"Out of my way!" I bellowed, thrashing Riptide, my sword, violently at the slightly-undersized and extremely ugly dracaenae that stood between me and the only road that led to Goode High School. "

"You're gonna make me late!" I yelled, annoyed, just before succeeding in swiping her head off cleanly. The snake-woman vanished instantly. If any mortals had been watching they'd have thought I was having a fit or something while yelling at myself.

I was already late for school without having to stop and waste precious seconds on a stupid monster. This month I had already received my maximum five late slips, all of them because of some random monster that had un-luckily wondered into me. It was the same each time, off with their heads! My goal was to keep out of trouble as much as possible and actually graduate this year.

So far I'd managed six months without blowing anything up. I was on a roll.

Now I just had to get to class before the bell rang. I ran full out towards the school and checked my watch. I had two and a half minutes. Yeah, there was no way I'd make it on time.

I prayed to Zeus not to get suspended for going over the five-lates--only limit. The school was built at the bottom of the hill. I was standing at the top. There was a fountain spewing water a few feet away from me.

Without stopping to think, I ran straight towards it and hoisted myself inside. I plunged knee-deep into the fountain with barely a splash. My clothes kept dry, that's what I get for being the son of Poseidon, the sea god. I was only worried about my history report, crinkled at the bottom of my backpack. I had spent nearly four hours on it, please please please stay dry.

Concentrating hard, and hoping no mortals were watching, I urged the water to give me a quick lift down the hill. Without a sound it obeyed. A wave surged up and over the side of the fountain and created a water slide all the way down the slope, straight threw the front doors (which seemed to burst open at the slightest touch of water) and stopped right in front of my locker, thankfully located on the ground floor.

As soon as I got to my feet all the water evaporated, except for a small rectangular-shaped puddle around my feet.

"Hey Jackson!" One of the late stragglers called at me. I tensed.

"Sweet skateboard!" My shoulders dropped in relief. A skateboard. They saw a skateboard. How completely barbaric.

"Thanks man," I said, my fingers scrabbling at my lock. Another glance at my watch. Twenty-five seconds. I snatched up my books and my, thank the gods, still dry history report and darted up the stairs, taking three at a time.

I arrived two minutes after the bell rang. Stupid textbook just had to fall all the way back down the stairs…

I burst into the classroom, my mind spinning with excuses for why I was late.

"Mr. Jackson, you don't look too beat up," my history teacher, Mr. Chal noted.

I blinked, clearly confused. "No…"

"I saw your crash landing at the bottom of the hill," Rachel Dare spoke up from her seat by the window at the back of the classroom. She raised her eyebrows at me.

I smoothly changed my bewilderment to a look of embarrassment that I hope looked pretty genuine. "Oh, um, I was hoping no one had seen that." I grinned sheepishly as the class laughed and Mr. Chal let out a chuckle. It had shocked me when I first enrolled at the school and found out I was pretty popular here. "I'm fine though, no broken bones or anything."

Rachel smirked at me as I wound my way between desks to my seat in front of her, mouthing "thanks" before I took my seat.

Rachel was a mortal. She was also the friend I go to when I needed a good ranting about the Greek side of the world. She—like my mother—was born with true sight, which meant she could see through the garbled image of mist straight into my world. She was also constantly making excuses for my short absences every once in a while when I saw a monster during lunch hour.

I felt a poke on my spine and turned. She handed a folded piece of paper at me discreetly. From across the aisle I saw my friend Ed wink at me and snicker. He was convinced me and Rach had a "thing" going on.

I glared at him as I unfolded the note. THAT'S TEN TIMES YOU OWE ME. HOW YOU GONNA PAY? Underneath she had drawn a pretty accurate sketch of me sliding down the hill. Rachel was a great artist and the drawing looked almost real.

As Mr. Chal started coming around to collect our essays, Ed leaned towards me. "Are you sure there's nothing going on?" he sniggered, his voice just low enough so that Rachel wouldn't be able to hard.

I punched him in the shoulder. Ed was the type of guy with those super quick reflexes and could dodge anything coming at him. But I was a Greek hero—trained in sword fighting and continually having to fight for my life—so I always succeeded in punching him, something he always seemed amazed at.

He was looking at the sketch Rachel had drawn of me. "Is that you Perc?" he whispered as our teacher neared. "Dude, she makes you look like some Greek hero or something." He smirked.

Rachel had heard that last bit. We shared an amused look. If only he knew.


Authors Note:

This is my very first attempt at writing fanfic for Percy Jackson, I hope I did it justice. Hopefully I'll get better over time.

Right now I'm still not quite sure where this story is going, what's going to happen, or if I will continue writing for this. Should I?

This was a surprisingly short chapter but I felt this was a nice place to stop. I'll probably change the title as soon as I think up a better one!

Please review - all questions, comments, suggestions, and critisisms will be greatly appreciated.

PS: Before I get killed with "DO YOU SHIP PERCY AND RACHEL" questions let's make it very clear that I do NOT support them. I'm 1000% Percabeth all the way man! She'll come into the story later, if I decide to continue writing, which I probably will.

-Grace