A/N: I'm not sure if I'm ever going to finish this story (real life is a b*****) but I figured I might as well go ahead and post what I have since it's the most I've ever written for one project… If y'all want me to I'll finish it but as it stands I have around 40,000 words done, anyway. Hope you like it  love, bloomy.

---

The moment I met Percy Jackson, I knew he had a severe case of abnormality.

I had been dragged along on another 'family' vacation. You know, the kind where you fly across the country in a private plane, listening to your Ipod and sketching while your father flirts with the flight attendant (yes, he hired his own flight attendant) and your mother stares vacantly into space, probably seeing some hallucination from all the prescriptions she's on. Then, your parents drop you off at the Hoover Dam and run off to go gamble, sleep with various prostitutes, and drink their asses off in Vegas for a few days. Just your typical winter break trip, and I knew the routine pretty well. As messed up as it was, I figured I might as well check out this Hoover Dam thing. It was pretty cool, I'll admit: the concrete walls and pillars above the deep pools of water looked like some ancient castle or something, and the water was a deep blue-green color that I would spend days trying to replicate with oil paint. The statues outside were pretty cool, too, despite years of tourists' efforts to rub them to shreds. Finally, bored on the second day, I decided to take the guided tour of the dam. It was deathly boring, worse even than my sister's high school graduation or my cotillion in the seventh grade. After about ten minutes, I ditched them. I was kind of heading over towards the bathroom, and then I took out a Kleenex from my pocket. I hate allergies. I blew my nose, and suddenly I was stabbed to death with a huge bronze sword.

At least, that was my first thought. There was a boy there, holding what was definitely a sword, and it had definitely just swung from my left side to my right, yet I was completely unharmed, and when I looked down there was no blood. Still, it scared the crap out of me. I dropped the tissue and screamed.

"Oh my god! Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?" I couldn't think of a response that would make this any less nonsensical, but I definitely didn't understand what he said.

"You're mortal!" he exclaimed, looking way more surprised than he should have been.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I said, confused. "Of course I'm mortal! How did you get a sword past security?"

"I didn't- wait, you can see it's a sword?" The more he talked, the more of an idiot he seemed like. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Well, it's either a sword or the biggest toothpick in the world," I said. Honestly, how stupid did he think I was?

"And why didn't it hurt me? I mean, not that I'm complaining. Who are you? And whoa, what is that you're wearing? Is it made of lion fur?" He was dressed pretty strangely, in normal jeans and an orange T-shirt covered by a huge animal pelt which shone like a gold plate or something. He looked down at it, looking confused. Maybe he was wondering why he had left the house in a huge animal skin: I don't know. Then things got even weirder when he snapped his fingers in my face and told me that the sword was a ballpoint pen. I stared at him- seriously?

"Um… no. It's a sword, weirdo."

"Who are you?" He sounded like I was the one inconveniencing him or something, because I was the one who tried to stab him for no reason, right? This guy was getting on my nerves.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Now, are you going to answer my questions or should I scream for security?"

"No!" he shouted, then thought better of it. "I mean, I'm kind of in a hurry, uh, I'm in trouble,"

"In a hurry or in trouble?"

"Um, sort of both."

And just when I thought things couldn't get any weirder, I saw a strange glow over his shoulder- and then I saw a bunch of skeletons running towards us. This wasn't the first time I had seen random, creepy stuff, but it was the first time they were coming after me. Then I put the pieces together. They weren't after me. They were after him. That was why he seemed so out of it- he was running from a bunch of skeletons who were trying to kill him. And I had to stop them.

"Bathroom!"

"What?"

"Bathroom! Behind me! Now!" It was probably his only chance not to get killed. Of course, right after I said that I realized they were going to kill me if I didn't do some quick thinking. I would have to confuse them. It wasn't that hard- being forced to interact with high society teaches you a few things about manipulation. I would play the annoying, confused and frightened little girl, who was fooled by the security guard disguises they were wearing.

"Oh my god! Did you see that kid? It's about time you got here. He tried to kill me! He had a sword, for god's sake. You security guys let a sword-swinging lunatic inside a national landmark? I mean, jeez! He ran that way, toward those turbine thingies. I think he went over the side of something? Maybe he fell." When the skeletons started to retreat, I breathed a sigh of relief and opened the bathroom door.

"All clear, but you'd better hurry."

"I owe you one, Rachel Elizabeth Dare." One? One?

"What are those things? They looked like-"

"Skeletons?"

I nodded. I had hoped it was my imagination.

"Do yourself a favor," he said. "Forget it. Forget you ever saw me."

"Forget that you tried to kill me?"

"Yeah. That too. "

"But who are you?"

"Percy-" He stopped, looking scared. "Gotta go!"

"What kind of name is Percy Gotta-Go?" But he was already gone, and the skeletons hurried after him. I rejoined the tour and tried to take his advice- to forget all about it.