Chapter One:
Pre-Algebra Goes Down
in Sand
POV: Yugi Moto
My name is Yugi Moto. I'm 12 years old, and recently found out that I'm a half-blood.
I'll tell you now, you do not want to be a half-blood. It gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.
So, if you recognize yourself within these words, I suggest you close this window now. You do not want to be one of us. Trust me.
My story starts at Domino Middle School (Seriously, Domino needs to get some more names for their schools), where I went in my 6th grade year.
We were on a trip to the Domino Museum to look at old Greek and Roman stuff.
I know, boring.
But I had high hopes. The Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner, was leading the tour, so it probably wasn't going to be a boring as it would've been had it been someone else.
Mr. Brunner was really cool.
He had tournament days, where you had to conjugate the verb fast enough on the board, and whoever did it the fastest moved on to the next round. He was quite funny, too.
Myself, and my friend Joey, were sitting on the bus, Nancy Bobofit throwing her ketchup and peanut butter sandwich into his poofy blond hair.
See, Joey's somewhat of an easy target. He has this weird leg disease that excuses him from gym for the rest of his life.
But don't let that fool you.
You should see him run when it's enchilada day in the cafeteria.
"I'm going to kill her." I grumbled.
"It's okay, Yug." Joey said in his Brooklyn accent, "I like peanut butter."
I stood, ready to beat her face in, but Joey pulled me back down.
"You're already on probation. Don't make it worse."
I sat and crossed my arms, and Joey dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.
"Fine." I said.
Mr. Brunner led the tour.
"There were twelve Olympian gods, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Athena, Demeter, Aphrodite, Ares, Hiesta, Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysus, eventually. Sometimes, the gods would go down to Earth and have kids with mortals. What were these kids called... Yugi?"
I stared at him for a second, thinking.
"Uuuuh... Demi-gods?"
"Yes, very good."
"Like we're actually going to need this in real life." Muttered Nancy Bobofit, "I mean, like it'll say on our job application 'Please say all the names of the Olympian gods.'."
"Will you shut up?" It came out a little louder than I'd expected it to, so the entire tour group turned to stare at me.
"That was a reasonable question, actually." Mr. Brunner said, "Though, if you'd raised your hand, Ms. Bobofit, it might've been easier to ask."
Nancy grumbled to herself, her face as red as her hair.
Mr. Brunner went on with the tour, and I only somewhat payed attention.
"Mr. Moto."
I looked at Mr. Brunner.
"Might you tell me what this carving is?"
I looked at it and was relieved. I actually knew what it was.
"That's Kronos eating his kids."
A couple girls in the back went 'Eeeew!"
"And why, might I ask, did he do this?" Mr. Brunner asked.
"Well, uh... Kronos was the king god-"
"God?"
"Uh, Titan. And he didn't want them over throwing him, so he ate them. And then Zeus gave him poisoned wine and made him throw them up."
"Yes, Zeus gave Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine to make him regurgitate his 5 other children. And on that note, time for lunch!"
Outside, it was raining slightly. There was some weird clouds spinning over The Monument Building, the giant, famous tower of Domino.
I didn't know why no one had noticed it. It was huge, swirling, and black.
The weather had been weird since Christmas, and it was kind of freaking me out a little.
"Hey, Joe," I said, leaning over to my only friend, "do -uh- do you see that giant swirling cloud above the Monument?"
Joey looked up, and shook his head.
"Nah. You're seein' things, Yug."
Of course, then Nancy came over and dropped her half-eaten lunch on Joey's lap
"Oh, oops." She said, a fake smile on her face.
Then, something happened.
A wind roared in my ears, and the next thing I knew, Nancy was lying with her back to the pavement.
"YUGI PUSHED ME!" She shouted.
Mrs. Dodds, the pre-algebra teacher who had come as a second chaperone, was over in seconds.
She had a smirk on her face that told me I'd done something she'd been waiting for all year.
After she was done making sure poor little Nancy was okay, she came up to me.
"Mr. Moto, if you will follow me."
I looked at Joey. He looked horrified.
"It was me!" He said, "I-I pushed her."
"Nice try, Mr. Wheeler."
And with that, she strode towards the doors of the museum.
"Thanks for trying." I said to Joe, turning to go into the building.
Mrs. Dodds was already on top of the steps.
There was no way she could've gotten up there so fast.
That happened a lot.
The counsellor sad it was because of my ADHD, my brain fell asleep for a second and a piece of the universe had fallen away.
Sometimes, I didn't think that was the case.
I went up the stairs, and Mrs. Dodds was then inside the museum and heading into the exhibits.
She lead me to the Roman and Greek exhibit, glaring at the statue of Zeus as if she wanted to destroy it.
She was making a noise in her throat, like... Like growling.
"I-I- I'm sorry, ma'am."
"Did you think we wouldn't find out?" She demanded, turning to me, fury in her eyes.
It wasn't fury. It wasn't anger.
This was evil. She was evil.
But... It wasn't like she'd hurt me, she was a teacher.
How could I be so naive?
Her eyes burned like hot coals, and long, leathery bat wings grew from her back. She became a monster.
There was no other word.
She flung herself at me, and I screamed and dodged. The sound of her talons slicing the air went past my ear.
She grabbed me with her feet and pressed me against the wall.
"Where is it!?" She demanded.
"Where's what!?" I squeaked.
"The Eye! You stole it!"
"EYE!? WHAT EYE!?"
"Yugi!" My eyes shot to Mr. Brunner, who had somehow managed to get himself into the museum and the exhibit too fast to be normal.
He threw me a pen.
But when I caught it, it wasn't a pen.
It was a glowing, bronze sword.
Mrs. Dodds dropped me, hissing at the sight of the sword.
I did what any logical 12 year old being attacked by a demon would do:
I swung the sword.
I expected it to cut her in half, or some gross thing like that.
But, she disintegrated into golden sand.
Suddenly, I was alone, a pen in my hand, Mr. Brunner gone, Mrs. Dodds gone.
I held the pen up, looking it over.
Suddenly I wondered if my lunch was contaminated with magic mushrooms, or something.
I stumbled my way outside, to Mr. Brunner.
"And that would be my pen." He said, taking the pen, "Please bring your own writing utensil next time, Mr. Moto."
"I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt." Said Nancy, coming up beside me.
"Who?" I asked, feeling more confused than ever.
"Our teacher, duh."
And with that, she left to go pickpocket some tourists, and I was left as the most confused person on the planet.
