Chapter Two: The Worst Day

Charlie Alexander was having a bad day even before she was attacked. It all started in science class, when she got her test back from the teacher. 98 percent. That's fine.

Then, in history class, she got her other test back. 89 percent. Her initial thought was, well, crap, but then a bigger realization hit her. Derek is going to kill me. Goodbye world. Please, just take me, Death.

After that, for her last period, she had math. She sat at her desk in the second row and tried to listen. She looked at the board and grimaced. She couldn't even read it. She blinked and discovered that she had missed twenty five minutes, and the lesson was over. Charlie was convinced that she was going to fail everything, and all her semi-hard work was in vain.

Charlie got her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She walked down the hall with her head down, per usual. Taunts and laughs followed her to the door. She looked back at the clique of mean girls behind her, before opening the door and hurrying out.

Charlie walked up the street in the direction of her house. She tried to remember everywhere she went wrong.

Had she forgotten to hand in her homework one too many times, and the teacher decided to take points off the test for it? Did she not study hard enough? Is she really just stupid?

Even though she was deep in thought, she didn't stop noticing this disturbing feeling that someone, or something, was following her. She tried to ignore the feeling, but she couldn't. She quickly looked back and shook her head. Of course there was nothing there. She looked back to where she was going, and immediately the feeling returned.

She looked back again. There was still nothing there. But this time she got angry. "Harvey, I swear to God, if that's you-" Of course, nothing.

Again, she looked back and tried, frustrated, to ignore the feeling. But she simply couldn't. She looked back, just one more time, and met the face of the most terrifying thing she has ever seen.

Of course, it was a giant scorpion the size of a grown horse. Just her luck.

Charlie shrieked and stuck to the wall. She backed away from the monster slowly, feeling the wall under her hands, guiding herself away, not taking her eyes off the scorpion. But then it made a sound, Charlie couldn't tell what it was, but she was officially 100 percent done.

She ran now, but still not taking her eyes off the monster, running backwards. She ran quickly, but carefully. She looked down every few moments for a split second to make sure she wasn't going to step on a rock, trip, and die anyway despite her efforts not to.

She continued running until she ran back-first into a wall. Looking around frantically, Charlie discovered that she ran straight into an alley. Charlie didn't want to die surrounded by smelly garbage dumpsters.

The monster came closer, and Charlie didn't dare make a run for it. With all the garbage bags surrounding her, she wouldn't have nearly enough room to dash sideways away from the giant scorpion and still be out of its reach.

Charlie shut her eyes tightly as the monster crept towards her slowly. This is it, Charlie thought. I'm going to die. This is the end. It's not so bad, actually. Charlie let her eyelids relax, and took a deep breath. She had accepted death and was ready to die. She always knew this day would come. The day she died. And she was ready now.

She sank back against the wall and sat down, her legs pressed against her body, her head in her knees, as if to tell the monster, I surrender.

But instead of excruciating and agonizing pain followed by death, came only the voice of a yelling boy. "Hey, Scorpy! Who let you out of Tartarus? I think you should go back! I heard they have a great plumbing system!"

Charlie lifted her head and forced herself to open her eyes. She saw the scorpion, now not facing her, but a boy near the mouth of the alley. He had dark hair, the ears of an elf, and a tool belt around his waist. And he was pelting the monster with nuts and bolts that he kept pulling more and more of from his tool belt.

Charlie looked the other way, where another boy, with jet black hair, a bright orange shirt, and a Bronze sword was sneaking up on the scorpion from behind. He saw Charlie looking at him, and held a finger to his lips.

The boy with the bright orange shirt continued to sneak up on the giant scorpion, while the other continued to distract it. When the boy reached the scorpion, he stabbed it with his sword, pushing the blade deeper into its side. Instantly, the scorpion turned to dust, and it was no more.

Tool Belt Guy ran up to Sword Guy and gave him a high five. Sword Guy laughed and slapped Tool Belt Guy on the shoulder. While they were distracted, Charlie slowly rose to her feet, picked up her bag, and started walking slowly away.

Charlie's heart was beating so hard and fast that it physically hurt her. Her head was pounding, her legs were shaking, she could barely breathe. Charlie faintly cried out as she tripped over herself and fell to the ground, right next to a trash bag, catching a whiff of the pungent stench.

But Charlie recovered quickly, getting to her feet, and inhaling sharply when she met the face of Tool Belt Guy. He held his hand up.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked threateningly as his hand spontaneously burst into flames.

Charlie choked back a single sob, and squeaked instead.

"Stop scaring the girl, Leo! Or I'll tell Calypso you didn't like her brownies!" The other boy called.

Tool Belt Guy, Leo, spun around to face the other. "That's not fair, Percy! I did like them, everyone does!"

Sword Guy, Percy, grinned maniacally. "That's not going to stop me," he said in a low voice.

Percy walked over to Charlie, his hand outstretched for a handshake. "Hi, I'm Percy, Percy Jackson. And this idiot over here is Leo Valdez."

Charlie didn't say anything. How could she? She had nearly just died. What did they expect? She was traumatized. Also, she didn't like talking to people.

"Are you going to tell us your name?" Percy asked.

Charlie didn't move. She realized something. She looked at Percy's hand. Yes, his sword was gone.

"Can you say something? Talk to us?" Percy looked worried. Maybe if she did something they would just leave her alone.

"Can you speak English?" Leo asked, concerned. Charlie hesitated, and then nodded.

"Then can you tell us your name?" Percy asked. Charlie shook her head no.

"Then, how about a pseudonym? Can we at least get a fake name?" Leo urged.

Charlie hesitated. You know what? That wasn't the worst idea.

"Charlie," she squeaked quietly.

That is her pseudonym. Charlie.

Percy frowned. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I didn't hear you."

Charlie said a little louder, though still pretty quietly, "Charlie. Alexander. Charlie Alexander."

She decided to keep her last name.

"Alright, Charlie. Are you okay?" Percy sounded concerned, as if suddenly knowing her name meant she was much more important and concerning.

Charlie shook her head. Percy hummed, fishing a plastic bag out of his pocket. Charlie couldn't recognize what the bag's contents were exactly, but she knew it was food even before Percy took out a small piece and handed it out to Charlie, saying, "here. Eat it. It'll help."

Charlie didn't even think it was physically possible, but her heart started beating even faster than before. Oh no. Charlie could feel it coming. The words. Swirling in her gut, making their way up her esophagus, about to flow out of her mouth. She was going to embarrass herself, stutter, end up forgetting the words she was going to use midway through her sentence.

Charlie looked from the piece of foodstuff in Percy's hand, up to his face, back to his hand, and back to his face again.

"Do you take me for some kind of idiot?" Charlie blurted out.

Percy frowned. "What? Why?"

"I know b-better than to accept this b-bizarre food a stranger j-just handed me, who, b-by the way, has a w-weapon. I d-don't think so, P-Percy Jackson. In fact, s-speaking of you t-two b-being strangers, I really sh-shouldn't be talking to you a-anyway, so, I'm just g-gonna g-go, okay? if you t-try to talk to me again, I-I'll c-cut you. G-Good day."

Charlie's heart was hammering in her chest, her head was throbbing, her legs felt like jelly. She weakly limped one step, then, with a bit of more confidence, started storming angrily away. Before she was more than a few steps away, though, Leo grabbed her shoulders and spun her around, while insisting, " listen-" But as soon as Charlie realized what was happening, she shrieked "don't touch me!" so loudly, with such a high pitch, that a very startled Leo let her go, and she ran away as fast as her jelly-like legs could carry her.

Charlie pushed the door handle down so frantically it made a sound she was pretty sure it shouldn't make. She pushed the door open violently, and then slammed it shut furiously behind her.

She barged up the stairs to her room with tears in her eyes, ignoring the piercing howls and barks of Kristen's German Shepherd, Kiddo. It was obvious how he felt about the door slamming and screaming coming from the front hall.

Charlie reached her room, wildly pushed open the door, kicked off her shoes, and flung herself onto her bed. She grabbed her pillow and sobbed into it.

She sobbed into her pillow until the tears stopped coming. She hadn't realized that her eyes had dried until she yawned, and they once again had tears in them.

Her eyes drooped, and slowly, she put her pillow back on the mattress, stretched her legs, lay her head on the pillow, and fell asleep. It truly was the worst day.

Hello again.

In case you didn't understand, Charlie isn't Charlie's real name. It's a pseudonym. However, Alexander is her real last name. Her real first name will be revealed later on in the story. Also, in chapter one, I said that Charlie's second name is Lana, that's also her real second name.

I know it's extremely early in the story to start telling you that if you have any ideas, Private Message them to me, but maybe it won't be too terrible to add something of yours later on in the story. I'm sure you have a very fuzzy mental image of the timeline of the story, which is -

- Now - Charlie discovers she's a demigod - Schist happens - End -

So you could probably for example give me a synopsis of something that would happen at camp half-blood, like how Charlie meets a specific person, or how she gets claimed. You don't necessarily have to know Charlie's Godly parent to think of a way for her to be claimed, if you think about it.

In case you didn't realize Charlie was a demigod, and I just spoiled everything for you, I honestly don't know what to say to you.

I hope you enjoyed. Please review, follow, and favorite.

- Pandemonium