In April, I found my calling. 

We had a career day one Friday and we got to spend the whole day listening to presentations from colleges and from various professionals who were present to speak about their careers. I spent almost the entire day listening to a man named Fred Peltzer who was some award-winning archaeologist. He talked about discovering dinosaur bones and even some potential prehistoric human remains and I was gone. His adventures captivated me so much that I decided then and there that I was going to be an archaeologist. 

The search was over.

I was going to be the next Mary Leakey.

My parents were quite supportive when I told them all about my fascination with Dr. Peltzer's presentation and they said it sounded like a fascinating career. But Mom also felt it necessary to warn me that a career in archaeology isn't always successful so I might want to have a back up plan just in case. I ignored her nay-saying, certain that I would be the one to discover the next new dinosaur that would undoubtedly be featured in the Jurassic Park franchise of movies.

Dad had just gotten the latest version of Windows and he created my own sign-on for the computer in his office. He said I was welcome to use it any time as long as I asked him first. He encouraged me to search for articles on archaeology and try to find out where the most recent archaeological efforts were being made. 

He got me. Mom didn't. Period. 

Either way, I was absolutely convinced that this was what I wanted to do with my life.

Later in the spring, close to the end of May actually, Niall and I happened to meet up in the treehouse on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

"Hey," I said as I entered. He was sitting there with his guitar, no surprise. "You're getting better," I said, having heard him playing as I climbed the steps.

"Thanks," he grinned. 

"How's it going?" I asked, sitting my butt on the cold wood floor directly across from him. We hadn't even brought any blankets out yet, even though the weather had been mild for several weeks.

"Good," he said, laying the guitar over his criss-crossed legs.

"Good," I answered.

"Sucks because I found out Tracie is movin' away. Her dad's in the army and they're moving to California as soon as school ends. Her dad is already there." He tried to shrug it off, but I could see that he was really upset. 

In my sincerest voice, I told him, "I'm sorry." I really was sorry that he was sad. But I also had a light-ish feeling in my heart, knowing she was leaving. And that made me feel kind of bad, to be honest.

"Yeah," he said.

"Did you kiss her at the dance?" Valentine's Day was eons ago but I really hadn't seen him much with his busy soccer schedule.

Those familiar ruddy cheeks returned when he said, "Not at the dance."

"So you did kiss her?" I yelped. "Did you tell her I taught you everything you know?!" 

His raucous laughter filled the treehouse. "No! I only kissed her once."

"You're only eleven anyway. You shouldn't be kissing girls yet," I stated authoritatively. 

He changed the subject abruptly. "You haven't come to any of my soccer matches yet." I found it funny to hear him say soccer, but he had clearly resigned himself to the knowledge that if he called it football, not only would he confuse people, but he would probably get teased.

"Did you want me to?" I was genuinely surprised. 

"'Course," he answered. "You're still my best friend, Meg."

It was unusual for me to cry about anything but somehow, Niall's words choked me up. "Let me know when the next one is. I'll be there."

"Next Friday after school," he quipped. "It's in Elizabethtown, so maybe you could catch a ride with me mum and dad."

"Sure," I smiled. "I'll ask. Oh, and Niall?"

"Yeah?"

"You're still my best friend, too." 

I went to every one of Niall's soccer games after that. He was really good. His parents and I cheered loudly for him. My parents even came to one of the local matches and we had the loudest cheering section just for Niall.

Niall's disappointment about Tracie moving away didn't last long because as soon as we said farewell to another year of school, the two of us rode our bikes up to the caves any chance we could get. Both our families had season passes, so we could pretty much get in whenever we wanted and take whichever entrance we chose.

We were very slow and deliberate about taking the tours into smaller parts of the caves. Niall had to work to keep his claustrophobia under control, but now in addition to holding his hand, I also made him laugh a few times by reminding him of some of our funniest Mad Libs. The more we explored, the more comfortable he became with the caves. But we never went through any passages where you have to either crawl on your belly or hold your breath. Those were a little too cramped, even for me.

One sticky afternoon, we sat in the shade of a large tree inside the park and just talked which we hadn't done in a long time.

"Did I tell you that I'm going to be an archaeologist when I grow up?" 

"No, that's cool." His response told me that he was genuinely interested. "So like discoverin' dinosaurs and the like?"

"Yup."

"I'd still like to play footie but me dad says there's a great future in technology. I get dat but it sounds boring."

"I don't know, I think it would be really cool to teach computers how to do things, like robots. You could program robots to do things for people that they don't want to do. Or to explore places that aren't really safe for people. Like those tiny cave passages."

"Yeah," he agreed wholeheartedly. "I might be able to run a robot through those, but I could never get through them myself."

"I know! You can work on programs that detect fossil remains deep underground and I can do the actual digging. We can open our own business together."

"Let's do it," he said, holding his hand up for a high-five.

"I wish we could sleep over in the caves," I mused. "Wouldn't that be cool?" 

"Eh, maybe. Only if it was a very large cave, I s'pose."

"OH!" I sat straight up. "There is a place in the Grand Canyon where you can spend the night in a cave motel room!" 

"Cool!"

"Yeah, my parents were talking about it once. They have always wanted to take a road trip along Route 66 and that cave motel thing is right along there." 

"Have you read the Lightning Thief yet?" Niall asked excitedly. What did that have to do with caves?

"No."

"Oh my god, Meg, you got to read it! Anyway, our teacher was tellin' us dat they followed Route 66 in dat story." I chuckled to myself, hearing Niall's accent get stronger and weaker throughout the words he spoke. His dad's accent was still thick as pea soup but Niall's was relaxing a bit, probably from being in our schools. The occasional dis for this and dat for that made me think back to when I could hardly understand him.

"Who travels Route 66?" I asked. 

"Percy Jackson," he answered impatiently. "And Annabeth and Grover." 

"Who are all these people?" 

"Demi-gods!" He couldn't contain his enthusiasm for anything. "Percy and Annabeth are half human, half god and Grover is a satyr. Oh shit, you don't know dat at the beginnin' of the book. Sorry." 

"I doubt I'll read it anyway."

Now Niall was the one who sat up straight and yelled at me. "No, no! You have to read it!" Then he jumped up and headed towards his bike. 

"Where are you going?" I called after him, not ready to get up and ride. 

"Let's go," he called, already pedaling down the road. "I want to show you the book."

I rolled my eyes and lumbered lazily to my bike. I didn't want to be forced to read during the summer. It was called vacation for a reason. I finally caught up to Niall about half way home and complained, "I don't want to read the book."

"Dat's okay," he yelled back. "I'll read it to ya."

"What?" What a stupid idea, I thought, but I didn't say that out loud.

We burst through Niall's front door with him calling, "Mum, I'm home!" She called a greeting from somewhere upstairs. He poured us tall cups of lemonade and then rushed off to his room, returning in a flash with a book.

"Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The Lightning Thief," I read aloud. The cover of the book showed a boy standing in the ocean and facing a city skyline. In his hand, he held a glowing sword, and some kind of horn in the other one, and a large bolt of lightning was streaking towards the tallest building in the city. "Niall," I whined. "I don't want to read right now."

"Let's ask if we can sleep in the treehouse again," he said, not giving up so easily. "I'll read ya the first few chapters and if y'absolutely hate it, we won't read anymore." That sounded tolerable. "But ya won't hate it, I guarantee you!"

"Fine."

That evening found us tucked into the treehouse when the sun was setting, as we'd done a few times in the past. We talked and laughed and even did a few more Mad Libs. Then Niall announced, "Okay, time to read." 

It was weird because most kids, his age or mine, didn't like to read aloud. But I decided it might be a more enjoyable way to hear the story, rather than having to read it myself. 

He began and I was instantly hooked.

"I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher."

Even the title of the first chapter was cool.

"Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.

If  you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth and try to lead a normal life."

From there, Niall continued to read, captivating me with the most interesting story I'd ever heard or read. A boy around our age (more like Niall's age) named Percy Jackson finds out that he's a demi-god, which is someone who is half human and half Greek god. He's been under protection of his best friend Grover until now, but his enemies have found out where he is and will stop at nothing to kill him. So Percy has to hide away at Camp Half-Blood and train there to become a warrior, or he'll never survive.

Niall got five chapters in and stopped, saying, "I'm losin' my voice."

"Then I'll read," I said, lunging after the book.

"Ha! Told ya you'd like it."

"Yes!" I cheered. "I think it's the coolest story I've ever read!"

I read the title of Chapter 6 and laughed loudly. "I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom."

We took turns reading until we were halfway through the book and we were too tired to keep our eyes open. Two days later, we had finished the entire book.

The rest of the summer was spent playing and pretending that we were Percy and Annabeth, visiting various places, trying to find Persephone's pearls. We also spent a lot of time actually planning a trip along Route 66 that we decided that we would for sure take when we were old enough to drive. I didn't care that I was almost in ninth grade (although I truly didn't want my girl friends finding out I was playing pretend with a boy), I had a fantastic time with Niall, living out the adventures of our new demi-god heroes.

* * * * *

If you've never read Percy Jackson and the Olympians, you are missing out! The first book, "The Lightning Thief," captured my imagination when I first started reading it. Then I raced my kids through the entire series.

Excerpts were taken from "The Lightning Thief," by Rick Riordan, published June 1, 2005 by Miramax Books, Puffin Books, and Disney Publishing Worldwide.