•as the world caves in•

•we attend a dance•

I imagined winter break being time off of school, drinking hot chocolate and opening presents. I did not imagine spending my first day sitting in the back of Ms. Jackson's car on my way to another boarding school, all my friends but Grover there.

Grover had sent out a distress signal and we knew we had to answer. It was an eight hour drive, but Ms. Jackson was up to the task of getting us there.

She dropped us off in front of Westover Hall, looking like a castle. She turned to us. "Do you have everything?"

I nodded. "Thanks!"

She smiled at me. "Of course, Coriane. Everyone else good?"

We all nodded as Percy groaned for her to leave.

I nudged him. "Be nice to your mom. She's so cool."

"She's okay," he shrugged.

"Come on," Thalia scoffed. "What parent would randomly driver their kid and his friends eight hours for something."

I held my coat closer as we neared the doors. "Thanks, Thalia. Your mom just wants to make sure we'll be okay while we do our half-blood stuff."

"Guys, come on!" Annabeth shouted from ahead. "Grover will be waiting!"

We shoved the oak doors open looking around. The main hall was filled with a bunch of weapons, even for a military school, it felt like overkill.

I made sure my ring was on my finger, even if I knew it would always stay there, seeing Percy check his pocket and Thalia rub her bracelet.

The doors shut behind us. Percy frowned. "Guess we'll stay awhile.

Music was playing in the distance and we shoved our backpacks behind a pillar and walked towards it before a man and woman walked towards us, wearing what I assumed was the school uniform.

"Well," the woman demanded. "What are you doing here?"

"Ma'am," Percy started.

"Ha!" The man snapped, an accent thick. "Visitors are not allowed at the dance! You shall be ejected!"

Thalia walked up and snapped her fingers, and I instantly knew she was trying to control the Mist. I saw Chiron teaching her a few times.

"Oh, but we're not visitors sir," Thalia said. "We go to school here."

Silena had always noticed how if I said something with enough effort, it usually happened so she was convinced I had some weird power only Aphrodite kids had, but I only tried it on Percy and it normally worked, but he normally did anything.

"I'm Coriane," I smiled. "This Annabeth, Percy and Thalia, we're in eighth grade."

I put so much force behind it I thought it would be obvious, but the woman just smiled back. "Oh, of course. What are you doing away from the dance?"

Before we could answer, Grover came down the hall. "You made it!" But he stopped short. "Oh, Mrs. Gottschalk, Dr. Thorn!"

"What is it, Mr. Underwood?" Dr. Thorn said. "What do you mean they made it?"

Grover swallowed. "The punch! They made the punch! It's great!"

"Yes, the punch is excellent." Mrs. Gottschalk said dreamily. "Now run along, you are not to leave the gym again!"

Once we ran off, Annabeth turned to me. "You have charmspeak?"

I shrugged. "Silena has been trying to get me to test it out, but Percy is normally the test, but he just does anything."

"So you risk it on a mission?" Annabeth asked. "Gods, Cor, if that didn't work we would've like, died."

I scoffed at her overdramatized version of what would've happened and went to hug Grover, glad to know he was okay.

Grover took a deep breath. "I found two."

"Two half-bloods?" Thalia asked in amazement.

Grover nodded.

Half-bloods were rare these days. Chiron had called Grover back from his hunt for Pan in order to find more half-bloods. Times were desperate, we were losing campers because of how dangerous camp was starting to become, so we needed new campers.

"A brother and sister," Grover said. "They're ten and twelve. I don't know their parentage, but they're strong. We're running out of time."

"Monsters?" Thalia assumed more than asked.

"One." Grover said. "He suspects, I don't think he's positive yet, but this is the last day of term. I'm sure he won't let them leave campus without finding out. It may be our last chance."

"Let's dance," Thalia shrugged. "Who's the monster?"

"You met him. The vice principal, Dr. Thorn."

We walked into the gym, seeing your average middle school dance going on. Percy and I had gone to a ton of those at our schools, and it was so awkward. Even if my school was all girls, on some dances they would let boys come.

Grover pointed to some kids in the bleachers. "There they are, Bianca and Nico di Angelo."

They were arguing about who knows what. They both had black hair and olive skin, marking them as siblings right away. Bianca was definitely older as she had that certain aura about her.

Now that we knew Dr. Thorn was the monster, I instantly saw him hovering by them. I assumed the Mist and my possible charmspeak didn't work on him, so he must've known who we were.

"Don't look at the kids," Thalia ordered. "We have to wait for a chance to get them. Throw him off. We have different scents so it should confuse him."

Thalia dragged Annabeth and Grover to the dance floor, laughing brightly as Grover mumbled something.

"So," Percy trailed. "Found anything cool lately?"

I grinned at him. Thalia, Annabeth and I attended an all girls school in New York and it was awesome.

"Oh my gods! They have this cool program where every other month they drive us out to some dig site and let us go crazy! I've found so much cool things from the Industrial Revolution, and even some Ancient Greek stuff! Maybe it's since Olympus is located here, I've been meaning to ask Annabeth."

Percy looked at me blankly. "So, are you staying there the rest of the year? I thought we would attend the same school."

My face fell. "I'm sorry Percy, but they have so many opportunities for an archeological field and..."

"Hey, it's fine," Percy assured me. "We always have summer."

I smiled. "We always have summer."

"So, um," Percy rubbed his neck. "Wanna dance?"

I grinned. "Sure, Seaweed Brain."

We walked to the dance floor and assumed the normal dancing positions. I put one hand on his shoulder, the other holding his and he put his hand on my hip.

Percy seemed to be avoiding looking at me. "Is there something on my face?"

"No!" He stammered. "You look amazing! Well, you always looking amazing! But not like too amazing, wait that sounds bad."

I shoved him lightly. "I'm just kidding, don't panic."

We shuffled around in a comfortable silence and I don't think I'd ever felt as carefree as I did in that moment.

"Guys!" Annabeth hissed. "They're gone!"

I looked at the bleachers, and the kids and Dr. Thorn were nowhere in sight.

Annabeth looked around. "Where did Thalia and Grover go? Ugh, come on!"

I rushed after her, but when I saw Percy running out of the other door, I knew he was playing hero.

"We have to find them now!" I urged. "Percy went off to find them on his own!"

"Gods, he's impossible!"