Camp Half-Blood is my favorite place in the world, I'm a year-rounder there right now but that wasn't the case a few years ago. My story is almost like Percy's, the way I showed up at camp, my life before camp, and living with an unknown biological father.

My name is Alex Clelland; I used to be a student at Arlington High School in Arlington South Dakota, but that all changed a few weeks after I met two new kids. Their names were Percy Jackson and Grover Underwood; they were going to be in the grade ahead of me (10th) and I didn't mind the thought of the 9th grade and all, but my life was about to change dramatically.

It happened on the trip to the Goss Opera House in Watertown I took with Percy, Grover, and Chandler. My step dad was to drop us off there; I was riding by my friend Chandler, with Percy and Grover sitting behind us. Anyway, my step dad's suburban pulled up and we disembarked and went inside

I was taking pictures of the various exhibits (I was obeying the no-flash photography rule), but for some reason my flash went off and the tour guide pulled us in to the main opera house. That's when things took a turn for the weird. Her skin turned green, her legs became two tail-like trunks, her suit became battle armor, and her rolled up map became a 7-ft halberd.

She lunged at me, I dodged and rolled. She bore down on Chandler only to find a sword through her chest, she disintegrated into a fine yellow powder and standing behind her was Percy. "Ok guys we need to get you out of here. Let's get back to Arlington and get you a bag packed then let your parents know what's going on.

Chandler and I were confused as hell, on what was going on. But we followed orders, and followed them out of the building. We got out of town and away from the road, and Percy let out a sharp whistle, we heard the flapping of wings and four winged horses landed, one was pitch black, two were pure white and one was brown, I was told to ride that one.

We mounted the pegasi and took off. About 10 minutes later we landed on the football field in Arlington. From there we ran to my house, my mom was in the kitchen when we walked in. "Aren't you guys supposed to be in Watertown?" she asked. That's when she saw Percy and Grover. "Did it happen?" Percy nodded and I ran upstairs to pack a bag.

After we left my house we went to Chandler's house. No one was home when we got there, but Percy hung a note on the door, Chandler packed a bag, and it was back to the football field and onto the pegasi.

We took off and soon were soaring over the Minnesota/South Dakota border, leaving our old lives behind us. About an hour later, we landed in the shadow of Indianapolis motor speedway. There stood a boy with long black hair, pale skin, and a lot of black clothing and next to him was a girl I recognized.

"Tyjah?" I asked

She looked at me "Alex, Chandler?" With that both of us received a bear hug from her.

That's when Percy said "See you four at camp. Nico, make sure they get their safe." and him and Grover took off, leaving four of us standing there. Nico suddenly piped up, "Alright guys, let's get a move on." We took off down the street and made it to city limits." That's where a black car sat; I was the only one with a license so I had to drive, we took off and made it all the way to Cleveland Ohio before the gas ran out and we were nowhere near a gas station.

I limped the car onto a side street "Everyone out" Nico instructed, "We need to make camp for the night." We got out and followed Nico to a building's basement entrance. Nico walked down and we followed him, he opened the door and signaled us in. We entered a room with two bunk beds. I sat down on one and passed out instantly.

I woke the next morning and Nico handed me a few sausages and toaster waffles. I ate my breakfast and everyone was soon ready to go. We continued walking until we reached a small shack; I pulled out my cell phone and saw it was July 27th, a day until my birthday.

That's when I saw the biggest dog I've ever seen, Nico instructed us to get on and we did. "Alright, Mrs. O'Leary is your ride to camp, see you there." With that the stepped into the shadows of the morning and disappeared. That's when Mrs. O'Leary ran into the shadows and we all disappeared before we hit the wall of the shack.

I felt like my face was peeling off but it only lasted a few seconds, because we had just emerged from the shadow of a blue and white farmhouse with a gabled roof. Nico was standing there talking to a man who looked normal from the waist up, but the rest of him was a horse.

The centaur cantered up to us with Nico on his back. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood you three. My name is Chiron. I take it the trip was quick." I dismounted the creature that brought us here and said "Yeah, it went by quickly. So what state are we in?"

Chiron said "I'll give you one hint. This camp is on Long Island."

My jaw dropped, "New York?"

Chiron nodded and looked at Chandler who had grape vines growing around him. "Ah. We have a son of Dionysus, Nico; move him into cabin 12 and Alex and Tyjah into cabin 11 for now." He galloped off and we followed Nico towards a group of cabins in a square. We arrived at one of them; it had a caduceus above it with a number 11.

Chandler entered cabin 12, and I walked into cabin 11, 2 brown haired boys asked me "Child of Hermes or unclaimed?" one asked. The other said "Connor, he's unclaimed man, excuse my brother. I'm Travis Stoll." He held out a hand and I shook it. "Alex Clelland."

"Nice to meet you Alex, welcome to the Hermes cabin, you'll be here until you get claimed." He explained.

That's when a noise sounded throughout the camp and Travis said "Alright, lunchtime, come on Alex!" I smiled and followed him to an open air building surrounded by white marble columns. I sat by him and a there on our plates was pizza, and grapes. Travis said something to his glass and it filled with Dr. Pepper.

I tried it, "Mountain Dew Distortion." The glass filled with a deep green liquid and I took a sip. "Perfect." I took a bite of my food and after dinner was finished I still had 7 grapes and an uneaten slice of pizza. I followed Travis and Connor up to the brazier and scraped it into the flames, "To the gods!" and in a silent prayer I said "Whoever you are dad, please send me a sign." The food hit the flames and I smelled a whole bunch of smells that made my mouth water.

When I set my stuff down the whole dining pavilion went dark except a beam of sunlight that surrounded me like a spotlight and a column of water surrounding Tyjah. Then everything went back to normal, except for the fact that everyone was staring at me. "It has been decided, all hail Alex Clelland son of Apollo and Tyjah Montieth, daughter of Poseidon." Chiron announced

Will Solace stood and started applauding, along with the rest of the Apollo table. So after lunch I grabbed my stuff and brought it to cabin seven. Will designated me an open bunk, I sat down and my butt hit something hard and there was an audible ding. Will was laughing "Alex, did your butt just ding?" I stood up and moved the sheets back, there was a parcel.

The entire cabin was staring at me. I opened it and pulled out a bow grip, click pen, marble bag that clipped to my jeans, half-gloves, and a thigh scabbard for a sword. I clicked the pen and it became a magnificent bronze sword, it looked like a sword I had seen in the movie Serenity, I stared at it and put it in the scabbard then attached the scabbard to my left thigh.

Next came the marble bag, I opened it up and it became an arrow quiver with 15 arrows inside it. I picked up the bow grip, held it like I was going to fire it, and a full size metallic blue compound bow sprung up. I looked in the package and pulled out a letter.

Happy early 15th Alex, enjoy these gifts –Dad

"Wow, Apollo gave you one of his first modern bows; this means he wants you to take on a position of power in this cabin. I studied the kopis at my side, on it was an inscription. λεπίδα Θάνατος (Death blade). And on the other side was my name What's that Will?

"The head counselor for cabin 7, meaning that you are to help keep order in the cabin, Alex Clelland, I give you my responsibilities as head of this cabin." I stared at the other campers in the cabin. They were staring at me and Will.

A conch sounded throughout camp and Will said, "Time for archery Alex, you coming?" I grabbed my bow and followed my new friend out of the cabin. Down at the range Will and I were shooting arrows at the targets. I nailed bull's-eye after bull's-eye in a tight cluster. Even Will was impressed by my shooting skills.

Archery went by pretty quick, and soon enough we were in the arena for sword practice, we shred this time with the Athena cabin. Percy was coordinating this activity. He had me sparring against him. The entire time we were doing this he was giving me fighting tips.

"Now Alex, because of your swords shorter range, you need to get in close by catching your opponent off guard. Go ahead and try it now." He said

"Like this?" I kicked him in the right shin, knocked his sword into the air, caught it, and had both blades pointed at his unprotected chest. The entire arena was quiet. I slip my kopis in its scabbard, helped Percy up and gave him his sword. He was shocked but managed to turn to the crowd and called two girls up from the crowd.

"Annabeth, who is this girl that thrashed you?" he asked the taller of the two.

Annabeth just said, "This is my half-sister Jamie Carver." She gestured to the girl by her.

Percy looked at me "Perfect, Alex, you'll go up against Jamie in a mock-up duel."

I looked the girl; she was wearing a Minnesota Twins jacket over a camp T-shirt, she had shorts on, and a pair of Reebok running shoes on. I could tell she was looking me over too. She smiled and said "Alright, let's do this." She drew a scimitar and walked into the dueling ring. I chuckled and drew my kopis. Then the fight commenced.

She struck first, and I parried that easily. I swung and caught the hilt of her sword, we both twisted and our blades hit the ground. We looked at our weapons then at each other. From the sidelines someone yelled "Hand-to-hand!"

I dropped down and swung my left leg to trip her up. She hit the ground, but got up. I stood to meet her. We started wrestling but then we stopped suddenly, our eyes met and Jamie blushed. I admit that my face turned red too. We stood up and retrieved our weapons. We were about to restart when the conch sounded. This was free time for all cabins, so Jamie and I walked out together.