"Psst... PSST! Are you there!"
"Shut up! I'm here!"
"you got the stuff?"
"yeah its right here."
Annabeth fell silent as Mirabelle pulled out a huge fishing hook and a broken hanger. Annabeth took the hanger silently and jammed it into the window lock. 'Who had locks on their windows?' always wondered the girl's friends at school. 'Don't you?' they would say back.
"Wait!"
Whispered Mirabelle as a muffled shuffling noise appeared in the hallway outside there bedroom door. The girls froze. The shuffling disappeared and Annabeth continued to pick the lock.
"Hurry!"
The window gave way and Annabeth and Mirabelle slung their makeshift rope, made of tied together bed sheets, out the window to the lulling nighttime breeze.
"You first." said Annabeth. Her voice was full of giddiness, brought by the excitement of their new adventure.
"K."
Mirabelle swung herself over the windowsill, herself as well getting nervous and exited. Her backpack strapped tight to her back she slid down the rope and landed safely on the manicured lawn. Mirabelle motioned for Annabeth to follow. Annabeth nodded once and followed her sisters example.
"O.k" Annabeth confirmed.
Mirabelle tied the hook to the end of the bed sheets and threw them as hard as she could up into the window. For a moment the girls thought they got away with escaping. When...
"MOMMY! WAHH! SOMETHING BIT ME!"
Five minutes later they were hurrying down the street to their designated location and celebrating their success.
"Yes! yes yes yes yes.. YES!" Whisper-shouted Annabeth and Mirabelle in unison.
"We did it!" whopped Mirabelle.
As all their triumph and excitement wore down, the dawning of realization and their dramatic 7-year old situation settled in.
"Oh... what are we going to do if the cops find us? We just skewered our little brother with a fishing hook." Wondered Annabeth aloud.
"Nothing Dad wouldn't do..." Countered Mirabelle, "Probably just send us to our room..."
"Right." confirmed Annabeth. Her mood can change in a heartbeat that girl, thought Mirabelle.
"Lets go." Annabeth said as she started down the street again. The darkness was still in twilight phase and few stars were poking out from the midnight clouds still floating by.
"Where?" said Mirabelle
"I don't know!" said Annabeth "But we cant stay here."
"No you certainly cannot." said a voice. A woman's voice, saying that like she was telling them, not suggesting.
Suddenly The twins were painfully aware of how alone they were on the dark deserted street. Mirabelle zapped to Annabeth's side like a magnet pulling a penny.
"Wh-whose t-th-there?" stuttered Annabeth.
"No need to be frightened my children" said the same voice. Then suddenly a womanly figure materialized in front of the girls with a smile on her face. The woman was wearing lengths of white cotton draped over her shoulders, with bronze greek armor over top. She held her matching war helmet under her arms.
Her pale blue floor-length skirt shined in the pale moonlight. The strangers hair was blond and done up in a fancy up do. Mirabelle wondered why her thoughts her suddenly so detailed and descriptive. It seemed that all of a sudden this woman was all she looked up too. Her hero. The one who would save her. The woman's sight was both magnificent and terrifying. She looked at you like she knew you in and out frontwards and backwards, and was devising a way to take you down piece by piece.
"who are you?" said Mirabelle, and both Annabeth and herself were surprised by Mirabelle's calm tone.
"I am Athena," she said. "goddess of wisdom and battle." Athena held out her arm to an invisible man and a night owl impressively swooped down to perch on her arm.
"Oh", said Annabeth, like the matter was all cleared up and she wanted to get going. She grabbed her sisters hand and walked around her, "See ya later."
Athena laughed and said, "Wait, Annabeth!"
Annabeth stopped and turned back to the strange woman.
"How do you know my name?"
Athena smiled warmly "I know because I'm your mother."
Well that just took the cake. Weirdness was flowing from this conversation and it wasn't just Mirabelle who thought so.
Mirabelle sensed that. She pulled Annabeth into a hug and eyed Athena suspiciously.
"What?" Annabeth blurted. "Look lady! we've been lied to enough about our mother. And I don't need another phony." Annabeth was nearing tears now
"Prove it!"
"O.k, I like a challenge. It is not wise though to rise to bait." Athena said, her round gray eyes held a thirst to prove herself, like a mother might. Thought Mirabelle, or maybe that was Mirabelle's wish for Athena to really be their mother.
"Your fathers name is Michael Chase, He had you then re-married. You two have two step-brothers, and live in San Francisco. You two are twins and have been inseparable since birth. Your both seven and Annabeth dreams of architecture, and has a birthmark shaped like a pentagon on the top of her left foot. Your favorite color is blue."
Athena looked over to Annabeth fondly.
"Mirabelle on the other hand is clever just like her sister but is engrossed into the literature arts, but Mirabelle, you have a talent that even you haven't discovered yet. Also, Your favorite color is green. Oh, and you both love cereal. am i wrong?"
All this Information swam inside Annabeth and Mirabelle's heads. These facts about themselves were all true, even the cereal. (Although she wasn't sure about her 'secret talent').
Her thoughts felt like jig saw pieces, like there was several missing, no corners, and five extra that looked like they fit in with a whole new puzzle altogether. Trying to fit them all together made her head hurt.
"You know there's another word for that." Annabeth told Athena.
"What's that Annabeth?"
"A stalker" finished Mirabelle.
Obviously Athena was getting tired of this and was losing interest in talking,
"Have you two ever heard of the greek gods?" She said, her eyes flashing mysteriously.
" 'course" stated Annabeth. Starting to look curious for the first time since this woman showed up.
Athena looked at Mirabelle expectantly.
Mirabelle nodded, having no idea what she was getting herself into.