We ran into our first problems pretty quickly. We didn't have a teacher. Alex and I were on the street most of our lives and didn't have access to education. Blitzen and Hearthstone did go to school, but the things you learn in human school are much different than what you learn in elf and dwarf school. Who would be a good teacher...

A thought struck me so hard it was like getting hit with Athena's sword. Annabeth! My cousin, Annabeth Chase, is the daughter of Athena and is super smart. I should ask her to teach the kids. I immediately wrote a message, saying that we should meet up soon, and then rolled it up and stuffed it in a peanut shell. The way us einherjar (or really any other magical creature) communicate is normally a raven. They eat the message, fly across the Nine Worlds to its recipient, and then barfs up the message. Since Alex and I decided to spend most of our time in the Chase Space, we bought a raven to stay in touch with our friends. I cautiously dropped the peanut with the message inside the raven's cage.

"Bring this to Annabeth, and don't leave till she replies," I told the raven. It just looked at me with it's black, beady eyes. Sup, got anything shiny, said the raven in my mind. I groaned. When I killed Mr. Alderman (who was a dragon) and ate his heart (more like it's juices) I gained the ability to understand animals. I hoped the ability would fade away, but it seemed like it was clear as ever.

"Just eat the peanut and get it to Annabeth Chase," I replied. The raven ate the peanut. Alright man, no need to rush me. And with that, the raven was off. I went through my normal routine for the rest of the day, consisting of playing with the kids and taking care of them. Man, why do I keep calling them kids, as if they are my children? Cause you think you are their father, I thought to myself. By the time of dinner, the raven returned with Annabeth's reply. She agreed to meet me at a coffee shop in Boston the next day.

The next day I woke up and headed out to a small coffee shop. Annabeth was already inside, drinking an espresso. I ordered a blueberry scone and a decaf coffee, then sat down at her table. Annabeth's blond hair was tied back in a pony back. She seemed alright for the most part, but a weary loom was in her stormy gray eyes.

She smiled at me as I approached her. "Hey, Magnus. You doing alright?"

I smiled back at her. "Yep, nothing has threatened to start Ragnarok in like a month. Must be a new record."

She laughed. "Good for you Magnus. You guys deserve a break."

"Thanks. So how are things with you? Did that god who fell to Earth get back to Olympus?"

Annabeth bit her lip. "Yep, Lester made it back to Olympus, but not without," her voice cracked, "losses..."

My mind immediately went to Annabeth's boyfriend, Percy Jackson. He was the son of Poseidon and teached me somewhat how to run a ship at the beginning of the summer. "Is Percy...?"

Annabeth took a shaky breath. "He is alright. There was a huge war with these zombies at Camp Jupiter and then Camp Half-Blood fought against Nero's army. And..." Her voice cracked with pain and I could have sworn she said Jason. I reached out and took her hand. She relaxed a bit and wiped her tears with her sleeve. "I am sorry, I shouldn't have broken down. What did you need?"

I squeezed her hand. "Don't be sorry. I am glad you told me. Sorry for your losses. Take a minute to compose yourself. Do you want more coffee?" I said, trying to sound soothing. She nodded and I got up. I ordered another espresso and by the time I got back to the table and handed Annabeth her espresso, she had stopped crying.

"Thanks Magnus," she said.

"No problem. Now about the thing I wanted to talk with you about..." I told her about how I wanted to teach the kids at the Chase Space since they couldn't go to normal school.

Annabeth thought about it for a minute. I nervously nibbled on my scone as she thought. "Magnus, you have really changed," she said.

I groaned. "That is what Alex said."

Annabeth grinned, "She (or he) is a smart girl (or boy)."

"Just tell me what you think of it," I said impatiently.

"I think it is a great idea. It will take a lot of work, especially finding teachers and getting the learning curriculum formed. You must really love these kids to go to those lengths." Honestly, I didn't even think about the learning curriculum before that moment, but now that she brought it up it seemed so obvious that I could have kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner.

"So you're in?" I asked tentatively.

Annabeth sighed. "Sorry Magnus. I can't, I am starting college."

"College?!" I said, surprised. I often forgot that Annabeth was a year older than me (I'm 16). I realized that if I wasn't, you know, dead then I would probably be a senior in high school. The aspect of the school system becomes irrelevant when you're an einherjar of Vahalla.

She laughed. "Yes. I am going to UC Berkeley and the college in New Rome with Percy."

I tried to look happy for her, but I was honestly a bit bummed out. "That is great, I am glad for you."

She must have seen that I wasn't as happy as I claimed. Her expression softened. We sat in silence for a bit, then suddenly she laughed.

I rolled my eyes. "Are you seriously laughing at me now?"

Annabeth continued to giggle. "Sorry Mag, but I just realized that you don't know that school isn't like a fun, jolly place to be in."

I was startled. She was right, I thought that school was like a great place to be at. When I was on the streets, I would often see schoolkids hanging out together outside the school, and they seemed relatively happy. "It's not," I asked incredulously. "But everyone is so happy when they leave."

"Oh Magnus, they aren't happy because of what they did at school. It is because they are leaving school. Most people don't really like learning at school. I mean do you like sitting in a classroom for 7 hours, with teachers droning on about things.What they like about it is making friends, hanging out, stuff like that."

"Oh..." I said in a small voice. Now that she put things into perspective, I realized that school sounded horrible. "Then should I just scrap the idea?" I asked her.

"I think that you should go through with trying to teach them. But teach them things that are useful in life. Friends, camaraderie, social skills. Like what are useful skills in your life?"

"Uh, i don't know? Healing people? Having a magical singing sword? Having friends who stop me from dying? It's not like these skills can be taught," I said.

Annabeth looked at her watch. "Sorry Mag, I gotta go. I'll leave you with this. Play to your strengths. Teach them what you think is useful. You don't need to teach them geometry or computer science, you should teach them life skills. And, pick the right teachers, people you know who are great. They don't have to be smart, but just good people."

I nodded, a plan slowly forming in my head. "Yeah... yeah alright! I know what to do. Thanks Annie."

She smiled. "No problem." We walked out of the coffee shop together.

"Hey, how did you get here on such short notice. I mean, I thought you were in California yesterday?" I asked her.

"Like this," she said. Just as she said it, a hole of darkness opened in the ground. Out leapt the largest dog I had ever seen. It was the size of an elephant and had shaggy black hair. It barked loudly, involuntarily showing off it's teeth the size of a large cup of coffee. I may or may not have yelped like a little kid. "This is Mrs. O'Leary," Annabeth said, petting the giant dog. "Don't worry, she is friendly. She can shadow-travel, which is how I got here so fast."

I didn't say anything as she got on the dog and morphed into their shadow, since I was too distracted by the dog itself. Call me rude, but I bet you would struggle to say goodbye when there is a dog that looked like it chewed on dinosaur bones.

Still a bit terrified by Mrs. O'Leary and a tad bit wetter in the pants, I walked back to the Chase Space. 

You can't blame Magnus for wetting his pants after Mrs. O'Leary just appeared. I mean imagine if a giant black dog with teeth the size of like you hand just appeared out of a hole of darkness. But, do you know what is less scary than Mrs. O'Leary... voting and commenting on this chapter. 

That was super rubbish and I apologize. I couldn't think of anything else lol