Pearl's POV:

My brothers are idiots. I walked away because I didn't know what else to do. With my head down, I stuck my hands in my pockets and ignored anyone I came across. Then I walked right into someone.

"Oops. Sorry," I mumbled, glancing up.

"No problem." The boy smiled and shrugged. He had pale skin, black hair, and dark brown eyes. Hot damn.

"Who is cute?!" Percy asked. Oops.

"I don't know his name, but he's got really pale skin, black hair, and dark chocolate eyes to die for." Percy groaned.

"Keep your thoughts to yourself if you're going to think that way. His name is Nico, and stay away from him."

"Why? Does he already have a girlfriend?" I asked.

"No. He has a boyfriend, Will," Percy replied. "And why are you talking to me now?" Oh. What a pity

"Because I needed to know the cute guy's name. And I can't hold a grudge for very long. I'm still mad, though."

"Well, that's good to know." Percy sounded sarcastic.

"Um, are you okay?" Nico asked. His eyes were seriously gorgeous.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just mad at my brothers." I smiled wryly at him.

"Oh, okay. See you around." Nico turned and walked away. I sat down on the grass and thought about how I was going to survive camp. Then, I heard Percy again.

"You know, you need to learn how to fight monsters and use weapons," he said as he reached down to pull me up. I ignored his hand and kept sitting there. Percy sighed, grabbed my arm, and pulled me up.

"Hey! I was comfortable there!" I complained. He smirked and started dragging me toward the weapon shack-thingy.

"We need to find you a weapon before something or someone kills you." Now that I could go along with. He helped me sort through the weapons in the place.

"Ooh, I like these." I held up two daggers that were almost as long as my arms. Staring at them, I twirled them one at a time. The way the light mirrored off of them was cool.

"Those are like the ones Artemis uses," Percy said, dodging the right dagger.

"Goddess of the Moon, right?"

"Yup." I examined the hilts and saw a button on each one.

"Hey, what are these buttons for?" I asked Percy.

"Don't know. See what happens when you push the buttons." Seemed legit. When I pushed the buttons, the daggers changed into two rings. Awesome.

"What did they do?" Percy asked. I showed him, then I put a ring on each hand. Annabeth came running through the door.

"Percy, Pearl, Chiron wants to see you," Annabeth said. Sharing a look with Percy, I followed her to the Big House.

"What's going on?" I asked. A lot of campers were already there, including Dylan.

"You'll see. Hey, did you find a weapon?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah." I showed her the daggers.

"Cool. I expected you to get something like Percy's sword," Annabeth admitted. We looked up when Chiron cleared his throat.

"I summoned you all here because of a prophecy. We will discuss it tonight at the bonfire, so everyone should be there," Chiron said. "You may go." That was it?

"Wow, that was short," Annabeth said softly. Glad I wasn't the only who thought so.

"Well, I'm glad it was short. Gives me time to practice with my daggers," I said, grinning. Percy laughed and told me to follow him to the arena. Once we were inside, he started showing me some moves to defend myself. I ignored everyone else watching us as I duplicated his moves. Percy started me off slow, teaching me how to block his attacks and retaliate with my own.

"You're learning pretty fast for a newbie," he commented.

"Honestly? I learned the hard way. After so many times, a kid learns how to stop the hit from landing." Percy's eyes narrowed, and he leaned down to stare at me. "What?" Apparently, he found what he was looking for because he smiled a bit and straightened.

"Nothing. We all have our share of painful memories, and not everyone wants to share them. I just want you to know that if you ever want to talk about it, everyone a camp is here for you. We're like one big, weird family." His comfortable grin made me smile and shake my head. Suddenly, I felt someone's eyes on me, and they burned. My eyes darted around, trying to pinpoint who it was.

"Pearl? What's wrong?"

"Someone is looking at me," I muttered.

"Um, you're new. Everyone is looking at you."

"That's not it. It's not a curious stare. It sends a chill up my spine and isn't comfortable." I expected Percy to laugh it off, but he took it seriously, turning around and scanning our little audience. After a couple seconds, he told me that no one there was anything but curious. Then, his eyes widened and he glared at the sky, whispering something that sounded like a threat. Thunder echoed, scaring the crap out of me. Everyone else in the arena looked spooked, too, whispering to each other. Satisfied, Percy turned back to me and said, "Don't worry about it. Let's just get back to training."

"Okay. Can we skip the basics? I would like to learn something new."

"Of course." Percy's grin was back. "Why don't we work on sword skills? That's what you need." He took a pen out of his pocket and uncapped it.

"What the hell?!" I had forgotten that his pen turned into a sword. "Ha. I got something like that now, too." But when I pressed the small buttons on my rings, the daggers they changed into leaped out of my hands. Oops.

"Uh, I think you need to work on that a bit," Percy said dryly. Yeah. No kidding. "Think fast!" Out of nowhere, he lunged and swung his sword at me. My reflexes kicked in, and I dodged, picking up my fallen daggers.

"Percy!"

"What? I told you to think fast! You've got to be ready at all times." I stuck my tongue out at him and changed my grip on the daggers until I felt comfortable.

"Bring it."