Percy Jackson and The New Hero

A Warm Welcome Home

(POV Demetria)

Rachel fiinished packing, shoving her plastic hairbrush into her purse.

"Let's catch the bus." She yelled from the bathroom. She walked out in her splatter paint covered jeans, a holy white shirt, and a randomly colored tank top, classic Rachel. We walked the 2 blocks to the bus station, Rachel acting calm, but I could see through her fake happiness.

"Rache, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, just buses freak me out."

"Oh, well we only have to ride for 4 hours, play on your phone, distractions always help." She gave me a weird look so I added. "My ADHD doesn't like buses either."

She just nodded her head in response, looking paler than usual.

Rachel's phone started to ring. "I hate Everything About you, why do I love you?" Rachel loved Three Days Grace, and so did I. We had similar tastes in music which was great, I dont think I could have survived the year if this girl listened to bad music.

"I have to take this." She said, then she promptly got up and walked into the bathroom. We were sitting right next to the bathroom, so I unintentionaly overheard her conversation.

"No Chiron, everything is fine. (Pause while other person speaks)... I promise, I'm watching her. ... Yes, I know Grover screwed it up with Percy, but Percy is fine now. ... She's not going to die! I can handle this ... Chiron I know I'm not a satyr, but .. Yeah I know we shouldn't have got on a bus... Its not going to be like last time! ... Shut up, I can't be on the phone much longer, history is NOT going to repeat itself."  She was angry, I heard her fiddling with the lock, the driver had warned us that it tends to get stuck. I heard her kick the door, and it flung open. She came and sat down, smiled at me, and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, it will be."

"Okay, if you're sure." Everything was not okay.

(POV Rachel)

Chiron was really getting on my nerves about Demetria, calling me on a cell phone when I am that close to her. How stupid could he be? I know he couldn't Iris message me, because Dem still didn't know that she was a half-blood. I didn't either, at first. I had talked my dad into letting me switch boarding schools, and I had met her my first day. I hadn't sensed anything godly about her like I usually do, being the Oracle you would think I would have seen it coming. I was worried that Demi had overheard my conversation with Chiron. I knew I had to get her to camp, but I didn't know how to convince her mom to let her. Henley, she had always been over protective of Dem, but for good reason. She was gorgeous, even though Dem doesnt like to talk about her life before her mom met Adam, I knew enough. She's had a rough life, but almost every half-blood has.

Johnson is supposed to meet us at the bus stop, I can see monsters, but Johnson can smell them which is pretty helpful. I thought I had seen a monster, but I couldn't be sure. I have felt like I was being watched since I started school at DeLaSalle, in Minneappolis, Minnesota. Something was off, I thought it might be the fact that is was a private school, but the feeling had followed me onto the bus. I felt like my privacy was being violated.

That's when I noticed Houston, he wasn't a close friend of mine and/or Demetria, but he was fairly nice to people from what I could tell. He was sitting alone, I got up, ignoring Demetria's questions. He looked sad, I tapped on his shoulder.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Oh, hey Dare. Just going home for summer break. And you?"

"Oh, just going to Demetria's for a few weeks, before we go on vacation." He tensed ever so slightly at her name, like he knew something.