The gloved fingers rolled carefully across the touchscreen, applying enough pressure to move the image, but not enough to edit anything. Narrowed eyes took in the words that flashed before them, and an oily voice crept into the darkness, shattering the oppressive silence. "Soon…"

Alexix-to-Hellhound *uses sword to stab the beast; it disintegrates*

-to-Oswald *turns to see him finishing off his beast* "Is that the last of them?"

-to-Dylin "Of course, hellhounds are easy. It's the Cyclopes you have to watch out for."

Oswald-to-Alexix *Lowers sword and grins at her* I believe so. Another job well done.

-to-Dylin "Why aren't you wearing your dog tags? Did you lose them?"

Dylin-to-Alexix *Glances over his shoulder nervously* "Cyclopes?"

-to-Oswald *reaches for his neck frowning* "They were taken from me. I was actually about to go get them when I ran into you two."

Oswald-to-Dylin *eyes widen* "A quest? Why didn't you say so? It would be my honor to assist on such a noble mission."

-to-Alexix "Are you up for a quest?"

Alexix-to-Dylin *grins mischievously* "Yup, but don't worry, they probably won't eat you."

-to-Oswald *raises an eyebrow* "Did you expect anything less?" *sighs* I'm afraid I can't join you this time. I have cabin chores to complete." (I'm logging off now, good luck on your quest!)

My laptop shut with a satisfying click. Alexix, my short, blonde, monster-killing alter-ego had woken up, made a few witty comments, and laid waste to a pair of hellhounds all in under an hour. Not a bad way to start a morning.

Racing down the stairs, I grabbed my backpack from its place next to the door, jumped into my mom's old minivan, threw it into reverse, and stomped on the gas.

Nothing happened.

"You kind of need a key to drive." My sister said from the passenger's seat. "Opening the garage door helps too."

I punched the roof of the car, only remembering that I had broken the garage remote yesterday after I jammed my thumb. "Jinx it, where's my—"

"It's in the cup holder." One of my twin brothers supplied helpfully from the backseat.

"Can you hurry please? We're going to be late again." The other one said.

I located the black device with the keys and tried to keep from rolling my eyes while we waited for the metal barrier to roll to the ceiling. "You haven't been late once. Quit your crying."

I glanced at the clock to make sure we could make it, nearly hitting the mailbox as I backed down the driveway. We had thirteen minutes.

It would take eight minutes to drive to the elementary school to drop off the twins, four minutes to get from there to the middle school, and two minutes from there to the high school if I pushed the speed limit and the traffic wasn't bad.

"Laina, will you check the glove box for pop tarts?"

I didn't need to look at her; I could feel her eyes rolling. "You ate the last ones yesterday." She said, not bothering to check the glove box. "Why does it take you so long to get ready? You get up half an hour earlier than me."

"Um…" I tried to think up a good excuse. It wasn't like I could tell my sister that I spent most of my mornings role playing with Percy Jackson characters over the internet. I pulled up to the elementary school and the boys popped out of the car, providing an easy subject change. "Do you have everything?"

They ran off without responding. Laina answered for them while I wove through the parking lot, doing my best not to run over any small children. "Of course they do. We're not all as careless as you, Brit. Do you have all your things?"

I thought that over, "Umm… Jinx it, I have that Chemistry quiz today."

Laina nodded once before hopping out at the middle school. "That's what I thought. Good luck, I'll see you tonight. Don't forget you have to take the twins to soccer; I'm staying after for basketball."

"Yeah, see you." I was already hitting the gas. Thank heavens high school had passing period. It gave me five extra minutes to get to class. I swerved into the parking lot that led to the high school, narrowly missing a band kid carrying a baritone, and heard the first bell ring, distantly. I was almost to my parking spot when a black truck backed out in front of me. I laid on my horn, shouting at him. Really, considering my speed, he's lucky that's all I did.

Black truck guy didn't seem to care, taking his sweet time to repark his truck because it would be the end of the world if his shiny car wasn't exactly between the two lines. It took all I had not to ram that perfect little fender of his. Finally, he was out of my way. I parked my minivan, grabbed my backpack and ran to first period, sliding into my seat just as the bell rang.

Makayla, my best friend since forever, passed up the notes on whatever the teacher was talking about before I got there. Most of it was the useless announcement stuff, but Ms. Higgins was notorious for having tests over the random items that no one pays attention to. I scanned it quickly then passed it back.

"How do you always show up exactly on time?" Makayla asked, awestruck.

"I'm a talented girl." I said, trying to hide my grin from Ms. Higgins. That was another thing she was notorious for: joy killing.

Terry looked at me from across the aisle. "If I tried that, I'd be busted before you could say—"

"Mr. Conner, Is there something you'd like to say to the class?"

Terry blushed and stammered out an apology while Makayla and I tried to hide our snickering. Terry was constantly getting in trouble, usually for things that Makayla and I did. He didn't mind though. He said we were cool enough that a trouble maker reputation was worth it. Terry was fun like that, which was one of the only reasons I allowed him to date my best friend.

After Ms. Higgins' class, I trudged down the hall towards chemistry, walking extra slowly so that Makayla could try to fill me in on everything I needed to know for the test. My mind whirled with words like Molecular Bond Structure and Diatomic Atoms. I wondered what Alexix would do in this situation.

She probably wouldn't have studied either, but only because she already knew all the answers. Or maybe she would have studied, asking someone else to quiz her while she hacked at a dummy. Of course, if she was totally blindsided by the test, she could have just created a storm so big that the school was forced to call a snow day. I sighed. It was really a pity that I wasn't like Alexix.

"You got all that?" Makayla asked as we arrived at the classroom.

I nodded, even though it was a total lie and we both knew it. "Yeah, sure thing. Molecular atom and diatomic structure of James Bond. Easy. I've got this test in the bag."

Makayla rolled her eyes but went to her seat as the bell rang.

Mr. Boon stood up at the front of the classroom. "Sit down, get out your pencils, shut your mouths."

The class obeyed immediately. Mr. Boon was kind of a big man, and since he had access to all sorts of acids and flammable things, no one in their right mind messed with him. I pulled out my lucky pencil only to realize that the tip had broken off in my backpack. I glanced up at Mr. Boon and decided that a trip to the pencil sharpener could wait until he sat back down.

"You have a test today. If you studied, watch out for questions 17, 32 and 54. If you didn't study, there's no helping you. You have until the end of the period. You can begin as soon as you get the test."

He sent the stack of tests down the first row for the students to pass around, then turned and sat down at his desk. I waited until the test landed on my desk then I waited some more until Mr. Boon picked up his newspaper. Standing, I tried to move silently towards the pencil sharpener. I couldn't help the volume of the sharpener, of course, but I tried to finish sharpening as quickly as possible.

Once I was satisfied with the tip, and completely convinced that I would fail the test no matter what, I turned to go back to my seat. That's when I saw the dog.

A huge black mastiff stood in the front of the classroom staring me down. I froze, trying to see if anyone else was freaking out from the corner of my eyes. No one else seemed to notice; they were all working on the test.

I had no idea how they could focus on chemistry with that thing standing there. It was taller than me, which placed it at nearly six feet, black as death, with foam dripping from teeth that looked frighteningly sharp. The thing jumped at me, jaws wide like it was trying to eat my face off. I ducked, instinctively and the beast flew over my head, slamming into the wall with a sickening crunch. It whipped around, not seeming to feel the pain and charged at me again. Not knowing what to do, I held my hands out in front of me to defend myself.

The awful thing plowed into my hands with enough force to flip me over. I shut my eyes as my butt hit the hard tile floor. I expected the claws and teeth to tear me limb from limb, but nothing happened. I opened my eyes hesitantly and saw the dog staring at me from three inches away. My lucky pencil stuck out of its chest.

I looked around certain that I couldn't be the only one who was seeing this. Mr. Boon peered at me over the top of his newspaper. Was it my imagination or did he look… different somehow?

"Is there a problem Brittany?" Mr. Boon said, narrowing his eye.

I stared at him. He only had one eye. Peering out of the middle of his forehead, there was ONE EYE. I blinked hard, shaking myself. Looking again, there were two eyes staring at me through Mr. Boon's reading glasses. I looked at the dog for an explanation, but it was gone. There was just my pencil sitting on the tile floor.

"That's my pencil…" I said stupidly.

Mr. Boon rolled his eyes. Two of them, I reassured myself, he rolled two eyes. "Yes, and that's my test sitting unfinished on your desk. If you'd get your pencil off of the floor and finish it, perhaps these ninety minutes will not be a complete waste of time."

I grabbed my pencil and went back to my desk. Once I was safely out of his line of fire, I looked more closely at the pencil. There was no blood, no fur, no scratches. Nothing that would suggest anything out of the ordinary had happened. Was I going insane?

I glanced up at the clock and realized I only had ten minutes to take the test. Where had the time gone? Frantically, I circled C on every question, finishing just as the bell rang. Mr. Boon stood up. "Pencils down, class. No one leaves until I've personally collected every test."

I set my pencil on my desk and noticed a tiny indent near the eraser. I leaned in to get a better look. It seemed almost like a… snowflake? Before I could be sure, Mr. Boon snatched my test and dismissed the class. When I scooped up my pencil again, the mark was gone.

So, this is a new story, but I think it could, maybe, possibly, have potential. If you agree, tell me. If you don't think so, tell me that too.

Some of the forum characters will be borrowed from Rick Riordan, but many of them will be O/C's I borrowed from other people on this site. In this scene, Dylin was borrowed from GreakFreak, and Oswald was taken from River W. I did get their permission first, and I'd like to thank them for thinking up such awesome characters and letting me use them. The other characters (Alexix, Brittany, etc.) were my O/C's.

I'm not sure whether or not to continue this, so please review both happy thoughts and slightly-less-happy ones. All comments are appreciated. Thanks to everyone who reads this, especially my beta and little sis who always reads it first. ~NinjaB.