Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus.

A/N: I know it's been a while since my last update. I apologize. It's been incredibly busy. Please read and review! Or message me with reviews! I promise the next update will be much faster!

Chapter 4: Another Meeting

A deep breath, and then another. One foot forward, other foot forward. I was angry. And here's school. Oh goody. I walked in the doors, cringing at the absence of people in the halls. I was definitely late.

My locker was on the second floor of the building, tucked away in a back hallway that is only frequented by the people whose lockers are there. The trick now was to go through the halls and try not to be seen through the doors coming in late.

I climbed up the steps of the gray and concrete stairwell before reaching the second floor. I turned off the main hall into my little corridor.

I stopped short. Someone else was in front of my locker. Like, right in front of it. Dressed in a green hoodie with reddish hair, I thought I recognized her as going to this school, but I didn't know her personally. She was humming as she sketched in her notebook.

I approached slowly. She didn't seem to even sense I was approaching, even as I stood right next to her.

"That's my locker." I remarked.

She looked up, and her eyes seemed to flash green for a second. Not an eye-color green (though her eyes were a normal green), but an unnaturally vivid grass green.

"Atalanta." She said with conviction, looking up from her sketchbook to look me in the eye.

"Hi, do I, uh…know you?" I was taken aback by her confidence and the fact that she knew my name.

"I'm Rachel. I'm a junior."

"Atalanta, sophomore…but maybe you already knew that?"

"Oh, right!" Rachel sprang to her feet, rubbing her charcoal-covered hands on her jeans. "Yeah, we were in the same 1st hour last year."

Oh, yes. 1st hour. The class I always skipped because I always arrived late to school. Whatever. It was gym class, the teacher hardly even noticed I was gone.

"Rachel…" I mused, "Rachel Elizabeth Dare?" I did remember her vaguely.

"Yes!" She smiled.

"So, you, uh, hang out around here a lot?" This was my corridor. I had only ever seen the few other people who had lockers on this corridor come here.

She looked briefly uncomfortable, glancing away. "I actually don't. I was just looking for you."

What could Rachel Elizabeth Dare possibly want with me?

"Why?" I asked.

"I have a message for you." She looked nervous, glancing around for a second time, almost as if making sure we were the only people there.

"Okay. What is it?"

Rachel inhaled deeply. When she exhaled, her breath was…green, and glowing to boot. Her eyes misted over, gleaming with the same green color.

I stumbled backwards, watching in awestruck fascination and fear.

She spoke, sounding old and harsh and sibilant: Listen, seeker, and heed my words.

One has been lost to the slumbering ground,

While a hero had been found.

Through fire and trial the hero must go,

But inevitably fail if the gods do know.

Yet if the hero cannot answer her cry,

Then the lost one is destined to die.

I shivered at the sudden cold permeating the room. I was seriously scared. Rachel keeled over, all signs of anything supernatural gone.

"What. Was. That." I ground out between my teeth.

Rachel looked up. "Prophesy," she gasped, out of breath.

"Prophesy," I repeated, feeling almost dizzy. "Of course it was prophesy."

"It was a message, a future reading. You need to find Piper. You've been chosen by someone to—"

"Wait," I realized, "You're one of them?" Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the same one who goes to school with me, just spoke a prophesy. Oh yeah, and she knows about that other random group of teens I ran into.

"Yes. It's important. I only sense visions when—"

"You sense visions?" I was having trouble comprehending. What was going on?

Rachel brushed the question aside. "Yes, but we need to go. When a god has chosen you, monsters start to target you. I sense you're important. Gods and monsters will want to find you."

"I don't understand! Go WHERE? What GODS? What MONSTERS? I'm important?! For what, exactly?"

"Listen to me, Atalanta," Rachel tensed, "That was a prophecy. I understand that this is hard for you, but if we don't go, a friend of mine could be lost. For good. Please? I promise I'll explain it to you on the way."

And for some reason, I believed Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She sounded crazy, but…I guess I was starting to believe these weird teenagers now that all of this stuff was happening.

"Okay. Where are we going?" I asked.

She just smiled. "You'll see."