Pip sat in the back of her class fidgeting with the ring on her finger. It was a simple silver band adorned with tiny hearts all around. She had it her entire life. Her mom had given it to her when she was born before she left. Her dad said she could ever lose it, it was a family heirloom or something. Pip started wearing it at eleven when it finally fit her. Everything in her life seemed to turn around from there. She got pretty, she got popular. Well, that was it really. In fact, her ADHD and dyslexia seemed to get worse once she turned eleven.

She sighed as she stared at the book in front of her. The Odyssey would be the death of her. The print was too small and she could barely understand regular English nonetheless super old English translated from Ancient Greek. All she had picked up was that there was this Cyclops with a weird name that ate people. She needed this book to be over, it was so boring.

Finally she couldn't take it. She slammed the blue book closed and raised her hand.

"Yes, Penelope?" Her teacher asked. She hated being called her real name. She was named after Penelope from The Odyssey who, as she recently learned, had over 100 suitors. Her whole life was about love and boyfriends and she was sick of it.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" She asked.

"Yes, be quick please."

She wasn't quick and she didn't go to the bathroom. She started by wandering around the school but got bored and just wanted to sit down so she went to the gym. Coach Nunley didn't care what was going on so she could always rely on him to cover for me whenever she skipped class.

"Hey! Nunley, I'm gonna hang out here for a bit!"  She called as she sat down on the bleachers. He nodded and went back to staring at his phone.

Pip looked around at the seventh graders playing dodgeball. There were a few kids who seemed out of place, like they shouldn't be in seventh grade. There were three on one side with their backs facing Pip. She couldn't get a good look at them but they seemed oddly tall for 12 year olds; at least six foot. There was also an abnormally tall kid on the other team. When Pip first saw him, she could've sworn he only had one eye but when she looked again she realized she must've been mistaken. The kid next to him who looked about two feet shorter than him. His curly blond hair shadowed his ocean green eyes and added to the darkness she could see within him. He seemed to have a look of trauma and anxiety deep within his eyes that was masked by his confident expression. The blond kid was patting around his shorts as if he was looking for something in his pockets. Pip knew those cotton shorts had no pockets. She always had to keep her lipgloss in her bra.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blazing red light stream across the gym. When she looked up, all she saw was the tall kid across the gym holding a red dodgeball. But then she saw it again, except this time it was real; a blazing red fireball flew across the gym and the tall guy caught it. Pip stood up to get a closer look at what was going on. She caught a few words like cannibal... or was it Canadian? Everything was racing around her mind: what was going on? Who were these kids? Why did nobody else notice what was going on?

The only other person who looked as panicked as she did was curly-headed blond kid. Pip had no choice. She found herself running across the gym to this random seventh grader to ask him what the hell was happening.

"Hey kid!" He seemed to jump out of his skin, "What in the actual hell is going on right now."

He paused and looked at me, shocked, "Can you see this?" Pip nodded.

"What are you? A monster? A halfblood? You're not gonna try to kill me, are you?" He asked, looking her dead in the eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Pip started fidgeting with her ring, tracing the hearts with her nail as she always did when she was nervous. This time she felt something different, something new. On one of the hearts near the palm of her hand was letter A engraved in a cursive font. Something in the back of her mind told her to press down on the heart, so she did. The silver began to morph and grow into a bronze dagger that fit perfectly in her hand.

"Where did you get that from?" The blonde kid looked at me with surprise and confusion, "I thought you..."

"I don't know!" She screamed, panicked and dropping the dagger on the gym floor.

"Pick that up!" He yelled, then he looked over at the tall kid next to him, "Tyson, don't let her get killed, I have to get to the locker room!"

The boy ran towards the gym doors and Pip grabbed the bronze dagger off the floor. She noticed the gorgeous, ornate carvings in the almost pink metal. The blade was covered the flowers and little birds, doves maybe. The leather-bound handle had small hearts and smirky designs burned into it. It was beautiful; Pip didn't know how she could ever use it.

Luckily she didn't have to because she watched as the tall guy named Tyson catch one of the fireballs from the "canadians" on the other side and throw it back towards them. But it missed and hit the wall. Suddenly, the whole gym seemed to burst into flames. Pip watched as Tyson ran towards where the blonde kid went and so she followed. Somehow, through a hole in the wall, they had made it outside. The blonde boy was busy talking to a girl around his age with silky dark skin and black box braids.

"Those were canibals, Percy!" The girl yelled at the blonde boy, "They could've killed you! What were you thinking? You left an unknowing demigod, alone! She could've died!"

"How was I supposed to know?!" Percy yelled but not like the girl did, his was more scared than upset, "She just came out of nowhere—"

"WHAT FUCKING SHIT IS GOING ON?!" Pip shouted over their bickering. She hated to interrupt their little love-fest but she was more confused then than ever before in her life.

Percy and the girl turned towards Pip with a look in their eyes that told her everything she needed to know: this explanation was going to be a lot more complex than she expected.

𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒽ℴ𝓇'𝓈 𝓃ℴ𝓉ℯ
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okay so i did not expect anyone to be interested in this book but here we are. thanks for this and i hope you enjoy pip's story.

with love,
em

first published: feb. 2, 2024 • 1150 words