The final night before Winter break started, my mom was driving me to a new boarding school. Not to attend, mind you.

I had received a distress call from Grover. He hadn’t told me exactly what was going on, but it seemed serious.

Along for the ride were Annabeth and Thalia. I was glad to have them along. Hopefully, between the three of us and Grover, we could handle any threat that came our way. Hopefully.

Luck could really screw with us sometimes.

Anyway, here we were, driving out to Maine, of all places, and the three of us didn’t particularly feel like talking. Annabeth was nervously patting her Yankees invisibility cap on her thigh, Thalia was absent-mindedly playing with the chains on her wrist, which were actually the disguised form of her shield, Aegis. As for me, I was fidgeting. We all knew a fight was coming.

My mom, on the other hand, tended to talk more when she was nervous. As a result, she regaled my friends with story after story of me as a toddler. Pretty embarrassing, right?

“She was so insistent that the horses were talking to her, and the teacher just kept explaining that horses can’t talk, but of course, as we all know, horses can talk to her, so she absolutely knew she was correct and wouldn’t back down.”

Ok, that story wasn’t nearly as embarrassing as any of the others.

Just as she was recounting for the fifth time just how adorable I was in the bathtub, we pulled up in front of the school – Westover Hall.

Thalia rubbed some fog off the window. “Looks… welcoming.”

Annabeth laughed nervously. “Thanks, Ms. Jackson.”

Thalia turned to face my mom. “Yeah, thanks so much Ms. Jackson.”

“It was no problem, dears. Also, you should definitely call me Sally, alright?”

Thalia nodded. “Of course, Sally.”

I reached across Thalia and opened the door. “Thanks mom. Come on, Annabeth, Thalia.” I practically pushed Thalia out the door.

Call it rude to be so desperate to get away from my mom, but, like I said, her stories of me as a toddler were very embarrassing.

We all climbed out of the car, walking around to the trunk to grab our overnight bags.

My mom rolled down the window as we started to make our way towards the school’s front door. “You girls be careful, ok? Don’t let those monsters hurt you.”

I nodded and smiled. “We’ll be alright, mom. We’re practically professionals by now.”

Thalia snorted. “Don’t worry, Sally. I’ll keep your daughter safe.”

I scowled at the older girl’s back. “I can keep myself safe quite well, thank you.”

“We’ll keep her safe,” Annabeth said.

My mom relaxed a little, but she was still tense. “You’ve got everything? You have my cell phone number?”

Annabeth nodded. “I have it, don’t worry.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to wait for you?”

I shook my head. “We’ll be fine. We’ll find a way to camp after, I’ll send you an Iris Message then.”

My mom pursed her lips. “Alright, sweetie. Please take care of yourselves.”

“We will.” I said.

Once she had driven away, Thalia said, “your mom is pretty cool, Percy.”

I shrugged. “She’s alright, I guess.”

“We gotta get inside,” Annabeth said. “Grover’s waiting for us.”

The school looked like a giant evil castle, with a whole bunch of towers and whatnot. It didn’t make me feel any better.

We pushed open the heavy oak doors, and stepped inside.

---

The inside was massive. The walls were covered with battle flags and weapon displays. I mean, Westover was a military school, but seriously? This was well and truly over the top.

Annabeth muttered, “where’s Grover?”

I shrugged.

The doors slammed shut behind us.

“Ooookay then,” I said. “Guess we’re here to stay, huh?”

I could hear music from the end of the hall - dance music, which seemed a bit out of place here.

We stashed our bags behind one of the pillars, and started walking down the hall. We made it a few feet before footsteps echoed in front of us, and a man and woman emerged from the gloom.

They both had short grey hair and were wearing military type uniforms. Seems about right. They walked stiffly, which I supposed also made sense considering how over the top the decor was.

“Well?” the woman demanded.  “What are you doing here?”

“Uh…” I was stumped. I had been so focused on getting to Grover, I hadn’t figured that someone might find it odd that 3 kids were trying to sneak into a school. “Ma’am, we are, uh…”

“Ha!” the man shouted suddenly, startling me. “Visitors are not allowed at the dance! You shall be ejected!”

He was speaking in an accent - French, I think. The way he pronounced ejected, he said the J like I figured a French person might. The stranger thing were his eyes, which were two different colours. I think there’s a term for that. Heterchromium or something like that.

I figured he was about to throw us back outside into the snow, but Thalia stepped forward and snapped her fingers.

Oh. Duh.

The Mist. We could just use that to trick them. I had forgotten about that.

Chiron had tried to teach both of us one weekend when we had been visiting Camp Half-Blood, but I was lousy at it.

Fortunately, Thalia was a pro. “Oh, we aren’t visitors, sir. We go to school here, remember? I’m Thalia, this is Percy and Annabeth. We’re in eighth grade.”

The man narrowed his eyes, but hesitated. “Ms. Gottschalk, do you know these students?”

I had to bite back a laugh. A teacher named ‘Got Chalk?’ Seriously?

The woman blinked, as if waking up from a trance. “I… yes. I believe so.” She frowned at us. “Thalia, Percy, Annabeth. What are you doing outside the gymnasium? You’re supposed to be-”

But she was interrupted by, of all people, Grover. Just the goat we were here to see. “You made it! You-” he stopped short when he noticed the two teachers. “Oh, uh. Ms. Gottschalk, Dr. Thorn. I, um…”

“What is it, Mr. Underwood?” said the man - Dr. Thorn. “What do you mean ‘they made it?’ These students live here.”

Grover swallowed nervously. He glanced at us, then looked back to the teachers. “I, uh, just meant, that I’m so glad they made… uh… the punch for the dance! Really good punch. And they made it.” He glanced back at us.

Dr. Thorn glared at us. He looked almost murderous, but Ms. Gottschalk, her voice sounding as if she were half-asleep, said, “yes, the punch is really excellent. Now run along to the gym, you four. You are not to leave it again!”

We scrambled to follow her directions, leaving with a bunch of “yes ma’ams” and “yes sirs” and a couple of salutes since that felt like the right thing to do right then.

Grover hurried us down the hall towards the music - to a set of doors labelled “GYM” written in big bold letters.

“That was close!” Grover said. “Thank the gods you made it.”

“Is the punch really that good?” I joked.

Thalia snorted, but Grover continued as if I hadn’t said anything. “I found two.”

I blinked. “Two what? Half-Bloods?”

He nodded.

“Here?” Thalia asked. “As in, at the dance?”

Grover nodded again.

Wow. Finding one Half-Blood was rare. Two even rarer. Over the past few years, Kronos had either been recruiting most of them or otherwise having them killed.

“A brother and a sister,” Grover said. “Ten and twelve years old. I don’t know who their parent is, but they’re powerful, I can tell that much. We’re running out of time, though. I needed help.”

“Any monsters?” Annabeth asked.”

“Just one,” Grover said. “You just met him, actually. Dr. Thorn.”

Oh. Well he definitely wasn’t fooled by the Mist. He had just been playing along. But why?

“He definitely suspects, but I don’t think he’s sure yet. But this is the last night of term. He won’t let them leave without being sure. This is our last chance. Every time I get close to them, he’s always there, preventing me from doing anything. I just don’t know what to do, so I called you.”

“So they’re at the dance, you said?”

Grover nodded.

“Then let’s dance. And keep an eye out for Dr. Thorn.”

---

The thing with military schools: the kids go absolutely berserk when there is ever any sort of event and they get to be out of uniform. I guess it’s because the rest of the time everything is so strict, they feel like they need to overcompensate for lost time or something.

There were black and red balloons all over the floor, and a bunch of guys were kicking them at each other, or trying to strangle each other with the paper streamers taped to the walls. A bunch of girls wandered around the gym, huddled together, wearing way more makeup than I figured would be even close to comfortable. Every so often, they’d surround some guy, descending on him to the sound of shrieks and giggles, and when they moved on his face was plastered with makeup. Real classy, I know. Some of the older students seemed more uncomfortable - hanging out on the edge of the gym, trying to avoid being noticed by anyone else. I understood the feeling.

“They’re over there,” Grover said, nodding towards the edge of the bleachers, where a couple of younger kids were arguing. “Bianca and Nico di Angelo.”

The girl was wearing a big floppy green cap, as if trying to hide her face (mood). The boy was obviously her younger brother. They both had dark hair and olive skin. The boy was shuffling some sort of trading cards. His sister seemed to be scolding him. She kept glancing around nervously, as if she knew something was wrong.

“Do they know?” Annabeth asked. “I mean, have you told them yet?”

Grover shook his head. “Haven’t had a chance to talk with them, and you know how it is. Once they know, then their scents become stronger. It’s safer if they don’t know yet.”

“Ok, so we grab them and get out,” I said.

I started walking towards them, but Thalia held me back. Dr. Thorn had walked through a doorway near the bleachers, and was now standing between us and the di Angelos. Shit. He nodded in our direction.

“Looks like he wasn’t fooled,” I said.

“No shit, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth said. “He wants to know why we’re here.”

“Don’t look at the kids,” Thalia said. “We need to wait. Try to distract him in the meantime.”

“How?” I asked.

“We’re three really powerful Half-Bloods. Two of us are children of the big three. Our scents might be able to confuse him. Just mingle and act natural. Dance a little. But definitely keep an eye on those kids.”

“Dancing?” Annabeth asked.

Thalia nodded. She paused to listen to the music. “Oh fuck me. Who picked Jesse Mcartney?”

Grover looked hurt. “I did!”

“Oh my gods Grover. That is so fucking lame. Couldn’t you play like, Green Day or something?”

“Green what?”

“Oh whatever. Let’s dance.”

“But I can’t dance!” Grover exclaimed.

“You can if I’m leading, Goat Boy. Come on.” Thalia grabbed him and dragged him off to dance.

Annabeth smiled.

“What?” I asked.

Annabeth shrugged. “Just cool to have Thalia back, is all.”

I snorted. “So you say every few days or so.”

Ever since I had transformed back in June, Annabeth had grown taller than me, which was totally not messing with my brain in any way. She used to wear no jewellery except for her camp necklace, but now she wore a pair of small silver earrings shaped like owls. She had been gifted them by her dad earlier in the school year. She pulled off her ski cap, and her long blonde hair fell down onto her shoulders. I was definitely not mesmerised by her hair.

“So…” I was having trouble finding something to say. ‘Act natural.’ What the heck is natural? “Um, uh… what do we talk about?”

Annabeth laughed. “Anything. We could catch up with each other.”

“The last time we saw each other was yesterday,” I deadpanned. We had been attending the same boarding school last semester, and I for once was not the main one to be getting in trouble. That would be Thalia.

“Ok, so how was your day today?”

“We spent most of it together in the same car. The spending time with friends part was nice. The being cramped up in a car for several hours part was not fun.”

Annabeth laughed. “Agreed.”

I smiled. “Oh, uh. Anything new about that project of yours? The one you wanted to build at Ground Zero?”

Annabeth’s eyes lit up like they always did when she talked about architecture. She began to explain all the new updates from the past week or so since I last asked her about it. It wasn’t like I understood everything she was saying - a lot of it went over my head - but it was nice to hear her so excited about something.

“Cool cool. So you’re gonna finish it up next term then?”

Her face darkened. “Well, maybe. If I don’t move to California.”

I was confused. “California?”

She nodded. “About a week ago, my dad called me.”

“Is this what made you so upset?”

She sighed and nodded. “Yeah. He decided to move, basically right as I was getting settled in New York, he had to accept a new job, over in San Francisco.” She said the city’s name like one might say ‘Fields of Punishment’ or ‘Hades’ gym shorts.’

“So, he wants you to move there with him?”

She nodded. “Other side of the country,” she said miserably. “And Half-Bloods can’t live there, he should know that.”

“Why not?”

She rolled her eyes. “You know why.”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t.”

“It’s right there. That stupid mountain.”

“Oh.” I had no idea what mountain she meant.

“So… what. Will you go back to camp or will you stay?” Please stay.

“It’s a bit more serious than that, Percy. I… there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you-”

“Hey!” Thalia called out to us. She was still dancing with Grover, who was indeed as bad a dancer as he had claimed. I winced in sympathy. “Dance you guys! You’re looking stupid just standing there!”

I glanced at Annabeth.

“Well?” Annabeth said.

“Um, with who?”

She rolled her eyes. “Me, Seaweed Brain!”

Wait, what?

“Huh?”

“You dance with me.”

My brain grinded to a halt. “With… you? But aren’t we both girls?”

Annabeth scowled. “So?”

I stuttered, “isn’t that, uh, a little weird?”

“What on Earth could possibly make you think that?”

I opened my mouth to respond.

“You know what, forget it,” she said, before turning and stalking off in the direction of Thalia and Grover.

“Annabeth!” I called, but she didn’t respond.

I huffed, and turned to make towards the edge of the gym. “What the fuck is up with her?” I muttered under my breath.

---

“Not your thing either?” I heard as I leaned against the wall. I looked in the direction the voice came from. Leaning on the wall, turned to face me, was another girl. She was probably around my age, maybe an inch taller (seriously, what was it with every girl I meet being taller than me - it really messes with a girl’s brain). She was still wearing what I assumed were the uniform pants and shirt, but it was unbuttoned, revealing a slightly ripped rock band t-shirt. The features that stood out most to me were her hair, which was cut choppy and uneven (it seemed deliberate to me), and her eyes, which appeared to shift in colour constantly, almost kaleidoscopic. I found myself mesmerised by those eyes.

“Hello?” she said.

I blinked. “Oh. sorry.”

“It’s ok.”

“What did you say?” I asked.

She gestured to the group of girls in heavy makeup near the middle of the gym. “Not your thing either?”

I shook my head. “Oh. Nah. I mean I don’t dislike it, I just don’t care much for it.”

“Same.”

We stood in silence. I spotted Annabeth, who was now dancing with Thalia (and anyone who gave them a funny look immediately backed off from Thalia’s death glare). I sighed. Really should have taken up Annabeth’s offer to dance.

“My name’s Piper, by the way. What’s yours?”

I turned back to the other girl. “Percy.”

“That short for something?”

I shrugged. I don’t normally tell people my full first name. But that was back when it was still ‘Perseus.’ Now though…

“Persephone.”

“Pretty name. Greek goddess.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m named after her.”

“Cool.”

“You like Greek mythology then?”

She nodded, looking actually excited. “Quite a bit, actually. A couple years ago, my dad and I did a lot of research on them. I really enjoyed it. You?”

“I guess I could say they’re kinda my life.”

“That into them, huh?”

“You could say that.”

We stood in silence for a bit longer. I searched for Annabeth again, and spotted her walking towards us, a worried look on her face.

“They’re gone.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, she interrupted.

“Who’s this?”

“I glanced at Piper. “Oh. Annabeth, meet Piper. We just met. Piper, this is my friend, Annabeth.” Annabeth eyed the girl wearily. “Ok. Well, Thalia is looking for Grover. The di Angelos are gone.”

I stood up straight to try and look at where they had been, but couldn’t see the spot past all the people. Being short really sucks.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Just trust me on this. Come on.”

She turned to walk back the way she came, but then Piper spoke up. “Can I come?”

We both turned to her.

“What? You’re looking for those two di Angelo kids, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, them.”

“Well I can help.”

Annabeth and I looked at each other.

Annabeth started to say, “I don’t think that-”

“Let me help,” Piper interrupted.

For whatever reason, I felt compelled to agree. Something about the way she said it; I was convinced that she was right. She could help.

Annabeth agreed. “Alright. Come on, you two.”

She turned and started walking away. Piper and I scrambled to keep up, but she was quickly lost in the crowd.

“Oh, for Zeus’ sake,” I muttered.

“Zeus?”

I turned back to Piper. “I uh…” I noticed something behind her. The two di Angelo kids were being ushered out of the gymnasium door by Dr. Thorn. My blood ran cold.

“Come on.”

“What?”

“I found them, come on.” I grabbed Piper’s hand and started pulling her towards the door.

“Wait, shouldn’t we find Annabeth?”

“We don’t have time. Come on.” I pulled Riptide out of my pocket.

“What’s the pen for?”

I didn’t answer her.

---

The door led out to a dark hallway. I heard some sounds up ahead, followed by a pained grunt. I uncapped Riptide.

“What the hell?” Piper whispered.

I turned back to her. “Oh, uh…”

“You have a sword. A sword that’s also a pen. A pen-sword. How…?”

“You can see it?”

“Yeah, of course I can see it.” She glared at me.

Right. Ok. Definitely wasn’t expecting that. It did make part of me question why. I’d brought her along, but…

“Well, let’s go. We gotta help them.”

Immediately, that small part of me shut up, and I turned to go towards where the noises had come from.

When we got to the other end of the corridor, no one was there. I pushed open a door, and found myself in the entry hall once again. Piper followed me. I couldn’t see Dr. Thorn anywhere, but on the other side of the room were the di Angelo kids. They were frozen in horror, staring directly at us.

I walked towards them slowly, lowering Riptide. “It’s alright. We won’t hurt you.”

They didn’t answer me, their eyes full of fear. What was wrong? Where was Dr. Thorn? Maybe he’d sensed my sword and fled. Monsters hated celestial bronze weapons.

“My name is Percy,” I said, trying to keep an even voice. “This is Piper. We’re here to help. Try to get you two to safety.”

Bianca’s eyes widened. Her fists clenched.

“Percy!” Piper exclaimed.

I whirled around and something went WHIIISH! Pain erupted in my left shoulder. A force yanked me backwards and slammed me into the wall. I slashed with my sword, but there was nothing to hit but Piper, who just managed to leap out of the way.

A cold laugh echoed through the hall. “Yes, Perseus Jackson,” Dr. Thorn said. His accent mangled the J in my last name. “I know who you are.”

“Well you need to update your sources, because that is not my name anymore.” I tried to free my shoulder. My coat and shirt were pinned with some sort of spike - a long black projectile. It had grazed my skin as it passed through my clothes, and the cut burned. I’d felt this before. It was poison.

I forced myself to concentrate. I felt faint, but I was determined not to pass out.

A dark silhouette moved towards us. Dr. Thorn stepped out into the low light. He still looked human, but his face was ghoulish. He had perfect white teeth and his eyes reflected the light of my sword.

“Is that so?” He laughed again. “Care to enlighten me, Mr. Jackson?”

“It’s Persephone now. And it’s Ms. for your information.”

He laughed once again. “Well then, Ms. Persephone Jackson. Thank you for coming out of the gym. I hate middle school dances.”

Just then, Piper shouted and tried to tackle Dr. Thorn, but a seemingly invisible force smacked her out of the air, and she landed at my feet. She seemed more dazed than hurt. I was actually kinda impressed at her resilience. It was demigod levels.

“All four of you will come with me,” Dr. Thorn said. “Quietly, obediently. If you make a single noise, if any of you call out for help or try to fight, I will show you just how accurately I can throw.”