Annakeyla ~

"Home sweet home," my dad said to us when we walked in.

It was one of those homes split into two. This half was ours. The other half belonged to some crazy lady with about four hundred dogs. I thought old ladies kept cats all around their homes?

Guess not this one...

Note to self: stay away from my neighbor.

Other than that, it was a pretty nice place. I mean, it didn't have those cutesy ugly blue shutters that Adriana's house did. I mean, just no. I will never ever love the Barbie doll house thing. In fact, when I was younger, I used to rip apart the Barbie dolls Kara used to have. Zeus demigoddesses always start out very girly, but I changed Kara's mind.

Warrior athlete girl was the way to go.

Anyway, the townhouse part we had was pretty big. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms (perfect, I would never share with Leo, what if he saw my tampons?), one big kitchen with the dining table in it, a nice big living room with a very nice HD television so I could watch my St. Louis Cardinals beat up on the New York Yankees in HD, and to top it off, an in ground pool out back. Dad told me he had that put in for me to practice. I smiled appreciatively at him and thanked him.

"You're coach is having you train somewhere in Long Island on Sundays through Thursdays. After school during the week, and ten A.M. to two P.M. on Sundays. She says she'll email you with the details and such, so I'd keep you're laptop on you," Artemis told me with a smile and wink.

"Laptop?" I said. I didn't own a laptop. Unless... oh no she didn't.

Artemis pulled out a lime green Apple laptop from her silver drawstring bag (which was really tiny and should be unable to hold anything as big as a laptop, but I guess I shouldn't underestimate Artemis's magic).

"Ohmygods," I said to her when she handed it to me. "Thank you!" I said with a huge smile on my face.

"You're very welcome," she told me with a kind smile on her face. She looked like a ghost in her own moonlight from outside.

"We'd best be going," Poseidon said, "Good luck, my children."

"Thanks, Dad," Leo and I said simultaneously.

Poseidon left with Artemis following but she stopped and said to me, "Be careful of Adriana's ring."

Er... what?

"Okay...?" I said as she walked away and disappeared into the moonlight as my dad disappeared into a puddle of sea water.

She gave me a laptop and she's pure genius, so I guess Adriana's ring must be a little weird or something.

I turned to my brother who was already sitting in front of the TV watching the Florida Mariners' (his favorite baseball team) spring training.

'Do you think they have hott girls around here other than that Adriana girl? She had some nice bo—

"Get a life, you pervert," I told him as I walked into the biggest room, which was decorated in all of Leo's stuff. It was a total football room, covered in stuff about the Indianapolis Colts (the football team he wants to be on because they've won so many super bowls), blue and white walls for the Colts' team colors and a Peyton Manning jersey hanging up on the wall next to a shelf with a football signed by Peyton himself. I will never forget that football game mom took us to when we were little. In fact, I think I still have my little pink Colts jersey from then.

"Whoa, whoa, why do you get the biggest room?" I yelled to him.

"You got biggest room last house, Pippy," he yelled back to me.

I muttered some expletives under my breath as I came back out to them room and punched him hard in the arm. "Quit calling me that, punk," I said, sounding a little like Ares's son Phobos, the god of Fear. I hated that kid, too. He knows my fear of snakes, little bastard.

"You sound like Phobos," Leo said aloud laughing, as if he could read my mind.

"I know I just thought of that too. But shut it," I sighed with a small smirk.

"You're room is the second in the hallway. It's the second biggest, I didn't give you the smallest," he said, mocking me towards the end.

"You're really annoying today, did you know that?" I told him.

"I'll tell dad to make your room the smallest," he threatened with a smirk.

"Ya, cause you can't take me on yourself, you have dad do everything for you, you little—ah!"

Leo tackled me in the hallway and pinned me on the ground. I kicked him in the shin (I luckily still had my Nikes on, see I told you they came in handy!) and we kept throwing punches at each other.

He went to punch me and I grabbed his fist, spun up on him and flipped him over my shoulders, his legs taking forever to land.

"Long-legged freak!" I yelled at him.

"Flat chested swimmer girl!" he yelled at me. I gasped and looked down at me B-cups.

"I'm not flat chested you merda!"

I bent backwards to avoid his punch and then he kicked me backwards and I fell on the ground. I tried to do a kip to get back up, but my brother was faster than I thought. He put his foot on my stomach and didn't push down that hard—yet.

"I win. Take back everything you said about me and I won't make you smash the pie in your face and I'll take back everything I said about you. Deal, little sister?"

"I'm older," I hissed.

He laughed at me. "I said is it a deal or not?"

I considered it. "I get bigger bathroom."

"Then you still have to smash the pie in your face."

This was our tradition, whenever we fought; the loser had to smash a pie or cake in their face. We've had it going since we were twelve which was, oh gods, five years ago now? Gods, it has.

"Deal, I'll just take a shower after," I said, shrugging, which kind of hurt since I was on the ground.

He smirked in triumph and released his foot off my stomach.

I stood up, dusting myself off, and opening the fridge filled with goodies. Always have Poseidon fill your fridge and pantry. He gave you Oreos, Doritos, pies, cakes, ice cream... you name the unhealthiest food and it was there.

"The pumpkin pie, I think," Leo said with his cocky, victorious grin.

"But that's my favorite kind of pie!" I yelled at him in exasperation, my eyes widening in a pleading way, even though I was so mad I could shove my favorite pie in his face.

"Then I guess the biggest bathroom goes to me too..." he said cockily.

I growled at him and took the cover off the pumpkin pie.

"Wait I need to record this," Leo said grinning, looking for his phone.

"Screw you," I told him, smashing the pie in my face gently so I wouldn't ruin it too badly. I loved this pie. It was orange, pumpkin, cinnamon-y and delicoussss!

"Aw man, I just found it too! You couldn't have waited ten seconds?" Leo said laughing, "You look ridiculously orange. I think you over did your spray tan, sis."

I laughed. "Shut up, Leo!" I said through my laughter.

He grinned. "Go take a shower. I'll eat your pie."

"Don't eat it all!" I yelled at him, "I will eat your Coconut Crème pie if you do!"

He looked horrified. "I'll just have a bite then."

"That's what I thought," I said, shutting the door to the bathroom. Once I caught a look of myself in the mirror, I started laughing hysterically. I looked like I just put bright orange Proactive serum on my face.

"I told you that you over did your spray tan, Key!" Leo yelled to me.

"Shut"—laugh—"Up!" I said, still laughing.

I washed my face and got in the shower, turning on my favorite song (ya, the shower had a place for your iPod isn't that awesome?), Strawberry Swing by Coldplay.

'"You are the only exception, ya, you are the only exception, and I'm on my way to believin' it..."' My alarm went off singing The Only Exception by Paramore.

Ugh. People around here are crazy making school start at eight o'clock. I can't wake up at 6:30 A.M.

I rolled out of bed and took in the beautiful sight of my picture perfect room for the third time and smiling.

It was a pale teal/sea green with white trim around it. The carpet was a sand like color, making me feel like I was at the beach. There were light blue and lime green polka dots all over my wall, and then on the part of the wall over my bed there was my prized possession—my gold medal from the U.S. Championship swimming medley. I competed against the country's top swimmers and won gold.

I wanted a gold Olympic medal to go with that baby.

There was a huge blown up picture of a beautiful sunset on a beach somewhere in Greece on one of my walls, and sand dollars surrounded my room as a border near the ceiling.

I smiled and tore open my overflowing closet, grabbing my white skinny jeans, light blue Under Armour sweatshirt, and navy blue American Eagle Owl t-shirt (I told Athena I had to get it, of course). Looking at my shoes, I decided to grab my furry black Ugg boots. It matched the Under Armour symbol on my sweatshirt anyway.

I walked into my huge bathroom that had those fancy sinks that looked like giant bowls for a sink. It was an ornate white color bowl sink thing. The mirror had lights over it like lights of those on a movie set and the bathroom was a pale spring green with everything else white. It was perfect for me: calm, relaxing, pretty in its own way and soothing.

I needed that.

I threw my hair in a half ponytail clip, threw some mascara and eyeliner on, and walked out of the bathroom to make breakfast. It was only 7 o'clock, according to my phone (which was a Samsung Impression). I still had plenty of time and Leo will probably be watching ESPN—

No Leo on the couch.

That idiot slept in! He's going to be late on the first day! Stupid, lazy, slacker Leo!

I barged into Leo's room and pushed him out of his bed and onto the floor. He woke up as soon as he hit the ground.

"Dammit, Keyla was that really necessary?" he said in a groggy, annoyed voice.

"Get up, you idiot, you're gonna be late to school!"

"Who cares about school?" Leo said, throwing on a shirt for my sake.

I groaned and threw a pillow at him. "There is only one car, remember?" I said, ticked off.

"Nuh-uh. I got myself a ride," he said with a conceited smile.

"How did you manage to do that? We only just got here yesterday!"

"Keyla, Keyla, don't you know? I know hott girls all over the world. I got a ride with sexy Vikki Adura. She has really nice legs..." he said, trailing off and probably thinking about all the dirty things he could do with the girl.

"Ugh. You disgust me," I told him walking out.

"Love ya too, little sis!"

"I'm older!" I yelled back and I heard him laugh as he shut his door and blasted his Ludacris CD.

I grabbed some money for school lunch (hopefully they had something good otherwise I might use that changing spell Hecate taught me), made myself a Jimmy Dean sausage breakfast sandwich for breakfast (and stole an Oreo as I waited for it to finish), grabbed my bag and went out the door to my sleek yellow Mitsubishi Eclipse.

Ya, so maybe I'm not allowed to drive by myself yet since I only had a permit, but oh well!

I took off to school, speeding a little when I realized it was 7:40 A.M.

***

The first bell had rung when I finally parked. I ran into school, throwing my blue American Eagle tote bag on my shoulder.

I went to the guidance office and got my schedule and locker. I had pre-Calc first with Ms. Sunkes! Ugh. At least I had AP History and Arts & Greek Mythology, my favorite subjects. The lady at the guidance office, Mrs. Brotista, gave me a pass so I wouldn't be marked late to class.

I threw all my stuff in my locker as quick as possible, and carried my textbook, math binder, and graphing calculator to room 208.

Ms. Sunkes already had begun to teach her lesson when I walked in.

"Annakeyla Castillo?" she said to me with a warm smile. She was old and shaky, but she looked like must've been really pretty once. She had dark brown hair streaked with places of gray and brown eyes like mud.

"Ya, sorry," I said, handing her the pass.

"Not a problem, dear, take a seat over there," she said, pointing with a shaky hand.

"Okay," I said. I forced myself not to freeze when I saw Adriana. She was glaring at me with a death stare but I expertly made it look like it didn't faze me. I was used to doing that.

I also noticed a water nymph with strawberry blonde hair and misty green eyes. She had long, thick eyelashes, a well developed chest, cherry red lips, tan skin, and red freckles splattered on her round face. She was wearing a purple v-neck shirt that revealed a little too much, light denim skinny jeans, and purple gladiator sandals. She smiled real prettily at me when I sat next to her where Ms. Sunkes had put me. All the guys seemed to look at me and her and, if I could read emotions pretty well, which I could, that ticked off Adriana even more and probably gave my identity away, as if my name didn't. Goddess of the beach is what my name meant; Anna meaning goddess and Keyla meaning beach.

If she knew about gods and demigods and all, I'm pretty sure she can put two and two together. The question was, would she kill me in school?

"Hey, I'm Misty," the water nymph said to me, her eyes widening when I met her gaze. "Oh!' she exclaimed and then leaned in and said softly, "You're Lord Poseidon's demigod twin daughter aren't you? Ohmygods, it's so nice to meet you!" she said.

"Ya, thanks," I said to her. Thanks for marking me to be killed by Adriana, Misty. Good gods.

Oh well. At least she seemed nice. I know nymphs aren't generally very smart, but I can live with that. I needed someone to hang out with anyway. Besides the guys who can't seem to take their eyes off my ass. I wonder if anyone would notice if I incinerated them...

Ugh. One hour. I can make it through one hour.

I looked back cautiously at Adriana to see her still staring me down, hoping to burn a hole through me or something. I swear it was like looking at Artemis's sister. I know Genetics was a really weird and complicated thing, but gods, I could've sworn Artemis's daughter was a mini clone of her. The only difference was that Adriana had brown hair with a silvery tint to it, while Artemis had silver blonde hair.

Where was my stupid brother?

"Where's your brother?" Misty asked me. Sheesh, could everyone read my mind today?

"I wish I knew. He said he was getting a ride with some Vikki girl or something."

"Vikki Adura?" Misty said, raising her eyebrows.

"ya, I think that's her. Why, what's she like?"

"Just keep and eye on her. She's too pretty for own good," Misty said with a scowl, clearly not liking this Vikki girl.

"'Kay thanks, I will, totally," I said, continuing to take the notes that Ms. Sunkes was giving. I realized a little too late if I wanted to go to a good college for architecture and interior designing, I had to have pretty good grades. Not that my grades were bad before they just weren't great. I mean they were in like the 80's, some (like History, English and Mythology) low 90's, but that wasn't going to get me into colleges like Oxford or Boston University, where I wanted to go.

Five minutes left. Gods, Adriana is still glaring at me! I had the urge to punch the girl, being so prejudiced and judgmental when she didn't even technically know me yet. I loved Artemis like a second mother though, so I restrained myself; with difficulty.

I didn't know how I was gonna befriend this chick when we both pretty much didn't like each other already. But I wasn't showing it. At all.

The bell rang and it took me a while to collect my stuff, so Misty said she'd see me in Study Hall, which we'd discovered I also had with her. The last people in the room were Adriana and me. Go figure. Guess I should try and make a move to befriend her now right?

Not on your life.

"I'm here!" Leo announced, walking into the math room with his dark glasses, white Armani Exchange graphic t-shirt, dark denim jeans, designer Nikes, and cocky relaxed expression. He grinned when he saw me and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Oh, well, you're just a little late Leo," I told him, annoyed.

"Oh good," he said, relaxing a little bit, but still holding his lazy, cocky, conceited grin, "I hate math."

I sighed and stood up. "What do you have next?" I asked him.

"Study hall, of course. Vikki and I are going to go out during it though, since it's a free period, wanna come?"

I snickered. "Ya thanks, but no thanks, little brother. Have fun," I told him.

He shrugged. "Suit yourself. How about you, gorgeous? You wanna come?" he said regarding Adriana as he looked at her up and down, clearly liking what he was seeing.

She gave him the dirtiest look ever. "Go get laid," she said to him as she walked out past us. He looked at her backside as she walked out and whistled.

"That was Adriana you idiot," I told him, now annoyed more than ever.

"Ya, I know. She's hott. I think I like this place, hott girls, city life, partying... I love it here."

I rolled my eyes and met up with Misty in the halls to go to Study Hall.

"Ohmygods, so you know that Adriana Lee girl?" Misty said to me when we sat at the back circular table. At least five guys were sitting with us. Ugh. I just wanted Alec, so they can try all they want, not happening.

"Ya, what about her?" I said.

"I think she has a knife in her boot!" Misty whispered, "She's so punk looking. Is she an Ares demigoddess?" she whispered the last sentence to me.

"I have no idea, but I don't think so," I told Misty.

It didn't surprise me that Adriana carried a knife though. She was the daughter of a warrior goddess, and they tend to carry around weapons. She did seem pretty heavy duty biker style though, with her black leather jacket, dark jeans, and silver steel toed boots.

"I'll protect you from the Adriana girl, babe," one of the guys said to Misty. He had dark brown hair, brown eyes and a seriously hott muscular body. But he was no Alec.

"Ya me too," the blonde guy said, turning his blue eyes on me. "Will protect you too, Annakeyla."

I smiled. "Thanks, but I don't think we'll have to worry about Adriana. She doesn't seem like the serial killer type."

'I dunno, she's a little creepy even though she's kinda hott," the curly red head said. He had cute light blue eyes, pale skin and cute curly red/brown hair.

Brunette boy shrugged.

'You guys didn't introduce yourselves to Annakeyla, rude," Misty said, hitting them all playfully.

"I'm Jon," brunette boy said.

"I'm Eric," blonde boy said.

"I'm Ryan," curly haired boy said.

"Nice to meet you guys," I said politely. Misty smiled at me prettily.

I still didn't know what to think of Adriana Lee, and I had a feeling I'd definitely have to deal with her more later on during the day.

I've gotta find a way to befriend her to get my mom back and save Artemis's butt.