I woke up in a cold sweat. I shook off the feeling of danger I had felt in my nightmare, but not easily. It was more than a dream that much I knew, even if I wish it wasn't. What had the voice said? "You know your fate, young demigod." What fate? What would I possibly know? What was a demigod? How could I be one? So many questions swirled in my ADHD mind.
"VIRGAL, WAKE UP!" My foster mom yelled from the downstairs kitchen. Yep, I'm a foster kid with no real family, and constant "scare you out of your wits" nightmares. That's me. Awesome.
I would like to say a word about my name before I start my story. I've heard everything you can think of. Virgin, on the verge of insanity, don't do a Virgal. But I love my name, even if it's mostly a guy name. It works for me.
"I'm already UP!" I yelled back. School. My tenth one in ten years. The reason for that being, most schools can only handle one year of me before it burns down (sometimes literally), and that I switch foster families a lot, and one time one of the families caught on fire like the school. Somehow, without the blame being pinned on me, they manage to get rid of me, and send me off to the next unsuspecting family. Once I would start getting comfortable where I was, a family would tell me they weren't the right fit for me. Shouldn't I have been the judge of that? I thought so. But in other words, they were just getting tired of housing a failing ADHD and Dyslexic kid in their house. The truth is, I am just a below average sophomore in High School, with dyed red hair (blonde naturally) and creepily golden colored irises. I scared people. I knew that. But the truth is it was really me who was scared.
"VIRGAL!" She yelled again. "If you are not down here by the count of ten, I'm giving Corey your sausage!" She finished. The funny thing was, Corey always ate my sausage. I don't eat much, ever. But I most definitely don't eat around Corey.
You see, Corey is beautiful. Not the "Every 15 year old girls dream", beautiful, but I could see him clearly. He was on the shorter side, and really fit. His light brown hair covered his right eye in such a way that made me sway. Even though most people say his eyes throw off the image of his perfect body, I find them completely perfect for him. A grey and light blue wind grabs me up and threatens to take me away every time I look into them, but a loving type of fierceness is shown in them. He was just different. I loved it. But I could never get attached. And besides, by the way things were looking here at the foster home, Corey would get to stay, and my agency would be finding me a new home. Nothing lasts forever.
"BE DOWN IN A MINUTE!" I shrieked. The way Mrs. Martha yelled just got me so wound up. Stupid lady. I pulled on my favorite pair of tattered jeans and a yellow v neck. My jeans were too loose. I needed that sausage, even if Corey was watching. I looked disgustingly skinny. So skinny that it couldn't be attractive. I ran down to the kitchen.
"Too late. Corey couldn't wait till I got to 10." She said. I cursed under my breath. Corey winked at me. He probably figured I was going to give him my sausage as usual. Actually, I doubt he even had a thought contradicting that. I felt bad. I smiled back my stupid girly smile. Don't get me wrong, I'm not girly in the least. I'm going to be a rock star some day, but Corey just had this effect on me that turned everything in my brain to mush, like that old Hulu commercial.
Corey and I go to Westover High School in Manhattan. We had Geometry together, which was first period. He was a genius with numbers. If only I could read numbers and letters like I could my piano notes, or my guitar tabs. Then maybe my teacher wouldn't think I was so dumb. And Corey would realize how perfect we are for each other. Scratch that last.
We sat down next to each other.
"Did you… Do you remember if you had a dream last night?" He asked me, shyly.
"Yes, I did dream." I said
"Will you tell me what it was about?" He asked me.
"Well… What's a Demigod?" I asked.
"Forget I asked." He said, hastily. He didn't spare a second glance for the next hour and a half. I was almost to my next class when he stopped me and said. "Half mortal, half Olympian God. Pay attention in Latin today." He said, seriously. Then he flashed me his perfect smile. I wasn't watching his lips, though. I felt as if he was talking with his eyes. "Watch out" They told me. "Be cautious." They showed me he cared about me. It pretty much made my life. (I mean think about it... What else would, really?) Then he walked away without looking back once.
I stepped inside my classroom. A chill was in the air. I hate the cold. A LOT. I'm a summer kind of person. I looked down under my seat to grab my text book, "History: From Chaos to Obama" And under it saw a little round coin. It looked like it was hundreds of thousands of years old. I picked it up. It wasn't like an American quarter with its soft edges. It looked as if the sides had literally been hand molded into a coin shape.
"Denarii." I said out loud. The coin had "APOL PAL"written on it in all upper case letters. It meant Palatine Apollo. This thing had to be ancient. I put it in my pocket, and tried to sit still for the rest of class, reading one persons' point of view on a whole world worth of history. Let's just say it wasn't easy, especially being an ADHD kid like me, in a freezing cold classroom, with a huge hunk of gold in my pocket, with the Greek god Apollo's coin sitting in my pocket. Did I think it was real at the time? Honestly, no. I mean, if it had been real, who had accidently left it here? Had it really been a mistake? Again, my mind was whirling.
"Virgal. I appreciate the fact that you could make it to class today, but I would much prefer your eyes to be on me and not the clock, and your hand on your pencil, and not that worthless coin in your pocket." Mrs. Nite said. How did she know about the coin? How would she know I had put it in my pocket?
"Yes- Yes ma'am. I'm sorry ma'am." I stuttered. The rest of the class shifted uncomfortably. She always did that. She embarrassed me in class, every day. Usually it became a shouting fight between the two of us. A desk gets thrown every once in a while.
"Oh, I am sure you are quite sorry. You seem nervous today. Any particular reason that might be? Are you and that boy Cosmo planning something that makes you nervous? Or is it just your ADHD getting the best of you?" She said sarcastically
"His name is Corey!"I yelled. I couldn't believe this lady. We had argued before, but she had never mentioned my ADHD or anything that didn't have to do with me staring at the clock, or not writing down all the notes on the ActivBoard.
"I'm sure Cosmo is just as nervous as you, my dear. Would you mind… Oh, I don't know… Emptying your pocketsssss?" She hissed the last word. It scared the crud out of me. I nervously stuck both my hands in both my pockets, and pulled them out. Nothing. The coin was gone. I felt something in my boot. I ignored it, but I knew what it was. The coin had lodged itself somehow between my heel and the side of the boot. I stood up and showed her the emptiness. She hissed again.
"You insolent little DEMIGOD!" She yelled. "Where did you put it?"
"I'm not sure what you are talking about." I said. I could feel myself gaining in confidence, and anger. "I don't know what you are talking about, ma'am. Can you kindly explain it to me?" I said, sarcastically, with a smile. I lived for a fight like this. I gained from it somehow. The class started chatting amongst themselves. I could see people exchanging money, taking bets on who was going to kill each other first. I wanted to know what was so great about this coin. I had to get to it before she realized what I was trying to get. Right when I reached down, she made a huge screeching noise.
"EVERYONE OUT!" I yelled. They didn't need telling twice. The door slammed about 55 seconds after I had shouted. I could see dozens of faces looking through the window.
"You will DIE TODAY!" She yelled. Then the strangest thing happened. The classroom door handle shook vigorously. I could hear Corey yelling from outside the door.
"VIRGAL!" He yelled. I couldn't respond. I could barely even hear anything over the buzz in my ears. The door wasn't opening, and there I was standing in front of a young girl, with a cheerleader's uniform with the name "Kelli" in cursive font on the front. Her legs looked like serpent legs. Her eyes glowed an eerie red. I said something real intelligent like:
"Your legs are weird...", and then I screamed. Outside the door I could see Corey's outline. But that wasn't all I saw. I saw a sword shaped outline too.
"ARGHHHHH!" I heard Corey scream breaking the door off its hinges. "Get away from her!" He yelled, slashing at the Serpent lady. He hit her square in the chest.
"I'll be back. I will get the coin, daughter of Apollo. Curse you, Cosmo. I will kill you next" Kelli the serpent lady yelled. Then she turned to dust. I looked at Corey. I saw him slip a pen in his pocket. Was I imagining the whole thing? I mean really? Crazy, Killing, CHEER LEADER? I must be going crazy.
"Corey?" I asked, hesitantly.
"Yea, Virg?" He asked, breathing heavy.
"Should we run?" I asked.
"Yea. I think we have too." He said. I realized how hot I had gotten. I had to be running a 100 degree temperature. I wiped my blonde hair from my eyes. Wait? BLONDE HAIR?
"What the heck happened to my hair?" I shouted. Corey didn't even seem to notice. He was watching the door and the window, looking like he was trying to find the best way out. "You had a sword!" I said, randomly. At the moment there was no barrier between my brain and mouth.
"Its name is Peleus. At least, that's the name of its last owner, and it just took. He was the father of Achilles."He said.
"How?" I started to ask.
"I don't know how I know, I just do, okay. And we need to get out of here, like now!" He yelled. He jumped out the window. The second story window. Suicide. "Are you coming" His voice said. I followed his lead. Why? I don't know. I'm in love with him. Love makes you do crazy things. So, I jumped. All I could think about was the sun. Don't ask me why. I just was completely enveloped by the sun. And then I realized I really was.
"Hey Kiddo! Sorry it took me so long to get here!" The guy said. He wore a white leather jacket, and ray bans and skin tight pants. He had short cropped hair, but a punk look to it. This guy called ME kiddo? He looked exactly my age. I have to admit he was pretty cute, too.
"Uhm.. Who?" I stuttered. Apparently that was my new thing.
"I think it's only fair that I get a question first!" The tan blonde guy said. "Is that your boyfriend?" He said, pointing at Corey. "He's cute, but beware his mom. She doesn't like me much, which means…Well that can only mean, like Father like daughter.." He finished.
"Father?" I laughed. "You look a good 15 years old. That's my age." I laughed again.
"Thanks for noticing." He said slyly.
"Can you just take us wherever you have to take us? I don't like all this heat." Corey said.
"You might need to rethink this one, especially with the not liking heat thing. That could be bad." He said.
"He's not my boyfriend, okay! Who are you, anyway?" I yelled
"I'm your father. But you can call me Apollo. Or, my Latin name, Apollo." He said. Then he winked at me. Was this guy serious? Then I looked away from him and looked down. We were in a flaming Convertible in the air!
"AHHHHHH!" I yelled. I wasn't actually scared of heights, and a convertible was my dream car, but still, you try being 500 feet in the air without knowing!
"Oh come on! Your mom loved her first flight!" He said. He immediately knew that he hadn't said the right thing.