The dream started as it always did. I was on the Santa Monica beach, standing in front of a wood cabin.

I was alone but I could swear that something was calling me towards the sea. Having no control over my
body I started walking towards the water. I walked and walked till the water reached my shoulders but I
didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Before I knew it I was completely under the water. But I wasn’t drowning. No. I
could breath as easily as on land. Suddenly I could feel a tingling sensation coming from my feet. As I
looked down I saw my legs shifting. No, uniting is a better word. It stopped pretty quickly. But now I
didn’t have feet. They turned in a dolphin tail. I couldn’t think for a long while about my sudden
mermaidness , or is it merman?, because I started swimming forward, I could feel the currents around
my and I knew, I just knew that in front of my is an abyss. I was so close! Just a little longer and I could
reach it! I could reach h….

Right at that moment a book was slammed on my desk. When I looked up I saw Mrs. Dodds, my math
teacher, glaring at me.

“ That is the third time just this week, Mr. Jackson. Detention today after school.’’

She left the already familiar pink slip on my desk and went back to the her desk, I tried to concentrate
on the lesson but the dream never reached this far. What was in there? Why dream-me wanted to reach
it so badly? And why did I become a freaking merman?

Time skip

“ Could you at least try to not fall asleep every lesson, Seaweed brain?”

The blonde currently glaring at me is Annabeth. I’ve known her since we were twelve, and she was my
girlfriend for two years bit we both decided it would be better for us to remain friends.

My name is Percy Jackson. I am Junior at Half-Blood High school and the team of the swimming team. If
you didn’t realize already from my nickname and my dream, I am an ocean freak, even if my mother is a
bit scared for me. She told me that my father used to work on ships and died at sea before I was born. I
think she sometimes thinks that it will happen to me too. Even so, after High school I want to study sea
creatures and become a marine biologist. But before I bore you anymore with my future plans, It looks
like Annabeth has tried to catch my attention for a while as she hit me upside the head.

“Aw! What was that for?” From the look she was giving me I knew I was In trouble.

“ You have been staring in space since we left the classroom.” She turned from me and opened the door
of the cafeteria. Have I been lost in thought for that long !?

“Sorry, Wise girl. Let’s look for the rest of the gang.”

It didn’t take us long to find the rest of the gang, especially with the sound of arguing.

“Look, it’s easy! You have to add to participle passe the suffix for each person!”

“Easy? There is a billion of those! How can anyone remember them!”

Before it could escalate in something worse I stepped in.

“The problem? The problem is that this meapilas thinks it’s humanly possible to remember all past
participles. In French.” The Hispanic elf, or Leo, said the last word as If it was a blasphemy.

“ It’s not that hard if you would pay attention. And what did you call me?” that one was Frank, our dear
Chinese-Canadian teddy bear.

“A hypocrite, Mr. ’Oh Spanish is too hard and has too many rules’” Leo said in a high pitched voice in a
poor imitation of Frank voice.

“ I do not sound like that!” said he in exactly the same tone.

“Both of you calm” as I looked around the table I realized why the argument went on for so long “Hey,
where is Hazel?”

Before they could answer, from a next to Frank a girl with kaleidoscopic eyes, Piper, spoke up “She is
showing two new kids around”

Annabeth frowned from her seat next to mine as we sat down.

“Shouldn’t that be Will’s job? He is the one that usually shows new kids around.”

“ He was busy with the first aid course so Hazel said she will show them around the school.”

Right as she finished talking from behind me I heard the voice of the youngest from our group.

“ Hey guys! I want you all to meet someone!”

As I turned around, first I saw Hazel, smiling with her golden eyes glowing. On her right there was a girl
who looked around our age, with black hair and olive skin. I put on a smile and opened my mouth to
great her but I felt my mouth go slack as I looked towards Hazel’s life, where stood someone that for a
second I thought it was an angel.

He had hair as dark as night with alabaster skin that seemed to glow and lips looking so, so soft. Buthid
eyes…. His eyes looked like melted chocolate and I felt as if I could drown in them. Before I could
continue checking him out I received an elbow in my ribs. I tried not to flinch and glared at the culprit,
just to see a pair of stormy grey eyes staring back, making me realize that I once again got lost in
thought once again and that everyone was staring at me.

“Yeah, sorry, got lost in thought.” I turned towards the two stranger to see that they and Hazel had
already sat down, maybe Piper invited them, or Leo? “My name is Percy. And you two are?”

The first one to speak up, I could tell she was a confident and friendly girl “Hi to you too! My name is
Bianca diAngelo and this is my brother Nico” he didn’t say a thing, just gave a tiny wave. “We are from
Italy and we moved with our father here a month ago. It’s a pleasure to meet you all”

Jason was the one that spoke up after that. “The pleasure is ours. So the two of you are from Italy? How
it’s like there?”

The rest of the lunch break was spent discussing about Italy and getting to know each other. And let me
tell you. Every thing I learnt about the angel, I mean Nico, made me like him more and more. He was a
freshman and into art. His favorite color was black and he hated pomegranates ,But even so I didn’t
found as much as I would like, but I already had an idea to how to make that happen. As lunch finished, I
escorted Nico to his new locker, I waited till he took what he needed before putting my “plan” in action.

“So Nico.” He gave a little hum and turned towards me with a raised eyebrow. “ I was wondering, since
you are new to this town an all, to maybe show you around the city, maybe go to the movies. Or
anything else at all, whatever….”

As I rambled on I could see that Nico’s face was darkening even if I didn’t know why, till he suddenly
stopped me by raising a hand.

“No.” I was so surprised that I stared gobs smacked at Nico. “Sorry to announce Percy but you are not
my type.” He turned around and started walking, throwing an “ I’ll see you around” as he went.

Normally, If this happened to me, I would accept and move on. But as I thought about what he said
more I realized there was something more about it, the way he said it not like a dismissal, but ore like he
was angry for a reason I didn’t know. Kind of like a challenge. I smirked as I looked in the direction Nico
went. “Game on DiAngelo”

Time skip

A couple of weeks went by since the DiAngelo sibling arrived. Bianca easily made a lot of new friends
and entered the archery club soon after meeting Thalia ,Jason’s older sister, and not long after that they
got together.

Around the same time Piper, as the head of the cheerleaders, started organizing the Valentine’s day
prom. It was an yearly event our school was hosting. I went to the last two with Annabeth and when we
broke up we decided that If by the time the prom rolled around again we didn’t had dates we would go
together to avoid any unpleasant situations.

Talking about dates, I didn’t make any progress with Nico. When we spend time one on one all seem
okay and he responds to my flirting, but when we are in a group or I ask him out he seem to get angry
very suddenly and quickly. I couldn’t understand. What is his problem?

Take today an example. While we were walking towards the cafeteria he laughed at what I was saying
and flirted with me, but the second we reached the table he shut up and sat between Hazel and Bianca.
Seeing as there weren’t any other places, I sat next to Annabeth. Soon the subject of the prom and dates
came up. Piper and Jason were going together, the same with Thalia and Bianca , Hazel and Frank, and
Leo and his girlfriend Calypso.