"HOLY SHIT!" Mirabelle screamed at the top of her lungs. Mirabelle's two worst fears, spiders and falling. And one of them just conveniently happening at the worst possible moment. Mirabelle could handle heights and being in the air, she just wasn't so fond of it when nothing was supporting her. Mirabelle tried to close her eyes, but that only made the experience more terrifying. She screamed so hard that her lungs started to ache and throb. Mirabelle felt like the only way to stop from falling and smacking the earth with her body, was to scream. Seemed that Annabeth had the same idea. Mirabelle watched in horror as the earth's surface streamed toward them, clouds and geese whizzed by and all Mirabelle wanted was to be free of her skin and be safely on the ground.
"LOOK!" Annabeth tried to yell over her sisters panicked screeching and the wind roaring in her ears. She pointed in front of them. A shimmering rainbow cast itself into view and a recorded voice broke into the sound.
"Name please..." It monotoned.
"Annabeth and Mirabelle Chase!" Annabeth yelled at the rainbow.
"Destination?"
"INDIANA!" Mirabelle screamed at the female voice.
"Please insert drachma." The ground was now about four hundred feet from the girls, and the number was dropping dramatically. It was lucky that the woman wasn't here in person, or Mirabelle might of strangled the lady.
"GIVE HER A DRACHMA!"
Annabeth moved her arm into her side pocket and pulled out a Twinkie.
"All I have is a Twinkie?" Annabeth said to the voice.
"Oh!" The woman said excitedly. Her monotoned voice dipped in rhythm and gave in . "Ok, throw it in the rainbow." Annabeth shot the Twinkie through the rainbow. The rainbow and Twinkie disappeared, and for a minute Annabeth and Mirabelle were brought back to their panic.
Just as the twins were about to contact with a pine tree, the pine tree vanished, the sky disappeared, and the forest surrounding them wasn't there. Mirabelle and Annabeth lied face down on a pavemented street full of fast walking people. Slowly, taking on their new settings, they stood up and backed toward each other.
"Where are we?" Mirabelle asked, not talking directly to anyone.
"I don't know." Annabeth answered.
Annabeth and Mirabelle linked arms and timidly shuffled down the street. Above them the clouds turned a stormy dark grey and a boom of thunder rolled throughout the sky. Slowly one single rain drop fell from above and landed on the tip of Mirabelle's nose. She crossed her eyes and peered at it. Another fat rain drop splashed on Annabeth's eyelash and several more rain drops fell down after it. Annabeth and Mirabelle covered the tops of their heads with their backpacks and rushed under the protection of a canopy hanging off a book store. Rain was gathering rapidly and fell in sheets. Small white objects slammed into the pavement and bounced right back up to Mirabelle's knees. The repeated sound of hail added to the deafening rain fall, and just for good measure, a brilliant zig zag of light lit the clouds above, another huge thunder clap hit the earth.
Figuring they'd be there for awhile the girls slumped against one another and huddled under the blue and white striped canopy.
"Why did we leave the Stolls?" Mirabelle wondered. She stared disconnected at a small blue beetle scuttling away into the storm. Even though the rain didn't hit the girls, the wind howled and pushed meaningfully at their hunched figures.
"Because were idiots." Annabeth answered angrily, she picked up a small twig and snapped it in half.
"Having a bad day?" Someone asked. She girls looked to their left and saw a boy sitting there. The boy wore a rasta cap over short curly brown hair. Beside him, laid two crutches, not the ones for your broken leg, the kind that determined a leg disability. Mirabelle glanced at the boy's purple hoody which had a picture of the earth on it. The boy looked to be around sixteen, Mirabelle thought, a faint red stubble was protruding from his chin and acne dotted face.
"You have no idea." Annabeth muttered, she took her broken stick and snapped it into quarters.
"Maybe I can help with that." He said. Annabeth just grumbled and leaned against the brick wall behind her. Mirabelle looked at the boy suspiciously.
"How?" She asked.
"You guys are daughters of Athena? Right?" He asked like he thought we should know already, and was a little disappinted that we didn't know what he was talking about. Although Annabeth and Mirabelle did know what he was talking about, and that was the reason the girl's eyes had turned as big as saucers.
"You know who we are?" They gasped. Annabeth had now taken an interest in the boy and looked at him curiously, as did Mirabelle.
"Please!" The boy said. "Even Hephaestus knew about you two,and he doesn't gossip very much."
"Who are you?" Annabeth asked.
"Oh. Of course, sorry. I'm a satyr at Camp Half-Blood. This is my first field assignment. I do hope I impress Chiron. On my way east, we are supposed to pick up two other half-bloods, Thalia and Luke-"
"Say your name!" Mirabelle urged. The boy blushed, embarrassed.
"I'm Grover Underwood." He said.
...
Mirabelle, Annabeth and Grover walked arm in arm down the streets of Indianapolis, hugging warm cups of hot chocolates to their chilled bodies. Grover was in the middle, he held up a large black umbrella over the trios heads.
"So, tell me about yourselves." Grover said, he was clearly feeling awkward and unprepared to take care of two seven year olds, then keep them entertained. But Mirabelle and Annabeth knew all about that adult act, and were patiently awaiting Grover's breakdown. After he got too annoyed and fed up with the twins. That happened to their father, and their step-mother.
"There's not much to tell." Annabeth started. She was usually the more talkative one of the two, although didn't normally talk to strangers. "Mirabelle is much cleverer and quick minded than I am."
"But Annabeth." Mirabelle interrupted. "Is a lot smarter and thought through than I am. She always has a reason for everything."
"Mirabelle and I." Annabeth continued. "Don't look anything alike. And we vary in personality too."
Mirabelle nodded in agreement, then started talking as well. "Yes. Annabeth is more uptight about rules. And she has a birthmark, shaped like an 'Y' on her left butt cheek."
Annabeth blushed deeply. "Well, Mirabelle was bald until she was four."
Mirabelle grinned. It wasn't easy to get a rise out of Annabeth. "Annabeth once called her teacher a 'dumb butt' because he spelled 'cat' incorrectly." Mirabelle catcalled.
Annabeth looked at her sister with shock. That was their personal secret. "Mirabelle once yelled at a random lady for being too 'portly'."
"She was blocking the sidewalk!" Mirabelle defended.
"O.k! This is getting too weird." Grover intervened. "Let's just walk for awhile."
Annabeth glared at Mirabelle, but Mirabelle only smiled happily back at Annabeth.
