Chapter One
I got off the bus and started to pick off the spitballs that were stuck on my shirt. 8th grade kids are so immature. My house was by a cemetery, and I often did my homework there before going home. Of course history was my best subject, because I sort of had help… but I won't tell anyone because I might get in trouble.
I quickly finished my homework and started to walk home. The cemetery was a cool place to hang out, but some of the spirits there were very nosy. There are some things that you don't want a ghost to know. I was almost out of the cemetery when I felt something cold brush up against me. I looked over to find my friend, Florence, who was a daughter of Persephone. She had grayish hair, but I bet it would have been blonde if she was alive and not see-through.
"Hey!" I said, glad to see her. She was one of my best friends, even though she was dead. She had lived during World War I, and had died of the flu. It's weird, because even though she is dead, she still looks slightly ill. And it's not because she is a ghost. I guess when you die your ghost assumes the image of you when you died. Most people wouldn't know that though, because most people can't see ghosts. It's a blessing from my mother… Or a curse. I'm not sure.
"It's good to see you," Florence stated. "You know it is already 4 pm, right?"
"It is?" I said. I needed to get home and cook dinner for Dad. He had a serious case of amnesia, and could never remember anything. I would tell him something one day, but he would forget it the next. Thank goodness he hadn't forgotten how to walk. Or go to the bathroom. That would have been really inconvenient, not to mention awkward. He usually just wandered around the house. One time I caught him eating a crayon, which was very disturbing at the time since I was only 10, but now I find it sort of funny.
Dad wasn't always like that. The amnesia started when I was about 8. My mom had to leave me when I was only about four month old, because she had other duties to carry out, and so I was on my own. At first I didn't trust him home alone when I was at school, but he has never done anything too horrific. The worst was when I found my cat shaved bald. After that I gave her away. There was just no trusting the two of them together. Of course Dad couldn't work anymore, but my mom always sent me money every month (may be the reason the U.S. has such a bad economy right now. The money isn't exactly real, but it's not counterfeit either). It is barely enough to get by each month, but it's better than nothing.
Sometimes Dad goes into trances where he remembers his past. It's weird, because he knows that he is under amnesia. Usually when this happens he'll come and find me and tell me something important that I will need to know. The sentences usually started with "I don't have much time, but…", like he knows how long he will be normal. It makes me think that someone is making him forget things, and then sometimes they forget to do it.
"Can I come with you?" Florence asked. She usually asked this, and I usually said yes. Ghosts had to have permission to go somewhere they haven't gone before. It was good to have someone else around the house besides me and Dad, too. Florence didn't really say much, but that's because ghosts don't think like humans do. Most can remember things from their past, although some don't. Those are the ones that are really annoying, because they want information, and so they will always ask you really stupid questions, like what color your shoes are. Then they will keep telling you what color they are, like you didn't already know. I like to call them the Captain Obvious Ghosts.
We walked to my house (well, Florence floated and I walked), which was only on the other side of the cemetery. When we came into my house, I found Dad laying on the couch in the living room, cuddling a pillow. Florence started laughing, but I just rolled my eyes. This was the fourth time this week that he had done this. Sometimes he went through phases like this where he would do something weird over and over for a while. Once it was whittling soap bars. That was the most annoying one, because he walked around the house while doing it, and there was soap everywhere. I promised the person who was taking away Dad's memory that if I ever got to them, they would be dead. Like no-ghost dead. The no-being-at-all kind of dead. DEAD. Some of the things that the amnesia made Dad do were just plain annoying. And unnecessary. Give me a break, person! I will name you Bob. Bob the Evil. Very good. Sorry, I'm getting off topic. It has to do with being a demigod, I think. I'm not quite sure because Dad told me during one of his trances, but he talks super fast during them.
I got out a pot from the Cupboard of Messy. Our kitchen is very small, and so we have to cram all of our pots, pans, cutting boards and such into one cupboard. The only way that they would all fit is if we jammed everything inside of each other them crammed it into the Cupboard. So to take one thing out, you had to take everything else out too. Another thing to add to my list of inconvenience. Which I haven't started yet, but I'm seriously starting to think about it. I like lists. They keep me organized. I'm not very smart, and I am barely passing my classes at school, but the lists help me a lot. I have a hard time concentrating in class, and whenever the teacher calls on me, I don't know what she is talking about. But I try to take notes in lists (although I always forget). Thankfully, there is this ghost that haunts the school, for reasons I don't know, and I always get him to tell me the answers for the tests. It may be cheating, but I don't think of it like that because I'm the only one who can do it. So it's not cheating, because no one else can do it. They don't even know about it. It does not fall under the definition of cheating. So there!
Anyways, I got some macaroni and cheese powder out of my cupboard, and put some water in the pot to boil. Then Florence and I headed to my room. Our house was very small, as I said, and we couldn't afford another house. So we only had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a tiny living room, and a ridiculously small kitchen. But, considering I spent most of my free time in the cemetery and I had no friends besides ghosts, it didn't bother me.
My room didn't have much furnishings. I only had a bed dresser. It also had a closet, but there want much in their because my cotton candy machine took up most of the space. Cotton candy was my favorite food, but it was hard to find, so I saved up money by not eating as much food and wearing clothes that were too small for a year and bought one. The sugar wasn't expensive, so about every month I dragged out the machine and made a bunch. Sometimes Dad tells me I am what I eat. I think that it means he thinks I look like cotton candy, which I agree with. You may think that looking like cotton is weird, but it is true. My hair is very thin, light, and almost a white color. If I don't keep it in a braid, it will float around like I'm underwater. Even in my braid, it still floats a bit. It had to do with being the daughter of the ghost goddess. My skin is white, which makes me look very ghost-like and a bit creepy. I think that is the reason people don't hang around me. Or it could be that I have two different colored eyes. my left is a very light blue and my right is a dark brown. The only two people (live probably) who don't think my appearance is creepy are Dad and this kid Nico. I wont even start to talk about him. Basically I hate him and if I talk anymore about him, I wont stop until I've said every bad thing about him I could.
Florence floated over to my window, opened it, and started to tidy the little window-flower planter I had. She had insisted that I put one there to brighten the place up. I only agreed when she told me she told me that she would take care of it. I didn't doubt her, because she was the daughter of Persephone and all, but now she wanted to come to my place every day to garden. At least she hasn't put up more of them.
Meanwhile, I made my bed and got out a duster to dust. Our house always had tons of dust in it and the problem was that Dad was allergic to it. So I had to run a duster over every surface daily. I ran around the house, dusting everything (I was very good at this, because I had done it about 2,000 times. No joke.), then poured some pasta into the boiling water. Florence came in the kitchen as I was mixing the cheese powder with milk, grabbed a napkin and stuck the corner into the top of her dress. Then she grabbed a knife and fork out of the utensil drawer, sat down the table with a wacky grin on her face, her arms flat on the table, and the fork and knife sticking straight up. I had to laugh. Florence ways always trying to make me laugh, like she was a clown. When Dad heard me laugh, he came into the kitchen and asked if it was dinner.
"Yup," I told him, for I had just finished stirring the cheese into the pasta. I scooped some out onto his plate, and then some onto mine.
Usually he didn't talk much during dinner, but today he said, "How was school?"
I was pretty surprised at this question, because most of the time he thinks I am home all day, so I said, "Um, yeah. Good. I had a big test today, but I think I did pretty well."
"That's good," he told me, then continued, "There is something going on in the other world." The 'other world' was what Dad referred to the Olympian world during his trances. Obviously Dad was in a trance, but there was something weird about this one. He wasn't all panicky and trying to tell me something important like he usually is. This time he was more relaxed, as if he didn't have anything to tell me. But he did, because he said, "You have to go and help. I will be fine here." I didn't have much time to think about it, because after he said that, I blacked out.
Well, that was a long chapter. I am not sure if the others will be this long.
Geese! Or as some uninteresting people say, 'Jeez'. That was a cliff hanger! I'm so proud of myself!
This story rums parallel to SominumAstrum's Gem of the Sea. It shows what is happening in the mortal world at the time. If you have not read Gem of the Sea, read it now. (Right after you REVIEW!)
PLEASE REVIEW! It helps make me a better writer!