When you're a demigod, anything's possible.

For instance, your best friend may just be your everyday satyr, complete with a furry hindquarter and hooves and little baby goat horns. Your other best friend could be the daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom, and arch rival to your own father, Poseidon. Your everyday life might be filled with monsters, gods, and geometry homework. Your school days could be packed with hungry manticores, morphing pens and stale pizza.

But hey? When you're a demigod, it's pretty easy to get use to this stuff.

Obviously though, when you're a mortal, it can come as a big shocker.

I learned this lesson the hard way….unfortunately.


It was the last day of Camp Half Blood. For me, at least. We half bloods are allowed to stay year round, meaning throughout the whole mortal school year. But like a wise girl once told me, "The real world is where you learn whether you're good enough."

Good enough to survive that is.

I was waiting for my step dad, Paul Blofis to come pick me up, when I saw my friend, Thalia, come through the borders and join me at the bottom of the hill. Thalia was the daughter of Zeus, god of the skies, and the only one who I could say genuinely annoyed me. Most times.

She crossed her arms as she stopped besides me. After joining the Hunters of Artemis, she had gained immortality, so now, for once, I was as old as she was.

"Hey." she said, not bothering to acknowledge my presence.

"Hey." I replied.

A moment of silence. Then Thalia said, "Waiting for Paul to pick you up?"

I nodded. "Yeah." My voice sounded quiet, almost sad, even to me. I saw Thalia grin.

"It still sucks being just a regular half blood, doesn't it?" she taunted, fingering her silvery parka (the official uniform for the Hunters). I rolled my eyes.

"What do you know?" I jibed. "You're still half blood. Just with better life coverage."

Thalia raised her eyebrows. "Life coverage?" she inquired. I frowned.

"You know….immortality." Then, seeing the blank stare she was giving me, I added, shrugging, "You can't die besides in battle. Life coverage."

Thalia rolled her eyes, muttering "Seaweed Brain." under her breath.

I looked at her witheringly. The previous time she'd called me that, it didn't go so well. I ended up nearly being fried to death, and Thalia almost drowned like a dead cat. "You know where that went last time, Pinecone Face." I reminded her.

Her eyes flashed. Then, to my surprise, she smirked. "Good point." she said mischievously. I gulped. "However, we never did get to finish out little tiff after capture the flag."

I snorted. Tiff? Saying our fight was a tiff was like calling Mr. D merely unpleasant.

Largest. Understatement. Ever.

"Oh yeah," I said, my hand drifting to my pocket, and gripped my lethal ballpoint sword, Riptide. "I've been itching for a good match since Luke left. Want to finish it?"

Thalia smiled evilly. "I thought you'd never ask."

Before I could react, she slapped her bracelet and pulled out her mace can out at the same time, standing fully armed with a shield and spear before I could even move.

I blinked, then pulled out my pen and uncapped it. It immediately morphed and transformed, leaving a polished, celestial bronze sword in its place. Riptide.

I glanced at her shield Aegis, trying not to shy away from the horrible image of Medusa that was forever etched onto the metal. "No fair." I complained. "You get a shield and I don't?"

Thalia frowned. "Fine." she muttered, and then slapped her wrist again, transforming her shield back into a bracelet. She then took a step back, bending her knees in a combat position. "Ready?" she asked.

I grinned. Without replying, I leaped forward and slashed diagonally, trying to catch her off guard. It didn't work. Almost lazily, she blocked it, and used the opportunity to slam me with the butt of the spear in my stomach. I pulled back, winded, but still managed to block the entourage of attacks Thalia continued with.

We fought for the better part of 5 minutes, neither of us able to gain leverage or unarm each other. I was so concentrated on the fight and not getting skewered that I didn't notice a blue Prius pulling up in the road besides the hill, or heard the slam of the door as the driver got out. What I did notice, however, was that Paul had arrived when he came up behind me and, with a yell, tackled Thalia to the ground.

"What the Hades!" Thalia cried as she tried to push Paul off of her. He refused to budged.

"Stay…away…from….Percy!" he panted as he pushed her away from me for emphasis. Her electric blue eyes flashed.

I finally understood the situation. "Um, Paul?" I said awkwardly, looking pleadingly at Thalia in apology and praying she wouldn't shock him to death. Finally, she harrumphed and stepped away unwillingly. Paul turned to me for an explanation. "This is Thalia. My…friend."

Paul glanced from me, to Thalia, then back to me again. Finally, he flushed. "Oh." he said weakly. I chuckled. Thalia rolled her eyes, clearly muttering "Boys…" underneath her breath.

"Paul, this is Thalia Grace," I introduced again, "Daughter of Zeus, lord of the skies, and lieutenant to the Hunters of Artemis." Thalia smiled halfheartedly, and held out her hand to shake. Paul took it, but then immediately pulled back as if he had been shocked. Which, knowing Thalia, he probably had.

"Sorry." she muttered.

Paul wiped his hands on his coat jacket, and then grinned more warmly. "It's okay." he assured. Then he turned his attention back to me.

"So what was that whole sword fighting thing? A game?" he looked from us to the hill, as if wondering where camp was. "Isn't that a little dangerous for you kids?"

This time it was me who rolled my eyes. "Um, Paul? We're demigods. We have to train for this stuff."

Paul cocked his head, and then looked at me again as if from a whole new perspective. "I thought all you guys did was drink wine and have parties. Isn't that what the Olympians did?"

Thalia snorted. "That's what a Son of Dionysus would think. Are you sure he's not one of them?"

Paul barely glanced at her as he waited for my explanation. I shrugged. "Camp Half Blood does have drinking limitations." I reminded him. "But the main reason to stay there is to learn how to survive.

My stepfather nodded slowly. "Uh huh…." Then, he grinned.

"You know what," he said, his tone light, "why don't you and I have a sparring match someday, you know, to see how we'll you've been trained."

I looked at him strangely.

Well that was unexpected.

"Sure…" I said cautiously, not sure whether he was joking or not. At the moment, it seemed as if he wasn't.

Paul turned to look back at Thalia, who was also giving him a strange look. He smiled apologetically.

"Sorry for, um, knocking you down like that." he said. Thalia shrugged.

"I'm use to it." she muttered. And then she stomped off back up the hill, holding out her hand briefly in a goodbye without bothering to turn around.

"See ya!" I called out.

She didn't answer. Not that I was expecting it.

"So…let's get you back home." Paul said, breaking the moment and motioning to his car in the process.

I looked at the hill one last time, imagining Camp Half Blood and all my friends in front of me.

"Bye…" I muttered.

And then I turned around to follow Paul to the car.

Aloha everybody! (no, I'm not in Hawaii)

Thank you to all who have left such kind review to these stories. It's nice to know that people are actually bothering to read my stories. And that you enjoy them.

A special message to my best friend Irena Fiddlesticks: Yes, we may both be mad at Rick Riordan for making us wait so long for the next book, but that doesn't mean that writing fic's for his stories aren't as fun. And while, yes, I may not be Japanese, it doesn't mean that I can't speak it!

Please tell me what you think of this one-shot! Like what I said above. Writing this was a lot of fun.