The story so far (Prologue)

"So I just…start talking?"

"Yeah, it's already turned on.. just go ahead and uh.. talk?"

"Carter, please never give people advice. Percy, just say what you wanted your camp scribe to write down, okay? We can go through it and edit stuff later."

"and you're sure this will work?"

"I mean you said that most of them have dyslexia, right? This way, maybe they can actually focus on the book..."

"Right yeah, that makes sense. Audio-book.. sounds funny…alright then, I suppose we should begin.. where do I start? The Beginning? Okay uh.."

"In my innocent childhood I was unable to comprehend the magnanimity of-"

"What the fuck? Percy what're you-"

"Silena, we're recording! Get in here!"

"Right. Start from somewhere proper, please oh and Sadie, babe you look gorgeous! Are you and the squad headed somewhere later?

"Okay. So, in case anyone actually ever gets to hear this, and isn't already bored to death of my girlfriend interrupting, -"

"I was just-"

"Here's the story so far.."

Clear blue water, high tide came and brought you in… (Chapter 1) [Percy]

Look, I didn't want to dunk a pretty girl into the pool at my fifth-grade school. If, for some reason, you heard of back when I'd done that and figured this would be a manual or something, you buggin' son. Weird stuff happened to the schools I went to, okay? It wasn't something I had planned, and it certainly wasn't something I'd advise you to do. This is more about avoiding that sort of shit. Being a half-blood is scary, dangerous, it'll get you thrown out of schools and public places, and it might even get you killed. Don't say I didn't warn you. What's a half-blood? Well, read- I mean, listen on.

My name is Percy Jackson. I was eleven years old, and the school I was currently in was my fifth one in five years. It was a boarding school in Oklahoma, and not bad at all. I was determined to not mess anything up here. Trouble found me by itself as always, though. It was early on a Sunday and I was hanging around by the gate by myself when I saw it. A shadow of a huge dog- and I mean like actually huge. At first, I almost thought it was a large car or something but then I could clearly make out its head and tail. Was I imagining things? My ADHD acted up sometimes – oh yeah, I have dyslexia and ADHD which makes concentrating on schoolwork a major pain. Probably the other reason why I get expelled so quick. Where was I? Yeah, my ADHD made me see things that weren't there but somehow, I wasn't so sure about it this time.

"Hello?", I asked softly hoping it was someone's pet with a disproportionately large shadow. No one answered. Instead, I heard a low growl. I tensed, ready to bolt. Then I saw the dog's head. What the fuck. It had red eyes and looked like it had come out of the depths of hell. I didn't stop to let my brain dispel what had to be some imagination. I ran. Some of the teachers had to be awake, right? The guards weren't my greatest fans and I'd have to get behind the dog somehow to reach them. I wasn't sure where I was headed once I entered the school building but eventually found myself running towards the pool. Good enough, I thought. Some of the sophomores would probably be up for a morning swim, and they all liked me, cause I was the only one on the junior swim team that could keep up with them. The pool and swim team was one of the best things about this school. Evil dog was following me, I realized as I saw its giant shadow gaining on me as I turned the corner. I picked up speed, rushing towards the pool now. Shit, I thought dimly. There was no one in the water today. I turned back, still running, when I heard another growl from it, but couldn't see the dog. "Whaaaaugh-!" I'd crashed into something? What- Never mind, I grabbed hold of whatever it was and jumped into the pool. Instantly I felt calmer, and a bit better. The panic at seeing the huge dog lessened, and my senses felt sharper, somehow. It was almost like a reflex at this point. I'd always loved the water, ever since I stepped into waves at Montauk when I was a baby. It was a bit strange I suppose, considering my mom had always told me my dad was lost at sea. I came up for air and realized I hadn't dragged something into the water, I'd dragged someone. Beside me, the girl spluttered.

"What in the-"

"Oh my god, I am so sorry, I didn't look, It's totally my bad", I rushed to apologize. The blue-eyed girl was slightly familiar, one of the sixth-grade cheerleaders, I think? "Didn't look is putting mildly hon. You were running as if there was a hellhound after you. Or Mrs. Killian, I suppose." My lips quirked up slightly at the mention of the barmy English teacher the entire school hated. Then I remembered why I had been running like that. Evil dog was nowhere to be seen, and I couldn't even hear it anymore, thankfully. "Okay so this will sound crazy but I did think I saw some large dog that looked absolutely evil so I ran towards the pool." I expected her to call me out on it, but she just frowned and looked thoughtful now. "Huh.. I see. You're Percy, right? From the swim team?" I blinked. "Uh yeah, that's me. Percy. Percy Jackson." I was kinda flattered that she knew my name, really. The girl was popular, and I… was not. She smiled and extended a hand at me, moving closer through the water. "Hey Percy. I'm Silena." Ohhh, that's right! Silena Beauregard, I remembered her name now. We shook hands, and I grabbed onto one of the rails and dragged myself out of the pool, clothes soaking wet. Whoops, I thought. This would be hell to explain to the other guys once I got back to the dorm, wouldn't it?

Silena followed me out of the pool, shaking herself like a cat. It was kinda cute, I thought. I caught myself staring at her lush brown hair flying about her face and mentally slapped myself. Focus, Percy! I told myself. "So any evil dogs I still need to watch out for, Percy?", she asked with a small smile. Her voice made it clear she was teasing but I was serious when I looked around at our surroundings. "No, whatever it was, It's gone now I think." She laughed, "Well that's a relief. Thank you for protecting me from the murderous dog by throwing me into the pool, O great Percy." I turned back at her, groaning. "Oi, you shut it!. I told you it was a mistake I wasn't looking at where I was going… oh and please, don't tell anyone about this." She walked past me, laughing still. "Fine, I won't tell anyone. This stays between us. You are so getting me a new shirt at the field trip next week though." I frowned suddenly. "Wait, how's your shirt still dry?" She turned back suddenly with a strange expression and shook it off. "It's not?" I blinked once. The shirt had seemed dry suddenly after she got out of the pool but now it looked wet again. "Right, my brain's playing tricks with me again. It's probably an ADHD thing." Her eyes softened a bit. "Don't worry about it. You had an… eventful morning. Go and rest a bit today." I nodded. I did need the rest after my short sprint and I was definitely not going to be able to concentrate on my homework after this. "Bye, Percy!" Silena said. I waved at her, thankful she hadn't made a big deal out of it. This would've been the dumbest reason to get expelled.

I didn't realize it back then, but I had just made my first real friend. We came across each other at the cafeteria the next day, and after struggling to go through the menu together, I learnt that she had dyslexia too. "Some of my… half-siblings have ADHD along with it too, but I can usually focus on stuff without issues", Silena told me. I wondered what her siblings were like. I hadn't really known anyone else with both of those conditions together before… and the way she said siblings made it seem like there were a lot of them. I almost asked about it, but then realized I had no business doing that. Her family was hardly my concern. I told her about my mother, Sally Jackson, the most amazing human in the world. I might've been biased, but she'd have to deal with it. You'll have to, too. "She works at this candy store in Grand Central Station, and I always get blue candy when I go home." Silena looked at me quizzically "Blue candy?"

"Yeah, it's become an inside joke for us now. My stepdad doesn't believe in blue food, see. So just to spite him we always try to get as much of it as we can in the house." She smiled, a bit wistfully. "She sounds great. I'm not very close to my mother, actually. She's extremely busy with… work and stuff." That sounded like the case for a lot of kids here. I'd heard this guy Brian's dad worked at the CIA but barely spent time home, so he'd been sent here for school. Even in the summer, he'd be going on some guided tour across the world instead of staying home. It made me glad that I at least got to see my mom whenever I went home. I also got to see my stepdad, Smelly Gabe which I was a lot less happy about, but my mom more than made up for it with her warmth and affection. Which reminded me to ask "Are you going anywhere for the summer, Silena? A summer home or something?" I didn't know if her family was rich like some of the kids' here. "Not exactly? I've been going to this summer camp the last couple of years and I'm hoping to go this year too." My face fell, cause I'd been hoping to suggest we meet up in the city. I hope she didn't notice, I thought.

After that, I didn't get the chance to talk to Silena for a while. She was always surrounded by her friends and most of those girls looked scary as hell. Talking with her had helped improve my mood somewhat, which was a huge help as schoolwork increased towards the end of the year. I started feeling pretty good about myself for lasting almost the entire year this time. Just a few more weeks till May, and then I'd finally be able to come back to the same school for another year. Mom sent me a letter asking me how things were going and telling me how excited she was to see me back home soon. I couldn't help smiling at the letter in my mother's clear, spaced-out, writing. My mother had this unique ability to make you feel better just by being in the same room with you. Guess it even worked long-distance. "Ohhh, does little Mr. gills have a girlfriend back in the city?" I groaned. It was Derek Widass and his gang, standing at the entrance to my dorm. They were all in sixth grade but most of them looked (and probably were) old enough to be in high school. "Go away, Derek", I said tiredly. I didn't want to get into a fight this late into the year, because one: Derek was surrounded by wannabe thugs that looked a lot like my stepdad Gabe, and two: with my luck this would somehow end up being my fault. Sadly, it didn't seem to have placated him. "Let's have a look at the note eh, Gills?" The nickname sucked. Someone had started this rumor that I could breathe underwater during a swim competition back in October and had yelled "He's gotta have gills like a fish!" and it had stuck since then. For the record, I did not, in fact, have gills. Despite the lack of effort on his part, Derek's thugs leered as if it had been something profoundly hurtful to say to me. "It's from my mother", I muttered warily, edging towards the hallway to avoid getting cornered. Not that they needed to know that. I was about to stuff the letter in my pocket when two of the guys grabbed my arms and Derek tried to snag the letter from me. I managed to hold on, somehow, twisting to get out of the guys' hold and wishing the letter could disappear. I didn't know exactly why but my mind suddenly went back to the pool, focusing on Silena's shirt. Wet one moment, dry the next. It had to have been a trick of the light, right? Wet. Dry. Wet again. What if... the letter did disappear? A faint breeze. "What the heck? Where'd you hide it?" The hands holding me loosened in surprise as Derek let out something that was technically a squeal, and I managed to thrust and free myself. I must've zoned out again as I didn't remember hiding it anywhere. I frowned. It had been in my hand, hadn't it? … wait, it was in my hand! Huh. That was weird. I watched as whatever had unsettled the gang lost effect and they came towards me again. I was in the hallway now. Someone had to come by soon, right? "We just wanna see what's written, Gills." Derek called out. They were getting closer. I tried to control my rising anger. "yeah, what's the harm?" another of them had decided to speak up. "Unless he's lying and it is from his girlfriend…" Breathe, I thought. Breathe, Percy.

"Percy?" I turned, surprised, to see Silena standing on the other side of the hallway. Her clear blue eyes swept over the gang behind me, the disapproval clearly etched on her face. "These guys aren't bothering you, right?" I was about to speak up when Derek cut in. "Oh, no, just having a little chat with Percy. You know 'im, Sil?" The guys behind him seemed to have lost their tongues. I couldn't exactly blame them, she looked really nice in her rose-patterned t-shirt and skinny jeans. Something about her face looked cute too, as if she'd applied a very subtle layer of makeup. "Don't call me that, please. and yeah, Percy's a friend of mine", she said with a smile towards me. I blushed and looked away before she could catch me staring. "Oh, really." Derek looked back towards me as if he didn't believe that, but before he could say anything else, she cut him off. "Didn't you have history reading to do anyways? You know Mr Brandon will give you hell if you don't do well on the pop quiz." He blinked, nodding, and slowly slouched away as if he had just realized it. Pretty soon the group had dispersed and it was just me and Silena. "They were picking on you, weren't they?" I found it a lot easier to speak to her now that they'd gone. "Yeah, they saw me reading my mom's letter and wanted to take it." She sighed. "I hate those guys. They get sent to the Principal like every day, but nothing changes." I nodded. "I don't even know what they have against me…" It wasn't like I was a teacher's pet or anything. Silena smirked. "Come on, a cute guy with that many swimming awards? Of course they're jealous." I stared at her, but she continued talking before I could voice my incredulity. "Are you going to the field trip on Monday? Fifth-graders are allowed too, right?"

"Yeah, they are. I don't exactly have a great track record with field trips in general, but I think I'll be going, yeah." "I'll see you there then, Percy!" She smiled and walked off. I waved at her, muttering "Did Silena Beauregard just call me cute..." under my breath.

"You just went cause Silena would be there, didn't you?"

"What? No!"

"Sadie, don't tease him, come on.."

Sorry about that. She's wrong, by the way. I had already decided to go before my run in with Silena. At first I'd just walked by the registration desk because I could barely read what was written on the field trip banner with its badly-contrasted colors, and I wasn't really close enough with anyone else to ask them but then they installed this speaker and video screen last week and the place we were supposed to go to actually looked cool. It was a national history park built around the Saratoga Battlefield, with a great view of the Hudson. I wasn't all that interested in the history of the revolutionary war, but the cannons on display looked pretty impressive. Anyways, it was way better than being stuck here for more days, so I didn't regret signing up at all. Silena going on the trip as well was a bonus, of course. "Sure, Mr. Jackson" Miss Warren, the kindly and cheerful history teacher leading the field trip said, handing me a pamphlet. "See you next week! We'll get on the bus at 8, sharp!" I took a look at the thing in my hand. The coloring was better than the banner at least, and I was pretty sure there was something about a drunk general surviving a ton of fights without any injuries. So weird. The list of stops was written in a cursive font I could barely read, but I made out something that looked like "Boot Monument". That's gotta be my dyslexia acting up, I thought. Sighing, I pocketed the pamphlet and headed back to my dorm, wondering how many others from my grade were going.

Later, after dinner I had the weird feeling that something was watching me. I glanced out at the dark street from the dorm window and saw…. Nothing? Wait. Something that looked a lot like Evil-dog slunk away past the inner campus gate. Please let that just be my brain playing tricks on me, I thought to myself as I went to sleep.