First of all I didn't expect getting attacked by snake ladies.
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind something to spice up my boring school trips but dang snake ladies really needed to just chill their grill.
It all started as a normal, blissfully boring Monday afternoon in a class trip to an all girl's boarding school in Brooklyn. I sat at the very back of the class, the warm sun came in from the window its rays stretching across the classroom. I was enjoying (not) a forty minute speech about the congruence of triangles by an important teacher from that school when our new french teacher (who had come to chaperone) Miss Muriel or something burst into the classroom.
Miss Muriel was weird, she looked like she had badly bleached blond snakes for hair an big endless pits of hell for eyes. Her eyes were pure black. As black as night, darker than the deepest hole and blacker than a shadow, the eyes of a demon. Now when those dark, emotionless pits of hell locked on you...god I bet they could scare Chuck Norris' socks off. Those eyes made you feel like you had just been turned into a nice stone statue every time they locked with yours. But even with her murderous eyes, it was hard to take her seriously. She always (and I mean always) wore mismatched clothing, for example today she was wearing extremely high waisted (up to her ears) baggy floral pants with a paisley design shirt and a polka dot scarf. I mean she looked like she just picked the first things she saw in a thrift store and chucked them on. However, the weirdest thing about her was obviously the way she spoke. She spoke very very very softly and calmly with the slight tone of a snake, if she tried she could put people to sleep (but of course she already did that on every fourth period Wednesday and Friday). Her definition of calm was different though, it wasn't nice teacher kind of calm it was more like 'I will kill you if you don't shut your trap' calm. And that was when she wasn't angry, when she was her tone turned steely calm.
"Ahem, I would like to speak with Miss Diaz", she said with a soft hiss to her voice , "privately"
"Sure, em you may leave Miss Diaz" replied Mr important maths teacher with a scratch of his horrendous neck beard.
And thats were it all went downhill.
I stood up from my chair, sending death glares to Ella, the class snitch, the teacher's pet. I could bet five dollars that she had told Miss Muriel about the Mexican Tequila worm salt I had put in her coffee that morning.
I followed Miss Muriel out of the room and down several hallways filled with educational posters and vandalism until we were next to what I guessed by the smell of cleaning fluids was a janitor's closet.
"So em, Miss Muriel whatever Ella told you it wasn't me. I swear that I have nothing to do with any worm salt"
"Oh don't worry Neila Diaz, I'm not here to talk about that..." she responded with her infamous steel calm tone.
"Oh is it about the plastic spider I put on Josh Waters' locker? I mean it wasn't me", I added, "but I swear I didn't know he had a arachnophobia!"
"Nor about that" she hissed.
"Oh I know! It was about-"
"ENOUGH!" she growled, "I have had enough of you demigod, I will kill you slowly and painfully and it shall be my pleasure!"
Then my french teacher turned into a rooster footed, bright red eyed monster with bronze boar tusks and wriggling coral snakes for hair and charged.
Somehow I dodged her first attack. As she tried to bite me with her sharp fangs that rotted of millennia old eggs (eww) I ducked and rolled in between her legs and threw my elbow into her back before I ran down the stairs toppling and tripping people.
Had that first period finished quickly or was it just the feeling that I was getting chased by my psycho french teacher who had called me a demofog of demisomething and had freaking snakes for hair?
I pushed through the crowds of careless high school girls, most were talking to their friends, opening their lockers or doing any last minute homework. None of them seemed to realise that I was running from the weird visiting school's chaperone teacher, no one apart from my friend Ash.
Ash was a tall scrawny kid with curly dark hair and kind chocolate brown eyes. He wore oversized clothing and never took off his 'Delphi Strawberry Service' cap. He could run faster for food than any crippled I'd ever met (he couldn't do PE for the rest of his life because he had some rare leg muscle disease) and he had always made me wonder if he'd repeated a few years, I mean he was the only 7th grader with severe acne and a small goatee. I couldn't have been any happier when he signalled to meet at the back gate of the school. As I ran towards the exit, I wondered why Ash could see crazy Miss Muriel when no one else could - Don't worry about it, you'll ask him later, I told to myself as I finally got to our rendezvous.
"What the holy bagels happened to you!?" Ash studied my face as if he was trying to read my thoughts.
"Miss Muriel, she's - she's a crazy chicken lady with snakes for hair" I tried to say between wheezes and gulps for air "She called me a-a demilord or something".
"You mean demigod?" Ash asked looking around nervously.
Ash was jumpy on a daily basis but after I'd explained my experience with Miss Muriel he looked like anything could try and kill us. "Yeah that, oh and how come you can see her Ash? And what does demigod mean? And what the frick frack is going on?"
"I'll explain later but we have to run before she catches -" His jaw dropped and his eyes shone with fear as he looked behind me.
"She's behind me ain't she?" I squeaked.
"And she has friends over!" I recognised that snaky voice and as I turned around I saw that there were not only one Miss Muriel but two ugly chicken legged ladies. The new visitor looked exactly like Miss Muriel but instead of coral snakes Miss Muriel #2 had green vipers that wriggled and bit the air. Heck, I would even dare to say that Miss Muriel had started a trend because green viper lady wore the exact same horrible clothes. Behind them stood two other snake related monsters but instead of having them for hair these women had them as twin trunks for legs. They moved (or slithered? I really can't decide) impatiently as if they were itching to claw my eyes out "slowly and painfully" as Miss Muriel had said.
"Who the hell are you and what do you want?" I demanded more confidently than I felt like.
Ash muttered, his sight never leaving the snake gang. "Neila, do you remember the greek myths? The ones we always talk about"
"Shut it Satyr!" Miss Muriel's copycat spat as she walked over to Ash, Miss Muriel held her back, "Not yet Stheno"
"Yeah, why?" I said to Ash ignoring Stheno and Miss Muriel.
"Well they aren't myths, these are monsters, I'm a satyr and you are a powerful demigod a daughter of a god" Ash replied in a near whisper, "That is why you have concentration problems they are your battle senses. This is the reason why so many things have attacked you over the years, they are all monsters like the ones in front of us"
And suddenly it dawned on me, teacher/monster with a messed up anatomy plus calling me a demigod plus three more snake people plus Ash the satyr equalled... But it also couldn't be. Everyone is taught that mythology is just an explanation for things when there was no science. But could it be? There was no time for finding an answer, in the background of my thoughts I could hear Ash pleading for me to understand and if I was going to trust anyone, it was going to be Ash
"Dang it! Why did the greeks need to be so obsessed with snake people!" I said as I stomped my foot angrily at those unoriginal snake obsessed greeks. Ash sighted with relief as he smiled because of my answer, trust me to make fun of a situation.
"Très Bien Neila! Now answer this question for Miss Muriel,qui sommes-nous?" Miss Muriel purred with one if those big creepy smiles that she gave students who she knew didn't know the answer.
Who are they? What are they? One thing I was good at in school was history and mythology, I ran a scan of my mind trying to remember any stories about snake haired ladies, the answer came in seconds.
"You are Stheno and Euryale, sisters of Medusa turned into gorgons by Athena herself" I said slowly
"Fantastique! Fantastique Neila! You have excelled my expectations!" Miss Muriel - wait no, Euryale exclaimed as she clapped her hands excitedly.
"And who are our guests, my dear Nei-" Stheno asked before I interrupted.
"They are dracaena" The two dracaena smiled viciously and flicked the ends of their tails.
"Not to burst your bubble, but shouldn't you guys be dead?"
"Oh don't worry about us little demigod! We are very much alive... But you will not be!"The snake gang snarled and charged.
Now before some amazing battle scenes,let me tell you a little something about Ash. Ash was crazy in love with coke cans I mean I bet that he had like a can fetish or was part of some weird cult. He must have had at least 20 under his bed so it didn't surprise me when to fight a snake related party he pulled out;
"A coke can, really Ash?" I yelled at him as I lunged and grabbed him by his collar and ran. While we ran he kicked off his shoes and was it me or instead of feet Ash had hooves? I ignored the thought and kept running. We sped towards the exit of the school when he threw the coke can back towards our chase party and it exploded into emerald green flames. My jaw dropped immediately.
"It's not just an ordinary coke can" he grinned "also this is for you"
He handed me a 50-60 cm leaf shaped sword made out of bronze with a leather grip. It was perfectly balanced in my hands and the feeling of holding it felt strangely natural even though I had never held a sword in my life.
"Her name is Avra", explained Ash,"which in Greek means-"
"Sea breeze"
"Exactly, well she's made of Celestial Bronze and she'll kill other demigods and monsters but won't harm mortals"
"Mortals?" I asked
"Normal people" Ash replied as I nodded my head in understanding.
"Oh and when you don't need her say her name and she'll disappear".
I was starting to like this sword. "And what if I want her back?"
"Think of the sea breeze and it will come back to you".
"Seems logical" I tried out some mock slashing with it and it felt amazing.
"I just thought you'll be a perfect match" Ash whispered with a sheepish grin.
I didn't have to wait much to use my new present...
