My dream started out unlike the others.

My sister, who I hadn't seen or heard from since I was last at camp, was sitting at a beachside cafe, scowling at the turquoise waters. Her glass of iced coffee was no longer iced, the cubes had all melted and the untouched water was floating on top of the coffee.

"So close," she whispered. "So close yet so far."

"What do you mean?" My feet were glued to the floor, leaving me no choice but to stay still.

Her pink eyes turned to me. "You should not be here, little brother." She sounded agitated.

"Where is here?" I shook my head, confused.

She waved her hand, her purple arm scarf fluttering in the motions. "That is of no concern of yours. Begone, you must get to your dreams."

She flicked her hand and the old glass of coffee flew towards me and shattered against my chest.

The world went vertigo for a minute, leaving me sick to my stomach. Then, it cleared.

Kinda.

I was standing in the center of a road, a storm raging around me.

Judging by the treelines, I was either in South California or Florida. The street was abandoned other than a scrawny boy around my age dashing up the sidewalk.

Curly brown hair flapped in the wind, rain pelting a rainbow beanie.

A very familiar rainbow beanie.

Grover hadn't changed much since I've seen him last, back in August. He had written a time or two, mostly to assure me that he was alive, but that wasn't the point. He still looked like a 29 year old got stuck in the body of a 7th grader, which was kind of the case. Satyrs didn't age the same way humans did, but it appeared like he was still the same age as I.

His clothes were torn - a beige linen jacket with no sleeves, khaki jeans with one pant leg sliced off along his knee-line, a grey shirt that looked like it had a see-through skull on it, and a pair of blue Skechers in his hand. His hooves had cloth towelettes pulled over them, so instead of a clop clop they made a spif spif sound.

His legs were covered in tangles, a couple of combs stuck in the courses brown damp wool. His face was twisted with terror.

He dashed past me, muttering 'Need to warn them, need to tell them'. I turned and noticed the street was a dead end. The wind whipped around me and him like a hurricane, making it hard to stand up.

There was only one store with an opened door - ST. AUGUSTINE BRIDAL BOUTIQUE

Grover dashed inside and I willed my body to follow him.

Inside were wedding dresses that were whiter than teeth. Lace dresses, cotton, nylon, polyester, mermaid tail, big prom like puffs, trains, cocktail.

You name it, the store has it. And unfortunately, I knew this store. Drew told me that this was where she wanted to get her dream dress.

I cringed at the thought of having to tell her that the Boutique was… not available at the moment.

He dove behind a rack of pearly white dresses, accidently getting tangled inside of one.

I winced, realising Grover was now in a ten thousand dollar dress that did not match his figure. It was huge, puffy, with yellow flowerettes. It looked tacky.

Then I shivered at the thought. Why did I have to sound so… Aphrodite-ee.

The storm outside started to sound quieter. I caught a waft of a far too familiar scent - sulfur and iron.

Monster.

I looked around, desperately trying to find where the scent was coming from.

Grover sighed a little, relieved.

Then the roof peeled away from the walls, flying off into the distance. Someone huge bellowed "MINE!" and Grover was pulled into the whirlwinds above, yellow flowerettes and all.

I screamed, running for the door.

I woke up, breathless and drenched in sweat. Nothing like a good old nightmare to get you up before the alarm.

"Oh come on, I had two more minutes left," I complained to myself, glaring at the clock on the wall. Usually I had an alarm clock, but Mom suggested I ditched it so I could avoid the monsters' attentions.

So far, it's been working. I glanced at the calendar and broke into a smile.

Today was the best day of the year - last day of school.

Then the smile faded as I noticed something outside my window, on the fire escape. A dark, slim figure, much like a shadow.

My hand instinctively went to Riptide, in which I kept under my pillow every night.

…

Don't laugh at me.

Survival is key to being a demigod, you never know when a flying demon hag could crash into your bedroom and give you random lessons about math.

The smooth feeling of the purple and gold pen brushed my fingers and I gripped it, eyes locked on the shadow.

It shifted, like it wanted to come in. My finger inched up to the cap, ready to unleash the bronze from it's disguise.

Mom opened the door. "Percy? You're up early."

I turned, the uneasy feeling washing away.

"Yeah, just excited." I smiled, Riptide falling out of my hands.

She smiled. "Well hurry up then, I made waffles."

My eyes widened and she laughed softly, closing the door behind her as she made her way to the kitchen.

I turned to the window, only to find nothing was there.

Of course there was no one. Who would be at the top of a five story fire escape at this time of the hour.

You live in the city that never sleeps, I reminded myself, there is an endless list of people who would.

You're so pessimistic, Percy. The small voice said. I pierced my lips.

"Oh, so now you talk to me. Where were you when I needed help on that history test last week?"

I'm not helping you cheat on a test, My sister said with a scowl. Or so I imagined. You can't see voices. Now get ready for school.

I did as I told, feeling like I had three moms now. 15 minutes later, I was in the kitchen, a plate of blue waffles in front of me. Mom was behind the counter, in her red and white striped blouse and blue skirt uniform for Sweet on America, the candy store she worked at. Her hair was put up in a bun, one single stripe of blue ribbon woven into a small bow to hold everything up. Her icy ocean blue eyes were lined in a dark blue liner Drew had gotten her for Christmas.

It was days like this where I could see how she was a legacy. She looked like a true child of the sea. I looked more like Christmas, with my red tinted black hair and green eyes.

She was stirring her glass of tea with her palm hovering above the openning, her watery powers at work. The small whirlpool snagged her lemon wedge and sucked it under. I imagined little seed men screaming 'men overboard!' and trying to abandoned their citrusy raft.

Mom frowned when she realised I hadn't touched my food yet.

"Is everything okay?"

"Hm?" I looked up, my head in my left hand. "What?"

"You haven't eaten yet." She said. "School or…"

I sighed. "I think Grover is in trouble."

I told her everything about my dream, even the part with the sister.

"I don't know what he meant by 'Warning them'." I concluded, stabbing my waffle with a fork.

Mom pierced her lips. I knew she didn't like to talk about our other side of the family, we tried to live as normally as possible. She dictated that after I accidentally swung a javelin into the sofa and sliced it in half like a hot knife in softened butter.

But this was important. My best goat was in trouble, maybe even dead.

No… He didn't feel like he was dead. Maybe it was just a feeling in my gut, but I was so sure he was alive.

"Grover is a big goat, he can take care of himself. I'm sure he's fine, since we haven't heard any news from… camp."

She tensed at the word camp, like it was some vile medication she had to take.

"What's so wrong about camp, mom?"

She shook her head. "Nothing's wrong with camp, dear."

"Don't lie to me, mom. I know something's wrong."

She shook her head. "You need to get to school. And afterwords, I can take you and Tyson to Rockerfeller Centre, where that skateboard shop you love so much is."

My heart raced. That was so tempting, we never had the time or the money to do stuff like that. With my private school tuition and mom's night classes, I was so sure something like this wouldn't happen.

It… wouldn't happen.

"We're suppose to pack for camp tonight, mom." I reminded. She winced at that.

"Percy… Chiron sent a letter last night…"

My heart sank. "What do you mean?"

"He… he doesn't believe you should come to camp this year. Something's come up, he doesn't believe you'd be safe."

There was a pause of silence.

"Why?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"I can't just stay here all summer, Drew'll flip if I did." I imagined the younger girl. Drew would storm straight out of camp and hunt me down personally, probably casting some clown makeup curse on me. Then she'd drag me to camp, giving me a lecture on why I should have been there the first place. I shivered at the image.

"It's not safe, Percy."

"But-"

"But nothing. You should be getting to school now." Mom stood up and dusted off her skirt.

Unfortunately, I couldn't argue with her. She is still my mom, at least one of them. I highly doubt Aphrodite would ride down from Olympus and ask for me to go to camp.

So I just got up, grabbed my book bag, and walked out of the house.

I set off on my old rickety skateboard down the sidewalk, weaving around people and deadset on getting to class on time.