monster growled at me and lunged, knocking to the ground and pinning me, its massive claws raking into my chest. I was lamenting the fact that my last memory was going to be of the dog's awful breath, which smelled like a dumpster full of raw, spoiled meat, when suddenly the thing let out a whimper and disintegrated. Which seemed like pretty good news to me, even though I was now covered in giant demon-dog guts.

I sat up and looked around the cafeteria, which was now empty except for me and a burly, dark haired senior. The guy was holding a long bronze blade that was mostly coated with the same crap I was. For a moment, I was at a loss for words. Then I stammered:

"You saw it too?"

To my surprise, the guy chuckled.

"Yeah, I see them too," he said, offering me a hand. I took it, and stood up, still somewhat in shock.

"Who are you?" I asked him warily.

"Jake Mason, son of Hephaestus," He said, ignoring my raised eyebrows "the better question is, who are you?"

Alright, there's the first chapter. I should get into Camp Half-Blood and the characters we all know and love by the next one. Please, review and let me know what you think so far! Should I continue?