Chapter 1

Nobody ever asks to be a half-blood.

At least not me.

If I had it my way I would have had a normal childhood one that doesn't have you being chased by monsters on a regular basis. One where I could have normal friends and do normal kid things. Like... I don't know, play capture the flag without deadly weapons. But I didn't get that choice.

If you're reading this because you think you might be like me - STOP! I mean it. Please go on believing the lies your mom or dad has told you about you birth and forget this ever existed.

Being a half-blood may sound fun but trust me once you've had your first near death experience you'll wish you never knew about this life. And if the one near death experience isn't enough of a turn off well, let me tell you it will be the first of many. Half-bloods are always being chased by monsters and most of the time you end up dying in a painful and nasty way. Don't say nobody ever warned you.

Now for the others out there reading this because you think it's all fiction, read on. I wish I could be as lucky as you to be able to think this is all impossible and would never happen.

But please if you begin to recognize yourself in this story - STOP! If you feel something stirring inside - STOP! You could be one of us and once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too. Once they know your true identity. They will come for you.

Now that should be good enough of a warning.

Anyway, my name is Andy Taylor.

I know my name might be confusing but I can assure you I'm a girl.

I am twelve years old, I have a twin brother, Alex, and until this summer I thought I was a normal sixth grader at Liberty Oak Charter School, a charter school in north Texas for difficult students.

Am I a difficult student?

I would disagree but everyone else sure thinks I am.

So what if I choose not to talk to most people. So what my brother and I have been kicked out of every school we've ever attended. So what if we both have dyslexia and ADHD. So what if.. Sorry I am rambling.

Point is yeah, I guess when it comes down to it, I can be a difficult student.

I could be here all day telling you the different stories of how my brother and I have made every teacher hate us or what we did to be kicked out of eight schools in six year, that must be some kind of record. However, we don't have that kind of time so I'll cut to when all of this craziness really started.

It was the last day of sixth grade. We only had three more periods left in the day and I was feeling great because neither Alex or I had been expelled, yet. We only just started at this school in January, after being expelled from our previous school. And if our mom had to find another school only a few months later we definitely would be dead meat or at least grounded for the remainder of our lives. So I was excited that there is no way we could be expelled this late in the day.

Spoiler alert, I was wrong, very wrong.

Back to the point Alex and I were on our way to the library to meet with our big brother and sister during the free period.

Now let me explain they aren't actually our siblings, Alex and I don't have any siblings outside of each other. The big brother and sister I am referring to are high schoolers that volunteer their time, in exchange for community service hours, to mentor younger students that need a good influence in their life.

On top of all the issues we bring to school, our home life isn't much better: mom is a single mom, working three to four jobs at a time, and with loads of 'boyfriends', therefore Alex and I always get signed up first thing when we are enrolled at a new school.

I hate how fake the people are. Which is probably why I've had so many bigs. See if I'm being totally honest, I am shocked that we haven't been kicked out of the program altogether considering how many bigs the both of us go through. Alex has had a total of 21 big and I take the cake with 25 bigs in six years.

This school was no different, as soon as we enrolled it was into the brother/sister program for us.

One thing that was different was Alex actually found a big he liked. His first big at Liberty Oak was this crippled, he had some muscular disease that made it seem as though every step hurt him, named Johnathan. I'm not sure what exactly happened but after only one day with Alex, Johnathan said that this was too big of an assignment for him to handle.

From what I've heard, Alex's was Johnathan's first little. And on top of that Jonathan was a scrawny crippled boy, who looked like he was probably fifteenth or sixteen, and would cry if you looked at him wrong. I am sure this boy has been bullied his whole life.

And if I'm being honest Alex and I are difficult littles we usually ditch our sessions, never allow anyone into our lives, and we avoid doing the one thing they are there to help with, our homework.

So, I understand that Alex wasn't a good little for him to start with.

After Jonathan disappeared this other boy who was also crippled, he too had some muscular disease that made it seem as though every step hurt him, took over. Apparently this school was great for people who have muscular issues. This boy was older, a junior, even though he looks like a college kid, I guess he got held back. His name is Grover.

Grover had brown curly hair, a small beard, and always wore a beanie.

Alex loved Grover.

Me on the other hand was not so lucky. I am on my third big this semester. Her name is Rebekah. She is a senior girly girl that just doesn't understand why I don't do more to my hair than pull it up in a bun or why I don't waste my time putting on makeup everyday.

Normally our bigs just help us with our homework but since today was the last day of the school year we were supposed to be meeting our new bigs for the upcoming year. This didn't affect Alex since Grover was only a junior he would be around for another year. However, Rebekah was a senior so that means I have to meet yet another high schooler who will pretend to care about me so they can check off their charity box for the day.

Did I mention I hate this.

When we entered the library we were greeted by Mrs. Rosenberg.

Mrs. Rosenberg was a bubbly blonde science teacher who volunteered to lead the brother/sister program. She always had the biggest fakest smile on her face and always talked about how beautiful the day was, even if it was storming.

I can't stand the women. Anyone who is that happy all the time cannot be trusted.

"Alex! Andy! I'm so glad you're here today." Mrs. Rosenberg glowed, "Isn't just the most beautiful day?"

I stared at Mrs. Rosenberg with no emotion in my face.

Alex half smiled at her.

"Alex you're going to be at table five with Grover and Andy you're going to get to meet you new big sister today," Mrs. Rosenberg sounded as though she might cry from excitement, "You will be at table seven with your new sister Annabeth."

Alex walked with me over to table seven, where this tall, tan, blonde, athletic girl sat.

"Hi, I'm Annabeth," The girl stood and reached out for a hand to shake.

I stared at her hand hoping she'd get the message, don't touch me.

She pulled her hand back slowly, "You must be Andromeda Taylor."

"She prefers to be called Andy," Alex spoke for me.

Alex speaking for me is not uncommon. I'm not typically one that wasted my breath on strangers, so Alex does the talking and when he's not around I tend to use short answers when necessary.

Alex has always been the more outgoing twin. He's real easy going until you make him mad. I often say he has a short fuse, meaning once he's mad it doesn't take long before he explodes. The easiest way to make him mad is by picking on me. He may only be thirteen minutes older but he sure takes the protective older brother role seriously. But don't let that fool you he defiantly picks on me all the time, what can I say he is my brother. It's like I can mess with her but you can't.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is this your brother?" Annabeth asked me.

"I'm her twin Alex," Alex reached out to shake her hand.

"Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, will I better go meet with my big." Alex told Annabeth then he grabbed my arm and pulled me to where my ear was right by his mouth and he whispered, "Try not to scare this one away."

I pulled back from Alex and rolled my eyes. Alex headed over to his table with Grover as I took my seat.

"So you're going to be my new little next year. Why don't you tell me a little about yourself."

I blankly stared at Annabeth.

"Okay, what if I asked you questions and you shook your head yes or no."

I shrugged. Man I hate when I get the talkative ones.

"So you're pretty new to the school, right?" Annabeth asked.

I nodded, yes.

"Did you mom or dad get a new job?"

I shook my head, no.

"So, are you parents still together?"

I stared at her. Who just asked people that. That's a really deep question to be the third one you ask. But I thought for a second, most parents weren't together anyways so what's the harm in telling her that mine aren't. I slowly shook my head, no.

Honesty, I am not sure my parents were ever together. Mom has lots of 'boyfriends'. Most of them are only around for a short time. She loves to find rich ones that she can convince to let us move in, this way mom doesn't have to worry about rent.

"Do you live with your mom or dad?"

"Mom," I said shortly.

"Oh," Annabeth paused. I could see the gears turning in her head, she was analyzing me.

I suddenly felt eyes on the back of my neck I turned and saw the librarian, Mrs. Dodds, staring at me.

Mrs. Dodds was this little old lady from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was like fifty and this is Texas, we don't have much use for jackets especially in May. She was mean and she hated Alex and I. I am not sure what we did to deserve her hate, the only time me and Alex were in the library was during the free period for the brother/sister program. And trust me we don't touch any of her books.

Between Annabeth asking a million questions and Mrs. Dodds staring at me I need some air. I scribbled down the word 'bathroom' on a piece of notebook paper, ripped it out of the journal, waded it up in my hand, and started to walk off.

"Where are you going?" Annabeth asked.

I didn't look back. I just threw the paper at her and left the library.

Once I was free I walked over to the water fountain to get a drink, Then leaned up against the wall, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath.

"Hey."

My eyes shot open. I looked around the hall and saw Alex approaching me.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked me. "You took off really fast."

"Yeah, I just need some air." I replied.

Alex laughed and leaned on the wall next to me. "Is she a girly girl?"

"No," I thought. "I don't think so. She's just noise and judgy."

"Oh."

"Also Mrs. Dodds was giving me her death stare again."

Alex turned to face me. "What is with that woman? I swear we're the only two students in this whole school she hates. It's like pick on the Taylors or something."

Mrs. Dodds materialized behind Alex. "Now honey that's not very nice."

We both jumped.

"You two have been giving us problems, honey" Mrs. Dodds continued.

I hate how often she felt the need to use the word honey.

Alex went for the safe route, "Yes, ma'am"

She started tugging on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you two really think you could hide from us?"

"Um, we were just getting some water," Alex spat out. "We were on our way back to the library right when you showed up."

"Your time is up!" She hissed.

"We'll head back right now, sorry." Alex pulled me past Mrs. Dodds.

I looked back to see the strangest thing. Mrs. Dodds eyes were glowing like they had been replaced with hot coals. I froze. Alex turned to see what had stopped me as Mrs. Dodds jacket started to melt into leathery wings. Alex froze too. Her fingers stretched into talons, Mrs. Dodds was no longer a human but a shriveled hag with bat wings and a month full of yellow teeth.

Then it got weirder.

Grover, Annabeth, and another boy with jet black hair came running up and stopped next to Alex and I. Grover handed me a knife; the boy handed Alex a sword.

"You've got this," Grover said, taking a step back.

"We're here if you need us," Annabeth followed.

Mrs. Dodds lunged at us.

I yelped, ducked down and used my arms to guard my head. My left arm began to burn. I had dogged enough that Mrs. Dodds couldn't grab me but not enough that she couldn't scratch me. Alex had been smarter and had rolled out of the way.

Mrs. Dodds lost her balance and crashed into the wall knocking off several tiles. She flew up and knocked out a ceiling tile.

"Use the weapons," Grover shouted.

I scrambled towards Alex. Mrs. Dodds spun towards us with a murderous look in her eyes.

My body was shaking so bad I almost dropped the knife.

The knife.

I wasn't completely defenseless.

She snarled, "Die honey."

She flew straight at us.

Terror ran through my body. I did the first thing that came natural to me, I charged forward and sliced with the knife. Mrs. Dodds rolled into the water fountain knocking it off the wall and causing it to explode and shoot water everywhere.

Unfortunately, I only managed to hit her wing which only slowed her down for a second.

She bounced back, relying more on her good wing, and flew straight at Alex. He swung the sword. He must have better aim than me because he managed to slice clean though her body. Hiss!

Mrs. Dodds exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur, and a dying screech.

I ran over to Alex.

He looked at me. "I killed her?"

"Yeah you did! Nice aim," I replied.

"Good job you two." Annabeth said.

I turned to see the three teens standing over us.

"Andy you're hurt, eat this." Annabeth pulled a plastic bag out of her pocket and handed me a golden square. "This is ambrosia, it will help you heal."

I shook my head.

"Andy please, those cuts look really deep," Alex pleaded.

I looked down at my arm and had to admit the cuts definitely were going to need stitches, there was no way that square could help them. I looked back to Alex and he pleaded with his eyes. I rolled my eyes and ate the square.

Instantly the stinging in my arm stopped. I looked back at my arm and the cuts had turned into little scratches.

"Wow," I said

"That's crazy," Alex said, looking at my arm. Then he turned to the others. "What just happened?"

"You just met a Kindly One," Grover said.

"You'd think she's come up with a different disguise after all these years," the black haired boy said.

"Well she was a librarian this time around." Grover laughed.

Alex stared at the black haired boy and asked the question I'd been thinking since I first saw him. "Who are you?"

"Oh, my name is Percy. Percy Jackson."

AN: This is my first story so I would greatly appreciate any feedback.

I hope you enjoyed.