Argo III -The Next Generation

1 My life is a lie Yes, I am copying Apollo. So sue me

Um. Hello. My name is Melody Snicket. But people usually call me Mel.

And this is the story of how I died. It wasn't great. But wait. Hit pause. Rewind. This story starts much, much earlier.

It was a fine day. The birds were chirpin', the sky was blue, the sun was blazing, the schools were closed, and no homework for three months. That's right it was summer break! A time for leisure, recreation, and take-it-all easy.

Unless your mom drags you to the car, sets the GPS to a remote farmland that's half an hour away and doesn't tell you where on Earth she's talking you. If your mom did that, I am sure you can relate to how I felt right then.

"Mom, where are we going?" I asked.

"You'll see,"

"Why are we going there?"

"You'll see,"

"Why didn't we have lunch?"

"You'll see,"

"Why on earth are there swords in the backseat?"

"Let's hope you don't see."

I hate being a child. I hear that treacherous "you'll see" WAY too often. My mom looked pretty excited. She nearly flattened  three pedestrians. I decided to shut up for now.

After about half an hour my mom pulled up next to a hillside. It looked like a farmland. The truck next to me read "DELPHI'S STRAWBERRY SERVICE".

"Mom, why have you bought us to a strawberry farm?" I asked warily. I did not look forward to spending my summer at fruit farm.

My mother flashed me a mysterious smile. "You'll see."

I wished I could banish those words to the ends of the universe. Sadly, I couldn't. So I trudged uphill with my mom.

We were about halfway up, sweating in the blistering heat, when a figure at the top waved at us. Mom waved back. It started journeying downhill so it could join us. As he came closer, it's view became clearer. It was a man. No, it was a horse. It was a man riding a horse. It was a......man-horse?

Either I had officially read enough fiction to drive me crazy, or I was staring right at a centaur. Above his waist, he had a scraggly beard, kindly eyes, brown hair and regular shirt. But waist-down he was a gleaming white stallion. Like with the tail and all. Then he spoke.

"Glad you made it safely Celia," he said to my mom. "I was just beginning to wonder where you were."

Before my mom could answer, for the first time in my life, I fainted.

---

I woke up in a hospital room. At least that's what it looked like. Sunlight streamed in through the window next to me. Hyacinths bloomed in the vase beside. I could hear voices.

"I served her nectar. If she is a demigod she should be fine but if she isn't,"

"She will be alright, right? Will, you can't just give random people nectar!"

"She'll be fine, I am fairly certain she is a demigod, boys."

"I prayed to Athena," one voice offered.

I could recognize that the last line was said by my mom. I sat up. I was in bed. Four faces stared at me.

One of them was my mom, looking half-tensed, half-relieved. The other was the centaur, staring at me with kind eyes. The third was teenage boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, holding a vial of awesome-smelling liquid. The last one was a pale boy, with jet-black hair, who studied me carefully.

"Well, she's alive!" The blonde guy announced. "So she is a demigod then," he looked at me curiously.

"Well, I prayed to Athena," my mom repeated, as if her praying skills couldn't be matched. "I think you scared her Chiron."

This turned my attention back to the centaur. I started screaming. I would've screamed more if the emo-dude hadn't put a hand on my mouth. I glared at him. He let go. I screamed more. He shoved his fist back in. "Will, are you sure you didn't give her too much nectar?" he asked his friend.

"Nah, her mind is just processing that horse-men are real," Blonde Doctor Teen replied.

"If I let go, will you scream?" Emo-dude asked me. I nodded. He let go and let me finish my screaming.

After I was done I croaked, "Centaurs are real?"

Chiron the centaur looked taken aback. "You know what centaurs are?"

"Yeah I read about them somewhere..." I was starting to get used to his anomaly now. I studied Chiron. He seemed weary and tired, as if he was more than a thousand years old. Heck, he probably was.

"Hang on," Will the doctor said. "You're telling me this girl has mortal parents, and yet she's a demigod? How's that possible?"

"You'll see," Chiron replied. Oh great, him too. "Celia did you tell Mel anything at all?" he asked my mom.

"Nope, seemed safest not to," my mom replied.

"I see. Well, then we'd better get to lunch, because we have a lot of explaining to do. Stay for lunch at least."

"I would love to, but Ranger has his art class in an hour, I have to get him to it," my mom said.

Classic mothers. Leave their elder kids at a mysterious farm with centaurs and emo children while they smother over the annoying younger sibling's art class. Just great.

"Mel," My mom turned to me. "Me, Ranger and dad will check in on you tomorrow and explain everything, I promise – but things will look a lot clearer once you get claimed –

She paused. Chiron gasped. Emo-dude jumped again. Will's mouth was hanging wide open. They were all staring at something above me. I hesitantly looked up. Hovering over me was a holographic image of an owl.

Chiron's face relaxed. "Well, we all knew this was going to –

But the owl had started to talk. An intimidating and powerful presence seemed to dominate the room. A voice resonated from the owl across the room.

"I HENCEFORTH CLAIM MELODY SNICKET AS MY DAUGHTER, ONE OF THE NEW SEVEN," It said.

Chiron looked paralyzed. Emo-dude frowned at the owl. My mom (the non-goddess one) was jumping with delight. Will looked politely surprised.

The image vanished in a blast of golden light. My mom was next to tears. "I prayed to Athena!!" she said happily. Chiron stared at her jumpy form. He came out of shock. He looked like he was hiding something. He cleared his throat. "Very well, she has been claimed. The Snicket family tradition – claimed by the Athena. Congratulations Mel!" he said kindly.

I wanted to grab a loudspeaker and yell at everyone to explain to me what on Earth was happening once and for all, but instead, I said "Thanks a lot, Chiron. And sorry for fainting. I didn't mean to be rude."

Chiron stared at me. Then he started laughing. "Don't worry about it, I get that a lot. Now, I have to have a word with your mom, meanwhile Will and Nico can introduce themselves and show you the orientation video," he said.

Nico (emo-dude) seemed like he wanted to stay and listen, but one stern glare from the centaur shushed him.

Will smiled at me. "Well, you've got a lot to learn, so we'd better get started! The orientation film explains EVERYTHING!" 

(hey guys this is the first time me and my friends are trying to write a fanfic sorry if you find any grammatical mistakes the main purpose of writing this book is motivation to enhance our writing skills)