A/N: New chapter! Don't really know what else to say so…enjoy!
CHAPTER TWO
Ellie, Rosa and I jumped back in surprise as Blossom leaped at us. I tried identifying what the monster was. It seemed to be slowly growing into a lioness, with sharp fangs and a golden yellow blood caked mane.
And that's when I noticed the tail.
Blossom's tail slowly turned a silvery gray color, and became thicker. Eventually, the tip of the tail grew into a knight's mace, and I knew what the monster was.
A manticore.
Two years before, when my friends and I had first discovered we were demigods, Hunter and Brianna were attacked by a manticore, but the rest of my friends weren't there to witness it.
Then I ran upstairs, and Rosa and Ellie followed behind me. The manticore followed us, but managed to smash everything in the foyer of Rosa's mansion before following us.
I ran into Rosa's room, and then looked outside her large open window. The trampoline was just below us, so I quickly made the distinct decision to jump.
Being a son of Zeus, I was able to slightly manipulate the winds, which allowed to me gracefully float on to the trampoline. Ellie luckily thought to do the same thing as me, and elegantly landed onto the ground. Just as I was about to manipulate the winds so Rosa could jump, she quickly jumped out the window and landed on the trampoline. However, the force of her body caused the trampoline to fling Rosa up into the air, where she then fell to the ground on her back. I was about to freak out because I noticed she had several scratches and cuts from the fall, and she seemed to be crying. I ran over to her side to help her up, when I realized she was only cracking up and didn't seem to be in any pain.
"Rose," Ellie said with a laugh. "You're such an idiot."
"I was trying to be a superhero, obviously," she responded.
I glared at her.
"Well I can't just control—"
The manticore exploded through the walls of Rosa's bedroom, and the three of us screamed and then quickly ran through Rosa's backyard.
Her backyard was large, and filled with everything a teenage movie star would have. It had a long, stone pathway that led to a gazebo, an in-ground swimming pool, a trampoline, beautiful green grass, a forest, and a small pond with lilies and lily pads floating in it. In addition, rose bushes dotted the lawn, but there was also a garden, which I assumed Marianne planted.
I was waiting for the manticore to completely destroy the lawn, but whenever Blossom was allowed to go outside, she was normally known for just cuddling up and falling asleep inside the gazebo. So, naturally, the manticore didn't seem to be doing any damage to the backyard except kicking up grass behind its feet.
I wondered how the manticore was able to possess Blossom's body. If Hunter and Brianna had battled the manticore before, then how exactly would Blossom have escaped Rosa's house? I decided to stop thinking about the matter so I could focus on the manticore.
Blossom sent a flare of spikes from her tail. Luckily, the three of us were able to dodge them all, but quickly another set of thorns grew from the tail. The manticore dislodged them, and one of them hit my arm slightly.
The first thing I felt was pain—excruciating pain. I fell to the ground, clutching my arm. The smell of blood surpassed my nose. I wished I had brought my weapon with me, but I had left it at home, not expecting any of this to happen.
My vision started to blur, but through the foggy sight I had, I saw Rosa running over to me, while Ellie fought Blossom. Rosa began taking off her T-Shirt, to reveal she had a tank top underneath. She wrapped her T-Shirt around my bleeding arm. My vision started to clear up, and somehow I managed to sit myself up again.
Ellie shot electrical energy from her fingertips, sending a powerful amount of static shock through Blossom's body.
"Blossy!" Rosa yelled, obviously showing concern for her cat that was trying to kill us. Somehow she managed to build up the courage to run over to the Manticore and hug it. It hissed at her.
Trembling, I weakly lifted my hand, and was able to send a powerful blast of lightning at Blossom—something I had wanted to do before I realized she was a manticore.
Rosa released her grip on Blossom, and the cat fell backwards into the pond with a huge splash, separating the lilies and lily pads away from each other as the manticore sunk to the bottom.
I grinned.
And then my face fell.
Blossom, no longer in the form of a manticore, but now in the form of her old cat-like self, jumped out of the pond with a shiver, then ran over to me. She bit my leg, then went over to Rosa and began purring at her feet. Rosa picked up Blossom, and began hugging and cuddling her, while Blossom licked her face. I didn't find the idea very smart considering she was allergic to cats, but luckily Rosa went back inside and placed Blossom on the couch in the living room, while Ellie and I followed.
We then walked into the completely destroyed foyer. Expensive vases were smashed and glass littered the floor.
Marianne violently opened the door. "Are you three coming or—"
She gazed at the mess, and then at us.
"Eh, whatever," she said. "C'mon, let's go."
I smiled at Rosa. Marianne tended to be careless about situations like this, which was a quality we loved about her.
We followed Marianne outside and into the driveway, where we piled into her blood red Italian sports car. Baby Alexandra was tucked in a booster car seat in the back, so Rosa sat in the shotgun seat. She turned the radio to our favorite music channel, and Rosa, Ellie and I basically danced in our seats as Marianne drove us to the police station.
When we got to the police station, I already saw Hunter and Brianna Rivera getting out of their mother's car. They quickly greeted us, and we walked into building as Michelle and Marianne drove away.
The first thing I noticed was the smell. It reminded me of the smell of basements—musty. Its walls were made of white cement rectangular blocks. I noticed Andrea sitting on a bench next to Dmitri and Ben. Her dirty blonde hair had streaks of red dyed into them.
My first question was, "What happened?"
Hunter demanded, "Why'd they arrest you?"
"Some college-age dude insulted my red dye," Andrea explained. "So I kicked his balls, stole a can of red spray-paint and…doodled on his car."
"Nice!" said Brianna. She high-fived Andrea.
"Are you kidding me?" asked Dmitri. "This is a disaster!"
Everything got quiet when he started yelling. As we aged, I noticed that we were becoming more similar to our godly parents. Ellie and I were beginning to grow a stronger leadership quality, to the point where we often wanted to be in control; Rosa was starting to become slightly more girly, but was still both girly and tomboyish at the same time; and in this case, Andrea was becoming more mischievous and Dmitri was beginning to become more bossy and got angered more easily.
Then two more people came in through the door—Melanie and Olivia.
Ellie added, "Jeez, Dmitri. Did you invite, like, the entire school?"
He rolled his eyes. Andrea explained the story to Melanie and Olivia.
I could see that the police were beginning to set up a court date, so I quickly glanced at Rosa, and she grinned mischievously. She walked up to the podium where the police officer was.
"Andrea did nothing wrong," Rose said. Her voice sounded more insistent and powerful. I knew that she had gotten the message. She was enchanting the officer to let Andrea go. "She doesn't deserve to be in here."
"You-You're right. Go along children. And remember, don't meddle with the law!" he said, as if we were little children. All of us waited to go outside before laughing.
"Thanks, Rose," Andrea said. "I owe you."
"Its fine," Rosa promised, and then said with a chuckle. "Unless, there's something in the future that I can't afford that I really want…"
"Assuming I don't get caught again," Andrea said with a laugh.
"How did you get caught? You're a child of Hermes, the god of mischief!" Ben reminded her. "You never get caught!"
"That was only my second time," she said, obviously impressed with herself. "But I guess it's not really that hard to look out the window behind you and see a teenage girl spray-painting your car…"
"True," said Melanie.
"So…what now?" asked Hunter.
"Well, Blossom turned out to be a manticore," I told everyone. Hunter and Brianna looked at me with horrified eyes, instantly remembering their first monster.
"Oh no!" Olivia said. "Is my Blossom okay?"
"Why does everyone care about Blossom except me?" I inquired with a laugh.
"She hates boys," Brianna reminded me.
"She doesn't hate Dmitri, or Ben, or Hunter," I informed her.
"Well then she probably just hates Rosa's boyfriends," Ben said. "She obviously doesn't hate Rosa's dad."
"By the way, speaking of my dad," Rosa said to Melanie, "he's flying off to Los Angeles to film the movie version of your mom's book!"
"Yes!" she said excitedly. "It's going to be interesting to see your dad dressed up as the Fairy King…"
"Anyways," I said. "Yes, Blossom's okay, the manticore's spirit left her…unfortunately."
Everyone rolled their eyes, which I laughed at.
"So…who wants to go to my place to chill?" Andrea offered. "It's just around the corner and everyone can call their parents and whatnot."
"Sounds good to me," Rosa said. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, and we began walking to Andrea's house.
XxXxX
After walking for a couple of minutes, a two story white colored Colonial house sat in front of us. Andrea led us up the driveway and through the door.
"Andrea? Is that you?" said a woman who's voice was coming from the kitchen. She spoke with a southern accent. She entered the foyer—which was a lot different from the one in Rosa's house—and stopped when she saw us.
"Oh…um…it's nice to see y'all," Anastasia Martin said. Her short, curly blonde hair billowed around her shoulders and her green eyes looked at each of us carefully, as if she was approving of our presence. Ellie shivered at the word y'all. She seemed to hate the word for no apparent reason.
"Dinner will be ready in about an hour or so," Anastasia said. "Y'all will have to leave before then, because I didn't make enough for everyone."
Everyone nodded, and we followed Andrea upstairs into her room. It was cluttered with many different objects—objects that she probably stole.
"I'm sorry about that," Andrea confessed. "I don't think my mom is very comfortable about the idea of Greek mythology existing, or the fact that her own daughter is a demigod…and that her friends are demigod…and that her daughter was killed—"
"Andrea," Dmitri interrupted. "It's fine."
Andrea smiled.
There was a knocking on the door. Andrea groaned, as if she expected it to be someone she disliked. She opened the door to reveal two adorable toddlers—a boy and a girl.
"Cynthia. Nathan. Go away."
"Why?" complained the girl, who I assumed was Cynthia. Her brown hair was long, and she had hazel eyes with freckles and a Caucasian complexion.
"We want to meet your friends," Cynthia's twin brother, Nathan demanded. He had the same physical features as Cynthia, but had his mother's emerald eyes.
"Too bad," Andrea said.
"C'mon, Nate," Cynthia said, clearly disappointed. "Let's go."
With that, she slammed the door in their faces.
"What was that for? I'm sure nobody cares about them being in here with us," claimed Rosa, looking around at everyone's faces.
"I don't mind," I suggested, agreeing with my girlfriend. Everyone nodded except for Ben and Andrea.
"They're annoying," Andrea said.
"Obviously, none of you have really met them." Ben added.
We talked for a while, and eventually Andrea's stepfather came into the bedroom.
"You should all start calling your parents," said her stepfather, James Thomas.
Everyone quickly began whipping out their cell phones. Naturally, my mom hadn't bought my sister and me a cell phone, so we were forced to call our mom on somebody else's phone.
Just as Anastasia was setting up for dinner, everyone's parents began arriving. Dmitri's father, Matthew, arrived first, in a vehicle that did not seem harmful to the environment by any means. One should always be aware of their vehicle's effect on the environment, he would always say.
Eventually, my mother showed up, and I was kind-of upset—along with Ellie—because we couldn't go back to Rosa's. After explaining to her that Blossom turned into a manticore, she told us that she wasn't sure if we would be going back to Rosa's house any time soon, though luckily we would still be able to hang out with her at our house or something like that.
The sun was beginning to set when my mom decided to take Ellie and me out to dinner. She took us to the 99 restaurant, because Ben's mother, Valeria, worked there. Ever since Ben was seven, she was driven insane with the fear of death, but last year, she was restored to normal—we just didn't know how.
The day was overall fun. It was the beginning of summer, and in just a couple of days, I would be returning to the Institute of Demigods.
Sleep came easily, which was surprising due to the fact that I was very excited for the Institute of Demigods. But when I woke up in the morning, I didn't expect for my half-brother to be waiting for me in the kitchen...
A/N: That's the end of chapter two! Chapter three should be just around the corner, but school is beginning to start again, I'm beta reading other stories, and my schedule is just overall busy. Anyway, please answer these questions in a review/PM:
One: Did you know Blossom would be a manticore before it was revealed? If so, what clues gave it away?
Two: Why do you think Andrea's mother, Anastasia, is uncomfortable with the idea of Greek mythology's existence and the fact that her daughter is a demigod?
Three: Would you act similarly as Andrea did toward the college-age dude if he insulted you? xD
Four: Why do you think Ethan's half-brother is waiting for him?
