Percy POV

Thalia and Nico ran up to us, panting.

"Big...angry...stupid...jock...chasing...us..." Thalia panted out.

I mentally face palmed.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"He started hitting on me and Nico punched him on the gut. Then he punched Nico and I got mad and kicked him in the stomach and...well, you know the rest."

"Oh please tell me his name wasn't Parker Hanks," Rachel said.

"His name wasn't Parker Hanks?" Nico said, although it sounded more like a question.

"You're dead!" she said with a sigh.

"Yeah, when he wakes up," Nico said, grinning.

"Wakes up?" Annbeth, Rachel and I chorused.

"We may or May not have slammed one of the cafeteria doors in his face," Thalia said, sheepishly.

"Oh, wow," Piper said, slapping a hand to her forehead.

"Uh, while he's still unconscious, do you think you could introduce us to everybody, Piper?" Annabeth asked.

"Sure."

I looked around the table, trying to remember everybody's name.

Luke, Grover, Juniper,

Jason, Piper, Leo, Reyna, Octavian, Travis, Connor, Katie, Clarisse, Chris, Charles (Beckendorf), Silena, Frank, and Hazel.

I spotted Thalia staring at Jason. WTF? She hated guys, plus, Jason was younger than her.

I nudged her shoulder, and when she looked at me, I raised my eyebrows. She blushed and mouthed, I'll tell you later.

Annabeth was staring at her hands, probably a little awkward. We all were. Nobody said a word. It was practically silent.

"Okay, are we just gonna sit here like a bunch of dweebs, or get a conversation going, because I'm going with the second one!" Clarisse said, slamming her hands down on the table.

"Uh, guys. I think we need a conversation starter." I said, glancing nervously at Clarisse.

"Prissy's right!" She roared.

Prissy?

"Oh! I know what we could do. One of those story circle things, where we all have to write a sentence on the story, and we can just keep going and going and going!" Rachel exclaimed, pulling out a note book and a pencil.

Rachel, Annabeth, Thalia and Nico sat in between Reyna and Octavian.

I shrugged, "Sounds alright to me."

The others muttered their agreement and Rachel started.

She handed it to me and I looked at the first line.

Once upon a time, there was a magical kingdom, called Astaylin.

I snickered. Rachel always had a thing for writing.

I wrote down my line.

Once upon a time, there was a magical kingdom called Astaylin. The country was poor and dying, not at all ready for the upcoming war.

I watched as the note book was passed around. When Piper got the boom, she let out a ear piercing squeal, "It's a friggin' soap opera!" She cried.