I Cassandra

A/N: Hi! I'm really excited to start this new story and I'm hoping it will be as exciting to read.

Why did no one tell me I was a half-blood? I mean, honestly, how hard is it to say, "You know your mom- the one that left you when you were two days old- well, she's actually a mythical Greek goddess and you're her demigod daughter who's destined to either die or be attacked by monsters your entire life." I'll be honest, I wouldn't have believed them, but it would have been nice to know.

I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is Cassie Pratt. I'm a half-blood.

If you don't know what that is, leave while you can. You don't want to know. Your life will be better without the insane monsters, psychopathic gods, and everything you thought was imaginary becoming real. If I could, I would leave too.

If you do know, then your life probably sucks. No offense.

A few days ago, I arrived in Camp Half Blood after being saved from an obnoxious monster that came after me. It wasn't the first time and it certainly won't be my last. The other times I didn't know it was happening, though. When I look back I don't know how I couldn't realize what I was. I was so stupid.

Maybe I should start from The Woodward Spring Fling three days ago. It was crap. Okay, maybe not crap, but it was horrible to say the least.

Red, green, and blue lights flashed as hit songs from two years ago blared from the black speakers. The thick scent of sweat and Febreze wafted throughout the undersized gym. Yeah, it was as cliché as it sounded. You couldn't go anywhere without being grinded on by some sleazy, wannabe gangster. I don't even know why they called it a dance when the only dance anyone knew was twerking. If you could even call that a dance. Not to mention I was really itchy from the dress I was required to wear. So, I tried to stay on the sidelines most of the time, waiting for my dad to pick me up and get me out of there.

I know you're wondering why I even came in the first place. I'm not even that sure why I did. I should have skipped it, but I wanted to go to just one dance while I could. I had never gotten the chance to go to a dance before. I moved from school to school too much. No, my dad wasn't in the army or in the Witness Protection Program; I just had a lot of trouble.

I know what you're thinking, but I'm not a bad kid. Bad things just happen when I'm around. I'm pretty sure everyone says that though.

This time it's the truth. Every new school I went to, I was expelled each time something unexplainable happened. At Samuel J. Elementary, the class bunny went missing inside my favorite purple hat. It was confiscated, but the bunny was never found. And I never got my hat back. At Northvale Academy I yelled at a girl for being too obsessed with her hair to do our science project. The next day her hair had completely fallen out. From the month it took to expel me, it still hadn't grown back. It went on like that for four other schools, but Westbrook was the worst. My math teacher actually disappeared after a class. The whole school went looking for him for a day until he was found on the roof. He was completely dazed and couldn't remember what had happened to him, but blamed me for it. The most I had done to him was angrily yelled at him, though. The only good thing was, because he was afraid of me, he gave me a C in the class when I clearly deserved an F.

After all those schools, my dad finally got fed up with my "antics" and switched me to public school, where it "was harder to kick people out." And that's how I got to Woodward High. Thanks Dad.

So there I was standing alone by the snack table having a grand ole time, tasting the chocolate fudge brownies and watching sweaty people "dance," when Cornelius Briar timely shows up.

"Cassandra!" He said way too excitedly to be normal.

"Cassie." I said crossly.

Shrugging off my unpleasant tone he said, "How are you? Are you feeling okay? Do you like the school? I know I do!" There were way too many questions and I refused to give him any answers.

I gave him a death glare instead.

"Cassandra," he said sweetly, "You are so pretty."

"Thanks."I said plainly, trying really hard not to roll my eyes. He was like that since I came to the school. Literally the first day he actually came looking for me to tell me how excited he was to meet me. How creepy is that? Anytime I went anywhere he would follow me and try to become best friends. I'm pretty sure he's a stalker.

Cornelius' confidence hadn't wavered after my attempts to shoo him away. He stayed right where he was. I could tell he was trying to think of new things to talk about. His mouth opened into an o shape, before I cut in to what he was about to say.

I put on the fakest smile I could and said, "Cornelius, I'm great. The school is great. Everything is just great."

"Really? That's so cool! Maybe we should hang out and talk about how great everything is together!"

I let out a long annoyed breath. My plastered smile fell into a distinct frown. "You know who isn't great? Her." I pointed my long finger to a short girl across the room with long, curly black hair and a girly pink dress on. She had arrived at the school the same time I did, but I tried to stay clear of her. She was really weird. I couldn't remember her name, but I had known it had something to do with Air Conditioners. All I knew was her name was defiantly worse than Cornelius'. And his name was pretty bad.

"I'm sure she's fan-," He paused looking past the sea of sweat to the double doors at the right end of the gym. A bright light glinted as they closed behind someone, though I didn't know who. "We have to go." He said sternly, grabbing my arm toward the emergency exit toward the left.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." I placed my feet firmly on the ground, as Cornelius tried to pull me towards the exit.

The person at the door was coming nearer. I could see dark, black stringy hair on her. At least I thought she was a girl or maybe she was a very feminine man. I wasn't quite sure. She was extremely pale, paler than Air Conditioning girl, looking almost ghost-like. She walked slowly but surely closer to the snack table. Yes, she was defiantly a girl. Tears streaked her blood red cheeks as she flashed a demented grin directly at me. I was terrified. I knew something horrible was about to happen but I couldn't look away. Whatever was about to happen, it was inevitable.

"Cassandra, we really have to go." Cornelius said loudly above the music, pulling harder on my arm. I was still entranced, though, by the mysterious girl only a few feet away from me then. She was disgustingly thin, like a holocaust victim. Her nails were yellowed and impossibly long. She opened her mouth and let out a deafening screech.

I fell to the ground. Everything hurt. I felt like I was being stabbed by a million swords. Tears splattered my face. I couldn't tell the difference between my screams and hers. I didn't care about who was watching, I just wanted the pain to stop. I could only think about the pain, I didn't even notice the demon girl tried to try to slash my face off with her claw like finger nails.

My heart was pumping. I was on Cornelius' shoulder kicking to make him let go of me as he ran awkwardly toward the exit. The only thing I knew was that Cornelius had saved my life. And the demon girl was not happy about it. Another high pitched scream echoed around the gym. A surge of agony stabbed me in my back again. I let out a cry of pain. No one stopped dancing though. Did no one see what was going on? I felt like I was dying. This thing could kill me.

I lifted my face from Cornelius' back to see the girl coming toward us. She was no longer slow, but racing with her claws slashing too closely for comfort. An irate growl roared out of her mouth as her claws slashed Cornelius' back next to my head. I couldn't do anything but watch in horror as blood dripped from Cornelius and we both fell to the ground right before the emergency exit. I scrambled out from under Cornelius toward the door. I didn't know why I hadn't listened to him in the first place. I should have left when I could, then I wouldn't have felt this way. I wouldn't almost be dead.

The demon girl was slow again; certain she would catch her prey. She stepped on Cornelius and he groaned a deep wail trying to get up. My back was against the exit and I tried desperately to get it open, but it wouldn't budge. The demon girl was right next to my face."It's for your own good." The demon girl said, her voice sounded raspy and tortured. "It's a trade. The bad for the good. Except the bad is so much worse." She nearly cackled.

I could smell her distinct scent of blood. I looked deep into her vacant black eyes. She raised her yellowed, claw nails. I closed my eyes, seeing a flash of light and winced.

I wasn't dead though. No more pain came. I was sitting there waiting for something to happen, but nothing. I opened my eyes slowly. I was still at the dance. Music blared loudly from the black speakers. There was no demon girl, just Cornelius flopping on the ground to get up. And someone else. Standing a few feet back was Air Conditioner girl. I didn't know how, but she too had saved my life.

A/N: I hope you liked it! I'm hoping to start the next chapter soon, but reviews make me update faster :)

11/24/13: Updated from Original. I actually like this one a lot!