Hi and welcome back for chapter 2. If you've made it this far I applaud your dedication. As promised Percy and Annabeth make their debut as the Paragons infiltrate Goode High.

As it turns out, packing wasn't necessary. In the morning Matt teleported the group, backpacks and all, across the street from Goode High. All five stood in awe at the mission they were about to undertake.

Alice was the first to snap out of it. She zipped her backpack open and began pulling out papers. "Okay, guys I got schedules for everyone here. The locker numbers and combinations are on the back. I think we've all got a class with this Jackson kid so we can keep an eye on him."

"What about the girl, Annabeth Chase?" asked Matt.

"She goes to a private school nearby. I asked Olivia to get me in, but apparently falsifying records for private school is much harder to do on short notice. Don't worry she's Jackson's girlfriend so she'll never be too far from him."

"How do you know that?" asked Grant.

"She's over there making out with him." Alice pointed to the school's entrance where Annabeth just finished giving Percy a goodbye kiss. They said their goodbyes and Annabeth ran off.

"There he is. I'm moving in." Grant started running, but Matt grabbed his shoulder.

"Not yet. We don't know how dangerous he is," warned Matt.

"Or if he's actually a good guy," suggested Dawn.

The others stared at Dawn. "No I'm pretty sure he's evil," said Grant.

"Yeah, we're the good guys," said David. "There can't be more than five good guys, that's way too one-sided."

"If he's the good guy then that makes us the bad guys," said Matt. "And I refuse to be a bad guy... again."

Alice shrugged. "You have to admit, the evidence is very substantial."

Dawn kept her eye on Percy as he entered the school. "Please, don't act too hastily. We still have very little information. "

"She's right," said Alice. "Recon first, action later."

"Hey Matt," said David. "I notice you have your red jacket on. May I ask how you turned it back after I turned it into a puppy?"

"You're not the only one with a few tricks up his sleeve," was Matt's only response.

David thought for a second. He was stumped. Finally, he shrugged and said, "Well, I wish you all luck on your first day of..." A loud electronic chime rang out across the road. "...Oh crap, we're late."

"Team meeting over everyone," Grant said.

Together they ran across the street and through the entrance. Then, they split up and each went to their separate classes. Grant ran to his first class of the day, history.

He burst through the door of his classroom. Inside about two dozen students stared at him confusedly.

"Thank you for joining us," said the history teacher, a short, stocky, bald man in a sweater-vest. "Since you're already standing, why don't you introduce yourself to the class?"

"M...my name is Grant Millen," Grant stammered. "I am 16 years old and I love history. Especially ancient history."

"Is that so? " asked the teacher. He gestured toward a boy in the front row, the boy Grant was supposed to spy on. "Percy Jackson here was just saying the same thing."

"I only said I was familiar with Greek mythology, Mr. Chandler." said Percy.

"You'll have to excuse me if I don't believe that so many kids are interested in history."

Grant took this as a personal insult. "Actually I'm taking an internship at a company that studies ancient Norse mythology."

Mr. Chandler raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What is the name of the company?"

"Umm... well... you've probably never heard of it. It's a small multi-national company." Grant said too much. ARC would literally kill him if he revealed them to a public school history teacher.

" He's telling the truth," said Percy, standing next to Grant. "Grant and I are in the same program. Right buddy?"

Grant played along. "Yeah, my good friend Percy knows all there is to know about Greek mythology."

"And Grant knows more about Norse mythology than the Huns themselves."

"Vikings," whispered Grant.

"Vikings," corrected Percy.

Mr. Chandler eyeballed them suspiciously. "Alright, I believe you. Now, take a seat and let's get started. We've wasted enough time already."

Grant took a seat next to Percy. "Thanks for the save," he whispered to Percy.

"No problem," responded Percy. He extended his hand to Grant. "Percy Jackson."

Grant shook his hand. "Grant Millen."

Next period, Alice and David sat next to each other in Trigonometry class. He's actually a cool guy. Grant was telepathically communicating with Alice. Maybe he has an evil twin or something.

It could still be a trick. I'll be careful not to make him suspicious.

Alice straightened her posture and looked to the front of the class where Percy was just entering and took a seat two rows ahead of her. She leaned to her left and tapped David's shoulder. "That's him."

David looked up from his notebook, where he was scribbling a lot of notes. "Huh, oh yeah. That's nice." He went back to his drawings.

Alice took a peak at what he was drawing. On the paper was a very detailed illustration of a puppy with an arrow pointing from the dog to a drawing of Matt's red jacket. There was a question mark above the arrow. David tapped his chin with the pencil's eraser.

"Really? I did it, okay? He asked me to change it back while you were packing."

"That... makes sense." He quickly drew a picture of Alice below the arrow and closed the notebook.

Alice wondered why she took the class with David. He was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a purple dress shirt. For some reason, he also wore his short black cape with a red inner lining.

"Why did you bring that stupid cape to school?" Alice scolded.

David looked offended. "When I was a little boy and realized I was a mage I promised that I would only use my magic for good. This cape makes me remember my promise to be a hero no matter what."

Alice looked at him in shock. Every time she thought she had David figured out he would surprise her, often in the best way possible. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to..."

"Hey guys!" said the bright young woman at the front of the class. "Sorry I'm late, the line at Starbucks was really long." She put her purse on the teacher's desk. "I'm Miss Valerie, your trig teacher for the year. You can call me Valerie, though. Miss makes it sound like I'm old."

"Yes, we get the hot, new teacher," said David.

"What?" demanded Alice.

"Look at her. She's wearing yoga pants and a fluffy mini-jacket. She'll be overheating by the end of the day. It's only the beginning of September, summer weather is still in effect."

"Suuure."

Class went on normally with Miss Valerie explaining quadratic equations. "Now, I'll pass out these worksheets and you can get into groups of three."

"Now's our chance." Alice got up and walked to Percy. "Excuse me, do you want to work..."

"Hey, Percy!" exclaimed a girl behind Alice. She shoved Alice to the side and put her hands on Percy's desk. "So, me, you, and Kelsey as a group sound good?"

"Actually, I think she was just about to..." Percy pointed to Alice.

"Oh, come on, it'll be fun." The girl grabbed Percy's arm and pulled him from his desk. He looked back as she dragged him away. He gave Alice a look that said, Sorry.

David appeared next to Alice. "What was that?" he asked. "I've never seen you look so... powerless."

"What was I supposed to do?"

"You should have said something. You're stronger than them."

"And punching their lights out would have solved everything?"

"Not that kind of strong. You have no problem telling me off. You have it in you to stand up for yourself. Don't let them step all over you or they'll just keep taking advantage of you."

"I won't be a doormat, David. Thanks for the pep talk."

"Well, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to sit down and do my work. We'll have to get more information about Jackson tomorrow."

"That's not what I meant." David looked over to Percy, who looked really uncomfortable. The two girls at his desk were talking non-stop about Percy and occasionally feeling his muscles. "Wait here."

David sauntered over to the table where the girls were harassing Percy. "Percy!" David threw his hands in the air. "My man! How's it going, bro?" David held out his fist, which Percy confusedly bumped. "Hey, did you catch the game last night? I mean what was the ref thinking? I say he was blinder than a broad-footed mole."

Percy started to catch on. "Oh, yeah, I love sports. Can't get enough football." The girls looked even more confused than Percy was.

"That's my boy," David said as he playfully punched Percy's shoulder. "By the way I got a new exhaust pipe for my car. You've gotta see it, it's so killer. I've got a picture of it on my phone , come check it out." Percy got out of his seat and followed David.

"Yup, car stuff, gotta love it," said Percy, very unconvincingly. Luckily, the girls were too busy trying to figure out what a broad-footed mole was to stop him from leaving.

David brought Percy back to where Alice was sitting. "Hey, thanks for getting me out of there, man," said Percy. "I tried telling them I have a girlfriend, but they wouldn't listen."

"Don't worry, you're among friends here. I'm David. This is my girlfriend, Alice."

Percy seemed to relax when he heard David say girlfriend. "Good, I cannot deal with the girls here lately. They've been all over me since school started."

"I think it's because of the muscles bulging from your shirt," said Alice.

"Really? I don't have..." Percy looked at his arms. "Well, I guess I have been getting a lot of exercise this summer."

"Oh yeah?" Alice asked. "What did you do over summer?"

"I, uh, went to summer camp."

"Which summer camp? Was it Camp Half-Blood?"

Percy's eyes got wide. "How did you know?"

"That's what it says on your shirt."

Percy looked down. He forgot he was wearing his orange camp t-shirt. It was brand new and clean since his old one was torn up in the Battle of Manhattan. "Oh, yeah." Percy acted more defensive through the rest of the class.

During lunch Grant, Alice, David, Dawn, and Matt sat at a table together.

"Did you see how defensive he got when we brought up Camp Half-Blood?" asked Alice. "There's obviously something he's hiding."

"I don't know," said Grant. "Unless he has split personalities I don't think this guy is capable of causing mass destruction."

"I've got gym with him after lunch," said Matt. "I'll find out what he's truly capable of."

"What if that girl, Annabeth, has him brainwashed or something?" suggested Grant. "What do you think Dawn?"

Dawn looked up from the book she'd been reading. "Huh, what did you say?"

"What are you reading, Dawn?" asked Alice.

"It's a diary that my mom left before she died. It's all I have left of her." She showed her friends the book, but there was nothing written on the pages.

"It's... blank," said Grant.

"Yes, it doesn't make any sense," said Dawn. "I always saw her writing in it, but there is nothing on the pages."

"Hmm," said David. "That sounds familiar. Can I see the diary."

Before Dawn could hand David the small leather book Percy appeared at the side of their table. "Hey, Grant," he said, "David. Alice. Can I borrow your friend here for a second?" He looked at Dawn.

"Me?"

"Yeah, there's something I wanted to ask you."

Matt was in stunned silence. Dawn stood up and shakily said, "O-okay." Together, Dawn and Percy walked out to the hallway.

Percy dropped the friendly smile once they were alone. "Okay, who or what are you?"

"I-I don't understand."

"You're definitely not a normal human."

"I'm not?"

"If you're a monster then let's just get this over quick. I am not someone you want to be messing with right now."

"I'm not a monster!" Dawn had been called a monster enough times in her life. Back in the cafeteria Matt heard Dawn's scream and immediately got up and ran for the hallway.

"If you're not a monster then how do you explain the glowing?"

"What?"

"You're glowing."

"Um, thank you?"

Percy took a step forward. "The Mist must be really powerful around you if you can't even see it yourself."

"What are you talking about?"

"Look this is going to sound really strange, but trust me on this. I've got to get you to Annabeth. She'll know more about this than I do."

At that time Matt burst through the doors and ran towards Percy. Percy instinctively grabbed his pen and clicked it. The pen expanded into his celestial bronze sword, Riptide, pointing at Matt's chest.

Matt growled and leaped at Percy anyway. Matt dodged Percy's swipe and tackled him. Before either of them could hit the ground Matt teleported them both away leaving Dawn alone in the hallway.

What will happen between Matt and Percy? What is the secret of the diary? Why is Dawn different? Find out the answer to these questions and more in the next installment of Percy Jackson and the Paragons.