~3~

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment - Buddha

As soon as I got outside, I hopped onto my skateboard and rode to the skate park. I got there under ten minutes. I easily found my friends and skated over.

I have four specific best friends: Henry Nickels, Jake Rogers, Erin Anderson, and Rachel Dare. Henry has neat black hair with brown eyes. He's fifteen and about 5'6". We have been friends since Fifth Grade. Jake has curly blonde hair with blue eyes. He has a tan is a stereotypical Californian. He's 5'4", sometimes we joke that he hasn't hit puberty yet. We became friends when he moved here from (big surprise) California in Eighth Grade. Erin has straight, long brown hair and hazel eyes. She's an average of 5'5" and is already sixteen. We've been friends since we began high school. And last but not least is Rachel. Rachel is actually more than a friend. She has really, curly bright red hair and bright green eyes to match. She's about the same height as Erin and is also sixteen. We've been friends since Kindergarten but we only began dating last year.

"Hey, guys," I greeted, stepping off my skateboard.

"Hey," Rachel said. I smiled at her and gave her a kiss.

"What? No kiss for me?" Henry joked.

I chuckled and shook my head. "Ask your girlfriend for one," I advised, gesturing towards Erin. They both blushed and looked away from each other. They both obviously like each other but are too afraid to admit it. And they better get together soon or else they'll be – as Rachel likes to say – "Friend-Zoned".

"Come on, let's go skate already," Jake groaned. I nodded in agreement.

"Fine," Henry agreed.

The three of us took off on our skateboards while the girls stayed behind to sit on the side lines. We climbed the ladder on one of the bigger ramps to skate on. Jake went first. He's been dying to master this new trick, the pop-shove. He wants to skate to the top of the opposite ramp, do a 180 at the top, then land safely back on his board.

Henry and I are nervous for him. Jake isn't one to think ahead, especially when it comes to getting hurt. So we try to reason with him as much as can but he's determined to do this. We just hope he doesn't get hurt in the process. Heck, he wouldn't even wear his helmet unless we made him (which we do).

Jake attempted his new trick a couple of times but just like every other day, he wipes out. He cursed and angrily climbed back up the ramp. Henry and I both know better than to try and talk him down from his anger so I took my turn to go.

I'm not as experienced as my friends are when it comes to skateboarding. I mostly just do it to keep in shape for my school time sports: basketball in the fall, swimming in the winter and baseball in the spring. It is a fun thing to do though. It is really cool when you go at a fast speed and feel like you're flying when you're in the air. You just feel so powerful and free and proud of yourself when you accomplish a trick.

For at least two hours the three of us only skated. When we were finally done the five of us agreed to go get lunch. We went to the Old Time Diner. The Old Time Diner is this really cool diner that was decorated to look like it was from the fifties. It had a lot of the black-and-white, and red, the steel booths, and even a juke box. They also had the best food and shakes.

We all happily dug into our food when it was brought to us. I was sipping my chocolate shake when something outside caught my attention. I glanced outside and froze. Across the street was a kid with curly brown hair and was wearing a rainbow style Rasta cap on his head. That wasn't the only thing I noticed, however. He walked with a weird limp but he didn't have any type of crutches. Suddenly the kid tensed; he turned and looked me right in the eyes. His eyes narrowed at me as if trying to figure out who I was. For some odd reason he looked strikingly familiar. The harder I thought about it the more I noticed my headache coming back.

I jumped when Jake smacked my head. I glared at him and threw a fry in his direction before looking back at the window only to find the kid gone. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion but he was nowhere in sight. I turned back to my friend but noticed Rachel was looking out the window as well. Only her expression was confusion and slight fear.

I nudged her foot lightly with mine, making her jump at the sudden contact. "You okay?" I asked her worried.

She gave me a thin smile and nodded. "Yeah, I'm perfect.

I knew she was lying but I didn't argue with her. The rest of the day was filled with all of us chatting and laughing away. We all paid and left around six. When you're in New York at night it's always best to walk in pairs. Jake lived in the apartments across the street so we just watched him until he made it into the building before splitting off. Henry walked Erin home and I took a cab with Rachel.

When we pulled up in front of Rachel's building, we gave each other a kiss goodbye before she got out of the cab. She offered to give me cab fare but I denied it. It was about a ten minute drive until I got back to my apartment. I paid the cabbie and got out. When I walked in, I found mom and dad sitting on the couch watching some romance movie. Hilary was sitting on the chair next to them reading a book and Carson was laying on the ground playing a game on his DS.

"Hey, Percy," mom greeted. "Do you want to join us?"

I shook my head, and said, "Nah, I'm just gonna go to my room."

When I got in there, I automatically went to look at my shelves. On them were all the trophies I'd ever won. I had about forty trophies all together. But as I looked at them something felt off. Something always has.

Ever since I was a kid, I've had a feeling that I should be different in some way. Almost like I was meant to do something else but I could never figure it out. It's kind of as if I was supposed to have a different life. Only I have no idea what that different life is.

I shrugged, pushing my confused thoughts to the back of my mind.

I grabbed my laptop off my desk, moving it to my bed and began to surf the internet for a couple hours. Five search engines and sixteen YouTube videos later, I was exhausted. I looked at my alarm clock and saw that it was midnight. I turned off my bed lamp and set my laptop on the ground.

I went to bed not knowing about the crazy dream I was about to have.

In my dream, I was running on a long gravel road. I was in the middle of nowhere. The night sky was full of rain clouds and thunder rumbled through the sky. There were flashes of lightning so close that I was threatened to get electrocuted.

Up ahead, I was an old Camaro being flipped and thrown across the road by some type of huge monster. I couldn't see it clearly through the darkness. I ran forward but my feet halted at the sight. I saw my mom, the kid from outside the diner, and strangely enough me. Only I looked about Carson's age. The other kid was about the same. My mom, though, looked older. Much older.

We set the kid on the ground and mom told me something. But I couldn't hear anything. I could only watch. It was like some type of silent movie. My mom ran towards the monster a couple of times, but eventually she began to grow tired. The monster then caught her by the throat.

The next thing I knew, my mom was disappearing in a shred of light.

The strangest thing then began to happen. My younger self began to run towards this monster. I watched shocked as he . . . or I jumped onto the monster and yanked off a horn then thrust it into him.

The monster then disappeared in the same shred of light, while I fell to the ground.

I awoke sweating. My breath was laborious and my heart was pounding.

I could already feel another headache forming.

What is wrong with me?

A/N: Yes, I feel that if Percy was mortal then he would have gotten with Rachel, because he only met Annabeth because he was a demigod. Percy and Rachel only met because he was a demigod, but they would have met anyway, since they both go to Goode. And they also would have gotten together if it weren't for Annabeth and the whole Oracle-has-to-swear-off-guys thing. Let me know what you think! :)