Ugh, I hate math, I thought as Ms. Dodds droned on and on about what X equals. My bestie Aliya glanced at me from across the room and we exchanged a sympathetic look. She hates math as much as or maybe even more than I do. I looked at her desk to see her drawing a sad face. I looked at the book on her desk. It was The Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades. I chuckled. What a Percy Jackson nerd.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big shadow in the parking lot. At the same time, I heard Ms. Dodds call out Aliya's name because she wasn't paying attention. She was looking outside the window on her side of the room at the same place the shadow had been.

"What is x to the power of 35 if x equals 3?" Ms. Dodds asked, her voice sounding like the calm before a storm. I could practically see the malice in her eyes. Funny thing about her: she seemed to hate Aliya and I, but she looked at Sophia like she would kill her.

Aliya answered the question correctly, showing her Indian side. I was surprised that she knew that because she failed the last test we had. Anyway, Ms. Dodds told everyone to pack up. 

Wait, is it dismissal? I wondered as I heard the squeaking of sneakers while everyone tried to pack up as quickly as possible to go talk to their friends.

"Math is the worst, most boring class ever." I was startled as Aliya appeared behind me and said this.

"Agreed," said Sophia, who also hates math.

"Did y'all see the big shadow outside?" I asked them.

"I saw something outside but I couldn't make out what it was," replied Aliya.

"Sophia, did you see anything?" I asked just to be sure I wasn't going psycho because I knew Aliya could be very psycho at times.

"I saw something, but it was outside the door," Sophia explained. "It was black and furry and it was running somewhere. And then it disappeared."

I shuddered. Sophia's descriptions can be eerie.

"Oooh, do you think it was a hellhound like the ones from Percy Jackson?!" exclaimed Aliya.

Sophia rolled her eyes. "I wanna say 'girl, you are way too obsessed with that series and there is no way that could happen,' but I don't know. It could be possible."

I stared at both of them, astonished. "How would you believe something as stupid as that?"

"Stupid as you," Aliya muttered.

"I heard that y'know!" I said, offended.

"I wanna see what it was," Aliya said.

"Wanna go when they call buses? Run for it?" Sophia proposed.

"I'm down for it," said Aliya.

I was stunned by this enormously dumb plan. "What about your parents?"

Aliya shrugged. "Who cares about parents? We're going! We can stop by the store to pick up essentials because it might be a long journey."

"Car riders, Parent Pickup, walkers, and people who get transportation on Vernon road may be dismissed." The office lady's voice came from the PA.

"Now or later?" I asked. "Because now I'm in. It sounds fun."

"Now," Sophia said. We grabbed our bags and made a run for it.

"No running!" yelled a lady in the hallway.

"Whatever!" Sophia shouted back at her.

Once we reached the doors we exited the building and headed to the store which was relatively close to the school.

"What will we pay with?" Sophia asked. "I only have 10 dollars in my bag."

"I have my mom's credit card with me," said Aliya.

"I would ask but I'm not gonna," I said.

Once we entered the building Aliya immediately went to get stuff like water, snacks, flashlights, a tent, and important stuff like that. I went with Sophia and got 4 bags of Moon Cheese and a party-size bag of Doritos.

Once we got all of this we headed to check out.

"How will you pay for all of this?" asked the checkout lady.

"With this!" Aliya said as she dramatically pulled out her mom's credit card. "Here ya go."

Aliya paid, didn't take the receipt, and then we dashed out of the store and into the world. Since we were all around 14, we decided to take the bus. Aliya used her mom's credit card to pay. We took empty seats in the back and with that, we were headed off to New York because Aliya wanted to find Camp Half-Blood (which may or may not exist). Aliya used this time to sleep while Sophia was on her phone, and I was listening to Easy On Me which was the song the bus was playing. The bus took about 6 hours and 16 minutes to get to New York.