The Thorns of a Rose 4

The Thorns of a Rose 4

- Tinfoil revelations -

Althea’s POV
The moment we entered the ballroom where the ‘end of school’ dance got held, I grabbed Percy’s arm. “Okay, we’ve seen it, let’s go back home.”I told my best friend and turned around. Percy however refused to budge and pulled me back.
“No, we’re going to stay and have a good time.”he told me. “Come on Petal, it’s not that bad. Look, they even hung up stars. You like stars.”. I grimaced as I looked at the starshaped figures of cardboard and tinfoil that hung at the ceiling. The theme of the dance was ‘night in the sky’. The ground was already covered with white balloons while the rest of the room was decorated with fluffy fake clouds, more tinfoil stars and a huge disco ball that hung in the middle of the ceiling to represent the moon. Don’t ask me why they did that. I didn’t see the moon in it either.
“Why are we here again?”I asked him as my eyes eventually fell on the group of retards who were jumping on the balloons until they popped, though the sound got lost in the noise the DJ made. Yes, noise. You could hardly call it music…
“To behave as normal teens and have a full teenage experience.”Percy reminded me. “Right.”I replied, though I wasn’t convinced at all. “Let’s go take our picture.”he suggested as he grabbed my hand and guided me towards the photo stand. It was a dark blue coloured background with in white cuddly clouds and in silver sparkly paper –surprise- even more fake stars.
“I can’t believe I dressed up for this.”I muttered under my breath as we stood in line at the mentioned stand. “Just smile and wave, Petal. Smile and wave.”Percy whispered back. I couldn’t help but smile at his comment since we had done a ‘Madagascar’ marathon previous Christmas break and the penguins where both our favourites.
“Next.”the teacher who took the pictures called making it Percy and my turn. The teacher in question was Mr. Nicols, my chemistry teacher with a passion for photography. Percy and I took the standard prom pose on which Mr. Nicols pressed the button of his camera. When the picture was taken, the chemistry teacher frowned at us.
“Jackson?”he asked, referring to Percy. “Weren’t you kicked out of this school?”. “Two years ago, sir.”he replied. “Right.”the teacher said with a snap of his fingers. “You were the one who caused that explosion in my lab!”. “That one, yes.”Percy answered as he ran a hand through his hair, a bit embarrassed that this was how he got remembered.
“Have fun you two.”Mr. Nicols called after us as we walked back into the room. “Oh, and Percy, don’t try to blow anything up this time.”. We laughed politely at his joke but… With our demigod luck, an explosion would be the least of our worries.

Speaking about luck… Just as we entered the room, a slow sounded through the speakers. “Let me guess…”I started as I glanced at Percy. “Society expects us to dance now, isn’t it?”. Percy offered me his hand and with a sigh I took it as he guided me towards the dance floor.
As Percy placed his hands around my waist, I wrapped my arms around his neck and we started to shuffle and twirl like all other teens present. “I still can’t believe you managed to talk me into this.”I told him as we kept dancing. “It was you who said yes.”he remembered me with a bright smile as his sea green eyes locked with my blue ones.
And just like that it seemed as if time itself had stopped and all that moved were Percy and me. Okay, I admit, I used to have a crush on him when we first became friends. But I was over that crush, right? The hammering of my heart told me I clearly wasn’t.
The song we were dancing on came to an end and another with more tempo came on. I quickly pulled away from Percy on which he looked at me confused.
“I… Euhm… Need some air.”I said before I turned on my heels and fast walked out of the ballroom. Percy called my name and tried to follow me but got blocked by the suddenly very enthusiastic teens who occupied the dance floor. I ran out of the building, crossed the street and entered the park.

The moment I was surrounded by trees, flowers and plants, it felt as if the whirlwind in my mind just disappeared. Nature always had a calming effect on me. A treat I had to thank my mother for.
If you look back at it… I had quite some things to thank my mother, Demeter, for. I discovered my demigod side on a very young age being only four. That’s when I managed to grow a purple rose in a flowerpot on my windowsill. My dad send me that same summer for the first time to Camp Half-Blood making me the youngest camper there.
I received my silver bracelet with a lotus on it, aka my throwing stars, as a welcome gift from my mother. She of course wasn’t the one who gave it to me. Hermes express service…
She gave me another gift on my eight birthday being a WWF badge that transformed in a shield and on my twelfth birthday I got my butterfly hairpin better known as my sword Psychis or Soul Blade.
I knew I was my mother’s favourite since I had inherited her connection with nature more than my half siblings. She would visit me sometimes in my dreams and call me ‘her favourite flower’. I didn’t really care about those dreams though. All I wanted was a mother who would be there for me when I needed her and Demeter wasn’t that…
My thoughts got interrupted by a noise in the bushes. Being a daughter of Demeter I was capable of recognizing most forest animals and the noises they made but this one… This one wasn’t a forest animal. It didn’t belong here.
On instinct I pressed on the WWF badge I had pinned on my dress. The pin opened up and transformed into a shield which I skilfully took hold of while in mid-air. For once I was grateful for my ADHD because on that very same moment a huge monster jumped at me. I blocked the attack but got thrown back on the ground by the animal.
When I glanced over the edge of my shield I froze. There, only two meters before me, stood a creature that looked like a giant snake. Instead of a tail though, it had a second head. Each head was armed with two paws which each had three sharp claws.
Both heads were looking at me and hissed dangerously showing of their forked tongues and poisoned fangs. This thing was an Amphisbaena and it was send to kill me.