(A/N) Sorry for the long author's note. It's really for the next seven chapters.

I have some chapters ready that I want to upload but I shouldn't because then there won't be any for next month. I'm trying a new strategy. I write all of my chapters when I have time, get them ready, but only upload them once every two weeks. I'll see how it goes. Once school starts, I will have a midterm each weeks so I'm not sure how much time I will have to write. That's why I'm trying to get everything done now.

So this chapter is a little longer than the rest of my chapters. I think it's because I had to introduce all of Reyna's classmates. They aren't all important to the story but I have a theory on starting a new school. I'm not sure if it's even mildly close to what really happens but it did happen to me. The new student learns all the names of their classmates and can hang out with anyone on the first day but whether or not they ever use a classmate's name again or hang out with the same people is not a sure thing. The students are all 15, 16, or 17 with the exception of Rilla who is 18. Ms. Elderwood is 27. The teachers and other staff all have a common theme with their names. They are all references to a certain something.

As well, if anyone has any school events that they would like to see or just suggest, I would really appreciate it. In my high school, there were no dances in grade 12 and there may have been one in grade 11. The only things I can think of are sports tournaments (but neither Reyna nor Callie are on a team; should they join one?) and halloween (which is a holiday anyway).

By the way: Hallie's name is pronounced like the name Hailey; she just spells it differently.


Reyna pulled out her time table and looked it over. She had to go slowly to make sure that she didn't read anything wrong. Her second period class on Friday was History. It was in room 314 with Ms. Elderwood. She stepped out of the office and looked around. There were no signs indicating where any of the classrooms were. There was only one sign and it indicated the location of the office.

A second ago, the hallway had been dead but now it was packed with people and that did not help in her efforts to look for some form of a map. It wasn't even ten seconds before someone caught her looking around and walked over to see what the problem was.

"Can I help you find something?" asked the boy.

He was dressed in a blue shirt with khaki pants and had an air around him that reminded Reyna of a boy scout. However, he appeared to be helping for purely professional reasons rather than a desire to help people. At least that was how Reyna pegged him.

"I am looking for room 314." Reyna informed him double checking her schedule.

Even though she had checked it before, she had to make sure that she gave him the correct room number. She was a demi-god and while that meant she could take down werewolves, it also meant she was dyslexic.

The boy looked down at her schedule too before replying.

"That's on the third floor right down the east hallway." he told her and added, "That's directly in front of us and up. Are you a new student?"

"Yes." Reyna replied.

"When did you start?" he asked.

"Today." she answered confused.

Why would she be asking for directions if she had been here for more than a day. She had a different schedule for each day of the week but that didn't mean she would be getting lost everyday. She just needed some time to figure out the school.

"That's new." he conceded with a smile, "Just hold on a second."

Reyna looked at him trying to deduce what exactly he wanted her to wait for and why he was being so friendly. He didn't have a limp so he wasn't a Greek satyr scouting the school. He didn't make her skin crawl so he wasn't a monster. He didn't appear interested in her in a romantic way, which she was grateful for, so he couldn't be helping for that reason.

"Does anyone have a class near 314?" he shouted out to the whole mass of students in the atrium.

Reyna felt her face heat up in embarrassment. She did not want to be noticed. Being a target a field of battle was a terrible idea. A whole bunch of the students stopped and turned to look in the boy's direction. That meant they were looking in her direction too. She started to turn away but the boy leaned in close.

"Wait please." he said but there was something commanding in his tone this time.

Reyna stopped and gazed sharply at him while he was looking at the other students. Who was he that his tone could go from casual and polite to a voice she knew belonged to a leader? She was about to study him again but a reply caused her to direct her attention at the speaker. She would have to analyze this boy later.

"I'm in 317 second period." a smaller boy replied stopping, "Why do you ask sir?"

"310." a muscular boy with red hair added, "What do you need student councillor?"

"We have a new student." the boy replied.

"316!" a girl with multicoloured hair shouted then asked, "Boy or girl?"

"314 exact!" another girl cut in, "I can take her councillor."

At those words, the people who had offered to help drifted away. There were some groans of disappointment from the crowd but the others continued on their way to their classes.

"Thank you Marilla." the boy said, "I trust you will do an excellent job."

"When have I not?" countered the girl defensively but he smiled and shook his head amused before he headed off to his next class.

"I'm Marilla but you can call me Rilla. My full name is so old fashioned that I have to have a nick name." the girl said holding out her hand, "Who are you?"

"My name is Reyna." Reyna replied and decided to shake the girl's hand; she didn't seem like a monster.

"That guy was Student Council's treasurer." Rilla told her, "You should watch out for them. Student Council likes to act superior and look down on the rest of us. They do get the job done but they're a bunch of heavy-handed jerks about everything else. Follow me. Do you have a problem with stairs, like a bad knee or recent leg injury or anything else?"

Reyna shook her head and followed her. She could keep up with the taller girl easily. They headed down the hall and turned right heading up a set of stairs. Rilla talked all the way.

"It's kind of cool that our names both begin with R, don't you think? They sound kind of similar too. Rilla and Reyna." she chattered without really needing a response to keep her going, "Ms. Elderwood isn't too bad. She's a little strict on hanging assignments in on time but she doesn't mind if you chatter or anything during class. Of course, she'll send you straight to detention if you're more than a minute late without a good excuse…or unless you let her know ahead of time. I'm pretty tight with her. She gave me her elevator pass since I was in the semester end play last month. We need passes to use the elevator since there would be way too many students who would just take advantage of it if they didn't have some kind of control on it. There's a freight elevator in the back that doesn't need a pass but it only takes you up to the seventh floor and hardly anyone has classes on the seventh floor. Anyway, I still haven't given back the pass, which is why we could have taken the elevator, but she hasn't even asked for it. I should give it back soon though."

Reyna tucked the knowledge about the elevator away in the back of her mind. She had one class on the seventh floor on Monday and it was right after lunch.

"History is so not my subject. I moved here from Australia three years ago and I still haven't been able to memorize all of those dates and presidents. People who have been doing this stuff since kindergarten are so lucky." Rilla sighed, "What about you? Where did you transfer from? What school I mean, unless you came from another country then I want to know which one."

Since she wanted a reply this time, Rilla turned back and glanced at Reyna as they continued up the stairs.

"I'm from California. I've never been to a school before this." she said cautiously.

"San Fran and home schooled?" asked Rilla still looking back at her.

Reyna gave a short nod. Home schooled was much easier than explaining about her past.

"Don't worry. Most people are really nice here and as long as you don't go looking for trouble you won't find it." Rilla assured her then said cheekily, "And most of them don't talk half as much as I do. Don't worry, I know I'm yammering on about this and that and…this is our floor…jabbering on so fast you probably couldn't get a word in edge wise. People are always telling me to shut it. That's the way I am. And here is our class room!"

Rilla dramatically proclaimed the last part and threw open the door. The halls had been mostly empty but the classroom was full of teens. They all looked up at Reyna as Rilla stepped inside and motioned her to do the same. The bell rang as soon as Reyna's feet crossed the threshold.

"Excellent timing Rilla." Ms. Elderwood said and hopped off of her desk, "Could you get the door."

She was pretty young for a woman named Elderwood Reyna noted. She also didn't appear very much like the monsters Reyna had seen disguise themselves as humans.

"I always have excellent timing." Rilla joked back pulling the door shut.

"Who's your friend?" asked Ms. Elderwood.

"This is Reyna." Rilla said indicating her with a wave of her hand, "She's a new student from San Francisco."

"New student." was thrown up in excited whispers by the rest of the class.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Reyna." Ms. Elderwood told her, "Though I wish the office would tell me when I'm going to get a new student. There's no communication in this school."

"True." Rilla agreed, "But it's probably because Sue's on vaca that nothing is getting done."

Ms. Elderwood sighed and said, "That explains things. Reyna, you can take a seat beside Anthony."

"Tony!" the boy in question called out and put up his hand waving it.

"We didn't used to have a seating plan but it seems that the class is unable to be in their seats promptly unless we have names on desks." Ms. Elderwood informed her glancing at the boy amused.

"It wasn't my fault that Jerry…" Tony began.

"Jerome!" Jerome interrupted.

"…wouldn't let me sit in the very front." Tony finished complaining.

"I wanted to sit in the front too." Jerome replied unfazed.

"But did you have to take my seat?" asked Tony.

"That was the one I wanted." Jerome told him.

"And there was a whole other row of seats in the front that were unoccupied but you couldn't just pick another one." a girl put in with a roll of her eyes.

"Jenny, " Jerome tried to say.

"Jen!" she interrupted.

"Anyway, that's not the point Jen." Jerome continued, "The point is that neither one of us could back down because it had turned into a matter of pride rather than just a close proximity to knowledge."

"I would like to think that I project my voice well enough that it can carry to at least the middle of the room." Ms. Elderwood deadpanned.

"Of course you do Ms. E." Tony piped up, "But that wasn't the point at all. Just like Jerome said."

"Let's sit down." Rilla had whispered to Reyna in all the commotion and that's just what they were doing when Ms. Elderwood sighed but smiled and headed to the front of the room to begin her lecture.

Halfway through class, when assignment time began, everyone turned to look at Reyna. She had nothing against any of them, none of them screamed monster, but that didn't mean she wanted them staring at her. Humans looking at demi-gods usually did not turn out well.

"So what other classes do you have today?" asked the girl in front of her turning around, "My name's Allie by the way."

"I haven't had a chance to check." Reyna told her and passed the girl her schedule.

She only had a chance to glance briefly at it and this was a good way to get others to read things for her. It was a trick she had learned from Annabeth since the other was always finding clever ways to hide her dyslexia when she had to read English.

Allie perused the schedule and murmured, "So first period was Pre-calc, History is now, after lunch is Government, then English and finally PE end of the day."

The girl standing two rows ahead straightened up from reading over Allie's shoulder and yelled, "Okay everybody listen up!"

"I'm in gym with you Reyna." Jen called before the other girl could say anything.

"Anyone have English fourth or Gov third?" shouted the girl.

There was no answer and then a girl sitting three rows away yelled, "Hold on a minute, Lex!"

"It's Alex." the shouting girl replied.

"I've got a friend in both of those classes Alex. Just give me a second to text her and ask." the sitting girl told her.

"Won't she get in trouble?" asked a boy.

"No. She's got physics with Mr. Project right now." the girl replied.

The room was quiet for the few seconds it took for the reply to come.

"She's in." the girl announced.

"Great." Alex declared, "That's all settled then."

"Reyna come over here." the girl with the friend called and motioned her over.

Reyna got up and gracefully threaded her way through the desks and crowd of teens to stand next to the girl. The girl turned her phone and showed Reyna a picture of two girls with their arms thrown over one another. One was the girl in the desk but the other was not in the History class.

"I'm Libby, short for Liberty. That's my friend Hallie." the girl said, "She's got Gov and English with you so you can meet up with her after lunch and she'll make sure that you don't get confused. If that's alright with you."

"That's fine." Reyna replied.

Assigning guides was something that happened for new demi-gods in New Rome. It was not a foreign concept to her but she was determined that she would be able to find her own way around by the end of next week.

"May I tell her what you look like?" asked Libby.

"Just take a photo why don't ya Lib?" asked another boy.

"Shush Cal." she murmured and looked up at Reyna.

"You can tell her what I look like." Reyna allowed.

"You know it's Callen." the boy protested.

"As well as you know it's Libby." she countered.

Reyna looked back and forth; the two looked harmless enough but no one was going to take a picture of her. Technology was not something that was allowed in New Rome and she did not feel comfortable with the idea that a picture of her could be floating around for some monster, or some other internet creep, to jump on. At the thought of monsters, Reyna looked up and around as Libby texted away. There didn't appear to be any change in the members of the class and Ms. Elderwood was still sitting there with the same amuse smile on her lips watching as her class put off doing their source analysis.

"I'll walk you to lunch." Tony announced, "Me and Jerome have a table. We reserved it."

"And then I'll see you in Gym." Jen reminded her, "I'll be outside the doors waiting. Hey Libby, can Hallie walk her to gym?"

"Yeah. She's got a spare last block." Libby replied sending one final message before putting her phone away.

"Well now that we have guides assigned, can we please do some work." begged Rilla, "Nothing against any of you but I have track and shot put tonight."

"Sure, sure." Alex replied waving a hand around as the conversation died down.

Soon it was just Tony whispering back and forth with Callen.

"Hand me an eraser Rill." Tony whispered stretching his hand back.

"It's Rilla." she hissed back and flicked his palm lightly.

"Rilla 'raser." Tony muttered.

"Here." she sighed passing him one.

"Thanks." he chirped then went back to whispering with Callen.

Meanwhile, Reyna was looking at the assignment that Ms. Elderwood had assigned at the end of her lecture. She had to figure out what this cartoon was saying and write a 500 word response. It was supposed to be something to do with today's lesson but she couldn't figure out what it was. The references baffled her. She had never seen anything similar to this in New Rome. It was frustrating to feel this lost but she held her temper with one thought. After this year, Octavian was going to the human world.

The bell rang thirty minutes later and the students all gathered their stuff and hurried out. Reyna slowly packed her things while looking around the nearly empty classroom feeling lost.