Authors Note: I've wanted to write this down for awhile, and it feels good to finally be able to sit down and put it down on, uh, paper. Please review my dear readers, and good things shall come to you! A quick note on the ages; Percy and co. are 18, Nico is 16, and my two main characters are 17.

"The Law of Attraction states that like attracts like"

My mother was never still.

My memories are foggy, and I have a difficult time remembering small details. Yet, she has always stayed with me, even after six long years of not seeing her. I remember her bright muumuus, the way she tapped her foot while she sat, and her wild mass of curls. A staple in her outfits, no matter pajamas or the sharpest gown, was a diamond bracelet that spelled her name, Luna, in Greek. She said it was the first (and only) gift from my father.

My father…

He was a tough subject for Luna to talk about. Whenever I brought him up, she responded with more hand gestures than words. She had met him when she was exploring the rainforest for signs of a rare, poisonous frog. The last thing she remembers fluidly before the 'incident' was falling into a deep hole and smacking her head against the ground. Luna didn't remember him exactly; she claimed that he was more of a thing rather than a being. But he was there, and he did touch her. When she awoke, she knew only two things; that she was indefinitely pregnant, and that he had left behind this bracelet has a token of his apology.

She was never mad at him, rather, she almost seemed grateful that he had just 'hit it and quit it.' My mother was incredibly independent, and never had boyfriends, only lovers. I think if he had tried to stay with her, she would have said no anyways.

My only regret before being sent off to Jenkenson's Prep School for the Gifted, is that I never asked her if she knew his name, or if he had even said anything at all to her. But at that moment in time, I was only eleven, and my only thought was if I would ever see my mother again, and who had decided that I was now consider 'gifted.'

I can only hope that this experience will help me grow in the way that I treat others and-

"You have got to be kidding me."

I looked up from my essay and stared at Sofia, who had slammed her cafeteria bought apple juice down and reached over to grab the paper.

"What's with that ending?"

Sofia's dark blue eyes scanned the paper in a hurry, her black rimmed glasses hanging low on her nose.

"My mother taught me a lesson that no one else could: caution."

Sofia cracked up at this and handed me back my paper, her infectious laugh drawing eyes from nearly all the boys in the room. Her looks were popular with the boys, seeing as she had a very voluptuous body. She was more sexy than beautiful, and men usually got bored with her when they learned that her breasts had a face – and a personality.

"Okay, okay. So it's not my best piece of work, who cares? Ms. Kingfisher will just be happy that it's actually done on time."

"True, true," she replied, waving her hand in the air; already bored with the conversation.

"Well, let's see your paper then."

She lifted up a one page report and held it in my face while I slowly read through the one paragraph.

The only thing that I remember about my mother is that when I asked about my father, her only response was the 'he was good, very good.' She would then head off to her room to do God knows what with God knows whom. Leonia, my mother, taught me only one lesson, and that is to make sure you first learn that name and social security number of the people you have intercourse with.

"And we were making fun of my paper?"

Sofia retracted her hand and shrugged, "She said to be honest. Besides, why should I take such a stupid assignment seriously? 'Tell me about your parents and a lesson they taught you?' Why would she assign that when she knows about us?"

"Maybe she assigned it because she knows about us." I replied, standing up with my tray. The bell rang at the exact moment, and Sofia jumped in surprise, barely messing up her short brown hair. "How do you do that?" She inquired, poking me sharply in the stomach as she composed herself.

"My watch," I replied coolly, flashing her the object in question.

"Uh-huh, right. But I mean all the time, it's as if you always know when certain things are going to happen. A premonition of sorts, ya know?"

"I just get lucky sometimes, ya know?" I retorted back, making fun of her catchphrase.

"Shut it!" She snapped, holding open the door for me. Even in her anger, Sofia's never able to shake off her manners.

Standing just outside the door, I shook my head and pointed behind me. "I'm not going to class today. I just kind of feel like taking a nap or something. Feel like joining?"

"Uh, no. And you shouldn't be skipping class Dia your grades are bad enough as it is."

Flashing her an apologetic smile, I lumbered off to the field behind the school, not looking back until I heard the door slam. Sighing, I found myself sitting down at the cafeteria table and stretching out my hands on it. Laying my head down lightly, I found myself dozing off on the spot, closing my eyes just as a leaf landed softly beside my hand.

Sofia's POV

Dia had always been a troublemaker, and I befriended her against my common sense.

She was my first, and truly my only friend. I came here when I was only fourteen, and had been horrified to learn that Dia came here when she was eleven. We met back in the 8th grade, during Greek studies. Our teacher was an absolute prude named Mrs. Beard (very apt, by the way) who I swore had a vendetta for both me and Dia since we first walked into her classroom.

She was lecturing us on the monster Scylla that day, and was describing her grotesque body. Six long necks, sharp canine teeth, the heads of dogs lined her waist, and finally, a cat's tail.

At this part, Dia laughed loudly, and hard, causing everyone to turn around and stare. She was, and still is, a very wild looking girl. Her collarbone length auburn hair was a complete mess; it looked as if it hadn't seen a brush – ever. Yet, it almost worked out for her, especially the way the bangs lined her large, bright green eyes. She was tan, lean, and when she laughed you could she her unusually sharp canines. Dia radiated danger, and I liked that.

"Just what is the purpose of the cat tail?"She questioned Mrs. Beard, her face completely serious now, devoid of laughter. The quick change of emotion was sharp, and even Mrs. Beard seemed taken aback by it.

"E-Excuse me!"

"I mean, why would you put something that delicate in with all those nasty things? What was its purpose? To tickle the bellies of its' enemies? Just what were the Gods thinking when they did that, hm?"

Dia asked the question as if she knew that Mrs. Beard would know, as if Mrs. Beard was one of the people who did this to Scylla. Dia continued to study our teacher with her eyes, challenging her to give a straight answer.

"Out," she snapped, pointing to our door. Dia almost seemed to expect this answer, and was already on her way to stand up by the time Mrs. Beard had yelled it. "Yeah, yeah. I'm on it woman."

"Woman! Did you just call me woman?"

As Mrs. Beard ranted, Dia made her way to the classroom door, and as she made her way past my desk, she caught my eye and smiled. "Everything," she mumbled to me as she passed by, "just isn't what it seems anymore."

Leaning back into my chair, I mulled this over in my mind for awhile as if it were a riddle. Was there a deeper meaning to this? Did she mean everything, as in myself too?

"Mrs. Beard!" I snapped, broken out of my thoughts by her obnoxious ranting. She turned her head sharply towards me, her vulture-like face glaring right at me "Can you stop that? As in now? I'm trying to think, ya know?"

And with that simple question, I was sent out into the hallway, not even a full minute after Dia had left. She was waiting for me outside, a small smile on her lips. The taller girl loomed over my short frame, and I was almost scared of her. Almost.

"I've been waiting for you," she remarked proudly, holding her head high. "We're going to be great friends."

So with that, we began our many adventures together, and I never did question just how she knew.

By the time I had made it to my seat, the bell had already rung, and I huffed slightly in my desk. Mr. Klein looked at me and I smiled. He winked, and marked me as safe. Sometimes, just sometimes, I'm happy with how I look.

As the lecture began, my eyes started to droop, and I looked outside the window. I could see Dia clearly, her school uniform standing out from all of the boring colors of the outside world. The bright purple and yellow colors of our school jacket made a stark difference to the white table she was napping on. A bright green leaf was nestled by her hand, and I rolled my eyes. How could that not bother her? What if a slug was underneath it, just waiting to crawl up her hand and-

Did that leaf just grow?

Squinting my eyes (does that ever actually help?), I leaned closer to the window in an attempt to confirm what I just saw. What before used to just cover the side of her palm, was now almost to her elbows, and the stupid girl hadn't woken up from it!

"Sofia?"

"I have to go now, Mr. Klein, it's an emergency."

Not even waiting for his reply, which I knew would be a yes, I collected my belongings and headed towards the door.

"Yes, yes, I understand."

Of course you do.

After leaving the room, I began to pick up speed to something of a jog, skipped stairs, and slammed open the doors to outside, nervous for what I was going to see.

And nervous, did I deserve to be.

"DIA!" I screamed.

Dia's POV

I wasn't actually asleep.

Well, not for long anyways. I awoke when I felt something stirring on my heads, which to my surprise, was a leaf. Lowering my eyes to slits, I watched it grow, not only out of morbid curiosity, but I might have also been too scared to actually do anything. By the time the creature had reached my elbows, I could hear an odd clicking in my ear, which almost made me cry – and not like soft sobs, like an actual bawl.

But I stood still, because I once read somewhere that when an animal larger than you is attacking, it's best to play dead, or asleep in my case.

It wasn't until I heard Sofia scream my name that I was snapped out of my thoughts and looked up.

It was, quite literally, a giant green crab.

"Get the hell out of there!" She shouted, picking up rocks from the ground to hit the creature. Sofia always gets vulgar when she's mad.

Looking up, I discovered that it was now larger than my head, with its' stomach directly above my head. The table groaned from all the weight, and I took this as my cue to leap up from the table. The table broke as soon as I left, and I turned around quickly to run towards Sofia. But just as I began to run, a small grey object flew towards my head, colliding roughly with my forehead.

"What the hell Sofia!" I snapped, clutching my forehead tightly with my hands. A could feel a small amount of blood trickling down, and Sofia rushed to my side.

"I'm so sorry, Dia! It was meant for our, uh, little friend behind us." She began to back up slowly, and I followed suit, making sure to position myself behind her this time.

It was huge at this point, around the size of 6 picnic tables, and pincers that could snap a tree in half. Clicking angrily, it began to inch towards us. Using my free hand, I grabbed Sofia's wrist and pulled her to the gates. "We have to run, now!"

Running was odd for both of us, I had always skipped P.E., and Sofia was just unathletic. Needless to say, by the time we had rather ungracefully jumped the chain-linked fence, our crabby friend was closing in.

"Duck!' I shouted, pushing Sofia's head down as a pincer swung over our heads, slamming into the side of a building. "We have to run faster." I yelped, pulling her along with me.

"I know what this is…" She replied, eyes unfocused as she stared into the distance. "It's Carcinus, from the labor of Hercules."

"Fantastic," I snapped, pushing aside a bewildered businessman in our hurry. "Now I know what they'll put on my grave. What's more important for me to know, is why everyone else hasn't notched this thing!"

Sofia looked around at the people around us, who seemed oblivious to Carcinus.

"Don't you fucking see it?" She shouted at a woman we passed, who flipped us off angrily.

"Ignore them, right now we need to worry about us." A car beside us was smashed to pieces, and I pulled Sofia roughly to my right so she didn't get hit by the flying bits of metal. Gasping for air, I ran faster, pushing not only myself, but Sofia much past our limits. I didn't bother to look behind anymore, all that mattered was where could we go? A looked around, people stared at us with shock, some cheering us on in a joking manner, others looking slightly pissed. Why are we the only ones? Why?

Suddenly, a tall boy in a black aviators jacket appeared from a small alley way. Coaxing his finger towards me, I turned sharply, making a beeline for him. He was walking backwards towards the shadows, which seemed to move with an eerie energy. Pushing my way past a boy with jet-black hair holding a pen carefully and a girl with blonde ringlets, I threw my hand forward, trying to grasp the boys.

"Why are we going with this boy?" Sofia shouted in my ear, "How do you know we can trust him?"

"He's too cute to be evil." I mumbled back, A wide smile on my face.

"WHAT?" Sofia yelled, attempting to pull me backwards. But it was too late, I had already made it to the boy, who grasped my hand tightly and flung us into the shadows with him. It was small, dark, and I felt my body being compressed to an incredibly small size. I opened my mouth to yell, but no sound came out. What had he done?

The next thing I knew, I was lying on a grassy hill, with Sofia tucked under my arm, and passed out. A middle-aged centaur walked into my eyesight, resting a hand on my forehead. "Good job Nico!" He said proudly, smiling at someone I couldn't see.

And on that note, I too, passed out.