I woke up with a massive headache. There was a note on the right side of my bed. I was about to pick it up when Piper, my gods-so-annoying roommate, came running near my side of the bed and flung the curtains open wide. Gods, there is too much sunlight.

"Ughh," I groaned. "Is it orientation time already?" I shielded my eyes from the sun and pulled out my phone. The time on my screen read 7:30. Oh, jello. I was going to be late.

Piper turned around, hands on her hips, and told me three words that would change my life forever. "Fifteen minutes, Thalia."

My eyes widened and I flung myself out of the bed and stumbled to our closet. But… none of my clothes were there, of course, because I forgot to unpack last night. "Piper,", I called out, "do you mind if I borrow your clothes?"

She flipped her hand, which I took to mean, Yeah, sure. I couldn't care less.

So I pulled out a blue shirt and some jeans, tied my hair in a ponytail (I grew it longer after high school), and slipped into the bathroom to change. As I did that, I tried to brush my teeth. Let me tell you, it was not a pretty picture with me trying to wriggle one hand through my sleeve, another tugging my pants up (Piper had not-so-skinny jeans that were to loose for me around the waist, and that is not good), and my toothbrush bunched up in my teeth.

I tell you, it was in record time that I raced out of the room, grabbing Piper and my bag on the way out, and of course, something bad was bound to happen, thanks to my awful luck.

And it did.

I was running to the end of the hall when something I thought only happened movies occurred to me - I barrelled into someone, and my bag flew down the stairs as Piper fell onto a boy. Then it occurred to me that I had also bumped into a boy. He turned his head up to face me as he stood up from getting a book from the floor and I stared at him in recognition. "Percy Jackson," I hissed at a familiar pair of green eyes.

"Pinecone Face?", he asked me in disbelief.

I shouldered past him and called out from behind, "Come on, Piper. Let's go, please." She came scurrying behind me and steered me safely in the direction of the stairs, acting as barrier between me and Percy in case I still decided to turn around and punch him.

The steps I took down the stairs were like a dull roar to my ear. The last time I had seen him had been in eighth grade, when I was a full six inches taller than him. When had he gotten so - big? More thoughts like this this were crowding in my head as I retrieved my bag from where it ad fallen at the bottom of the stairwell.

Behind me, Piper nudged me almost shyly. "W - was the guy I fell on the Jason Grace?" Then she blushed. "I know you won't believe this, being his sister and all, but… he was kind of cute." Of course, he was a legend, having have turned down Drew Tanaka, the "prettiest girl" in our junior year.

I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "Well, sure he is, if you have a penchant for teenagers who play Outsiders 24/7 and eating a stapler in the good old days when he wasn't as much of a pain in the a - posterior," I corrected myself as Piper gave me a glance that she usually saved for people who cussed. If you asked me, a person who received that look often, she reminded me of her mother Aphrodite McLean, a model, when a person ate too many cookies in front of her when she was on a diet. (If you're reading this, Piper, please don't kill me! I beg you, I am too young to die!)

As we entered the gym where the orientation was going to be held, I noticed that all the bleachers were filled. Now that is saying something, because there was a whole lot of bleachers in a gym. That's kind of the whole point of a gym. Some foldable chairs had been set up close to the raised stage in the smack-dab center of the gym. There weren't that many chairs left, and I just sat in the first available seat I could find. It happened to be right next to a giant, and I mean giant, Asian boy who could have been scary, possibly, if he hadn't had a this-is-my-first-day-here-please-don't-murder-me look in his eyes that made him look like a - cliche time - giant, cute panda. (A/N: Get it, because pandas are from China or somewhere around there, which is in Asia?)

Piper sat down in the chair next to me as the president of the college came onto the stage and spoke into the microphone. I gulped. This was really happening. I was spending four years away from my mom and stepdad and with my annoying brother. He cleared his throat and began. "I know that many of you have come from a different city, a different state, or possibly a different country as an exchange student on scholarships. But wherever you are from, I just want to let you know that you are all welcome here. Please do not hesitate to come by at all to my office if you feel like you are unwelcome here." Then he scoffed. "I believe that you all are first years correct?" We nodded. "Well, my name is Mr. Kennedy Ronos, but you can just call me Mr. Kronos. I look forward to knowing you all personally in these four years you are here. I am going to now proceed with the formal orientations, after which your schedules will be handed out to you."

He pulled down a screen, where a map of the college was projected. " I am aware of the fact that none of you were given a complete tour of the facilities in the college due to some construction in the left wing, where some of the classrooms are, so let me just give you a quick run-through here. The right wink of the college consists of three buildings. One of them is the one you are in now, which contains three floors of dormitories and a ground floor with a gym. There are stairs on both sides of the halls. The doorway of the gym leads to another building less than two blocks away. That building is where the cafeteria and other restaurants are contained, each section with its own floor. There is another building adjacent to it, which contains the classrooms for math, visual arts, and computer courses, on the first, second and third floors, respectively. The left wing consists of two buildings, one of which is devoted to the sciences with four floors, and another building with the rest of the fine arts and business endorsements, including languages, with five floors. They will be open at the end of this week, thankfully. That is just a brief tour of the college itself. The campus consists of more buildings... ," he droned on and on until I was almost asleep.

He spoke about rules and guidelines, too, and this was what I managed to piece together: there were five absolute rules at Immortales University.

If you receive ten demerits / detentions a semester, then you could get expelled from the college. They were strict about behavior!

2. We all have a curfew of coming back to the college dorms at eleven o'clock.

3. If you are on an Athletics team, and you have a game on a Project Day, then you are free to not do that work. Thalia, get on an Athletics team ASAP!

4. Extensions that do not exceed the time of a week are allowed to be approved by the teacher if they see it fit.

5. A common expectation was to get above Bs at Immortales, otherwise, you may have to repeat the class next year.

I mulled this all over in my head as I shuffled to the table where people were handing out schedules once the orientation was over. Gods, the line was so long. But this gave me even greater anxiety. What was my schedule? God help me if I had any classes with the infamous idiot Percy Jackson.

A/N: This is my first fic, so please comment. Constructive criticism is appreciated!

Thanks,

.thunder