A/N: Yes, I should have updated sooner. Thanks to the presence of two lovely things in my life- homework and midterms-I have not been able to. Only 24 hours in a day, yes?

That said, hope you enjoy this chapter of Logical. And I apologize for the Sound of Music reference in the chapter title, but I couldn't resist =D

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

"Okay, this may surprise you, but my life doesn't really make sense. It's not logical, even though I am a son of Athena."

Rachel laughed. "Malcolm, you're a demigod. I've been around you guys enough to figure out that nothing you do ever makes sense. Continue."

"Yes ma'am." And for some reason, a reason he could never quite explain, his mouth opened and everything spilled out.

"I had a pretty good childhood, I guess. Not one of those horror stories that you here from some of the other campers here.

I never knew my mom, of course, so my family was less than normal. But my dad was about as good as it gets. He was- is- a writer, a novelist. He wrote historical fiction, and he always tried to include me in his research. I think he always knew that I was a demigod, because the only books he ever wrote were about Greece- Greek this, Greek that. We read about all the myths, all the legends. I grew up immersed in ancient history.

My dad knew I loved to learn, so he would tell me anything. I asked him about anything- everything- that I wanted to know. But there was one topic that was always off –limits- my mom.

Sometimes, I imagined that I could remember her. I would lay awake at night, searching and digging in every nook and cranny of my brain, trying to come up with some sort of recollection. It was pointless, of course. Sometimes, I dreamed of a glowing face, watching over a cradle. But that was no help.

I made it through elementary school without a lot of trouble-"

"That's weird," Rachel said out of the blue.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Percy got kicked out of a different school every year, and Annabeth ran away when she was seven. It's just odd that your life was so normal."

"It gets worse, I promise you." He allowed himself a small smile.

"Do tell."

"It was middle school when things started to get a little interesting- I guess it's like that for most demigods. Annabeth says that once we get older, our smell gets stronger, whatever that means. Anyways, in our town- I lived in Pennsylvania, by the way, middle school started in sixth grade, so I was starting at a whole new school. I remember being so nervous my first day- I never really had any good friends in elementary school, and the ones I did have were at different schools.

So I walked in the door the first day, toting a giant backpack behind me, stuffed with all the textbooks and stuff that they gave us. I guess I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going, and I plowed right into somebody.

When I looked up, I realized that somebody was a boy. He was kind of funny looking. His entire face came to a point at the tip of his nose- like a character from Doctor Seuss. He had bright blue eyes, and blonde hair like mine. When I first saw him, I assumed that he was some little kid that had followed an older sibling in or something, because he was way too short to be in sixth grade. He only came up to my shoulder."

"Michael Yew," Rachel guessed. "The guy that died on the bridge last year. You went to school with him?"

He nodded, blinking fiercely to prevent any possible crying. If he refused to cry in front of his cabin- well, there was no way in Hades that he was going to let himself tear up in front of the Oracle of Delphi.

His plan didn't work- an unusual occurrence. Rachel, noticing his struggle, dug into the pockets of her ripped, beat-up jeans and produced a tissue. Malcolm took it, red-faced, and blew his nose.

"Hey, it's okay to cry," she said, patting his shoulder somewhat awkwardly. "This has got to be hard for you. You don't have to keep telling me if you don't want to."

Malcolm tossed the tissue into the woods and shook his head. "No. Now that I've started, I have to keep going. You were right- I need to tell somebody."

Rachel sat more comfortably, leaning back against Zeus' Fist. "You sure?" Malcolm nodded. "Okay. Keep going then," she prompted.

"I immediately apologized for running into him, and Michael brushed it off, introducing himself. I guess when two people collide on the first day of middle school, it's a sign that they're going to be friends, because Michael and I- well, he became almost like a brother to me. He was the first good friend I ever had.

I found out that Michael's family situation was a lot like mine- one parent, and absolutely no memory of the other one. Except, of course, he had his mother, and no father.

We went through the first semester of middle school, taking every step together. We weren't exactly popular- I was his only friend, and vice versa- but it didn't matter to us, because we had each other. Somehow, Michael and I just completely understood each other. It didn't seem- well, logical- to me, but of course, it was the Greek descent. We were cousins, I guess.

In the seventh grade, we made a new friend. He was the new kid in town-he had gotten kicked out of his local public school, so he and his mom moved to our town. And just like Michael and I, this new kid seemed to completely understand us. The three of us connected, and soon, my duo became a trio. Three brothers.

The new kid was about the complete opposite of Michael. He was tall, the tallest kid in our grade. Five foot eight as a seventh-grader. He had dark brown hair and matching eyes, and a round face." He waited for Rachel to guess, as she did with Michael.

"Sorry, no idea. Tell me?" She asked.

"Lee Fletcher," Malcolm replied, grey eyes fixed to muddy ground.

Rachel sighed. "The first one to die in Battle of the Labyrinth. I'm so sorry, Malcolm. The story of 'you' looks a lot like a tragedy now."

"No kidding," He grumbled. "Wait- was that a Taylor Swift lyric?"

She looked away. "Pshh, no…"

"Rachel, I was surrounded by Apollo kids for years. I recognize a country lyric when I hear one."

"'Kay, so maybe it was…" Her eyes darted around, and he held back a laugh.

He just embarrassed the Oracle of Delphi. Score one for Malcolm.

"So Lee, Michael and I became a trio. Again, the three of us weren't really popular, but we didn't have any real enemies. Until this kid, Gerald Finch, joined our class. He wasn't an enemy, per se, but he was kind of creepy and annoying. He followed us around all the time, limping because of some muscular disease."

"He was probably a satyr…" Rachel mused.

"Well, of course he was a satyr. But Lee, Michael and I didn't know that then, did we?"

"True," She conceded.

"All we knew was that he was some weird, overly-matured kid with acne on his forehead and a growing mustache and goatee, even though he was 'twelve', and he was constantly stalking us and watching us as if we were going to die the next moment.

We just ignored Gerald, and just tried to get through school. It wasn't easy for any of us, between the dyslexia and ADHD, but my dad, being the genius that he is, was a big help to me, and he was always willing to help Lee and Michael too. Dad always treated them like his own sons, and I know both Lee and Michael really appreciated it- neither one had has own father in the picture." Malcolm paused for a moment, remembering the two sons of Apollo. Sighing, he continued.

"The months after that are kind of fuzzy to me. Time went by quickly. Sometime in the fall of eighth grade, Lee, Michael, and I decided that we wanted to be 'cool'. It was our last year at the middle school, and we wanted to leave on a good note. Lee, who had become sort of the leader, thought our first step would be to impress some of the cheerleaders. So after one of the middle school football games-"

"Middle school football games?" Rachel asked, chuckling.

"I grew up in western Pennsylvania, remember? You were nobody if your school didn't have a football team," Malcolm explained.

"I see," she replied, but she still looked heavily amused. He huffed.

"It's not that funny. Anyway, after one of the games, Lee, Michael, and I decided we would go talk to some cheerleaders- you know, try to impress them.

Now, my mom-and Annabeth, for that matter, always say that wisdom and matters of the mind are far more important than matters of the heart, for a child of Athena, but hey, I was a preteen boy. When I saw the captain of the cheerleading squad, my first thought wasn't "I should ask her if she needs help with her algebra." It was "Dang, she's pretty.""

Rachel laughed, smiling, revealing perfectly white teeth. "Sorry. But you are so like Percy sometimes," she said.

"You sound like Annabeth," he responded.

"Ha-ha. Go on with your story," she prompted.

"Okay. Well, let me tell you. Our cheerleading captain was absolutely gorgeous. Now, I've never actually met Aphrodite, but I'm sure our captain, Molli, must have been prettier."

Thunder crackled. Oops.

"Careful what you say, Malcolm," Rachel reminded, like she was the demigod and he was the mortal.

"Sorry, Lady Aphrodite," He muttered.

Rachel poked Malcolm in the shoulder. "Go on- something about a cheerleader named Molli?"

"Right. Molli." Malcolm cleared his throat. "So one day, Lee, Michael and I decided we would go over and talk to Molli after the football game- you know, try to impress her and everything.

I had never actually met Molli- just passed her in the hallways, seen her cheer at games, that sort of thing. So when the guys and I went to talk to her, we were shocked. I was, at least. Molli was even prettier up close. She had long, wavy red hair- kind of like yours, actually…"

Rachel blushed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Suddenly, she sat straight up.

"What's wrong?" Malcolm asked. She bit her lip.

"I have a really, really, REALLY bad feeling about this cheerleader. Like, reminding-me-of-the-Percy-destroying-the-Goode-band-room-incident bad."

"Percy destroyed the Goode band room?"

Rachel shrugged and waved her hands. "Long story- I'll tell it to you another time. Right now, we finish yours."

Malcolm nodded. "Right. So we went up and introduced ourselves, and to make a long story short…she wasn't exactly human. So it didn't exactly go well."

Rachel sighed. "I hate empousai…"

Malcolm snorted. "Who doesn't? Anyways, as soon as Molli revealed herself as an empousa, the satyr-stalker, Gerald, went absolutely ballistic, and…well, so did we. Michael dived under the bleachers. Lee ducked behind a bush. I threw a stick at her and ran. " He glared at Rachel, who was laughing hysterically.

"It's not funny- especially for me. I knew what it was. I had read about empousai with my dad, when we researched the myths for his books, so imagine how scared I was when I realized that empousai were real. It was like my worst nightmare come true. Wouldn't you be terrified?"

Rachel stared blankly at Malcolm. She coughed.

"What?"

She waved her hand in front of his face. "Um, hello? That's basically what happened to me!"

"It was?" Malcolm asked, confused.

"Gods, Malcolm, if you start acting any more like Percy, I'm going to have to start calling you Seaweed Brain!" Rachel exclaimed. "You're a son of Athena! You're supposed to be smart! Analytical! Able to make obvious connections, at least!"

"My apologies," he replied, offended.

Rachel put her head in her hands. "Think, Malcolm, think. I've been able to see through the Mist my entire life. I've seen empousai and dracanae, hellhounds and cyclopses…"

Malcolm nodded, comprehension slowly settling in. "So you saw all these monsters all your life, but you had no idea that they actually were monsters, or that they were real, and you went on believing this-"

"Until Percy came into the picture, and it all went downhill from there," Rachel finished.

"Well, I guess we have that in common. We both knew about monsters and gods before we found out they actually existed," Malcolm reasoned.

"A lot scarier finding out that way, huh?"

"Definitely. That's why when I saw the empousa, I ran. Lee, Michael and Gerald saw me, and I guess they thought it was a good idea. Lee picked up a rock and threw it at the empousai's head. His aim was perfect. The rock wasn't enough to hurt 'Molli', but it did distract her for long enough for Lee, Michael, and Gerald to catch up to me. It took quite some time, especially since Gerald was so slow and clumsy, but eventually the four of us got away from the school."

"So you just ran away?" Rachel interrupted. Malcolm snorted.

"Not all of us have Chiron providing us with lethal ballpoint pens like Percy does. We were three weaponless half-bloods with no training- we didn't even know we were half-bloods, for Zeus' sake! And Gerald, well…he wasn't much help. It's not like he could have fought the monster for us- I doubt he could have even picked up a sword."

"Okay, okay, I get it. You were defenseless. It was in your best interest to run away." Rachel rolled her eyes. "Do you know what happened to the empousa afterwards?"

"No idea," Malcolm replied. "I assume she didn't harm any mortals, though, or it would have been in the news. It's possible that there could have been another demigod at our school who took care of her."

Rachel shrugged. "Odd that she didn't follow you."

"Agreed. Completely illogical.

So once we got away from the school, the four of us found a pay phone, and I called my dad to come pick us up. Once Dad arrived, Gerald led him over to a corner and talked, whispering low. Lee and Michael and I looked at each other nervously- we had no idea what was going on. "It's time," Gerald said when he came back. We got into the car, and Dad began to drive out of town. And even though we didn't know it at the time…Lee, Michael and I were on our way to Camp Half-Blood."