As I walked down Fifth Avenue with my little brother, I was completely sucked into my iPod listening to my favorite song, Beat It by Michael Jackson. It was a sunny day in Manhattan, New York, but storm clouds were stirring. People rushed and pushed against each other through the crowd now forming at the entrance of the Empire State Building, people looking up at its peak. There was a freaky lightning storm around it and I heard someone say, "The world has gone mad!" I raised an eyebrow. Yeah, right, I have seen something weirder than that storm. And I'm not telling you what it is.
I put my hands into my green jacket's pockets and held on to my iPod. "Is it just me or am I dreaming of a storm that I'm thinking it's about to rain mud?" Sammy, my little brother asked. We exchanged looks and laughed. "I wish it was you, but it's not. It's all real. Let's hope it rains chocolate." I replied. I took out my iPod to look at the time. 8:46 a.m. I cursed. School started at 9:00 a.m. "Come on, we'll be late for school." I told Sammy. "But can we just stay here for a few minutes?" He flashed me his puppy eyes. Oh no, not the puppy eye attack. He pouted and I said, "Hey do you want us to be late and get detention and have to cut off the teacher's toenails.?" He widened his eyes and shook his head instantly. I grinned and ruffled his hair. We turned away from the great building and walked across Fowler Street into Second Avenue where our school, Yancy Academy, was.
My name is Lucy Jackson and I'm just a bloody twelve year old. Our lives have sucked since our parents died in a car crash when Sammy was only six months old and I was two. We live in an orphanage just a few blocks away from the Empire State Building and the caretaker is just such a freaking meanie. The only thing good about the orphanage is that it's like a hotel. That's good for me, otherwise, I would have died and rot on the floor like a dead cockroach.
We walked up the steps of the entrance and opened the doors into the crowded hallway. When it's like that, it's hard to find Phoebe, my best friend and my best gal, and her younger brother, Danny. We met up with her by our lockers and her eyes were stormy grey like the storm outside but they lightened up when she saw me. "Lucy!" She shouted and hugged me. I hugged back and she let go. Phoebe Chase is my best gal in the whole wide world and her brother is just plain cute and annoying, just like mine. That's the problem with little brothers. Phoebe and I had met when we were six years old at our kindergarten school at lunch where I wanted her sandwich and she refused. So I told her I would summon the boogeyman from under her bed and kill her. She had gotten mad and we started a food fight and got expelled. But soon after that, we had become best friends. That was good times. Good times.
"Hey what's up?" I asked as we did our secret handshake, which included spitting into our hands and bumping our fists against each other's. No, it's not gross. "Today's the last day of school!" Phoebe said excitedly. "Yeah, I know!" I yelled as we got hyper and grabbed each other's hands and jumped. Our brothers watched us as they rolled their eyes. We finally calmed down and started talking about what we could do after school was over. Going to the park, the pool, the mall, and stuff. But there was one thing I wanted to do today. Go straight up to the Empire State Building and shut that storm up because a deafening boom of thunder wailed from outside and the sky was black. It also had started to rain, which immediately killed our plans for going to the park or the pool. I frowned and Sammy groaned, "Oh no, here comes Miss Popularity." I saw Clara Covington and her uglies coming down the hallway. Their pitch white-blond hair was too much for me and their outfits, yuck! I rather put on a sweatshirt and jeans and hopefully, one day, I could transform them into soccer balls and kick them away as far as I could. I smirked at the thought. They stopped in our way and I noticed they were wearing high heels and stupid designer purses. "Hello? Move." Clara ordered. She waved her hand to the right. Sammy and Danny stepped to the right. Clara smiled at them and blew them a kiss. My jaw dropped because my brother and Danny actually grinned and waved at her. Phoebe and I stayed where we were. Clara looked at me and said, "Move. Are you deaf?" I shook my head and replied, "We're not gonna move so you gotta go the other way where you can put on ridiculous makeup and make out with your boyfriends, which we don't care. Sorry." I shrugged my shoulders and Phoebe giggled. "Lucy, you are so right."
I smiled and brushed a loose streak of my pitch black hair behind my ear. Clara rolled her amber eyes and scoffed, "Excuse me?" I grinned. "You heard me." Her friends gasped and covered their mouths with their hands. Clara was getting angry and started to say something, but then the bell rang. Clara scowled and said, "You'll pay, Jackson." She turned and walked the other way and her friends followed her like they were following their teacher to recess. I smirked and we went to our classrooms as we said bye to our baby brothers. We went into Mrs. Wermer's class and I saw the chalkboard and read it before my dyslexia could scramble the words. I hated when that happened, but luckily, I'm a fast reader. Today we would be learning about the Olympians. Yet incredibly boring. This class had the power to put me to sleep and have me dream about cake and random gibberish. Mrs. Wermer was a young woman in her twenties and was wearing a toga, perhaps for today's lesson. She had long wavy black hair and striking grey eyes, like she was a mix of Lucy and Phoebe. Her toga was sky blue and she looked like she was really a goddess. Which was freaking me out because I had a feeling she was. I widened my eyes and shook my head. Something's obviously wrong with my brain or it's not working today. I put my backpack by my desk which was in the back and next to Phoebe's. I had forgotten to put my iPod away and didn't even realized I was listening to music. I took it off and put it into my jeans' pockets. Phoebe looked at Mrs. Wermer carefully, like she was a mutant or an alien. But someone wouldn't be crazy enough to call her that. Phoebe looked away from her and at me and then back at her. Phoebe unleashed her curly blond hair from its ponytail and pulled it back into a messy bun. Mrs. Wermer was looking out the window and at me. She smiled and looked away. She walked over to her desk and held up a golden ballpoint pen. She looked at me again and then away. She put the pen down and clapped her hands, catching everyone's attention because she sure can clap loud. "Ok, students, today we're going to learn about the Twelve Olympians." Groans came from everyone including me and Phoebe. "Hey, now, no complaints." Mrs. Wermer warned. She looked around the room at everybody and locked her eyes on me. "Lucy, would you be kind enough to name all of the gods and goddesses?" She asked. "Sure." I replied. It took me five seconds to remember the gods' names. "Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Ares-" I was interrupted by a flash of lightning that distracted me. "Um, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite-" Mrs. Wermer winced when I said Athena's name. "Keep going." Mrs. Wermer said as she held her hands tight. "Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysus, and Poseidon." I finished right before a boom of thunder joined before a blinding flash of lightning flashed before our eyes and the lights went out. Everyone yelped and whimpered because the door was dark. Mrs. Wermer closed her eyes and murmured something. Suddenly, everybody fell to the ground and passed out except for me and Phoebe. We screamed and were freaking out. We got up from our seats and I looked at Phoebe. She had a wild look in her eyes. Then we glanced at Mrs. Wermer. Her eyes were glowing pure grey and there was a powerful presence from her. She also had a bright gold aura around her. She smiled and the room was filled with the scent of cinnamon and olives, which was quite an interesting smell. I stammered, but I couldn't find the words I wanted to said. "So it is you." Mrs. Wermer said. What was she talking about? I'm just a regular girl trying to survive through middle school and have a great life. "It is you, Lucille Jackson, the great daughter of Poseidon." She continued. At that right moment, something burned on my wrist. I said, "Ow." and pulled my jacket's sleeves up and saw that I had a glowing green trident tattoo. I widened my eyes and looked at Phoebe. She had a glowing bright gold owl tattoo. My jaw dropped and I glanced back at Mrs. Wermer. Who was she exactly? What was going on? "Who are you?" I asked. Mrs. Wermer replied in a sentence that should have not been true, "I am Athena, the goddess of wisdom."