Divinity

"Pretending to be normal,"

Kai

I have a calendar in my room. I use it to mark all the times this year I spent with my parents. Talking, laughing, smiling, fighting, throwing glasses across the floor, smashing plates against the walls or the red welt to remind you of a particularly painful slap. Good or bad, I mark the date.

This month was empty. All of them were.

But who needs trivial things like family?

Especially when you had awesome powers, like eyes that could light up an entire room.

Yea.

My attention drifts back to the calendar, and I’m absolutely transfixed by the date. It was the thirteenth of August, Nemoralia, the festival of torches. It was the day we celebrated Diana, the goddess of the Hunt. Which was me.

My fingers brush against the printed words.

It was Friday too.

Bad things happen on Friday the thirteenth.

I crouch down at the edge of the lake, water lapping at my feet.

In the reflection of the water, you can see a girl. And she was supposed to be just like the virgin Goddess of the Hunt. Ill tempered, brash, caring and nurturing. Those were all traits I was meant to portray…

But that isn’t me. I am Kai Mackenzie. Sixteen years old, a couple of months away from finishing high school. Simple. 

Not my ancestor: Diana.

But the world I live in is not one to listen to my opinions anyway.

With my thoughts swarming, I wade through the water.

Plants brush against my feet, entangling themselves around me. I see a flick of movement as fish swim away from me. The sand squelches under my feet.

Winter was slipping away from us, so it was cold enough for the water to be ice cold but the bent rays of sun that shone through in spring warmed my body just enough to make it tolerable.

Still, my teeth chatter. Without thinking, I duck my head under.

The freezing water laps over me, hugging my skin. 

So now, I tell myself. You’ve got to keep warm. 

I move my arms in windmill motions, my legs kicking the water furiously behind me. I swim as long as I can without taking a breath before resurfacing.

I shake the water out of shake my hair, shivering. I do a couple of tumbles and turns in the water. Ripples grow around me and they spread to the shores of the lake.  

Then I felt fingers close around my ankle. It tugs on my leg, pulling me under water.

I shriek before reality seeps in. There are barely goldfish in this lake.

The fingers grow to become hands and then arms and before you know it, my attacker had become my best friend, Matt.

“Morning, Kai.” He grins, tossing my body over his shoulder.

I shriek again and begin to pound on his back while being wrecked with laughs. “Put me down!” I scream, drawing attention to the both of us.

“Sure,” he says, dropping me back into the water.

I fall headfirst, my skull breaking the water’s surface tension. I roll over before I hit my head and spring back up, shuddering in the sub zero temperatures. “What the hell, Matt?” I scowl, wiping the water from my eyes. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t stay mad at him though.

“Just wanted to wish you good luck.” He says nonchalantly, as if we weren’t just swimming in a sacred lake in jeans.

“By dunking me in a lake?” I ask incredulously.

He grins lopsidedly.  “Some people give each other flowers and cards but I felt as if our friendship was stronger than that.”

“Sure.” I say, rolling my eyes. “Well, I hope our friendship is strong enough to live after this.” I skim my hand across the surface of the lake, spraying him with a jet of water.

Matt brings his hands to his face, yelping. “Oh, it’s on!” He cries, splashing me in the face.

I gasp, barely able to tolerate the cold, even though I was submersed in it. Matt aims a dozen more attacks to me, all of which I return.

After a few minutes of water fights, Matt calls truce and we just relax, floating, swimming, and pretending to be normal.

But we weren’t. Because I was Diana and he was the heir to Zeus.

Our religions clashed and we were supposed to hate each other. We were supposed to despise each other, both of us conspiring to drive the other religion out of the city. Or out of existence.

But here was the twist ending.

We didn’t.