Percy Jackson: The New Half-Blood

Monsters! YAY!

~In The Morning~

I slept in the Hermes cabin the night before considering I had three cabins trying to pull me in with them.

I wasn't sure I liked all this attention. What if by not sleeping in the right cabin, I angered the gods? But then what could I do? Take shifts? I didn't want to have to move my stuff and get comfy in a different place every night.

I got up before anybody else in the Hermes cabin, so I could guarantee the bathroom to myself to change in private.

I put on a black t-shirt from the camp store and jean shorts.

I packed my bag, also from the came store, with clothes and weapons and some extra things.

I walked to the Hermes table in the pavilion, where a nymph brought me a plate of bacon-and-eggs and wished me good luck.

"You're going to need it." She had promised me. "Not the food, the luck. So dangerous."

Shortly after I'd started eating, the others on the quest went to their respected tables and nymphs brought them food, too.

Grover came and sat beside me with a tin can in his hand. He started eating it.

"Hey, Goat-Boy." I gave him an awkward smile. "Isn't is against camp regulations to sit here?"

"Nah," Grover said. "I'm a satyr. I can sit wherever I want. You ready for your first quest?"

I nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be."

Grover proceeded to tell me about Nico, the kid I didn't know.

"He's a child of Hades. He, uh, used to have a sister," Grover shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Where does he stay?" I asked. "Camp only has twelve cabins, for the twelve Olympians. Last I checked, Hades was not one of them."

"Oh, erm." Grover shrugged. "I think he stays in the big house. One of the back rooms? Or maybe he stays with the Hermes cabin...uh..."

Everyone finished breakfast and collectively we made our way to the top of a hill apparently called 'Half-Blood Hill'. Wow. Cheesy name.

Argus - a nice, hybrid thing with many eyes on his face - grabbed our bags and threw them into the back of a white van. I couldn't make out the words on the side of the van, but I almost swore that they were the same words on the side of the bus.

"What does it say?" I asked Grover as we piled into the van. I took the passenger seat. Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia sat in the middle three seats, and Nico, Grover, and Will in the back three.

"Delphi Strawberry Farm." Grover called from the back seat.

"Oh," I muttered. Argus got in the driver's seat beside me. "Uh, take us to Olympus, please."

"No," Annabeth said from behind me. "It's too long a drive. Besides, this is a quest, we're supposed to be on our own. Argus, drop us off at a hotel - closest you'll go to the Empire State Building.

"Know it all." Percy muttered beside her.

"Seaweed brain." She retorted.

"Owl face!"

"Fish breath!"

"Uh...Wise girl!" Percy stuttered.

Argus started driving us away from camp, and as soon as we got onto the main road we realized how long this might actually take.

Every five minutes, we only seemed to move an inch. There was so much traffic, and everyone was already bored and groaning.

"I'm hungrrrrrrry!" Grover whined after about an hour in the car.