This is my new and improved version of the first chapter, for all of you who read it before. After Aish Sheva added me to his/her forum, I realized I needed to clean a few things up. I don't own PJO, only Isabel and Alyssa.

BRRINGG!! I tried to find the snooze button, but I heard my dad yelling, "Isabel, come out here!" I sighed and sat up. "I bought your favorite cereal," he called from the kitchen, knowing that was just about all I would let myself eat, "don't you want some?" I didn't respond. I felt too tired for breakfast,.

Sliding out of bed, I grabbed an outfit out of my closet, hoping it looked reasonable, changed, and slunk downstairs. "Hi dad," I said obligingly, then stayed quiet as I poured a bowl of breakfast and sat down.

"Well, what's wrong with you?" my dad asked. "You're not yourself today."

"I had another dream last night." I frowned at him. "You know I really need your help with this." I had been having vivid, scary dreams, and my dad wouldn't help me understand them. The only thing I could tell was that these dreams were abnormal. But then again, I'm pretty abnormal.

"Isabel Dianthe Knight." I winced as he used my middle name, he knew I hated it. "I don't think you need to worry. You—you'll be fine."

I ignored him and ate my breakfast. My only hope was that he would leave for work or the bus would come. Yeah, well neither of those is likely. My dad's work consists of taking care of flower's at Cornelius' Greenhouse downtown. Not likely he'd need to leave early.

Finishing my cereal, I grabbed my backpack and went outside without another word. At the bus stop, I noticed the street was quiet. Weird. Just another thing to add to the abnormal list, I guess.

I thought about my dreams. I had this strange feeling that my dad knew why I was having them, and he just didn't want to tell me. I wondered what could be so important for him that he would keep from his one and only daughter. I wondered if Alyssa, my best friend, would be able to figure it out. She was really...well, I guess you would call it wise, and she'd helped with stuff like this before.

Much to my surprise, the school bus pulled up. I realized my ADHD mind had somehow let five minutes pass without me realizing.

I hopped onto the bus and scanned the seats for some space. My house was one of the last on the route, because I lived fairly close to the school. My dad, however, didn't want me to walk alone, and seeing as Alyssa doesn't even live close enough for me to walk...

Anyway, I saw a seat where I wouldn't have to pay attention to the snickering people around me, and went to sit. The bus jerked forward, and I relaxed for a minute, even though my mind was working frantically, like always, noticing every detail. I could live with that, though.

Finally, we stopped outside the school and filed into the building. As I neared my locker, I noticed a girl standing next to it. Getting closer, I realized she was Sylvia Gold, the head cheerleader and a major rich snob. I despised her. After all, she disliked my so-called "hippy-ness" and tried to get the school to enforce stricter rules on my clothing choices. As if. I tried to ignore her as I got my books, but she insisted on taunting me.

"Where have you been, Isabel? With your friend? You two should form a dyslexia club and you'd be the only ones in it! " As she continued, I resisted the urge to punch her in the face, and instead resorted to treating my books like scum and taking my anger out on them. As I grabbed my last book, I closed my eyes so I could stay calm. All of a sudden I heard an ear-piercing scream from behind me. To my surprise, a nearby plant seemed to be growing out and trapping Sylvia in its leaves.

Before I could get blamed for something like I always do, I slammed my locker closed and ran toward my class, away from the screaming cheerleader.

SMACK! I ran into my best friend Alyssa, who had been drawn here by the screams .

"Where are you going, Isabel?"

"Um, to class, where do you think?" I noticed as she looked in the direction of the noise. "Oh, nothing fun going on down there, come on!" I grabbed her hand and dragged her down the hall to the girl's restroom so we could talk.

"Isabel, why—oh." I didn't know what she was "oh"-ing, but I figured she was having one of her moments of revelation.

"Look, I think I... I think I just made a plant try to strangle Sylvia."

I heard her whisper something that sounded like "Demeter," but I ignored it and continued.

"I had another dream last night, too. What's going on here? Am I going crazy?"

Alyssa grabbed me and dragged me off to class, muttering things like, "I knew it... gotta tell her... gotta make a plan...."

******

BRRINGG!! A school bell never fell as sweet on my ears as this one. My next class was Latin, in which we studied Latin, of course, but also Ancient Greek and its history. It was my favorite class, because Greek just came to me, and I took to it as well as or better than English.

As I entered the classroom, I realized that Alyssa wasn't here, but a substitute was. Where had she gone? She and I always worked together in this class, because she had learned it better than I had. I slid into my desk and started wondering. How had that plant captured Sylvia? Had I caused it, or something else? And why was it growing so fast?

Alyssa entered right as the bell rang again, and everyone became quiet. I looked at the board as the teacher spoke. "Good morning class."

"Good morning Mr. Windsor," I mumbled, reading his name from the board. A few seconds later, I realized everyone was staring at me. "What?" I asked.

"The board," Alyssa whispered behind me. I looked again and realized the name was written in Ancient Greek. I hadn't even realized I was reading a language other than English. I saw that Mr. Windsor was looking at me in a very bored way.

"Um, Mr. Windsor, I don't feel too well," Alyssa said. "Can I go to the nurse?"

He nodded, but Alyssa continued. "I think... I think I need someone to come with me though. Isabel, come on." She was either sick or a very good pretender, so I followed her.

"Come on," she whispered immediately and took off running. I sprinted up next to her, knowing that this had to be important.

"What's... going...on..." I asked between breaths. Alyssa slowed down and came to a stop. We both waited and caught our breath before speaking again.

"I have something I should have told you a long time ago, but there's a ninety-nine percent chance you won't believe me this time. It'll take a while to understand."

"Okay," I said, "spit it out, then."

"You're... you're a demigod."

"What?"

"You're—oh no. Get behind me."

"Why?"

"Now!" I heard a tone of worry and... fear in her voice that had never been there before, so I obliged her, and looking up, I realized why.

There, five feet in front of us, was a monster. A giant, standing ten feet tall, holding flames in his hands, and looking like he would gladly eat both of us. I didn't know why Alyssa hadn't moved, then I realized she had drawn out... a sword? I decided to ignore it because then another monster creature arrived. It looked like a snake and a woman. Alyssa pulled me into the bushes as the giant looked around, wondering where we had gone.

"Hurry, he'll start throwing in seconds. I need a rainbow."

"A what?"

"A rainbow, fast." She then began whispering to herself and I only caught a few words. "Who... call... Chiron... Nico!" I scrambled through my pockets, having no idea what she was talking about. Finally I found a clear candy wrapper and Alyssa used it to make a rainbow. "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Nico Di Angelo-- Oh man." I turned to follow her gaze and saw that the giant and the snake woman were coming toward us. I had no idea what was going on, but Alyssa yelled at me to run. "I can take care of this, I've got help coming! Go back to your house!"

I had no second thoughts. I didn't ask myself "should I?"

I just ran.

I had been a good cross country runner in school, so I covered a lot of ground, but I realized one of the monsters was following me. I could hear and feel the giant's huge footsteps shaking the ground behind me like an earthquake. For a scary second as I left the school, I almost stopped so I could remember where to go. I mean PU-LEEZ! This would NOT be the time to forget the directions to your house. So I kept running, ducking into a neighborhood to see if the giant would follow. I realized that even if he did it was highly unlikely that anyone would notice the giant. No one had ever noticed these monsters except for me. I started getting closer to home, where my neighbors and maybe even my dad would be, but I knew it didn't make a difference. What did make a difference was that I was getting pretty tired.

All of a sudden I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and fell flat on my face. I could hear the monster getting closer to where I was, so I scrambled onto my back and realized I had twisted my ankle. I crawled as best I could as I tried to escape into a nearby alley, but it was no good. I watched pitifully as the giant came closer to me. He was thirty feet away, then twenty feet. At ten feet, I closed my eyes, waiting for the deathly blow to come.

But it never did.

I opened my eyes tentatively and realized that the giant was nowhere to be found. I could barely see a figure standing in a cloud of yellow dust five feet from me.

Then I blacked out.

Ooohh, cliffy! Please R&R!