The Light Meets the Darkness
Summary: Nemo Ledger's a weird girl. She doesn't have a lot of friends, besides Fern Sagewood and Jaycee Carter. But her world turns upside down when she's intercepted at school by a monster, and Jaycee and Fern take her to Camp Half-Blood, where she discovers that she's a demigod. That's not possible, right? But things get even harder when she becomes enemies with Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. She's a daughter of Iris. She's not drawn to death. But will a quest change that?
I was running as fast as I could, following the tunnels and trying to find my way out.
Of course, I wasn't succeeding, letting myself get into a dead end.
Now, you're all probably wondering who I am and what's going on, and well, let me get to that part, so shut up and keep reading!
My name is Nemo Ledger. No, NOT Naomi, or some stupid nickname. My legal name is Nemo Faye Ledger, and I live in New York City. Yeah, Manhattan, New York.
Anyways, I'm running from something. I don't quite know what, but all I know is that I'm running from something. I can hear him speaking in my head, and I'm scared for my life. I turn right and get caught in a dead end. I turned around, hoping that I had a good enough lead to keep running away, but I don't.
Instead, I find myself looking into a pair of red eyes, and I screamed.
And that's when I woke up.
I sat up abruptly, just minutes before my alarm clock for school's supposed to go off. I groan and unplug the digital clock out of the wall, just so I don't have to listen to it being really annoying.
I grabbed my brush and started brushing my unruly curls, but they wouldn't budge. Sighing, I tied my long red hair with yellow, green, blue, and purple highlights into a French braid, which I can't do on other people but only to myself. Weird, I know.
I looked into the mirror to stare once again at my eyes. They were golden with green specks, and most people assumed that they were contacts. But they're not. I don't need glasses, but I need my colorful braces to fix my crooked teeth.
"I gotta, gotta, gotta pocket fulla sunshine—" I picked up my phone and answered the call.
"Hello?" I spoke. I'm fourteen, and I've gone through the growing part of puberty, but my voice is still high-pitched and dreamy sounding, kind of like Luna Lovegood's voice from Harry Potter.
"Hey, Nemo!" I smiled when I heard Jaycee's voice come on over the phone. "What's up, girl?" I laughed and pressed the speak button so I could get dressed, because knowing Jaycee, she would just keep talking my ear off.
"I'm trying to decide if I should wear my purple flowery button up shirt today with the white skirt we got or the red and pink tie-dyed jean shorts with the rips and the black boots we got at Steve Madden last week." I said, and Jaycee laughed.
"Wear the purple shirt with the jean shorts and the boots!" Jaycee exclaimed, and I gasped.
"And then I could wear that one blazer we got at American Eagle that goes with that one white strapless dress I got!" I almost squealed, but then calmed myself.
"Yeah, you totally should!" Jaycee said, and she hung up so we could both get dressed. Today Jaycee's boyfriend from her camp was gonna come visit the school and I couldn't wait to meet him.
As I grabbed my rainbow tie-dyed backpack from my closet hook, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck standing up as the room started to get cold.
"Stupid air conditioner." I said, and closed the door to my room as I left the house, getting ready to walk to Goode High School.
"Hey, Jay." I said, poking her shoulder, and she whirled around.
"Sorry, Nemo." Jaycee said. "I thought it was someone else." She looked almost scared, and then I shook myself mentally. Jaycee Carter does not get scared. She even said so herself.
"So when am I going to meet this boyfriend of yours, Jayce?" I asked, smiling, and she smiled at me, and then her face lit up at the sight of someone behind me.
"Right now!" Jaycee said, and she moved past me to hug a tall guy with a tan and light brown hair. His eyes looked mischievous as he hugged Jaycee, and he smiled at me crookedly after they had hugged. "Connor, this is my best friend, Nemo Ledger. Nemo, this is Connor Stoll, my boyfriend." I held out my hand and he shook it, but he got shocked by my ring.
"Ouch!" He said, stepping back, and I smirked at him.
"I forgot to mention, Connor, but Nemo taught me all of the pranking tricks I know. She's like, the pranking master!" Jaycee said, and I twisted my ring back around so the charm was revealed on my finger. It was a silver moon that shined silver in the moonlight, and I cherished it. Jaycee's cousin's cousin Thalia gave it to me for my birthday.
"She hasn't seen mine and Travis' pranks yet, Jay." Connor said, and I rolled my eyes.
"Oh please!" I said, and I smirked. "I bet that I can pull off an awesome prank on you before you can pull one on me. And even if you get yours to work on me before mine works on you, you'll be amazed at how awesome my prank is!" I said, and Connor's face contorted as he went deep into thought.
"Fine." Connor said, and he smirked. "I'll give you ten drac-dollars if you can prank me better than I can prank you."
"Twenty." I said, not backing down.
"Fine." Connor said, and Fern came up behind him.
"Hey Jay, hey Nemo!" Fern waved, and she smiled at Connor. "Sup, Stoll?" I looked shocked and turned to Jaycee, who just mouthed 'camp'. I nodded. Just then the bell rang.
"Time for English!" I said. Everyone groaned, but I held up a hand. "Who's up for some Greek mythology?"
"Now, what was Artemis the goddess of..." Mr. Harrison looked around and threw the bouncy ball at Connor. "Mr. Stoll, correct?" Connor nodded his head, and he spoke.
"Artemis is the goddess of the moon, eternal maidenhood, and she was also a virgin goddess, swearing off love after the nasty and cruel thing Odysseus did to her." Connor shook her head, and Jaycee looked down too. I also noticed Fern, Oliver Shane, and Will Solace all looking down too, like they were sympathizing for Artemis.
"Very good!" Mr. Harrison said, reaching his hands up for the ball, and Connor threw the ball back to him. "Now, Mr. Shane." Mr. Harrison threw the ball to Oliver, and he dropped it, and while the class was snickering, picked it back up. "Who was Apollo the god of?" Jaycee, Will, and Oliver were all now smiling for some odd reason, and Oliver spoke.
"He is the god of music, medicine, prophecies, the sun, and poetry." Oliver then stood up.
"Oh dear gods, really Oliver?" Jaycee yelled, and he held his hands up.
"Hold everything!" Oliver said loudly, and both Jaycee and Will groaned. Hm, they must know each other from camp.
"Sitting in English,
Learning about Ancient Greece,
Connor, don't you dare!" Oliver finished, and he glared at Connor, who looked down sheepishly and put something in his pocket.
"Nice, Mr. Shane." Mr. Harrison said, getting his bouncy ball back, and he sat on the desk. "Now, minor gods. Who can tell me who... Iris is?" He asked, and my hand shot up. "Nemo." For some reason he always called me and Jaycee by our first names, but nobody else.
"Iris is the messenger goddess, where people can use rainbows to communicate to others as long as they have a drachma to pay with, and she is also the goddess of rainbows and light." I blurted, and then I put on a confused expression, because I didn't know that first part before.
"Correct!" Mr. Harrison said, and then he looked me in the eye.
"How did you know that, Nemo?" He asked me, and I shrugged.
"I'm not quite sure. It just came out of me, I guess." I replied, and everyone except for Fern, Mr. Harrison, and a kid I didn't see coming in before looked at me funny. And then I saw the kid.
Nico di Angelo. My worst nightmare.
Oh man, every time you pass by Nico di Angelo, you just feel icky. Like you're dying or something. I've seen people squirm when they are around him, but I've seen a few kids that acknowledge him some. Like Jaycee, Will, Oliver, Thalia, Jaycee's cousin Percy, and Percy's girlfriend Annabeth. It was really weird. And what I can't understand is the fact that he's in my classes. I'm only a freshman, fourteen years old, and just wanting school to be over in a week already, and he's a junior, sixteen years old of pure sexy.
Wait, what?
"Good job, Ms. Ledger." Mr. Harrison said, and as I threw the ball at him, I noticed something interesting about him.
Mr. Harrison's brown eyes were flickering to one giant brown eye, and then they would go back. It kept alternating like this, but really fast, so the effect looked like a light going out or not plugged in all the way. I looked over to Jaycee and Connor, where they sat staring at each other, which I thought was gross.
"Hey, Jay." I said, and she snapped out of it.
"Yeah, Nemo?" Jaycee asked, and I sighed, not really sure how to put this.
"Um, is it just me, or does it look like Mr. Harrison's eyes are flickering between two eyes and one?" I asked quietly while Mr. Harrison was asking Ethan Kent about Hercules, and Jaycee immediately sat up, looking at our English teacher with wide eyes.
"Connor, he's the monster we've been looking for." Jaycee whispered to Connor, probably forgetting that I was in hearing range, or probably not caring. Connor looked over her shoulder and his eyes widened.
"Holy Zeus, what's he doing here?" Connor whispered frantically, and he got Will's attention from across the room. Connor spoke softly in some weird language, and Will nodded, turning to Oliver, who was right next to him. Only then did I notice that they looked related, and looking back at Jaycee, I saw that she looked like their sister.
"Hold everything!" Oliver almost screamed, and everyone turned towards him, their eyebrows raised. I had expected Will, Connor, Fern, and Jaycee to groan again, but they were looking at him intently.
"Cyclops run around,
Trap him and save the light fast,
Get back to Camp NOW!" Oliver shouted the word now, and Jaycee, Will, and Connor all sprang up, holding something in their hands. Connor and Will had a sword, and Jaycee was holding a bow and arrow. Oliver held up two daggers, and when I looked back at Nico, he just turned to me, winked, and then stepped into a shadow, disappearing.
What in Gods' name was happening?
"As if you silly demigods could stop me!" Mr. Harrison said, laughing evilly, and Jaycee smirked.
"You'll never get her!" She shouted, and he looked at me with his giant one eye.
"Oh, but I can." Mr. Harrison said, smiling in a way I didn't like, and continued. "He will want her."
"Who will want Nemo?" Will shouted, and I sat up. Who wanted me?
"The frost." Mr. Harrison said in a 'duh' tone, but clearly none of the standing kids with weapons understood. "I bet your little pony will explain once I send you all back to your little precious camp in a matchbox!" That's when I snapped.
"Go away!" I screamed, and there was a blinding light. Instead of seeing the classroom with no Mr. Harrison, I was standing on a grassy hill with Connor, Jaycee, Will, Oliver, and Fern all knocked out unconscious.
"What the Hades?" I asked, not knowing where the Hades part came from, but I had heard Jaycee saying it, so I had picked it up (because she's my BFF, duh!) from hanging out with her too much.
"Hello, you must be Nemo Ledger. I'm Chiron." I turned around to find the source of the voice, and looked into the face of a man. But my smile at him disappeared when I looked down to find that he didn't have human legs, but the ass of a horse. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."
And you know what I did next? I did the rational thing, of course. The thing that anybody like me would do in this situation.
I fainted.
So, is it good so far? This story is a collab with Teenaged Author, formerly known as pjoroxs. Now I know that my name is epic LEMON HEAD, but I'm not going to be writing about Lemonade Mouth forever, peeps! So anyways, I hope you like this chapter and my new camper Nemo Ledger, and be excited for the next chapter, because there will probably some Connor and Jaycee in it!
So use your mouse and click on the button down there that says 'REVIEW', and make me and J.C. happy, m'k? Good!
~*N.L*~
