"Athena, courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something is more important than fear. The brave might not live long, but the cautious do not live at all."
Athena Marie Thermopolis Renaldi is the shy quiet nerdy girl, wha...
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"Time for school!" Mom calls and I peep my head down my 'trap door', looking at Mia, "Ready for your speech?" I ask, getting up and climbing down my ladder, backpack over my shoulder, "No." Mia grumbles and mom calls, "Stop daydreaming! You'll be late for school!" Mia sighs, "Hey, Louie." I roll my eyes as Mia talks to her devil cat and call my baby over, "Dixie! Come here, girl!" I grin hearing running and giggle as I get jumped on by my massive pup.
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"Time for school." Mia sighs and I get up, we walk down the spiral stairs, Mia grabs her bag and we head down the fireman pole, "Are you feeling confident?" Mom asks Mia and Mia sighs, "Not really." "Okay, now just remember, when you make your speech, don't look at the people. Pick a spot on the back wall, don't take your eyes off it, and speak loudly." Mia nods as mom finishes, "Thanks, mom." She says and I give mom a kiss on the cheek before heading out, grabbing my skateboard on the way.
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"Sorry, Mr. Robutusen." Mia says after slamming into his garbage, we head down the street until I take a curve to the right to meet up with Jett and Cody, I keep down the street when they ride their skateboards over to me, "Hey, Coco." Cody says riding up from my right, "Hi, Flower." Jett greets from my left and I greet back, "Hey Raven. Hey Superman."
We ride and talk all the way to school and make it at the same time as Mia and Lilly, getting off our boards and walking up to the school we hear the cheerleaders practicing and I roll my eyes, then we see the principal getting on to kids for sitting on the wall and I sigh, "I hate school." They both chuckle as we head inside, getting pushed in the process.
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We are sitting in a grassy area on common ground, when I see a guy sit on Mia, I sigh putting down the flower crown I was making and my boys turn away from their books, "What, Flower?" Jett asks and I look at him, "Someone sat on Mia again." They sigh at my words and we all look at her as she stares at Josh sucking some cheerleaders face, "I wish she had confidence." Cody said and I scoff, "Insecurity runs in the family. Just look at me."
The bell rings and we all get up, heading toward Mr. Reagan's class, just as we are about to enter the class Mr. O'Connell, Mia's teacher, stops us, "Mr. Reagan is not here today so you all will be joining my class." I smile excitedly, I get to hear Mia's speech, we go in and sit down in the back right corner as the class files in. As the bell rings Mr. O'Connell calls Josh up to do his speech, it was horrible and after that was Mia, "Now we'll hear the rebuttal from Mia Thermopolis. Who will who will present an argument against our proposition." As Mia gets up Jett, Cody, Lilly, and I clap and cheer.
She gets up behind the negative podium, "Um... I th-think... um-" she's cut off by rude comments being thrown at her and my boys have to hold me down, "Uh... you see,... um... I... See, casual, c-casual... uh..." Mia starts the breath heavily and get sick, that's when the boys and I run up there, rushing her to the bathroom to puke.
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I sigh as I hold Mrs. Barron up, "Athena, Mia, Cody, Jett, when you get done you can have a break!" Our manager shouts and I sigh, finally. We sign off for break as mom comes in, "Hey, mom!" We all say, the boys are so close to us she told them to call her mom, "You threw up, huh?" Mom asks Mia and I cringe, mom chuckles, "And you ran away." "I'm trying to forget about it." Mia replies as we all grab our equipment.
"Can we have some shoes and chalk, please?" I ask Dan, we walk over to get strapped up, Mia, mom, me, Jett, Cody, on the way over I hear Mia say she wants to be a mime and I giggle, "Oh, your grandmother called." MOM says as we get strapped up and we look at her confused, "What?" I ask, "The live one that lives in Genovia, Clarisse." My eyebrows shoot up, "Oh, wow. This is the first time she's ever contacted us, what'd she want?" Mia asks, mom looks nervous, "She's in town. She wants to have tea." She says and I look at her, "She flew all this way to have tea?" I ask.
We get strapped up and mom says, "I think I'm gonna climb a little bit." I roll my eyes, "You don't say." I mutter sarcastically under my breath, "Isn't this the grandmother that made you two get a divorce?" Mia asks as we make our way up the wall, "Um, well, she didn't approve of me. But Phillip and I made the decision to divorce on our own." Mom tells, "Why should we go see this snobby lady that ignores us?" I ask, "Athena... She's your father's mother, just go see her tomorrow. Please?" Mom pleads as I call down, "Tension!" "She said your father hoped that you three would meet someday." We sigh, "All right, we'll--we'll go." Mia says, what did we sign up for?
