Author's Note:

This chapter will start where Charlotte's life gets interesting. Enjoy! R&R

NOTE: Note that summer in Philippines is April and May. So, I'm not going to use the summer thing.

MESSAGES: Thanks to Hermes Salazar Snape for being my official beta reader for PJO and KC category. Thanks! Here's a virtual multi vitamins my husband gave me *gives the apple-flavored and Fury shaped multivitamins to Hermes Salazar Snape* Remember don't take one unless necessary.

This chapter is dedicated to Hermes Salazar Snape, Lady Alice101 and angelxx22xx

Disclaimer: I, PurpleRose328 only own Charlotte Wilson other OCs.

Chapter 3 - A Kindred of Hermes

In the Philippines….

Many months after the incident and 1 week before July….

There were a clean school with big blue gates. Then it opened revealing many students coming out. There were kids with their parents and teenagers with backpacks.

The school was "San Aloysius Catholic School" in San Aloysius, Pampanga, Philippines. It was a Catholic school and its patron saint is St. Aloysius, just like the town's patron saint.

Anyways, our heroine wasn't still in sight. So, let's check on students going outside the school gates. There were girls and boys talking and laughing while waiting for a jeepney to ride to go home. Others are just in the corner waiting.

Jeepney-a vehicle, I guess can be only seen in Philippines. Search it in the internet and checked the picture. If you got no vehicles, jeepneys will come and you'll ride. You just need to give a minimum fare of 7.00 pesos if student and 8.00 if not.

We were now finding a girl with ultra black layered hair with purple glasses. Hmmm… we couldn't seem to find her.

Then suddenly we heard a shout of "Finally! July is coming! One more month and it'll be my birth month!"

We turned our backs and saw what we wanted to see for a long time. Our heroine. There she was in the entrance, stretching and was walking to the other side of the road to wait for the jeepney going to her place. So, here she comes-

A girl with ultra-black layered hair with colourful clips turned off the television.

"Ella!" she shouted as she leaned down to eject the video tape on the player.

A girl with reddish brown hair and like kaleidoscope eyes came out of the kitchen with cookie on her mouth. She got tanned skin and is an exchange student from USA. She'll go back next year.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Ella May Sanders," Charlotte said as her hands held her hips," What if other people will see this embarrassing video of mine?"

"Oh that." Ella said as she made a gesture that it wasn't so important," I'll just hide it in my room, happy?"

Charlotte made a sigh of relief. "Now put it upstairs."

The last time that video was taped was yesterday. It'll be 2 weeks from now before July will start.

"But I want to watch another video," Ella said. She went upstairs to her room before the light brown skinned girl could complain. She went down stairs after a few minutes bringing another video tape.

Charlotte just sighed. There was nothing she could do to stop her 12-year-old best friend from watching videos. You see, that tanned girl loved to tape videos and took pictures. Her reason was for a source of knowledge. There was a high chance in the future that she'll be a journalist or photo journalist.

Charlotte sat beside her best friend in the couch and watched the video.

At first it was all black but then there comes the sun. A very busy place was shown. Then a girl with reddish brown hair and kaleidoscope eyes focused the camera on her.

"Hi everyone!" She said happily, "We're now going to witness one of the most romantic and sweet moments the whole Philippines had ever seen. So now, let's spy on them"

It was afternoon. Various students' faces laughing and excited were shown.

"I couldn't believe it! It's summer already" a passing girl with a guy said.

Various students went out the entrance going home. Until, lastly, a girl with ultra black layered hair with purple framed glasses was the last one to go out.

She stretched her hand and cheered," Finally! It was summer! Goodbye to Math! Goodbye to the bullies! 2 months of vacation without all of them!"

Everyone who heard her looked at her and agreed.

Charlotte's dark brown eyes widened. She hurriedly stood up and ran. But before she could do it, Ella got held of her.

"Where do you think you're going?" Janie asked suspiciously.

Charlotte stopped resisting and pointed at the television accusingly

"I'll never ever watch that video again!" she exclaimed.

Ella calmed her down and finally Charlotte decided to watch the video. Again.

Then a boy who got black hair and mischievous brown eyes, who was really cool in the eyes of normal girls, came up to the girl.

"OMG! Here it comes!" Ella chirped, "One of the most romantic and sweet moments."

Charlotte just rolled her eyes. She obviously knew who she was talking about.

"You sure about that?" he asked smirking," Because I don't think we'll never see each other again"

"Just shut up, Will," the girl snarled full of hatred," I hate you."

"Oh, I love you too." Will quipped smirking. Some of the students who heard their conversation laughed.

"I don't want to see your face again" the girl snarled.

"Aw! That was so sweet!" Ella chirped happily, "He said he loves you."

Charlotte rolled her eyes. Ella didn't sense the sarcasm when Will said that. Or maybe, Will likes her? Charlotte shrugged the thought off. Ella kept watching but Charlotte's thoughts were bugging her.

Charlotte's POV

You must be wondering what I was doing in Ella's house. Well, our houses were near to each other, sometimes I went here and made myself feel at home. And it was June 13 today and we had no classes. Don't even bother to ask.

I looked at my unique purple watch. It was 10:00 am. Where could Caoimhe be?

Caoimhe was my other best friend. We were known as "The trio." together with Ella. We never leave each other and we hardly had an argument. She was one year older than me. She got Korean cut black hair and brown eyes. Many people had mistaken us for sisters.

Anyway, it's been a year since I left the mansion in Brooklyn. I left the mansion around January in there and when I arrived in the Philippines. I continued my studies as a first year high school student. Lucky for me that I was very smart and caught up on the lessons or else there's no chance that I'll graduate and level up to 2nd year.

Then it was a few days before summer vacation. That video we were watching now was taped by Ella who just transferred last January. Because of her brains (smarter than anyone in her class except for one of my friends, Paul, Matt's younger brother) she caught up and excelled at it. But looked like, the class valedictorian, Paul Ocampo was the smartest person in class. So, Ella ended up in 2nd place.

Anyway, that teenage guy with curly black hair that glowed was handsome. Charlotte stop! You don't even know if that guy was real or just your wide and beautiful imagination.

I shook the thought off.

But he was really cute with those Ancient Greek herald suit.

"Shut up!" I thought to my romantic side.

Maybe just maybe he was real. He saved my life last January. But if he was real, why it all I could remember about him was was he got curly black hair and glowed. And if he really was real, I should find him and thanked him for saving my life. I should do something in return from my gratitude.

I finally woke up in my thoughts. I watched the video and I saw that the place was outside of SM or Shoe Mart, the most famous mall in the whole Philippines and was owned by the wealthiest man in the whole Philippines and that was Henry Sy. I noticed it said in the label "SM City Pampanga" It was the branch of SM here in Pampanga.

Then I saw many people were shown. It entered inside the mall and went directly to National Book Store, my favourite book store where I bought almost all of my books, school supplies etc. Many different aged people were shown.

Then something caught my eye. The camera glanced to the Fiction section and I saw a man standing, holding a book and was checking on it. That was not the thing that caught my eye. He wore Ancient Greek Herald suit and got… I couldn't believe it…curly black hair. But before I could react the camera glanced another way.

"Ella! Put it back to the Fiction section!" I ordered/yelled.

Ella got startled on my voice, gave me a suspicious look but followed. She pressed the previous button and it was back on the Fiction section. I said," Pause it for awhile." A pause sign appeared on the upper right side of the 24 size television.

I went in front of the television and studied the man. I went back on the blue couch and borrowed the remote. I made the picture of that man larger. Now I could saw his face clearly.

His head was slight bent down while examining the book. He got curly black hair and brown eyes that were focusing on the pages of the book he was holding. He was wearing green Ancient Greek herald clothes with purple cloak. He also wore a brown leather bag, a messenger's bag I realized. His green suit reaches above knee. He also wore brown leather boots showing his strong knees because it was below it. His shoes were blue Adidas-brand. I rubbed my eyes again. I must be imagining things again because his shoes got wings.

Then on his other hand he was holding a cell phone like the cell phone I saw the jogging man was holding. There were 2 snakes entwined in its antenna. That's not all! On his head he wore a hat with wings. Okay, this was weird! He looked like my favourite Greek god, Hermes.

Before Ella could comment something about the man, the door bell rang. Ella stood up and opened the door.

There, a tall 14-year-old lady was standing, arm crossed and a frown at her face. Her brown eyes were narrowed in annoyance. She tapped her right foot uncomfortably. She always does that when she was annoyed.

"Caoimhe!" I exclaimed and hugged my beautiful best friend.

She hugged back and said, "I was waiting for almost 3 hours already at your house, Charlotte! Why didn't you tell me we're going to meet here?"

I faced palm. "Sorry. I forgot." I said.

Ella grabbed Caoimhe's hand and said, "Look at this!"

Caoimhe followed. We sat back on the couch. She also noticed the man. Ella explained to her my sudden change of attitude when I saw it.

Caoimhe looked at me with those eyes full of suspicion.

"So, who's that guy?" she asked.

I gulped. There was no way I'm going to tell them about this magical stuff.

"I don't know! I just found him cute!" I blurted out. I blushed and covered my mouth," Whoops!"

That wasn't I planned to say! Curse, my romantic side.

"OMG!" Caoimhe and Ella exclaimed.

"She got a crush!" Ella said

I sighed. Then I thought, "Well, he looked like Hermes, my type."

You see, I really admire Hermes. The books described him as a man who cared so much for his family and funny though sometimes annoying.

Caoimhe gasped and looked closely on the man.
"Oh my gosh." she said and looked at me then at the man. She looked at me and the man back and forth.

"He really looked like Hermes!" she finally decided and chirped, "I wonder if I'll meet someone who looked like Apollo!"

I sighed. If I was to Hermes, she was to Apollo.

The next thing I knew, Caoimhe was talking to me.

"Listen! Ella said she taped that video yesterday after school. She went to SM together with her mother and she started taping videos. She also noticed the man that's why she turned the camera to him but she glance it another way when she saw the man turned his back. "She explained.

"So?" I asked.

"So" she continued, "Go back to your house now, change clothes and we're going to SM right now!"

"What!" I complained, "What if he wasn't there anymore?"

Caoimhe patted my back, "Think positive, Charlotte. There's a high chance he was still there. 60%."

I sighed again and went to my house and changed clothes.

I changed into a simple pink sleeveless above knee length dress with dark pink mini jacket at my shoulders. I also wore white leggings and purple high heels. Purple watch and the golden bracelet Tefnut gave me were at my right and left wrists. An Italian silver necklace with silver heart pendant with little circular Amethyst gems in it was at my neck together with my purple headphones. A silver ring with white heart in the middle, seriously, it looked like the miniature crown of Barbie in Barbie of Swan Lake was at my left middle finger.

A purple mini bag was at my left shoulder up to my right hip. It contains small notebook just in case an idea popped on my mind, ball pens, handkerchiefs, small pack of tissue, compact powder, keys to my house, money and lastly my 5630 XpressMusic cell phone.

I put my ultra black layered hair to a high ponytail.

I was now finished and went to Ella's house. Caoimhe and Ella were already prepared to go. Caoimhe wore a simple white t-shirt with a design of a black head phones and "Music is my life!" written in it. She wore dark blue jeans for the bottom and simple blue shoes.

While on Ella, she wore a pink, blue and yellow alternate stripes t-shirt and white shorts. Simple blue slippers were at her feet.

"Let's go," Caoimhe said as she dragged my left hand while right to Ella. Our hands were entwined as we walked towards the street. You see, our houses were quite far from the main street where jeepneys came. So we still need to walk going there. I was holding my purple, blue and yellow Esprit-brand umbrella. It was also one of our friendship symbols.

Purple-Me

Blue-Caoimhe

Yellow-Ella

We finally rode on a jeepney going to the high-way where we were going to ride another jeepney going San Fernando city where SM was located.

You see, when you rode on a jeepney it was fresh. Err, I mean there's a long window without cover. It was an open window on 2 sides. Winds came rushing to my face which I liked too, by the way. As I watched many houses, people and vehicles passed by I fell asleep.

Then the jeepney stopped that made me woke up. I went down and rode on another jeepney together with Caoimhe and Ella. I fell asleep again but woke up after many minutes. We were now near at the mall.

Finally, we went down the jeepney and went inside the mall. SM city Pampanga was a huge mall. It got wide space parking lot but the mall itself was bigger. It got up to second floor but it was wide with different restaurants and more stores that sell goods we need on everyday lives. We hurriedly went to National Book store. We were now in front of another wide store. On the right side school and office supplies were located. In the middle were the cashiers and on the left side were different kinds of books.

We went into the fiction section. I was looking rows by rows, until I got to a row full of books about different mythologies around the world. I looked around and got interested being a mythologist and all. There were Philippine, Chinese, Celtic, Norse and many more mythologies. OMG! I found the section of Greek, Roman and Egyptian.

I started reading about Greek and Roman mythology.

Eros/Cupid and Psyche

OMG! It was my favourite Greek and Roman couple ever! After I had read it, I brought it back. In the corner of my eye, I saw a shiny book. I approached it. The title says "Hermes's love story with his divine, semi-divine and mortals love". It was written in sky blue letters.

I bent down and was about to get it when another hand came to the book. It looked strong. I looked up and saw a man with curly black hair, brown eyes and wore green Ancient Greek suit. He smiled at me. His skin was perfect! It wasn't so dark but it wasn't so white. It's just perfect. I wanted to faint at the spot when I realized who the man was.

I stood up. I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't. How could this be true? It was just impossible. I slowly walked away but stopped and looked back wondering if he was really him.

Explanations:

Caoimhe Mercado - The 14-year-old best friend of Charlotte. She got flowing black hair and brown eyes. Her skin is lighter compared to most Filipinos.

Ella May Sanders - The 12-year-old another best friend of Charlotte. She was an American exchange student and transferred to Caoimhe and Charlotte's school last January. She got reddish-brown hair, tanned skin and kaleidoscope eyes. Sometimes it's blue. Sometimes, gray.

Matt Ocampo - One of Charlotte's classmates. He was a very intelligent boy that excels at almost everything except sports. His specialty was Math. He's funny and annoying according to Charlotte. Sarcastic too. But he was a very good son and older brother to his younger brother, Paul Ocampo and his mother.

Paul Ocampo - one of Charlotte's friends. He was also very intelligent like his older brother that he defeated Ella on the ranking.

William Leon Hanson - a 14-year-old annoying yet funny classmate and rival of Charlotte. He just loved to tease and bully Charlotte. And to the eyes of the girls (except for Charlotte and a few chosen people) he looked cool. He was cute or handsome with his quite tousled black hair, almost white complexion, brown eyes always with the hint of slyness and grin.

R&R