Hi guys, HPfan5ever here. I know, my name and profile pic says that I'm a Harry Potter fan, but my first fic is PJO. It's weird, deal with it. Anyway, as mentioned, this is my first fic, so please, POLITE criticism is appreciated. Oh and btw, I have too much free time, so I'm releasing two chapters. I know, crazy. DISCLAIMER: All rights belong to the genius Rick Riordan, or as we fans know him, Uncle Rick. The ONLY characters I own are Isabelle's family, her, Natalie, and Mr. Thero. The rest belong to Uncle Rick. Enjoy!

"Isa! Wakey wakey, eggs and bacy! Not really though, mom made spaghetti." Called Juán, my older stepbrother.

I groaned under the covers. "Coming!"

"No you're not! Get out of bed, honey!" called my dad.

Great. Just great. No stuffy nose, no sore throat, nada. Zippo. Zilch. The one time I get better from a cold the next day, it had to be on a school trip with Mr. Thero, the most boring teacher in existence. And the worst part is, we're going to an old battleground from the U.S Civil War! Only Mr. Thero could make cannons and war boring. I'm starting to think he has a gift. At least I have the Razorbacks game tonight to look forward to. Dad's making his famous cinnamon sugar popcorn.

I threw off the covers, opened my window, and started trudging through my room, or, 'swamp of clothes' as Alana calls it. She said that it's "So messy, you'd need a miracle to fully clean it!" So, we did the only logical thing to do. Just stopped trying. While walking to the closet, I straightened the crooked Razorbacks poster on my wall, a couple of my oil painting canvases, the cork board I use to hang all my sketches and pictures, and the table that I use to build all of the models for dad's client's houses. My dad, Felix, works in an interior design company, meaning he gets to go to people's houses and tell them what to buy and what their house should look like, and gets paid for it. Dream job, and best of all, I get to help him with it, since people just don't trust the process. I'm in charge of building the models to show them what their new houses are gonna look like, and not to brag, but there's a reason why dad never bothered to hire a pro.

After carefully examining my clean clothes, I eventually decided on a stripy rainbow shirt, my last clean overalls, and my fancy cuffed ankle socks that Jóse gave me last week 'just 'cause'. (I still haven't figured out what he did yet, but I will!…. eventually.) Obviously I'm the kind of person that likes to accessorize to the max, so on with my white headband with a rainbow charm, the charm bracelet that Natalie made me, my cotton-candy colored glasses, and my cloud earrings.

"Oy, Isa! Mom called you down 5 minutes ago. Your breakfast's getting cold." My little stepsister, Sole, said, rudely barging into my room. Like seriously, what if I was changing? There's just no privacy in this house!

I rolled my eyes. "Lemme guess, she sent you up here because the boys are fighting again, right?"

"Yep." she said with a matching eye roll. Pretty sassy for a seven year old. I was making good progress with her.

"I'll be down in a sec," To say that Sole wasn't convinced would be the understatement of the year.

"Whatever, I told you, so, my job here is done. Byeeeeeee!" She said, spinning around to leave. "Close the door!" Ignored. Great. Right, apparently I've taught her too well, since she's also being sassy with me, which was not part of the plan. Whatever, I'll deal with that after school.

"Finally!" Exclaimed Jóse. "That has got to be a record! You consider applying, ya know, for the record of 'Most amount of time spent getting ready in the world'.

I rolled my eyes. Clearly he had no idea how long it took Alana, his own mom, to get ready. Go figures, since one minute he doesn't care about anything unless it affects him, and the next minute, he's playing Mother Hen with Marisa, our 4 year old bundle of cuteness (and puke).

Sliding next to my dad, I began to dig into Alana's spaghetti. It wasn't bad, at least by my standards, but everyone else seemed to be loving it. Guess that's what I get for being a picky eater.

"How is it Isa?" Asked Alana. She prides herself on being a good cook, and when dad said I was picky, Alana started a little challenge for herself. If she could make stuff that I liked, she got a point, if I didn't like it, she lost one, but it didn't really affect me so I was tempted to lie, but that would be mean since Alana beats herself up about this, so I decided to go with the truth.

"It's not that bad, but there's not enough sauce and onions, and next time, don't add butter," I said, making a slightly impressed face. Alana's face beamed, 'cause when it comes to me, that's basically a 'that's good!'. "I'll take it! One more point for me!" She exclaimed happily. I've gotta admit, it's kinda sweet, the way she's tried so hard to include me in the new family, even if she does think I'm kinda weird…. or really weird.

The rest of the fam starts chatting in Spanglish, and Marisa helpfully makes a few baby noises here and there, which is my cue to start daydreaming. There's no way I'm going to let Mr. Thero ruin the park for me, so last night I'd researched (read: bribed Juán to research because it would take me a century to read all those paragraphs with my ADHD and dyslexia) to learn as much as I could (read: to learn as much as he could to report back to me) so I didn't have to listen to the snooze fest that was going to be Mr. Thero's 'informational speech of very valuable knowledge' aka boooorrringgggggg.

"Isa! It's time to go! Wouldn't want to miss your big field trip! Pea Ridge National Military Park, eh?" Said dad, nudging me in the shoulder.

"Yep, super exciting! Can't wait to hear all about what Mr. Boring- I mean Thero has to say about it." Jóse just rolled his eyes and mouthed 'Dramatic'. I stuck my tongue out at him in response, which got me a light scolding.

"Ay, don't act like that towards your brother. And that's disrespectful to your teacher. Got it?" I sighed, and mumbled "Sorry", then grabbed my backpack and headed to the car. It was gonna be a looong day.

I know it's short, but the next chapter is much longer.

Cheers,

HPfan5ever.