Chapter 1: The story begins

[3rd Person Pov]

David sighed to himself while he sat all alone at the corner of his school gymnasium. Everyone else around him was happily enjoying the ball party; drinking punch, laughing, and dancing with friends or their lovers.

He had neither of those, which was why he was sulking at the corner.

Not to misunderstand, he never really felt the need for girls or romance or those kinds of head aching kinds of stuff, which was all the boys in this wretched military school for Juvenile delinquents seemed to care about.

Even though he was in the midst of them, David never could stand them for more than 10 seconds-all the talks about which girl had the best body, or the bragging about how one made a cunning robbery before getting finally caught made him sick out of disgust.

The girls were mostly similar, the only notable difference being they talked about which boy had the body or looks. David could hardly care more to them either, even though he was among those gossips as 'some-what handsome.'

Which naturally meant something where every student was held together-like school balls-were his worst nightmares. And currently, he happened to experience it now, so his semi-permanent scowl was deeper than usual as he lingered near at the shadows.

He sighed to himself. He missed his family-well, his real one anyway.

'I hope ma is doing well alone...she already suffered more than enough thanks to me.'

However, he didn't know: He won't be returning home for a very long time…

[Thalia's Pov]

"-and he used to like the bubbles when he was a baby; oh, he had such a cute giggle too-"

"Mom…"

Percy grumbled at the back seat as her mother kept going on and on about his past; mostly about how cute he used to be as a baby, and Annabeth and I had to try very hard to keep our laughs inside.

His face was flushed in a deep shade of red up to his ears, and I could see Annabeth trembling in her seat from the effort to keep her laughter in check.

Me? I used to be a tree for a good several years, so I was used to not showing my emotions. All I could do then was shake my leaves slightly.

Outside of the window, there was a whirl of snowflakes flying backward faster than the car. So if you gazed out at the sky it almost felt like the car was moving backward.

"Thanks for the weather dad."

A distant thunder boomed with a flash of lightning afar.

Such a kindhearted father figure, with a mind wider than the ocean…ugh.

To be honest, I was nervous-more nervous than I'd think I'd be, and more than I wanted to show. This was the first time I was sent on a proper mission by Camp Half-Blood, and it was an emergency according to Grover.

Grover might be a jumpy satyr, but he still had enough sense to divide 'emergency' to 'not emergency', and he never pulled an alarm out of pure fright alone either.

If something were to happen again like last time…

I can't let it; I just can't. You do not the same mistake twice, Thalia Grace; Luke wouldn't have-

…

"Thalia?"

"Huh-what?"

From the back mirror, a pair of grey eyes were looking at me. That was Annabeth. It seemed the talk about Percy's childhood was finally over.

"What, Annabeth? Did Percy once choke on a blue Lego piece because he wanted to eat it?"

"Yes, but he also asked if you were doing good."

Next to Annabeth was Percy Jackson; I honestly didn't know much about him. I could tell he was one of the strongest demigods I've seen.

I saw him kill the Minotaur at the hill two years ago, which was impressive, to say the least, he had retrieved Zeus-my father's lightning bolt at the same year and brought me back to human form by collecting the golden wool just a half month ago.

All acts of tremendous heroism; if I was Poseidon I would be proud of him as a father.

A demigod's glory was their godly parent's glory, after all.

That might have been the reason why Zeus turned me into a tree back then; for a 'noble' and 'tragic' sacrifice when he could've just as easily fried all the monsters that were on our tail.

But while these 6 months passed, I also couldn't help but realize that Annabeth was strangely spending a lot of time with him even after I returned we spent more times as three than a two(me and Annabeth, which I would prefer to be honest), and she always seemed to be in between him and me; as if she was worried that I might get close to him.

I could guess why. The boy reminded me of…well, Luke, and I was also positive Annabeth thought so too. Whether she was aware of it or not, I can't tell.

Annabeth was giving me a worried look as I stayed silent, so I hitched on a daring smile.

"I'm fine. I finally get to skewer monsters with my spear again, don't I?"

Annabeth giggled as I span my pen between fingers and nodded, though Percy didn't seem convinced so I looked away.

Thankfully, he didn't press on me; we were still awkward between just the two of us.

After that, we finally arrived at our destination: Westover Hall Military School.

"It used to be a real military school until a few years ago when it was remodeled to keep juvenile delinquents after they were released from juvenile hall."

Annabeth cited a trivia as we looked up at the 'school'.

"It looks more like Dracula's castle than a school."

Percy muttered under his breath, which came out in white puffs against a cold night winter air.

It was colder than we'd anticipated, and after a hurried goodbye and thanks to his mother for the ride, we hurried inside.

[Percy's Pov]

"Whoa…"

I've moved around lots of schools before, but I never got a chance to see a military school before. I half expected to see guns and grenades as decorations, but instead, the inside was like a legit castle for rich people.

"Look at the architecture!"

Annabeth was also impressed-even more than me, to be honest.

She was looking around the entrance with its white pillars and marble floor and ceiling with paintings I didn't recognize. Her eyes gave a twinkle like an excited child at Disney world as she looked around, absorbing every little detail there is.

It was nice seeing her in this 'I love architect' mode.

Might I say it is one of the few moments when her smile feels genuine, and not something deliberate like that one time when she executed a perfectly elaborated plan to squash my team at [Capture the flag].

Then Thalia interrupted her.

"Annabeth, calm down; we're on a quest."

"Oh, right. Sorry."

Thalia was rubbing her bracelet with a…stern face? I really couldn't tell by her facial expression. It was as if I was staring at a tree and trying to decipher its thoughts.

We stuffed our bag behind a pillar and were about to walk down the hallway before meeting with two adults.

One was a lady with a clipboard and a mustache, which was fake oneit was exactly like the one old-time villain's twirl as they laughed like a maniac. The other was in a trench coat with a top hat that mostly hid his face. He was slightly limping as if there was something wrong with his leg.

The woman walked up to us.

"I don't remember your faces. Who are you and why are you here?"

Oh, right. We forgot to come up with a plan on the way here. Thanks, mom.

"Um-"

I tried to make up a story but Thalia cut me short.

She stepped forward and snapped off her fingers before saying

"But we are students at this school. I'm Thalia and this is Annabeth and Percy."

I was pretty sure we were going to get busted and probably be kicked out, but the lady said in a dreamy tone. "Yes...students...don't leave the ball again or there will be detention. Now back to the gymnasium all three of you." And walked off.

The guy followed her down the hallway, but his green eyes were not at all dreamy, and I knew he wasn't affected by the trick Thalia did.

"We have to go quick. Grover must be at the gymnasium too."

Annabeth was also following the man's work. No doubt that she too had realized Thalia's trick only worked on one of the two adults. We quickly went down the hallway to the Gymnasium.

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"That finger snap trick?"

Thalia looked at me perplexed; was I supposed to know what that was?

"I just manipulated the mist. Didn't Chiron teach you how to do that?"

She asked back, and I was surprised. He never even mentioned to me that you can manipulate the mist.

I took a glance at Annabeth, but she just shrugged-whatever that meant, I had no idea and Thalia didn't seem to be eager to explain further.

She couldn't have had learned anything before she turned into a tree, so if she had learned anything, it must have been during the last 6 months.

If it only took that little time, why hadn't Chiron shown me that trick?

But I quickly got rid of that thought as Grover came out of the ballroom. For some reason, he was wearing hideous makeup that was more or less scribbled on him without any care.

"Thank Gods you are here!"

He said with a hug for both Annabeth and Thalia, the former holding back a laugh while the latter was taken a backalmost frightened at the sight of his clown face.

Then we bumped out fists. It was nice to see Grover again, but now wasn't the time to be happy with the reunions.

"What is the emergency?"

I asked Grover and his smile faded.

"I found a demigod."

"Here? Of all places?"

Thalia asked and Grover nodded.

"His name is David Lee. 15 years old. Black hair, half Asian. I'm not sure about the parentage, but his scent is strong-too strong! And I'm not even sure who the monster isblah!"

He blurted out like a goat at the end.

"There is a monster here?"

Immediately the image of the dude I saw earlier passed my mind but I let it slide. For now, at least.

Grover nodded.

"I am sure of it. But with all the kids and teachers it is hard to specify who the monster is, and today is the last day before David can return home."

"So it would most certainly attack…"

Thalia grumbled, and again she rubbed her bracelet.

"We'll think about that later. Where is the kid?"

"Annabeth, he is 2 years older than us."

I cut in but she said,

"I don't care Percy. I'll call him what I want."

…and I closed my mouth again. Never a smart move to cross paths with her too much.

"He is at the Gymnasium…I think." Grover replied.

"You think?"

"I saw him at the beginning of the ball, but then I lost sight completely. He might have left the room unnoticed."

"Then we split up."

Then Thalia grabbed Grover and pulled him out of the room.

"You two look for him inside. Good luck."

Before any of us can say anything, she whisked off dragging Grover along like a cattle getting hauled off to slaughter.

"What was that about?"

"I'm not sure…but Thalia would be fine."

Annabeth sounded very certain, and I got an urge to ask her the reasoning behind that trust when she mostly wouldn't have let me go along. But I held my tongue again.

The blaring sound of dance music hit my ears as we entered the Gymnasium.

Various kids were dancing around. The guy with the trench coat from before was sulking near the emergency exit, and his yellow eyes were fixated on us with malicious intent.

Wait, but wasn't his eyes green a second ago?

Before I can properly recall the image, Annabeth bummed her elbow into my ribs making me wince in pain.

"We are standing out. We need to blend in."

"How do we do that?"

She looked at me with an exasperated face.

"We dance, seaweed brain."

"Oh."

I didn't like that idea. I was never a fan of dancing ever since I was born(probably) and therefore had no experience on it aside from stepping on my partner's toes more times than I can count whenever I tried.

But the stare from the trench coat guy was starting to get painfully uncomfortable, so I looked around the dance floor.

"Who do I dance with?"

Annabeth again gave me a glance of disapprovenment-or was the word disapproval? I had no idea, and Annabeth just grabbed my arm and pull me along just like Thalia did.

As I said, I was terrible at dancing. And not because of lack of trying.

I tried my best not to step in her toes as we waded across the sea of student criminals, but Annabeth still winced every three seconds or so, and I could tell she was desperately regretting her decision.

"So...what have you been up to?"

That turned her attention from her probably throbbing toes. She went on about her new school, about the stuff she learned there, and her eyes gave the same sparkle as before as she did.

I should have been happy to hear that, and part of me was. On the other side, however, I…wasn't. It felt as if she had gotten farther away-which was technically true since her new school was close to LA.

"Don't you miss camp?"

I found myself blurting out, cutting off her in the middle of explaining whatever she was explaining. Annabeth slowly stopped in the middle of the dance floor and looked into my eyes. Her stormy grey eyes seemed to swirl a little.

"Of course I do, Percy. I just-"

But then her expression suddenly changed to shock.

"He is gone."

"What?"

"The kid! He was under one of the speakers, and he is gone!"

To be honest it took me several seconds to comprehend what she meant by 'kid'. Then I remembered we were on a mission and quickly turned around to where Annabeth was looking at.

Sure enough, no one was at the place. And also, sure enough, the trench coat guy was gone as well.

"We have to go after him."

"No, we need to find Thalia first; then we go after him."

"We don't have time, Annabeth."

"We will if we hurry. Come on!"

Annabeth beckoned at me to follow as she squeezed through a crowd of people, but I didn't follow.

For one, I still thought we'd be too late if we tried to group up.

And for another, I didn't like how she went straight to Thalia when a problem arose. I was confident that, if she could handle something, I can do it too.

So I grabbed my ballpoint pen in my pocket and slipped to the other side of the gym.