We've hit 5,000 words! *recorded cheering*

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except most of my books. And my clothes. Oh, and the flash drive that I keep my writing, art, and funny memes on.

Chiron was an older man, maybe 45. He had a short beard and an orange t-shirt with a pegasus and some Greek writing. He had a motorized wheelchair that was decorated like a white horse and liked to read. Chiron, not the wheelchair. Cooper and I both thought he was pretty cool. Isabella introduced us as Cooper Buzzard and Emily Cadence Lasicola-Parkenson, "the ones you had me – oh." That last part was because Chiron gave her The Look, the kind that an adult will give you when they think you're talking too much even though you're not.

"Hello, Cooper. Emily Cadence." He greeted us with a nod. "I've been looking forward to your visit. Now, if you could come inside –"

"Um, Chiron," I said, "we've had a really weird day, so could you please fill us in on why we're being attacked by vampires and talking lawyer bats?"

Chiron blinked, then looked at Isabella. "An empousa and a Kindly One, and you didn't let me know?"

Isabella's eyes filled with tears. Not again, I thought. Isabella started crying every time she made even the smallest mistake.

"They – they were with me the whole time. I didn't have a chance," she sniffled. "And the Kindly One attacked right before we crossed."

"You're calling that thing kind? It tried to dive-bomb us!" Cooper protested.

"She seemed very kind when she let me go," I countered.

Cooper was about to make a withering retort – yeah, right - when Chiron interrupted. "She let you go?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," I said. "She tried to kill me, then Bella –"

"Wait," Chiron said. "Start at the beginning, from when you left for the airport."

I did. I left out the part about Bubbles, just so Cooper would owe me something. He seemed very grateful, probably not stopping to think about my motives. I'm quite the evil genius when I want to be.

Chiron was silent for a moment after I finished. Isabella eyed a deck of cards on a nearby table like she wanted to eat it.

"Well," Chiron said finally, "I don't suppose either of you have ADHD or dyslexia?"

"I have ADHD," I said. "Cooper has ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia."

"Dys-cal-cu-lia," Isabella said slowly, as if tasting the word. "What does that mean again?"

"It's a math learning disorder," Chiron said. "Interesting. I've never seen that in a demigod before. I wonder what the use might be." I had to bite my lip to stop myself from belting out thirteen million questions, and I put my hand over Cooper's mouth as soon as it opened for the same reason.

"If he wants to tell us, he will," I told him. He nodded and I took my hand away. "Be good," I said. He just grinned. I probably should have put my hand back, but I was afraid my face was bright red and didn't want anyone to notice.

"Now that you've told me your story, I think you should hear ours," he said and drove his wheelchair inside, obviously meaning for us to follow.

Ours? I mouthed at Cooper as we walked in, but he shrugged. He pointed at Isabella, but before I could say anything we were in a very grapey room and Chiron was asking us to sit. By grapey I mean there were grapes. Everywhere. There were grape vines on the walls, the floor, the ceiling, even the area surrounding a stuffed and mounted leopard head, which snarled menacingly as soon as I made eye contact. Cooper and I both jumped back, and he screamed like a little girl. He wouldn't like me saying that, but it's true!

"Oh, that's just Seymour," Chiron said as he tossed a dog treat at it. It snapped it up greedily and swallowed. I didn't want to know where it went, since Seymour was just a head. Ugh.

"Now, please sit down," Chiron said. "The couch is really quite sturdy."

I looked behind me. The couch was made of grape vines with clusters of ripe grapes everywhere. I would have eaten one, but I like my grapes cold.

Mom carefully sat down and the couch held her, so the rest of us all flopped onto it at once, exhausted.

"Isabella, please take Cooper to the theater room. I have a bit of talking to do," Chiron said. Isabella led Cooper towards an adjacent room.

"Now, Miss Emily Cadence," he said, turning to me. "First, let me show you something. This comes as a great shock to everyone, so please don't panic." He glanced at the wall behind him. "Once a camper nearly lost his mind. Cost us the paint on that area of the wall."

I didn't ask.

Chiron started to get out of his wheelchair. My brain took a second to register this. Wait, it said. Isn't he paralyzed? If he can walk, why does he even use the wheelchair? Chiron was getting up very slowly, as if he was stuck to the chair. A blanket fell away from his legs – which were still in the wheelchair. They were plastic or something. I looked at his real legs. He seemed to be wearing white tights, only they didn't look exactly right. Within a few seconds, Chiron was way too tall to be human. I was thinking he must have been another monster when I was surprised out of my thoughts.

Chiron lifted a leg out of the fake wheelchair.

A horse leg.

I wanted to call for Isabella and her knife, but Chiron would probably get there first. Chiron stopped, as if reading my thoughts. "I'm not a monster, you know. If you don't kill me now, I'll explain everything."

I nodded and he pulled another horse leg out, then two more. When he finished, there was a centaur in what I'm going to call the grape room.

I stared for a minute. "I'm in Narnia now? Is that it? Because that's what it seems like," I said.

"Not Narnia, Emily Cadence. Have you ever heard of the Greek gods?" he asked.

"Gods? You're telling me..." I trailed off. It did make sense. The vampire. I read something that had an ancient Greek vampire disguised as a cheerleader when I was six or seven. I probably shouldn't have been reading it until now, but I was always a rather advanced reader.

Before that, I read a book that had a human-bat. I remembered the main characters of both books being similar. Maybe it was a series.

"It makes sense," I said. "From what little I know about Greek mythology, my situation fits perfectly. But what do I have to do with it? I'm not a hero. I don't belong in Greek mythology."

Chiron raised an eyebrow. I had surprised him. "You're taking it... much better than most," he said. "As for what you have to do with it, you are indeed a hero. You and your friends saved a plane full of mortals from an empousa without destroying the plane. Heroes have killed empousai before, of course, but never without obliterating their surroundings."

I had stopped listening. My mind was working through one word he had said: mortals. If I remembered correctly, this was a prominent word in that series I had read. It meant human.

"You say mortals as if I'm not. Isabella said it to my mom earlier – that mortals weren't supposed to cross the border. What did you mean by that?"

"Do you know what the gods' favorite thing to do when they were on earth was?" Chiron said.

I thought about it for a minute, and managed to come up with an answer.

"No," I said.

"They liked to... ah... 'hook up' with mortals. From these relationships come children called demigods, half-mortal, half-god. You and your friend Cooper are children like these."

"You know, I read a book series about that once. I wonder if the author was a demigod," I said to no one in particular. Chiron answered anyway.

"It wouldn't happen to be about Percy Jackson, would it?"

"That's it!" I said. "I had been trying to remember the main character's name but I couldn't. Thanks."

"Of course. When did you last read these books?"

"I was eight, I think. There were three books in the series so far, and I think there were supposed to be more, but I could never find the third one. So all the stuff in Percy Jackson is real?" I asked.

"Yes. And all the characters, too. Most of them are gone until next summer, however."

My eyes must have been the size of saucers. "Percy Jackson is real? He was my hero! That's so cool!"

Cooper entered the room with an amazed look on his face. "This is so cool!" he echoed. "There are books about this entire place? And my mom is a goddess? Y'all have blown my mind!"

Chiron looked worried for a moment, then he relaxed. "You children and your expressions. For a moment I thought you meant literally."

The text sizes are totally wrong in the Doc Manager. It's huge at the top and tiny at the bottom. It's annoying.

Also - I'm going to be incorporating Nico di Angelo soon. He is not gay. You may stop reading and hate me forever if you like. :D