I do not own Percy Jackson all rights go to Rick Riordan, but my own characters, however, i do own. Kayla would have been my own character, but of course Rick had to pick that name. :P

"Wake up! It's time to go to school!"

"Five more minutes" I groaned.

"Then you'll be late!"

"Ugh" I said pulling myself out of bed.

"Hmm? What to wear? What to wear?" I murmured as I went through the clothes in my closet.

I pulled on a pair of jean shorts, a white tank, a blue aeropostalé t-shirt, and some black converse.

"Ok, now what?" I said checking myself out in the mirror.

"Honey, you've got ten more minutes. Then we gotta go" my mom called from the kitchen.

"K!" I yelled back.

I quickly tossed my straight, medium-brown hair in a side pony, and then went off to the kitchen for breakfast. My mom had the radio playing while she was cooking, as usual.

"Something smells good." I said as I sat down on a stool at the counter.

"Good morning", my mom said, placing a waffle on my plate. "Now eat up. I've got an interview today".

See my mom's a DJ at my favorite radio station. She gets to interview famous people all the time and today's one of those days.

"Make sure you get me an autograph".

"Ok, I'll try my best".

"Thanks mom".

I finished my waffle jus tin time to be pushed out the door and into the car.

"Why do I have to go?" I complained as we reached my school.

"It's your last day. Just deal with it".

"Ok, fine".

"I'll see you around six."

"Bye"

I grabbed my bag and climbed out of the car.

"Hi Kayla"

"Hey Paige"

Paige is my best friend in my whole class. She seems to be the only one that doesn't bother me. See my class is a mess. Between the obnoxious jocks and their lying to-good-to-be-true, cheerleader girlfriends, Paige is the only one that seems like an actual person.

"Excited?" she asked me.

"Who isn't?"

"Haha yeah, I know". She said as we headed for the front door.

"Got any plans yet?" I asked.

"I'm going to England for three weeks, visiting Gran and Gramps".

"Jerk. Why don't you take me?"

"Sorry, but you wouldn't fit in my suitcase, and I don't think airport security would like that too much."

"You better take pictures for me? I need more inspiration for paintings".

"You bet".

"Promise?"

"Promise". She said as we hugged.

"God I'll miss you".

"Me too".

"So how about you? Have any awesome ideas on ways to trick Max into thinking he's a cat or something?"

"That would be pretty fun, but no, not really. Probably just drawing and going to whatever summer events my mom has going on at the radio station".

"Sounds fun"

"We'll see".

"Well, I'll catch up with you later. Bye"

"See ya"

As I pulled open the door, you could tell just by the looks of it that it was the last day of school. There was a group of football players shoving each other back and forth into lockers, a few guys on skateboards rolling down the halls, and of course the cheer squad talking about shopping, vacations, make-up, boys, etc. Blah, blah, blah…

I walked down the hallway and didn't stop to talk to anyone. There was wolf whistles and cat calls, but once you deal with these jerks for seven years, you come to tune it out and accept the fact they're not gonna change anytime soon.

Upon reaching my locker I opened it and put my bag in. From personal experience, you learn on the last day the teacher just sits down reading a book, while they either let the kids roam the halls or fool around in the room.

I was closing my locker when I realized there was a note on the door. It was folded up and stuck there with a magnet. It read:

Kay,

How about we go on a walk tonight? Celebrate the end of school. Tell me what ya think.

Oh, and by the way happy birthday. I love you.

Jake

There was a small, black box sitting inside my locker. I grabbed it and opened it up. Inside was a blue, half a heart necklace. 'Aww, that's so sweet', I thought. I took it out and put it on.

Jake's been my boyfriend for almost a year now, and as I may say for myself; he's hot. Most of the guys I know are obnoxious and arrogant 7th graders, but not Jake. He's sweet and really funny. All the girls want him, which come to think of it, isn't to hard to guess why. Between his silvery-blue eyes and silky, dark brown hair. Also the fact that he's the head of the hockey team, but unlike most guys, he wasn't full of himself. Man was I lucky to have him.

I was on the same boat though. Everywhere I went guys kept trying to flirt with me. I usually tried to ignore it, but sometimes the come-backs were too hard to resist.

There were a lot, but here's some of the really good ones. One time when I was sitting in English class and this kid, Cody, comes up to me and says. "Hey is this seat empty?" My answer, "Yeah and this one will be to if you sit down." Oh and there was that guy from the basketball team. "I looked up beautiful in the thesaurus today and your name was included." "Thanks! Hey, I saw your name next to jerk".

But this one's my all time favorite. I went to our school's last JV football game for the season with Paige, and we were standing right in front behind the benches. That was when Logan, our school's JV quarterback, came up to me after he scored the touchdown that won the final game in the season and said, "Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?" (Haha) "Yeah, but this time don't stop", I said as I shot him a look and walked away. I could hear Paige slap him in the face. Yep, he defiantly deserved that. Ah, Good times.

I smiled and shut my locker, upon finding the most obnoxious jerk I know.

"Hi Kayla. You know I was thinking, and I can tell by the way you ignore me that you totally want me.", said Bryan. He's just some random popular guy, but still he's an extremely conceited jerk. "Yep, cuz' that's why I ignore you…". "Was that sarcasm I heard?" "No, not at all". Please. I mean come on, really? "So is that a yes?" "Yes, you're right… I want you to walk away. Bye." I said as I turned on my heels and headed in the opposite direction.

Morning classes went by fast along with the award ceremony. Pretty soon it was time to go home. Since I didn't have a chance to clean out my locker this morning, I was going to have to do it now.

I packed away my blue locker shelves, dry-erase board with markers, and mirror in my tote bag. All that was left were the pictures on my locker door, a few sticky notes, a stack of old papers, and a couple of candy wrappers here and there. I threw away the old papers and candy wrappers, then grabbed all the pictures, sat down on the floor, and started looking at them.

There was the picture of me and Paige at DarienLake and at the fair last August. One of Maxie and Missy lying down together on my bed. The picture of me and Kristy at the Onstage dance competition in May. But my favorite was the one with me and Jake standing next to each other at our school's summer carnival last year.

I sat there thinking about when the picture was taken. It was July, and Jake and I had been dating for almost a month. We headed over to the 8th grade booth and that's when my friend Kailey grabbed both of us by the shoulders and said, "Ok picture time you two". I laughed as she dragged us over to a tree and took our picture. After it was taken, Jake picked me up and put me over his shoulder. I kept telling him to put me down while I gently hit him on the back. He eventually did. After he put me down, he kept looking into my eyes, then slowly leaned in and kissed me. It was our first kiss and I was defiantly going to remember it for a long time.

Just then someone walking down the hallway came over and sat down next to me.

"Hey there".

"Hey yourself", I said back.

It was Jake. He looked over at the picture I was holding and smiled.

"You know, that was probably the best day of my life". He put an arm around my shoulder and pulled me in close, whispering 'I love you' in my ear.

"I love you too Jake".

"Are we on for tonight?"

"Yeah it sounds fun".

"Ok well I gotta get to practice", he said picking up his bag. "See ya then".

"Bye", I said after kissing him on the cheek. He got up and started to walk away when I said. "Oh and Jake". "Yeah?" "Thanks for the present". He smiled and then continued on his way.

It was 2:15 when I started walking home. I didn't live that far away, maybe four blocks. There were kids everywhere outside playing sports, swimming, even getting ice cream from the Mr. Cool's ice cream truck. Wow, it didn't hit me at all until now that summer was really here.

My home was an apartment on Mason Avenue. It was a good fit for me and my mom. Mason Avenue had a lot of different places for shopping and entertainment. There was a movie theater, a Chinese restaurant, McJoe's family diner (best milkshakes ever), a bakery, Sammy's ice cream, a roller rink, also several other stores and restaurants. Anyways…my apartment was somewhere in the middle of all the buildings. I walked down the street to the main entrance of the apartment building. Leonard, the manager, was at the front desk reading a newspaper.

"Hi Leo", I said waving at him. Leo's my nickname for him.

"Hi Kayla. How are you?"

"Good and you?"

"I'm fine".

"Well I gotta go check on Maxie. Talk to you later".

"Bye".

I walked down the hallway to our apartment and used my key to get in.

"Hey, I'm home", I called inside.

"Woof?" Maxie said as he charged at me, almost knocking me down. Maxie's my four year old golden retriever.

"Hey there Maxie. You wanna go outside?"

"Woof"

"Come on, bud"

I linked a leash to his collar then took him outside for a walk. There was a dog park nearby that I usually took him to. We walked there and I let him play with the other dogs for a while, then we went home.

As I was walking up the stairs t my room I tripped on one of Maxie's red, rubber balls. "Watch where you leave these buddy", I said to him.

"Woof".

"Yeah, I know, they're fun. Now come on".

I pushed open the door to my room, and on my bed was my gray kitten Missy, curled up in a ball, sleeping.

"Aww".

She picked her head up and looked at me. "Mrow?"

"Sorry, I didn't' want to wake you. Go back to sleep".

She put her head back down and went to sleep.

I relaxed around the house for a couple of hours, painting pictures with my art set. I drew a picture of Missy curled up on my bed, and then painted it. This was one of those ones that I had to hang up in my room. After, I downloaded some new songs onto my iPod. I can honestly say my iPod must have at least 600 songs on it, or more.

It was now 5:30 and my mom would be home in twenty minutes, so I started to get dinner ready. I cooked our favorite meal, which consisted of home-made lemonade, curly fries, and my famous burgers. I like to call them BMBB's, which stands for Barbecue Munster Bacon Burgers. They are quite delicious. I set up the meal on the picnic table in the back of the apartment. There were about eight apartments in the building and there was an outdoor patio with several picnic tables and a grill. It was nice living here because not only was there a perfect amount of room for me and mom, but there was lawn space for animals in the back to run around, you just needed to clean up after them. After that, I went back into the kitchen to check on the rest of the meal.

My mom came in the door and asked, "Kayla? Are you home?"

"Yeah, I'm in the kitchen" I called back.

"Hey. How'd your last day go?" she said.

"Fine, I guess".

"So what's for dinner?"

"You'll just have to wait and see".

"Mike's coming over tonight".

"Don't worry, I made enough".

Mike's my mom's boyfriend. I personally think he's an okay guy. I mean, sure, he's not my real dad, but he's a nice guy, and if my mom likes him, then so do I. He's a police officer around the city, which I actually think is both good and bad. Good because he can protect us and all, but that also means no shenanigans from me.

Just then the doorbell rang.

"Oh, he's here" my mom said running to the door.

"Hi honey" he said giving my mom a bouquet of flowers.

"Aww. Thanks dear".

"You're welcome".

They both came back to the kitchen and Mike asked, "So what's for dinner?"

"I don't know. Kayla made it, but I'm sure it's good".

"Hmm…I'll be the judge of that". We all laughed and then went to the picnic table.

"Bon appetite" I said as I removed the cover from over the plates.

"Oh, this looks good" Mike said.

"Of course it's good. I made it didn't I?" I said winking back at him.

After we were done eating I cleared the dishes away and told my mom that I was going to the park a bit later.

"Ok, but don't stay out too late".

"I won't" I said as I went upstairs.

First step to getting ready; turn on the radio. They were playing the top five songs and the number one song was 'Summer Paradise' by Simple Plan, which I started to sing along to as I got ready.

I kept on the jean shorts and white tank, but instead I put on a different shirt and shoes. I found a really cute mustard colored shirt that really brought out the athletic tan in my skin. It seemed like forever, but I finally found my pair of black flip flops from the back of my closet. I was still wearing the necklace Jake gave me, which looked surprisingly good with my outfit.

It was seven when Jake and I decided to meet at the park. There was a stone arch at the entrance, which Jake was leaning up against. I smiled at the sight of seeing him, but when he noticed me, he looked up for a moment, and then looked back down at the ground.

"Hey" I said smiling at him.

"Hi" he said back.

"Let's go for a walk".

"Uh…sure".

"You alright?" I asked him.

He shook his head for a moment, as if shaking away a thought, and then answered, "Yeah, I'm fine."

I still kept wondering why he was acting so strangely around me, but I let the ides pass. That was not going to ruin my night, so I grabbed his hand and started walking down the paved path. The park was quite romantic at night. The grass was green, and there were several park benches and lampposts that decorated the pathway.

We came up to a little creek with a few ducks swimming in it. I picked up a small, round rock and handed it to him. He rolled it around his palm with his fingers for a moment and then let it skip across the water.

"You're still pretty good at that" I said

He just shrugged his shoulders and went over to sit down on the bench. His arms were on his knees with his face in his hands, looking down at the ground. I went over and joined him. Obviously something was bothering him.

"It's beautiful" I said looking at the water. The sun was glistening off it, making it shine more than ever.

Jake just looked up and stared at the water saying nothing.

I put my head down on his shoulder and we sat in silence for a couple of minutes. Thoughts ran all throughout my head. I closed my eyes and started thinking about the rest of the summer and how I wish I could just freeze this moment forever and be here with Jake.

"Kayla?" Jake asked. I opened my eyes and saw him looking over at me. "Can we talk?"

After how he was acting since we met up, I knew this was not going to be good.

"I'm just gonna come right out and say it", he started, "I think we should break up".

I felt as if my heart had been thrown out the window, run over by a truck, and danced on by my evil math teacher (*cough cough Mr. K*). All I could think of was 'Why, what did I do?'

He looked at me and said "I-I just need to. Please don't make me explain. It hurts too much". He looked away.

"I thought you were different" I said as I stood up. I started to take off the necklace Jake gave me and threw it on a shallow pool of water.

"Listen Kay-"

"No! Just-just no! Leave me alone!" I said as I ran away crying.

I ran home fast and opened the front door. All I heard was my mom ask "Back so soon?"

"Yeah", I managed to choke out as I ran upstairs to my room.

I plopped down on my bed listening to songs on my iPod, which usually seems to cheer me up. 'Somebody that I Used to Know" by Gotye came on. Just perfect I thought. Missy climbed on the bed with me and I pet her head softly.

i got up and threw on some pajama pants and an old T-shirt. After about ten minutes of Jake calling my cell phone, I put it on silent, and turned on the TV. I decided to watch The Fairly Odd Parents. Hey you're never too old for this stuff.

I fell asleep sometime between Timmy's lemonade stand and me crying. But the worst was still yet to come.

So, that's it for the first chapter. Tell me what ya think and please comment...Thanks! I will try to post every Wednesday.