Percy's pov:

It's the twins birthday! As a ritual, I went to wake up Dale at midnight and Annabeth went to wake Aqua. I walked into Dale's room. He was snoring fakely.

"I know your awake Dale! It's present time!" I told him.

The moment I said that, he jumped out of bed. He ran into the living room. Aqua and Annabeth were already there. Aqua was sitting cross-legged on the floor and Dale went to join her. As usual, Annabeth gave me the money and one of Aqua's presents. She had the other present for Aqua and both presents for Dale.

"Happy Birthday!" Annabeth said.

She handed Dale his Book about Archetecture, then she handed Aqua her book on undersea life. The kids looked up at me.

"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten," I said.

I handed Dale and Aqua their 20$. They held the money for a moment, then set it aside with their books.

"Thank you!" they said in unison.

"But there is more!" said Annabeth.

"REALLY?" said the twins.

Annabeth pulled out the sand dollar and handed it to Dale while I pulled out the shell collection for Aqua. She looked at it, then at me, then at her mother, then at the shells again. I could tell somebody was happy. I looked over at Dale who was holding the sand dollar as if it were so fragile that the slightest movement would break the thing.

"Time to go back to bed, you have school tomorrow," said Annabeth.

"Okay," said Dale.

Dale and Aqua are the only people I know of that like school despite their dyslexia and ADHD. They both ran down the hall and into their own separate rooms while I walked slowly with Annabeth to our room.

Aqua's pov:

I can't believe I got a shell collection! This is the best birthday ever! Last year I got a sand dollar and my pet fish and I thought that was the best. I realize now that I was wrong. Fish can die and shell collections can't. I'm not saying that I don't like my pet anymore – I still love him. I just think the shell collection is a better gift.

I opened the drawer under my bed and climbed in. I don't know if my parents ever noticed, but there is a trap door under my bed leading into a room. I installed a light bulb so I could see. It's my little treasury. It's pretty big. It's about the size of my bedroom. Last time I measured, my room was 3mX4m. Height of 4m. Of course the room beneath my room is only 2m tall. I can still stand in it though. After all, I'm not the tallest kid in the universe.

I put my shell collection next to my swimming trophy and sat down on my beanbag chair. Sometimes, when I get something new and put it down here, I even sleep down here. I closed my eyes and had a dream

Aqua's dream:

I was five years old and Dale was next to me. We were sitting on my bed because my room was next to my parents room. We were listening in on our parents' discussion. I glanced at the clock and it read 10:37PM. It was way past our bedtimes! Dale was listening carefully. He looked at me ant said "Shh!"

I began listening too. My parents were talking about some hill.

"We have to get out of this country!" my mom said

"What about my mother, camp and the empire state building? We can't just leave!" said my dad

"We can make arrangements Percy! A monster confronted you today and you even needed Nectar and Ambrosia! It will only be a matter of time before they go after the kids. Think about it Percy, you were first confronted when you were 12 years old!" said my mom.

I looked at Dale. He was gaping. Then, he drew a question mark in the air. He grabbed a piece of paper. He wrote one word: monsters?

The dream changed. I was seven and we were about to move. We were headed to the nearest country from the US – Canada. My mom said we were moving to a random place called Toronto. Wherever that was. We were sitting in the back of my mom's gray Corolla. My dad had already left with some stuff in his car – the blue Matrix. Just then, this random guy came up with a…gun? No sword! He slashed at my mom. She pulled a bronze knife out of her boot and stabbed the guy. Then he evaporated! My mom got in the car and told us "you saw nothing"

I woke up. It was time for school. Those dreams were just old memories that made no sense. We were still living in Toronto, but we've moved houses numerous times. I crawled out of my mini room and got ready for school.