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                    *- I’d had a pretty good day at school. It was a little answering questions about my family though. People would ask, ‘Who’s your mom?’ or ‘Where’s your dad work?’ But all in all, better than I thought it would be. At least none of the teachers called me to the front of the class. But what was really weird was that the guy I saw at Jeremy’s school showed up at my school, and he kept staring at me again. Someone at my school had talked to him and he had left, but for some reason that only made me feel worse. I was on my way to pick up Jeremy when I got that weird feeling again. Like someone was watching me. I turned around and looked but no one was there. I felt a chill go up my spine. When I turned back around I stumbled backwards because there was someone right in front of me that hadn’t been there before. I immediately recognized the boy. He was the kid from my school that had talked to that guy. I didn’t even recognize the girl. They were both staring at me like they were trying to figure out who I was. “Excuse me,” I said awkwardly. But when I tried to walk around them they stepped in front of me. “Um, can I help you?” I asked, getting kind of angry now. The boy opened his mouth to talk, but the girl beat him to it. “Hi, I’m Annabeth.” She held out her hand. I didn’t shake it. She took a deep breath and whispered, “We need to talk to you. Alone. Now.” I may not live in New York, but I knew no matter where you were, talking to strangers alone isn’t a good idea. “I don’t think so. Just leave me alone.” I told them. I was about to walk away when I heard a loud, spine-tingling, roar. I gulped and turned around to find a huge… something. I expected to see people screaming and panicking but all they did was keep walking around. The thing seemed to be looking straight at me. Its red eyes seemed to look straight into my soul, bringing up every painful memory I had. I saw my mom laying in a hospital bed. I was looking at her, Jeremy at my side. I saw the wreck- the flipping, the broken glass, the other car lying almost fifty feet away. Before I knew it, I was crying. Tears streamed down my face and people were looking at me like I was crazy. The strangers that had stopped me were freaking out too. “Stop it! Please stop it! Please! Just stop!” I screamed crying. The next thing I knew there was a bright flash of light and the creature was gone. I heard the girl mutter something like, “Did she do that?” The boy was just staring at me like I was from a different planet. I got up and ran off toward my apartment.

                               *- I burst through the door and slammed it shut, locking it behind me. I sank to the ground and struggled to hold back the tears. I was still breathing hard when Aunt Maddie walked into the room saying, “Where have you been? You should’ve been home half an hour ago! Where’s your brother?!” OMG Jeremy! I totally forgot! I stood up and wiped my eyes. Aunt Maddie stopped yelling when she saw me. “What happened?!” She asked, running toward me and putting her hand on my shoulder. “Is it your new school? Is it boys? It’s boys isn’t it? Look you don’t need a boy to feel good. Even though they tell you all these good things and then lie and then cheat and your best friend doesn’t even care and…” “Aunt Maddie! You’re kinda getting off topic.” I laughed. “Sorry! So what happened?” Aunt Maddie was my mom’s ‘kid’ sister and she tried to be a parental figure, but she wasn’t that good at it yet. My mom could always tell what was wrong. I was contemplating whether I should tell her when Jeremy, burst angrily through the door. “Forget something?!” He yelled. “Jeremy I’m so…” “Save it! It’s not like you care!” He stomped up the stairs and I was about to follow him when Aunt Maddie held up her hand. “C’mon.” She led me into the kitchen and started making supper while I told her what had happened. I told her about all the people, the monster, everything. Her face went pale. “She was right. I told her she was crazy, but she was right.” I thought I heard regret in her voice. “What?” I asked. “I have something I need to show you.” She went into her room and I heard her rummaging through her drawers. She came back holding an old looking piece of paper. “What’s that?” I asked. She took a deep breath and handed the piece of paper to me. “It’s a note from your father. Your real father.” My breath caught in my throat. My dad? I took the note and read it silently.

Dear Destiny,

I know this is probably going to be hard to believe but I couldn’t leave you without an explanation. I can’t tell you much, but I can tell you, you are not normal. You’re different. If anyone ever comes from a place called Camp Half-Blood you can trust them. Listen to them and go with them. I don’t know who will adopt you, but I did love you, believe that. I didn’t do this because I wanted to. Good luck.

  I didn’t know what to say. This brought up more questions than answers. What was Camp Half-Blood? What does he mean ‘I’m not normal’? If he loved me why did he put me up for adoption? “Why didn’t you show me this before?” I asked. “Your mother told me to wait until you were ready. I thought she was crazy.” I thought about the people that had stopped me in the streets. They could see the monsters too. Were they from that camp? “Have you read this?” I asked shakily. “No. I don’t know what’s on it.” She answered. I sat there for a moment in complete silence, thinking. I had to go find those people. I knew Maddie wouldn’t let me. I would have to wait until later.

                       %- It was about eleven at night. I was still awake. I don’t know why I couldn’t sleep. I just felt like something bad was going to happen. I heard a soft thud and a muffled, ‘Ouch!!’ coming from outside. I looked out my window to see what was happening. I saw Destiny running across the parking lot. She was leaving. I was furious. I waited until she was a little distance away and then decided to follow her.

                               *- I don’t know how, but I could see perfectly in the dark. It’s like I could see better now than when it was daytime. I had no idea where I was going, but it was like I could sense where everything was. I just kept thinking, ‘Camp Half-Blood, Camp Half-Blood, Camp Half-Blood…’ and before I knew it I was at a huge hill in the middle of nowhere. It was almost dawn, and as soon as the first inch of sun poked out, all of my energy drained from my body. I felt more tired than I’d ever felt in my life. I walked past this huge pine tree and passed out.

                               ^- Annabeth and I were looking at a girl that looked a few years younger than me, maybe fourteen. She had curly, medium-length, auburn colored hair. I didn’t know how she had traveled so fast. She had made it from New York City to Long Island on foot in less than a night. Chiron said she had just passed out from exhaustion. I wondered what she was dreaming about. She looked scared.

                              *- It was all so real. I was dreaming I was next to Jeremy. He was in the woods. He was talking to some kid I didn’t recognize. They were surrounded by tents and a few monsters and other people. Jeremy looked deep in thought. Finally he sighed and nodded. I thought I heard him say something like, “I’ll do it.” The guy he was talking to put on an evil grin. He told Jeremy to follow him. Jeremy gulped and they walked into a huge tent, the biggest tent in the camp. I followed them inside. I nearly jumped out of my skin. As soon as you walked inside the place a feeling of fear would wash over you. Everything seemed to slow down. But what was really terrifying was the small golden box in the center of the room. It had scenes of death engraved on it. The guy told Jeremy to kneel and pledge. Jeremy looked nervous. But he kneeled and said, “I renounce the gods! They have taken everything from me! I will see them destroyed and cast down to Tartarus! I will serve Kronos!” I didn’t understand. What was he doing? The light around the box seemed to get a little brighter. Jeremy stayed knelt. “Are you ready?” The guy asked. Jeremy nodded and held out his hand. The guy pulled out his knife. “I will shed blood for Kronos!” Jeremy said. I tried to scream out to him, but no sound came out of my mouth. The guy made a small cut on Jeremy’s wrist. I don’t know how, but I could feel what he was feeling. For a second nothing happened. Then a cold feeling coursed through my body. It was a sharp pain like being stabbed by a million knives. I couldn’t breath. It felt like acid was going through my veins. Jeremy doubled over and started gasping for air. He screamed out in pain. I couldn’t move at all. Then the pain just stopped. I didn’t feel any different now. It was just normal. Jeremy took a deep breath and rose up. There was something different about him. He looked… well, just different. He wasn’t Jeremy. His face was hard and cold, so when he smiled it looked evil. He moved his arms up and down. “What is that?” He asked. “It’s the power of Kronos. It makes you stronger. It takes away all the bad things in your life and turn them into power.” The guy replied. Jeremy smiled. “Here, I think you might need this.” He handed Jeremy a huge black sword. It radiated pure evil. ‘Why are you doing this Jeremy?’ I tried to scream out, but I couldn’t.