'And I feel this way with no chemicals, in my system babe, it's incredible,'

Students snapped their fingers and clapped their hands in time with the choir's performance of Wow by Zara Larsson.

I turned my head, grinning when I saw my friend Hazel Levesque chuckling at the sight of one of the choir kids stepping forward with a microphone in her hand, making a dramatic high note that lasted around five seconds.

'So, are you still angry I 'dragged' you to the school talent show today?' I asked, raising my voice a little to be heard. Hazel grinned at me, her gold eyes twinkling like you shone a flashlight down on a block of gold. 'No I'm not Chance, this is actually quite fun,' The curly haired girl commented, she shifted a little in the chair, and that was when I noticed that she seemed to have her hand clasped tightly around a hockey bag.

It might seem normal, but not when you and everyone you know don't play hockey.

I frowned, as Hazel's hand tightened more around the bag, I noticed that she kept her hand around the base of the bag, careful not to touch further up. And it was also obvious that what should've been a hockey stick in the bag, definitely wasn't. Considering the fact that hockey sticks don't get symmetrically wider at the tip.

Knowing that it wouldn't be wise of me to pry, I ignored it, deciding to instead focusing on the ongoing act: Grace Kelly singing Titanium with her classmate Mitchell Hanover.

♡

'Schist.' I turned around, frowning at what Hazel. What was schist? Some rock?

Immediately, blood curdling screams could be heard from all around the school campus, people pushed chairs down to get out of the auditorium. I whipped my head around, trying to see what people were trying to run from, when I saw it. Or more specifically, them.

From our Greek classes in school due to the reveal of Greek deities, I could figure out this much: The school was under attack, and there were two Empousai, one of them had fiery red hair and the other had dark hair and muddy pom-poms in her hands.

While I was frozen in place from fear, Hazel was tugging on the zipper of her hockey bag, which was unfortunately stuck on the fabric. What could be so important for her to do instead of running away from monsters?

A second later, I regained control over my body, the monsters were closer now, and if Hazel and I didn't move soon, we would be too slow to run from them. 'Hazel, what are you doing? We need to move, now!' I cried, glancing between the dark haired girl and the monsters who were getting unfortunately closer.

Hazel stood up, deciding to forget about her hockey bag, she placed both hands on my shoulders, holding me in place. 'Chance, you have to hide, if you run, the monsters will see and catch up to you. So go and hide.' I blinked.

As Hazel basically commanded me to hide, there was no hesitation in her voice, no lingering thought holding her back from saying what she did. 'Hazel, what are you talking about? What are you doing?' I asked in a hurry, already picking up my bag, it might seem stupid, but perhaps if a monster saw me, I could throw my bag at it.

Hazel didn't say a word, but instead push me towards the column near our seats, knowing my friend, she wouldn't say anything, so I instead pressed my body against the column, praying Hazel wasn't about to do something stupid that would cost her life. She once took a punch for a boy getting bullied, and even though she didn't even flinch from getting hit in the stomach, I couldn't not be worried.

Peeking out from behind the column, I saw Hazel pick up her hockey bag, the only thing she brought with her anywhere, and she raised the bag as if it was a sword. I cursed. I didn't know if Hazel remembered from our Monster protection lessons, but our weapons and such goes through the monsters, demigods, and such, which meant that Hazel Levesque, was dead.

The red haired Empousa snarled at Hazel, her eyes narrowed. Hazel glanced between the two Empousai, seeming more calm and collected than she should've been. Hazel looked as if she was waiting in line to buy ice cream.

'I'm just going to take a wild guess here,' Hazel said, and I frowned, what was she doing? Talking to the monsters?

Hazel pointed a finger towards the red haired Empousa, 'You're Kelli the Empousa who is very old,' She pointed her finger towards the other Empousa, 'And you're Tammi, Kelli's used-to-be dead apprentice?'

The two Empousa both glared at Hazel, and the one called Tammi snarled. 'You're a friend of Perseus Jackson, I presume,' Hazel grinned, and spun her hockey bag in circles as if it was a stick.

'I have a friend, Reyna Ramirez Arellano, you might've heard of her, she's ex-praetor of the Twelfth Legion of Camp Jupiter.' Hazel claimed, and I sucked in my breath, was Hazel Levesque, the girl who has never lied in her one year of school at Jefferson High, pretending to be friends with the praetor of one of the two demigod camps?

Tammi lunged at Hazel, slashing her talons downwards in a vain attempt to injured Hazel, I almost screamed, Hazel didn't. The girl slid underneath the chair behind her, and threw it at Tammi. 'At ease, prodigium.' I frowned, according to our Latin teacher, prodigium meant monster, and considering Hazel was always looking at a picture during Latin, I didn't think she would know what the word meant.

Hazel bit her lip, frowning, she sighed, 'Sorry, old habits. Being a praetor kind of changes you, know what I mean?' Praetor? Nobody said anything. Hazel continued, 'Anyways, as I was saying, there's a saying, that Reyna and I like to say in Greek, 'Όλοι πεθαίνουμε, ο στόχος δεν είναι να ζήσουμε για πάντα, είναι να δημιουργήσουμε κάτι που θα ζήσει για πάντα.''

I frowned, not understand what the saying meant, and thankfully, Hazel explained. 'We all die, the goal is not to live forever, it is to create something that will.' Hazel smiled, her glare sinister. 'But unfortunately for you two Empousai, you're are the last things I want to create.' Hazel said, before she pulled out a knife and cut a slit in her hockey bag.

Hazel took a long and wide sword out of the bag, a Spatha. The two Empousai jumped into action, and so did Hazel. The girl slashed her sword left and right forcing Tammi back towards the while, while she simultaneously dodged attacks from Kelli, which meant Tammi was getting hit by her accomplice again and again.

Hazel raised her left hand, and the ground shook, the earth beneath Tammi opened into a wide crack, and I could only assume that Tammi the Empousa would be trapped at the bottom of the tunnel the school dug two years ago in a thought to make a basement. The plan was abandoned, obviously.

Hazel returned her attention to Kelli, the flaming hot Cheetos Empousa, and the two fought, sword on talon, and that's when I jumped. Not from Kelli or Hazel, but from someone tapping my shoulder. I turned around, to be faced with a tall Chinese looking guy, it seemed like he had a crew cut that had grown out a little, and he looked like around fifteen or sixteen, so definitely not supposed to be at a freshmen talent show, to think about it, he looked familiar, but not someone from school. . .

The boy smiled at me, despite looking intimidating with the strong build and such, he was definitely shy. 'Hello, I'm Frank, nice to meet you,' I raised an eyebrow, confused when I could hear a slight Canadian accent in his voice, considering I had a Canadian friend, I would recognise a Canada accent anywhere. He was perhaps a Chinese-Canadian mix.

I nodded briskly, 'Chance Heron, nice to meet you,' I muttered, glancing back behind the column to where Hazel was still engaged in battle with Kelli the Empousa. It was Frank's turn to raise an eyebrow, I wasn't surprised he didn't see the ongoing battle, it was a wide column we were behind.

Frank glanced behind us, seeming to only just realise that the auditorium was empty, and that was when I saw a hockey bag hanging off his left shoulder, the bag was identical to Hazel's, it was wider, but still identical. And that was when I remembered where I've seen Frank, he was the boy that I see pick Hazel up after school everyday to bring her back to mysterious camp she went to.

The sound of chairs clashing and skittering, smashing against each other, alerted both Frank and I, the Chinese-Canadian boy glanced behind the column, and cursed. 'Virga.' Frank muttered, and bent down into a crouch, unzipping his hockey bag to reveal a bow and quiver of arrows. He picked up the weapons before running out into the open, firing an arrow at Tammi, who had just crawled out of the hole.

The monster wailed in anger as she was vaporized, Kelli got distracted by the wail, and let out a cry of her own in anger, giving Hazel the chance to cut her sword through Kelli's waist. Hazel panted slightly, she pulled a small pouch out of her pocket, and began to chew on a small lemon tart cube like she did at least twice a week once arriving at school, except now, I don't think it's a lemon tart.

Hazel frowned when she saw the golden arrow on the ground, before a smile spread across her face. The apparent demigod turned to face Frank and I, before letting out a laugh. 'About time you showed Frank,' She said, before approaching the male and kissing him on the lips, short and sweet, kind of like Hazel.

Frank turned to me, 'Well, Chance Heron, I suppose you have a lot of questions?' He asked, and I shrugged. 'A few, I know you're demigods, but, but why didn't you tell me Hazel? Why did it have to be a secret? I mean, the gods are revealed already.' Hazel and Frank exchanged glances before turning to me again.

'We'll answer your questions, all of them, but how about we switch locations first? People will be coming soon,' Hazel proposed, and I agreed, so then, the three of us headed to the Tank Juice down the street hand in hand. Frank and Hazel, not me of course