Chapter 3! So this is where things start picking up, and Jo will be sent to camp. Hope you like it and review your opinion!

The next day I didn't even bother to eat breakfast before going to find Mandy. I had so much to ask him; had what I saw yesterday even happened? Had I just been bit by the spider and hallucinating? If it was real, Mandy owed me a couple of explanations.

"Mandy?" I called. I stepped into the part of the garden where he usually was this early in the morning, but he wasn't there. Maybe he finished already and moved onto the bushes, I thought. I ran to the bushes, but he wasn't there either.

That's weird, I thought. I ran to the south part of the garden, thinking he might be tending to the small apple tree, but he wasn't there either.

I started panicking. What if the spider venom killed him? What if something had happened to him when I ran away? I ran back to the mansion. I had to find out what happened to my only friend.

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"HOLLY!" I screamed, bursting through the door. Holly jumped and screamed, scattering papers everywhere.

"Jo!" she said, bending over to pick up the papers. "Do not scare me like that".

"Where's Mandy?" I asked.

"Who?" Holly said, stacking the papers on the desk.

"Mandy," I said. "The gardener".

Holly looked at me for a moment, then it clicked. She said, "Oh, that one you're always pestering?"

"I don't pester him," I said, offended. "He's my friend".

Holly rolled her eyes. "He quit yesterday".

My jaw dropped. "He—what?"

"He came into my office and said that he quit," Holly said, scribbling something on a paper.

"But why?"I asked.

"Probably because you pranked him," Holly sniffed. "That's what usually drives people away".

"But I didn't prank him," I said.

Holly rolled her eyes again. "Please Jo, I know you did. You always do".

"But not with Mandy," I said. I couldn't believe this. Why would I ever prank Mandy?

"I don't see why you're so upset about this anyway," Holly said. "you never cared before if an employee quit".

"Holly, this is different. Yesterday I was in the garden and this huge spider thing attacked me, and Mandy saved me".

Holly looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "Huge spider thing?"

"Yeah. It was enormous. Like this," I showed her the size with my hands, stretching them in a huge circle.

Holly rolled her eyes for a third time. "Jo, spiders like that don't live in this part of the world".

"But I saw it with my own two eyes! And it spoke to me too!"

"Jo, honestly. You expect me to believe—"

"And then Mandy turned into this weird half goat thing, and the spider bit him and Mandy killed it, but he's still hurt—"

"JO! Enough of this!" Holly shouted. "Go. I've heard enough crazy stories of huge spiders and goat-men. No wonder Mandy quit. I want you to leave me".

I blinked. "But Holly—"

"GO!"

I left the room and traveled to my own, where I sat on my bed and stared at the wall. I felt a tear fall on my hand.

What had happened? My life had had a small glimmer of happiness for a moment. I thought maybe with Mandy, things might not be so bad. But he had run away too. I had lost the only friend I ever had.

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The next few days were awful for me. I found people harder to get along with. I yelled at the house keepers. My tutor found it harder to work with me. I never did my work, and I gave her an attitude all the time. I was sent to Holly twice almost every day. I had had enough with the world. Why did it have to make my life so unfortunate?

But the one day that I will never forget was five days after Mandy left.

I was sitting at my desk, reluctantly doing my homework, when I got the most mischievous idea in my entire life. I set my pre algebra aside and set to work on my tutor's demise.

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"Can you tell me what this picture represents Jo?" Mrs. Chesterfield asked, pointing to the picture in the textbook.

I looked at the picture. It showed a man with a bolt of lightning, and he was aiming it at the form of a falling woman from the heavens. I sighed in relief, because I had at least an idea of what it was.

"That's Zeus throwing the goddess Eris from Olympus," I said.

Mrs. Chesterfield looked at me expectantly. She wanted more explanation.

"Eris angered Zeus by, um," I racked my brain. "She…made Zues promise that the next descendent of him would someday be a great ruler. So, um, Hera was the one that made Eris influence Zeus to make the promise because Eris had powers to influence men. Zeus knew that his next son would be Hercules, so he promised. But Hera also knew this, so when the promise was made, Hera made Zeus's other unborn son, Eurystheus, to be born prematurely because she didn't like Hercules. But when Zeus found this out, he blamed Eris and she was thrown from Olympus". I waited for Mrs. Chesterfield to answer.

She bit her lip and said, "Good job Jo, but not quite. It wasn't Eris who did this, but you were very close. People often mistake the two goddesses for one another. We'll be talking about this goddess and how she impacted the Greeks, even though she was only a minor goddess". Suddenly a small alarm went off. "Oh, dear me, it's time for me to go. How time flies when you're talking about the Greeks. Goodbye Jo". She walked to the door and waved good bye.

This was it. Smiling, I pressed a small button on the bed, making sure Mrs. Chesterfield wouldn't notice, and a big fake spider dropped.

Mrs. Chesterfield screamed and ran. I chased after her. When she got to the stairs, I opened the door next to them and a stamped of frogs came hopping out, terrifying her even more. This time she saw that it was me who set the prank. I smiled.

"Jo! What are you doing?" she yelled while running from the frogs. When she got to the first floor, I pulled a string and a bucket of paint fell on top of her, covering her hair and dress. Mrs. Chesterfield shrieked but kept running, from me now. When she reached the front door and turned the door handle, the door mat stuck to her shoes. Mrs. Chesterfield looked at her feet is disbelief but kept going, jumping now.

I laughed the whole time. It was genius, I tell you. Genius.

Mrs. Chesterfield was almost to her car. I did one last thing, turned the sprinklers on, and in seconds my tutor was drenched.

Mrs. Chesterfield drove away screaming, "You're crazy! You're an evil demon child! You belong in the city asylum!"

I stared, smiling at my former tutor with satisfaction. That was the best prank of all time.

But my victory was short lived because suddenly my ear was grabbed and I was pulled upstairs by Holly, who was to furious to speak.

When we got to her office, she found her voice. "JO! WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THINGS ON EARTH WAS THAT?! IN ALL MY YEARS AS YOUR MOTHER, I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH, SUCH, MISBEHAVIOR! WOULD YOU CARE TO GIVE ME AN EXPLANATION YOUNG LADY?!"

"That was my greatest work," I said proudly. I didn't care that I knew Holly wouldn't feel the same way about it.

"Your greatest work?" Holly said. "You're proud of this?"

"Do you have any idea how much effort it takes to pull a prank?" I asked. "I take pride in my hark work".

Holly let out a frustrated groan. "Jo, I've had enough of this. The next time you pull a prank on someone, I'll—"

"You'll what?" I asked. "You'll get another tutor? You'll ground me again? You'll yell at me until my ears bleed?"

Holly gritted her teeth. I'd never seen her this angry. In all my years of irking her, this moment won the record.

"No," she said. "I'm done with scolding you, or punishing you. It's not working".

"So what are you gonna do?" I taunted.

"I'm going to send you away," she said.

"You've tried that," I said, "Remember?"

"Not like this. I'm going to send you to the one place your father would completely forbid me from sending you".

I took a step back. "What is this school?"

"Not a school," Holly said, "A summer camp. But you could stay there for school too. They offer that. That's why you're father never let me even mention it to you. It might have meant to say good bye to you forever".

"How did he know about this camp?" I asked.

"Your mother suggested it to him," she said. "She said it was good for kids like you".

"But she never knew me," I said.

Holly shrugged. "Nevertheless, you're leaving tomorrow. Pack your things".

"But, wait, what?" Tomorrow? That was so soon. I didn't get to say good bye? Then I remembered that I had no one to say good bye to.

The maid the cleaned my room helped me pack. It was settled; I was leaving for a summer camp.

So there's chapter 3! So some of you may be making connections as to which goddess is Jo's mom, but don't feel bad if you don't know. This goddess is not very well known…like, at all.

If I may ask, please review this story. I don't have any reviews right now, and I need to know what my audience thinks of my writing. Thanks!