'DETEEEEENTIOOOOON! MYYY OFFIIICCEEE! NNOOOOOWW!'

Aiden figured that that meant him, James, Charlie and Tracy ('Yes, I'm a boy with the name Tracy. Got any problems with it?') even though that he was completely and wholly innocent. They, that will say not Aiden, had started the food rockets to run amok. Aiden didn't light them. It was Charlie. The only thing that bounded him to this crime, as the happy headmaster Goodfellow of the problem school Oxymoron School for Troubled Boys liked to say, was that he was the smart guy of it. It wasn't hard, though. A little of that unnamed exploding powder you find in the chemistry room, some spaghetti mixed with some possibly-hazard five old month soup, and you're done. It wasn't rocket science. It was as if the school wanted you to do it, with the ingredients so easy to attain. The only hard part was to get some of that unnamed exploding powder. But, Tracy's nimble fingers easily, well, in a nutshell, exploded the lock with a couple of normal batteries that were severely outdated, and never should have met with a battery charger. He had to handle the batteries with a pair of plastic gloves.

'This was all Charlie's idea!' shouted James as the headmaster pulled them to his office. He was holding James and Charlie's shirt collar, pushing the poor boys forwards through the mass of boys that still didn't have lunch. One of the cooks was holding Aiden and Tracy, also by the collar. It didn't feel nice, and luckily enough, Aiden had been wearing a hundred percent cotton shirt, Tracy, however, wasn't that lucky, and was wearing a black sodden (the soup had sprayed everywhere. Not part of plan) sweater with a necklace with some strange assortment of beads. ('Yes, I wear a necklace because my mom told me to. Problem?). It looked as if the necklace was chafing his neck, not looking too comfortable.

'Oh, shut up,' headmaster Goodfellow shouted. He was, as Tracy, wet and soaked. He smelled rather foul, which was sad, considering that the last year students would have their prom today. Headmaster Goodfellow always had his speech right before the prom started with the last-years. How Aiden, Charlie, Tracy and James knew it was through one of the dozen camera they let install in secret in their first year. Also the year they met. ('Good times!' Tracy had said, when he had remembered about the cameras. 'Before we got famous. Much easier to work then.') It was true, they were famous, not boasting, but they were. They usually got orders to prank one or some other. But, their pranks were getting worse and worse by each day, that's why they got this idea of shooting the lunch room at its peak, when most students were having their lunch. Of course, it had gone wrong, and now they were all being dragged by their collars by foul-smelling adults.

When they were in headmaster Goodfellow's office, he kept looking at his grand office chair, as if thinking if he should make it dirty by sitting on it and buy a new one, or thinking about all the students he had punished whilst sitting on it. Good times.

His office was terrifying. He was like a manly kitten lover. He had pictures of small kittens everywhere. Aiden could swear that their eyes followed him. He shivered. Aside from the pictures of all the kittens, there was a large mat, embroidered with a large cat wearing Photoshopped boxing gloves holding a grenade by the pin with its mouth saying "ya wanna piece of meh?" and his rather normal looking office table. His table was filled with diverse things. All the paper piles were turned upside down, as if they hid important facts, or tips about how to punish bad students. Aiden suspected the latter. Headmaster Goodfellow just couldn't be a secret spy. He was too fat for that.

He decided to sit down. He chair slid down, but it looked as if he didn't notice it. He held his hands together, examining the boys, as if this was the first time he had ever seen them.

'You have broken the record,' he said, sounding if he was about the break down crying. 'The record!' he shouted. Even the cook who still stood behind them looked rather awkward, and began looking at his white shoes.

'Er,' Charlie said. 'We have?' He looked at his friends. Aiden merely raised his eyebrows. Headmaster Goodfellow was scaring him a bit.

'Well,' James said. 'Can we leave?'

'I – wait – hmm – I should expel – but – parents will – I will – the monsters will be sure to notice that you're halfies now! Oh, what should I do…'

Aiden looked around at his friends, and noticed that they were doing to the same thing.

'Er,' the cook said. 'I'll leave.' He left.

The poor headmaster rested his forehead on a pile of paper.

'They told me not to expel you… but if you continue like this … they will have noticed …' the headmaster said, sounding like a maniac.

'Who?' Aiden asked. 'Should we call the nurse?' Aiden asked his friends. Everyone looked worried, Tracy was even fiddling with his necklace, which he only did that times of great despair, like the time they were caught smuggling ten packs or old eggs. Although, the teachers couldn't prove that they wouldn't eat them, so they got to leave, but the eggs were confiscated. Aiden suspected that they used the eggs on the omelettes they had the next morning.

Headmaster Goodfellow raised his head, and stared directly at Tracy. Tracy nodded. The headmaster abruptly stood up, his eyes red. This was probably the most awkward situation that Aiden had encountered.

'Tracy!' he said, with his old headmaster voice. 'Help them pack. I really need to take these pants off.' With six eyebrows raised, their old, big headmaster ripped his pants off. Charlie almost fell of his chair. Their headmaster had extremely hair feet, but they had never suspected this. This was ... just wrong. He should seriously consider buying a shaving pack, Aiden thought. But pack? Were they expelled? But before Aiden could continue thinking about his expelling, and the fact that their headmaster had just ripped his pants of in front of them, Tracy pulled him, Charlie and James off their chairs. Just as Tracy had pulled them towards the door, Aiden was sure that headmaster Goodfellow said something about rashes near his hooves.

'What the freaking darn was that about?' Charlie exclaimed as he was pulled by Tracy, towards their dorm. Tracy didn't answer, and pushed any unfortunate child out of the way with his elbow. Tracy opened their dorm door with his foot, something Charlie did not like, as he had worked with it for years, perfecting the lock mechanism, making sure that nobody but their group could enter, except for some of their most trusted other friends, like Travis. But Travis had been expelled last year. It hadn't been nice, but at least his last prank had been something to remember for years. The children that it was directed at, the bullies, still had some breakdowns about it ('AH! HE'S COMING! BANANAS! HELP ME!').

'Hey, what are –' But before James could finish his sentence, Tracy threw his suit case, already, like magic, filled with his clothes, straight at James in his hurry. 'How did you…'

He did the same with Aiden's and Charlie's clothes. Tracy had just opened their suitcase, completely empty, and then closed it, and it was filled with all of their possessions. Aiden wasn't even sure that he wanted to open it, fearing that everything inside it would fly out, and straight into his face. Before they knew, Tracy gripped them all again and pulled them out. This time, the hall was completely empty, which was weird, as many people had recess by this time. The only sound that came was that of Tracy shoes, as they were soaked and make squishy sounds as he put pressure on them. Charlie pulled himself free of Tracy's hard grip, a couple of meter away from the main exit.

'What is wrong with you?' Charlie shouted. 'What has happened, and why do Goodfellow's feet look as if he came straight out of Narnia?'

'You need – need to trust me,' Tracy, gasping for air. 'Do not shout.' They –'

Before Tracy could finish, a couple of children appeared, from the halls. They stood, side to side, six of them. Aiden did not know them, although they seemed like eight year olds. They all looked at the distance, without any particular goal at all. Aiden could swear that they all looked possessed or something. Tracy looked horrified, which was something that rarely happened.

'C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon,' Tracy whispered hastily, and pushed the group towards the exit, silently, as if the strange boys couldn't hear them. 'Those have bad eyesight, if we're lucky –'

Anyone that says the word 'luck' and the four boys in one sentence should be expelled. Sure, they had had some fine runaways from the teachers, but it was not luck. It was Aiden's brain, and his sense of direction. But, as they did not have luck, the doors were locked, but Aiden had no idea what was happening. Was Tracy kidnapping them?

Suddenly, the boys spoke in a perfect unison. 'Please, don't let me hurt you. If would – '

Suddenly, the middle boy fell down. No – he didn't fall. He turned into dust. Behind the dust stood headmaster Goodfellow with a dagger in his hand. 'There are more! RUN IF YOU VALUE YOUR FREAKING LIVES!'

Aiden did not want to be kidnapped by Tracy, but he was more terrified by the screaming headmaster Goodfellow, who was wielding a dagger. So, he decided to follow when Tracy gripped them all, and ran for the exit. Charlie and James seemed to think the same thought, as they all grudgingly ran. As Tracy clutched the exit, six more boys appeared at the end of the hall. As if headmaster Goodfellow had trained at it his whole life, he threw his dagger. It pierced the middle boy's stomach, and they all simultaneously turned into dust.

'What the –'

But before Charlie could finish, they all slipped on the icy road. It was December, after all. But, instead of falling onto a hard ground, they landed on a soft, somewhat moist, mat. When Aiden opened his eyes, he saw that it was an invisible chariot, Tracy was shouting at some horses, doing his best to stand up, but was so dizzy that he kept falling. The horses had appeared out of nowhere, no, not horses. But horses with wings. The horses suddenly began running, headmaster Goodfellow running towards them trying to catch up. Just as the horses took flight, headmaster Goodfellow took grip at the edge of the chariot and pulled himself up. This all struck Aiden as weird. But he did not have time to complain or anything – had he just seen a dozen eight year olds turn into dust? Strange. Strange indeed.

'Aha!' headmaster Goodfellow exclaimed. 'Two monsters in one day sent to Tartarus. Ain't that nice?' he continued, very out-of-character.

Then Aiden noticed that headmaster Goodfellow had hooves. And, they had some terrible rashes. Aiden would have announced this as the weirdest day of his life, if it wasn't for the flying horses suddenly going hyper speed.

Aiden was sure that he had flown off the chariot, as there hadn't been a door, or anything, but no. Instead, he was soaked in water. He was waiting to freeze, but instead, the water was rather nice, hot.

'Oh yeah, nice landing Trace!' bellowed a voice similar to headmaster Goodfellow, but this one sounded less formal.

'Don't call me that,' said a voice that sounded like Tracy.

Was Aiden dead? Before he could figure that out, some pretty girls looked at him, quizzically. He was floating on the water, Aiden noticed. Strange. His face was just above the water. Aiden had thought that he had seen those pretty girls through reflection on the water, but he was actually seeing girls that were under water. Strange. Then he noticed that they were pulling him, towards the shore or something. They were all giggling. Aiden made a stupid smile, and then he crashed into grass or something. He blinked his eyes, and spluttered out of the water. He looked around himself. There was a smoking chariot on the water. He noticed that it was a lake. He nodded, and tried to examine his surroundings. There were trees near, and several people around. James, Charlie, Tracy and headmaster Goodfellow were already taken care of some teenagers. Why were there teenagers in a forest? This was all just strange. And why are there horses with flying wings stamping around the water, looking angry? Why were there pretty girls living underwater? And why wasn't anyone helping Aiden? Seriously, that's not fair. But as if they had read his thoughts, two burly boys came to Aiden's rescue and put towels around him. All the teenagers wore shorts and yellow shirts with some weird text on it. Aiden didn't know what it said, as he had dyslexia. But, he could make out the text, which was strange. It said "CAMP HALF-BLOOD". What a strange name for a camp.

It was as if this happened all the time, as all the teenagers stood with towels and some weird looking drink. The two burly teenagers asked if something was wrong, and nodded reassuringly. They smiled, showing their crooked teeth.

'What? Who are you?' Aiden asked. Out of all questions he had piled in his head, that one escaped his mouth.

'We're demigods,' said the burlier of the two boys. 'D – E – M – I – G – O – D,' he said, as if Aiden was a foreigner. The other guy was nodding and smiling, as if thinking 'darn, is that boy stupid.'

'Er... you're gods, did you say?' Charlie appeared next to Aiden, rubbing his ears with the towel.

'No – we're demigods,' said the burlier. 'Half-blood. Our parents – you know, the people that gives birth to us – are gods. Gooooaads. Do you unders –'

Before he got to finish, he was pushed off by a blonde guy. 'We'll explain at the camp,' he said, calmly. 'John – you know him as Goodfellow – told us that you were pursued by a couple of monsters, and that Tracy had to speed up a bit. C'mon, we have to leave. There are monsters here.' He spoke with ease. If Aiden would trust anyone here, it'd be him, except for his friends. But there was something about the boy that looked as if it all was too good. Why were there people here? There were loads of people, helping the soaked boys. And, why was headmaster Goodfellow eating the grass?

Before Aiden could protest the blonde guy pulled him, together with the rest of the teenagers and his friends, towards the forest. It gave him creeps. He was sure that he saw something move once in a while. Where they the monsters? And did that burly guy just say that his parents were gods?

When they got to the end of the forest, Aiden thought that he was in Ancient Greece or Rome or something like that. There were white palaces and several strange structures. Among the buildings, there was a house that stood out. It was blue. There was also volleyball court, with teenagers playing volleyball. Was this all some sort of joke that his parents had made? Shipping him off into a plane that looked like a chariot, and sent him into some sort of Greek looking study camp? But, before Aiden could delve into his thoughts, the blonde guy pushed him further, into the camp-looking place. They walked to the weird out-of-place big blue house. There was a horse waiting for them, apparently. There was a man – no there wasn't a man sitting on the horse. He was a horse. How nice. Aiden was going nuts. His horse part was white, and he was wearing an orange shirt, and like all the other except that his shirt had letters, in a weird language, saying "Party Ponies '03" with a picture of a horse human looking thing printed on it. He greeted them.

'Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. The demigod that took you here will show you around. If you have any questions, I'll be in the Big House, or ask your guide.' He smiled, and trotted away, into the big blue house. Aiden was nonplussed. He looked at the blonde guy. He was smiling.

'C'mon, I'll show you around. We don't bite. Most of us doesn't, at least.'

These words did not reassure Aiden, but he followed his friends, who followed their guides. And was that a centaur?