From Twin Fangirls To Demigod?

Chapter 6

Twice As Suckish

Ashley's POV:

The good thing about being a daughter of Poseidon? You can breathe underwater and your wounds are instantly healed. The bad thing? Oh, who am I kidding? There isno bad thing!

My sister and I reached the sword and were almost above water, when I heard something, like the sound you hear when you flush a toilet. Except … it was everywhere. I turned my head to see the entire ocean open up like a gigantic mouth, sucking in the ocean floor, sea mammals, fish, and entire coral reefs. I realized with renewed horror, that it would be usin that whirlpool of darkness if we didn't act soon enough.

I grabbed Selena's arm, since she was still gawking at the widening black mouth. I scanned the water, when suddenly, something wrapped around my ankles. I looked down to catch the sight of seaweed tightening around my legs, right up to my knees. Selena was cutting her green attackers with the sword from the hot blonde bad boy, but it wasn't working. The seaweed just grew in strength each time she managed to cut through its thick leafy skin.

My eyes shot up and I met Percy's. An understanding passed between us even through the clear film of the top of the Sound. He nudged the black-haired girl beside him, who acknowledged us for maybe the first time. She didn't seem very happy about it, but Percy dragged her into the water with him.

They swam toward us and Percy tugged on the winding seaweed. He struggled but couldn't break it—even though he was still strong and invincible from his Achilles' heel. The girl frowned, deep in thought—if a Poseidon daughter couldbe deep in thought.

Suddenly, I had an idea. A crazy and stupid idea, even for me. But, this was one that could work.

I watched a fish glide through a coral reef. A sharpcoral reef. I felt myself grin like a mad man and gave my sister a nudge with my elbow. She looked to the bright pink reef and stared at me like I was crazy—which I probably was.

Before Percy or the new girl could stop me, I swam to the reef. I slowly placed my legs under a dagger-like sliver of pink coral and kicked upward. The seaweed was cut—and for some odd reason, it didn't reform. I realized as I started to pull it away, that this wasn't regular seaweed. It was … what's the word? Enchanted.

Enchanted seaweed. Wow, never thought I'd say that before.

After I finally cut myself out, I dragged Selena to the coral reef and got her out, too. Percy and the new girl were holding onto a coral reef to our left, trying their best not to float away into the awaiting runway-sized whirlpool to who-knows-where.

We floated back to top, and Percy was practically throwing me onto the deck. He pulled himself up and told me, "Remind me to never swim with you. No—scratch that. Remind to never let you swim alone, because if you do, you'll get sucked into a whirlpool and end up hanging out with a blonde freak."

I put my hand over my heart. "Aw, thanks, Perce. You care!"

He rolled his eyes but ruffled my hair like an older brother does to their idiotic sibling when they say something stupid.

Chiron stood off to the side of the crowd, shifting his gaze between my sister and me. His million-year-old eyes looked wearier than ever before as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He turned away and began to trot toward the Big House—to inform the gods, for sure.

The crowd began to filter out slowly. I caught the glinting blue eye of Travis Stoll and I immediately got this butterflies-in-my-stomach feeling. He gave me a lopsided smile before his younger brother, Connor, bumped into him, causing Travis to trip and land into a mud puddle, soaking his clothes and making him look like a complete fool—only I'd seen Connor purposely trip him. I gave Connor a dirty look and it caused him to fake surprise, as if he were saying, You're accusing me? Why I Never!

Selena grabbed my arm, and told me, "Stop making googley eyes with a Stoll brother, Ash. We have to IM Dad… er, Henry."

That snapped me out of my scowling contest with Connor. I turned to face her, and said, "Okay. Lead the way."

Percy left us in the Poseidon cabin for privacy so that we could call Da—Henry. Selena tossed a golden drachma through a veil of mist, and began to recite the saying for the goddess of the rainbow: "O, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering."

The mist shimmered and Henry's worried face rippled in front of us. He was arguing with someone on his cell phone, ending the call with a final, "Fine!" and ended the call with a sharp click. He looked up and his eyes widened.

"Selena? Ashley? Where are you two?"

"Um," Selena thought a bit. "Would Camp Half-Bloodsuffice?"

Dad looked at us as if we'd just jumped off the deep-end into Crazy PJO Fantasy Land. He looked at me and asked, "Ashley is she serious?"

I nodded, staring at his brown eyes to see how he'd react. I watched him groan and slump down into the couch he was sitting on. "I thought I could keep you two safe," he mumbled underneath his breath. "Guess things don't work out like you expect, huh?"

I shared a look with my sister as he continued, "You two missed your AP History class. They were talking about your favorite god, Sel—Poseidon."

"Henry," Selena started, "if you aren't our dad and Poseidon is … who's our mother?"

Dad looked utterly depressed by how Selena was calling him 'Henry', but he answered the question, "Sweetie, I don't know. Poseidon wouldn't tell me when I was taking care of you. But, the thing about my girlfriend—I didn't lie about that."

"About her leaving you?" Dad nodded glumly, letting his fingers brush through his graying black hair.

"Who was she? Why'd she leave?" I pestered, suddenly curious.

Dad looked at me, as he said, "Look, that doesn't matter. What doesmatter is the fact that you two need to memorize those books. Remember each sentence, each monster, and each way to defeat your enemies. I won't let you two get hurt by your lack of knowledge on Greek mythology."

My sister and I mocked fake offence. "Lack of knowledge? BS!" I told him.

Dad raised an eyebrow at me, and I told him, "It's Broken Slinky! Jeez! Get all worked up!"

Selena rolled her eyes but gave a laugh.

Dad stared at the two of us, as he said, "Girls, I need you two to be brave. Braver than brave, even. I want you two to—"

The pounding on our front door cut off his voice. Dad narrowed his eyes, picking up a disguised knife from the table's flower arrangement and stood up. He unlocked the door but kept the chain in place. He slowly opened the door and asked, "Hello?"

And, that's when things went terribly wrong.

First, the door was smashed off its hinges and Dad was hurled across the room and collapsed onto the wooden coffee table in the middle of our living room. My sister and I watched in horror as the hot blonde bad boy we'd seen almost an hour ago—Mr. Sexy Serial Killer—walked through the broken door, flanked on both sides by his shadow pals. Dad groaned as he shook splinters from his clothes and hair, standing up from the broken wooden debris.

The blonde looked up and gave me a wink. I wrinkled my nose, disgusted but slightly—I won't lie—flattered.

The shadows rushed Dad, howling like a pack of wild dogs as they jumped him. Dad's sword crashed into nothing—air and misty shadow. Suddenly, Dad was pinned to the ground faster than I would've thought humanly possible. But, those things weren't human—not by a long shot.

The blonde guy looked up to stare at me. "Told you I'd be back," He told me.

I scowled at him, causing him to grin. He glanced at our pinned father and watched him with an intense gaze, finally saying, "We'll bring him. He's part of the family."

Selena gasped as out father disappeared into shadow. I clenched my jaw and fists, glaring at the blonde with white-hot rage. "Whatdid you do?" I screamed at him.

He smiled. "My boss is getting what he wants. I told you—he always gets it. It was supposed to be you and your sister, but alas, it never works out like you hope." He shrugged, picking up our father's knife from the floor.

"Good craftsmanship," He mused. "Probably forged under the sea in one of the underwater volcanoes. Look at that blade! Sharp as a coral reef." He looked up and sneered, and with one last movement he hurled the knife at our faces. It discontinued our connection with our apartment, our father, our life, basically.

This day officially sucked. Times two.

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