Cel

Italian god of death and the underworld

Umbria

Italian goddess of shadows and things which are hidden

"It hurts so much." Percy whines, and covers his eyes like a little toddler.

"I know, I know," Anna says. Then, she shrugs, "But hey, you're one step closer to not being afraid of the outside world."

"It's not the outside world I'm afraid of." Percy says, voice so low even Anna can barely hear it.

"What was that?" She asks, cupping one hand over her right ear, leaning over, but still keeping her other hand on the wheel, and eyes on the road.

"Nothing." Percy mumbles, shutting his eyes. When he opens them, he sees a black car in the review mirror. There's a two people in the car. One's driving, and the other is looking exactly at Percy with their binoculars.

Percy shivers, and then clutches the seat tightly. Something about those people reminded him of one of those people from his dreams years ago.

"Drive faster." He orders. Anna looks at him questioningly.

"I said, drive faster." He glares at her. "Now." Anna only shrugs and presses the gas pedal a little bit more. Only does she stop when they reach the speed limit.

"What was that about?" Anna asks. Under his breath, Percy mumbles something Anna couldn't hear.

"So, tell me a little about yourself. You seem young-ish." Anna shrugs once again.

"I graduated college at age seventeen." Anna says and Percy smirks.

"Impressive." He says.

"Well…yeah. My parents were so proud of me on graduating day. Ruffled my hair and told me: that even if I grow up to be more mature than they are, I'll always be their little Annabeth." Percy cocks an eyebrow. Annabeth…where had he heard that name before?

"That's my real name. In my second year of college people started calling me Anna. They name's been stuck ever since. I don't really like it though, it's kind of annoying. I don't even know why I told you to call me that." Percy quickly decides to call her by her full name. He likes it better. It reminds him of the countryside.

When they reach Nico's school, Percy was squirming with paranoia. The black trucks he'd seen through the rear-view mirror on the high way weren't right behind them, but Percy still has a feeling that they're being followed. He has a burning feeling in the pit of his stomach.

They walk into the front office. They're two ladies sitting at separate desks, typing away on the computers. Behind them is a door that leads to the council room, and a couple feet across from that is the Principal's office. The walls are white, and it all stings Percy's eyes. On the other side there's the Nurse's office, and a few feet down is the Teacher's lounge. All Percy could think of at the moment was, "Oh, those poor, poor, teachers."

"Hi. I'm looking for Nico di Angelo. We're here for the meeting." Annabeth smiles sweetly, and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. The woman at the front desk (her name is Abbey) looks up.

"You're not his parents," Abbey's eyes shift to Percy, and she smiles briefly. "And you don't look a day over eighteen." Percy's nose wrinkles. Abbey looks at least thirty. She had curly brown hair and light blue eyes, and wore framed glasses. Sure, she could be attractive for her age, but it wasn't exactly what Percy was…looking for.

"We're filling in for Cel and Umbria. They couldn't make it, but I'm the back up guardian." She smiles again and Abbey reflects it.

"Okay. Nico's already in the Principal's office. The Principal will be there in a moment."

Annabeth guided Percy over to the room. It was a dark red, and on the back wall there were pictures of the Principal throughout the year. On the right wall was a trophy case, and on the left there were quotes just taking up the whole wall.

Sitting on a plush chair in front of a wooden desk, was Nico. His shoulders we low, and with the way of his posture, you knew he was in trouble. Annabeth sits down in the opposite chair next to Nico, forcing Percy to stand. Nice turns around and glares at Percy, before resuming his previous position. Percy taps his foot impatiently. Out of the principal's office, he has a view of two big and black vans. He can see people waiting inside of them. The creepy thing is that their staring at the window. No, they're staring at him. Then, Percy blinks. He looks out the window. The vans are gone.

"Sorry I'm late." A woman says, as she rushes into the room. She plops herself in the single chair behind the desk. Her light brown hair is pulled tightly back into a bun, and she has dark brown and bushy eyebrows. She smiles at Annabeth, holding out a hand.

"I'm Athena. I don't believe we've met." Annabeth returns the smile.

"We're filling in for Cel and Umbria today." Athena cocks an eyebrow, turning her head ever so slightly.

"Yes, I do believe Umbria called a few days ago…we?" She asks confusedly. Her eyes shift to Percy. She glares at him slightly.

"Hello," She says, you could tell she was trying her best not to let an infuriated tone into her voice, "Nice to see you again." Percy raises an eyebrow, and then his mouth forms an "Oh" formation.

He remembers. He used to go to this school. Percy doesn't know why, but Athena had always hated him. It doesn't look like anything has changed, because Athena ignores him after one glance.

"Let's get down to business, shall we?" Athena asks, looking back at Annabeth. She scoots closer to the desk, and pulls out a light yellow folder from it, placing it on the desk with a thud.

"This morning, I found Nico at the bike racks, doing something looked down upon at this school. Care to say, Nico?" Athena intertwines her hands tightly.

"No, you can go right ahead." Nico says smirking. Athena's knuckles turn white.

"I found Nico smoking at the bike racks earlier this morning."

No gasps.

No jokes.

No laughter.

No fights.

Just stares.

"Mr. di Angelo, what do you think your punishment should be?" Athena gives a sickly sweet smile as she reaches into a drawer, and pulls out glasses. She sets them on the bridge of her nose, and rests her chin in her hands.

"You're the Principal, do it yourself." Nico says in a valley-girl accent, rolling his eyes.

"Even high, you're sarcastic!" Athena accuses. Nico stands up, and staggers to the left. Annabeth grabs his arm, making sure he doesn't fall.

"I'm not high!"

"Sit, Nico." Annabeth says, as she stares him directly in the eye. Nico breaks away, and rubs his hands underneath his eyes and yawns like an innocent child.

"Can I just go home?" Nico whines.

"For three weeks you can stay off of this campus." Nico blinks.

"But Madam Athena, I'd miss mid-terms." Athena raises an eyebrow.

"Whose fault is that?" Nico stays silent. Athena opens Nico's file, then stamps something into the corner. She starts to right in it.

"You may spend the rest of the day cleaning out your locker, gathering your supplies, and leaving. I recommend that you go home with your back-up guardians, and not a rebellious outsider, who could possibly be the root to your problems." Athena rambles on while writing down notes.

Nico points a finger.

"Thalia. Grace. Is. Not. A. Outsider." With each punctuation, Nico jabs a finger in Athena's direction. Every time he jabs a finger, Percy moves forward. By the time Nico tries to charge at Athena, Nico's being held back by Percy and Annabeth. Athena cocks her head to the side.

"Is he trying to attack me?" Athena scoffs, and then leaves the room. A few seconds later she pops back in.

"Don't break anything. Don't touch anything." She shoots a look at Percy, like he's the biggest trouble maker out of all of them.

"Let me at her!" Nico yells. "Just…One…Swing!" Nico's arms flail, and his right hand, in the form of a first, managed to hit Percy's temple. The older boy dropped to the floor, unconscious, effective immediately.

When Percy wakes, he's inside a medal box. There are bars at the top, kind of like monkey bars. Percy immediately knows it's to let air in and out. Was he in a prison? What had he done?

"Perseus…" Comes a voice from everywhere. Percy stands up.

"Huh?" Comes his smart reply.

"Perseus…It's been so long. You've grown so much." Percy can't tell if it's a woman or a man. It seems as though it's a mixture of both.

"Who are you?" Percy demands.

"The question is, dear, who are you, and where are you?"

"Well, I'm in…! I'm in…where am I?"

"It's about time to explain, isn't it?" It sounded like there was bickering all around him. Percy turns himself ninety degrees, and couldn't see anyone, or anything.

"Look ahead, son. See our world before your eyes." A deep voice said. It was obvious to Percy who the man was. He didn't know how he knew the voice, and could single it down to one person, but he did. It was his father.

His real one.