Later

She swore. I was startled, as Thalia never cursed. I was the foul-mouth.

"Sam, I'm just trying to help you! Gods!"

Thalia's hair billowed up and her eyes were wild as she tried to save me from wherever I was heading down to.

At St. Sebastian's

Thalia Storm was my roommate at St. Sebastian's. I wasn't Catholic, but somehow, for my "bad" behavior, I was transferred here. I couldn't help it; I was dyslexic and had ADHD! Thalia had long unruly black hair, in a punk style, and wild electric blue eyes, always rimmed with thick black eyeliner. She looked older than twelve, and hadn't seemed to have any family. Not that I have much to talk about. My only relative is my mom, Anneliese Marie Rillette. My step-father left when I was 6 years old. I hate talking about him. He was a complete slime. I still have nightmares about him. I never knew my real father. I had always assumed he was dead.

Anyway, Thalia had transferred in April of this year, and now it was the last day of the school year. She was outside at the moment, talking to Grover. It seemed Thalia was always outside talking to her friend Grover, who was short and scrawny, with lots of hair. I mean a lot. The kid had peach fuzz, and he was only in the 6th grade, like Thalia and I! Grover had been here from the beginning of the year, and had been kind of stalking me and sniffing me the whole year long. He smelled like a goat. Believe me; I grew up two minutes from the largest petting zoo in America. I know what a goat smells like. They were talking about a summer camp. Some Half-Blood place. Who knew what half-blood meant? Thalia was as mysterious as a pine tree. Heck, she even smelled like pine trees! She said the scent calmed her.

Anyway, back to me. I am five feet, one inch tall. I have curly long black hair, which looks exactly like the black long curly hair on Yahoo! Avatars. I have these big sea green eyes, which flash Caribbean blue. My full name is Samantha Elizabeth Rillette. I grew up in Caribou, Maine, as far up as you can get in Maine with hope of civilization. It gets pretty flipping cold up there, too. It snows in May and June. Anyhow, Thalia comes back inside, finally. She had been outside for an hour. She paused, bit her lip, and opened her mouth.

"Samantha, what are you doing this summer?"

"Um…nothing much…I'm going to Cascade Falls in California."

"You need to come with me."

"What?"

"Sam, it's for your safety."

"I'm fine, Thalia!" I pushed her aside, and she moved back in front of me.

"Sam…"

"What do you want with me, Thalia??"

"I already talked to your mother. She says its fine."

"No!" I stormed off, heading to the waterfront. St. Sebastian's was built on an island in the middle of the harbor. There was a causeway going from the mainland to St. Sebastian's island. You could fall off if you walked far enough. The brochure boasts "Only twelve student deaths on record."

And you wonder why my mom sent me to this dump.

I crouched on the sand. I splashed some of the green, polluted, cool water on my face. It instantly purified. This has been going on since I was little, I realized. I hadn't noticed it, because it was just a part of my weird life. Just like never getting wet in water. I heard footsteps, as Thalia came up behind me, her breathing loud from running. At least I had calmed down, or else I would have punched the lights out of her.

"Please?"

I didn't want to spoil my mood by arguing, so I blew out and answered.

"Fine."

"Oh my gods, you don't know how bad this is, Thalia!"

That was Grover, who had walked up behind us, obviously glimpsing me pull water out of the harbor as I stood there unaware, and ready to soak Thalia at any moment.