Oh my gosh, I had this all typed up and perfect, but then I accidentally clicked the wrong button and it all disappeared! Now I have to retype it all! I'm sorry to anyone who is awesome enough to be reading this! You are amazing, thank you so much!
I OWN NOTHING!
Ella, Lauren, and I all sat down around the fire pit while the rest of the huntresses filed out of their tents. After a quick breakfast of fruit and water, Lady Artemis walked out, handed an important looking paper to Thalia, greeted us, and then walked back into her own tent. The paper looked like a list, but I couldn't be sure.
Thalia read the paper, and then nodded to herself. She started talking, pointing at a hunter, and then reading something off of the paper. I guess it really was a list.
When it was finally Lauren's turn, I was shocked when she pointed to both of us at the same time.
"You two will be heading to a small town in Florida called . . . Arcadia. There's a twelve-year old demigod there whose birthday is in a few months. Lauren, you teach Nicole how things work in the Hunt, and both of you need to find this demigod before the monsters do." Where the Hades is Arcadia? How are we supposed to find a demigod there in the first place? Do they know whose daughter she is?
"Well, this is going to be fun. Do you even know where Arcadia, Florida is?" Lauren shook her head in answer to my question, and I was glad I wasn't the only one who never passed geography in school.
"Alright, everyone who's going out today go get ready and meet the rest of us out here in five minutes. If your name wasn't called, then stay here until we get back." Lauren and I ran back to our tent and got a backpack together. We packed a few snacks like power bars, an extra jacket in case it was cold, and of course, my iPod. We had plugged it in before breakfast, so now the battery was only half-way dead. It should last long enough.
We met the other girls in front of the hearth (Hestia would be proud), and we all walked into the forest. We started as a group, but every now and then a Huntress would walk off on their own and disappear. My guess was that we could get anywhere we wanted to from this one patch of trees. Note to Self: Never go wandering around in here on my own!
Finally, Lauren said that it was time for us to leave the group and I followed her as we split off from the silent huntresses. I was kind of glad to leave the quiet non-talking girls behind and set off on our own.
We exited the trees via forest path and appeared on the side of a road with the sun beating down on us. It was the middle of December and it had to be 87° Fahrenheit out here! Geez doesn't Apollo own a calendar?
"Ohmigods; It is burning down here! I guess we won't need that extra jacket we packed." She was right of course, but in spite of myself, I grinned.
"Why are you smiling? We'll never find that half-blood here!" She had a point, but I was still beaming from ear to ear.
"True, but we're in Florida Lauren; it's always hot down here. You have to expect that and the people here will be talking about how cold it is where we just were at camp. Come on, smile; we'll find her. Besides, we're in the Sunshine State, baby!" You couldn't help be happy down here, maybe that's the real reason for the state's nickname. It would explain why Texas is sometimes hotter, but Florida is still the Sunshine State. I've always wondered about that.
"Okay, but we still don't know where to find her." She smiled at my enthusiasm, but then sobered up again as she started talking about our reason for being here in the first place. Lauren was really trying hard to make this a serious conversation, but she was failing miserably.
"Well, aren't you supposed to be showing me how the Hunt works? Go on, teach!" I teased her to try to lift her mood, and I think it might have worked a little bit, but not as much as I had been trying for.
"Fine, rule one: be prepared for anything, you never know what might be lurking around the corner. Rule two: don't be overly perky, missy! You're sunnier than those Apollo kids at that stupid camp of theirs. Rule number three: Don't get yourself involved with a guy in any situation. Lady Artemis hates it if we have to depend on boys at all. Rule number four: um, uh, follow the first three rules and try your best to stay alive." She didn't have a fourth rule, so she hesitated before saying it. Way to be a smart child of Athena Lauren!
"Ha! You so didn't have a fourth rule, but I will try my best to follow those rules and stay alive to the best of my abilities." I had to rub it in that she didn't know the fourth rule, because I don't often get a chance to gloat. Lauren just sighed and continued talking.
"Most likely, she'll be in middle school, so we should find a bus stop and start looking there; follow me." She walked off and I trailed behind her.
After about a minute, I got bored so I pulled my iPod out of our backpack that was strapped over Lauren's back. She didn't even pause, and I put the ear buds into my ears. Putting Keep Your Mind Wide Open on repeat, I started to nod in perfect syncopation to the beat and even stepping in time. I guess once a marching band geek, always a marching band geek.
"Wait." Lauren stopped so suddenly that I ran into her. I couldn't her warning over the music that was blaring into my ears, so she pulled my headphones off of me. I was about to protest when she pointed over to the side of the street; I looked in that direction and saw what I immediately recognized as a bus stop.
There were two kids sitting off to the side away from everyone else; they looked like they were brother and sister and I was almost positive that they were the demigods here. I recognized the rejection from normal kids from my own personal experiences.
"Look at their eyes; they're forest green which means that they are most likely a son and daughter of Demeter. Plus, the girl has a picture of a flower on her shirt and they're sitting in the dirt." I hate to admit it, but Lauren was completely right. That's when I was starting to feel unloved, if it was that easy to figure out whose child you are, then why haven't I been claimed yet?
We stood off the side and watched them discreetly, not wanting to appear as stalkers. What we were really afraid of, was that monsters might reach them before we could. Since Lauren took my iPod away from me, I got extremely bored extremely quickly.
"Hi! I'm Nicole, what are your names?" I admit it might seem a little strange to those poor kids, but I looked about their age, so I don't think it mattered that much.
"Hey, I'm Taelor and this is my brother, Zackary. He goes by Zack; we're fraternal twins, but I'm older according to our dad." Zack glared at Taelor when she said she was older, but didn't actually say anything.
"Okay, so you guys live with your dad?" I don't want to freak them out to where they won't answer my question; but I really need to know more about them.
"Yes, we do." Zack is the complete opposite of Taelor. Taelor was really happy and inviting, while Zack was almost downright hostile. Maybe it's because they're twins, or maybe that's just the way they've always been.
"Oh, that's cool! So how old are you guys, and when's your birthday?" I really didn't want to seem like a stalker, so I probably shouldn't ask where they live just yet.
"We're twelve, but our birthday is in around three months on the first day of spring; March 20th!" Wow, so their birthday is the first of spring and they live with their mortal dad; I'm guessing that they really are children of Demeter. I glanced over to where Lauren was standing a few feet away listening to or conversation and trying to find things that I might have missed; she had that smile on her face that she only got when she was right.
"Well, that's awesome!" I left it at that so I didn't scare them, but I probably shouldn't have bothered because Zack was staring at me like he already hated me.
"Now that you could probably write a very short biography about us, what about you; the only thing you told us about yourself, is that your name's Nicole. Why don't you answer your own questions, starting with 'who do you live with'?" I guess I was right, he was definitely mad at me.
"Okay, but you probably won't believe me when I say that I live with-" I was cut off by Taelor's scream as she was staring over my shoulder. Zack and I both turned around to see what had scared her so badly, and Zack immediately moved to try to block his sister from the two dracaenas that were fighting with Lauren about five yards away from us.
"Oh, STYX!" I cursed, and started looking around for something I could use as a weapon, or at least something that would distract them while Lauren killed them. I was turning around, when I felt something on my back. I reached my hand up to feel what it was, and it turned out that it was a silver bow and a quiver of arrows.
I pulled the bow off my back and held it in my hand while I got an arrow notched. I tried my best to get a good shot at the monsters without accidentally hitting Lauren, so I took aim and let the arrow go.
Surprisingly, the arrow flew straight through the air and hit the dracaena that was about to stab Lauren, right in the stomach. She disintegrated into a pile of golden dust, while her fellow turned to me. The other monster started running at me with a knife, and all I had was a bow and some arrows that won't help much in close combat. I was doomed!
All of a sudden, a rock came flying at the dracaena and hit her square in the head. She turned away from me and faced the direction that the rock had come from, and I took those few seconds to shot an arrow at her left hip. The small advantage I had, doubled as an arrow came flying at her from the other side of her, hitting her in the right shoulder.
She went up in a puff of dust and I saw Lauren standing there with her own bow out and a smile on her face. I grinned and then turned to where the rock came from. I saw . . . ZACK! He must have seen the look on my face because he shrugged
"Hey, if you two had gotten yourselves killed, then we wouldn't have an explanation as to what just happened." He said this just as blunt and straightforward as Lauren and I always say things. He would fit in perfectly; too bad he's a guy. Oh, darn it! Wasn't that rule number three that Lauren was talking about, being in debt to a boy?
"Well, that's true, but I think we better involve your dad in this conversation too. It involves him deeply." Zack and Taelor both nodded at my suggestion and lead us away to where their house is. Lauren caught up to me and handed me my iPod. I gratefully put the song Dynamite on, and put the headphones back in my ears again.
"That was an amazing shooting job Nicole! You haven't even used the bow yet, and you got in a perfect shot!" I hadn't really thought of that, but yeah, it's true. I hadn't even held a bow and arrows before now!
"It just felt right; maybe it's a Hunter thing." I had convinced myself of that, but Lauren was shaking her head.
"No, it's definitely not a Huntress thing; because I didn't have that good an aim when I first joined." Hey, I finally found something that I was good at besides band! I was saved from having to actually say anything though, because Taelor and Zack had stopped in front of a white and blue painted house with a beautiful garden in front of it.
Now it's the hard part, trying to convince them all that we're not crazy!
Did you like it? It's not as good as the first time I wrote it all, but it was the same plot. Please review! Thanks!
~monkeypicklez