Chapter 3

Adriana was confused and terrified, two things that typically cause mass panic, her english teacher Mr. Kasmer was officially a monster. And not just in personality, LITERALLY! His face was on the body of a lion/scorpion thing! She didn't know whether to be grateful Nico was prepared or concerned that he was carrying around a huge black sword. Nico was basically her only protection so she needed to be nice, but it wasn't that hard due to her nature, sure at times she was sassy and stubborn but majority of the time she was a shy, quiet girl.

Nico yelled loudly before charging the beast, Adriana squeaked and hide behind the schools "Welcome" sign, peering over she watched Nico battle the creature who he apparently met before.

Nico hadn't seen Dr. Thorn for about six years but he still easily recognized the manticore. As he charged, the manticore threw spikes off his barbed tail, Nico did a baseball slid to the right and rolled over his right shoulder into a standing defensive stance.

"I see you've gotten better Mr. Di Angelo" the manticore smiled wickedly and threw more spikes, Nico skillfully dodged but even with his experience he couldn't get close enough to stab it. Nico remembered the last time they battled the manticore even Percy, Annabeth and Thalia couldn't beat it. They had Artemis' help, a goddess. If they were going to beat this thing Nico would need Adriana's help and a whole lot of dead people.

Adriana somehow understood that even Nico needed help, scampering out of hiding Adriana sprinted for the flag pole which had a red and white flag with a maple leaf in the middle. Adriana had this weird fear of falling, it wasn't heights, she was fine when her and dad went to visit the CN tower two summers ago, it was only when she stood and looked over; something high with no barriers scared her to death. So when she started climbing the flag pole only half way up she realized that if she fell she would most likely break a bone or get a concussion. She shivered from the thought but her adrenaline pushed her forward, all she needed was the flag. and clambered up higher and higher.

Nico could no longer see Adriana hiding behind the 'welcome' sigh and for a second he thought she left. But as he rolled -again- out of the way he saw a smaller figure nervously inching up the canadian flag pole. He had no idea what her intentions were though. And he continued to attack the monster.

Nico ran towards the manticore and tried to do something different, a direct attack. The manticore was obviously waiting for him to roll out of the way, jump or something but he didn't and it was too late for the manticore to aim a spike. Nico managed to make slash across his face, the enraged manticore roared and swiped the boy away with an enormous paw. Not to mention the cat claws.

Groaning, Nico sat up and winced, there were three parallel cuts on his chest, luckily they weren't too deep... maybe 1cm? Nico didn't like giving into pain or for a fact admitting it.

The manticore loomed over Nico, his front paw positioned on his chest and his barbed tail looming over head.

Adriana had managed to climb up and down the pole careful not to slip on her cold sweat, her hands had been shaking and throat dry as saltine crackers. Adriana had climbed a large oak tree at the side of the school and scrambled onto the top of the one story school, she raced across the roof kicking up the gravel and hurdled one giant air vent sticking out. As she came back to the front of the school she saw the manticore place a paw on Nico's chest. Her eyes widened as she knew he was going to deliver the final blow.

Adriana sprinted to the edge of the building and just before jumping she made the mistake of looking down. she halted and swallowed, this was not the time for her phobia to act up, backing up again she started to breath heavier and faster as if running a marathon.

Nico's in trouble, even if I don't know him and he led me out here in the first place, I still need to help him; Adriana thought. Taking a deep breath she kicked up the gravel and sprinted faster then she had ever tried then she lunged over the side of the building.

When in midair time seemed to slow down, she saw him raise his claw, Nico muttering curses and prayers.

"AHHHHHH"! Adriana screamed loudly as she landed on the back side of the manticore's tail. Just as she suspected the back side of the tail was like a scorpions, platted but not sharp or barbed, in a split second from landing she climbed the thick tail to the top and wrapped the flag around the irregular, spiked, tail top.

The manticore wailed in distress and reared onto his hind legs.

"Behind you ugly"! Adriana screamed, the manticore roared, Adriana held onto dear life as he swished his tail from side to side powerfully. She almost went flying off every time, the other thing she remembered about scorpions was that their tails don't bend towards the ground, only side to side and upwards.

"Your so ugly your own species is dying off, because no one wants to mate with a face like that"!

Nico managed to recover and heard Adriana's last comment, but didn't think this was the time to be laughing. Standing up he realized her serious situation, he paled as her feet unhooked and now the only thing holding on was her arms. He quickly took his opportunity to charge the monster.

"I bet you hang out with medusa"! Adriana screamed.

The monster saw Nico coming from the corner of his eyes and faced his direction trying to ignore the girl on his tail, smirking the monster fired his spikes. Well tried.

"NOO, YOU IDIOTIC GIRL"! He bellowed angrily as they got caught in the flag, not having time to recalculate a paw attack Nico jabbed the manticore right in the face. He sunk his sword all the way in, until his hilt hit it's nose.

The monster disintegrated into dust and Adriana fell down to the ground. Nico ran over and sheathed his sword.

"You ok"? he asked

"Well if you think falling off a scorpions tail is ok? Then yes, just peachy"

"Well thats great, now I need to get you to camp half blood"

"Camp Half blood? Like demigod"? Adriana asked amazed, Nico jutted out his hand and helped her up. She dusted off her school uniform and looked up at Nico, who was smirking,

"What? Wait it is called a demigod, right?"

"Yes but seriously your school uniform is just as ugly as Dr. Thorn's fa-"

"I KNOW"! Adriana groaned. "It's Mr. Kasmer... And yes my outfit is as ugly as his butt"

"I was going to say face but then again girls always have to go a dramatize things"

"HEY!" Adriana slapped his arm in fake anger but ended up giggling. "In all seriousness, my mom's a god"?! She said astonished.

"Goddess. But ya same difference. Now Camp Half Blood is a safe haven for demigods, where monsters can't attack you, I can take you there" Nico offered. Adriana thought about it for a second, she had so many questions swirling around in her head and decided to ask a few before going with a stranger to an unknown place. Now that she thought about it this situation completely screamed: "STRANGER DANGER"!

"Where is it? Should I go talk to my dad? WAIT DOES HE KNOW HE SLEPT WITH A GODDESS?! Should I tell him? Will he disown me? Who's your dad? Do you do reading and crap at Camp half blood because I have dyslexia... Are there flowers there? I love gardening! Wait is it a big camp? How have other mortals never spotted it? I mean it's gotta be pretty ob-"

Nico slapped a hand over her mouth, "jeez woman"! he exclaimed loudly, Adriana blushed and shut up waiting to see if Nico would answer any of them.

"Located in Long Island, your dad most likely knows your mom is goddess. All demigods have dyslexia and ADHD and theres something called the mist that hides our camp and the monsters from mortals".

"Well this is wonderful" she said sarcastically, "I want to say good bye to my dad". Nico almost caved in for a second, the girl was literally like a puppy who was begging without knowing.

"No, first you need to get settled in camp then maybe in a couples day you came visit him, but you came Iris message him" Nico held up the hand as Adriana opened her mouth. "I'll explain an Iris message later, lets go".

"You forgot a question" Adriana pointed out as if it were obvious.

"and what would that be"? Nice asked pulling an annoyed expression.

"Who's your godly parent"?

"Hades" Nico said trailing off, Adriana's eyes widened. Nico suddenly got angry as he realized she was probably stereotyping him. Great another annoying camper how will eventually be scared of him. Majority of camp half blood excluded him because they were horrified of him, scared he was going to call up warrior skeletons, drop a giant mound of stygian rock on them or create a crevice all the way to tartarus.

"So can I like... call you grim reaper or death breath... maybe Casper"?

Nico's angry dissipated and replaced with confusion. "Um i'm not going to ask why. But warning: Leo already calls me Grim Reaper so he might light you on fire if you steal his nickname for me"

Adriana laughed loudly and Nico just watched her hair trail down her back, it ended just below her breasts. Her eyes twinkled too.

Nico realized just how much he was starring and awkwardly looked over his shoulder as if looking for something.

Adriana giggled to herself and took the opportunity to take a glance at Nico, his hair shimmered in the light and she could see his lean muscle easier now that his veins were still pumping after the adrenaline rush, his arms flexed when he went to run a hair through his black unruly hair.

Adriana blushed and tucked hair behind her ear, god, she hoped their relationship wasn't always going to be this awkward.

"One last question. How do we get from Ontario, Canada to Long island"?

Nico chuckled and stepped closer, Adriana didn't dare look him in the eye. "Just let me do the work" he whispered, loving the way she shivered. Nico reached forward and gently grabbed her upper arms. Adriana's breath caught in her throat as Nico stepped even closer, she wished he would just wrap his strong arms around her. But he didn't much to her dismay.

Nico closed his eyes and concentrated on camp half blood. Suddenly a bone chilling cold washed over the two teens. Adriana was so terrified that she disregarded the awkwardness that was bound to happen in the future and stepped into his chest. She curled her arms into her chest so they were pressed in-between the two bodies, squeezed her eyes shut and tucked her head downward. Eventually to her surprise Nico did wrap his arms around her waist.

The reason Adriana got so scared was because everything was suddenly dark, no light even if you squinted. It was so cold it probably matched the arctic sea waters and sounds echoed and roared that automatically made you terrified to open your eyes.

Then it was all gone and a beautiful camp lay out in front of their eyes.

So next Chapter you guys get to meet, Percy, Annabeth, Leo and my own O/C Character! Please review and let me know what you think! Don't forget to fav! It would amaze me if we could get some readers to fav too :D thanks!