I was having a bad day, until the evil twins showed up and made it even worse.

The bell rang like a gong, signaling the end of 7th hour history here at Bayview High, A.K.A, my least favorite place in the entire world.

One more hour, I thought. I have to survive one more period.

Sadly, that last hour was P.E., and I hated gym. Coincidentally, it was also the only period I had with Abby, my best friend in this terrible school. I came to Bayview sophomore year, moved all the way from California to Chicag0. This also happened to be my 9th school in 9 years. After I was kicked out of my freshman school last year for "accidentally blowing up the second-floor bathroom", my mom decided it was time for a fresh start, and a new state.

I had been all prepared to be the new kid. It was a role I was very good at. The outcast. By 10th grade, everyone already had his or her own "group". They didn't exactly welcome newcomers.

Abby was different though. That very first miserable day, she sought me out, actually welcomed me. I guess we were pretty fast friends after that. She was tough, and stood up for herself, and I liked that. We were very similar that way.

I walked slowly from history to my locker. I was usually late anyway, and I wanted to talk to Abby. She was normally at her locker by now, which was right down the hall. But she wasn't there. I sighed and went the other way to get to my locker. It took me a few tries to open my lock. The door shuddered open, and a note fell out.

I bent over to pick up the blue colored envelope. Written in the top left corner was the date. October 10.

I knew what day it was. My 16th birthday. Yippee, someone wrote me a happy birthday note. Probably Abby. She had been talking nonstop about this for two weeks. Apparently 16 is a big deal to some people.

I ripped open the envelope and unfolded a blue piece of paper. It took me a while to read the two simple words. My brain was blessed with dyslexia, which made basically everything hard to decipher. The letters swam around the paper, but I got the message.

ITS TIME.

There was no signature, and it made absolutely no sense.

Its time for what?

Before I could even try to figure it out, the bell rang. I stuffed the note in my pocket and shoved my books into my locker. I didn't need anything for gym class. I turned and walked quickly down the now empty hallway, staring at my feet because I had a tendency to trip on flat surfaces.

I ended up smacking into someone, and we both ended up on the floor.

"Oh gods, sorry." The boy I knocked over muttered, offering me his hand. I took it, and he pulled me up. I stumbled a bit because I'm a klutz, but he steadied me. I looked up at him.

"Hello." I said in a small voice. His eyes. Wow. His eyes were such a peculiar shade of blue; a dark, almost black color like the night sky. His hair was dark and messy, in a cute sort of way. The air around us felt charged with electricity.

I didn't realize I was staring at him until he let go of my hand and smiled sheepishly.

"Umm, I'm Theo." He said. His voice was deep. He looked round, like he thought someone was following him.

"Alex." I said. " Well, I have to get to class." I started to walk towards the gym, already three minutes late.

Theo came up next to me. "PE?" he asked.

I looked at him. I hadn't noticed him ever at school before now. "Yeah."

He grinned. "I'm going there too. I'm new here."

"Oh really?" I'd heard there was a new student, but I really hadn't cared much. "I came here this year. Moved from California."

"New York." Theo said. We walked into the gym, where Mr. Davids was waiting.

"Late again, Ms. Stone." The large man grunted and addressed Theo.

"Hello sir, I'm Theseus Jones. I'm a transfer."

"Yeah, I know that." Mr. Davids said sharply.

"Yes, of course. And if you would please excuse Alex, she was just helping me get to class. I was lost." He smiled. Charming.

"Oh fine. Ms. Stone, you are excused." The gym teacher scowled, and I went to change into the ridiculous gold and blue gym uniform.

I paid no attention whatsoever to the directions of the game we were playing. Something called Fort Knox? I don't know. What I did know was Abby wasn't there.

Theo and I ended up on the same team. I pulled on a reed jersey and we walked over to the red sector.

Thankfully, Theo was actually listening, so I got the basics of the game. There were four teams: red, blue, yellow, and green, and the mats on the floor were our "forts". The forts each had four batons. The goal was to collect all of the batons without losing all of the batons your team had collected.

Mr. Davids blew his whistle, and the game began. The gym turned into a battlefield, but as a kid with ADHD, I was perfectly at ease. Theo and I hopped over to the yellow fort.

That's about the time things went wrong.

"Alexia Stone." The eerie voice sent chills down my spine. I looked around and spotted two identical girls in yellow jerseys coming towards us. Their eyes glowed red.

The girls spoke in unison. "Demigods. Surrender." Behind me, Theo tensed.

"Demigods?" I asked in confusion. "What?"

Theo cursed under his breath. He spun me around. The girls were getting closer. "We have to run now, okay?" he said.

"What? Why?" I was seriously confused. Then the girls drew some wicked sharp knives out of their gym shorts, and I yelped. Nobody in the gym seemed to even notice.

Theo tugged on my arm and we took the back exit out of the gym. We ran down the alley beside the school.

"What the heck is going on?" I yanked my arm free but kept pace with him. "Who are you?" Panic was building inside me.

Theo didn't answer. Instead, he pulled a key out of his pocket. He flipped I like a coin, and suddenly it wasn't a key anymore. Faster than I could recognize, it had transformed into a sword. I stopped in my tracks and stared. Theo sighed. I turned back down the alley. The girls were right behind us, knives drawn.

"Demigods, surrender." They said again.

"Braccas meas vescimini!" Theo shouted at them, which I somehow understood meant, eat my pants! Before I could stop him, Theo ran straight at the one of the girls, who was definitely not expecting that. Theo swung his sword, and she dissolved. Like literally evaporated into thin air.

The other girl was ready. She clapped, and all of a sudden I was blown backwards. My head hit the concrete sidewalk with a sickening crack. Beside me, Theo was in the same position, but he got up quickly. I sat up just in time to see the girl throw her knife.

The pain was a sudden, blinding explosion in my side. I cried out, but my voice died as I looked down. Red was blossoming on my white T-shirt. The knife handle protruded from my side. With shaking hands I pulled the knife out and stifled a scream. I threw the blade away in sheer terror.

"Alex!" I heard Theo shout. He sounded far away.

I held my hand tightly to the wound to staunch the flow of blood and saw Theo turn the second girl into mist. He ran back over and knelt beside me. He looked very scared.

"Oh gods, oh no." He said. He cursed again, this time in another language. My eyelids started to feel heavy, and I leaned into him.

"Alex, I'm so sorry." His deep blue eyes were the last image I saw before my world spiraled out of control, and everything went black.