Chapter 32.
After Nico and Will are finished,they run over to where the rest of us are standing. "This is Will." He blushes.
"Hi Will." Chantelle waves.
"Oh, Will. Olivia got her arm cut and I suck at medicine, could you check it for her, please?" I say.
"Yeah, it feels ok. Stings a bit though." Olivia says.
"I'll check it. Nico, do you have my medical kit?"
"Yeah. Hang on a second. Got it, here you go." He passes it.
"Ok. Let's go over to the bench. We'll be back in a minute." He says as he takes Olivia over to the public bench and Nico follows.
"I'm hungry." I state.
"Well, what have you eaten today?" Liam asks.
"The floor when Harry moved my chair." I shrug.
"You barely ate yesterday. I have, or I did have, ah found it." He pulls out his wallet.
"I didn't know you brought that with you." I notice.
"I didn't. I left it at home. But like I said, our old house is like our current house. Apart from this time, my wallet has pounds instead of dollars."
"Maybe I can break into my piggy bank." I laugh.
"Hey Thalia, Katy and I are going into the shop. Well be back in about five minutes." Liam says as he points to Sainsbury's. "Get me a bottle of coke please, and some Pringles. I've had enough deceit." She pulls out a fiver. "Salt and vinegar. Thanks."
"Cool." He says.
"I want to come too." Grace says.
"Alright."
"Oh my gods, I haven't had a pot noodle in years." I gasp. "What was your favourite flavour?"
"Barbecue." Liam grabs one.
"The green ones." I pick up one but read the label and grimace. "Chicken and mushroom? I hate mushrooms, they make me sick." I put the pot back.
"I remember that. Dad wouldn't let you leave the table until you'd finished all your dinner. I think it was fish pie. And you hated that too." Liam laughs.
"Yeah. So after gagging about ten times, I actually was sick on the kitchen floor. He should've listened to me." I cross my arms. "Anyways, didn't I always leave the mushrooms behind? I just remember always leaving a pile of browny-grey things at the bottom every time.."
"Probably. But tomatoes though." He says. I pretend to gag.
"Or Parmesan cheese."
"Or parmos. I never understood how anyone can eat one."
"What's a parmo?" Will asks. Olivia and Maisie are next to him.
"Bloody disgusting that's what." I say.
"How dare you offend the mighty parmo." Maisie says.
"She's right though." Liam says.
"Parmos are amazing." Grace argues.
"Yaaas." Maisie high fives her.
"You have to try one before we go back." Grace says.
"I think I'd rather eat mushroom fish pie." I breathe.
"Please don't." Liam says.
"Shouldn't you kids be at school?" A woman in the shops uniform asks us.
Will clicks his fingers. "No."
The woman nods and leaves.
"What was that?" I question.
"The mist." He answers.
"Thanks. That was very helpful."
"The mist basically manipulates the mortal mind. It can even create memories." Liam explains. "So, it works like an illusion.?" I compare.
"Basically. So mortals don't usually go running for their lives when they see us fighting a kindly one. Instead they just see us beating up some old lady." Nico says.
"Because that's better." I reply.
"For the gods, yes. For us, not so much." Will shrugs.
"Katy, what do you have?" Liam asks.
"I've got Thalia's stuff, and I have some Dr Pepper, gay bacon, skittles, munchies and a bag of chipsticks" I list.
"Ok, and Grace?"
"I don't know what I want." She mumbles.
"well, make up your mind." He says, carrying a bag of chocolate buttons and a bottle of fanta.
"Do you guys want anything?" Liam asks the twins and Nico and Will."
The twins hold up a carrier bag and Nico shakes his head.
"Ok, let's go." He says.
When we're outside, I open up the bag of skittles. "Gimme some." Liam hold his hand out. "Catch." I say, throwing one at his face. He catches it. "TASTE THE RAINBOW!" I yell
"Again." He smiles.
I throw a total of seven sweets and he catches five. I throw one up in the air at myself and catch it.
"I am sick to death of those lying goblets, can I have the real coke please?" Thalia asks. "They only had Pepsi, is that alright?" I joke.
"You're kidding." Her face falls,
"Yes. Here you go." I give her a two litre bottle and the Pringles.
"Thanks. Don't know why you didn't just get a small bottle though."
"Because reasons. Here's the change."
"So now where to?" Will asks.
"My house. We need to wear something pretty."
We get on the bus back to our old house, and I'm not kidding when I say we used to live in the middle of nowhere. The house is in a tiny village and the closest corner shop is over a mile away, in the next, larger village.
"I would be bored to death." Nico comments.
"Oh, I was." I admit. "At least where we live now there is more than one bus an hour, How do we get in?"
"I have my key." Liam unlocks the door. And he was right, the inside is identical to our old house. At first, I'm speechless.
"So, Katy, where's your room?" Chantelle asks.
"Top floor, on the left," I race up the stairs. The house has three stories and Gravw and I are together at the top. Twin bedrooms with the furniture laid out identically. When I open my door, I see the same room I left four days ago. "Damn." I mutter.
"You're a real neat freak." Chantelle nods.
"There's a place for everything and everything must be in it's place." I say.
"Is there a place for me?" Olivia asks.
"Be careful when you jump on the bed." I warn. Grace does so anyways but the frame underneath is unstable and the mattress falls through. "Or else that will happen." I pull the mattress away and fix the planks of wood, so that it's straight again. Then sit on it. "You really like pink." Maisie says. I laugh. The rug in the middle is fluffy with many different shades of pink, all my bedding is pink and I have a pink, plastic chandelier. My rubbish bins and desk chair is pink as well as the pencil pots and my dressing table light. I even have roses on the chest of drawers that are pink.
"I need a shower." I mutter. Before leaving. "Grace, take them to your room because I'll need to be here in ten minutes. See you in a bit."
When I shower, I pretend it's a normal day. Like I just got home from school on Monday. I even exfoliate and shave my legs. When I'm out, I moisturise and look in the bathroom mirror. I don't know how I feel about my reflection.
I look at the scars on my arms. When I was six I had to get stitches on my right arm. I shake the memory out of my mind. I have burn scars from the oven and when I caught my hair straighteners at the highest temperature with my fist. I wore a glove filled with cold water for the rest of the day because it was too painful to take it out. Another time, I had three lumps on my head after Grace threw a plastic hairbrush at me. I was more upset that my only hairbrush had snapped in two on impact than I was about my head.
I have always hated Grace. Hate is a strong word but it's the right word. She tried to pull out my stitches from my arm too. I clench my fists and grind my teeth. Then I breath out. I wrap a towel around myself and go up to my room.
I dry and straighten my hair. Then I remember how Liam curled my hair and I pull out my curling wand. I plug it in and while it heats up I turn to my wardrobe. Wear something nice, Emily had said.
I pick a little black dress. It's tight fitted and stops halfway past my thighs. I have never worn it outside before and dad would burn it. So I hid it at the back of my wardrobe until it had a reason to wear it.
I put the dress in and look in the mirror. I can see my figure clearly. I don't even look that flat. I'm a B cup but I always wore loose fitted clothing and never a dress. I have never had a reason to wear a dress like this. I start curling my hair.
I look better with my hair curled. Older, too. Next up is make up. I don't need foundation but I have some under eye circles which I cover up with concealer. I heat my eyelash curler with my hair dryer and curl my lashes before adding mascara. I add highlight to my cheek bones and use a nude coloured lip balm to add shine.
For shoes, I wear the black ankle boots and then I put my locket on. I honestly look quite hot.
I spritz some perfume and pull on my black leather jacket over my shoulders. I take a pistol and a dagger onto the back using tape. I'm not a gambler.
I don't know where I can put Backbiter so I lay it on my bed and hope that it will follow.
I go downstairs to where everyone else is.
Nico is wearing a black suit and Will is wearing a pair of jeans with a shirt. Liam is wearing a navy blue suit with no tie. Grace is wearing skinny jeans and a hoodie. Thalia is wearing black ripped jeans with a grey long sleeved top. Chantelle is wearing a long red dress and Olivia is wearing denim shorts with a red t shirt. Maisie is wearing a pastel pink t shirt with white shorts.
"I know she said wear something nice, but isn't that a bit much?" Liam eyes me.
"I got bored. And I'm guessing we're getting picket up, so it's not like you're waiting for me. "Fair enough. Anyways, Lexi isn't down yet so,"
"I'm in the kitchen." She calls, but I hear her footsteps.
"Holy Ares, you look freaking amazing." She shouts, "sorry, bit loud."
"So do you." Lexi is wearing high waisted skinny jeans with a black bralette and her hair is up in a pony tail. She looks really good.
"Grace said it would be ok if I went into your room. I hope it is and wow you like pink."
"I was twelve when we decorated." I smile.
"Anyways, now do we know where to go?" She asks.
"She said ten o clock, I'm guessing ten pm. It's four now. So, what do we do for the next six hours?" I say.
"Just a minute," Liam leaves. He runs up the stairs and is back down again a minute later, holding two packs of cards. "Do you all know how to play cheat?"
We sit crossed legged in a circle on the carpet. "The rules in cheat is that you say what your card is, then place it down facing the floor, so only you saw what you put down. We go clockwise and the person with the ace of spades starts. You keep your cards secret. You can either match, go up or down one and you can put more than one as long as it's the same card. You can also lie, or cheat. Like, if I out down a three but you don't have a two, three or four, you can lie and say two threes even if you put down an eight and a nine. If you think some one is lying, you call cheat, and you see what they actually put down. If they weren't cheating, then you take all the cards in the middle. If they were cheating, they take all the cards in the middle. The first to lose all their cards win. Got it?" Liam explains.
I won the first game and Thalia wins the second.
"I have not been honest this entire game." Lexi laughs after Will, who is after her, places 'seven' down. But he goes bright red and is obviously lying. "That my friend, is a bunch of bull." Nico says as he rests his chin on his fist.
"This game is not fair. How can I lie when my dad is the god of truths?"
"I haven't cheated yet." I lie.
"Well, that's dumb luck." He sighs as he takes the pack. Liam places down five threes.
"How can you do that?" Grace asks.
"There are two packs in this game." I say.
"Oh."
"Anyways, three fours." I cheat, placing down two fives and a seven.
"Liar." Chantelle accuses,
"You're calling cheat?"
"Er, yeah."
"Ok then." I push the deck towards her while smiling.
"actually, I don't know."
"So are you or aren't you?" I interrogate.
"Em, no. Two fives." She places them down."
"Cheat, I have seven fives," Thalia announces. She turns over the last two cards and they're a two and a five. She pushes the deck to Chantelle who mumbles something under her breath. I smile at her when she reads through all ten cards. "You little." She turns to me.
I grin at her. "Don't let anyone try and make you change your mind. If they do that then it usually means you've caught them." I say.
"Life hacks one oh one." Nico says.
We start talking about random stuff but fall silent as soon as the bell rings.
"It's not ten of clock yet though." I whisper.
"Hang on." Will goes out. I can't hear what he's saying but twenty seconds later he's carrying pizza boxes and a bag of cans.
"I ordered pizza."