Chapter 1
I waited for the bell to ring to rescue me from this nonsense that was English class. Five minutes. Just five more minutes. I thought to myself. I stared at the words on the page. It's a good thing someone was reading out loud, or else I would have been lost. "Charrissa, please read the next paragraph." Said my (evil) English teacher. She knew perfectly well that I had dyslexia and ADHD, which made it hard to read. I heard some of the popular kids snickering behind me.
Just as I opened my mouth, about to argue, the bell finally rang. BRIIIIIING. I quickly picked up my backpack and raced out of the room. I knew that the popular group would soon catch up to me, so I figured the best place to hide was the girls' bathroom. I rushed down the hall and into the girls' bathroom, being careful to keep my head down. Unfortunately, the girls' bathroom was in the east wing of the building. There were no classrooms or teachers on that wing of the building, and students rarely passed through there. That meant I was very vulnerable…
The reason I decided to go to the girls' bathroom instead of hurrying off to my next class was the simple fact that this was 3rd period, which meant it was lunch. Much of the time, I would eat my lunch in the bathroom, to hide from them.
As I scurried through the hall, engulfed in my own thoughts, I bumped into someone. Oh no. I thought as I tried to make a run for it. "Not this time, bitch. You're going to pay for last time." It was James, the most popular boy in this dump of a school. He has been beating me up for years. Whenever I tried to tell a grown-up, they would always act confused and forget anything had ever happened. Last week, I bumped into James and tried to make a run for it. Big mistake.
You see, James invented three rules for me: 1) Don't run. 2) Don't tell anybody. And 3) Don't scream. Last week, I had disobeyed rule number 1), Don't run. It was my first time disobeying the rules, but it had taken weeks to muster the courage it took to disobey them. Right now, I faced my biggest regret and fear: what would James do to me?
James grabbed my wrist, which made me wince in pain. It was where my cuts were. He pushed me down on the ground and kicked my in the stomach. I doubled over in pain as he kicked me again and again. He kicked and punched me for what seemed like forever, but turned out to be about 5 minutes. He pulled me up by the hair and dragged me towards the girls' bathroom.
I endured it all silently, not wanting to disobey the 3rd rule: Don't scream. Hot tears were running down my face. As he pushed me into a stall, I stifled a sob. I was completely at his mercy now. What was he going to do?! Before he locked the door, I saw two other boys walk in. "Right on time." He said with an evil smirk. The two other boys walked into the huge stall and James locked the door. "Wh-what are you going to do to m-me?" I managed to spit out. "Have some fun…" They said, with a mischievous glint in their eyes.
Nico's POV:
I felt a sudden alert, I knew something was wrong. Vine, the satyr at one of the middle schools in New York told me that there might be a demigod like me, a child of Hades. Her name was supposed to be Charrissa. I'm supposed to check it out tomorrow, but I felt an urgency to see it now. I decided to Iris message her to see what was happening. I felt like I needed to see her right now. I went to the lake, and thankfully, there was nobody in sight. I dropped a drachma into the lake. "Oh, Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering." I said. "Show me Charrissa." I said. What I saw broke my heart.
Charrissa's POV
James slowly unzipped his pants. PLEASE ANYTHING BUT THIS! WE'RE ONLY 12! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN TO ME?! I thought. I started crying. The three boys all took their pants and underwear off. "Kneel." Commanded James. I kneeled. "Please, PLEASE don't! Please…." I whispered. "Suck, bitch." Commanded the second boy, who was tall and thin with curly black hair and green eyes. "No, she gets James first. He's the biggest." Said the smaller boy, who was short but thin with red hair and blue eyes. "I'll do the honors." Said James with a wicked grin.
Nico's POV
I knew she was a child of Hades. I don't know how, but I just did. I knew I had to do something. I couldn't let those horrible boys rape her. I quickly ended the Iris message and wondered what to do. I knew that something bad would happen if I didn't hurry up, so I wrote a quick note explaining where I was going and stuck it to the cabin door. I quickly shadow traveled to Charrissa's school and found Vine. "Where's the girls' bathroom?" I asked her. She gave me a weird look. "Nico, are you hiding something….?" She asked jokingly. "What?! NO! It's Charrissa. She's in trouble. There's no time to explain." Vine's face quickly widened with shock. "It's this way! Follow me!" She said, running towards a long hallway that said "East Wing". We ran to the bathroom, and I heard the sound of someone shouting, and a smacking down. The stall door then opened.
Charrissa's POV
"Now suck, you little bitch." James said menacingly. "I- I don't know h-how." I whispered. "Well, I'm surprised that you're still a virgin. Don't worry, I'll teach you. Open your mouth." He said. I opened my mouth. He pushed my head towards his length. He shoved it in my mouth. What I did next was an instinct. I bit down. Very hard. He removed his length from my mouth and slapped me. "YOU LITTLE BITCH!" He roared. I took that chance to punch the rest of the boys in the nuts and open the stall door. I was about to escape when someone grabbed my hair. It was the short, red-headed boy. I screamed in pain. At this point I didn't care if I broke the rules. I somehow felt safe. I felt someone's presence, I hadn't been there before.
Nico's POV
I quickly ran into the stall and tackled the three boys. They were only 12, whilst I was 15, so it was quite easy. I knocked them out and looked at the girl.