5. Xinyue: I Messed With a Poison Spitting Hydra

I stood, there, breathing hard for a moment, still stunned. I kept standing like an idiot, alone in the vacant room, until an old blond lady in an old-fashioned dress came and started fussing over me.

"There you are Xinyue! How did you get here? Didn't I tell everyone to not go anywhere without my permission? I thought you were responsible! Madison said you just ran off without telling anyone!"

This old lady reminded me of overly stressed teachers. I had never seen her before. Who was she? And how on earth did she know my name?

"Um... Who are you?"

"Now, now, Miss Li, don't play dumb with me! I am your English teacher Mrs. Deer! I have been teaching you for the past month and certainly know you are intelligent enough to remember my name!"

Since when had I had a teacher named Mrs. Deer? As far as I was concerned, the only English teacher I had in America was Mrs. Johnson, until she blew up. I was still in shock about that. Had it really happened? Was I simply just hallucinating? Did my crackly old English teacher really just turn into a bloodthirsty Fury and attack me with fangs and claws and...

Well, before I could figure out what had happened, I had to play this carefully to make sure I didn't have to visit the neuropathy doctor again...

"I am sorry Mrs. Deer, I... I just had a flash back of my times in China, that's all."

Reasonable, right?

She looked at me weirdly, like she didn't buy my answer. Come to think of it, it really was rather ridiculous. Who ended up in some strange stray room just because of a flashback? But it was hard to make up a reasonable answer to something totally weird! Besides, I was still horrified.

You need to learn to calm down Xinyue. You don't need to visit the psychologist again for the eighth time. I clenched my fists, trying to regain control.

I shot Mrs Deer a stressful look, which must have earned some sympathy. She softened. "I'm sorry, Xinyue. Coming to America must have been so hard on you! Don't worry, though. Your English has been improving really quickly!"

Well, if she thought that, I guess I would just have to go with it. After all, it was a lot easier than making something up than forgetting it.

"Yeah..." I answered, hoping not to give away anything. Thoughts still whirled in my head. Slowly, a plan began to form...

On the way back to school, Madison kept on taunting me about how "Little Miss Perfect got lost". I guess Mrs. Deer felt sorry for me and told everyone that I got lost in the museum. I felt rather angry at that. Did she really have to make me look like a pathetic emotional loner?

And since when had our English teacher been Mrs Deer?

Well, I could not afford to worry about that now. My current problem was Madison.

"Do you want to fall into a fountain again?" I asked her. I inwardly smiled. My English was indeed getting better. Slowly, I found that I was beginning to lose the awkward Chinese accent, and gradually putting on the cool, posh American one. Yeah, I thought. I did live in America for the first two years of my life, after all.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, confused.

Weird. Now that I look more carefully, her fancy clothing that was soaked through less than an hour ago was now perfectly dry, like the fountain accident had never happened. I frowned. Was I really going crazy? No, Xinyue, a voice nagged at me. Carry out your plan.

"Oh, nothing, I just wanted to throw you down Niagara Falls," I told her. She was getting really annoying.

Before she could say anything else, the school bus screeched to a stop.

"What's happening?" Many students asked.

I craned my neck to look.

What I saw nearly made me scream.

We were being attacked by a ten-headed monster, which was blowing green poisonous acid all over the place. Where the poison hit, I saw the asphalt on the road melt into black gunk. Steam hissed into the air as the hydra bared its fangs. I remembered , how she imploded into yellow powder, it would be nice if this thing could...

I stared in shock. Was this really real?

"Everyone! Get off the bus!" I yelled on top of my lungs. We had to evacuated from a bus once in China (long story) not so long ago, and thankfully I still remembered the instructions my teachers gave me.

Even the teachers listened. Jeez, I thought they practice bus-evacuation drills in America! I had no idea what everyone else saw, but they all had the sense to flood to the exits. Students screamed, pushing each other to get to the front. Teachers yelled incoherently. The driver was nowhere insight, maybe he got out first, or maybe he just got incinerated by the monster. The whole place dissolved into chaos. I guess drills are not the same when you have a enormous hissing monster in front of you.

As the last person got into safety, the whole bus exploded from the acid in a cloud of greenish-black fumes. I gagged, all the wind knocked out of me. Please, I prayed. Please don't let the weird snake head monster turn towards us...

But of course, luck hated me.

When the scaly dragon/snake thing turned, all of its heads made eye contact with me. Its emerald eyes gleamed with intelligence and hate, dark voids that would swallow me whole. Just its gaze sent a paralysing chill rippling through me.

At that moment, I knew. Like Mrs. Johnson, the monster was sent after me. But why?

Perfect timing. The necklace I had been holding a death grip on suddenly disappeared. Even if I did have horrible fortunes, it was still cruel to lose your only chance of survival the second you knew the monster in front of you was going to attack.

Then, something flashed through my mind. I remembered what this thing was called.

A hydra, from Greek mythology.

I cursed. Great, now I would be killed by something that should not even exist.

The Hydra blew acid at me. I leaped aside just in time to avoid the column of green poison. Where I had been standing just a split second ago, was a burning chunk of dissolving asphalt . Students screamed. Dimly I registered them running around in a panic, faces white with shock and fear.

But no. I needed to keep my focus. How on earth do I kill this thing?

Acid... Maybe I could use it to kill the hydra.

Maybe I could distract it...

I circled the monster for a while. It snarled at me, fangs dripping. I did my best not to scramble away like a mouse, or show any of the throbbing fear that rang through my ears. It spat poison again, and I dodged. I studied it carefully. How could I bring it down?

Just as the jaws of the head closest to me started to open, I did one of the stupidest things in history.

Instead of running away - something a sane person would do, I ran towards the monster as it began to blow poison.

Using one of the confused heads as a jump board, I leaped over the creature. One of its other heads whipped around, following me.

The acid did what it was supposed to do. The monster's heads were clearly not thinking the same thing. The first head blew poison towards me, just as the second head was turning. It scorched the second head. As the third spat, it melted three curious heads trying to see what's happening.

Four down, six to go, I slowly counted. Could I afford to try the same strategy again?

Apparently, this Hydra didn't learn its lesson, because it made the same mistake again. This time, three more heads got melted into stumps that didn't reform.

With only three heads left, I couldn't use the same strategy. I had used the monster's inability to move well to my advantage, but now it was gone, and I had to come up with a plan quickly before the furious monster killed me.

My brain that had made such a brilliant plan before refused to think. Panic bubbled inside me as the beast turned toward me, all three remaining heads dripping and snarling. Think! I told myself. Concentrate!

But the only thing I thought of was: Run!

I ran, dodging acid with every step, I hurtled back the way I had come, not caring where I would end up at, as long as it was far, far away from this monster. I needed to get away! I needed to survive! My thoughts dissolved. All I could think of was forward. I had to get away before the monster killed me!

Then, a silver car pulled up, right next to the Hydra. I silently cursed. Whichever idiot who was driving the car really should notice where she parked! Now, innocent people were going to get hurt because of me. Stay in the car! I wanted to yell. Don't get out!

Just as I was opening my mouth, the car door opened. and a woman stepped out.

My heart froze.

It was my mother.

Before I could register my shock, she pointed a stick at the monster and shouted something I couldn't make out. Bright flames danced across the Hydra, and it disintegrated to dust.

I gaped. What had just happened?

So far, I had been attacked by my English teacher who had turned into a half bat Fury and tried to kill me. Someone I had never met before had told me she had been teaching me English for the past month. My bus had burned down. A poison-spitting hydra had tried to kill me, and my mother, the one who had brought me up and I had known all my life, could summon flames.

Was I crazy?

I DON'T OWN POJ! forgot to do that for a while. oh AND I BOUGHT THE HOUSE OF HADES I'M SO HAPPY! I begged my mom forever till she bought it for me.

Anyways to answer your question Ivy, I wanted Xinyue's mom to have magical powers for no reason at all.

PLEASE REVIEW! I wanted to know what other's think about my story and how I can improve it.

Also, question: Should I write in someone else's POV sometimes?