Going back to school was just as bad as I remembered, especially when I found out from Leah that Dr. Atomos had finally called it quits and retired, meaning that we'd be getting a new chemistry professor for the last two years of school.

"Fun," I'd muttered as I clutched my summer assignments and textbooks under my raincoat, the rain pouring down in sheets outside. You know, for going to such a prestigious school, you'd think they'd have canopies for students to walk underneath, but no-o-o.

"Of course," Leah said, pushing aside her soaked hair so that it wasn't dripping onto her books, "you would've known that if you came to orientation in July. Or, you know, if you picked up my calls or responded to my texts."

I sighed as my hand closed around our door handle, pulling it open for the both of us to walk into the lab for today's experiment. Of course, Joe and Pete were already there, flailing their arms above their heads to catch our attention, earning themselves wads of paper to the back of the heads courtesy of two boys that'd I'd never seen before.

"I already told you," I said as we moved towards our seats. "I don't have a phone."

"Then how did Pete call you earlier in the summer?"

"That was a friend's phone. And it just so happened that I was there when Pete called."

"Yeah, sure," Leah scoffed, huffing angrily as she slammed her books down on her desk. From the way she pulled out a pen and flipped open to the first chapter, I knew she wasn't going to be talking to me again for the rest of the period.

I didn't make any motion to talk to her either, preferring to eavesdrop on the boys' conversation. Though, I began tuning them out when I heard them come up with plans on how to prank whoever our new chemistry professor was going to be.

"Knock it off," one of the newcomers said, chucking another ball of paper at the back of Joe's head. For some reason, he was wearing sunglasses even though he was inside and it was raining outside, but whatever floats your boat, I guess.

"Oh, geez," the second boy muttered, pulling his hat lower on his face, as if he were trying his best to become invisible. "Pete, I don't want a repeat of Mrs. Sherman's class again!"

Pete merely smiled back at the boy, expertly dodging another wad of paper from the first boy. "Lighten up, Patrick. College is way more relaxed than high school."

"Unless you go to an Ivy League," I pointed out, "which we do. So, no, we're never relaxed. Don't you remember last year's finals?"

Pete and Joe shuddered in unison.

"We don't speak of those days," Joe said ominously, hiding his face behind his hands. "Those are the days which make accounting look like a viable career option."

"Hey, what's wrong with being an accountant?"

"Nothing, Andy, but just imagine dealing with numbers all day. The horror."

"Says the guy who wants to be a software engineer."

Pete pretended to faint, causing Joe to laugh, Patrick to sink lower in his seat, and Andy (huh, same name, I guess these were the guys Pete wanted to introduce me to) to shake his head, probably thinking Why am I friends with these idiots?

Little did I know, those two newcomers would become some good friends of mine as well, always joining movie nights and late night study sessions, where enough coffee was consumed to kill three large water buffalo.

But as much as I loved hanging out with my little group of five (six if I counted myself), having two more friends made it that much harder to keep my secret. It wasn't helping matters that I was still being called upon by the camp every other day to help secure the boarders or train the younger campers.

While Luke had taken my place as the head of the swordsmanship class, Chiron had given me another role, this time as the Monsters and Myth teacher. It was my job to teach every camper in that course about all the most prominent monsters in the mythological world that they were likely to face as long as those who were famous, like the Minotaur, Medusa, Minos, and the like.

Basically, imagine an Ancient Greek history course on steroids and all the focus is on the mythological. Yeah, not exactly the easiest thing to teach to tons of children with ADHD, watching as their eyes glazed over during my lessons. I mean, I tried to make it as interesting as possible, but some myths, like that of Aeolus, were dry and boring despite them being so essential to one's survival.

I knew my friends were growing suspicious of my late night escapades, constantly watching me with worried glances, as if they were afraid I was a part of the Mafia or something. Honestly, I was afraid that they were going to place a tracking device in my stuff just so they could make sure I was safe.

Let me tell you, as the school year progressed and projects and homework steadily increased, I had to spend more time on school commitments while still having to balance my other duties, which ended up stressing my friends out more than myself for some weird reason.

And I tried my best to keep them out of the mythological world, but, well…even the best of intentions don't always play out the way you want them to.

It was a freezing February day when I was forced to tell my friends the truth about the world we live in.

The five of us had gotten out of classes early that day, seeing as a freshman had accidentally created chlorine gas in the biochemistry lab, so we decided to go to Times Square. In the few months that Andy and Patrick had been here, they'd never been to Times Square, which surprised Leah so much that she made it her mission to bring them there before the end of the school year.

Mission accomplished.

Anyways, as the five of us made our way through the crowded sidewalks of Times Square, being careful to avoid the crazy cab drivers and street vendors that shoved "I love New York" merchandise in your face and screamed for you to buy it, each one of us clutching a steaming beverage from Starbucks as the snow continued to fall around us.

"You know," Patrick was saying, eyeing the huge M&M World that was across the street, "I didn't think I'd be this cold, coming from Chicago and all. Guess I was wrong."

"Do you really want to go inside?" Pete asked, raising his eyebrows at his friend as he took a long sip from his coffee. "Because we could, if you want to."

"Yeah, I'm freezing," Leah replied, tying her scarf tighter around her neck before pulling her beanie down so that it covered the tips of her ears. Her breath turned to steam from how cold it was. "But not M&M World," she said. "If we can find a Barnes and Nobles or something, that'd be much better."

"Why not a movie theater?" Joe asked.

"You'll just force us to watch some horror movie with you guys," I said, disposing of my now empty coffee cup as I passed by a trash can. "Those things rot your brain, you know."

"Not true!"

"Uh, yeah, it is," Andy scoffed, readjusting his sunglasses. Of the five of us, he was the least affected by the cold, perfectly comfortable in basketball shorts and a black sweater, which the rest of us couldn't understand. Poor Patrick was shaking so hard I thought he was going to go into shock soon. "Every time you've suggested we go to the movie theater, we've watched a horror movie."

"Plus, we have that killer psych test about the nervous system in two days," I reminded them. "At least in a book store, they'll have books on psychology."

"Boo, you're no fun," Pete pouted, earning a slap on the arm from Leah. "But, fine, Barnes and Nobles it is."

"Yay!" Leah squealed, clapping her hands together in excitement before grabbing Joe and Pete's hands, skipping forward through the crowded sidewalks, completely ignoring all the nasty words and glances shot her way.

Andy gave me a once over. "You're not going to drag us, are you?"

"Not unless you want me to," I said with a shrug, readjusting my gloves as I felt them begin to slide off.

"Uh, guys," Patrick said, tapping me aggressively on the shoulder. "What the hell is that?"

He pointed to the other side of the street, where a man about seven feet tall was standing, wearing a dark trench coat and hat, like any stereotypical villain would be dressed in. But it wasn't just his height or clothing that made him suspicious, no, it was the fact that I could see the single eye sitting right in the middle of his forehead that made my blood turn to ice.

I didn't care so much about the fact that I was staring at a Cyclops – I'd already lost track of how many Cyclopes I've defeated – no, what concerned me was the fact that he was staring right back at me, a necklace dangling from the end of a crooked finger.

A necklace that contained a star and cloud charm.

I gasped, feeling the weight of my own charms on my wrist, praying that this was just some decoy and that this Cyclops hadn't actually taken those charms from Percy or Leo.

"We need to go," I said urgently, clamping my hands on either boy's wrist and beginning to drag them into the crowd even though I'd just said I wouldn't.

"What's wrong?" Andy asked, trying to look at what freaked Patrick out so much. "I don't see anything."

"He's horrible!" Patrick cried, his face paler than the ice on the road. "How did you not see him?"

"See what?"

"He's right behind us!"

I risked a look over my shoulder and swore when I saw that Patrick was right. This Cyclops was after me, and now that he knew Andy and Patrick were my friends, he'd try to hurt them too.

I broke out into a run, gesturing for the boys to follow me as we shoved our way past other New Yorkers, ignoring every swear word yelled at us. Eventually we caught up with Leah, Pete, and Joe, with Patrick only pausing to scream, "Run!" before also dragging them along behind me.

As I tried to lead my friends to safety, I let my feet go on autopilot, knowing this part of New York better than the back of my hand. Honestly, I wasn't too surprised when I found myself coming to a stop in front of the large fountain in the middle of the shopping plaza, watching as my friends arrived out of breath, collapsing onto their knees from exhaustion.

"Andromeda, what's going on?" Leah demanded, shoving Patrick's inhaler into his trembling hands. Patrick then pumped two squirts of the medicine into his mouth, sighing in relief as he threw his head back, gulping in mass quantities of air.

Before I could explain anything, I had enough time to say, "Watch out!" and throw up a dome of water before a standard issue New York taxi cab came flying toward us, crumpling on impact from slamming into my shield.

"Get out of here!" I yelled at my friends, summoning Epithymia as I scanned my surroundings, trying to find the Cyclops who'd become my stalker.

"Not until you tell us!" Leah demanded.

"Andy, behind you!" Joe shouted.

Both of us turned around, but seeing that the Cyclops was charging at me now, I figured the message was for me.

With the water shield I already had up, I turned the water into different ropes and had them tie the Cyclops down, pinning him down onto the ground. All around us, civilians were screaming and fleeing. I could hear the sound of police sirens starting to go off.

But apparently that Cyclops hadn't been alone, because I heard a woman's deranged laughter and…was that a lion's roar? It couldn't be, because the zoo was on the other side of the city, but yet here I was, hearing a lion roaring.

As if I didn't have enough to be worried about, I swallowed back a lump of fear as I watched Echidna and the Chimera walk out of an alleyway, each of them as horrendous as Rick Riordan had described them.

Patrick was screaming his head off, yelling about the monsters he could see while the others stared at him in concern and waited for me to explain what they were caught in the middle of.

"There's nothing there," Pete insisted, trying to soothe Patrick. "It's just a fat lady and her Chihuahua."

"No Chihuahua has a lion's head that breathes fire!"

"Patrick, the Chihuahua isn't breathing fire. Are you all right? What did they put in your hot chocolate?"

"Oh, how interesting," Echidna said, her black, slimy lips curling back into a feral smile, her beady eyes shining with nothing but malice. "You know, dearie, it's so very dangerous to have the princess out and about with nothing but mere mortals to accompany her. They're such fragile things, mortals, which is why Sonny will have great pleasure in tearing them to shreds!"

"I am not the princess," I hissed, brandishing Epithymia towards the Chimera, hoping to keep its attention on me instead of my friends. "If my father told you to call me that, you can tell him to shove his scythe where the sun doesn't shine. I will not join him, and you will not be hurting my friends, you stupid ant-eater!"

"Gah, I hate Australia! Die!"

Before any fighting could actually begin, I drove the point of my sword into the ground, watching as a flood of golden light encased everything within the plaza I was in. Knowing that I couldn't hold this spell for long, I took care of the Cyclops, Echidna, and the Chimera before picking up Epithymia, which ended the spell.

I stumbled and would've fallen on my face if it weren't for Andy's quick reflexes.

Patrick was still a blubbering mess, which completely broke my heart seeing that he was by far one of the sweetest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Pete and Andy were trying so hard to comfort him while Joe and Leah tapped their feet impatiently, demanding an explanation.

"I'll explain," I promised them through labored breaths, ignoring the tingling feeling in my hand as I swirled it around in the fountain water to regain some strength. But it was taking too long, and the cops were on their way, so I summoned my bag, took out half a square of ambrosia, and quickly devoured the godly food.

I winced as the sirens began getting closer, knowing we'd be the ones in massive trouble if we stayed any longer.

"We need to go," I said, struggling to my feet.

"No," Leah said, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what just happened. Who were those people? What did they want?"

"And why did that lady call you a princess? And why would you turn your back on your father? I thought you didn't know who he was?" Joe asked.

"I promise, I'll tell you everything, but if we don't go right now…" I swore as I saw the first cop care pull up. "We're out of time. Everyone get in a circle right now."

"But-"

"I said, now!"

Surprised by my outburst, my friends quickly did what I asked, and before the cops could reach us, the five of us faded into the mist, disappearing from that plaza with the next gust of wind.

By the time I'd finished explaining everything, I was pretty sure my friends thought that I belonged in a psych ward. Not that I blamed them. My life sounded like it belonged in a book (which, technically, it was), too fantastical to be considered real.

"Yeah, right," Leah scoffed once I'd finished. "If Kronos is your dad, then I'm Aphrodite."

I winced. "I wouldn't say that if I were you. She doesn't appreciate competition."

"Andromeda, she's not real. None of the Greek gods are real. They're just some myths made up by the Ancient Greeks to explain natural phenomena that they didn't understand."

"Then how do you explain those monsters?" Patrick asked, fidgeting with the hem of his jacket. "I may not like mythology as much as you do, Leah, but I know what a Cyclops is, and that was what was in that trench coat. Plus, if Andy's lying, how do you explain the water shield or ropes, the freezing time, or the teleporting?"

"I agree with Patrick," Pete said, leaning back in his chair so that he was balancing on the two back legs. "Sure, it sounds like a story, but too many things happened today that can't be explained by science. The notion of these gods existing, well, it makes the most sense to me."

"What Pete said," Andy commented, drumming his fingers on the table out of sheer boredom.

"And you, Joe?" I asked, staring at my curly-haired friend. "Do you believe me?"

He sighed and scratched his head, like he was really struggling to wrap his mind around what had happened today.

"I-I don't know, to tell you the truth," Joe said with a sigh, his shoulders slumping forward. "Science can't explain what happened, but at the same time, everything happened so quickly that I'm not sure if my mind was playing tricks on me or not. For all I know, everything I saw could've been the result of a hallucination."

"See," Leah said triumphantly. "A hallucination, not monsters."

"Hallucinations can't be shared, remember?" I said. "We learned that in psychology the other day. So unless we're all the same person, no one was hallucinating."

"I still don't believe that the Greek gods are real."

Once again, I winced as I heard thunder rumble overhead. "Shut up, drama king," I muttered, glaring up at the ceiling. "She doesn't know better."

"Who are you talking to?" Pete asked.

"Oh, Zeus. He's slightly annoyed about this conversation, to say the least." I sighed, running a hand through my curls. "But I'll deal with him later. I always do."

"Whoa, you're friends with the King of Olympus?" Patrick asked, his baby blue eyes wide with awe.

"He's my half-brother, actually. We have the same father."

"You seriously believe her?" Leah asked impatiently, her arms stubbornly crossed over her chest.

"I got all the proof I needed after today's fight."

"Well, I didn't."

"That's enough," I said, ending the argument before we'd get thrown out of Barnes & Noble for being too disruptive. "You want proof? Fine. Pick an Olympian."

Leah blinked, clearly not expecting that question. "Any Olympian?"

I shrugged. "Might as well throw in Hades and Hestia while we're at it."

She was silent for a few moments before finally saying, "Demeter. I choose Demeter."

"Okay, give me a second." I stood up from the table we'd taken over and walked outside, searching for any type of plant.

Kind of hard to find any form of greenery in the concrete jungle that is New York City, especially in the dead of winter, where ice and snow coated absolutely everything. Made me wonder if Khione had something against New York, but what did I know. Luckily, she was one of those goddesses that I didn't have to visit, so that was nice, I guess.

After some more searching, I found a bare rose bush growing out of a little windowsill garden and snipped off a single branch before returning back to my friends, who were all glaring at each other, still taking sides over whether they thought I was telling the truth or not.

"What's that dead branch going to prove?" Andy asked, curiosity clear as day in his voice as he poked the branch with a straw, making sure that it was real.

"That I'm telling the truth." I handed the branch to Leah. "Hold this for me."

I could tell that she was bursting with questions, but I placed a finger to my lips, telling her to be quiet and simply watch.

I placed a finger on the tip of the branch, shutting my eyes as images of springtime flooded my mind. I remembered the rose bush that Jade, Rebecca, and I would tend to back at the orphanage, and how beautifully it would bloom around April, producing elegant and fragrant pink roses.

"Oh, wow," I heard Joe gasp.

"I can't believe it," Leah whispered. "This can't be real."

I finally opened my eyes, seeing that the small branch, which hadn't been longer than five inches, was now as long as the table we were sitting at, the branch blooming with a dozen radiant red roses. I retracted my hand from the branch, watching the looks of shock on my friends' faces.

"How did you do that?" Pete asked, running his fingers lightly over the petals of the roses closest to him. "All you had was a twig!"

"The power of Demeter," I said with a smirk. "Goddess of agriculture and the harvest. Although she has an unhealthy obsession with cereal, she's a pretty chill Olympian compared to some of the others. And she has amazing powers, too, like being able to grow anything, which she passes onto her children. One of her daughters, Katie Gardner, grows a new bouquet of flowers every day to give to her friends."

"That's so cool!" Joe exclaimed, wincing when he pricked his finger on one of the thorns. I took his finger, checking if the thorn had gotten stuck in his skin, before handing him a napkin and saying that he'd be fine.

"But how?" Leah asked, setting the branch down as if it were a stick of dynamite. Before anyone else could look at the branch, I waved my hand over it, watching as the roses wilted and died before the wood rotted away, leaving me only with some shriveled petals to dispose of.

"The gods are real, and they have kids," I said bluntly. "And those kids have issues."

"Like what?" Patrick asked.

"Most demigods have ADHD and dyslexia. The ADHD helps keep us alive during a fight, because we can see and comprehend everything that's going on around us while still being able to focus on the task at hand. As for the dyslexia, that's because our brains are wired for Ancient Greek, not English. Luckily, I don't have dyslexia, but that means I have to study more compared to other demigods when it comes to mastering Ancient Greek."

"Cool."

"Eh, not really." I sighed. "Sure, the powers are awesome, but the gods can't visit their kids, and the majority of us die before we reach eighteen. I've already lost more friends to monsters than I would like to admit." I shut my eyes, knowing that this would still hurt to say. "I lost my best friend, a daughter of Apollo named Cleo, this past summer. She was only fifteen when she had her heart ripped out of her chest."

My four friends winced in sync.

"Nope, not cool anymore."

"But you're twenty-two," Joe pointed out. "And you're pretty powerful. So how are you still alive?"

I cracked a smile at that. "Some of us do make it into adulthood, you know? Plus, I've been trained by the Olympians themselves ever since I was fourteen. I can kill a person seventy-three different ways with my bare hands because of them."

"Oh, how lovely."

My smile widened. "I know, right? Anyways, that's why I'm always disappearing at the weirdest times. My father, the Titan King, is waging war against the Olympians and their children, and it's my responsibility to minimize as many demigod casualties as possible."

Leah exhaled deeply in defeat. "Alright, Andy, you win. I believe."

After my friends learned the truth, school became a million times easier for me. My friends now understood why it was so important for me to go when I was called upon, and when I'd be out all night, they would help me finish the previous night's homework and have an entire pot of coffee waiting for me to help me through the day.

Best friends, right there.

But while my life may have been getting easier, that certainly wasn't the case for Percy.

When spring break arrived, he called me via Iris-message, asking for me to come spend the two weeks with him at his mother's apartment. The fear was so evident in his voice that my heart ached to tell him the truth – that he would be okay in the end – but seeing that I was forbidden from doing so, I accepted his invitation, telling him that I'd be happy to spend spring break with him and his family.

Those two weeks, I made it my mission to take Percy out on any excursion he wanted to do, giving Sally and Paul some alone time seeing that they'd just gotten married last month and hadn't been able to have a proper honeymoon because of monetary reasons and scheduling issues.

Needless to say, once I knew that the newlyweds hadn't gotten to go on their honeymoon yet, I got them a hotel reservation at one of the nicest resorts in Clearwater, Florida, where on a nice day, the water was completely see through and still, as if walking into a pool instead of going into the ocean.

Sally and Paul had tried to turn down the vacation, but at Percy and my insistence, they finally agreed to go, seeming very excited about getting some time to themselves.

As for Percy and me, well, I took him wherever he wanted to go, including go-kart driving, Coney Island, the beach, Camp Half-Blood (to see Annabeth…ignore my fangirl screaming), the movie theater, Rachel Elizabeth Dare's house (I was almost punched her dad one time for one of his snobby remarks about Percy's ADHD and Rachel's art), the aquarium, etc.

I didn't blame him for trying to cram in so many activities into two weeks. For one thing, most schools didn't have more vacation days after spring break, meaning students just had to hang on for the ride until summer break, and secondly, once summer began, Percy would be stuck in full on training mode until after his sixteenth birthday.

And while during the day he'd act like nothing was wrong, I'd always have to run into his room around two or three in the morning to wake him up from a nightmare, holding him in a tight embrace as he tried to fight off panic attacks on a nightly basis.

Seriously, I knew he had worse dreams than most demigods, but I think in this timeline his dreams are much worse than what they used to be. I mean, no fifteen-year-old kid should have such pronounced bags under their eyes because of nightmares.

As cheesy as they were, I found that Percy usually slept better if there was a dream catcher in his room. Sure, they pertained more to Native American mythology than Greek, but, hey, if it works, it works.

Sadly, the two weeks flew by too quickly for either one of our likings, neither one of us wanting to go back to school.

"Freshman year sucks," Percy grumbled as he poured an unhealthy amount of syrup onto his blue pancakes, painfully aware of the fact that today was the last day of spring break.

"Oh, just wait until junior year," I said, adding some sugar and milk to my coffee. "It'll make freshman year seem like a piece of cake."

"Assuming I'm still alive to make it to junior year." Percy aggressively stabbed his pancakes before shoving his fork into his mouth.

And on that happy note, we finished eating breakfast in silence, dreading having to go back to school and concerned about the summer to come.