Half-Blood High Ch.1

Hi. My name is Percy Jackson. I was thirteen and had lived a mostly average life until...that day.

Anyway about my life. Like I said it was mostly average, with a few exceptions. For example my Mom met my Dad when she was only seventeen. Life had been pretty hard on her before that. Her parents died in a plane wreck when she was only five and she ended up living with her Uncle. Her Uncle wasn't all that bad, actually he was like a dad to her all the way up to high school when, unfortunately, he caught cancer. He died a few months after, leaving my Mom with no money, High School diploma, or a job.

My Mom's first lucky break was when she met my Dad and they fell in love. She got pregnant with me shortly after and before my Dad got a chance to see me he went on a sea voyage and...well he never came back. Mom always insisted that he was just lost, not dead, lost.

You'd think everything would go down hill from there but actually the opposite happened. When I was three years old Mom saved enough money to go to college and met a nice guy named Paul Blowfish...s'cuse me Blowfis. While they didn't have the same connection that she and my real Dad had, they did fall in love. By the time I was four they got married and when I was five Mom gave birth to my little sister Eleanor (AKA Ella). After that we were one big happy family. And my life was pretty normal...except for a few occasions but I'll get into that subject later.

Anyway so my life was totally normal before that day. The day I met the Di Angelo siblings.

I was walking to school like I did every morning. It seemed like any other day, the weather was nice, it was still August so fall hadn't come yet. The sun was shinning and it was my second week back at school. Admittedly, like any other kid, I was disappointed that summer was over and that I'd have to go to school again. Plus this was a new town (as we had just recently moved) so I had no friends yet. I wasn't looking forward to my first day of school with new people and teachers, especially the teachers.

See I had dyslexia and ADHD so I wasn't exactly top student. What was even worse was that sometimes I could've sworn that my teachers weren't...human. Some of them were really nice and understanding but some of the others...it was like they had it out for me. At least at my old school I knew which teachers not to piss off but at this one it was a whole new ball game. I'd figured that I should just keep my head low for awhile, until I knew which teachers I could trust and which ones I should never let myself be alone with. It was working so far.

As I was walking towards my school, I noticed two kids walking not far in front of me. A girl and a boy that I assumed to be siblings because they looked a lot alike. They both had olive colored skin and pitch black hair. They were both wearing uniforms, different from the school I was going to, but a little odd. For one thing, the collar of the sailor shirt that the girl was wearing was black, and I think they were normally blue or something. For another, there was something pinned to the collar of the boy's shirt, something I couldn't make out but I knew it meant something...something important.

They must've noticed me looking because they glanced back behind them. I laughed awkwardly and waved at them. They smiled and waved back, even slowing down so that I could catch up.

"Hi." I said, "I'm Percy Jackson."

Quick note: my Mom insisted on keeping her maiden name, Jackson and Paul agreed to change his last name. I just like calling him by his original last name because I think it's funny calling him Blowfish instead of Blowfis.

"I'm Bianca Di Angelo, and this is my little brother Nico."

"Hiya!" Nico grinned. I noticed that both of the siblings had brown eyes, but the brown was so vivid it almost looked red.

"You guys going to school too?" I asked.

"Yeah." The siblings answered,

"Kinda sucks huh?" I said, "With summer being over and all."

"I'm looking forward to it." Bianca said,

"Yeah our school's way cooler than others!" Nico said with a wide grin.

"Oh really? I'm jealous then. My school's just some boring public school that for some reason enforces a uniform." I said, stretching my arms behind my back just before I folded them behind my head. "Wish I could go to your school."

"No you don't." The siblings said at the same time.

"Not at the price it comes with." Bianca added when I stared at them.

I grimaced. Money wasn't actually a huge issue, it's just that we couldn't afford any really fancy schools.

"What's that on your collar, Nico? A pin?" I asked, deciding now would be a good idea for a subject change.

"Yeah," Nico said,

"Cool, wish my school would allow pins." I said, "That'd make my uniform at least a little more interesting. What's it of anyway? Looks like some kind of hat..."

"Helm." Nico corrected a bit loudly. I must've looked a bit surprised because he added in a quieter tone, "i-it's a helm."

Okay...that's not weird at all. I thought to myself.

"So made any new friends yet?" I asked.

"Uh huh."

"We just made a new one today." Nico added and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Well I'm flattered that you count me as a friend but..." I began but the two siblings suddenly stopped. Their faces had suddenly become hard and their eyes were narrowed. For some reason, it was kind of intimidating. I followed their gaze and saw a man on the other side of the street. He had short gray hair and wore some kind of military uniform. A little weird but it definitely didn't earn the death glare that Nico and Bianca were giving him.

"Percy you might want to leave." Bianca said,

"Why? Has this guy been harassing you or something?" I asked,

"You could say that." Nico muttered, his muscles tensing like he was getting ready for a fight.

"Then why haven't you called the police?"

"If only it were that simple." Bianca sighed, sounding almost wistful.

"...am I missing something?" I asked, giving the two siblings a confused look. I tensed when I saw the man coming towards us and thought better of it. "Never mind tell me later."

"Hello." The man said with the fakest looking smile I had ever seen. I noticed he had a thick (and very fake sounding) French accent. He had mismatched eyes, one blue and one brown. And as he spoke his nostrils flared which was kind of distracting. "I'm Mr. Thorn. Are you children lost? Perhaps I could be of some assistance."

"No." Bianca said coldly. "We were on our way to school."

"So buzz off." Nico snapped.

I just settled for glaring at him, as if hoping to scare him off. I caught his attention, but when I did my glare faltered. His blue eye seemed to be glowing, and all of the sudden his face seemed to resemble a troll.

He gazed at me coldly and then smirked.

"I see you've made a new friend. You half-bloods do have a tendency to attract each other."

The siblings looked shocked at this, looking at each other and then back at me. I shot them a confused look. What the heck was a half-blood? Bianca gave me a look as if to say later.

"I'll deal with you later, boy." The man said, waving his hand at me in a shoo-ing motion. "Leave now and you might get a few days to live."

"No way." I growled, even though my head was screaming: what the hell does he mean a few days to live?

The man laughed.

"Oh you heroes are all the same." He said with a feral grin. "You should know that too much courage has been known to kill many a reckless hero. I don't suggest you let that be your fate."

"Well I suggest that you leave my friends alone." I snapped back."It's clear that they don't know you and I'm not letting you take them anywhere."

"Percy that's brave of you but we can handle him on our own."

"Yeah he doesn't know who he's messing with!" Nico smirked.

"Listen to the little children, boy." Mr. Thorn sneered. "Or else you might get..."

Something whizzed past my ear, missing it but close enough that I could almost feel it scraping against my ear. I could feel my muscles tense up. I had no idea what he just threw at me, but something in my gut told me it was dangerous and I have to watch my step.

"Hurt." Mr. Thorn finished with an evil smirk. And was it me or was his face looking a bit more like a troll than a human all of a sudden?

"Now run along little boy before I..."

I never let him finish. Right when he let his guard down I lunged at him and tackled him around the middle. I caught him, the Di Angelos, and even myself by surprise. Next thing I knew I was wrestling him to the ground while the Di Angelos stared in shock.

"WELL DON'T JUST STAND THERE! RUN!" I shouted, elbowing Mr. Thorn in the face while he shouted something in French. I don't know what it meant but something told me that it wasn't anything Mom would want me to repeat in front of Ella. "I'LL CATCH UP!"

The two siblings looked at each other and then ran. I smacked Mr. Thorn in the face with my backpack (with my two or three pound each history and math textbooks) and jumped like my life depended on it. I managed to get off of him, but his hand came down hard on the calf of my leg, tearing my pants from the knee down right off. I didn't pay attention to his infuriated shouts of revenge and probably more cuss words in French whatever as I went tearing after the two siblings.

We didn't stop until we were far away from that spot. By the time we were done we'd had ran all the way to the river, which wasn't anywhere near my school. We all hid under the small bridge, panting.

"Okay...I think we lost him." I said slowly, glancing around the corner of the stone wall. "Now do you mind explaining to me what the hell that was all about?"

"No time," Bianca said. "We have to get to our school first. It's the only safe place for us."

"Ouch that's gotta hurt." Nico said, wincing.

"What?" I asked, confused. Nico pointed at my leg and I looked down. I caught my breath. I guess in my haste I didn't realize that my pant leg wasn't the only thing that got clawed. There were deep and bleeding scratch marks running down all the way down the calf of my leg. It ended right above my ankle.

"Hold on we'd better treat that." Bianca said, opening her bag. She started searching through bag's contents. There was an awful lot of stuff shifting, I mean way more than what should be able to fit inside of the little thing. "I don't think I have any bandages but I got a bottle of water in here somewhere."

"You should sit down. It might take awhile." Nico said. I shrugged and sat down, my back to the pavement while I watched Bianca search through her things, eyes narrowing more and more as she concentrated.

"Oh come on where is that stupid thing?"

My jaw dropped when Bianca stuck her whole entire arm inside of the bag, right up to her shoulder.

"HOLY..."

"I know." Nico said, nodding sympathetically. "Freaked me out the first time too."

"B-B-B..." I stuttered.

"Here it is!" Bianca exclaimed triumphantly, extracting a bottle of water from inside of the bag. "This should help clean it at least." She said handing the bottle to Nico. "Now if I could find a roll of bandages..."

She went back through searching the bag's contents.

"This might sting a little." Nico said while I was preoccupied with the apparently bottomless bag that Bianca had. He poured some of the bottle's contents onto the throbbing cuts. To my surprise, instead of stinging the pain immediately went away.

"Huh that doesn't sting at all. Actually if anything my leg's feeling a lot bet..."

My jaw dropped and I made a strangled choking sound.

"Oh shoot. The only things I got are bandaids." Bianca pouted, extracting a pack of bandaids from the bag.

"Uh Bianca...we don't need them." Nico said, eyes wide as dinner plates. Bianca turned her attention to us and she gasped, the pack of bandaids falling to the ground. I just stared with my mouth wide open as I watched the scratches on my leg disappear. I mean literally disappear, like they were never there to begin with. I knew water was supposed to help with cuts and stuff, but not like this!

"Oh my gods...this is serious..." Bianca said, wide eyed. She looked almost scared...hey wait a second did she just say GODS? As in plural?

"You really are one of us!" Nico exclaimed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, really getting annoyed with being left out of the loop.

There's no time to explain." Bianca said urgently. "We have to get to our school!"

"School? What the heck are you guys thinking about school for? There's some kinda.." I began but never finished. Right as I was about to tell them my name pain tore through my side. I felt something jam itself into the side of my back and stick there. The next thing I knew I was thrown ten feet into the air and landed with a hard thud on my stomach, my back burning.

"Oh my gods!" Bianca exclaimed.

"Bianca!" Nico warned when she tried to race over to my side. I could see why he didn't want her to move. That man from before was gone, but I'm afraid what was left in his place was a lot worse. It was this giant...actually I don't know what it was. It looked like it had the face of a human, except it was demented to the point were it looked more like a troll face that human face. It had the mane and body of a lion that was at least two or three sizes too big for the norm...and the tail of a...of a...I want to say scorpion but instead of one stinger there were multiple spikes like one of those medieval spiky ball things. And the tail itself had to be as long as I was, if not even longer!

And how much do you want to bet that one of those spikes was currently lodged into my back and making my insides feel like they were melting?

"Did you really think you could escape me?" The lion...demon...thing...the lion-demon-thing laughed. "Now you three shall pay."

"Nico keep it busy!" Bianca ordered. "I'll help Percy!"

Nico nodded and somehow managed to produce a sword out of thin air. Before I could react Nico lunged at the monster swinging and yelling like a maniac.

"Can you stand?" Bianca asked,

"No." I answered honestly. All of my limbs felt like lead.

Bianca scowled but said nothing.

"Okay I'm going to try to push you into the river."

"You're going to what?"

"Don't worry." Bianca grunted pushing her weight against my side, "If I'm right, this'll save your life."

"What..."

I never finished. With one final heave Bianca managed to pushed me over the bank and head first into the water.

For one brief second I felt betrayed. I mean here I was risking my life to save them from that lion-demon-thing and they toss me into the river! It didn't seem fair.

The next second I took it all back. During the next seconds the pain left. My insides stopped melting and felt like they were repairing themselves. My hand flew to my back and grasped the spike that had impaled me. In one tug I pulled it out.

And at that point I realized I wasn't holding my breath.

At first I panicked and my hands flew to my mouth but then I realized that I wasn't choking on it. Nope. I was inhaling it as easily as if it were air. I was breathing underwater.

...okay...I'm gonna say it...

WHAT THE FREAKING HELL?