Chapter 1
Look, I didn’t mean to destroy half the school. Actually I hadn’t destroyed it. But all evidence pointed to me, and I didn’t have a believable alibi about what actually happened. The punishment was… I was expelled. I’m only 14 and I’ve been expelled seven? No, eight times.
It was December and my mom would once again have the problem of finding a new school for me. I felt bad about it sure, but I was just glad to be alive. If it wasn’t for my training at Camp Half-Blood
My name is Kristen Bradford and I live in Atlanta , Georgia
I know that the majority of the schools in Atlanta Camp Half-Blood
So anyways, today sucked, the day before Christmas break of my freshman year and one of the halls was completely in ruins.
This morning I woke up and got ready to go to school, said goodbye to my mom and got on my school bus. I knew from the minute I walked into school that something was not right. I got to my first class and I slipped into my regular seat next to my friend, the school’s satyr-that locates demigods in school systems before they get killed- and he looked pretty worried.
“What's up, Jack?” I asked with a quizzical look.
“I smell monsters,” he whispered.
Jack is a short little guy that looks about 14 or 15 with a wispy goatee, curly hair, and he walks funny. The way he gets around school is on crutches, because he has a “muscle problem.” If you know anything about satyrs you would know this is partly true. If you don’t know anything about satyrs, I suggest you Google it, I’m sure Wikipedia has plenty to say about them. Satyrs are part of Greek mythology and from the waist down they are goats. So yeah, they run funny, and eat anything. They can also read emotions and they can tell if there are demigods and monsters close by, and they can use woodland magic.
“Just great,” I said, “and I was hoping not to get kicked out of school this semester. How many do you smell?”
“More than three.”
“Okay, let’s hope we can handle them. I should’ve known I wasn’t going to stay hidden in this school much longer.” I looked down at my hand, good my bracelet was still on, and then I checked my pocket and I could feel my 5 inch blade of celestial bronze.
After lunch we had gym but Jack doesn’t have gym because of his “problem” so I was on my own. I was hoping the monsters wouldn’t attack while I was in gym class, with no one to help me, but of course, they did.
We were playing a game of basketball, and I was helping my team win, when it came to basketball it was simple for me, because they ball was usually in the air. Air is my dominion. And then I realized that there were some spectators that were watching me intently. I feigned a fall, and limped over to my coach,
“Coach, I hurt my ankle, can I get off the court?”
“Is it that bad?” coach didn’t see through my act. I nodded and took a step, then faked a wince, “Oh okay fine, go have a seat.”
Sitting down I glanced behind me, the four strange characters were still staring at me. When coach was distracted I slipped out of the room to find Jack, knowing the monsters would follow me, away from the gym.
Gym is my last class, and since Jack is on the same schedule as me I knew he couldn’t be that far away. But I had to hurry because I could hear footsteps behind me as I ran, searching for Jack. “Ugh, where is he?” I asked myself out loud.
“I’m right here,” Jack said, “I was standing right outside the gym because I knew the monsters were in there, and then when you didn’t see me I followed you. Pay more attention Kristen.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, “I thought that they were behind me.”
“We are,” a sweet voice answered. We turned around and I quickly twisted my bracelet and it turned into a shield-a gift from my sister- then I grabbed my knife, I wish my locker was nearby, I wanted my sword, but the short knife would have to do. Jack pulled out his reed pipes and began to play. I hoped that no one from the school would come into the hallway, because I couldn’t believe what I was up against.
In the gym, the mist had twisted the figures of the four monsters to look like a couple and a kid and a dog, well the dog was definitely not a dog. It was a drakon. Not a very big one but it was still a drakon. Drakons are like dragons except they have no wings and breathe poison, oh and they paralyze you with fear just by looking at you. That alone would be hard to beat. The “kid” was actually a telekine. Why a telekine was here I had no idea. Telekines are half dog half human and are usually a pretty easy monster to defeat. They usually make weapons, but I guess recently a lot of monsters have died, so everyone had to fight.
As for the other two monsters, well they were an empousa and a Fury, or a ‘kindly one.’
The empousa was nice to look at but I know that all the stories about vampires originate from their bloodthirsty race. I had never fought one before, I prayed to my father for strength.
There are three Furies and they all worked for Hades the god of the Underworld. Hades wasn’t that friendly of a guy. But the Furies, they are even less friendly than their master. And they can fly, which would be a problem, because it would cut off my only escape, the air. I can fly, sort of, the air bends around me and I float, so I guess you can call that flying. But if I needed to run from the fight, I would be chased in the air too, not so fun.
I charged and jumped into the air right above the telekine and hovered, and stabbed down, the telekine screamed and I stabbed again it, crumbled into sand and blew away
I turned toward the fury and did what was natural, slammed the shield into its face and slashed with my knife. It fell against some lockers and they crumbled under its weight. It took to the air and tried to claw at me, but I jumped into the air and hovered, in front of it. The fury opened its mouth to curse at me, but I was ready for that, I threw my knife right into its mouth. It chocked, fell from the sky and turned into dust. My knife hit the floor. I willed the air to put me down. When I landed, I grinned and picked up my knife.
Jack’s reed pipe playing was slowing down the other two monsters. Grass grew and vines wrapped around the drakon and empousa’s legs, they were both furious and struggled against the vines. The vines were only strong enough to tire them and distract them. I wished I had more help. Not that Jack wasn’t doing great, but this was tough, and I was used to more demigods, or fewer monsters. I turned to the empousa and slashed with my knife.
“Who do you think you are to kill me? I have lived thousands of years and no hero has been able to kill me.” She laughed and slashed her sword, it cut my arm. I parried another blow. She was gorgeous, and I was jealous that an evil monster could be that pretty. But a few seconds later she shifted into her true form, and it was not pretty. She bared her teeth.
“I am Kristen Bradford, daughter of Zeus, and the sister of the Thalia and Jason Grace, heroes of Olympus ! If that is so then I will be the first hero to send you to the depths of Tartarus just like your little friends!” I sounded way more confident than I was.
“You are a daughter of Zeus?” she laughed scornfully, “I did not know that a child of Zeus could be so weak and easy to beat.”
I lunged, she sidestepped. I need to get into the air I thought. I jumped up and I could feel energy surge through my body. Flying over her I spun around bringing my shield down on her head and my knife slashed her face. She screamed out curses in ancient Greek, and I grinned, “Easy to beat?”
She snarled.
I glanced at Jack. He was doing a pretty good job at distracting the drakon and also dodging it poison. The hallway was in ruins though. Almost all the lockers were trashed. The teachers and the principal weren’t going to be so happy.
The empousa was trying to get up off the floor but I put a final end to her with my knife, and she crumbled to sand. My own wounds weren’t as bad as hers were but they still hurt.
Then I turned to the drakon, at 5 feet long it wasn’t as big as some of the other I had fought, but it was still big. And I had to consider the fact that I hadn’t fought the other drakons alone, I had had lots of help.
I need my sword.
Jack’s vines would slow it down a lot. I would probably have enough time to get my sword out of my locker.
I flew as fast as I could down the hall and turned and flew down another hall, in a few minutes I was at my locker. I quickly unlocked it and grabbed my sword and turned and ran back to the fight. Jack’s vines were really aggravating the drakon and it was spewing poison all over everything.
I yelled and charged.
The drakon turned its huge head towards me and charged back.
Jumping over it I landed on its back and brought a sharp edge down on its neck. It rolled over, giving me a perfect angle to slide my sword into its unguarded stomach. I stabbed down and the drakon lay still and turned to dust.
“Great job, Kristen!” Jack congratulated me.
“You were very helpful, thanks,” I returned.
At that very moment the bell rang and all classes were out. The hall flooded with students and they all gasped at the wreckage. This was not going to go well.
Jack and I left the hall, but someone had already told a teacher that we were the only ones in the hall when the bell rang. The principal stopped us.
“May I have a word?” I knew we were doomed.
We turned into the Principal’s office and he took a seat.
“Kristen Bradford, can you please explain why the hall is in ruins? I did not know a high school student was capable of such destruction.”
“I didn’t do it.” I replied.
“Well then please enlighten me? Who did?”
Jack jumped in, “I was waiting for Kristen to come out of gym, and when she did we walked into the hallway and it was all messed up.”
“Hm, I will ask Coach when you left, stay here.”
He left the room.
“Thanks Jack,” I smiled nervously, “but I doubt he is going to believe that.”
Blahh-hahh “I hope he does.” Jack pulled a crushed aluminum soda can out of his pocket and started eating it.
I thought about the fight, and the poison spewed all over the lockers, there was no way we were gonna not get expelled.
The principal walked back into his office. “I’m afraid that coach says you left the gym about half an hour ago. I don’t know what happened but I cannot let something like this go unpunished, both of you are not going to be allowed to come back next semester. However, tomorrow is the last day of school, and since you have exams, I will permit you to take those home and take them there, and then I will expect them in the mail before next Tuesday.”
Great, more work for my mom.
“Yes sir.” We walked out of the office got our exam work and decided to walk home.
“I was thinking about spending next semester at camp,” I told Jack, “I’m sure that Grover needs your help with something.”
“I didn’t like that school anyways,” Jack sighed, “Grover always has work for anyone that wants it. It’s facing Mr. D again that scares me most. But it’s all going to work out, let’s go talk to your mom.”
Chapter 2
“Mom!” I called as I walked into our apartment, “Where are you?”
“I’m in here honey, I just got back from work. You sound worried. Is everything ok?”
My mom’s name is Karen Bradford, and she is the most amazing woman on planet earth. She works as a receptionist for a law firm in Atlanta
My mom walked out of her bedroom and stared at me and Jack.
“What happened? You look like a mess.”
I looked down, I hadn’t really realized how awful I looked, my shoes were almost destroyed by the drakon’s poison and the cut on my arm didn’t look too great.
“Well, we had a surprise visit by a couple monsters during gym, I look much better than one of the halls at school. But hey, I won.” I smiled halfheartedly.
“Expelled?” my mother asked.
“Yeah, sorry.” I said, then added, “I was thinking I might want to spend next semester at camp. These monsters were hard to fight, and I want more training.”
My mom sighed, “I was afraid of that, I wish you could stay but I know that you need to do what you think is best.”
“It’ll be okay mom. Don’t worry about me, I can handle myself,” I gave her a huge hug, it would be hard to be gone so much, “and hey I got Jack to help me.”
“All right, I guess so.” She replied hesitantly
Walking in the bathroom I turned on the shower and threw a golden drachma into the water, “Oh Iris, please take my offering, I need to speak to Chiron.”
The mist shifted and I saw a picture of Chiron.
“Jack, Kristen is everything alright?” he asked, looking worried.
“Hey Chiron, not exactly. Jack and I were expelled today after a fight with four monsters that destroyed part of the school. I’ve been thinking about staying at camp next semester, what do you think?”
The centaur stroked his beard, “Hmmm that is not good news, four monsters attacking inGeorgia
“No, there was a telekine, a fury, an empousa and a drakon. I wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for Jack.” I replied.
The centaur stroked his beard, “Hmmm that is not good news, four monsters attacking in
“No, there was a telekine, a fury, an empousa and a drakon. I wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for Jack.” I replied.
“Telekines haven’t fought in any battle since Kronos was defeated,” Chiron mused, then looked up, “Yes, I think it would be best if you came to Camp Half-Blood
“Thanks Chiron. Yeah I have, she wasn’t too happy about it, but she understands. I’ll be there in the first week of January. Bye.”
“Goodbye Kristen, and be careful.”
The image faded, and I turned off the shower.
Chiron had said to be careful, and I was going to be very careful, I had to. It’s always dangerous for the children of the Big Three. The Big Three are the Olympian brothers, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. When my older sister, Thalia was my age, she was chased by tons of monsters and ended up turning into a tree. Thankfully that was undone when another child of the Big Three was found. Percy Jackson always is in trouble, he has been chased by tons of monsters and even led the attack against Kronos a few years ago when he was only 15. He and his girlfriend Annabeth are an unstoppable team. Other campers have told me stories about all their adventures, like when they were 12 and he had to battle Ares the god of war, and also had to escape the underworld. Or when they had to rescue his best friend Grover from the huge Cyclops, and then escape a cruise ship that was infested with monsters. Or when Annabeth was captured and Percy, Grover and my sister along with a daughter of Hades and another girl had to travel across the entire country, while being chased by living skeleton zombie guys. He and Grover and Annabeth and Percy’s Cyclops brother Tyson once traveled all through the Labyrinth to try to save Camp Half-Blood Camp Half-Blood
There are only five known children of the Big Three living right now. Percy, Thalia, Jason, me, and Nico. Nico is a child of Hades and he only sometimes comes to stay in his cabin at camp. He doesn’t really talk about it, but one time I asked my sister Thalia about him.
“Thalia,” I said, “why is Nico such a loner?”
“Well, he has gone though a lot.” And she began to tell me some of his adventures. Nico and his sister Bianca had been taken to a hotel in Vegas that wouldn’t let you escape easily, you wouldn’t age. They had stayed there for about 50 years and then a lawyer had come into the hotel and told them it was time to leave. So they went to a boarding school. Grover found them and called Percy, Thalia and Annabeth to help him take them to camp. In the process Annabeth was captured and Bianca joined Artemis’s team of maiden hunters that are immortal.
Nico went to camp with them and was left when Thalia, Percy, Bianca, Grover, and another maiden hunter left to rescue Annabeth and Artemis, who was also captured. On the trip Bianca died, and Nico was heartbroken, he left the camp and wasn’t seen for awhile until Percy and Annabeth were searching the Labyrinth. Nico was calling up ghosts from the underworld to figure out how to talk to Bianca, and to figure out what had happened to their mother. When he learned what had happened to his mother he was again heartbroken. It wasn’t until the battle against Kronos that Nico came to terms with all that had happened and he helped save New York
As I’ve already said, it is dangerous being a kid of the Big Three. Bad things always happen.
I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper out of the fridge.
“Want one?” I asked Jack.
“Duh.” He replied catching the can that I had tossed.
I sipped my soda and thought about the fight. Why had a fury been there? And why were telekines fighting?
Jack finished his soda and started chewing on the can. I tossed him my empty can and he ate that too.
“What did Chiron say?” my mom asked.
“He wants us to come in January.”
“That sounds…” Mom hesitated before saying, “Good.”
The next day Jack and I sat around the kitchen table while mom was at work and took our exams.
It’s a lot easier to take exams at home, because you don’t have a time limit or teachers looking over your shoulder every few minutes. My ADHD though was making it hard for me to concentrate.
“Di immortales I just can’t concentrate. Too bad the exams aren’t written in Greek, and then I would be able to finish these things with no problem.” I fumed.
Jack grunted and nodded in agreement.
I grabbed a coke from the fridge and tossed one to Jack. Somehow soda helps me concentrate. Most ‘specialists’ would say that for people with ADHD pure sugar coursing through your body would be the last thing that would help someone concentrate. But for demigods, it really helps us focus.
Hours later the exams were finished, and in a sealed addressed envelope. Waiting to be mailed the next day, Friday.
Jack stays at our apartment; it was easier then having to find some other place for him. He had been with me at different schools for three years, and he had been staying with us for almost that long.
The next day was boring. I mean what can you do for hours at a time in Atlanta
I should make something clear; Jack is just one of my best friends. He has a tree nymph girlfriend who lives at camp. So this definitely wasn’t a date. And also he is about 29 years old. Satyrs age twice as slow as mortals.
The next day was just as boring, Saturday.
Sunday was better, I had a surprise visit from one of my camp buddies, Piper, a daughter of Aphrodite. She is almost 18 and dating my brother, but she is still pretty cool. Her dad was in the area shooting a movie. They were gonna be in Georgia
When she came in the door I was so excited. For a daughter of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, she was pretty cool.
“Hey!” she screamed when I opened the door.
“Oh my gods, Piper! It’s so great to see you! Come in!” I smiled.
We talked for hours just stopping to eat the delicious southern home cooked meal my mom made. Finally I asked her, “Why don’t you come over everyday, I’m just waiting for January to come, because I’m going back to camp.”
“That sounds amazing! I get so bored staying on set or in our hotel all day. You could even come to set a couple times probably. I’ve graduated high school you know, I just crammed two semesters worth of work in one, do maybe I’ll go to camp too next semester, I’ll talk with my dad. Besides this head councilor needs to make sure that everything in the Aphrodite cabin is under control.”
Piper’s dad is a famous Cherokee actor named Tristan McLean.
“Does he still not know about your mom?” I asked.
“Yeah, I haven’t told him, because of how it would affect him so much. Mom has talked to me some about it. It would probably tear him apart. So maybe in a few years. I’ve known for three years, and he is spending much more time with me, since his personal assistant is Mellie the aura, she has made sure that he has at least an hour in his daily schedule set aside for just hanging out. And the next movie he is going to be in is set in the mountains of NC and he is going to play a Cherokee! That’s the first time he will ever play a Native American, and I’m glad!”
“Aw, that is really great! I really don’t know how I would make it if I didn’t have my mom knowing, but it’s different for all different people. But I’m glad that you have Mellie and Jason close to you.”
She nodded, “After dad’s last personal assistant, Mellie is a breath of fresh air,” she giggled, “literally. Yeah, we’ve been dating for almost exactly three years.” She smiled.
My brother, Jason has an interesting and complicated life. Very complicated. In the beginning even his relationship with Piper was complicating. But thankfully after her first quest, before I was a camper, they straightened things out.
It was almost three o’clock and Piper said that her dad would be looking for her soon, and she didn’t want to miss dinner with him.
“Don’t forget to talk to him about camp,” I reminded.
“Oh, don’t worry, I will! Cya later,” she gave me a hug and walked out the door.
I was glad she was in town. It would make the time pass so much faster.
Between spending time with mom, hanging out with Jack and Piper, visiting the set and Christmas, the three weeks before I was to leave for camp flew by. Piper and Jack were going with me to camp.
The first time I had been to camp was when I was 11. It was right before the seven half bloods left for Greece New York Georgia
I remember flying being exhilarating, I felt like I was floating in my seat. Actually I was, and it wasn’t until later that I realized that when people fly they stay in their seat, not hover above it.
When we got to the New York
“Wassup, Jack? How ya doin?” he said.
“Grover! Long time no see man. This is Kristen,” he motioned to me.
The first guy smiled and nodded, “Hey, I’m Percy Jackson and this is my friend Grover, nice to meet you. Come one, Argus is waiting in the van.”
“Sweet!” Jack said, “We just have to get our luggage.”
Percy looked around, and nodded, “Yeah but we have to hurry, we need to get to camp before anyone finds us.”
Anyone finds us? I thought, this Percy guy looks really scared about the thought of “ anyone finding us.” This is strange. And jack has been acting strange ever since we got off the plane.
He led me to the baggage claim and we grabbed our bags and left the airport.
When we got in the van I could’ve sworn the driver had at least a hundred eyes, but then I blinked and thought my mind was playing tricks on me.
Argus, the driver turned onto a highway and got stuck in traffic. I thought the traffic in Atlanta was bad, but New York City
“Welcome to Camp Half-Blood
I followed him, with my bags, to the big farm house, where I met Chiron the centaur. Which freaked me out. I was even more freaked out when he told me that the Greek myths I heard about in school were true, and that my father was one of the gods. The more I was at Camp Half-Blood
I remember that that summer had been really crazy because of the quest that some of the halfbloods were going on. Everyone was worried. And Rachel, the oracle who lived in a cave frequently studied all things known about the great giants that were formed to defeat the gods.
Looking back I have to laugh at my own ignorance.
