I don't own Percy Jackson

Ch 2: A day at the beach

(Arcy POV)

No matter how much I joke about it, I really am scared of Ellie getting sent to the loony bin. Since I teamed up with them, Ellie, Gwen, and I have been the best of friends. We've broken quite a few times, but aren't we all just ticking time bombs? Clearing my head, I heard Gwen continuously trying to defend herself, despite the fact we both knew sarcasm was a natural defense for Ellie. I saw the entire fight through my lashes, including Gwen turning red.

"I am not wrong! It's my cat hat!" I swear she's in love with that thing.

Ellie retorts, saying, "Those who think Gwen is wrong, say I," She and I said it at the same time while Gwen swears silently.

"Well it's not like it matters. Ronnie still got forked," Gwen muttered in a defeated tone. Ellie and I shared a laugh.

It was Saturday, so we had at our homework. I helped Gwen and Ellie with math, Gwen helped us at earth science, and Ellie contributed to geography (She locates places relative to the rivers and major water sources) and marine biology. I'll tell you this about Ellie, you'd think that Gil was raised in the ocean. And Gewn? She's practically been raised land locked. She doesn't really like water and she's really, really good at geology and all that stuff, although her real obsession lies in the undead. Anyways, life at the Home was fairly normal for a bit. We went to school, Gwen got in trouble, I aced my classes, while Ellie skipped 20% of hers. Mostly those that involved being completely still and a whole lot of reading. Ellie has dyslexia and ADHD, so those two concepts are difficult to deal. Actually, we all were, but Ellie had her own methods of dealing with it. Just the same old boring week. That is-until Saturday. That is until Saturday. That day, the supervisors (basically our glorified babysitters) decided to take us on a field trip for a little fresh air. To Ellie's delight (and Gwen's horror) we were going to the beach.

It was a sunny day at South Side Beach. There wasn't a cloud in sight and the ocean was salty sweet and still.

"UGHHHH!" Gwen groaned, pulling her cat hat over her eyes. "It's so hot!"

"Perhaps it'd be an intelligent decision to, I don't know, take off all those layers of black clothing?" I suggested.

"Not to mention you cat hat," Ellie agreed, sweeping her long black hair over her shoulder. Pushing her hat back into place, Gwen gave us a death glare.

"I will never, EVER take off my cat hat!"

I snickered and set up a towel in the sand for us. Ellie laid in the sun and looked at Gwen.

"Come on girl, you desperately need color. You're as white as a ghost," Gwen glared at her.

"And your as dark as a coco bean!"

"Why thank you, I take great pride making sure my skin looks healthy," Gwen gave in after this. Couldn't blame her though, no one beat Ellie on a beach. It was unheard of. It wasn't long after we settled in that our nemesis came by for a visit.

"Enjoying the day ladies?" He asked venomously.

Damian was about six years older than us, seventeen. He had unruly ginger hair, a broad and tall stature, and skin paler than Gwen's, which is saying something. He was blind (since birth, as the story went) and was never seen without his dark sunglasses and massive seeing-eye dog.

"You mind moving?" I spat. "You're blocking the sun,"

Apparently sensing malice in my voice, his stupid canine growled low, fixing its gaze on me. Gwen snarled back at the dog as Ellie, who never cared if her opponent was bigger or stronger than her, stood up to face him.

"Keep your slobbering mutt under control Damian!"

"Watch your tongue when you're talking about my dog, Elizabeth!" He snapped back, making the mistake of shoving Ellie to the ground. Things became violent then as Gwen and I shot up.

"Keep your hands off her!" I shouted.

"I'll tear your throat out!" Gwen threatened, but Damian just chuckled.

"You don't want to pick a fight with me, you weak fools,"

"Weak!" Ellie shrieked, outraged, but he kept on smirking.

"And why wouldn't we?" I questioned, my eyes narrowed.

"You egg," Gwen glared.

"Well, I was going to make this a bit less painful..." He mused, but then let out a laugh. "But now, you've ticked me off,"

Suddenly, his dog seemed to grow right in front of us. I widened my eyes, reminded of the vision I had seen in a rai-

Shaking my head, I dismissed the thought. No, Damian's dog was always an impossibly tall, ugh, fanged... snarling guard dog...right?

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

Ellie's outburst said differently.

(Ellie POV)

The hound was suddenly bigger and much much scarier than before. It wasn't a slightly -taller-than-average Labrador anymore. Nope, this dog towered over us, drooling puddles at our feet. It gnashed its claws and teeth while Damian just stood there, grinning.

"Sic 'em,"

Dropping the leash, his dog stepped forward, beady, red eyes glowing dangerously. Just then, I realized I'd seen this creature from somewhere. As we slowly backed away from that thing's advances, I stuttered,

"G-guys?"

"Yeah?" They whispered.

"Uh, does this thing remind you of anything from history class? You know... G-Greek mythology?"

We all exchanged glances. "Hellhound,"

"But it can't be!" Arcy argued. "That's impossible, completely ridiculous!"

"Right now, I don't think that matters," I swallowed. "I think we just need to-"

The dog charged.

"RUN!"

We began sprinting for our lives, me leading the pack. They followed us as I dashed onto an empty fishing dock, almost instinctively head for water. Taking a glance back, I saw that Damian and his mutt weren't far behind. When we reached the edge of the dock the dog approached. I knew Gwen hated(and most likely was scared of) water and I didn't want to leave her on the dock.

"This isn't how I pictured my death!" I heard Arcy mutter.

Soon, the hound was facing us. Again it attacked. I screamed, closing my eyes, wanting to be torn to shreds. But all I heard was,

"Oh my God,"

Opening my eyes, the dog was lying on the dock, ten feet away like a beached whale. It was drenched in water.

"It's like it jumped out of the ocean," Arcy stuttered. "Like the water just leapt at it!" Gwen gasped.

i was confused, but not surprised. I liked to dismiss these occurrences but now that I thought about it... Weird stuff like 'jumping' water was always happening near me. I mean, it was almost like...

My thoughts were interrupted.

"Well, well, well, my old friend," It was Damian, but he wasn't paying any attention to us. There was a guy making his way up to the dock's top, but he was walking on water, more like pushing him.

"Jackson!" Damian spat-or at least what used to be Damian. He was huge-beady, red eyes, every inch of his body was covered in muscle, and his hands had scrunched claws. The mysterious guy, who Damian called Jackson, growled,

"Step away from the girls and no one gets hurt," I then heard a familiar whisper.

"Girls! While he's distracted! Over here!" I turned to see Grover Underwood standing at the corner of the pier with a blonde, grey-eyed girl. Grover was the new kid at our school. He walked funny so most of the kids, not us, avoided him. Not knowing what else to do, we hurried over to Grover. He seemed the sanest one here.

"Dude, why the heck aren't you running for your life!?" I shrieked.

"Have you no noticed the raging PSYCHOPATH over there?" Gwen flung her arms towards Damian.

"Not to mention his mutant mutt," Arcy added.

"Listen, we don't have a lot of time to explain, but unless you want to get eaten, you should follow us," the unknown woman said

"And Ellie," Grover cut in. "Stay close to the water,"

For some reason, I felt I was planning to.

"Why should we follow you?" Arcy demanded.

"It's them, or the mutants!" I reasoned.

Gwen raised her hand. "Uh, guys? He'll dog coming this way!"

We turned to see Damian's mutt back on his feet. Something told me he wasn't happy about the, er, bath I gave him.

"Come on!" Grover urged.

Finally, not wanting to become dog food, we followed the two, running for our lives.