_Calling A Friend_

"Come on Grover, we're gonna be late for lunch!" Saige called.

"I'm coming!" I yelled back, it's only the first day of school and I've already found a half-blood. To make it easier she seems to be the kind of person who tries to befriend everyone. At least, this should keep me close to her.

We walked down the hallway to the cafeteria and she steered me to a table with 5 girls seated in a circle. Ok, so as a guy, I wasn't too psyched about this. I'm not the best with girls, especially when I've only just met them.

"Hey everyone, this is Grover, he's new here so I offered him a spot at our table. Grover, this is Anna, Nicole, Mackenzie, Katey, and Vickey." Saige said as she pointed to each one.

"Ummm, Hi." I stuttered. Wow, smooth goat boy, smooth.

The girl, Anna, just frowned. She wore an old t-shirt and frayed shorts. Her blond hair was cut like a guys and spiked in the back, showing off the piercings, at last six, going up her ear. "Really Saige, another new kid? Oh well, he'll be scared off soon enough, but the table is getting too crowded."

"Oh lighten up Anna. Sorry Grover, Anna isn't exactly the social type." Nicole said. She wore camo cargo shorts, a black t-shirt, and a sweatshirt tied around her waist. She had long light brown hair was up in a ponytail. And her brown eyes studied me, studying my pockets wondering if I had a wallet filled with good cash.

"Oh, ok." I replied. I looked around at the rest of the group, Vickey looked pretty normal, maybe a little like those European teen models. Katey was a small Asian girl with the look of someone wanting to kill me. Mackenzie looked like she wanted to just plain reject me. They didn't say anything, but that was a relief.

"Hey Grover, you can sit down ya know." Saige said. Realizing this whole time I was just standing there like an idiot, I fumble into my seat and got out my lunch. I don't look up often, but I listened to their conversation, hoping I could find out whose child Saige was.

Saige starts off the conversation. "Have all of you been to science yet? I had tons of fun dissecting the frog, actually I was the only one brave enough in my group to dissect it, but oh well, it's their grade right?"

"I have science last, but you know me, I need to dissect something now!" Anna said, she looked over at me. "Can I dissect him?"

"WHAT? She is joking right?" I burst out. Hiding my nervous bleating with an awkward chuckle.

The whole table started to laugh, which didn't make sense. The laughter died down to little giggles after a few minutes.

Saige replied. "For the most part she is. Sorry did I forget to mention that some of my friends are insane? Don't worry though; we make sure she only experiments on animals. But I make no promises the day she graduates college with a doctors degree!" The table burst into laughter again. Nicole looked up and smiled, a very sneaky smile. Suddenly I was nervous.

These girls are nothing like Saige, or at least acted as nice as Saige was to me as the new kid. She looked so different too, with her shoulder length dark chocolate hair and ice blue eyes that seem to swim around her iris. She had that feeling of always being happy, and her friend Anna was far from that. Mackenzie seemed a little suspicious. Katie was off on her own planet. Vickie sat like a mannequin and Nicole gave off that detached, far off, sneaky vibe.

"Guys! Guys! I finally beat Hades last night in my video game Kingdom Hearts. God it took forever. Then I had to beat the Hydra. Sora is an idiot! He chopped off its single head and wouldn't stop till it had nine! It was so annoying." Nicole randomly burst out.

"Speaking of Greek mythology, Saige how was the LA test? Was it easy or hard? Vickey questioned.

"It's over the Greek gods and how each was born, it couldn't get any easier!" Saige said.

Could you remind me which gods their over? There are so many so I can never remember them all." Vickie said.

"Gladly!" Saige seemed to glow on the topic of Greek myths as she spoke. "It's over The Big Three, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Then it's over the rest of the Olympian counsel, Hera, Aphrodite, Athena, Dionysus, Ares, Hermes, Artemis, Apollo, Demeter, and Hephaestus. They don't include Hestia because she resigned her spot on the counsel for Dionysus. Mrs. Howle also has you write an essay on why you think Hades should be given more respect or not."

"Ok, thanks Saige that's all I need to know s-"

But Saige was on a role. They got her to talking about Greek myths and she wasn't about to stop. This cannot be possible! I thought. How can she still be alive when she talks about Greek myths this much!

"I wrote 3 pages worth on my opinion! I think that Hades does deserve more respect. People only fear him because he's the god of death, but really he's nice! You just have to get on his good side, I'm certain there is one!" Saige went on.

Now THAT is something I rarely hear…actually I've never heard that at all. Percy won't admit it but he has thought it before.

"Hey, I'll be right back ok." I said.

"Ok. Hope we didn't scare you off that fast." Saige smiled.

"Oh I'm sure you freaked him out talking about myths like a crazy person." Anna said as I ran out of the cafeteria.

I ran down a hall and into an empty classroom. The school phone hung on the wall next to the teacher's desk, I grabbed it and dialed. After two rings someone picked up.

"Hello, who is this?"

"Hi Mrs. Jackson, is Percy home?"

"He's right here Grover, is something wrong?"

"For now no." There was a pause, and then Percy spoke.

"Hey man, what's up, something wrong?"

"Percy! I need some help man, I found a half-blood that could be trouble getting to camp, I can fill you in later but could you come?"

"Percy let me talk to him, Grover what do you mean by trouble?" Said another voice.

"Annabeth? Wait a second," I snickered, "am I interrupting a date?"

"Oh stop it goat boy, we can come and help. Where are you?" Percy said.

"Texas."

There was a long pause then Annabeth spoke. "Texas….Grover you do realize that we can't go by plane…"

"Talk to Chiron, he helped me get here so he can help you. Hurry guys, something bad could happen at any moment!"

"Do you have an address for us?" Percy said.

"Um, one moment, I have it written down in my wallet." I reached into my pocket but came out empty handed. I know I had my wallet in my front left pocket. How could it?...Nicole?

"Ummm, just ask Chiron for it. I'll see you soon, bye!" I hung up the phone and ran back towards the cafeteria, to get my wallet back, and to protect Saige the best I could until help arrived.