Jax:

My story starts-

You mean our story?

My story technically starts before I even met you…

Yea but it didn't really start till I came into your life.

Whatever. They said we have to take turns, and it's my turn now. So sit there and try and be quiet little lady. Anyway...Where was I? Oh yea, My story starts with a really strange dream I had, oh, my name's Jax, Jax Anemoi. (That's pronounced Ann-ee-mos don't ask me it's Greek or something. The gods know I didn't want it to be that complicated.) I'm nineteen years old and I was a senior at Demigood academy. I should probably also mention that I'm a Half-blood, the son of a god, or Olympian, or whatever. Before you say "Oh man, that must be so cool." Believe me it's not. There's loads of danger, way too many near death moments, you'll only make friends by not dying together, and if you're thinking of having a normal, easy love life, forget it cuz it's not going to happen.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. My graduation was only a few weeks away. That's when everything went crazy, but again, it all started with this dream I had. In my dream I'm in the sky, really high, in the clouds kinda high. It would be cool, if wasn't storming so bad that I can barely see in front of me. Lighting zipped past me. Like, right past me. I could feel the electricity make the hair on my arms stand on end and the heat made me start to sweat. I began to wonder why I wasn't, you know, dead. I didn't get a chance to finish my thought though because in a split second I wasn't floating anymore and I started falling like a sack of bricks.

I came through the clouds screaming, (I may or may not have sounded like a little girl.) I saw the sea, nothing but water under me. A storm was raging, torrents of rain and two more bolts of lightning whizzed past me. I was too busy panicking to notice though, My arms were flailing and the high pitched screaming was still coming from my mouth. I hit the water face first, and a split second later I was for the second time completely shocked I hadn't died.

The water was cold and dark, I couldn't hear anything except the sound of my own breathing. My brain started to question the fact that I was breathing underwater, but I was interrupted again. A huge dark shape was swimming up from the depths, though, I think the word slithering would be a better fit. The snake like silhouette swam closer and I realized "huge" was a complete understatement, I think "massive" or "gigantic" would be better. It was hard to tell, but it looked like it was as long as a skyscraper is tall, and as thick as a battleship.

Just the sight of it terrified me. I screamed again, I don't know what it sounded like underwater but it probably still sounded like a schoolgirl at the release of the latest One Direction album. I tried to swim up towards the surface but I couldn't, like an invisible force was keeping me right where I was. Then I realized with horror that not only was it swimming up to me, but that invisible force was pushing me down to it. I swam harder but all of the strength I exerted was in vain. Another snake came out of nowhere, this one only about as long as me. It wrapped itself around my ankles and started working it's way up. Panic set in and I was flailing my arms again trying to get closer to the surface. The smaller snake made it all the way to my collar and started to squeeze, really tight. My breath was squeezed out of my lungs and I started to crush like an empty soda can. I heard a loud deep throated chuckle, like the stereotypical one you hear from bad guys in cartoons, but this one was way more scary. I realized it was coming from the creature under me, the massive snake was very close now. My vision blurred and I saw it open it's gaping mouth to eat me whole.

Potami:

You thought normal high school was bad? Try a boarding school that splits up boys from the girls and there is no mingling between the two and all the girls you're around are that kind of girl. You know the kind I'm talking about. The ones that talk about shoes and shopping and boys and all that stuff that makes me gag. Oh, sorry, I got off on a tangent, I really shouldn't do that with something this important...

Anyway, the names Potami Reid (pronounced "pot-a'-mee" "reed") and I'm seventeen years old, also a halfblood. Being the child of a god has some perks, but it mostly comes with doom, destruction, danger, and allot of other happy words that start with "d". Just a big helping of "d" words served on a silver platter. It's terrible really. Everything was all fine and dandy... Until Junior year, that's when things got, what's a good word for it? Weird? No, no... crazy? No... So overly ridiculous, bizarre, and illogical that you want to pull your hair out? Yeah, that seems to fit.

It really kicked off after a math exam. The normal school day was over so I changed out of my stupid skirt of a uniform and went to the PE area to relax for once. I walked by the pond that was there, (why a pond was in an area for sports I have no clue) and looked at all the fish swimming around. After watching them for a few minutes, I got up and started for the pool. Normally, I would have avoided a place like that with all the gossipy girls giggling and guffawing, but today was different. I was let out early for finishing my exam about 45 minutes before the end of school and took the chance wholeheartedly. A pool all by myself with no one around was bliss. No noise, no smell of overly expensive tan lotion, just the smell of chlorine. Taking off my shirt and pants I jumped into the pool with the bathing suit I was wearing underneath clinging to my skin. Then I realized I had forgot to se a timer.

Crap. I thought, how am I gonna time myself...?

I quickly surfaced and dug out my phone out of my pants on the edge to start a timer. I hit the green button and sank myself to the bottom of the pool to try and break my record. You see, I've always had good lungs and I've always wanted to try for the record of the longest breath held underwater. I had been practicing this for years in hope to get past that 16:34 minute mark. My best at that time was about 6:21. If I hadn't trained myself, I would have been dead long ago. It's amazing what the human body could acclimate to.

I sat comfortably at the bottom of the 6 ft deep pool my legs crossed letting my mind unwind from that doozy of a math exam. I loved being able to get away from the stress of school even though I could never leave until I graduated and I couldn't care less about everyone else. I wasn't friends with anyone and that was fine by me. Anyone I could possibly make friends with had their cliques and were not my type of people anyway...

Although I could have stayed under longer, I surfaced. I stopped my timer, "6:23…. Dang it…"

Jax:

I woke up still thinking I was underwater, but it was really me drenched in my own sweat.

"Pheew….Some dream…" was all I could manage to say.

I was breathing hard and my mind was racing. I tried to convince myself it was just a dream, maybe those hot pockets I had snuck in and ate right before bed, but it was so real, I had never experienced anything close to that in my whole life.

"Great!" I looked at my clock and lept out of bed, throwing the sheets off me. "I'm gonna be late. Again."

I throw off my pajamas and tried my best to quick change into my uniform, which probably looked more like a very awkward flamingo dance. I was having trouble with my stupid button down collared shirt and had to restart twice because I was going too fast. I rush out of my room still buttoning when I see my friend Troy standing in the hall waiting for me.

Troy was shorter than me by about five inches and a good bit stockier, with wide shoulders and an even wider smile. His sandy blonde hair sat in wavy locks on his head. He had bright blue eyes that seemed to switch randomly from looking like a happy go lucky guy on the front of a Hollister add to looking like he's gonna beat you to a pulp and stuff you in a locker. He was nice to me though, for some reason, and being perfectly honest, he was my only friend in the whole academy.

Demigood academy was more like two academies separated by a huge wall, one was for the girls and the other for the guys. The two groups only got together once a year for a "dance." I went to one once, and let's just say, I only went once. All the girls looked like they were cut from the same mold, perfect makeup, color coordinated blouses and miniskirts, big flirty eyes, and they only seemed to gossip amongst themselves about which guys were the cutest. Two words: Bor-ing. I've never been much of a ladies man anyway, so I doubt I was ever a topic in their gossip.

As bad as the females were, they weren't much better than all the other guys on this side. They're all big, jock guys, cut like three pound slabs of steak. They only seem to talk about sports and working out, double boring with a side of please-make-them-shut-up. They were a perfect match for the boring girls and they would all have boring babies together. I was always afraid I'd get bullied by them my first year here, but they never seemed to even register my existence, which was perfectly fine by me. Troy was the only one that ever talked to me, we found that we shared a lot of interests and became fast friends. I was happy about being left alone by everyone, but I was also happy I had Troy.

"What took you so long?" Troy said teasingly as he gave me one of his wide smiles.

"Slept in." Was my only reply as we both started walking down the hall.

"Uh huh, and perhaps some trouble dressing yourself?"

"I think I can dress myself just fine. I've had enough practice." I button my top button as I finish my sentence.

"Well, I hate to tell you, but your buttons are still wrong." I could tell from his voice he was stifling laughter.

"GAH!" I look down and see he's right, then yank my shirt to unbutton it and start over, slowly and carefully this time.

"You could leave it open, go for the douchebag look." His voice was still teasing and he chuckled.

"Then I'll get in a lot of trouble for breaking dress code, otherwise I wouldn't be wearing this stupid thing to begin with." I finally get the buttons right.

"Yea, but at least you'd be getting in trouble looking like a pimp." He smiled wider and showed his teeth and that made me smile.

The rest of the day didn't go very well, I was never the best at any of my classes, my dyslexia and ADHD made sure of that. I had learned to put up with it though and I've still made passing grades most of my time here, barely passing anyway. My last class was english, and they were going to be talking about a story I had already read twice. My head was still swimming with thoughts about my dream and I couldn't stand to listen to one more teacher drone on, besides, I knew this story wouldn't be on a test. I slipped in the bathroom and waited till after the last period started, then I crept through the halls and out into the courtyard in the back of the school.

In the past few years I had learned of a surefire way to clear my head. I stretched my legs a bit then bolted through the grass towards a bench. I stepped up on the bench, not breaking stride, then using my forward and upward momentum, I vaulted up and grabbed the edge of a metal awning. I had started freerunning, or parkour as it's called, a little more than a year ago. Because honestly, there was nothing better to do at this school in my free time. It took me a while and a good bit of falling on my face to get the hang of it, but once I had I was in love. The feeling of soaring through the air at top speed, then nailing the landing and using your momentum to go even faster into an even higher jump. It felt…..empowering. I ran down the length of the awning and did a flip off it, landing into a tuck and roll and bolting towards the next thing I could jump on or over. I did a straight jump over two trash cans that were next to each other, then vaulted over a railing for some stairs and over the whole set of stairs.

I landed in another roll and turned, running towards the main building. There were Greek style pillars holding up an awning over the walkway that went all around the building. I decided to try something I've never done before, even though it was really dumb. I ran at an angle to one of the pillars and I jumped at it. I put my feet and hands up and pushed up and off it towards the pillar next to it. I was sure I hadn't gotten enough height and I would just faceplant into the pillar, but I managed to just barely reach up and grab the lip at the top of the pillar. I tightened my fingers around it and took a breath.

"Well that went allot more smoothly than I thought it was going to." I let my breath out slowly and took another breath in. "What now?" I look around me and notice the dividing wall between our courtyard, and what I assumed is the courtyard on the girls side. Another crazy thought enters my head, that wall was at least as tall as the pillar I was hanging onto, and about ten feet away. It was a crazy jump that I had very little chance of making, but it would be cool to just sit on a wall that no one can possibly climb. I slowly and carefully pulled myself up onto the lip of the pillar and after some work, I was standing very cautiously on a tiny ledge at least twelve feet up.

The ledge was just barely big enough for my both my feet to be on it. I didn't dare look down because, well, you're not supposed to. I just kept my eyes focused on the wall. I had no momentum going for me so I had to create as much as possible, I started swinging my arms back and forth and I bent my legs. I counted down in my head

Three. Two. ONE.

I bent my legs all the way and jumped as my arms swung forward. I thought as soon as my feet left the ledge that I wasn't going to make it to the wall, I didn't have enough distance. I sailed through the air for a bit, feeling nothing but the wind in my face and gravity pulling me down. Suddenly, I noticed I had covered more space than I thought, I was really close to the wall at this point. Everything started going in slow motion, I reached up with one hand and used my other arm to block my face from hitting the wall. My fingertips just managed to grab the rough stone surface on top of the wall. I shot my other arm up to grab too so I wouldn't lose my grip. I felt the muscles in my forearms tighten as I gripped the wall and started to heave myself slowly up. I pulled myself up and rolled onto the top, thankful that the wall was just as wide as I was. I breathed heavily and smiled. "That was crazy." I roll over and look at the pillar I had jumped from, "How on earth did I just do that?"

I roll back onto my back and let out a deep breath, pleased with the feat I had just performed. I roll the other way and look at the girls courtyard. I leaned up and sit with my legs hanging off the edge and study this forbidden land. I was mildly disappointed because it was just a mirror image of our courtyard. I don't know what I was hoping to see, flowers, maybe a pink wall but all I got was more of the same. It was empty, just like ours, because last period was still going on. Then suddenly, I saw a girl walk through one of the doors out into the courtyard. I started to turn around so I could jump off before she saw me, but she turned and went down the courtyard and didn't notice me. I got a good side profile look at her. She was…different. She had a pretty face, with prominent cheek bones and thin, red lips. She looked slightly above average height but shorter than me. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that hugged her slim profile slightly. Her hair was golden blonde and pulled back into a ponytail that had one curl at the end of it, like she had just bothered to put that one part of her hair in a curler. I noticed that she didn't wear any makeup and that her clothes weren't fancy or designer brand. Her eyes were bright green, like emeralds and they looked soft, yet sharp, like they didn't miss a detail.

The blonde girl strode down the courtyard as I studied her. It felt weird, observing a creature that I had been forbidden to most of my life, and actually wanting to do it. She walked to one of the little ponds and bent down to look at it. My heart was racing because I expected any moment she was going to look up and see me, I didn't want to stop watching her though. She got up and strode to the outdoor pool that we had on our side as well then paused and looked at the water before she started to take her shirt off. I looked away instinctively, but managed to notice that she still had a bathing suit on under her clothes. I didn't care, this was getting awkward fast, especially if she looked back and noticed me. Most guys here would have jumped at the chance to watch a girl strip down to a swimsuit and jump in a pool, and I will admit it was tempting, but I just jumped off the wall back on our side before she was even done. I heard a soft splash and looked back at the wall.

Why do they separate us? I wondered for the first time in my life.