a/n: I'm so sorry! I started this chapter a while ago but then I got a rather extreme case of writer's block and then school started and….well, you get the idea. I apologize for how much this chapter jumps around, and I just want to warn you that it was written in 4 different locations, in three different states. So if the writing seems to differ here and there, that's why xD

"Ready to go?"

I took one last look at the depressing black room. "Since I got here."

We walked through the winding hallways of Hades' palace and arrived at the throne room.

Hades sat with Persephone by his side. He straightened to attention when we walked in, but Persephone just sat with her head in one hand, looking bored.

"You are leaving?" Persephone had convinced him to lighten my punishment, so now I was allowed to leave for as long as I wanted, as long as I spent at least two weeks down here each year.

I nodded. "I'll be back next month."

"Very well." He turned to Nico. "Escort her home." He waved his hand and a big black door appeared in the middle of the room.

"This is for you." He said, tossing me something. It was a black ring with no decoration.

Why, Hades! This is so sudden!

"It will allow you to come and go through the Underworld as you please."

"Um…thanks." I said, slipping in on my middle finger.

"Good luck, dear." Persephone said glumly, twirling a lock of her hair.

"Thank you." I answered politely, not really sure what I needed luck with.

I opened the door and saw the wall of the throne room. I tried stepping through anyway, and then, all of the sudden, I was on a sidewalk and there were stars above my head.

I couldn't help it; I collapsed on the ground and rolled on the warm concrete. "Oh, sweet normality! I missed you so much!"

Nico snickered behind me. I told him to shut up.

When I stood up again, I realized that I was about a block away from my apartment. Everything on the street looked so normal: the graffiti, the garbage, the smell of cigarettes…I'd missed it more than I'd realized.

Nico fell into step beside me. It felt weird to have someone I barely knew walk me home, especially since he was the son of the ruler of the Land of the Dead.

"So…will you go back to camp now?" I asked, just to lessen the awkwardness.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll stay in New York for a few days with a friend."

"Is this a 'special' friend?"

"If by 'special', you mean a half-blood, then yes."

"Do you have any friends that are normal?"

"Umm…not really." His face scrunched up. "I might have before I was twelve, but I forget."

"Oh." It surprised me how easy it was becoming to deal with confusion.

We rounded the corner and I could see my building. Suddenly I was very enthusiastic to be inside: a hot shower, a home-cooked meal, my own bed-

"Wait, how am I going to explain my appearance to my parents?"
Nico looked at me like he'd just realized how dirty I was. "The mist should cover it up, though I'm not sure what they'll see you as."

We arrived at my front door.

"Well, I'll see you around then." Nico said casually, turning around and heading back down the street.

"Wait!" I called.

He paused.

"Um…thanks." I said lamely.

I couldn't be sure, but it looked like he smiled.

-A-B-C-D

"Hi, honey. How was Melissa's house?" my mom greeted when I walked into the kitchen. She was making roasted chicken, my favorite dinner.

"Good." I had no idea who Melissa was.

"What is all over your face?" she asked, brushing her hand across my cheek.

Okay, I needed a good, reliable lie. "Bubble gum. I, uh…blew a bubble and it…popped."

Wow. That might possible be the worst excuse I have ever made.

Her eyes clouded over. "Oh, of course." Her voice sounded far away. "Why don't you go shower? Dinner will be ready by the time you come out."

Looking in the mirror felt weird after I had gone so long without doing so. My hair was so dirty it looked brown, and the thought of brushing it later made me cringe. My clothes were torn and muddied, and my face was grimy and streaked. It didn't really fit my vision of what someone who was half god should look like. Despite what Nico and Hades said, I still didn't really believe I was the offspring of an all-powerful being.

And hopefully I could stay in my world of denial forever.

-E-F-G-H

The second-to-last week of school flew by quickly, and I became lost in final exam reviews and last-minute essays. The teachers were working us all into the ground, and the freedom of summer seemed further away with each passing hour.

My two closest friends and I decided a mall break was necessary to clear our heads a few days before exams started.

Since we always got, to use an old expression, "dolled up" when we went to the mall, I curled my hair and wore my favorite summer dress.

I loved my friends because we were all so different: Kristine was African American and always wore her hair in a cute ponytail. Her family had a lot of money, so she had tons of nice clothes the latest technology. Alyssa was beautiful: she was Egyptian, so her skin was always deeply tanned. Her hair was cut short like a boy's, but it actually did her justice. She had a body like a model and wasn't afraid to show it.

We always walked arm in arm, with me in the middle, because our contrasting skin colors looked really cool.

We visited all our favorite stores in the mall and then headed toward the food court, as was tradition. We passed by Claire's and decided to go in, where I found a silver flower that wrapped around your finger like a ring.

A bored girl that had to be at least seventeen was working the register. She was pretty, with brown hair and blue eyes.

"Is this all?" she rang me up and we shared a smile. For some reason I felt like I knew her.

When I took the bag, she said "See you soon, cousin." I thought that was a weird thing to say to someone, so I dragged Kristine and Alyssa out of there.

We walked leisurely, chatting amongst ourselves about boys and clothes and entirely avoiding the subject of school, when Alyssa suddenly stopped and went into full flirt mode. "Hey." She said in her most seductive voice.

I turned to see her latest victim and nearly gasped with surprise. "Nico?"

"Alice," he acknowledged me, nodding slightly.

Alyssa looked between us with evident surprise. "You two know each other?"

"Kind of…"I hoped they wouldn't ask for details.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Nico pulled me aside without waiting for an answer.

"I wanted to give you this." He held out a ring, much like the one Hades had given me, except it was a gold color.

I eyed him warily but took it anyway. "And what dark purpose does this one have?"

"It's a knife. I know you don't know how to fight yet, but I figured you need something to defend yourself just in case."

"Just in case what?"

"You look different." he said, completely avoiding the question.

"What? Showered? Clean? Nice-smelling?"

"Pretty." He wrinkled his nose like the thought disgusted him, which actually made it kind of insulting.

"Sorry. Next time I'll be sure to schedule my mud-wrestling practice the day I see you."

"That'd be cool."

I looked over at my friends, who were waiting impatiently for me to finish talking so they could berate me with questions. "I gotta go."

"When do you finish school?" he asked, ignoring me again.

I rolled my eyes. "Another week. I will go with you to your camp of weirdos, since you apparently put a tracking device on me while I was sleeping."

Nico scowled, and I decided this was as good a time as any to make my exit. I rejoined my friends and we started to leave.

"Hey, Alice?" Nico called.

I turned.

"Don't forget. You're a weirdo, too." With that said, he turned and walked away.

My face coloured. Jerk.

To my friends' credit, they waited until we were seated with food to ask me anything.

"So, who is he?" Alyssa picked at her salad and frowned.

I sighed. "His name is Nico. He's an…acquaintance."

Kristine raised an eyebrow. "An acquaintance who gave you a ring?"

Time for some more lying. "I lost it. He was just giving it back to me."

"Mm hmm."

Well, I thought it sounded convincing.

-I-J-K-L

We hung around in the parking lot for a few minutes, waiting for Alyssa's mom to pick us up, when Kristine spotted two teenage boys walking together and obviously giving them "the eye".

They ditched me fast, and I sat on the concrete wall outside, feeling slightly peaceful.

I noticed a dying potted plant behind me and remembered the tomato I'd resurrected.

How had I done that, anyway? I hadn't thought much about it since it happened, but I remembered being with Persephone and feeling this warm glow when I was talking about…my parents? Yes, that was what I was talking about.

I looked to make sure my friends were still distracted, then held my hand over the dying plant.

I thought about my parents- the way my dad still needed instructions to tie his tie, the way my mom's homemade lemonade tasted- and suddenly I felt that warm glow again.

I opened my eyes to see the plant coming back up, the leaves turning a vibrant green and spreading out.

"Boo!"

"AH!" I nearly fell off the wall and saw my friends laughing and the two boys nowhere to be seen.

"Sorry." Kristine wiped a tear from her eye. "You just looked so intense." Her gaze fell on the plant. "Was that like that before?"

"Oh, look! Your mom's here!" Thank you God, for that convenient timing!

I jumped off the wall and felt the world sway. My friends grabbed me before I could hit the ground.

"Are you okay?" They both asked worriedly, helping me stand properly.

"Yeah. Fine, fine. Just got a little dizzy for a moment."

Okay, so apparently saving plants from the afterlife made me a little dizzy. Nothing I couldn't handle.

-M-N-O-P

"Alright, class. Put your pencils down."

There were unanimous sighs as everyone leaned back and stretched their arms. I grinned happily and handed the teacher my paper.

The last exam was finally over, and school was officially out for the summer! I giddily skipped down the hallway and dumped the remaining contents of my locker into my backpack.

Alyssa and Kristine were at our usual spot: the front steps of the school. We greeted each other enthusiastically and celebrated the end of exams.

Then we talked about summer plans. Alyssa was going to Egypt to visit relatives for the first two weeks of the break. Kristine wasn't doing anything until July, when she started her new job at a horse farm teaching little kids how to ride.

"What about you, Alice? What are you doing?" All at once my giddiness went away. What I really wanted to do was sleep until noon every day and watch movies until 4 A.M. I had promised Nico I would go with him, but maybe if something came up…

I sighed heavily. "I'm going to camp."

My friends shared a surprise look. "Camp? For what?"

"It's a camp for young demigods who want to learn how to defend themselves in case they're ever attacked by a mythological monster."

My friends stared at me.

"I'm kidding. It's just a camp where we make macaroni art and sing campfire songs. My parents are making me go." I stated.

"Oh." They said, sharing confused looks.

I was gloomy and pessimistic as I boarded the subway home. The car was full to bursting, like it always was this time of day, so I grabbed a pole and turned my ipod on full blast. At every stop, more and more people got off. Several seats opened up, but I was too lazy to move.

Finally we were on our way to the last stop. The only person left in the car with me was a woman in a brown trench coat. She was sitting on the far side, completely unaware of my existence.

I pulled the elastic out of my hair and shook out my curls, secretly enjoying the smell of my shampoo from the shower this morning.

And then the woman looked at me. Her eyes were red. She smiled slowly to reveal sharp teeth.

I felt a chill run down my spine. The doors slid open.

I tried to high-tail it out of their, but I could feel the woman-thing right behind me. The station was deserted.

"Such a beautiful young girl." The woman drawled behind me. She had a strange voice: it sounded whimsical and pretty, like I was talking to a civilized lady, instead of someone with sharpened teeth. "I was beautiful once…but then a naughty lady was jealous of me."

I turned around nervously. The lady stopped walking. She didn't walk exactly, just kind of glided down the walkway.

"Do you know what that jealous woman did to me?"

I gulped. "No."

The woman smiled her creepy smile again. A forked tongue crept between her teeth.

I know in situations like this, adrenaline is supposed to kick in and I'm supposed to do something brave and heroic, but it was like my brain was detached from my body. All I could do was stand there and watch as she unbuttoned her trench coat.

The first thing I noticed was the hideous sweater she was wearing: it was light blue with little strings poking up all around it and fabric that made it seem like it would be very itchy.

The second thing I noticed was the distinct absence of her legs. Where the sweater ended a large tail began. It was the end of a snake. Somehow the tail was able to hold her body up.

"You see? You see what that awful woman did to me?" she cried. "I used to be a queen! I used to have a kingdom with subjects who would throw themselves at my feet!"

"I guess this was a kingdom for the visually challenged?" It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say. Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"You children of the gods are all the same. Ungrateful little brats who think you can do whatever you want."

"Sorry. I never was one to respect my elders." The snake woman lashed out at me. Naturally, I did something brave and heroic: I ran.

I ran through the gate and up the escalator, dodging people as I went, but whenever I looked back she was right behind me.

Finally I ducked into an alleyway, trying to hide.

Bad choice. It was a dead end.

I turned around, back against the wall, and saw the silhouette of someone with the body of a snake and torso of a human.

I slipped the ring Nico had given me off my finger. "Knife." I told it.

It shimmered and grew into a reasonably sized fighting weapon. Sweet. Normally, I would've taken the time to appreciate how cool this was, but there was a definite possibility that I was about to die, so I was a little distracted.

The woman advanced on me slowly, relishing the fact that she had me cornered. "I shall enjoy devouring your flesh greatly, young demigod. Humans just taste so bland; it's not every day that I get to munch on godlings."

She leaped at me. I desperately dove out of the way, but she knocked me to the ground and held me there. Her face lowered to my neck, eyes eager to break skin and have a tasty meal.

And then she turned to dust, and I was lying alone in an alleyway.

I didn't move for a moment, too stunned to do anything. My knife was still pointed upward, covered in a sticky green substance from the monster.

I shakily sat up, dragging the knife on the ground and trying to brush the dust off.

I had never been so scared in my life. I don't know how long I sat there, just staring at nothing, but eventually my brain started to work again, and I realized I was very tired, very sore, and very done with the whole Greek mythology thing.

"Ring." I said, and slipped it back on my finger.

I walked slowly out of the alley, knowing that would not be my last battle, but also knowing that my home was only a few blocks away.

It felt like I was stuck between two worlds, and they were both yearning for me to be in them.

I was certain of one thing, though. I was going to camp this summer. And I was leaving tomorrow.

a/n: So me and my friends had a PJO party on Percy's birthday. These were my same friends that came with me to see the Percy Jackson movie decked out in orange Camp Half-Blood shirts and camp necklaces that my friend Jackie did a fantastic job making. We celebrated Percy's 17th birthday the other day by donning our camp gear again and making a blue cake. The sad thing? We're all sixteen years old and single. But, boy do we have fun xD