Next morning was no joke.

"Wake up!" Someone shouted in my ear. I fought to keep my eyes closed.

"I don't think she plans on waking up." Another voice said. "Do your thing, mermaid boy."

Then I heard a smacking sound.

"Ouch! You don't know how to take a joke, Percy. Just wake her up."

A splash of salt water fell on me. A splash? Sorry, I meant a tsunami. I shot up and wiped my face. It was still dark.

"What time is it?" I groaned. Percy, Nico, and Will were staring down on me, laughing.

"Morning." Nico said simply.

"This is not morning!" I laid back and covered my head with my arms. "This is cruelty!"

"Do you want another bath?" Percy smiled slyly.

"I'm up, I'm up!" I surrendered.

"I have a question, Jia." Will tilted his head. "Why are you sleeping outside your cabin?"

"Oh, right." I remembered. "My cabin has confined themselves and they don't let anyone in or out. Apparently, me included." I rubbed my aching neck.

"Okay then" Will clapped. "Chop, chop girl. We have training to do."

They practically dragged me to the training grounds.

"Welcome to sword fighting 101. My name is coach di Angelo." He had aviator glasses on and an orange whistled hung around his neck. "These are my assistants Solace and Jackson." He pointed at the other two.

Will and Percy rolled their eyes but allowed "coach di Angelo" to continue.

"First thing first." He pulled something from an old looking wooden trunk. "Do you know what this is?"

I looked at Percy and Will in a is-this-guy-serious way. Then nodded in a believe-it-or-not way.

"Well, Ms. Li?" He called.

"A really big butter knife." I answered sarcastically. "Of course I know what a sword is, idiot."

He blew his orange whistle. "Language!"

I walked over and grabbed the sword from his hands. I gave it a few swings but concluded that this wasn't the right one for me.

We spent the next half hour trying and swinging swords to find one that fitted me.

"What if she's not a sword fighter? Have you tried archery?" Will said while he rested under the sun. A few cameras here and there and this could have turned into the next Abercrombie and Fitch advertising shoot.

"Look at those hands. She's meant for a sword." Percy shook his head. "Or maybe..."

Percy stood from the grass and started to look through the trunk. When he finally found what he was looking for, he raised his head with a triumphant smile.

"How about this?" He tossed it at me.

"A spear?" I asked.

"That was Achilles' spear, the one he used to kill prince Hector during the Trojan War." Percy explained, and they have this laying around as if they had millions to spear.

I swung the spear a couple of times. Somehow, it felt as if it had always belonged with me.

"Perfect." I looked at my new weapon adoringly.

"Now we go to the second stage. But before we start..." He walked to me and placed duct tape over my mouth. "Just in case you're tempted to use your charm speaking powers. Percy, take over from here, I need some rest."

"Okay." Percy agreed. "First of all, you need to hold a strong stance..."

He kept telling me a bunch or rules and tips about fighting, but it was as if I had always known them. I understood easily and was able to follow the class.

But when it was time to fight, that was a complete different story.

"Ready?" Percy asked. He had his bronze sword ready to rip through my bones. "Go!"

I don't know had it happened, but in less than a second my spear had been thrown ten feet away and I was kissing the ground.

Nico and Will were rolling on the ground while laughing hysterically.

"Rematch." I tried to say through the duct tape while picking my spear from the floor.

"That's what I was hoping for." Percy retook his stance. "Go!"

Like the first time, Percy came running ready to take a swing. I was able to block it with tip of my spear and knock him down with the shaft. I was about to stab him (not for real, of course) while he laid on the floor, but he rolled over and I hit nothing but grass.

He stood up with a quick leg movement and tried to attack me from behind while my weapon was still stuck to the ground. I threw myself on my knees to avoid his attack and all I felt was the wind he created with his swing. I grabbed the spear and turned around while standing up.

"I win." Percy smiled. He was standing in front of me while his sword rested behind my neck.

I smiled, or at least tried.

The tip of my spear was pressed under his chin.

"Fair enough." He dropped his weapon and so did I. "It's a tie."

I pointed the tape in my mouth and tapped my foot impatiently.

"Oh right." He realized. He grabbed one of the corners and said,

"I'll just pull it quickly, like a band aid. A bigger and stronger band aid." But instead of pulling on it, he called Nico. "This was your idea coach, you take it off."

"What a girl." Nico muttered while walking over and grabbed the same corner Percy had before. "One, Two, Three!"

RIP!

The moment the tape came off I landed my fist on Nico's left cheek.

"I knew it." Percy laughed.

"What was that for?" Nico complained while rubbing his cheek.

"You think that hurt? Try putting duct tape in your mouth. I'm pretty damn sure my lips are still glued to the one you just ripped off."

"You did great, Jia." Will compliment.

"Thanks." I slumped under the shade of tree, far away from my personal trainers. My whole body felt like it had just been ran over by a truck. My hands where dirty and so was my face. Thank the gods I had really short hair, or else it would have ended up like a dirty mop.

"Here." Someone pressed a cold bottle of water against my cheek.

"Oh, it's you guys." Travis and Connor were smiling down at me.

"Ready for your big quest?" One of them asked.

"No, but who ever listens to my opinion anyway?" I said while opening the bottle and emptying the content on the grass.

"Hey! I had to pay for that." Travis snatched the bottle form my hands.

"Please, I'm not stupid enough to drink something you guys gave me."

"Yeah, I wouldn't accept it either." Connor shrugged. "But we came for something more important."

Connor sat next to me while Travis stood in front of us, covering us with his back.

"Travis and I were walking on the beach this morning, you know, looking for clues and stuff. Then," He searched for something in his pocket. "we found this."

He held a small object carefully with both hands.

"Is that a necklace?" Jia inspected it. The small bronze chain held a delicate heart pendant. "Where have I seen this before?"

"Um, Jia? You have one just like this one." Travis smiled at me. I took my hand to my neck and sure enough there was mine.

"How did you guys notice it? I always hide it beneath my shirt." I asked.

"We can see you valuables even before we get to know your name." Connor answered with unsettling seriousness.

"It is pretty similar to mine, but it's impossible." I took my necklace off and opened the pendant carefully. "Look, if you open mine, you can see a small picture of me and-"

"A small girl that looks just like you, but smaller?" Travis finished. "Like I said, just like this one."

"That can't be..." I snatched the necklace that the boys founded in the beach and compared it to mine. "They are...identical." For a moment there I lost my voice.

Impossible.

"It has to be some kind of mistake." I said frantically. "The only necklace that was just like mine belonged to the girl in the picture next to me, my little sister Lin." A huge knot was forming in my throat.

"Okay, calm down. I mean, it's hardly a possibility since your sister is not here, but it doesn't mean it's impossible." Connor said.

"Connor." I looked at him dead serious. "My sister died. Three years ago. She was buried along with the goddamned necklace."

The Stoll brothers looked at each other and panicked.

"O gods." He placed his hand on top of mine. "I'm sorry Jia, we didn't know."

"It's fine, Connor. No one does." I answered. "What I want to know is what the hell is this doing here." I held up the other necklace.

"We're not sure, but it's better that we were the ones to find it. You would have been in serious troubles if, gods forbid, Drew happened to stumble upon it."

"Yeah, thanks guys." I smiled at them.

They left short after that since they were running late for class. I decided to stay behind.

What is this doing here? Sis, you are dead, right?