I opened my eyes.
I had the weirdest dream.
I sat up in my bed and looked around. I was in my bedroom. I checked my side table and found that my alarm was about to go off.
May as well get up now.
What had my dream been about again? Probably didn't matter if I couldn't remember it. That's how it usually ended up going.
I got ready for school. I had just finished brushing my teeth when I encountered Paul.
"Ready for school?"
"Yeah,"
We took the Prius to Goode High School. He worked there so I got a ride pretty early in the morning.
Sadly I had to use this time for studying. Hera had kidnapped me for eight months which had seriously messed with my graduation plan.
I sat in the library and looked over my math until the five-minute bell rang to go to class.
People stared at me in the hallway. I tried to ignore them. The story we gave everyone for my disappearance was that I had been kidnapped again.
It wasn't hard for people to forget the nationwide manhunt for me when I was twelve. That's when I had been 'kidnapped' the first time. Supposedly by Ares.
The story for this disappearance was that bent on getting me for escaping the first time, he had managed to kidnap me again over winter break and hide me until August when I had been able to escape again.
Everyone treated me differently because of it. Always wary when they were around me. It did turn out for my benefit when they gave me packets to make up for the rest of Junior year that I had missed.
Unfortunately, I was swamped with homework.
At least no one bullied me this time. Unlike last time where Matt Sloan and his buddies had bullied me the moment I had stepped into Meriweather Prep. Seriously though, who bullies a kid after they had been kidnapped over the summer?
I sat in my seat for English right as the bell rang. I hated English class. Dyslexia made it so much harder than it needed to be.
My friend Harmony leaned over to me. She was one of the few people who treated me like I wasn't apt to break down any second. "Percy?"
I grunted an affirmation that I was listening.
"I thought you should know, Mr. Jensen looks grumpy today. You know what he does when he's grumpy…"
"He calls on me to amuse himself with the fact that I can't read?"
She nodded apologetically. "You know how he gets."
Harmony is a demigod, like me. But unlike me, she doesn't know. No monsters had attacked her that I was aware of, so I wasn't about to expose her to the life of a demigod if I could help it. I kept an eye on her though
Mr. Jensen walked into the room. I squinted at the board to try and see what we were doing. Shakespeare.
I shuddered. Reading was hard enough without me having to figure out words that weren't even words anymore.
Long story short: English class was torture. It was a relief when the bell rang so we could leave.
Second Period was better. Mythology. The teacher was more sympathetic to my needs, so she rarely called on me.
I decided to take the class to get more acquainted with the myths. After all, who knew how many of them were real? It was better just to learn all of them.
We were in the middle of the story of Perseus, one of my personal favorites, when a voice came over the intercom system.
"Can you please send Percy Jackson down to the attendance office to check out?"
This was odd. Had my mother forgot to tell me about a doctor's appointment or something?
I was wary as I packed up my things and left for the office. I walked in carefully with my pen in my hand, just in case.
There was a man in the office, waiting for me. He looked to be around thirty.
"Ready to go?"
I decided that if this guy was a monster, I should probably get him away from the mortals.
"Sure!" I hefted my backpack and walked out the front door with him.
As soon as we were out of sight from the school I stopped.
"What do you want?"
The man turned to me and scowled. "You think I want to be like this?"
"Like what?"
The man saw the confusion on my face. "You don't recognize me?"
"Am I supposed to?"
The man slapped his forehead and sighed. I recognized the gesture. It belonged to one of my friends.
"Nico?"
He looked at me and nodded. "I woke up like this. Can you explain why I woke up like this?"
"Should I be able to?"
He scowled. "I was told in a dream that you could fix this! In the dream, I didn't know what they had been talking about, but as soon as I woke up, bam! I'm twice as old!"
He could see on the expression on my face that I was having a hard time not laughing.
"It's not funny! I'm going to keep aging until I die! There's nothing I can do! You have to fix this!" He looked at me desperately and I saw the ten-year-old I had rescued from Westover hall three years ago.
"Alright," I held up my hands in surrender, "We can't fix this until we know exactly what happened to you."
"I know what happened to me! I just don't know how it happened yet!"
I didn't know how to respond to this. Nico was clearly desperate.
Without warning, shimmering in the air next to me, an Iris Message appeared. An adult woman with Coffee colored skin and brown hair appeared in front of Nico.
"Nico! It happened to you too?"
I stepped into view, "Hazel?"
The woman nodded. "I woke up and I was older."
"Do you have any idea how to fix this?"
"Well, I went to temple hill and checked the floor of Jupiters shrine. There was a prophecy that I think is about this, I'm not sure though." She cleared her throat,
"The Children of Death from a time that is past,
their youthful appearance not destined to last.
the triangle of monsters is where you must go,
the son of Poseidon will guide you below.
Visit the place he has been to before.
To the monster who thought he had settled the score.
There in his cave, you will find what you seek.
If you don't go to the sea the outcome is bleak.
You have six days from the time that it starts.
before this stops the beating of their hearts."