Nico Maeglin

I gritted my teeth. Starting a new school was always stressful, but when it's the last school in the entire state that will accept me, I was under a lot of pressure to try and not screw up. I hitched my backpack up a little higher on my shoulder and began yet another slow walk into a new and unfamiliar school.

I had just opened the door when a tall, eerily thin man swept out of nowhere. "Welcome to Central High School," he said, sounding like I was anything but welcome. I took a deep breath. Remember Matthias, I thought, you need this chance. Mom will have a cow if you get kicked out the first day, just for being rude. I forced a grin out on my face.

"Thanks, I can't wait to get started." I took in the humongous, labyrinth-like building.

As if sensing that I was already bored, the creepy thin man sneered ever so slightly, and called out to a student passing by. "Mr. Groves, will you please show our new student here to his class?"

A jumpy-looking guy, maybe a junior by my guess, with a bad case of acne and a wispy goatee slowly walked towards us, mumbling "Yes sir, Mr. Zeigler."

I jumped at the opportunity to get away from the creepy man, Mr. Zeigler. I showed the guide my schedule, and he started hobbling off toward the right hallway.

"So…" he began, obviously uncomfortable. " What's your name, newbie?"

"Matthias Coronado," I said quietly. He must have heard about me, because he suddenly stopped in his tracks and stared at me.

"Wait, THE Matthias Coronado? The one who burned down that school in Ohio?" He asked incredulously.

"Um, no?" I offered. He stared at me some more. I sighed. "The school was hit by lightning; I was trying to put it out!" I insisted.

He snorted and grinned. "Whatever. I'm Stan Groves, average nobody. Hey!" He said suddenly, staring at my schedule. "You and I have our first two classes together, and lunch. I can show you around a bit." Great, I thought unenthusiastically.

The rest of the day was a blur of new faces and classes. I tried to remain interested, but school was never my strong point, with my ADHD and all.

As I was ready to leave, after the final bell had wrung, I saw Mr. Zeigler walking swiftly toward me. I sighed and tried to remember if I had broken any rules.

"Matthias, can you come with me?" he asked in a low voice that I had to strain to hear. I shrugged and closed my locker. He led me down a hall and into a classroom. I put my stuff on one of the desks and turned around.

"So, you wanted to ta- WHAT THE?!" I shouted as I turned around and found myself face-to-face, not with an eerily thin high school principle, but with an eight foot tall man, being a horse from the waist down. My jaw dropped.

"You have a lot of nerve, Half-blood, to intrude on Roman ground. Are you a spy?" he demanded, drawing a dagger from its sheath. I stumbled backwards, away from this hallucination.

"Is this a joke? Am I going crazy?" I demanded. I saw the horse-man take a step forwards, and I looked around for something to defend myself with. Finding nothing, I panicked and seemed to snap out of a trance that I didn't realize that I was in. In a moment of mad adrenaline, I shot past my attacker, through the door, and…

Straight into Stan Groves, the dweeby kid that had shown me around earlier. He stumbled back bit. "Matthias, are you okay? You look like you've seen a- CENTAUR!" He dove aside, dragging me down with him as the horse-man barreled past us, crashing into lockers and trashcans.

I noticed two figures at the end of the hall, both wearing what looked like bronze vests. One was a girl, tall and blonde, with a deadly-looking dagger in her hand. The other was a boy, with darker hair and a bronze sword. They advanced slowly towards the centaur, moving with experience that only comes with several years of fighting.

"This child is under our protection," declared the boy, even though he only looked a few years older than me. The centaur snorted, actually snorted, like a horse, and charged the boy.

"Look out," I cried, but the boy paid no attention to me, and instead, whirled his sword, blocking the centaur's path, and then in an effortless move, decapitated him. I stood in awe as its headless body dissolved into golden dust.

The blonde girl looked at me, concern filling her gray, stormy eyes. "Are you okay? You didn't get hurt?" she asked. I shook my head and she smiled. "Great. We need to get out of here, it's not safe anymore. By the way, my name's Annabeth."