Chapter ONE

Right. So, question two: Explain the properties of life emerge from complex organization. I had absolutely no idea what the question meant. Well, could you blame me? I'm not a child of Minerva. And never will be.
I started to daydream. Only one minute until–
The bell rung. Well, maybe one second.
I avoided all of the stampeding feet of my classmates and somehow managed to scramble outside for recess.
Outside, the air was brisk and fresh. That wasn't stopping storm clouds from rolling in. Seems like Jupiter is angry.
The weather had been real freaky since December. It had stopped for a brief period of time, and then started up again.
I stared across the piece of grassy land, wishing I was at Camp Jupiter. Even though the director, Lupa, was far from the word 'nice', camp is way better than school. Don't you agree? Oh, wait, forget that I said that. Reyna will most certainly kill me. Just leave it to a daughter of the wisdom goddess to do that.
No tests, no homework...wow, I'm starting to sound like Bobby. As if my thoughts summoned him over, he was right at my side.
"Hi, Jason!" he cheerfully grinned. "What's up?"
I laughed dryly. "Nothing much, if you don't count the fact that I did one question on the science review sheet. You?"
"I didn't do any," Bobby smiled. "Don't tell Reyna that."
"I'm sure she will understand," I chuckled sarcastically. In an undertone, I added, "After she finishes turning you into French toast sticks."
"I heard that!"
I pretended (very badly) that I was scraping the ground with a stick when Reyna appeared over me, scowling.
"I don't even know how to make them," she added, plopping down next to me. "Last time I tried to cook, I burned down a whole house."
Bobby's peals of laughter could be heard all the way to Olympus.
"What's so funny?" Reyna asked, instantly flaring up even more. "That's not a good thing, you idiot!"
"I know that," Bobby said innocently. It was clear to everyone that he didn't know that.
"Uh huh," I smirked. "Which is why you look like you're about to burst like a volcano."
"Good idea," Reyna said thoughtfully. "That could be Bobby's new nickname. Volcano."
"It isn't funny as the last one," Bobby said placidly. I had to say that I agreed.
"Oh, shut up," Reyna irritably said. "It wasn't supposed to be!"
"Uh huh," Bobby said, wiggling his eyebrows.
Reyna ignored him from that point on, or at least, tried to.
I snickered as Bobby made sarcastic remarks at Reyna, who was increasingly looking like a volcano herself–one that was about to explode any moment now. Eventually, she attracted the whole school's attention by yelling her head off at Bobby. It was quite funny to see a fuming girl chasing a brown-haired boy around the bathrooms.
"Um, Jason? A little help here!" Bobby called to me as he dashed away from Reyna, who was now in the process of giving him one of her famous death glares while running–not to mention that her hand was creeping ever so slowly to her weapon.
"Knock it off, guys," I said. Obviously, neither Reyna nor Bobby listened, Reyna, because she was too angry, and Bobby because he was not in the proximity to hear me. Too bad, although I couldn't exactly resort to summoning lightning or anything like that. That would get a... um, little out of hand. Who would be able to know if my friends and I got eaten up by a monster?
In fact, as I was thinking that thought, I grasped onto the fact that there was a girl staring hungrily (usually not a good sign) at another girl who was listening to an iPod, compoletely unaware of what was happening around her. Modern techonology is evil, as it can get you killed by monsters.
I cursed in Latin, as Reyna wasn't showing any remote signs of stopping chasing Bobby down. I didn't want to make a scene of myself, either, as I was a son of one of the Big Three. I could bet you that all monsters within a billion-mile radius had sensed my presence. Okay, maybe I'm overdoing it, but I think that you get the idea: monsters are drawn to me like crazy–note that I did not say 'attracted'. Bleah, who would want a monster as their date? Maybe, Echidna and Typhon, sitting in a tree. I'm better off with Reyna, although (as it is clearly shown now) she can be incredibly shouty at times. Oh, did I just say that? No, I am not dating Reyna.
By this time, that girl I mentioned earlier had swiveled her gaze to me. Uh-oh, I thought. I know, wonderful choice of words, huh? But what would you think if there was an incredibly kleptomaniac/psychotic monster staring at you?
Reyna tackled Bobby, which created quite a scene. Everyone started laughing.
Bobby rolled from underneath Reyna and sat up with a tuft of grass in hair. And that's when the hellhounds pounced.

AWESOME 1st chapter! Can't wait for more! I'm sooooooo happy that you started writing again!

LOLZ, pjfan1 :D It gets progressively boring for the first few next chapters, and then I THINK that it picks up again. :)

Chapter TWO

The funny thing was that although there were two tasty demigods that were completely in the range of the hellhound's claws, they ignored both of them. This surprised Reyna so much that she almost fainted dead away. As it was, she managed to gather her wits and drew her choice of a weapon—a mechanical pencil.

I know, I know, you're probably thinking, a pencil. A stupid pencil (A.N/ Mechanical pencils, I know, sounds like Percy's. But I couldn't think of anything else! My friend helped me out.) But seriously? I kind of envied her for a cooler weapon than mine. I still didn't have one of those golden coins. I have a plain gladius. Right, I'm getting off track.

See, the 'pencil' is actually a curved knife, the end shaped like an owl's beak. Courtesy of her mom, at least Minerva cares about her kids! Daddy Jupiter hasn't sent me a dream vision in, like, forever. Not to mention any gifts.

She snatched her backpack from her back and rummaged around, cursing loudly. The iPod girl's eyes were as huge as pennies as she watched Reyna scrawl something in her 'notebook', then watched in spiral into a shield carved with a picture of an owl.

I guess that Bobby got some credit too. As Reyna was yelling indignantly at her backpack, one of the cute little furry monsters noticed that there was a demigod right in front of its nose. I know, it took that long to notice, but monsters were never known for having brains. It lunged at her, but Bobby drew his sword and sliced it into fur.

"Dang it!" the evil girl screamed at the hellhounds. "Only the son of Jupiter, you dolts! No other demigod is to be harmed!"

I froze as all of the hellhounds turned their fiery red eyes to me. I did the only thing that came to me naturally: I unsheathed my blade and charged them.

Before I got there, though, everyone screamed and scrambled towards the school. I twisted around, trying to see what had happened. I heard a shick sound behind me, which probably meant that Reyna and Bobby were engaging and slicing the monsters up. Fun.

The evil girl had completely changed. She wasn't all bright in the first place, but now? Her clothes were black, blacker than black itself. In addition, she looked like a grown woman.

"Um..." I said.

The iPod girl, who was the only one who hadn't ran away, stood paralyzed, her green eyes flickering from me to Reyna and Bobby to the woman.

"W-who are you?" I stammered. Lupa was going to kill me when she heard that I said, "Oh" and "W-who are you?". No Roman bravado.

She stamped her foot, still very much acting like a teenage girl. "Nobody ever knows who I am!" she pouted/complained. "I'm Nemesis, but what would you care? Curses, once Lord Saturn rules again, we minor gods will get the respect that we deserve!"

I blinked. "Okay," I said. "Saturn's a pile of evil mush at the bottom of Teritus. He isn't going to rise anytime soon."

"Whoa. Wait. Hold it," iPod girl stammered. "First of all, gods? They're myths! Like, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades—they're... not real."

"Well, they're dead," I agreed. "But the Roman gods are still alive."

"That still doesn't make any sense," she placidly said.

Nemesis crossed her arms with a huff. "As usual," she loudly said, "I'm left out of the conversation as if I never existed!"

"That would be nice," Reyna said, marching over. Her left arm was scratched really badly—nearly mauled. "I'd appreciate it next time if you didn't send hellhounds after us." She winced and cursed soon after her wound started to gush blood.

"Right!" Bobby chimed in. He didn't look great either—he was limping on both legs, and his pants were stained red. Even as a Roman, living around a lot of this kind of stuff, I couldn't help but think, Ugh, as I glanced at either of them.

Nemesis pouted loudly again. "You destroyed my pets!"

"The goddess of revenge has pets?" iPod girl weakly asked. "That's it. Does anyone have a knife? I wanna commit suicide."

"Don't you dare," I said to Reyna.

"I wasn't going to give it to her in the first place," Reyna retorted.

Nemesis glared at me. "You may have avoided me the first time, but not again, Jason Grace. Have you checked on your family lately?"

With that optimistic comment, the goddess of revenge disappeared in a poof of black dust.

"Who are you?" the iPod girl asked. "You come up here while I'm innocently listening to music, attack a bunch of demon dogs with medieval weapons—"

"Medieval?"" Bobby incredulously asked. The girl ignored him.

"—Totally ruin my day, and tell me that the gods are alive. How stupid is that?"

I nervously glanced up at the sky, which seemed even more ominous now. "You might not want to say that."

"Who are you?" Reyna asked.

"Hmph. You didn't tell me who you were. Why should I tell you who I am?"
"Because you should," Reyna simply said.
The girl threw her hands up in exasperation. "Hazel. Happy? Now will you tell me who you are?"
"No," Bobby immediately said.
"No," I said.
"Yes," Reyna snapped, glaring at both of us. Bobby snapped under her intense gaze, and backed away.
"As soon as we get to camp," Reyna added. Hazel groaned. "Camp? What camp? It's not summer vacation. Who goes to camp in the not-yet-summer-vacation?"
"We don't have a pegasus," I pointed out. "And camp is, like, twelve hours away."
Reyna smiled, the kind of smile that always got me wary. "Who needs mythological animals?"
***
I made a mental note to never listen to another of Reyna's ideas ever again.
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?" Bobby screamed as we shot down the highway at about one-hundred miles per hour. Literally. You shouldn't underestimate a twelve-year old, insane person without a driver's license named Reyna driving a stolen Honda Odyssey (what kind of family is dumb enough to leave their car keys on top of their car?). It's a wonder how no police car was chasing us—or maybe it was just because Reyna's crazy driving left them in the dust. At any rate, it wasn't fun.
Hazel was the only one who wasn't turning green, which was a surprise, even Reyna looked sick.
"St-stop th-the c-car!" I yelled, my teeth jittering from the bumpy road that we were now shooting across.
"Not a chance," Reyna said, gritting her teeth. "You wanna get caught by the police, I'll stop."
I kept silent after that. Partly (mostly) because Reyna sped up, and I probably would have bitten my tongue off, and partly because I could hear the faint wail of police sirens.
Bobby somehow banged (rather desperately) on the back of Reyna's seat. "SLOW DOWN!"
"Shut it, Bobby!" Reyna snapped. "I'm trying to drive here—"
"Way to state the obvious," Hazel said. As I said before... she seemed the most calm of all of us.
Reyna ignored her comment and kept on driving like a lunatic that was hyped up on caffeine and sugar. I didn't even know how she managed to figure out all of the dials and switches and pedals—I would have had a crash thirty minutes ago (the same time Reyna started 'how to learn to drive like an alien from the planet Aerotim').
After a few more hours of crazy driving and bumping ambulances and innocent people out of the way (not to mention ignoring red lights), I was just about ready to throw up. Fortunately, the gas tank ran out of gas.
Reyna got out and slammed the door. She retched and rubbed her foot. "I am never going to drive again," she declared.
I stumbled out, dragging poor Bobby. He hadn't been able to withstand the horror of Reyna's driving, and if you ever find a car that was stranded at intersection of 'Walnut Street' and 'Capstone Avenue', expect to find a pool of brown stuff at the bottom... I'm not going to get into details.
Reyna noticed me carrying a passed-out son of Mars. "What's up with him?"
I scowled heavily at her. "He was not able to survive the long and murderous car trip into the middle of nowhere."
We were in the middle of nowhere—the sign said so.

Wll I think that the chapter is pretty AWESOME! And I want a "pensil" too. I LOVE owls. Oh, and is Hazel a daughter of Neptune?