Chapter 1 - I Wake Up In A Dumpster
I knew my day was going to be bad when I woke up in a dumpster.
I opened my eyes to moldy pizza and the smell of soiled diapers. For a moment I wondered where I was, still half asleep. Suddenly it registered in my head that I was in a dumpster, lying on top of a pile of garbage. "Aagh!" I screeched and clambered out of the dumpster as fast as I could.
I hazily remembered last night. I had gotten into my own bed, definetly not a dumpster in... actually, I wasn't really sure where I was. I appeared to be in a dead end alleyway with tall brick buildings that had rusty zig-zaging fire escapes on either side. I blinked the blurriness out of my eyes and looked down. Thankfully, I wasn't wearing My Little Pony pajamas. Instead I was wearing what I usually wear, a baggy navy blue hoodie, a Doctor Who T-shirt, black converse, and jeggings. As a bonus, I didn't have any rancid bologna stuck to me.
I twisted my silver TARDIS earring nervously and assessed the situation. I had no idea where I was, woke up in a dumpster, and had no idea how I had gotten there. I slowly felt myself start to panic.
Trying to distract myself, I searched my pockets to see if I had my phone. I didn't, but I did have a watch. I strapped it to my wrist and looked at the date on the blue digital face. It said it was January 12th, 2011. I stared at it in shock. How could I have gone back in time almost six years?! I decided I was being irrational and the watch was probably just off.
Suddenly, I saw something up in the cold, grey sky. Something that was falling so fast that flames were streaming off of it. As it got closer, I realized it was... a person? It didn't make any sense, but it looked like a skinny, teenaged boy. As he got even closer I saw that he had curly hair and appeared to be just barely concious.
Then I realized why I could see him so well, he was just fifteen feet above me. I instinctively leaped backas he crashed into the dumpster I had just been in a few minutes prior. Rotten food and black plastic trash bags rained everywhere. I grabbed an old newspaper from the ground and held it over my head to try to keep from getting hit by flying rubbish.
I wasn't so lucky this time and I got beaned in the stomach by a trashbag that exploded and rained old, nasty food and other trash onto me, and I fell backwards into a pile of dirty snow. "Bleck!" I said as I spit coffee grounds out of my mouth. I stood up and tried to ignore the bitter flavor coating my tongue.
Over at the dumpster, the mysterious falling guy seemed to plead to no one, "No! No it wasn't! Please!" The guy then muttered, "Yes... Yes, that's it." Suddenly I saw battered hands grab the side of the dumpster and the guy tumbled out, his shoulder making a sickening cracking sound against the pavement.
"Araggeeddeee," he whimpered as he attempted to get up. "Stand up. Stand up." He appeared to be around fifteen, about three yeras older than me, and he had curly dark brown hair. His eyes were bright blue, and he looked kind of cute in a dorkish way, I guess. But his face was a scarred landscape of red pustuales and white-heads, acne. He was wearing sneakers, blue jeans and a green polo shirt.
He stood there for a minute, swaying as if he were going to fall over any second. When he righted himself he dug in his pockets like he was searching for something. He pulled out a cheap looking wallet and frowned at it. He opened it and pulled out a one-hundred dollar bill and then a drivers liscense.
"How are you not dead?" I blurted out accidentally, and rather rudely. I quickly slapped a hand over my mouth as if I was afraid more words would come flying out.
The guy looked at me surprised, noticing me for the first time. "Who are you?" he asked, almost suspiciously. I realized he looked familiar, almost like I had seen or known him, but not exactly. I suddenly remembered the book I had been reading, the Trials of Apollo. This couldn't... but could it?
"Um, hello?" said the guy. I realized I had zoned out for a second, but I had a hunch.
"Uh, only if you tell me who you are!" I retorted.
"Why, I am Lord Apollo!" he said haughtily. "Tremble at my glory, mortal!" It seemed my hunch was correct. I almost started hyperventilating, but I managed to calm myself down. I must have traveled through time or to a different dimension or something!
"My name is Kayleigh Andrzejewski."
"Your last name is what now?"
"It's Polish," I said, somewhat annoyed. "Anyway, your last name is Papadopoulos."
"It is not! I firmly deny it!"
"Then why does your liscense say it?"
We were bordering on an argument when a raspy voice came from the entrance of the alley. "Hey Cade, take a look at these two losers."
One of them was squat and plantinum blond, while the other tall and red-headed. Cade and Mikey! I thought frantically and I did something I never thought I would, I froze in fear. The red-head, who was Cade, I think, said, "Now be nice, Mikey. They look friendly enough." Then he pulled out a hunting knife from his belt. "In fact," he glanced at Apollo's wallet, "I bet they want to give us all their money!"
I glared at the snake tatoos on their necks, knowing what they meant. I stepped behind Apollo. If I kept Apollo from getting beaten up, he might never meet Meg and I knew that even the tiniest little thing could make a horrible turn of events that could destory everyone.
"I am Apollo," he announced, "You mortals have three choices: offer me tribute, flee, or be destroyed." I facepalmed. Then I stood back to watch him get mugged.
Mikey and Cade, to put it in proper terms, kicked the Hades out of Apollo. I flinched involuntarily every time he got kicked or stomped on. Once Cade looked and grinned at me evilly like, "You're next!"
MIkey grabbed a trash bag and smashed it over Apollo's head, making more trash fly everywhere. Then they patted him down and took his wallet.
"Lookee here," said Cade, "Some cash and an ID for Lester Papadopoulos."
Mikey laughed. "Lester? That's even worse than Apollo."
Apollo reached up tentatively and touched his nose, which was swollen to roughly the size of a large egg and was a bruised purple color. "Blood," he muttered. "That's not possible."
"It's very possible, Lester." Cade crouched down next to him. "And there might be more blood in your near future. You want to explain why you don't have a credit card? Or phone? I'd hate to think I did all that stomping for a hundred bucks."
Apollo stared at the blood on his fingertips for a few moments before trying to get up, but his hand hit a banana peel and he fell down again. Mikey and Cade hollowed with laughter.
"I love this guy!" Mikey exclaimed.
"Yeah, but the boss told us he'd be loaded," complained Cade.
"Boss..." muttered Apolllo, "Boss?"
"That's right, Lester." Cade flicked a finger against the side of Apollo's head. " 'Go to that alley' the boss told us. 'Easy score.' He said we should rough you up, take whatever you had. But this" - he waved the cash under Apollo's nose - "isn't much of a payday."
Apollo stood up, coffee grounds dribbled from his shoulders. "Who- who is your boss?" he questioned weakly. He looked as if he was going to fall over again.
I started tapping my foot. This was getting boring. I hummed the tune of "This is Gospel" by Panic! at the disco under my breath. I glanced around and drummed my fingers against my knee.
Suddenly I was jerked out of my bordom by a loud voice that yelled, "HEY!" I looked up at the second story landing of the fire escape where I was greeted by the arrival of Meg.
"Leave him alone!" she ordered. She looked like she was described in the book, she had on red sneakers, yellow leggings and a green tank dress. Her hair was in a messy pageboy style and she had on cat-eye glasses glittering with rhinestones. She was a little pudgy and about a half-a-foot shorter than me, me being five feet. She had an obstinate scowl planted on her face.
"Get lost kid," Mikey told her.
Meg stamped her foot, and the fire escape shuddered. "My alley. My rules!" Her bossy nasal voice made her sound like she was chiding a playmate in a game of make-believe. "Whatever that loser has is mine, including his money!"
"Why is everyone calling me a loser?" he asked weakly to no one in particular.
"Well, everyone forgot I was here," I said, shrugging.
"Not helping," he growled.
Cade glared at Meg, the red from his hair seeming to seep into his face. "You've got to be kidding me. Beat it, you brat!" He picked up a rotten apple and threw it at her.
Meg just looked at the apple as it landed on the fire escape and rolled harmlessly to a stop at her feet. "You want to play with food?" asked Meg, wiping her nose with her hand. "Okay."
I watched as the apple flew by itself and hit Cade's nose with deadly accuracy, causing him to fall down hard on his rump. I accidentally snorted, loudly.
Mikey looked over at me. "I have an idea." he said, marching over toward me.
"Good for you," I said sarcastically, but I was getting nervous, what was he doing?
Quickly he slipped behind me and held his bike chain belt to my neck. "Let us go with the loser's money or she gets it!" I had no doubt he would do it either.
Suddenly my senses seemed to kick into overdrive. I noticed little things such as the wispy black fuzz at the corner of Meg's mouth, the small logo Apollo's polo shirt, and Mikey's breath on the back if my head.
I moved my leg up and back reflexively, kicking him in a sensitive area. He immediatly let go of the chain and yelped in pain. Then I turned around and brought down a thick, heavy book, which seemed to have appeared out of no where in my hands, onto the top of his head.
"SCHEIßKOPF!" I screamed at him, my anger, frustration, and panic for being in some strange place in 2011 with and gods and crazy ass monsters exploded all at once. "DO YOU THINK I WANT TO BE HERE?! NO! AND THEN YOU TOO INSOLENT DIGUSTING STUPID STREET THUGS HAD TO COME AND BEAT UP MOTHER-FREAKING APOLLO AND THEN THREATEN ME! SERIOUSLY!?"
I then opened up my mouth impossibly wide and let out and ear-piercing high pitched scream of rage. Some of the windows near us shattered.
Cade and Mikey scrambled to their feet and ran away screaming, trash bags exploding near them, showing them in potato peelings and old takeout.
First chapter! Hooray! Exactly 1,967 words! Please R&R, criticism accepted! But no flames please. I apoligize for any typos or inaccuracies to the book. Next update is sceduled for Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Thursday, November 24th!