Eastern Star

Discovery

Why hello there dear reader! Congratulations on picking this story out of all the others- of all the others you could have chosen, you chose the best one, and a very wise choice that was indeed! (What do you mean, I'm being conceited?) Anyway, you're not here for me and my drabbling- although I must say I am a fine drabbler- you're here for the story. So onwards!

Elise hated school.

She didn't just hate school like most people, she really, truly hated school. Being ADHD and dyslexic did not help the fact that she was also generally thick. Elise had no friends, although she wasn't bullied. Joining in February did not give her an advantage, when everyone was already settled into there own friend groups. She was classed as a loner, and a weird one at that.

Why was she weird? So many reasons. Whenever a teacher got angry at her, you could see the rage in her face, and then the lights would start to flicker. It would grow darker outside, and she almost appeared to... glow, as if she was physically emitting light. You could almost see the fire raging in her stormy blue eyes.

So when the new student arrived, and decided that they should be friends, she was more than a little bit pleased.

Her name was Selene Starr. One day in May, she just turned up and plonked herself down next to Elise, flashing her charming grin. The male population of the school were very interested in her, what with her glossy, short black hair, dark twinkling eyes and dusky skin. But to every offer that came her way, she flashed her white teeth at them and shook her head in decline. Elise never thought to ask why.

She finally understood the day that everything changed.

It was a normal day, indistinguishable from the others. Elise wasn't even sure what day of the week it was, although she thought it could've been Wednesday. Anyway, they were in French, probably her worst subject. Why does everyone speak different languages? Why doesn't everyone just speak the same language? It would eliminate the language barrier, and it would make actually learning a different language unnecessary and no effort would be required.

I digress.

So there they were, sitting in French, listening to the teacher (Elise hadn't bothered to learn the his name) droning on about irregular verbs in such a way that it made no sense whatsoever. When he had reached the peak of his speech, so boring that a few people had actually fallen asleep, there was a growl outside the door.

This was no ordinary growl. This growl was low, menacing, rumbling, a sign of danger. Selene seemed to go stiff when this sound echoed through the classroom, and her hand gripped the desk so hard that her knuckles went white. Elise thought this was, at the very least, odd, not much scared Selene. And yet there she was, her eyes wide, her hand- the one that wasn't gripping the table like it was the only thing that was keeping her from falling to the fiery depths of hell- slowly inching it's way towards her pocket. Elise caught a gleam coming from said pocket when she shifted. No, it couldn't be... was that a knife?

Elise had no time to contemplate this as the door was slowly pushed open.

Stood in the doorway was a menacing, black dog, at least twice the size of a normal large dog. It bared its teeth and let out that low growl that made the hair on the back of Elise's neck stand on end.

Selene shot up, pulling the bronze knife from her pocket, and attacked the dog.

Elise sat there in shock, not moving a muscle, and not because her friend was currently ripping a monster's throat to pieces, it was because the class wasn't reacting at all! They'd glanced briefly at the door when the dog- wolf?- entered, and then turned there heads back to the board with disinterest. But Elise decided not to question this- there would be time for questions later. Right now, Selene was finishing off the wolf. When it had dissolved into dust, she gestured to Elise, telling her to hurry.

With a toss of her dark red hair, Elise grabbed her bag and ran towards the door faster then she knew she could.

Once outside the school gates, Elise turned to Selene.

"What the on earth was that?"

"No time to explain!" panted Selene, as she pointed towards the very edge of the school grounds, "Later!"

Elise moved to where she'd pointed- waiting for them was a chariot, large enough for two people. She stared at it.

"Well come on then!" shouted Selene, already in the chariot, gesturing to Elise. She decided not to question her and got in next to Selene. Almost immediately, the chariot sped off, up, up and into the air!

Elise was in a state of disbelief. How was this happening? This COULD be a hallucination- she'd somehow managed to make them happen to others, but never to herself. She didn't question how she did it, as what mattered to her was that it did do it.

With in a couple of hours, in which Elise had felt sick several times, they finally reached their apparent destination- the bottom of a hill on a random, uninteresting road in the middle of no where.

"Where are we?" queried Elise.

Selene smiled. "We," she said, "Are at Camp Half-Blood."