High school: People have faced worse (though some don't like to admit it). At first, my high school experience was okay. I spent endless hours doing anything I felt like: constructing schematics for different things, swimming, reading, and anything else any other teenager might find themselves occupied with.

Ruben and I sat next to each other 3rd period, which was math class. We were both a grade ahead, so we ended up in a junior math class, which was weird considering that Ruben was completely incapable of sitting still for more than five minutes.

Thirty minutes later, we were both done with our work somehow, and Ruben was, not to my surprise, tinkering with a little machine on his desk, kind of spherical-looking. I was about to ask him what he was up to when my math classroom was invaded by a vampire.

It all started when the captain of the swim team, Brianna, stood up in the middle of class to ask me for help with my homework or something. At least that was what I thought.

What I thought changed quickly when she pulled out a knife, right in front of me. The idiots behind me who were usually talking or goofing off during class started yelling and screaming, which caught Ruben's attention. I didn't say anything, just started getting out of my seat and backing down the aisle. Ruben had a similar expression to what I had on my face, but he just sat there, observing the situation like he would a calculation.

I stopped backing up when I reached the back of the row. Just then, Brianna leaped at me with the knife in her hand.

First, I fell backwards and onto the floor out of sheer I don't know what to do anymore. Then I raised my right leg for reasons unknown. Really, all I knew was that I was too freaked out to actually understand anything that I was doing.

But, apparently, whatever I was doing had been the right thing to do, because I managed to kick Brianna into the wall behind me. After letting the shock wear off for about two seconds, I shot back up, on the brink of hysterics. Brianna shot me a glare, and all I could think was, Man, if looks could kill.

She was blocking the exit to the classroom and she knew it. She grinned wickedly, which was when I noticed she had… fangs.

She started at me again, charging, I slid over one of the desks, falling ungracefully into the next aisle, right behind Ruben, who was jabbing at something with his screwdriver.

Brianna, with her fangs and knife, came at me once more. I was prepared to leap over the desk at the last minute again, but it turned out that I didn't need to. Ruben stepped between us, facing towards Brianna with a sword made of bronze. She ran right into the blade.

She had barely hit it when she exploded into dust.

I subconsciously took two steps back. Ruben turned towards me, but he only had his screwdriver in his hand.

"Ruben," I said, still about to fall into a series of hysterics as I felt the urge to laugh rising up my throat, "What was that? What's going on?"
Ruben sighed. "I'm not supposed to tell you."
"It was a vampire, wasn't it?"
Ruben half-grinned in my direction. "Kind of. You're closer than I ever was before somebody told me."
"Told you what?" I asked again.

"Again, that's not for me to say," Ruben said, glancing at the dust on the floor, "Really, all you need to know is that every monster for miles is looking for you now."
I fell back into a chair. "Monsters. That's it. I'm hallucinating. I read too much fiction last night."

Ruben laughed at me, and I shot him a look.

"Don't worry," he said, looking out the window, "We'll make it out of here."

"I thought you just said that every monster for miles was looking for me."
"Well, yeah, but we'll make it. C'mon."

So I stood up and followed Ruben down the hallways of my school, which now seemed completely different.

"How was it that nobody noticed Brianna was a monster or something?" I asked.

"It's a long story."
"Thanks, that clears things up."
"You're not making this any easier, Kass."

"I'm not making this any easier? I was just attacked by the vampire swim captain."
"Point taken," he said, grinning, "But it'll be a little bit before I can say anything."
Frustrated, I shut up.

We somehow got in a taxi after walking for about an hour, in which we did not exchange a single word.

"Here, you can stop here," Ruben said, handing the driver some money. We got out in a forested area just before a hill. The question Where are we? popped into my head, but I had a feeling that was something that I couldn't know yet, just like the rest of the story behind my vampiric swim captain.

"Did you ever take Latin classes?" Ruben asked.

"Yeah. Why?"
"I hope you remember a lot."
"Ruben, what's going on?"
"Just a little bit longer, Kass."

I sighed, but didn't argue as we started to make our way up a hill. We hit the top, and Ruben grinned in the direction of the place in front of us. I just stared out, my mouth slightly open in shock.

"Welcome to camp," Ruben said.

It was huge, and, well, definitely not your average summer camp. There were strawberry fields, a huge farmhouse, and several diverse buildings. I could see many people, mostly teenagers, populated the camp.

"Try not to pass out," Ruben said as I stared.

"Well," I said, "I'm trying."
"Here, let's go into the Big House before you pass out from shock," he said.

"Good call," I said, nodding and following him.

Turns out this so-called "Big House" was actually the huge, four story farmhouse I had seen before. Ruben lead me in until we came to a table, seated at which were the contrasted set of people I had ever seen in my life. There was a rather large, grumpy-looking man with grey hair, who put me a little on edge when I walked into the room, examining me like he had seen me before and I was just an annoyance to him now. Then there was a taller, slender figure with scraggly brown hair and what seemed to be the tips of horns poking out of the mess of curly hair. Then there was a man in a motorized wheelchair, sitting with the blankest expression in the world, the perfect poker face, which made me look at their hands and their were indeed playing a card game.

"Excuse me," Ruben said, stepping aside so that they could look at me, "I've brought her."
"Well done, Ruben," the man in the wheelchair said.

"Yes," the other man said, "Another one of them. Hurrah."

The man in the wheelchair sighed and looked at me.

"I'm sorry. He's been doing this for quite a while longer than he'd like to. My name's Chiron, and this is Mr. D. Please, take a seat."

Chiron was the name of trainer of Hercules, and, well, after the horns on the one guy's head and the vampire, I was almost halfway to believing him. I shook his hand.

"Kassandra Santos," I said. I looked at Mr. D and decided that he didn't look eager to shake my hand, so I sat down as I was told, and Ruben sat down next to me. The guy on the other side of me with the horns extended his hand, and I shook it.

"Ryon," he said.

"Kass," I replied, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure is mine."

"So, I suppose you're traumatized," Mr. D said, "Freaked out. Wondering what happened and why Ruben brought you here of all places."
"Mr. D-" Chiron said.

"No, he's right," I said, "I'm curious as to why I was attacked in my math classroom and why I'm at this camp."
Chiron looked at me, and so did everyone else. Then Chiron cleared his throat and spoke.

"What if I told you that you were a demigod?"
I examined the faces of everyone in the room, and remembered Brianna, and Ryon's horns and Ruben's sword.

"It probably wouldn't be a stretch to say that I'd believe you after a while."