This is the story of Katie Gardner.

It all started with a long drive and an awkward silence.

The current time was 1:30 in the afternoon, according to the clock inside the Gardner family Prius. The previous night, Katie's father decided that the two of them needed to go on what he called a 'road trip'. She was now even more confused than she was the prior evening.

"Where are we going?" The little girl asked.

"Umm, I can't tell you," her father looked frantic, he saw his daughters face fall and quickly recovered,"that would ruin the surprise! Now, go upstairs and pack your bags."

Katie never liked surprises, "if you don't tell me, how will I know what to bring along?"

Her father obviously did not know how to answer this question, whether he was unsure of what she would need or he just did not want to give away the surprise Katie did not know. "Just take whatever you think will be necessary for the rest of the summer." Then, to avoid any more questions, he gave her a little up the stairs of their house toward her bedroom.

As confused as she was, the 10-year-old followed her father's instructions and filled a bag for their 'adventure'. The rest of the summer, she thought, but its only May. And it's Wednesday! Why are we leaving in the middle of the week? Katie barely slept that night; she stayed up thinking about the adventures that she and her dad were going to experience. You could hardly call the two of them close. With him being a big shot scientist Katie did not see much of him during the normal week. Most of the time it was just Katie, her mom Dianne, her younger sister, Jessica, and younger brother Joshua. Being the oldest out of the three by six years, she thought that this trip was going to be some sort of growing up deal and the rest of the family would be too young to join. Perhaps it was something that her grandparents did with her father when he was young. Millions of ideas swarmed her mind; many of them seemed insane but possible. Little did she know how truly insane the reality was.

The next morning, Mr. Gardner woke Katie up in a rush. He explained to her that everything was already in the car and they needed to leave by 8 o'clock. Before the pair left, Katie took one, long, last look at her home. The Gardner family lived in a subdivision just outside Charlotte, North Carolina. Their house was not necessarily large but it was not small either. Katie would later describe it as cozy. A small brick house on the corner with a wrought iron fence and the yard was almost completely surrounded by rose bushes that Katie had planted when she was a young girl. She was told that she had ADHD when she was little but some part of her mind thought the doctors were wrong. When she had worked on those rose bushes as a girl she could be outside for hours watering, weeding and making them look perfect. She could focus on it without a problem. The garden was the only place she felt secure, where she felt that she could not do anything wrong. As if knowing it would be a long time before she ever returned home Katie walked to the front of the yard and picked one of the roses.

Despite what you may be thinking Katie was happy to be going on this trip with her father. It was good to get some time with him. Once they were in the car and driving Katie attacked her dad with questions. With a short response, Mr. Gardner would end each question before Katie could receive the information that she wanted so badly. The drive became silent.

The current time was 1:30 in the afternoon, according to the clock inside the Gardner family Prius.

"Why won't you tell me where we are going?"

After a long pause her father responded, "Katie, I can't tell you that. Not yet at least."

They passed by Washington D.C. , Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Al l Katie could decipher from the GPS was that the two were headed somewhere near New York City. The time stamp in the corner of the screen let her know that they were approximately 20 minutes away from their destination.

"Katie, there is something I needed to tell you." Now shaking with excitement Katie new the answers to her questions were coming. She was quiet and waited for him to continue. "We are not really going on an adventure. Well you are but I am not." Her confusion had sky rocketed at this point. three minutes passed before he spoke again. "this place that we are going to its uh-a summer camp. For kids like you. Kids who have ADHD. I'm so sorry Katie."

"So you're just going to drop me off at some camp and leave me there?"

"Kates, it's not like that. I truly am sorry. Your mother. She wanted you to come here."

"Why didn't she come then? They didn't even say goodbye." Katie now had silent tears rolling down her cheeks. She felt betrayed and hurt by her family. It was quiet once more as Katie cried her father said nothing. He looked as though he was on the edge of tears too.

Soon their car came to a stop along the side of the road. The strip of road looked as if no one ever road on it. There were rolling hills to either side and when you stepped out of the car you could smell the ocean nearby. Her father unloaded Katie's duffle bag and backpack out of the back of the car.

He handed her the bags then grabbed Katie's shoulders and pulled her in for a hug.

"It's just for the summer, Kates. Then you can come back home if you want to." He let her go of the hug that she obviously was not interested in returning. Mr. Gardner was not going to blame her, she was being dropped off in the middle of nowhere, and that's not even the worst part, he thought. "Here you need to take these."he handed her two letters. Both were enclosed in an envelope. One read "Chiron" and the other addressed to "Katie". "you need to go over this hill here. You see this one with the big pine tree?" he pointed. "there is going to be a house just walk over there and someone will find you. I can't go with you. One of the directors, his name is Chiron, he will help you just hand him this letter. This other one is for you. Once you're all settled in, read it. I love you, Katie. Don't forget that."

Katie put the letters in the pocket of her jacket. Her father then went and pulled her in for one more hug and planted a kiss on her head.

"Now go on. You will have fun, I promise."

Slowly, Katie made her way up the hill by the pine tree. Once she reached the top she was amazed at what she saw. The valley was her left she saw, what she assumed was the house her dad had been talking about. It was about four stories tall, a light sky blue with a white porch and siding, reminding Katie of a beach resort. She also saw what looked like a rock wall, dining pavilion and volleyball court. Normal camp stuff. Katie did not make it very far into her observations before someone had snuck up behind her.

"Who are you?!" came a harsh voice. It was a boy from what Katie could tell. One of his arms held her by her shoulders hi other arm held a sword to her neck.

"What kind of camp is this!?" she shouted back. So far her 'summer adventure' was not going as well as she had planned. She fought to get out of the grip of the stranger. He was strong and held on to her not allowing her to move.

"Who are you?" the persistent stranger asked again.

Out of breath, Katie answered, "Katie. Katie Gardner."

"What's your purpose here?"

"Umm…I don't know, its camp right! My father, he just dropped me off here. Oh, oh, I have a letter to give to someone! His name! his name was Chiron! Yeah that's it! I can show you."

"Show me!"

"okay, okay!" Katie reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the letters. She held up the letter to Chiron and put her letter back into the pocket. "See its right here… Can you let go of me now?"

The stranger let go of Katie's shoulders, he then used his free hand to grab the letter. He studied the envelop, then slowly dropped his sword. As soon as he gave Katie enough space, she jumped away from his grasp and turned around to look at the man who had held her hostage.

The boy could only be a year or so older than her. He was tall, with short, golden-blonde hair that was natural spiked in different directions. He was tanned and looked like he had spent most of his time in the sun but it gave him a healthy glow. His eyes were a light brown with specks of a golden yellow in them, like rays of sunlight. His sword was hanging by his side and looked too long for him to be able to use. Currently the boy was wearing cargo shorts and a bright orange shirt.

Cutting her off of her train of thought the boy asked, "So you're a half-blood then?"

The boy was looking Katie over just as she had done to him. She must not have looked like much. Katie was never considered pretty in school. She had thick, curly, dark brown hair that was pulled into a loose pony tail on her head with bangs that hooded her chocolate brown eyes. Katie wore jean shorts and a tee-shirt that read 'hug a tree'.

"I beg your pardon."

"Well, you must be or you wouldn't have got over the boundary line. Unless you're a monster. Where is your protector?"

Katie just stood there with a confused and shocked expression on her face waiting for the stranger to continue.

"Here, let me carry your bag. I will take you to Chiron." Not waiting for Katie he began to walk down the hill towards the blue house with Katie's duffle bag in hand. Deciding to take a chance on the boy, Katie ran to catch up.

"Who are you?" she questioned.

"Oh, I'm Michael." He held out a free hand, and Katie shook it. "Son of Apollo. Sorry about that back there. You see, we don't get many people just crossing the border like that. Not to mention at 8:30 at night. And without a protector is odd."

"Where am I?"

"This is Camp Half-Blood. I know it's not much of an answer but you need to talk to Chiron or Mr. before you can really understand the stuff that happens here."

"My father… he said this was a camp for kids with ADHD. What's this half-blood stuff?" they had made their way to the porch of the big house.

"Well Chiron will explain it all… he should be in here somewhere." Michael looked around.

"Was someone looking for me?" Katie and Michael turned around at the same moment to face the man who was approaching them from outside.

"Oh, hello, sir. Katie this is Chiron. Chiron this is Katie Gardner. I just found her walking across the border." Michael addressed the man. Or what Katie thought was a man. Upon closer look she noticed he had the torso of a man but was part horse.

"Well good evening, Katie Gardner. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

My version of events. Rick Riordan owns PJatO.

sincerely- scripted