Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter One

I Meet the Girl of My Dreams, Literally

"Get away from me!" someone screamed. I spun in a circle, trying to take in my surroundings and find the source of the screaming at the same time. I was in a dark, foggy place where you couldn't tell the difference between the ground and the sky. It almost looked like I was standing on smoke.

The scream had come from a girl who looked to be around my age – sixteen. She had straight blonde hair that fell down to her bust and was slightly ruffled, as if she had just woken up. She had piercing light green eyes ringed in red, and the palest skin I had ever seen on a living person. She was really tiny, maybe just over five feet tall, and had a slim figure. The only thing covering her was a short, silky nightie and a pair of slippers covering her feet.

Being a demigod, you didn't have normal dreams very often. Most of the time, your dreams showed you some vague but crucial piece of information or something that might happen in the immediate future. I guess it was one of our weird survival tricks. But this didn't feel like that at all. This didn't even feel like my own dream – it felt like I was intruding on someone else's nightmare…

"Please, just stop!" When I looked back at the girl, a dark, murky shadow was surrounding her from every direction, sometimes taking on a disturbingly human form. Large cuts kept appearing and disappearing on any visible section of skin. She was trying to fight off the strange force, but without a weapon, she didn't seem to be getting anywhere. All she had to fight with was her body, but the shadow-thing seemed to be overtaking her and draining her energy fast.

As this was happening, I noticed the necklace she was wearing, which had a sun charm with a white jewel in the middle, was starting to turn a dull green color with every cut on her skin.

"Hey! Back off!" I shouted as I reached into my pocket and unsheathed Riptide. I pointed Riptide at the shadow creature and it rushed at me until it was barely two inches from face.

"She's mine, Percy Jackson." And then it dissolved into thin air. I knew that voice, but I couldn't place it.

The girl looked down for a moment, blinked in surprise and then fainted, falling to the ground in a heap.

I rushed to her (and wasn't able to catch her before she hit the ground…at least I tried), and propped her up on my lap, not really knowing what else to do. Her eyes slowly opened and when they met mine, I thought my heart would stop working. She was beautiful. I didn't know what to do with myself, and I was suddenly incredibly self-conscious of how I looked and how awkward I was. Was I wearing pants? I looked down. Yup, but no shirt. Awesome. Were my teeth brushed in this dream/realm? How did you know? Crap. "Umm…are you okay?" I finally managed to say.

"No one's ever…no one's ever saved me before," she mumbled softly, occasionally closing her eyes as if she was falling back asleep. "No one's ever been able to get through the barrier."

"What barrier?" I asked and she pointed behind me to the large, black metal gate that looked like something that should be guarding a mansion. When I looked closer, I was able to see a large, old-fashioned lock holding the gates shut. "What's your name?"

"Andee," she told me quietly, continuing to gaze into my eyes. She sat up, clearly using what little energy she had left, having to grip my shoulders to keep herself upright. Somehow, she never broke eye contact with me.

"I'm Percy," I introduced, unable to help my smile that was growing bigger and bigger by the second.

"Why are you smiling like that?" she asked, but she was starting to smile too.

"You're just…you're really pretty," I blurted out, my face getting hot when I realized what I had said.

Her cheeks flushed a little. "Well, Percy, you're my hero," she said softly, smiling back at me. I don't know what in the world came over me, but I pushed a stray strand of her hair behind ear and leaned forward, and gently pressed my lips to hers.

She seemed a little shocked so I started to pull back but she responded, wrapping her hands in my hair and she moved so she was straddling my lap. I held her hip with one hand and cupped her cheek with my other. It was getting pretty heated but neither of us seemed to mind. All I knew was that I didn't want this to end.

"Percy, wake up! You're going to be late for your last day of school!" my mom called into my room and I groaned, desperately wanting to go back to sleep and continue with…whatever that was. "Now!"

"Okay, mom!" I called back to her as I heaved my body out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom. I sighed as I looked at my reflection in the mirror, running a hand through my messy hair.

That had to have been real – there was no way it could have all been just a dream. But as I let it float around in my head, that's all it really could be – a dream. A simple, yet very awesome dream.

But when I looked at my reflection closer, I realized that maybe it wasn't a dream after all. My hair was even messier than normal, my lips were red and a little swollen. Maybe all of it really had happened – including the girl.

Andee.

I brushed my teeth and attempted to brush out my hair before throwing on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. But no matter what I did, I couldn't get that girl out of my head. I walked out to the kitchen where my mom had blue pancakes already waiting for me at the kitchen table. Blue pancakes were only made for special occasions, so something was definitely going on. "Blue pancakes?"

"Well, it's your last day of school and you've made it through the whole year without any…interruptions. I'm so proud of you!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug before I could start eating.

With my mom, getting through a whole school year was definitely a big deal to her. Ever since I started school when I was five, I had been kicked out of eleven schools. That's a lot for one kid. And it has really taken its toll on my mom – and I knew that – so I guess this made her really happy. And that made me happy too.

"Thanks mom," I said through a mouthful of food. She gave me a reproachful look for such an impolite action, but it was replaced with a smile only moments later. "I guess that's in part, thanks to Paul."

"Paul, as wonderful as he is, can only do so much. He got you into the school, but the rest is on you," my mom said. "You have been working so hard and I really am so incredibly proud of you. I love you so much, Perce."

"I love you too, mom." I felt her watching me a few minutes later and looked up. "What?"

"Are you feeling okay, Percy?"

"I don't know – I'm just a little out of it, I guess," I told her honestly. "I had a dream last night…well, I don't know if it was really a dream…or if I was the one to have it…"

"Was it a dream or a dream?" my mom asked cautiously. My mom was amazing – she had been thrown into the middle off all this craziness, and sometimes I felt like she knew more than I did.

"I don't know – it wasn't really either of them. It felt like I was in someone else's dream," I explained.

"Well, there's no use in worry about it right now. I'm driving you and Grover to camp right after school so you can ask Chiron about it when you get there, all right?" she assured me and I nodded, although I wasn't sure if I would be able to get her out of my head.

I grabbed my backpack from beside the door and slung it over one shoulder with the duffel bag containing everything I'd need for camp was hanging from the other shoulder. I stuffed everything into the backseat of my mom's car before hopping into the passenger seat.

"Have a good day, Percy," my mom sad when we got to school. I gave her a peck on the cheek. "And try not to think about that dream too much, okay? It's the last day of school – have fun!"

"Will do, mom," I said, taking my backpack out of the back and walking through the front doors of the school. I headed downstairs and sorted through the books in my locker, trying to remember which ones I'd need for first period.

"We're supposed to go to the auditorium right away," Grover said, practically appearing out of nowhere. "Apparently some school is visiting and doing a performance for us."

"If it gets us out of class, its fine with me," I replied, leaving all my books behind. I walked with Grover to the auditorium where all of our school assemblies are held. It took a while to navigate our way to our seats between all of the kids pushing us out of the way and having to help Grover back up because of his crutches, but we eventually got two in the very front row.

Everyone around us was talking extremely loud, each person trying to hear their own conversations over the next person's. I decided that this would probably be the best opportunity to tell Grover about the dream (minus a few details).

"I honestly don't know what to tell you," Grover said, flabbergasted by all of it. "I've never even heard of something like that happening before. You were in her dream – that's for sure – so what was happening was probably real, on some level. If you could see her in real life while it was happening, you'd be able to tell if it was real or not because you'd see the cuts appearing and disappearing. The barrier is probably just the barrier that blocks people out of her mind – everyone has one but most people's are pretty easy to get through. But I can't even begin to tell you what that shadow-thing is."

"So in other words," I started, "you have no idea what's going on?"

"Not a clue," he shrugged. "But I do recognize the girl's name – Andee – I just can't remember where it's from." Our school's principal walked up to the podium that was set up on the far side of the stage.

"Welcome students. To end off the year on a high note, we have a very special performance by the Vancouver School for the Performing Arts – a high school all the way from British Columbia, Canada – and here is their principal, my good friend, Ms. Katarina Daviau, to tell you all about it. Let's give her a warm, Goode High welcome!"

Everyone clapped as a tall lady with dark hair and horn-rimmed glasses walked onto the stage. "Hello everyone! I am very honored that our school was invited to perform for all of you. These students have worked very hard on the following show and after two weeks of performing back home and your principal coming to one of our showings, they are all very excited to show you their hard work and talent. The following performance is the interpretation of the students acting out this classic story. So here is the Vancouver High School for the Performing Arts' production of Alice in Wonderland: The Musical!"

Our school applauded once more before the lights were dimmed. The curtains opened to reveal a stage lit up with blue lights and a set that looked like a garden. A girl was sitting in the middle of the stage, her feet tucked underneath her. She was wearing tall white high-heeled boots on her feet. Her dress was light blue and shimmery with silver bell sleeves, and while the dress was short in the front, it reached the floor at the back. The dress had a silver, square neckline and a high collar that had a black bow tied around it.

She had curly, golden blonde hair that fell down to her bust. She had a light blue ribbon tied in a bow in her hair. Her skin was pale and her lips were a sparkly, pale pink. She had these amazing light green, piercing eyes that were visible even from the audience. They were surrounded by light blue and white eyeshadow, giving them an icy effect.

"That's her!" I hissed at Grover, who was already observing her carefully, his eyes seeming to get wider with each second that passed. I hit his arm a couple times. "Grover, that's the girl from the dream!"

"Please tell me you're joking," Grover said, his voice shaky. "Do you have any idea who that is?"

"Yeah, it's Andee, the girl from the dream," I said. It seemed pretty obvious who she was, seeing as I just told him.

"You really have no clue," Grover muttered, looking a bit frustrated with me. Soft piano music started playing in the background and she sang along with it. It was a song about wanting her childhood back and pretending, and she looked truly sad. The song ended and she sighed, looking around the stage.

"If only I had some company," she said before someone dressed up as the White Rabbit came hopping out from backstage. "A rabbit in a waistcoat holding a pocket watch…how can that possibly be?" She scrambled to stand up. "Excuse me, Mr. Rabbit –"

"I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" the rabbit sang before running off the stage and through the audience.

"Wait! Where are you going?" she called after him before chasing after him. She ran off the stage and was about to run up the aisle when she stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes meeting mine.

I felt my heart start beating a million times quicker as she gazed into my eyes, her lips slightly parted. This was the girl from the dream. Standing right in front of me and so close that I could touch her. She touched her lips before her cheeks turned bright red. She suddenly snapped back to reality and went chasing after the rabbit.

The rest of the show went much smoother, and it was really funny! There were all different types of music, dancing, jokes (including some pretty inappropriate ones that everyone laughed at), and the actors came off of the stage to interact with the audience a lot. My favorite was the tea party scene. Andee and the other cast sang a really cool song, and danced around the long table before getting up and dancing on it.

Throughout the entire show, Andee would glance over at me and her cheeks would turn the same shade of pink every time.

I didn't know what was happening to me, but every time she looked at me, my heart would start to pound so hard I thought everyone around me could hear it. At the end of the show, when they all came out to do their bows, Andee got her own separate bow for playing Alice. She then received a bouquet of flowers because she had written and taught all of the music and choreography for the show.

After a standing ovation, both principals went up to the podium that had been brought back on the stage, informing us that they thought it would be fun to do a question and answer type of thing. Stools were brought out for all the actors and they all took seats. A few of the actors had microphones that I assumed they'd be handing to each other as necessary.

A lot of questions were asking about the show, how they wrote it, how they decided on costumes, and asking some of the students to sing a popular song or do a dance. That's when someone raised their hand, wanting to ask Andee a question.

"Are you single?" Kevin – our school's star football player – stood up and asked, making everyone laugh, including her. He was one of the biggest jerks I had met, but it seemed like all the girls at this school were falling over themselves trying to impress him.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am single," she stated, a small smile on her face when she said it.

"Wanna go out with me?" he asked and she turned bright red, her fellow cast members chuckling at her and whispering things to her. She kept glaring at them.

"Not really," she said and a few people snickered.

"Why not?" he persisted.

"I don't date," she said, and a few people in the audience groaned. "Do we have any more questions that don't pertain to our personal lives?"

"Grover, how do you know her?" I asked, the thought suddenly occurring to me. He raised an eyebrow at me, as if to ask if I was serious.

"How do you not know her?" Grover questioned in return. "She's Andee le Fay!" I stared at him blankly. "Seriously, man? She's practically a legend – she's Apollo's daughter."

"So she's a half-blood?" I asked slowly, trying to understand what was so legendary about that. I mean, I was a son of Poseidon, so I mean, I could be considered pretty legendary too, by that standard.

"Not just any half-blood. You know how Olympus is over the United States now, right?" I nodded. "Well, that means it's not in Canada, where Andee's from. There has never, in all of history, been a Canadian half-blood until she was born. And even since then, there's only been a few. She's also Apollo's daughter – his only daughter. Ever. And to add on to all of that, she's actually a three-quarter blood."

"How does that even work?" I asked and he looked at me again with a raised eyebrow, as if to ask me if I was really this stupid, or just acting this way.

"How can you not know any of this? She's practically famous among half-bloods!" Grover exclaimed. "She's Zeus' granddaughter. Her mom was a half-blood as well – a daughter of Zeus. She's supposed to have all these additional powers and isn't dyslexic or ADHD like other half-bloods. Now, are you absolutely certain you were in her dream?"

"I'm absolutely sure. She told me herself that her name was Andee," I informed him. "Trust me, Grover – I could never forget a face like that even if I tried."

The lunch bell rang and the principal made one last announcement saying that all the actors and stage crew would be joining us in our afternoon classes. Everyone began filing out, but I decided to go see her, even though Grover was trying to talk me out of it.

"Percy, think this through. She is Zeus' granddaughter with whom he is very close to. He doesn't like you to begin with, so I highly doubt he'd like you trying to put the moves on her," Grover said. "Besides, you heard her – she doesn't date!" I continued to ignore him, and he bleated nervously.

She was standing in a group of people with her back turned to me, taking animatedly with lots of hand gestures. Just before I got to her, she walked off quickly with her friends, not even glancing back.

"See?" Grover asked. "That's the Fates working. Not meant to be."

I ignored him. I had to talk to her. I looked for her in my classes after lunch, but she wasn't there. I was really hoping I would get a chance to talk to her.

I had PE last and after changing into my gym strip, I went into the gymnasium to join the rest of my class. Since Grover had a doctor's note excusing him from gym for the rest of his life, he had a spare block instead, but chose to spend it in the gym with me – just in case there was an attack and we needed to make a quick getaway. You'd be surprised by how many times it had happened before coming to this school.

Just when I thought I wasn't going to see any of the Canadian students, a huge group of them walked in, all in their own mismatching P.E. strip.

Then I saw her again, this time looking much more natural – like she had been in the dream – just with the same curly hair from earlier. The time, however, she was wearing a pair of black spandex shorts that highlighted her butt quite nicely, a gold tank top and a pair of gold running shoes.

I had a feeling she liked gold.

But this time when I saw her necklace, it was pure white, changing colors only when it caught the light, like most jewels did.

She glanced over at me and quickly turned away, just as I put my hand up to wave at her.

"Zeus is going to kill you," Grover said. "Apollo, too, probably."

"Zeus always wants to kill me, though," I pointed out.

"That is mostly true, but either way, don't do something stupid," Grover said. "I know I say that a lot and you don't listen, but please listen this time."

"I'm not agreeing to anything."

"Percy!"

"Today, class and visitors, we're going to do a little end of the year obstacle course! Doesn't that sound like fun?" There were a few unenthusiastic moans and one loud cheer that came from Andee.

Everyone turned to her and she smiled sheepishly. "What? I love obstacle courses."

"That's the spirit! I like you," the PE teacher said, pointing at her. "Now everyone outside!" On the football field, the PE department had set up a huge obstacle course that looked like it could only be done by someone who was in the army. And even they would have trouble with it. "Girls against guys! Pair up with someone you think you can beat and let's get started!"

"Hey Alice, want to partner up?" Kevin asked Andee. Yeah, that seemed totally fair. The tiny blonde girl against the ripped jock who was probably on all sorts of steroids. Very fair.

"It's Andee, and I would love to kick your ass," Andee said with a smile.

I ended up being one of the guys who didn't get a partner and would have to go with one of the girls who wanted to go again. Andee and Kevin were in the middle of the line. When everyone ahead of them had gone, they both geared up to go.

"Maybe after I crush you, I can take you out on a date," he said to her as they both stretched to get ready to do the course. A few of the other guys on the football team hooted and hollered.

"You wish," Andee said, a ghost of a smirk playing on her lips.

The coach blew his whistle and they both took off. All of the girls that had been with Andee all day were cheering her on, screaming at the top of their lungs.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing – Andee was beating Kevin by a landslide, and she was doing it without breaking a sweat. Kevin suddenly realized what was happening and tried to speed up, but was still way behind her. It was amazing to see how fast she was going, especially when she quickly got through all the tired and crossed the line of cones that was the finish line. She ran back around as all her friends cheered her on, while most of the guys laughed at Kevin, who just shoved them all aside angrily.

"Good job," I commented as she came back to the end of the line to stand beside me. "Kevin needed a good kick to the ego."

"Apparently so do you, son of Poseidon," Andee said, giving me an unimpressed look. "Hopefully you'll be able to prove yourself somewhat worthy of your bloodline."

I smirked a little. "Trust me – I don't think it will be a problem." I had had a lot of training at Camp Half-Blood with these sorts of things, so I knew I ran a good chance of beating her. And knowing that she hadn't gone to camp like I had, I felt like this would be easy.

"Whatever you want to think," she said offhandedly as we reached the front of the line.

"Jackson! Blondie! You're up!" the coach yelled and we both approached the starting line. We both crouched down and got into starting positions when she flashed a dazzling smile at me and took off. I was so distracted by this gesture that I hadn't even noticed that the race had started until the coach started yelling at me to go.

She was already way ahead of me but I managed to catch up pretty quickly. She grinned before speeding up, as if she just been waiting to prove how much faster and better she was. She beat me in a landslide and I was feeling a little embarrassed for myself for getting so cocky.

She just walked past me, a knowing look in her eyes as she joined her friends who were all congratulating her. With one last look at me, she turned back to her friends and walked back up to the school once everyone was dismissed to go change.

When everyone was dressed again, they all hung around in the hallway outside of the gym. Andee was the easiest person to spot because of her bright hair. Now she was wearing a plain white t-shirt with a gold pocket tucked into a pair of jean shorts, and a pair of gold gladiator sandals. She also had a black leather bag across her shoulders, that just barely covered the hilt of a dagger hiding in the waistband of her shorts.

"You know," Andee said as she walked up to me and Grover, "for someone who has half the blood of a god, and one of the most powerful gods at that, you'd never be able to tell."

I glanced over at Grover, who just shrugged. "I don't think I know what you mean…"

She looked at me before rolling her eyes. "The obstacle course. How incredibly easy it was for me to beat you. Such a waste of power, don't you think?"

"Well I don't know, I don't really think –"

"You don't really think that our enhanced speed, agility, strength and senses have anything to do with our godly blood? Or is it just that you didn't know that you had those things?" she inquired. I stayed silent because it was second option. The funny thing was that even though she was being a total bitch – and I don't use that word hardly ever – I still found her incredibly attractive. Maybe it was because some part of me knew this wasn't what she was really like. "Well?"

I was saved from having to answer by the bell ringing and her storming out the door. I ran after her, hoping that Grover would follow. "Do you want to come to Camp Half-Blood with us?"

She turned and stared at me for a few seconds before her eyes softened a little. "You're the son of Poseidon, and my grandfather is Zeus. We don't go together. I think it would be better for both of us if we stayed as far away from each other as we possibly can," she said, about to turn around again when I grabbed her wrist.

She faced me and held up her wrist with my hand around it and send a few volts of electricity through her wrist and into my hand, making me instantly let go. I shook my hand, trying to get rid of the stinging feeling. "I don't know what's happening her, but we…we had a moment."

Andee's eyes turned hard again. "That was a stupid dream that you intruded upon. It was nothing more than a dream."

She went to turn away. "If it was only a dream, how did we both have the same one?"

She whirled back around, her eyes blazing now as the sky became stormy. "You have no idea what you're talking about or what's going on, okay? And you're not making things better for yourself."

"Come to Camp then. Well, if you want your dagger back," I said, holding up the celestial bronze dagger I had snagged from her waistband when she was busy trying to electrocute me.

"How dare you," Andee said slowly, glaring at me. "Don't you realize that I have no need for some silly little summer training camp? I finished my training before I turned twelve years old, so I highly doubt your little camp could do me any good."

"You may not need the camp," I said, approaching her even closer, "but we need you. In case you haven't noticed, there's a war coming and we need all the help we can get."

Andee stared me down for a few seconds before saying, "Fine, but I'm only doing this so I can get my dagger back."