CHAPTER 1

FIRE-BREATHING PANDA

Ok. So, yeah. I blew up another school. What else is new?

Besides, it wasn't all my fault. Well… at least not the giant fire-breathing panda.

Maybe I should start from the beginning…

The day started out great. Better than most, actually. The sun was shining and the birds were chirping, a beautiful day in New York.

It also just so happened to be the last day of 8th grade. A whole entire year without me destroying the school or getting expelled. The school I went to was a private school in Uptown, called Schmucks' Middle School. Why someone would name a school 'Schmuck', I don't know. But the point is, I went through the whole year without any monster attacks or a god threatening me or something. In my life, that is something you celebrate about.

Even better? In the afternoon, I'll be going to my favorite place in the world: Camp Half-Blood. I was so excited. I couldn't wait to go, I missed that place so much. I missed playing Capture the Flag in the woods, sword fighting, and the strawberry fields. Most of all, I've missed my friends; Grover, Tyson, Beckendorf, the Stoll brothers, Annabeth…

I've missed Annabeth a lot, I mean A LOT. I don't know why, I mean, I've always had a tiny, itty bitty crush on her, every guy had to. She was beautiful. But lately, I've been having these feelings… I don't know, I blame them on hormones.

Anyway, I Iris Messaged her a couple of days ago. She said she was coming to camp a day earlier than me. So she was probably there right now. I couldn't wait to see her. She was my best friend, after all we've been through.

To tell you the truth, Annabeth and Camp were the only things that got me up in the mornings. Everyday, I'd tell myself, Ok, survive today and the next day after that and you're that much closer to going to Camp Half-Blood.

I sighed and got up. I looked out my window and saw New York, I thought, 9 more hours and I'm off.

I got dressed, brushed my teeth; my usual morning routine, and headed downstairs. I saw my mom, Sally, in the kitchen cooking breakfast. She was wearing her Candy Shop work uniform, a starry blue skirt and a red blouse. When she saw me walked in, she smiled.

"Good morning, Percy, dear." She said.

I smiled, I love my mom, she was the greatest person in the world. (At least I think so.) "Morning, Mom."

"So," She grinned, "Todays' a very special day!"

"Yep, last day of school and I'm off to camp."

Mom looked super happy, she came over and kissed me on the cheek, "I am so proud of you, sweetie. You made it! A whole year!"

I blushed, but I'm not going to lie, I was pretty proud of myself, too.

"And to celebrate…" My Mom said as she was bringing a plate of blue chocolate chip pancakes to the kitchen table, "Your favorite."

My eyes widen. Blue pancakes. Aw, man, I could feel myself drooling. They smelled delicious. My mom smiled as I popped open the syrup bottle and poured at least half the thing on my pancakes.

"Do you like them?" Mom asked.

I said something like, "Mmmmmmhh hhhmmmm!"

Mom laughed, "I'm glad, but Perseus, do not talk with your mouth full."

I swallowed, "Sorry."

She grinned, "It's alright, dear. You should get going, though. You're going to be late for school. "

I nodded as I scarfed down the rest of the pancakes. I grabbed my backpack, but as I headed out the door, my mom stopped me.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you something, dear." She said.

"What?"

"Well, Chiron messaged me in the morning, a few hours ago. And he said that you should… be careful."

"Careful?" I asked, "Why? What happened?" It wasn't so strange that Chiron IM my mom, but how come?

Mom shrugged, "He wouldn't tell me. I was worried, but all Chiron said was that you should keep your eyes open, and don't trust anyone."

"What does he think is going to happen? I'll make friends with a complete stranger, who turns out to be a monster and eats me?" I said.

She sighed, "I don't know, Percy. But if Chiron made a special call just to you, maybe you should be a bit cautious."

I knew my mom was right. I still wondered why Chiron would say that. There was something going on, and I wouldn't like it.

I knew the Gods were getting angrier and nervous, with the war almost near… I don't know, and I honestly didn't know. No one would tell me anything. Any time I asked, they would just shut me out. What was the big deal? Little did I know, that this would be a summer I would never forget.

But I wouldn't let this ruin the great day I thought I was going to have.

I nodded and said, "Ok, Mom. I'll be more careful today."

She smiled, looking a little more relieved, "Thank you, Percy. Now, get going, or you will be late. Love you."

I turned the knob on the door, "I love you too, Mom."

As I entered Schmucks, I thought about what my mom said before. Don't trust anyone. As I looked around in the crowded hallway full of noisy kids, the first thing I thought was, None of these kids could be monsters, they're all too stupid.

And yes, that might be a little mean and unfair but it's true. At least 99.99% of these kids here are all big, dumb, and troublemakers. I know, I know, you must think I'm a jerk. But now that I think about it, 'Schmucks' might be an appropriate name for that school.

All the students here are, as the head principal said, "Unique, bright children that want a second chance."

Translation: Kids who want to stay out of juvy.

I've gotten used to the school and the kids here. Not all of them are that bad. I actually have a few friends here. Like my locker neighbor, Flynn Terrison. He's this shortish guy with cropped chestnut/brown hair. He wears glasses and has a bad case of acne. He's kinda weird at times but at least he talks to me.

I got the stuff out of my locker for my morning classes. Then I headed to my first period class, where I ran into no other than the school bully, Sludge Patterson. Ok, so his real name is Sander. But if you see what this guy could do, believe me, you'd want a personal body guard.

Sludge was this huge dude with bulging muscles. He has greasy black hair and beady eyes. He also had this tattoo on his upper arm that had a picture of a bloody heart and said 'Run away before it gets ugly.'

This dude was mental.

Anyway, Sludge was glaring at me, "Watch where you're goin' pinhead!" He growled. I loved that nickname.

I took a deep breath. I could not get into a fight with this loser. 'Cause if I do, I won't see Camp. Instead I took all my willpower and just muttered, "Sorry."

As I walked away, I could hear Sludge and his goons laughing behind me. I balled my fist. I kept taking big, slow breaths to control my anger. Then I sat down in my desk as I entered the classroom.

The rest of the day went fast. Thank the gods. Finally, came my last period of the year: Science.

I didn't pay attention to the teacher though, who cares about where babies come from when there was only like an hour left till the bell would ring? All I could think about was Camp. I literally could not wait. All period I stared out the window, daydreaming.

Until, finally, the bell had rung. I snapped out of my little dreamland and ran for the door. But not before Mr. Garrett, the science teacher stopped me. "Mr. Jackson?"

I always thought Mr. G was a little strange. He got transferred to this school halfway through the year. We never knew what happened to the old teacher.

He was wearing this tweed coat that looked about 100 years older than him. And that's saying a lot. He was hands down, the most boring teacher at Schmucks, everybody thought so. Everyday, he'd give us boring lectures no one really cared about. Mr. G never really payed any attention to me, so I was surprised when he stopped me.

"Err… yes Mr. Garrett?" I said nervously.

Suddenly, Mr. G smiled wickedly. And I had a bad feeling.

His usually deep voice was high pitched and different when he spoke to me. He said, "Oh, Young demigod. Think you could get away from me that easily, eh? Well, Son of Sea God, I have some news for you: You'll be dead before you leave this classroom."

I gulped. Usually when your science teacher says that to you, your first instinct is to run, right? Well I couldn't run.

When I was walking away to the door, kinda freaked, Mr. Monster leveled his hand to the door and made a pulling gesture. Instantly, the door closed shut. I tried to open it but it was no use, it was locked.

I turned to Mr. Garrett. And believe it or not, that was when things got weird.

He roared and changed. He grew about 8ft taller and his clothes ripped off. It kind of reminded me of the Hulk. When he was done, I looked at him and almost laughed.

The dude was a giant panda.

I'm not kidding! He replaced his human skin with soft white and black fur. Instead of a nose, he had a snout. And he had big, round eyes. He was kind of cute in a I'm-going-to-kill-you way.

I've learned enough to know to not panic and stay calm. So after I got over the shock that my science teacher was a gigantic fluffy bear that 3 year olds probably used for their stuffed animal, I reached into my pocket and grabbed my beloved sword, Riptide.

I always thought the sword looked pretty cool. My dad, Poseidon, gave it to me a couple of years ago. It looks like a normal pen, but when you uncap it, bam! It turns to a celestial bronze sword.

Unfortunately, when the giant panda saw my 'weapon', he just burst out laughing. That was kinda mean.

"Please, demigod! You think you can beat me with your pathetic little sword? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look?" Panda smirked.

"Really?" I said, "You're the one who's the freakishly huge panda, and you're calling me ridiculous?"

He looked confused, "Panda? What is that?"

"Never mind."

P-dog narrowed his eyes, "Enough of this talk." He growled, "I came here on a mission and I shall succeed."

"A mission to pulverize me?" I asked, knowing the answer.

He sneered, "Is there another type of mission? Besides, I don't want to kill you myself, I will bring your body to my Master, he will kill you all on his own."

I thought about that, "Your Master? You mean Kronos?"

His eyes flared, "Lord, to you, demigod!"

"Yeah, I'm never going to say that." I admitted.

He snorted, "You half-bloods are all the same. Maybe Master will smack some sense into you, if he doesn't kill you first."

That sounded pretty threatening, but something didn't sound right.

"Why doesn't he just come here and kill me himself?" I wondered.

Panda sighed, "Alas, Master is not strong enough yet. He will rise, but until then," he grinned evilly, "I shall do what he asked and bring you to him."

As fast as the speed of light, Panda monster lunged toward me. Luckily, I had reflexes too. I jumped to my left and rolled. I slashed him with Riptide, but apparently his fur was really thick, so it didn't leave one scratch.

I thought of another strategy. I hopped on top of one of the desks and climbed on him. Unexpected? The Panda thought so. His arms were at his back trying to reach me.

Finally, he got so frustrated that he also did something unexpected: he blew fire from his mouth. Weird, right? I thought so.

After that, well, Panda went berserk.

He blew fire all around him. The room was on fire. I was still on his back holding on for dear life. Why weren't there any sprinkles going off!

Suddenly I heard fire trucks coming to the school. I had to do something fast or else we're all going to die.

Then I thought of something Chiron had said last summer when we were training. "You must know the strengthness of whom you are fighting and then use that as their weakness."

Hmm… I thought, Fire is his strength, but how do I use that against him?

I know what you're all thinking: Your son of Poseidon! Use your magical water powers!

Well, I didn't think of that, ok?

Instead, I thought of Chiron's advice. I have to make fire his weakness.

I saw that this place was going to burn up in less than a minute, I could hear people yelling and screaming outside. Great, I'll be on the Most Wanted list again.

It's now or never, I thought. Literally.

I made my plan and sprung into action. I stabbed Panda in the back with my sword. "Ahhhh!" He roared in pained. While he was distracted, I took my chance. I got off him, onto my feet, and stabbed him once more right in the middle of his huge brown eyes. He screamed in pain once more and I pushed him as hard as I could into the wall of fire, where he yelled the last time and burned to Tartarus.

Someone was pounding against the door, probably a fireman. My eyes widen and I ran as fast I possibly could to the exit, racing toward the streets of New York heading to Camp before more monsters come to follow.

I remember what my mom said that morning, "Be cautious."

Oops.

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