By the way, it's my own personal headcanon that Percy is as black as I am, so if you don't like that I guess you can go read another story or something. This isn't to be rude or anything, it's just a general statement to let you all know.

For some people magic is innate. It flows through their veins like the very blood that keeps them alive. For others, it's a skill discovered much later in life. For Percy Jackson it was the later of the two.

His life had been filled with gods, monsters and magic since he was twelve and even now, at twenty-five years old, magic had began invading his life once again.

Trouble came to him in the form of a piece of paper landing in front of him on the street. He's had enough experience with magic to know when something has been enchanted. Reaching down, the demigod isn't surprised when a phantom gust of wind comes and sweeps the piece of paper out of his reach. With an audible sigh, Percy begins to follow it, even though he knows it'll only lead him to trouble. Because, after all, when was he ever promised a peaceful life.

After a short while, Percy finds himself standing in front of an opening in a wall of bushes. He can practically feel the magic radiating from the space between and he narrows his eyes.

"Should I? Or shouldn't I?" And so, he pulls out a single quarter." Why not let the magic decide?"

Without hesitating he rests the coin on his thumb and flicks it into the air. He watches as the coin appears to disappear into the sky.

"Heads we go in," He says knowing that the odds aren't in his favor. "Tails we go home."

Then the coins start falling back toward him, seemingly faster than when he threw it up. The demigod has no trouble at all catching it. Percy doesn't know why, but he's almost nervous as he flips the coin over on the back of his hand and just as he suspected the side of the coin he finds facing him is heads.

He isn't sure that he would have disagreed in the first place. However, there's still a part of him arguing that the Fates are messing with him, big time. But still he pushes through the opening in the bushes, careful not to get poked in the eye by stray branches.

When he eventually stumbles out, he finds himself on the neatly groomed lawn of a university. Certainly not what he was expecting.

"Hey there pretty boy, you were almost late." Percy turned and found himself looking at a pretty girl wearing an expensive looking clothes . Her skin was brown, lighter than his own.

"Late for what?" Percy asked.

"The entrance exam," The girl replied as she began walking toward the university. "Now follow."

Of course, Percy did so.

"I'd like to know exactly where I am, if that isn't too much to ask?"

"Brakebills University of course. Where else would you be?"

Percy rolled his eyes at the sarcastic reply but didn't stop himself from replying with his own.

"Oh of course, how could I have forgotten, nobody told me in the first place. Or perhaps, where we are, and why I'm here."

The girl, Percy had to remember to get her name, turned around with a surprisingly fierce look in her eyes that were coincidentally narrowed at him. She looked him up and down, almost like she was trying to find his insecurities, before she spoke again.

"I like you Pretty Boy, so I'm going to be nice." She glanced around like she was looking for a place to start and then she began to talk, nice and slow, like she was explaining something to a toddler. "Welcome to Brakebills University located here in upstate New York. You're here because some pompous group of idiots think that you have some aptitude for magic. Whether or not you still have it depends on them and the entrance exam which you are running late for. Now if you're done asking questions, you'd better kick your ass into high gear before Dean Fogg has my ass filleting on a grill. By the way, my name's Margo."

With that, the girl turned around and started powerwalking to the building that stood in the center of it all.

Brakebills University.

With a deep breath, Percy followed her, and Margo's words still played in his head. Of course he had an aptitude for magic, his father was a god for gods sake. Whether or not they were the same type of magic was another question entirely.

She led him into the school and to a room filled with other people around his age.

"Late!" Someone screamed out as the sea prince quickly took a seat around the middle section, next to a brown-haired girl who seemed to be questioning everything that she knew.

"Are you okay?" He asked, and she turned to him slowly.

"Uh yeah." Her voice was soft. "Just a little confused if anything."

Percy nodded. He could understand that. Most of the people here were mortal, of course they'd be confused if magic was suddenly just thrusted into their lives.

"Well," He said after a moment. "If it helps anything, I'm Percy, and I'm a bit confused too."

He offered his hand and waited for her to take it.

"It's nice to meet you Percy, " She said with a small smile. "I'm Julia."

The quickly shook hands.

"So you know what happens if we don't pass this test, or has that not been explained."

"Nope, they're being really secretive about it. Almost as if they hadn't kidnapped us from our normal everyday lives to take an entrance exam that we never even signed up for."

Percy let out a chuckle.

"You've got a point."

"So how about this," Julia said. "I got a feeling that whatever happens, we're not leaving this place the same way we came in, whether that's good or bad, I don't know."

Percy certainly had to agree and let the girl continue talking.

"So we trade information, and if the day goes by and neither of us messages the other, we find the other person and tell them what happened. There should be something that we say that only the other person would know, so that way we know this isn't all some fucked up trick."

Percy had to agree. Her plan was solid enough and he could already see the fire burning in her eyes. He'd already decide from their short conversation that he liked her and here she was proving to be smart and quick on her feet.

"What happens if something happens to both of us?" Percy questioned and waited to see how she would respond.

He watched as she seemed to think it over, before a smile came to her face.

"Then this all till holds up. Wouldn't you wonder why you have some random girls information with you?"

The demigod had to admit, she had a point. So with the quickness of two thieves in the night, the two swap information, and in doing so, the wheel of fate is derailed and the plans of a certain figure in the shadows must be change to accommodate a new unexpected arrival.

Be even The Beast can't be prepared for a demigod as unpredictable as the sea.