CHAPTER 1
Hey there.
Here is the next instalment of Triton and Atlanta. Thank you for the five alerts/subscriptions, the favourite (thanks for that! :D) and the two reviews – courtesy of Buffering and mortalinstrumentsgurl1. Thank you for the support and sorry for the confusing parts.
If they hadn't reviewed, I would have updated tomorrow, so you have those two to thank for the early update!
Enjoy, and the disclaimer is in the Prologue (previous chapter) for those of you who didn't read the author's note.
New York, Present Time
Ella POV
Izzy, Clary and I drove towards the open doors of St Xavier's, brimming with people on the early Friday morning. Camille had said that this school potentially had the missing boys there and that we had the same schedule as them. Unfortunately, Izzy took over the wardrobe this morning and decided to punish us about our lack of a fashion sense through death by perfume inhalation. I mean, seriously.
I was wearing a cobalt-blue skin tight, thick camisole with spaghetti straps that was tucked into a floral print skirt that went to just below mid-thigh. I had a dark denim jacket on and some super cute black leather ankle boots with low heels. My hair was left down in its usual messy white-blonde curls with my grey eyes framed by peachy eye shadow and royal blue mascara that is to die for, even in my fashion deprived state.
Clary wore one of those emerald green Greek- style blouses with slits on top of the sleeves over light denim short shorts. She had silver hoop earrings and a Tiffany's silver necklace with a key on the end of it. Silver sparkly heels completed the look. Creamy eye shadow and brown mascara completed the look along with some dark red gloss.
Finally, Izzy wore a red blouse with sleeves that ended and belled out at the elbow. It was made of satin and had orange, pink and violet streaks every now and then. Underneath she had white short shorts with gold plain 8 inch stilettos. Her make-up was fairly heavy with red-pink eye shadow and blood red lipstick. She had gold dangly earrings in with red glass beads on the ends that she found at the bottom of the Grand Canal in Venice when we were checking out the submerged church in our half fish forms. Although our mission is to find the boys, there isn't much to do during the school holidays – Camille took us to many cultural sites – the canals in Venice, the coliseum in Rome, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace in London, the Parthenon in Athens, Sukho Thai in Thailand, the Terracotta Army and the Great Wall of China in China, the Aztec cultural sites in the Andes in Peru; and many more.
But God, this endless routine of rooting through the American cities is tedious now. First Miami, then Orlando - we even tried New Orleans - then Massachussets, LA, Atlantic City, San Francisco, Houston, Washington D.C., Seattle; now New York - the city that never sleeps.
I'm getting sick of moving around. If we don't find the boys here, I may call it quits. I mean, we've been looking for 10 years now. Enough is enough, right? Valentine had told us we had eighteen years, but that was a mistake on his part – they would be in college by then!
But apparently it is not enough for the rest of the Calypsaï...
But I do love the opportunities presented; me, Izzy and Clary are Nationals 1st, 2nd and 3rd for swimming, athletics, gymnastics and rowing. But we're a little short on money now; we had to make a quick exit from Seattle because we were spotted from a Yacht in fish form.
Flashback
Clary, Izzy and I had left Raffa and "Helsinki" cooking some seafood for dinner and had gone out to swim. The sky was cerulean blue with a few speckled grey clouds; a storm was coming.
Seattle in October isn't exactly warm, but in the water the Calypsaï were immune to the cold. The water was dark and deep, littered with holiday makers coming in on the chilly evening breeze. Fisherman were coming in from a day's trawl, and going out again with fluorescent green lights attached to the decks to attract squid and octopi from the depths.
Clary, Izzy and I hadn't known better when to go out – hadn't realised that the evening was the ocean's rush hour. A single yacht was moored around in a nearby "cove", but none of us saw it.
What we didn't know was that they were divers; with scuba equipment, black painted tanks and bright white lights to see the underwater activity at dusk. A man and a woman had entered the water with a splash that the three of us heard, but waved off as a wave crashing against the shoreline.
Suddenly, Clary cried out. The bright torch light had struck her eyes – now used to the murky depths – and momentarily blinded her, illuminating her bikini top, and brightly coloured tail covered with the hardened scales and poised spines, alerted to danger. Her red hair now glowed; the captain still on the yacht could now see her silhouette and threw a fine fishing net to try and catch this "bizarre species". Her sharp scales and spines thankfully sliced through the thin netting, but an underwater camera flash took us off guard. The scuba divers swiftly swam back to the yacht and had nearly boarded once again when I darted forward, snatched the camera and grazed both the scuba divers and the captain with my spines. One tiny graze from them releases a potent amnesiac – not strong enough to kill, but wipes the memory of the last 6 hours of both humans and Calypsaï.
We quickly returned home, to see Camille coming home from work and explaining what had happened to her. We hastily packed and left, to stop further investigation of our species if someone happened to remember or witness the events of the day.
End of Flashback
I was brought back to the present by the screeching tires as I parked the car. It lurched forward into the concrete parking space dramatically, but unfortunately Izzy was doing her eye make-up at the time. She started screeching and I knew I had seconds before an attack. Clary seemed to have the same idea because we both leaped out of the non-running car and raced towards the entrance of St Xavier's.
In the brief seconds I had to process the school before an ambush by Izzy, I noticed students steadily flowing towards the old, worn out school; sandstone walls, wooden window sills, grubby window panes, scuffed lime green linoleum floors. The high arching mahogany gates were wide open, meant to be welcoming. Leftover lunches were littered by the limestone steps.
Izzy also leaped out of our new black Porsche Carrera that she had insisted we buy, even with our shortage of money from the costly seven plane tickets from Seattle to New York. She was screaming bloody murder, although the mistake clearly wasn't that serious or she would have spent longer correcting it.
In our haste to get away from Izzy, we failed to see a clique of teenage girls tottering in their stiletto heels towards the entrance. Clary and I rammed into two of them; a pretty Asian girl with dark skin, hair and almond shaped dark eyes who wore a denim mini skirt and a white tube top, with at least 6 inch cream bow stilettos. The other girl was tall, about an inch shorter than me (so about 5'10"), with long platinum blonde hair and almost unnaturally blue eyes. She wore a baby blue bubble hem tube top that ended above her navel (which was pierced, might I add) with white denim short shorts that showed half her butt. They both wore miles to much make-up and screamed 'slut'.
Clary, Brunette, Blondie and I all fell over. Brunette gave us a cold glare and their friends scowled at us. Blondie wore a similar expression. I noticed a group of boys heading our way.
"Oh crap! I'm so sorry." I said. I knelt next to Brunette, seeing a graze on her knee, and held out my hand to help her up. That's when she slapped me in the face.
JACE POV
I saw two girls I didn't recognise barrel into Aline and Kaelie and started towards them. A third girl with black hair was jogging towards them, doing a remarkable job in heels that high.
The blonde girl knelt beside Aline who was glaring at her and offered her a hand. Aline went for the "subtle" approach and slapped her in the face.
The 'crack' rang through the parking lot and everyone fell silent. The blonde looked in the direction of where Aline's slap sent her head before very slowly turning her head towards Aline. Aline has a great body and looks but she is denser than a tree canopy, unfortunately. Kaelie is completely the opposite - amazing grades – so I wonder why she even acts like she does. Sometimes I wonder why I dated Aline.
The blonde said, in a scarily calm tone, "If you have any respect for yourself I would get off the ground to stop flashing all the boys. And if you ever, EVER, touch me again, I will utilise my black belt skills in martial arts. Capiche?" Aline laughed.
"Puh-lease. Skills? You're just a stupid slut who is jealous of us." Everyone gasped. BIG mistake.
"Her, the slut? And who said anything about you? My friend here is a black belt in karate, judo, Taekwondo and jujitsu, along with the art of the eight limbs. Do you know what I call girls like you? Bowling balls." Said the blonde's partner-in-crime, a redhead.
"Omigod, lol! Why the hell would you call us that?" Aline giggled.
"Because you're used to getting fingered and banged down an alley." the redhead replies smoothly. I have to admit, Aline and Kaelie just got stumped. Their mouths formed small 'O' s in shock and anger. You could hear the gasps, snickers and whispers throughout the lot. Aline and Kaelie stood up, gave the girls the finger, and stalked off into school, tottering as they went up the steep steps, followed by their loyal under dogs.
The girl with black hair ran up to the blonde and the redhead and gave them high fives. They grinned and turned towards Jordan, Jon, Alec, Sebastian, Simon and I looking slightly sheepish.
"Sorry, were they your girlfriends?" the blonde asked. I noticed a red slap mark in the shape of Aline's hand and instantly felt bad. You could see the indent of the ring she always wore on her hand printed on the girl's cheek.
"No, but you look like my next girlfriend." replied Seb. Smooth.
Everyone but the blonde rolled their eyes. She just looked at him with an eyebrow raised. He took a different approach.
"What's your name? I'm Sebastian Verlac." He offered a cheeky grin that warned he was not to be trusted around small children.
ISABELLE POV
"What's your name? I'm Sebastian Verlac." A hot tall guy with dark hair and eyes said to Ella.
"I'm Ella Naien. This is Isabelle Trueblood and Clarissa Fairchild." she replied.
"Call me Izzy, that's Clary," I said pointing to her.
"I'm Jace Wayland," a gorgeous boy with gold hair, eyes and skin said. So not my type though.
"Simi Lewis." a brown-haired, brown eyed nerdy looking kid said. He was pretty cute, though.
"Jonathan Morgenstern." a tall, dark and handsome boy with grey eyes and white blonde hair said.
"Alec Maciejowski." a boy with black locks and blue eyes said quietly.
"Jordan Kyle at your service." the last boy, with hazel eyes and brown hair, said. These boys could be the princes, except for Simi, Jace and Alec. Or not, but I can see why Camille thought they might be.
"Do you think you could show us round? We need to get our schedules." I asked.
"Sure thing, follow me." Jace said. He headed towards the gates. "By the way, I broke up with Aline - the brunette - just before you came, so that's why she's pissy. Kaelie - the blonde - is probably just PMSing."
Okay, so I was surprised. And curious. Why break up with her? Why insult them?
We dutifully followed them into the school, . Camille spoke the truth; we all had the same classes. Maths, biology, physics, music and lunch whizzed by. Next was PE. Now this I was looking forward to...
CLARY POV
I'm so excited for PE. Surely it will be one of the sports we're good at, right?
That Jace guy seemed a little arrogant but he had his head screwed on right. Plus he's got looks like a god!
Right. I totally did not say that...
Anyway, once in the locker rooms, I realised that we had forgotten our PE kit. There was no uniform, but a tall rusty iron locker was assigned to each student. Many had brought padlocks and decorated theirs, but Aline and Kaelie had bribed and bullied two freshman girls until they gave up their PE lockers for them. This just made me hate them even more.
"Uh, Maia, do you think I could borrow some shorts and shirts?" I asked.
Maia Roberts was Jordan's girlfriend and was a curvy girl with caramel coloured skin, chocolaty hair and eyes and a mischievous grin. She was one of the only girls in the school who stood up to Kaelie and Aline, who were currently talking about how "stupid" of Jace it was to break up with her, since she was "the sexiest girl in the school". I saw Kaelie raise an eyebrow slightly at this, but she said nothing. Kaelie was actually pretty smart – she was in my maths and physics classes and she was constantly raising her hand and supplying answers. Aline… Well, she answered the question 'What is the area of a rectangle?' with 'One times rectangle'. I think that speaks for itself.
Maia shook her head sadly in answer to my request and nodded her head towards Aline, now one of the last girls in the changing room. I reluctantly relayed my question to Aline.
Aline got a devilish smile on her face. Well shit. She handed me tiny fluorescent violet short shorts and a purple sports bra. I gulped. She gave Ella some blue shorts and a tank top that was miles too big from a small box in the corner of the room. Izzy had asked a slender girl named Elyse if she sould borrow hers before she left. Lucky…
We walked out of the changing rooms. Aline looked surprised, I had a C cup now and a faint six pack and really toned legs. Same build for Ella and you could see her curves still through the too-big shirt! It was obvious that she, being delusional, had thought that I was practically anorexic and Ella was fat.
Izzy was working an indigo tank top and some navy bike shorts that showed her muscle definition and killer curves. You could see the boys noticed, too.
Some of the nicer girls gave small smiles and some congratulations about showing up Aline. Elyse grinned and gave us a thumbs up, and Maia winked. Kaelie and Aline scowled more at their reactions.
We had to run two laps of the 400m athletics track as a warm up. Jesus, this is too easy! We overtook all the girls really fast. Granted, the boys - especially Jace and Seb - were quite fast. But in the second lap we were ahead of all of them. The looks on their faces were priceless! Jace and Seb piled on the pressure to catch us, so we went fairly hard for the last 200m. At the 100m mark they obviously were sprinting, so we let them catch up to us then shot ahead to the coach. The boys' jaws dropped. The coach turned to us and said, "You know the boys are some of the best in State?"
"Really? Me, Ella and Izzy are the top three in Nationals for swimming, athletics, rowing and gymnastics." I replied.
At this point everyone had caught up and their jaws hit the floor.
ELLA POV – AFTER SCHOOL
"Cami, Maggie, Raffa, Hels, we're home!" I yelled into the empty Brooklyn household. It housed ten and had a nice, spacious garden and six bathrooms. Raphael and Helen always kept the pantry, fridge and freezer fully stocked with hundreds of ingredients. Magnus was usually scouring the Internet and hacking schools' computers (don't do this at home kids) to find more information on the missing princes. Although our guardians were on different "teams", they got on amazingly well. It was great! Cami and Magz were even dating, since last year when Clary, Izzy and I sent them both love letters on Valentine's Day, supposedly from the other, and they kissed. Of course, they found out about the letters but, I quote, "Their love had been revealed".
But now the house was dark and quiet; something it never was. I slipped into the kitchen and there was a large pink sticky note taped to the fridge.
Ells, Iz, Clare -
Magz and I have gone to St. Xavier's to check it out, form a map, examine files; you know the drill. Raffa and Helsinki are in the study looking up the following:
Jonathan "Jace" Wayland
Jonathan "Jon" Morgenstern
Simon "Simi" Lewis
Alexander "Alec" Maciejowski
If you know these boys, please gather info on them. Once you've done homework and whatnot go for a swim, somewhere farther North, to test the waters.
- Cami
P.S: chocolate cake in fridge, leave at least 2 slices please! If there is none, then slap Raphael for me – I caught him raiding them earlier. Love you and I hope you had fun at school!
I read it out to the girls who nodded and smiled. We immediately raided the fridge for cake, and Izzy went and slapped Raffa anyway and when he demanded an explanation, Izzy replied innocently, "Cami said naughty Raffa was on a fridge raid and that he would get fat and end up wifeless." Of course it was a lie, but it was pretty entertaining to see Raffa call Cami and scream at her about it until she said, "Darling, you are wasting brain cells you can't afford to lose." Of course, she didn't mean it, but this was classic Camille-Raphael banter. It went on all. The. Time. Anyway, Izzy, Clary and I left and went to the kitchen to talk and discuss plans.
"So, we're going for a swim," Izzy said. I nodded and smiled.
"Yep, we're going for a swim."
The swim will be in the next chapter, and if you have any questions or comment please drop me a review or PM. Please, remember there is an actual person behind the computer screen, so constructive critsism is great but please, no bashing.
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-Physalie00
