I was walking down the hall to my dorm when I heard Daisy's high pitch frantic voice.
"I-I'm sorry. It won't happen again! It's been three weeks, so everything should be fine!"
I pushed the door open to see Daisy using a really old cell phone.
"Um, who are you talking to?" I said suspiciously.
"Uh, my uncle! I'll talk to you soon!" she quickly hung up the phone.
"What was that?" I asked again.
"Nothing! Just chatting with my uncle about my... physical education grade. It's been dropping these past weeks. How was your day?" she hic-upped, a thing she did when she was nervous.
"No, don't change the subject. You don't even do P.E." I narrowed my eyes. "You were talking about Heather. She did her snake thing three weeks ago."
"W-What? Who's Heather? Bella, are you okay?"
All the frustration I'd been building over the last few weeks suddenly spilled out of me.
"I'm completely fine! It's all you Barbie freaks that are pretending Heather was never here!"
Daisy's lip quivered, but I couldn't calm down.
"Don't you get it? Heather hurt so many people, including me, and now everyone's just going to forget about her? Not to mention she was a literal snake!"
She didn't say anything, which frustrated me more. Why was Daisy being like this?
"You know what? Forget it. I'll figure this out myself." I turned around to leave.
"Wait, Bella, I need to tell you something!"
I sighed. I was ready to leave, and honestly, I should have. But I wanted answers. How could everyone in the school just forget about a student?
"Fine, but it better be about Heather."
She nodded. "It is. Bella, we think- wait, no, I think that you're... a half-blood."
"A what? Who's 'we'?"
"A half-blood," Daisy said, pushing her chair over to me. "is a daughter or son of a Greek god and a mortal. Heather was a hydra, Bella. Remember our greek unit in history class?"
History wasn't really Lowell's main priority, so if they didn't care about that class, neither did I.
"Um, no. What are you talking about? Geek gods aren't real!"
"Shh, Bella, don't say that!" Daisy motioned for me to sit on the bed in front of her. "All those creatures and gods are real, Bella. And you're a part of it."
I gave her a look. "How do you know?" I asked a little rudely, mostly because it sounded like more lies.
"I know because..." Daisy looked away. "Well, I'm a first-year satyress, so I'm pretty qualified..."
"A what? What's a satyress? Is this a joke?" She was crazy, I should have left before I heard any of this.
"A satyress is... Well, I think it's better if I just show you."
Daisy pulled up her long skirt to reveal... goat legs...?
I felt like I was going to puke and faint at the same time.
"Oh my god, what the hell is that?"
She turned bright pink. "Those are... those are my legs. See? It's all real! You are a demi-goddess!" she pointed at me confidently.
"That doesn't make any sense! How do you know?"
"I-" she turned a darker shade of pink. "I can smell you."
By now, I was horrified.
"Um, excuse me?!"
"Well, I'm not 100% sure, since this is my first assignment..."
"Assignment? Also, how are you not sure?!"
"I said it was my first assignment! I've never done this before!" Again the tears pooled in her eyes. This was a mess.
"Okay, okay, sorry. Why don't you know?" I said, nicer this time.
"Well, it's an instinct for satyrs to know what a demi-god smells like at a young age, so we don't often confuse them with monsters. It came very naturally to the other satyrs, but I always get them confused! There must be something wrong with my nose. But you're probably not a monster! You don't look like one!"
I sighed. "Real reassuring, Daisy. Y'know, Heather didn't look like a monster either."
What sounded like a goat bleat escaped Daisy's mouth. I always thought that was just an embarrassed hic-up, but now it made more sense...
"I know, I know! But I'm sure you're not one. Here, you need to come with me to camp."
"Um, what?"
"Oh, darn! I didn't tell you about the camp! Oh, I'm so bad at this!"
So in a fumble of words, Daisy told me what Camp Half-Blood was. A place for demi-gods and goddesses to train 'safely' and go on weird missions and stuff. There was more, but I couldn't process it.
"So, yeah! I got sent here to bring you back to camp!" she was smiling, but I was not.
"Wait, so you just got... sent here to pretend to be my friend? To convince me to go to your weird circus camp?" I didn't mean to sound as upset as I did.
"Well, um... You say we're not really friends, right? You say that all the time."
I felt awful. I knew I was being selfish, expecting Daisy to actually like me when I treated her like crap all the time.
"Yeah. Yeah, I do say that." I huffed, trying to stop my voice from cracking. I grabbed my bag and headed for the door. Before I opened it, I faced her.
"This is all fake. I don't know what you're trying to do, but it's not working. And I am not following you to your stupid camp."427Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmGBXiHPtMn
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"Wait, Bella, I didn't mean that!"
I rushed out of the dormitory as fast as possible, avoiding the teachers and heading to the nearest subway station. Lowell's never let students out by themselves without major consequences, so I knew I couldn't come back here. I'm glad I got my bag at least. I had a feeling I wouldn't be coming back for a long time.
I felt bad for walking so fast. Daisy could never catch up. Not that I wanted her to. There was no way that I was ever going to a crazy, stupid camp like Camp-Half Blood. If it was even a real thing. She was a liar, and I had no reason to trust her.
After finally finding the subway, I realized I might not have anywhere to stay. My dad wasn't going to be thrilled when I showed up, but I wasn't sure where else to go. I thought about sneaking in, but he'd eventually find me and it would be even worse. I decided to just make up a lie, something that might get him to feel bad for me, if that was even possible. I pulled out my phone, trying to distract myself from the mess I had got into.
Once at my stop, I walked slowly down the sidewalk, kicking the stones that the street sweeper left behind. I was definitely in no rush, and I had plenty of time to think about how stupid I've been acting. I felt really bad about Daisy, but there was no way I could apologize to her now. I was in too deep.
So instead, I plugged in some earbuds and tried to think of something to say to my dad.
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When I got to the gate, all the lights in the house were off, except for his study. As usual. I took in a deep breath. It felt like the huge old house was going to swallow me up, gargoyles and everything.
It was getting late, and the summer sun was going down. It was still warm, but I had goosebumps.
Forcing myself forward, I walked up and knocked on the door.
I could hear his shoes clicking on the marble floors to the foyer. He opened the door, and surprise lit up his face, then suspicion, and a hint of anger.
"Bella...? What are you doing here?" he asked cautiously.
"Uh, a girl got lice, and they didn't want it to spread, and since we're so close to summer break, they uh, let us go early."
I held my breath. Not a far-fetched lie. Summer break was only a few days away.
He sighed. "Well, you still look the same. I assume you didn't learn anything beneficial either?"
"I learned how to make a pincushion, if that's what you mean," I muttered, then cringed, remembering that right now might not be the best time to test him.
He scoffed, but let me in the house.
"Go upstairs, then."
As soon as he left, I sighed in relief.
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