Mortals Meet Magicians (and Demigods)

II - Zia Rashid

Zia Rashid is bored out of her mind.

Sadie had just told the mortals at the Brooklyn Academy for the Gifted, or BAG for short, about how they're Egyptian magicians, and now everyone, literally everyone, is either a) afraid of them, b) scared of them, c) doesn't believe them, or d) doesn't care about them.

Although there is some kids who hasn't heard about them yet. Keyword: yet. If they still hasn't heard the biggest topic going around right now at BAG, they will soon enough, with pretty much everyone talking about it.

Of course, mortal's opinions didn't matter to Zia. But they could have been friends with a few of the nice girls, like Lilian Smith, Abigail Chang, and Hazel Levesque. They are best friends, well almost, and Zia really like how nice they are. On the other hand, Sadie likes the rebel girls.

Okay, Sadie didn't exactly only like rebels, but she and her friends Piper Mclean and Thalia Grace definitely completes that look. Not to mention, ever since she started dating Walt Stone (or Anubis, whatever), she changed her wardrobe to a bit of a more darker theme. Like today for instance, Sadie is wearing a leather jacket that covers the school name (BAG) on a grey shirt underneath. Drab jeans with holes on her knees, and black leather on the sides matching her jacket. Add the orange highlights on her straight (but very messy) blonde hair, along with some more unnoticeable purple ones hiding behind her ears, and what do you get?

Complete weirdo. Boom! Kidding, Sadie just looks like a high schooler, no big deal. But a very rebellious high schooler, that's for sure. Especially when she can never get more than a 59.9 % mark on her report cards and tests.

Anyways, don't tell Sadie Zia said that. Or you'll get a blown-up Zia sent to your lawn in a package, with the very expensive mailing fee (Hermes Express - Super Speed Mailing!).

Zia was just thinking about how she has to do Greek Mythology at BAG, when the actual useful stuff is Egyptian Mythology. Then she bumped into someone. Great luck, huh?

She looked up. It was Thalia, and she was- surprise!- chatting with Hazel, the ultimate good girl. Since when is the rebel queen friends with the nicest, kindest girl at school? Strange.

Nevertheless, Zia apologized, and was surprised- again!- when the two replied instead of turning away and running, screaming that they had touched the crazy magician or something.

"So, how's your, um homework? Got any tests soon?" Thalia asked, trying to struck up a conversation. Zia was surprised- for the third time that day- because Thalia isn't usually this nice to people she doesn't know well. She's seen her kick a boy in the head and judo-flip him before.

"Well, I've got Greek Mythology next. And there's, hmmm, let's see, a math quiz, a french test, and a science unit test! Oh joy." Zia replied not without humour. She could see that Thalia was amused.

"Didn't know the Egyptian magician could be afraid of quizzes and tests." Thalia teased.

Zia was about to retort when Hazel interrupted. "Egyptian magicians are still human, aren't they? And I think that humans are all afraid of tests. Except for a select few who most likely excels at them." She exchanged a glance with Thalia, and Zia could see that Hazel was referring to someone both of them know well.

Then the bell rang. Of course. At the exact time she is getting along with someone who could be a potential friend, and at the exact moment she wants to ask them who Hazel was talking about.

The girls hurried to class, and saw their respective friends waving at them from their seats already. Zia quickly sat down behind a desk beside Abigail, with Hazel and Lilian in front of them. Sadie, meanwhile, is two rows behind them, way at the back of the class with Thalia. Piper and Lacy is one row behind Zia, with Carter and Walt sitting before them. The little group has filled an entire column, making it pretty easy to pass notes back and forth.

Almost as soon as Mr. Pace started, a cell phone rang out. It turned out to be the teacher's, and since the class has a rule that anyone's phone call would have to be on speaker, the students all urged the Mr. Pace to do the same. Which is exactly what he did, after the students' threats of not doing homework and failing on tests. Regular for them already, but the teacher took it seriously.

Mr. Pace pressed a few keys on his phone, and a male voice said gleefully: "Malcolm! Your cabin's filled with spiders! Quickly come back, and we might not release the tarantulas as well."

'Malcolm' took a breath as if to calm himself, before saying in a dangerous voice, "Conner, if you dare do that-"

"I'm not Conner! I'm Travis for goodness' sake!" the voice interrupted.

"Whatever. I'll just leave out my threat entirely, but remember what Percy did when a new Hermes kid set a rubber spider on Annabeth's bed?"

The voice suddenly grew quiet, and stammered, "He, he wouldn't, oh Styx, we're dead."

"You have approximately fifteen seconds to run before they find out. Ten now. It wasn't nice meeting you, by the way. Say hi to Cerberus for me. Goodbye." Mr. Malcolm Pace responded.

He turned off the phone and was about to start the lesson. Before he could, though, another phone rang. He sighed. "Whoever that phone's owner is, be quick about it."

Hazel pulled out her phone and answered the call. "Hi Hazel." The same voice, or rather a very similar one, said mischievously. "We painted your cabin- oh Styx! He wasn't supposed to find out! Conner-" The person must have been talking away from the phone, because his voice was faint. Zia only heard something about being stabbed in the gut and other very pleasant stuff.

"What the Hades?!" the voice came back. "Restrain your brother, Hazel! He's being violent!" Zia then heard a very unmanly scream, a few whimpers begging for mercy, and a loud shriek. Her ears are about to bleed when the phone call finally shut off.

Mr. Pace sighed again as he began the lesson, about the Minotaur, the Furies, the Sirens... Zia's mind drifted off to her date next week and hanging out with her friends after school.

The teacher was about to go on to doing worksheets when the lesson was interrupted for the third time that day. Mr. Pace sighed, for the third time also. "What is it this time?" He snapped.

"Phone call." Lacy replied, waving her phone in the air. She pressed a button, and suddenly a scream was heard. The kind of blood-curdling scream you hear in horror movies that makes your hair stand on their ends. "Lacy? You there?" The voice was male, and very urgent.

"Yes, Percy. Why are you calling me?" Lacy sounds utterly bewildered.

"I dunno, I just pressed a random number on Piper's phone. She left it at camp." 'Percy' explained. "Listen, this is very important. An emergency, in fact. Don't go back to camp. Any of them. Don't go to your houses. Don't leave the school. Got it? There's monsters surrounding this whole area, they've detected you guys. They're everywhere. Both camp are being attacked. Hades, there might even be monsters in your school! Just don't make any rash moves, okay?"

'O-okay. Anything else? This is on speaker, by the way." Lacy added.

"Oh Styx. Anyways, they're all listening, right?" The voice questioned.

'Y-yes. They all are. Mortals. Demigods. As well as a few Egyptian magicians, apparently."

"You mean, Sadie and Carter Kane? Hey guys, you all safe and sound?"

"Um, yeah." Sadie said, a bit speechless. "What's going on?"

"Monster attacks all over the place. They're regrouping, forming ranks. They're starting a war."