"What's in a name?"

-William Shakespeare

It all started out on that fateful, overcast, Tuesday morning. At first, everything seemed to be going along just as usual at Delphi Institution of Special Schooling. We had a lockdown during homeroom because one kid was running around the halls in his birthday suit, and then we had to evacuate the school for half an hour during third period because Zara Jones had set fire to the trash can in the girl's bathroom.

Like I said, everything was going along just as usual.

I should explain. You see, when I say "Delphi Institution of Special Schooling" . . . .what I really mean is "Delphi Imprisonment for Stupid Students". It happens that all of the students at DISS have some sort "educational disadvantage" - aka we've got grades low enough to make Paris Hilton cry. Some of the students here just need intensive teaching because they struggle to understand concepts, but others have physical learning disabilities - such as impaired speech, autism, or, in my case, ADHD and dyslexia.

So in DISS, it's not just a bunch of mental kids running around, it's a bunch of different sorts of mental kids running around. And that's enough to make the teachers mental. I mean, imagine having a class where one student is completely disconnected from the world, the other can't stay in their seat, and then another who can't read the board unless they read it off a mirror. So to save the risk of teachers jumping off the DISS alarm tower, they split us up into different tracks, and they put kids with similar disabilities on the same track, so the teachers on that track only had to deal with one or two types of problems. Not that it makes it all better.

Track A is what we call the "smart track", because the only problem Track A kids have is a low IQ. My friends and I are on Track C, but that's only because all of us have dyslexia as well as ADHD. Most of the other ADHD/ADD kids are on Track B. But I don't mind Track C. The 7th grade teachers are actually pretty cool. Well, not Mr. Argot, the Language Arts Teacher From Hell, but Ms. Ehlke, our history teacher, is the best.

Anyways - back to that fateful Tuesday.

Fourth period had just finished, and everyone was heading to lunch. Me, Kasey, and Jessica, who happened to be two of my besties, made our way towards our patio table to meet up with the rest of our friends.

Mackenzie arrived. I noticed jealously that her perfect golden curls weren't being affected at all by the humidity.

"Hey." We greeted her as she opened up her lunchbox.

"Hey, y'all." Mackenzie looked up at the sky warily. "You sure you want to sit outside today? It looks like it's going to start pouring."

"Oh, it'll be fine, Macintosh." James - decked in all black, per usual - rolled his eyes and slid into a seat next to Tatiana.

"I don't know . . ." Mackenzie said, unsure. "I just don't want to be trapped outside in the rain."

"Oh, suck it up, Mackenzie." Lizzy said brusquely as she sat down.

"So -" Tatiana popped open her salad container. "Who would be stupid enough to give Zara a match?"

"Some fucking retard, I dunno." James dug into his spaghetti. "This is going to be the third time this month she's gone to the county jail."

"Why don't they just expel her?" Mackenzie sniffed.

"Where would she go?" I pointed out.

"True." Jessica agreed.

"She's getting really annoying." Kasey raised an eyebrow as she gulped down her water

"Yeah! She interrupted what was supposed to be the beastliest history lesson ever!" Lizzy voiced loudly.

"Oh, did Ehlke start on Greek gods already?" James asked.

"Yup." Jess nodded. "Very interesting."

Tatiana gagged on her crouton. "And rather sick. Did you know that brothers and sisters would get together and have kids? That's incest!"

"Who else did they have to screw?' James remarked.

"True." Jessica laughed.

"Ugh." Mackenzie shook her head. "Greek mythology's so weird."

"But cool at the same time." I sipped my lemonade.

"What are we learning today? Just the basic Gods and stuff?" James asked.

"Yeah, an overview, and then she has us read the legend of Perseus and Andromeda." Everyone else groaned. Whenever we heard the word "read", it was like a death summons.

"Don't worry." Kasey reassured. "She's playing the CD narration."

"Oh, thank God - or should I say, thank the Gods." Mackenzie sighed in relief.

"Wait, wasn't Perseus that bloke who killed the snake headed lady?" James asked as thunder rumbled across the sky. Tatiana and Mackenzie looked up nervously.

"Yeah. He was the son of Zeus - a demigod." Jess answered.

"Wouldn't it be awesome if we were secretly demigods?" Lizzy said jokingly. Lightning flashed somewhere in the distance, but it was far away.

"Cor, I'd be like Sam Worthington in Clash of the Titans!" James said, flipping his brown hair arrogantly.

"You . . . .work on that." Kasey said doubtfully.

"Oh, James would totally be Hades' son." Tatiana eyed James' dark attire.

"True." James nodded. A low thunder could be heard from up above. "Hades seems British enough."

"Death Head." Lizzy smirked. "What about me?"

"Ares. 100%." Kasey said bluntly.

"Well, I am the hothead. A very hot head, if I may add." Lizzy said cockily. The rest of us shared a glance and rolled our eyes.

Kasey continued. "I think I'd be Poseidon's daughter, don't you think?" It started sprinkling lightly.

We all nodded. Kasey had been on the DISS swim team for the past three years and was crowned captain this year.

"Alright, Fish Face, what'd I be?" I asked her.

"Encyclopedia, isn't it obvious? Asian and Athena both start with the same letter." Tatiana cut in before Kasey could answer.

"Tots, you're Apollo." James said.

"Mhmm. And what about me?" Mackenzie asked, twirling her hair around.

"Stupid cupid," I said snarkily. "Isn't it obvious?" I smirked, referring to Mackenzie's uncanny ability to build up an entourage of male stalkers.

"Hey, let's not forget about Jess." James reminded.

Kasey surveyed her. "Hmm - Artemis?"

"Maybe . . . ." I said, looking closely at Jessica's grey-blue eyes. "But isn't Artemis a virgin goddess?"

"I got it." I said, snapping my fingers. "Zeus."

Suddenly a flash of bright lightning struck from nowhere and lit up the sky, and a huge CRACK of thunder followed shortly behind.

"Holy shit!" James popped up from his seat. "I'm outta here!"

"Same!" Mackenzie said, and both of them darted inside the cafeteria, and the rest of us quickly followed suit.

"The gods are angry." Jessica giggled as we walked inside - right before it started pouring buckets.

Suddenly, there was a POP and all the lights went out in the cafeteria, leaving it completely dark, besides the grayish light spilling in from the windows and the flash of furious lightning.

Picture this: a hundred or so mentally disabled kids - all gathered together in one area - in the middle of a freaking thunderstorm for Christ's sake, and then they're put into sudden darkness.

Not a pretty picture. At all.

It was pure chaos. Screams broke out everywhere. Kids were running around, trampling each other trying to find a way out. The teachers tried to restore order, but it was like trying to harness an unbroken horse on caffeine.

"It's all your fault." A voice said from behind me and Jess.

We whipped around to see little Victoria Eschenbrenner standing behind us. What a creeper. She arrived at DISS at the beginning of the year, and she had never made any friends. No wonder. She had a bad habit of lying, pocketing people's stuff, oh, and stalking me and my friends. And she always wore this really unstylish necklace made out of painted clay beads.

"I'm sorry?" Jessica demanded.

"Names are powerful things." Tori said in a whispery voice, touching her necklace, then with one last wide-eyed glance at us, she disappeared into the crowd.

"Weirdo." I remarked. But we didn't pay much attention to the incident, because weird kids came up to us and said nonsense all the time.

Maybe we should've paid a little more heed to Tori's advice.