Paige damn it.... Write your part. I am sorry to you all for two reasons. 1. Chapters two and three get sorta dramatic 2. You have wait
I blushed again, turning to look at her face. There was something about her face that had naiveness written all over it. I couldn’t put my finger on it. There was something bothering me about this whole situation..”Maybe I do,” I responded. “Who’s your godly parent?” “Um, Hades,” I could see the hesitation in her response as she looked away from me. “What about you?” “Aphrodite,” I responded with a smile. “Wow, THAT was a huge surprise,” she said sarcastically, studying me up and down. “You’re beautiful. I’m in love with your hair.” “Awww! Thanks. I’ve decided I like you,” I said teasingly. “Haha, thanks.” “Wanna sit with us?” “Nah, apparently I have to go to the front of the cafeteria. Mr. Felten wants all the new students to go there.” “Call him Felten, and okay, see you,” I nervously smiled at her while running my fingers through my hair. I sit down next to Leila and Dylan but didn’t acknowledge them as I watched Ariana walk away. What bothered me about her? Why did I find her so...inexperienced? It was the way she acted, the way she carried herself. How she didn’t understand which room was hers, her hesitation when telling me who she was the daughter of, and lacking the pompousness of all the other demigods who literally believed they’re a gift from God himself. Felten introduced all the new students. Five of them.In one day. Highly unusual... “Hunter Miller, 16, son of Ares....Jacob Breece, 13, son of Dionysus...” I tuned out until I heard, “Ariana Winkle, 15, daughter of...” My head spun as I processed it all, it felt like the cafeteria started moving. The freckles, the innocence, the inexperience...one word ran through my mind as Felten searched for who she was a daughter of. Mortal. It all made sense. And then as Felten said..”daughter of Bill Winkle and...” We all waited anxiously, murmurs spreading throughout the demigod-crowd. “Karen Winkle.” It was confirmed. ---------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER 2 Silence filled the room. Then the whispering began. A mortal? But rumour was that she was a daughter of Hades. I felt bad for her. Mortals usually don’t fit in here. Since they weren’t born natural demigods, it was harder for them to stay alive. “Mortal?” Jack laughed. “Good luck!” “Hey Jack?” I asked “Yah?” “Shut it!” I walked over to the front of the room. “Hey, Felten! If you’re done with the girl, can she come sit with us?” He didn’t look up from his iPad, not a surprise. I grabbed the girl’s hand and pulled her to my table. We ate in silence. I found myself next to Mike...somehow. We walked in silence as we returned to his dorm as we usually do after dinner. We're usually fighting half the time, and I return to his dorm at about one AM if I feel too guilty for something I said. A couple of kisses and he's good. We stopped in front of his dorm door and stared at our feet, not knowing what to do. I felt confused...I didn't know what to do. I may not be the most loving girlfriend in the world, but I always knew what to say around Mike. I forced myself to look up at his hazel eyes. "Alright, why aren't you saying anything dude?" I tried to laugh, but it came out weird. He stared directly back, coldly. "I can't believe you stood up for a MORTAL." I wanted to slap his dang face. "I don't get what the freaking big deal is! A mortal, yeah, whatever. She's still a PERSON. Even if you don't think shes nearly as great as you, Zeus." Mike scrunched up his face. "Well then. I was just kidding. Usually you can take a dang joke!" I wanted to stop, I wanted to. But all those times I got a little mad at him for something stupid just boiled up inside me. "You..you...dumb***!!!!!!" Mike froze and stared at the door. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I was always sarcastically mean but never really meant it. "If you're gonna be like that over something I was KIDDING about, then maybe we should break up," he asked, half eagerly waiting for my reaction. I should've protested. I should've said...something. But nothing came out of my mouth. I just stared dumbly at him, not knowing what to do. I've never gotten broken up with before. I saw something in his face flash, but then he masked it with indifference. "Fine, fine then. We're through." he angrily walked through his door and was prepared to slammed it in my face, but he waited for a second, waited me to say something. I was silent. He slammed the door shut. The worst part of it was, I didn't even feel anything. ----------------------------------- I bite my lip all through dinner. The kids at my table are silent. They pretend to be engrossed in their meals. My mind drifts as a tear breaks through my barrier of strength. I'm glad Nate skipped, at least he can hear it from me. I don't know why but that annoying ox of a boy has touched me in someway. I feel mad, I feel upset at myself for being so stupid. I slam the fork in my hand onto the table, splattering soup and cake on my table mates. A couple look up before returning to their meals. They don't care, to them I am a mortal. Someone that shouldn't see them, see their swords and wars around us. I slide my chair on the floor, a smooth creaking sound. People turn and look at me, another tear slides down. I grab my bow in my hand and throw it onto my shoulder. I need to be strong when I leave this room and not let these people's sharp tongues and menacing ways bug me. So I hold my head high and let my tears show. I don't try to wipe my face of emotions. As I storm out, things are thrown at me, words try to pierce my skin and force their way to my brain. After I'm out of the cafeteria I run to the archery range. I'm not out of shape but the solid two miles of running makes my lungs burn. The tears I held back in the cafeteria stream freely now. By the time I get to the range my hair is soaked with sweat and my face is red and feels too tight. I rip the bow off shoulder and blindly line up and arrow. My eyes are closed when I let the string go. I feel off target by at least an inch. But when I open my eyes I got a bullseye. My talent. My gods dang talent. My talent becoming immortal gave me. I slump to the ground, but a big hand catches my elbow. I look up with hard eyes, they soften at the sight of Nate. "Why did you lie to me?" he asks his dark, expressive eyes show hurt. Lots of it. "I don't wanna talk about it," I duck my head. One of his fingers slips under my chin, forcing to look up. He takes his other hand and messes with my mouth, forcing it into a smile. I try to turn away, his hand holds my face. The hand holding my mouth slips into my hair. We are kissing. His lips press softly against mine for a full minute. A full wonderful minute. When we pull away I kiss his cheek. I blush. He blushes. Well I can't see he's blushing, but I can just feel in the air the he is. I get up the nerve to ask, "Why'd you kiss me?" "I have wanted to do that the second I saw you standing in the hall." "Really," I glance down at our hands that have somehow became entwined. He doesn't answer me, I'm sorta glad. I'm running out of responses. We just sit, both of us staring off into the sun. "Thanks for finding me. In fact... why were you looking for me," I ask looking up through my lashes. I must look wonderful, makeup smeared and hair coated in sweat. "I just wanted to ask if... you'd want to go see a movie this weekend. They show on campus movies sometimes," He seems unsure what to say. I guess being "cool" does mean your good with girls. "I don't see why not," I reply smirking just the littlest bit. I don't want to seem THAT easy. Nate starts to lean towards me to kiss me again. Halfway there someone comes trampling through the woods none too gracefully. Straight brown hair to her shoulders, hazel eyes and about and inch shorter. My twin. Paige. She's here. Seeing me in mid kiss with Nate. I blush, my own twin seeing me kiss a guy I've known for a day. I pull away softly, smiling to let Nate know its not him. I stand up to my full five foot two frame and stretch. "Paige," I cry, embracing my twin in a bear hug. Almost picking her up. Nate coughs and I turn around. "Well you seem to need a family moment," he runs off with a pained expression. I remember him saying that his family is ashamed of him. I can't leave Paige but I want to go comfort him. I stand next to Paige. There's so many things to talk about. But I know what she wants to hear. She asks,"What was that Arian Noël?" "Well, Paige, when you kiss someone you have a tendency to press your lips to the other persons." She smacks my bare arm. And I realize I'm out in winter in a tank top and shorts. "Ariana, you know exactly what I meant!" "Well, I don't know exactly. His name is Nate and we are going to a movie on campus on Friday... And he well chased me down here and well kissed me!" "Felten's looking for us. He wants to talk to us before the party tonight," Paige brushes off my story for now. She gives the universal we will talk later look as she leads me back to the main building. ------------------------------------ When I woke up I almost forgot what happened last night. A distance feeling had slowly built up in my gut. I was starting to process the fact that I was single. When I went to breakfast, I completely avoid any human, or should I say demigod, contact. I sit in the corner, scanning the room. My normal table is motioning for me to join them. I shake my head no. I pick through my breakfast, and leave without dumping my tray. I walk four miles from the campus to the lake and sit in the dock. Gracie is out paddling in the middle of the lake. She starts to paddle toward me, but I need to be alone. I climb a tree not to far from the lake. Then I fall asleep. ---------------------------------------------- I raced out of Greek Mythology class. I found Leila and raced up to her. "Where is the heck is Miranda?!?!" I asked her. "She wasn't at lunch, she didn't sit with us at breakfast..." "I really don't know,but I heard Mike and her broke up last night." I froze. "WHAT?!" Mike and Miranda had been together since hormones started to take charge. Too many things were happening at this orphanage at once. Five new students. One of them being mortal, then lying about it. Mike and Miranda breaking up. On my way out, I passed Adam. I smiled. "WHOOSH." I said as I passed him. "WHOOSH," he said. "You got my friends saying that." A group of boys passed by. "Hey Sarah!" they all said. A flash of unhappiness passed through Adams face as I smiled and waved back. "Text me!" he commanded loudly. "Where you headed?" "To find Miranda. She and Mike broke up last night and I haven't seen her all day." Adam shook his head. "I know. Mike doesn't even feel like talking. It surprises me how hard he's taking it. He cursed her name all night," he said, smirking at the last part. "Yeah, well she must be too. She sat by herself at breakfast this morning." "Kay, well, bye Aphro," he did his half- smile and stare into my eyes. My heart skipped a beat. "Bye, sleepy head." I ran through the woods, looking left and right. The leaves crunch under my bare feet, the water in the lake flows, looking cold. I shivered and called out ,"Miranda?" No answer. "Miranda??" A soft, weak sounding voice responded. "Here." The voice came from above and sounded nothing like my best friend. I looked up to see her in a large leafless tree, sprawled on a branch, laying down. I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just asked stupidly, "What's wrong?" "What the heck do you think is wrong? Didn't you hear what everyone's talking about?" "You and Mike...I'm really sorry. What was it over?" "That new girl being a mortal, he was insulting her." One problem leads to another. "Wow." "Yeah, I know. Stupid right?" "Breakups are usually stupid. Just know that there's other guys in the world. I know you and Mike were close for a while, but I honestly think he's having a harder time than you. And who knows, you guys might get back together." "Like he'd take me back after I called him a dumb@ss. "You did? Wow, you must've been really mad." "I don’t know what happened...I just like exploded on him." "Will a hug make you feel better?" "NO NO NO! That'll make me feel worse!!!" That's when I knew she wasn't completely jacked up. "Then get out of that tree and come to dinner!" She jumped out of the tree. "Hope I don't run into him.." ---------------------- I grabbed Ariana’s arm, and I pulled her to Mr. Felten’s office. She complained, but I told her we Mr. Felten said he needed to see us, ASAP. We burst in to Mr. Felten’s office. The room is small. Everything seems to be made out of wood, the furniture, the walls, and the floor. “I’m accusing you of something,” Mr. Felten stated like it was no big deal at all. “Accusing us!!!!! How? We’ve only been here a day and a half! How could we have done something wrong?” I panic. I’m not used to getting into trouble. “Let me do some explaining. You see, each room has a sacred object that corresponds with the room. For the room of the children of Zeus, there is a replica of his lightning bolt. For Athena, a owl sitting in an olive tree. Three of the relics have been stolen. Hestia’s, Hera’s, and Zeus’s.” “But Hestia and Hera don’t have any demigod children so how do they have relics to correspond with their rooms if they don’t have a room?” “Each god or goddess is given a room and a relic out of respect. Hestia’s and Hera’s relics were easy to steal because nobody was there watching them, and I heard Mike hasn’t exactly been himself lately ever since his girlfriend dumped him.” “Okay so how do we come into this?” Ariana asked. “I think you two have stolen the relics. Two mortals who are somehow intertwined with the mythological world is a little suspicious don’t you think?” I was furious with him. “Just return the relics, and no one will know about this… propaganda.” “We don’t have them,” I was yelling at him. My eyes started to water. “Fine, don’t confess. Just return them after the dance. We have restocked your clothes, and the naiads helped me pick out some lovely dresses for you to wear tonight.” “I didn’t do anything wrong,” I punched him in the face and then ran off.