Chapter 1: A Simple Stroll Along the Beach Can Lead to Much More

A/N: EDIT #2: We're really sorry about deleting all the chapters but we're not quitting on this story yet. We'll add the rest of the chapters on as we edit and remake them. Note: we'll re-post chapter 2 next week. Hopefully it'll be better.

A/N: Hello everyone! This is our first fanfiction. (Yes 'our', two people are working on this - which means we write faster) We hope you like it. If we get at least one positive review, we will post the second chapter. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Flame if you want, but please give a reason. R&R please! We hope you enjoy. ツ

EDIT! What's happening: We (aka: mostly Person 1) are currently editing the previous chapters. It's also Person 2's turn to write chapter 14. He/she is trying to make Person 1 write the plot line but Person 1 does not want to. That is why it's taking so long. Person 1 is also trying to get Person #2 to swap roles. He/she does not want to. (Person #1 secretly thinks that Person #2 likes being a flunky - though now it's not that 'secretly' anymore...).

PERCY'S POV:

4:00 in the morning.

I stared at the ceiling. I hadn't slept a single hour. I think I gave up trying an hour ago... but it could've been two. Maybe it was three. I'm not too sure. Was I turning into an insomniac?

My eyes began to water so I blinked. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

I turned my head, once again, for the hundredth time in the night to look out the window. The moon had set a couple of hours back. But it wasn't the full moon. Stars glittered in the horizon and the Milky Way stretched out in colourful arc across the sky. I named a couple of constellations that I knew. Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Draco, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Aquila, Cygnus, Lyra, Ophiuchus, Sagittarius, Scorpius and Hercules, or as the Greeks call him, Heracles. The great and mighty hero. Other stars surrounded him, like a blanket of lights obscuring the black night sky. I looked for Zoe Nightshade. I remember that conversation we had all those nights ago. But seemed like a lifetime away. Zoe knew Hercules once. She once helped him, but Zoe is gone. No more. So is Hercules. After two thousands years, death has finally caught up to her. At least she will now be remembered in the constellations. Thanks to Artemis.

I sighed, I was naming the constellations and thinking about my past. Again. This is boring. I thought, for perhaps the thousandth time in the night. I closed my eyes, although it was rather pointless. Sleep would not come. It was morning soon, anyways. Maybe I should spend my time more wisely. Isn't that what Annabeth would tell me? Am I beginning to think like her? I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

I decided that maybe a walk at the beach, listening to the the sounds of the sea and watching the waves would be better than lying here. Maybe I could watch the sunrise too, I thought. People seem to enjoy that... apparently it is romantic.

I changed out of my pajamas into my Camp Half-Blood orange T-shirt and a pair of loose jeans. As always, I made sure my trusty pen Anaklusmos, or 'Riptide' was in my pocket. I put my socks and sneakers on and fumbled around for my torch. Where is that thing? I cursed.

I grabbed my watch and slipped it on. 4:19 it displayed.

I probed the floor with my hands, flipping over the junk that littered my room.

I need to ask Tyson to clean my cabin, I thought.

Maybe later, when I see him, I resolved. That was when I found my torch under a pile of dirty socks lying on the floor. Ok, I REALLY need to get Tyson to clean my cabin.

I flicked my torch on. The light casted a ghostly illumination over the objects on the floor and the shell decorations along the walls. I walked over to the door of my cabin and checked no one was outside. I saw no one outside, but then again I thought to myself, who else would be awake at this time of the morning? I made my way slowly to the beach.

The sun was already starting to rise by the time I got to the beach. I could see the faint tinge of red and yellow in the sky along with the brightening of the landscape.

I checked my watch: 4:31 it read. It took me 13 minutes to walk here? Seriously?

The sea was at low tide. It was rather calm. Not much waves, I observed. Though I could easily change that if I wanted. I walked along the beach, close to the water. I cast the light from my torch onto the yellow sand, seeing if anything interesting would pop up.

Maybe I'll a find message in a bottle if i'm lucky, I joked to myself. I shined the light of my torch on the sand for a couple of minutes but all I found were a couple of shells.

I gave up my fruitless search and tried admiring the view. I could see the sun had gone a bit higher into the sky by a few centimetres since the last time I checked. The land was brighter and so was the sky, so I no longer needed a torch to see. I flicked the torch off.

I will never understand why people enjoy watching the sun rise, I thought. This is taking too long.

Maybe those people don't have ADHD... My intelligent side of me said.

Although I wasn't watching the sun directly, my eyes began to burn. I still don't see how waiting for Helios to cross the sky and getting my eyes burned is romantic.

I slid them away and observed the sky. It was a mix of blue and yellow with a slight tinge of pink. What is that colour? I thought. Magenta? Wait, I don't even know what that colour looks like. Is that even a colour? It could be a flower... Did I just compare the sky to a flower? A single bright cloud floated beside the sun. The sun's pet cloud. Maybe Zeus was telling Helios to cross the sky faster because he wanted to see the sunrise too.

Nah. He has all of eternity of watch Helios drive his chariot. I doubt he'll bother telling Helios to hurry up.

Then my mind began to wander as I thought about the events of the past couple years.

I must've looked like an idiot, standing there for the past few minutes, gawking at the sun to anyone who was watching. But then again, I thought, who else would be awake at this time of the morning? It's not like the whole camp can't sleep. I thought about swimming in the sea for a couple of minutes while the sun rises. I checked my watch: 4:49. There was still a lot of time before the whole camp wakes up. I looked up at the horizon and saw no change in the sun. This is so boring, how do people enjoy this?

I dropped my torch onto the sand, away from the water so it wouldn't break in the sea. Unfortunately, that torch was a cheap one that I got from K-Mart, not a professional waterproof one. I rarely used torches and when I did, they usually broke at the most inconvenient of times. So why get an expensive one when you could buy lots of cheap ones?

I jumped into the water and breathed in. Naturally, being the son of the sea god had it's benefits. I could breathe water and my clothes would keep dry even if I was in the sea. I realised that jumping in the sea didn't help my me in my insomniatic state at all. I felt energized and fully awake. Sleep is for the weak. Who needs sleep when you can just jump in the sea and feel like you just hibernated for a year? A small part of me still enjoyed sleeping though, waking up in a comfy bed to the shouting of your mum saying that you just missed the school bus.

Nah. This is way better.

Suddenly, I realised that Annabeth was sleeping, and she would probably beat me up if she knew what I was thinking. I quickly ameliorated my previous thought. Never mind... sleep is for those who need it.

I swam further away from the shore and dived to the bottom of the sea. I searched around for anything interesting. Nothing interesting here, I thought to myself.

Suddenly, a delighted silver fish spotted me and shouted 'OH MY GODS IT'S THE SON OF POSEIDON!' and rushed off to, possibly, go and tell the other fishes.

A few seconds passed and a massive school of fish came and rushed at me yelling 'IT'S REALLY THE SON OF POSEIDON!' or 'OH MY GODS IT'S THE SON OF THE SEA GOD!' I thought, Uh oh, this seems bad. Really bad.

Brief images of the highlights of my life passed quickly between my eyes. Surprisingly, a lot of them had Annabeth in them. And was that Grover eating a can? Weird. How is that one of the best moments of my life?

I knew what was good and for me and quickly swam the length back to the beach. The school of fish chased me yelling 'WAIT WAIT WAIT! CAN WE HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH?' (Was it even possible for fish to get autographs? Apparently so). They chased me most of the way back but most of them had already dispersed, probably thinking it wasn't worth it. Then they turned back with disappointed expressions and comments until one last fish remained.

It was the silver fish.

I felt bad running (well, swimming) away from them, but I don't think it would've done me any good to stay. Having your life flash by wasn't a good sign that you were going to survive, right? The silver fish realised that it was the last one remaining. Now that I was closer, I realised it was a flying fish.

"Can I have your autograph?" it said.

"Sure..." I replied, I didn't have anything better to do. I wondered if Poseidon gets chased by fan-fish regularly.

"Great! I think I brought along something here..." It said, rummaging through what looked like glowing moss on it's back with two oversized fins. "Ok! Got it." It said, bringing out a starfish that couldn't possibly have fit in the moss along with a surprising normal... pen..?! Fishes owned pens?

"Here!" the fish said, passing me the starfish and the pen.

"Errr... ok." I said, at a lost for words. I quickly signed it and handed it back.

"WAIT! That's not what you're supposed to do..." the fish sighed, exasperated. At the look of confusion on my face the fish said "nevermind," and quickly swam away. Around the time I lost sight of the fish it stopped swimming. Then it spun around and came back.

"What's wrong?" I said.

"Do you know which way my friends went?"

"That way" I said, pointing my finger away from the shore.

"Thanks!" and with that the fish went off.

What was that all about? I wondered.

Because I was too busy running away from fan-fish (Get it? Fan-fish? No? Meh) and signing autographs (which I apparently did wrong), I realised it was much brighter now and saw the sun was much higher in the sky.

I looked at my watch: 5:07

I suddenly felt very tired. That was strange... I'm not supposed to feel tired in the sea... The train of thought was lost. I had never slept in the sea before, but it couldn't be too bad, right? My eyelids grew heavier and the only thought in my head was of sleep. I closed my eyes and darkness gathered. My last thought was I'll go back to camp after I wake up... I never returned that day.

Meanwhile in Percy's room...

Third Person (POV?)

The moon sunk down towards the horizon. Twelve houses stood in a U formation. Each one of them representing something. At the end of the row, there was a cabin that was lower, longer and looked much more solid that the other cabins. All the windows faced the sea, and the outer walls were rough grey stone studded with pieces of seashell, coral that looked like the ocean floor.

At one side of the cabin, three figures stood in shadow. One of them was tall, slim and leaning against a pillar. He stood still and wore dark blue. It was so dark, it was nearly black. He wouldn't be noticed at all if it wasn't for his blonde hair. One sat slumped on the floor and appeared to be asleep. She was decidedly female with long brown hair. Her other features indistinguishable. She too wore dark blue. The third stood beside the tall, lean one and was fidgeting and whispering. Although he whispered loudly, the wind blew the noise away from the cabin. Anyone inside couldn't have heard him. He wore black unlike the rest of the group. Brown hair, that looked black in the shadows, piled messily on his head. It looked like he just got out of bed. Though that didn't seem too unlikely.

"We've been waiting here for the whole night already! Can't I just go and walk for a bit?"
"Shut up," the tall one snapped.

"Please, Windsor?"

"No. You know that we can't just leave now. Our target could easily just decide he wants to go now,"

"This plan is stupid. Who thought of it anyways?"

"We all did. This part of the plan was your idea though,"

"Oh, right," he said, sheepishly.

"Would you guys please just shut up? It's hard enough to concentrate without you talking," The one crouching down wasn't asleep after all.

"Sorry Aislin, I just really want to go and walk for a bit..."

"Then go, just stop talking," Aislin said.

"Yes! Thanks Aislin,"

"Fine. If the plan fails because of this, it's on your conscience," Windsor commented.

"Whatever. The plan depends on me anyways. Now, just let me concentrate,"

"Have fun with your walk, Bo," Windsor said drily.

Bo wasn't planning on a walk. He didn't even like walks, anyways. He still went off in the direction of the forest. There was something that he left there. Something he needed. He stumbled over something and cursed. Why didn't he bring a torch?

At around the edge of the forest, there was an old, abandoned outhouse. No one knew why it was there or what it was for. In fact, barely anyone knew it existed. How Bo knew about it, is unknown and he probably won't tell.

Bo cautiously walked towards it. It looked eerie in the darkness, which frightened him more than he would admit to. He opened the door slowly, hoping it wouldn't creak.

Unfortunately, for him, it just wasn't a particularly lucky night for him. The door's hinges creaked loudly.

An owl hooted in the distance. Was Athena watching him and telling him off?

And eagle flew past. Zeus? Bo looked up into the sky cautiously. No lightning. Good. Wait... Why was there an eagle here anyways? It's night time. Do eagles come out at night?

A flash of light streaked across the horizon. Thunder followed shortly. Woah! What was that?

Bo, extremely freaked out, quickly took out the items that he needed from the outhouse. It smelt terrible. A remains of a dead rat lay beside the floor. A white skeleton. He shivered, goosebumps appearing on his skin. He shut the door quickly, which screeched loudly again. He almost swore that he heard that owl again. He clutched what he took out of the outhouse and ran back to the camp grounds. He tripped over a loose stone but the items he carried remained undamaged. What is he doing? He lied to Windsor and Aislin, which probably meant they didn't know about this.

He snuck over to the Hermes cabin. He had left the window open, his excuse being that it was really hot and stuffy in the night. Other people also sometimes leave their windows open.

He climbed through the window, not exactly quietly or stealthily. He banged against the walls a couple of times but the campers remained asleep. One lucky thing that happened during the night. He dropped the items he was holding, also luckily, on the other side of the window, onto his bed.

He got through the window, eventually, and placed a cardboard object onto his bed. He put the blankets over the object, carefully, as if it could break anytime soon, and left it there. He stood back and admired his handiwork. He smirked. Wait till they wake up and find this, he thought. He sat on the edge of his bed, scanning the room to make sure no-one was awake. The sounds of their snores drifted to his ears. They didn't seem to be.

Next, he walked over to Windsor's bed and did the same. He noticed that most of Windsors things were gone. But not so much that it was that noticeable.

Bo walked quietly across the room and to the girl's side of the cabin. He became especially cautious, not wanting to wake any of them up. He spotted Aislin's bed. It was easy to spot, being the most extreme. Somehow, she managed to get a two-person bed into the area meant for one. The pillows looked extremely comfortable. The blankets, extremely soft. There was some sort of sheep design on the covers. They were jumping over a fence. He slowly lifted the blankets and placed the piece of cardboard between them. He stifled a laugh and walked off, back to the window.

"Bo? Is that you?" a voice called from behind. I looked behind me to see a boy. He came to camp at around the same time as me.

"No,"

"Yes it is,"

"Fine, it's me. What do you want?"

"Why are you climbing out of the window?"

"Oh... erm... I'm going to the toilet," he said, thinking fast.

"You can just use the door, you know,"

"I can?" I said, delaying the moment, giving me time to think.

"Yes,"

"But isn't there usually a bucket balanced on top, ready to spill water on anyone that opens it?" he said, remembering the bucket trick that was played on him last time.

"Good point, but what are you wearing?"

"My pajamas, do you have a problem with it?"

"No, not at all,"

"Goodnight then,"

"Goodnight," he said, yawned and then walked back to his bed.

Bo cursed his luck but realised that might not be the best thing to do. Instead he stuck to saying his luck was terrible. At least he had shoved his stuff outside. He carried a bag with the few possessions he owned. Some spare clothes, an emergency kit that was given to him on his first day at camp and a few other possessions. He still had one last job to do. Then in the morning, everyone will freak out. He smiled to himself. He wished he could be there to see everyone's faces in the morning, but he couldn't.

He waited beside a building for Windsor and Aislin to leave.

After about half an hour the door of the blue cabin opened and a head poked out, looking left and right. It was clearly Percy Jackson's. The signature black hair and green eyes gave it away. It was still noticeable in the half-light of dawn. He was coming out of his cabin, unexpectedly early. He might have had a nightmare. Or it could have been planned. But he's going out of his cabin, and that's the important part. What could he be doing at a time like this? Percy stepped out of his cabin and closed the door slowly and carefully, a torch in his hand. He walked off away from the cabins.

The two shadows, now huddled beside the blue building, had a whispered conversation.

"What do we do?" Aislin asked.

"Follow Percy,"

"What about Bo?"

"He can catch up. He knows the plan and he just had to leave in the first place,"
"You don't think something happened to him? He's been gone for nearly an hour already,"

"He was a burden. With him gone, we can complete our mission faster,"

"But..."

"No buts. Percy's leaving, let's go before we lose him,"

"Fine..."

The two shadows flitted across to the tree line and followed the unsuspecting Percy.

Bo stood behind a building, dozing. He lifted his head and noticed that his two companions were gone, after all this happened. He quickly grabbed the piece of cardboard that was leaning against him, but began to fall when he lifted his head. He ran, well stumbled, to Percy's cabin. Percy didn't close his door properly, so it was easy for Bo to get in.

Bo crossed the distance from the door to the bed. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation, and also trying to look like the even villains in cartoons. But he tried too hard and failed. The friction gave him a burn. He cursed as he shook his hands in the air to cool them down.

Bo took out the piece of cardboard he had been carrying all this time. He looked in around the room in disdain.

A pile of dirty socks lay in a corner.

Disgusting... He could almost smell it. He shivered. It was mocking him. It so was. He hugged his bag of possessions to his chest, seeking some small comfort from it.

He brought his eyes back to the bed, not wanting to see any more. But the bed was pretty bad itself. Blankets were left unmade and rumpled, pillows scattered. Pillowcases sliding off... He didn't want to think about it. Bo threw the blankets back, touching it only with his fingertips. He arranged a pillow on what he thought was the top of the bed. He then placed the cardboard in between the pillow and the bed. A laugh escaped him, it was just too funny. He wished that he could see the camper's reactions in the morning to his little 'joke'.

He realised that Percy's room was really messy. Orange shirts and jeans littered the floor. He walked out and ran off to the beach, shutting his scarred for life eyes, trying to forget what he just saw in that accursed cabin.

He tripped over a loose rock and made a mental note to himself to never run with his eyes closed again.

So how was it? Much more better than the original? ;D We (a.k.a Person #1) re-wrote it cause we thought the original one failed.

R&R!

~Epic Username