Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING EXEPT THE CHARACTERS YOU DON'T KNOW, then their probably mine. This chapter is for my dear best friends Lauren and Sruti! ENJOY well no on elts is gonna read this so I guess im just talking to them. SEE YOU GUYS IN SCHOOL! I HATE MATH!
I ran down the hill to the bus stop. I was being pelted by heavy, slick rain droplets and at the speed I was running, it was painful. I slowed down to a trot as I neared the buss stop; a small river of dirty rain water ran down the side of the road carrying down leaves and twigs. I stuck my foot in the way of a twig and it sunk to the bottom of the tiny pool. I stepped onto the side walk and removed my foot and the twig soured back into action flowing down as if nothing had happened. I sighed and leaned against the stop sign.
I stared at the puddles of rain in the road. I was absent mindedly staring when something caught my eye through the reflection in the puddle. A tall black figure stood across from me. My head shot up and stared at the figure. Even thought the air was thick with mist and fog it all seemed to accumulate around the dark figure. Just as fast as it came it was gone. I felt my knees go week as I grasped to the stop sign for some support. 'Wow' I thought 'I am either really sleep deprived or High School has really messed up my head'
I tried to avoid looking at the spot where I had seen the figure for the rest of the time until the bus arrived. As usual the bus nearly killed me when it took the turn about 20 miles over the speed limit, but, what's a morning with out at least one near death experience?
The bus screeched to a stop and the doors swung open all in the same second which signaled that the bus driver had something important to do, besides her job.
I hopped onto the bus and ran down the isle, dodging paper airplanes, pencils, scissors, and what I think was some 6th graders math home work (ah bullies never run out of things) I finally reached the back of the bus where one of my closest best friends, Sruti Pandey was sitting. I sat down next to her with a huge sigh. "So how's it goin?" I asked. Sruti stared back at me; her usually calm, black, wise eyes were frantic and nervous. "Terrible! I have a test today in math, it only four questions! Do you know what that means?" I stared back at her with a blank stare. "Ughhhhh, that means….." I stated with out any idea how to respond.
"That means if I get one wrong I get a 75, two wrong 50, three wrong….!" Sruti was Hindi and had hair as black as night. Her skin was lighter than her other sisters. She is the absolute smartest person I know. Sruti, like me had dyslexia and A.D.H.D though you would never be ale to tell, she was as graceful as a Gisele. I laughed at the thought of Sruti failing a test. I laughed at the thought. "What are you laughing at? This is a serious matter!" I finally stopped laughing and looked Sruti in the eyes "Sruti you couldn't fail a test is you tried." The rest of the bus ride to school was mostly me trying to convince Sruti to have faith in her self. By the time we got off the bus the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out. Sruti and I said by to each other and went our separate ways down the hall ways. The best thing about getting to school early is that I don't have to fight in the ultimate death match to get to my locker. I got to my locker and opened it and grabbed my stuff. I walked into my home room and put my stuff down on my desk. I walked into the math room where my other two closest friends were Lauren Schissler, and Nathan Siket. And just my luck, I walk in just in time for the daily argument.
Lauren was sitting in her desk with her arms crossed and an extremely mad look on her face. Lauren has reddish brown pixie cut that covered her ears very slightly. She was not the shortest person in the school but far from the tallest. She had elfish like features, slightly up turned nose, and pointy ears her eyes were a deep rich brown, Nathan was really tall and had curly blondish, golden hair. He was slim build with extremely blue eyes that were almost purple and naturally very tan skin. Nathan was sitting behind Lauren and was playing the same old excuses as usual "Lauren I swear to god I meant to call you last night, I just forgot!" Nathan quickly spotted me and I was dragged into the conversation.
"Xia please tell Lauren I meant to call her!" Lauren snapped her head towards me and hissed "Please tell Nathan he is a stupid butt head" Nathan's jaw dropped "Lauren im right here!" a devious thinned lipped smile played across Lauren's lips "I know" she replied happily. This was going to go one for a while….
After the bell rang the classes soon followed Math, Science, Social Studies, and language arts. I had lunch with Sruti, Lauren and Nathan and usual. Today for good behavior we were aloud 10 minutes of field time, which is when the dump us out in an empty field with a bin of soccer balls. I managed to snatch a ball before the ball bin was swarmed with rabid teens. I was in the field rolling the ball around with my toe not really paying attention to what was happening. The next thing I knew I was on the ground in the dirt and the ball was gone. I held my self up with my elbows and looked around; there in front of me I spotted Lauren dribbling the ball with her knee. She grinned wickedly at me while Nathan was laughing his but off and Sruti was trying to hold in the laughter (and was failing miserably might I add.) I got up and ran at Lauren to try to steal the ball back. She dropped the ball on the ground and punted it. We watched as the ball disappeared into the sun and over the trees. "Nice one!" Nathan yelled from on the rock.
We continued to stare at the restricted woods. "Your gonna have to get that." I stated while continuing to stare. Lauren made a high pitched noise in protest. I turned to look at her just to find her making a puppy dog face (she always gets me with that) "ughhhhh fine I'LL get it" she grinned with a chirp like laugh and turned to walk away. "But your coming with me" she frowned but I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the woods.
We have been walking around in the woods for a good four minutes by now and we still haven't found the ball. Lauren and I searched all the trees and bushes in silence just listening to the sound of the chirping birds. Then there was silence. I hadn't really even noticed it because I was too focused on the soccer ball that was just out of my reach. With one last grabbed I managed to roll it closer and I was able to grab it. I turned around to face Lauren who was staring at something, completely frozen. I walked over to her. I opened my mouth to say something when her hand shot over to mine, covering it and muting me. She pointed a finger slightly in front of her to some boulders. I followed her finger to where she was pointing. There in front of us, not even 18 feet away was this giant lizard creature with three heads. Its eyes were pitch black and slimy with a slick film over the eye ball itself. Its scales where about the size of my hand and acted as a thick coat of armor. It hands and feet each had long, thick black claws that curled over on each other. They were each coated with something dried and red and I sincerely doubt it was ketch-up
The thing continued to walk but then suddenly stopped and sniffed the air. Its pupils shrunk into small thin slits and it growled. Lauren and I held our breath and stopped breathing, we stared at the beast wide eyed. It heads whipped over towards us.
Sruti's POV
ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRR!... Nathan and I both looked over towards the woods. 'No...' I thought 'not here, not now' "SRUTI GRAB YOUR WEAPONS!" Nathan and I ran towards the woods. I reached to my head and grabbed out my hair clip. I snapped it and a dagger grew from the tip. "WHAT IS A HYDRA DOING HERE?" I yelled at him. "I DON'T KNOW BUT I GEUSS WERE ABOUT TO FIND OUT!" Nathan yelled back as we ran into the woods.
Laurens POV
The Hydra roared at us and charged. 'Remember your training, remember your training' I thought to my self. I shoved Xia out of the way and reached into my boot and pulled out my sword, with a click of a button it expanded into a celestial bronze weapon of mass destruction, I had named it Dynami, it means Power in Greek. With one mighty swing I cut deep into the bellies of the beast and up to the heart, but the bad thing about fighting something with three heads, there are three hearts. The beast roared and it swung at me knocking me against a tree. "LAUREN!" I heard Xia yell. The Hydra turned over towards Xia. "Ok buddy I really don't think that throwing people against trees is the best way to settle things!" Xia said. The beasts growled and backed her towards a tree. "Ummm….Maybe I was um…wrong. You know you seem like a very reasonable…" she paused and looked under him. "Male…creature, maybe we can talk this out?" the hydra raised a claw to kill her "Didn't think so…" I threw a rock at it hoping to distract it, and it worked, to well. The beast charged at me and swung its arm, demolishing the tree to shards.
"Xia! Catch!" I yelled as I tossed her my spare dagger. "WHAT TO YOU WANT ME TO DO WITH THIS?" She yelled back at me. I dodged another swing of the hydra's paw. "I DON'T KNOW, STAB IT I GUESS!" I watched in amazement as she threw the dagger at the beast, with perfect aim it entered the skull of the beast and killed one. It was distracted for now. I ran over to her and grabbed her hand "time to go!" I yelled. We ran though the woods dodging trees and jumping over logs and boulders. "Do you think we lost him?" she asked as we ran suddenly the Hydra cut us off from our path. "Nope" I said as the hydra backed us against some trees. "Lauren, before we die I have to tell you some thing, you remember that dolphin pen that you had in 8th grade?" she asked. "Ya" I nodded. "I took it" she said. "Wait, what?" I said looking at her. The two remaining hydras opened their mouths and I could see fire in the back of their throats. "DUCK!" some one shouted from behind us. Xia and I both hit the ground at the same time two celestial bronze arrows flew over us and lodged themselves in the middle of the two hydras head. Nathan grabbed my hand, as Sruti grabbed Xia/s and pulled us away from the dead hydra, "Where are we going?" Xia asked "Camp Half-Blood!"