It all started as a scorching day at Oceans of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri. I was there with my family—swimming, reading, relaxing in the summer heat, occasionally emptying my water bottle on my brother's head… our regular vacation activities.

I was trying to get my tan on, but I couldn't sit still with my lovely mother nagging in my ear the whole time.

"Quinn, did you put enough sunscreen on before you applied that tanning oil? You're going to get sunburned from head to toe like that one time."

"Yes, Mom. I did."

"Just don't lie out in the sun for too long. You could get skin cancer."

"I know, mom."

"Gosh, Quinn, put down that book! I never see you do anything else except read that cursed Percy Olympus Hero or Whatever series. Do you ever do anything else?" (To think a mother would complain about her daughter reading.) "Go swim with your brother. Get some exercise."

"Be quiet and get me some fried chicken, woman!" I shouted in a very light and joking manner.

With my keen senses, I noticed my father chuckling and my sister giggling, while my mother glared at me in a murderous way.

Before she could say anything, I held up one hand. "I'm just kidding, mom! I love you. I'll go swim. Thank you for caring about my health."

I put down my book and applied more sunscreen for the sake of my mother's sanity. Then I joined my brother, who was splashing around in the pool in a not at all girly manner.

"What are you doing, Jake?" I asked curiously.

My brother glanced at me and stopped splashing. "Mom told me to play in the water like I used to when I was little. She thinks it's cute."

"For a sixteen year old, it looks kind of homosexual," I commented.

He snorted. "Shut up, Quinn. I'm just doing it to please mom. She's still angry at me for using her razor as a shovel. My acting like a kid again makes her happy and full of forgiveness."

I raised an eyebrow. "But... but you used her razor as a shovel like, ten years ago."

Jake glanced at me incredulously. "Do you not know our mother?"

I nodded. "I get you now."

Jake continued twirling in the water while I informed curious passersby that he and I weren't related in any manner whatsoever.

After a while, I got bored and decided to actually swim and make my mother proud. I did handstands and flips and dove off the diving board like a pro—but every time I looked to see if my mom had seen, I found she was applauding and cheering for more of Jake's aquatic ballerina twirls.

I always secretly wondered why my dad had ever found any interest in my mother. He'd once told me there was an awesome side to my mom behind all that worrying and nagging. But the only thing awesome about her I'd witnessed so far was her cooking and her powerful zumba dance moves.

I was thinking about this when I noticed something gleaming at my feet underwater. I dove under and picked it up, realizing it was a pen. I broke the surface and examined its gold shininess carefully, wondering if I should keep it. (After all, I did have a special attraction to writing utensils.) I was about to uncap it when I heard someone say, "Um, I wouldn't do that."

I looked up, squinting because of the sun, to find a well-muscled, very good looking young man with dark hair and amazing green eyes. He looked kind of familiar.

I moved so that the sun wasn't in my face. When I could see better, I realized he looked as familiar as he looked handsome—and he looked really handsome.

I narrowed my eyes and stared at him for a long time. Where had I seen him before? I couldn't place it.

I didn't realize he was giving me an odd look until he said, "Can I have my s—uh, pen back?"

He looked so, so, so familiar. And he sounded familiar too. I looked down at the golden pen again. "This thing is nice," I muttered. "Where did you get it?"

He watched me uneasily. "A gift from a friend."

I looked up, distracted by his voice, while handing him his pen. "I know you from somewhere… who are you?"

He gazed at me with a confused look. "I've never seen you before. Maybe you've got me confused with someone else."

I shook my head. "No, I'm sure I know you. What's your name?"

Then I noticed the water looking kind of weird around him—in a way I really couldn't described. I noticed how it was kind of weird that he had a pen in a pool. I noticed it was weird that he didn't have a drop of water on his hair or his face or his chest, even though we were in the middle of the deep end. And he looked so familiar.

Then it came to me.

Then I called myself crazy.

No way! Absolutely no way in the entire universe this could be happening. I was dreaming. How was this possible?

But his words told me otherwise as he looked me in the eye with those sea green eyes and said two words:

"Percy Jackson."