Hey! I'm going to be doing Percabeth, Jasper, Frazel, and Caleo, but I forgot to add it in the prologue.

Anyways, enjoy!

Annabeth POV:

I got up bright and early to get ready to go. I had done my packing last night, so I only had to get changed. I milled around aimlessly until 7 a.m., when I woke up my dad to get going. The airport was only thirty minutes from our house, but I wanted to get there before everyone else.

My dad offered to carry my bags into his truck, which was a bad mistake. I don't exactly pack light, because it was crucial that every single book I ever owned travel with me. As he struggled to load my stuff, I sat in the passenger seat and doodled in my architecture notebook.

Finally my dad got everything in the truck and we took off.

The whole thirty minutes was spent in silence because my dad was half asleep and too tired to talk. When we reached the airport, there were already plenty of people bustling around. My dad and I parted ways as I went through security. By the time I got in the terminals, I was exhausted. It was too early for the terminal to be open for boarding, so I decided to wait at a coffee shop relatively close.

Hazel POV:

After two hours of sitting at numerous cafes waiting for the others, I was about ready to strike up a conversation with a stranger. My foster family had told me to take a cab to the airport, and had immediately called one over at four in the morning so that I could leave.

I got to the airport at sometime around five because it took fifty minutes to get here.

Now, I moved to a nearby coffee shop because the owner of the previous one had been starting to glare at me. When I sat down I saw, a few tables over, what I immediately knew was one of the winners.

She had long, blond hair, full of ringlets of curls, that was pulled up in a ponytail. She stood confidently, she walked confidently, she sat confidently. I decided to introduce myself.

"Hey," I smiled as I walked over to her table. "I'm Hazel."

She looked up and I immediately felt intimidated by her piercing gray eyes. I could practically see her mental wheels turning.

She smiled back at me. "Ohhhh. You're one of the other winners, right?"

I nodded, then asked her, "Who are you?"

"I'm Annabeth," she held her hand out and I shook it. She gestured at the open chair in front of her for me to sit down.

"Why are you here so early?" she asked.

"My f―," I stopped myself from saying "foster" and restarted, "My parents got me a cab to the airport at four in the morning."

Annabeth smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, well I woke my dad up at 7 in the morning to drive me here. The horrors!"

We shared a laugh. I was making friends pretty quickly! I couldn't wait to meet the rest.

Annabeth and I both got coffee from the coffee shop we were in and joked for about an hour. At sometime around eight, I recognized the Cherokee girl I had seen that day in the library, walking up to us.

"Piper!" I exclaimed. "I was so excited when I heard that you were going to be part of the expedition!"

She chuckled. "Same here. I was so scared that I wouldn't know anybody."

Suddenly, I realized I had forgotten Annabeth. "Hey!" I said. Looking at Annabeth, I pointed to Piper. "Annabeth this is Piper." Then I turned to look at Piper. "Piper, this is Annabeth. We're all on the trip together."

Annabeth smiled and held out her hand. "Hi."

"Hello," Piper greeted her in response.

"Come on," I said gesturing a chair. "Sit with us Piper."

Piper POV:

"Come on," Hazel gestured at a chair. "Sit with us Piper."

I accepted her proposal and breathed a mental sigh of relief. I wasn't the only one who had come early.

Dad had a movie shooting at 8:30 today, so I had to come early because he insisted in dropping me off. It was just me and Dad 'cause Mom had left years ago. We used to be really close, but lately he didn't seem to have enough time for me.

Two hours later, an announcement came over the loudspeaker.

"Flight 207, terminal 5 is available. Flight 207, terminal 5 is available."

That was our flight. The three of us got up and sat down in the seats in front of the boarding tunnel. The man who had announced the winners met us there.

"Hello! How are you all?" he exclaimed in his jolly manner.

"We're doing great, thank you," Annabeth answered politely.

"Well, it seems almost all of the ladies are here. It appears the gentlemen haven't chosen to show up yet."

As if on que, a blond (and utterly handsome) boy came walking towards us. He shook hands with each of us one by one.

"Hello. My name's Jason. Are you also here for the trip to Africa?"

I stared at his face longer than I should have and answered him with the most intellectual response my brain was currently able to conceive, "Huh..."

"Umm...," he scratched the back of his head, "So you're not?"

"No! Um, yes... I think... maybe?" I blushed, having made a total fool of myself. Smooth Piper, real smooth.

We both stared at each other confused for a moment before he blurted out, "Piper's a pretty name."

He blushed and ducked his head while I laughed and thanked him. After a moment I realized I hadn't told him my name was Piper.

"Wait... How did you know my name?" I asked him.

He looked puzzled for a moment then said, "It says so on your name tag."

"Name tag?" I looked down at the front of my shirt and sure enough, there was a tag that read: Hello! My name is PIPER!

I groaned. Dad had probably put it there this morning to help me make friends. Just then, I became aware of giggling coming from behind me. I turned around to see the laughter coming out of the lips of Annabeth, Hazel, and a girl with jet black hair.

"Thalia?" Jason gaped. "How are you here? I just saw you at home!"

I felt a little jealously creep up the back of my throat. Was this Jason's girlfriend?

"Little bro, you are never getting rid of me. I know a gal who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a gal. They got me in here in like, five minutes." Thalia looked at him with a smug look on her face.

She turned to look at me. "Wow. I don't know how you did it, but you got Mr. Grandpa over here all twisted up. I'm impressed."

"Thalia!" Jason exclaimed turning red. "Why are you still here?"

Thalia laughed. She ruffled his hair as she passed by him on her way out. "Gotta keep my little brother on his toes."

Jason sighed when she left. "I'm sorry, she's awful."

I smiled at him. "I thought it was sweet."

"Come on lovebirds," Annabeth called to us as she joined the host (who had identified himself as Mr. Wittle) and Hazel. "Mr. Wittle wants to tell us something."

Frank POV:

Grandma Zhang dropped me off at the airport at 10:30. I quickly passed through security and made my way to terminal 5 at around 10:50.

I was nervous to meet the other kids. They were talking amongst their group, so I hung back to avoid calling attention to myself.

After a few minutes, a girl with chocolate-brown skin walked up to me. She introduced herself.

"Hello! My name's Hazel."

I summed up my courage and replied, "My name's Frank." It came out quieter than I had intended and for a moment I feared that she hadn't heard me.

"Frank..." She thought for a moment. "Frank Zhang?" At my nod she continued, "Oh. Then you're here for Desert Adventure. Why don't you come over here with the rest of us?"

I followed her like a lost puppy to the group. We sat down and talked for a while, as my nerves slowly faded.

At 11, we were told to get ready because there were only two more people to show up. At around 11:20, a scrawny Latino boy scrambled through the doors. Hazel knew him, because he had lived with her foster family for a week before running away. I didn't like him because he kept flirting with Hazel and for some reason that made me uncomfortable.

Annabeth started getting impatient because there was still one more boy who was supposed to show up and he was already really late. Mr. Wittle had previously told us that Calypso would be meeting us there.

Percy POV:

I woke up groggily to the sound of my phone ringing. I reached out and grabbed it.

"Hello?" I asked, still half asleep.

"Percy, my boy! I was finally able to find your number in the school files!" Blared the voice of Mr. Brunner through the speaker.

I shot out of bed. "Why? What did I do? Am I in trouble?"

"Oh, no. Nothing like that. I just wanted to wish you a safe trip."

"Trip? I'm not going anywhere..."

"Percy? You did watch the winners of the Desert Adventure program last night right?"

"Oh. I forgot. Why? Did I like win or something?" I laughed.

When my statement was followed by silence, realization made a breakthrough.

"I won didn't I?" Once again Mr. Brunner was silent.

I sighed and held my head in my hands. "Oh shit."

Mr. Brunner cleared his throat. "Um well. Good luck Percy." With that he hung up.

I scrambled around the room, trying to pack all my stuff together for a month. I ran downstairs with my suitcase in tow, momentarily pausing to explain my situation to Mom. She sighed and told me to hurry.

Running out the door, I made it to the subway station just in time for the next train. I made it through security in record time and entered terminal 5 breathless. Everyone turned to look at me.

"Uhh... Nice weather we're having?" The room was overtaken by an awkward silence.

A man stepped toward me. "Well at least you're here. Traffic must have been mad."

I stared at him for a moment before realizing what he was implying. "Actually I didn't even know I won until like half an hour ago."

Once again the room was silent. The host laughed nervously. "Well, we should get going now. Come on." He beckoned for us to follow him into the plane.

As I followed him, I noticed a blond haired girl glaring at me. I squinted at her confused. She turned away but still looked plenty angry.

I decided to ignore her. Once everyone had boarded, I realized with a sickening lurch that I was afraid of planes.

Oh god. This was bound to be an interesting ride.

Sorry I took so long to update. I finally got a free weekend so I decided to write.

Bye!