I don't own any of the PJO, HoO, or ToA characters. Hyphenated sentences in italics are texts.
-Everything is so bad plz help me!
I rolled my eyes. When Sara texted that she was in trouble, it usually wasn't worse than a broken pencil. I got up from the exercise ball that I was sitting on and picked up my phone.
-It can't be that bad. You need to chill. Try that coloring book I gave you last year. I texted her back.
-OMG, b. Worse than u think. Call me now!
I started to walk off, but I immediately began to feel bad. I hated my stepsister, but I couldn't just walk away. So I picked up the phone and dialed her number.
"Blaire," She yelled before I could even say hello. "Check the news, quick!"
I resisted rolling my eyes again. "Last time you said that it was a story about a dog and an elephant who were friends. Does this 'emergency' involve any type of animal?" I replied, ready to hang up.
"I'm not kidding, this time! And that story was cute!" Sara said. "If you don't look right now, I'll tell Audrey that you stole my new boots. She just bought them for me last week, and they have these really cool laces that look like…"
I sighed. The last thing I wanted right now was another reminder that Mom liked her new family more than she liked me. Dad had left before I was born, and Mom didn't like to talk about him. She had married Andrew four years ago. Andrew wasn't great, and still, Sara was worse. I could tell that Mom liked her, even loved her, more than she would ever care about me.
"Blaire?" Where are you?" Sara asked, reminding me that I was still on the phone. I quickly opened up my laptop and clicked on the news icon.
"Okay, I'm there. What do you want-" I started to say, but what I saw made me gasp.
There were pictures of stretchers being carried to ambulances, and people lying still in hospital beds. Images of what looked like red, spiky balls flooded the screen. In huge capital letters, the words "NOVEL CORONAVIRUS DECLARED GLOBAL PANDEMIC" flashed up at me, swirling and twisting like they were trying to get away from each other, like they couldn't bear to be part of the sentence that they created.
"Blaire? Did you see it? Are you okay?" I heard Sara asking. I could barely hear her over my own heartbeat. I quickly shut my computer, gasping for breath as I fell back onto my bed.
"Are you ready, Sara? Blaire?" My mother questioned. "Do you have all of your class Zoom links? Are there any extra supplies you might need? If you need any help, Sara, don't hesitate to call me. The office will be all social-distanced, so no one will mind."
"I'm fine, Audrey. Have a great time at work!" Sara said in a sickly sweet voice. It was the first day of online school since the pandemic had started. I was frustrated that I had to start high school online, but Sara didn't seem to mind, care, or notice. If anything, she still didn't believe that the pandemic really existed. Neither did my mother. Andrew was even more extreme, whining whenever I saw him about how his law firm had closed down for three months.
"I can't believe that they are making you go to school online. Whoever heard of online school? And those masks? Next thing you know, they'll make us wear swimming goggles whenever we leave the house!" My mother complained. "Well, I should probably leave now. Love you, Sara! See you later, Blaire." And with that, she walked outside and swung the door shut behind her. As soon as she pulled her car out of the driveway, Sara got up from the table where we were sitting and began to walk off.
"What are you doing?" I asked, stopping her in her tracks.
Sara giggled. "Are you seriously going to do this, Blaire?" She asked.
"Yes," I said, anger in my voice. "I'm starting high school this year, and I have college to be worried about. Honestly, you need to go to school too. Eighth grade isn't too early to be thinking about college." She only chuckled, so I strode off before she could say anything else.
Five hours later, I was seriously regretting not skipping school with Sara. My classes had been long, my new teachers didn't seem very nice, and I already had homework. On top of that, my eyes hurt like crazy from staring at my computer screen all day. Since quarantining had started, I had been diagnosed with dyslexia, and the longer I looked at the computer, the more the letters started swimming around, making my head pound and my eyes ache. Having had enough, I stood up and got a drink from the fridge. I I had been waiting to get out of the house and play basketball in my driveway since breakfast, but throughout the day, it had gotten colder and colder. The temperature was almost below freezing now. Instead of dashing outside, I walked onto the balcony, shivering as I paced around to get all of the exercise that I could.
Only several minutes had passed before it got too cold for me to stay out any longer. I was in the process of locking the sliding glass doors when I heard an odd-sounding noise from the small patch of trees behind the house.
I stepped inside and sat down at the table to start my homework, but I had barely opened my laptop when I heard the sound again. It was an odd, howling noise, like one might hear from a sick dog. Curious, I put on my boots and went outside, waiting to hear it again.
Ten minutes had passed, and all I had heard was the trees blowing in the wind, and the occasional squawking bird. Nothing looked different than it had looked before. I got up from my chair, silently screaming at myself for waiting for a sound I must have had only made up in my mind. But I had barely turned around when suddenly, I was knocked over from the side.
I looked around, and everything was black. The howling sound was even louder than before, so loud it felt like it was coming from inside of me. I was pushed to the ground, and only then did I see what was doing this to me- a giant black dog, practically the size of a school bus.
For a second, I practically started to laugh. Was this really my life? I had gone through the worst day of school, only to promptly be attacked by some huge mutant-panther. Was it really a panther? A monster, probably. Most likely a figment of my imagination. I was definitely going crazy.
The mutant panther/monster/imagination figment swiped at me again, bringing me back to reality. A reality where I was probably going to die at the hands of some mutant panther. Or monster. Or imagination figment. Did it really matter what it was, if I was going to die? There was no point in fighting. It wasn't like anyone would miss me.
Yet still… maybe in the future… Did I really want to miss out on going to college? Falling in love? Starting a family? You don't care. I told myself. It doesn't matter.
No. I realized. I do care. No matter how much I told myself not to, I would always care. I wanted to go to college. I wanted to fall in love. I especially wanted to start a family, so I could succeed where my mother had messed up, and raise a child in a better way than she had raised me. I looked up at the mutant panther above me, still trying to slash at me. What could I do about it? Could it even be killed? I had to do something.
Before I knew what was happening, a chill flooded through my body. The temperature around me seemed to drop to what had to be a record for an October day in North Carolina. I felt so angry, more furious than I had ever been in my life. All around me, I saw Sara, laughing in my face. Andrew, complaining about the stupidest things. And my mother, telling me that I was worthless, that I was my father's daughter, and that I would never amount to anything, just like he had.
Barely a few feet away from where I was standing, a crack opened into the ground.