Felix Wilson and the Daughters of Hecate

Prologue

Cambridge, 2012

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Felix Wilson lent out of his bed lazily and smacked his Yoda alarm clock, first in the face of Yoda and then on the button that would shut up the clock. His husky puppy, Reeve, started to lick the boy in his face.

"Reeve? How did you get up here?" Felix asked woozily. 

"FELIX!" came the shouting from downstairs of his sister, Caitlyn. "YOU HAVE A SCHOOL TRIP TODAY AND YOU KNOW WHAT DONATTI IS LIKE WHEN SOMEONE IS LATE! AND DON'T FORGET TO WEAR CLEAN UNDERWEAR; I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THAT CRAP WITH LEO!"

Reeve started to whine.

Felix chuckled. "She means me, not you," he said, patting his dog's head.

"FELIX!"

Felix sighed in frustration and shouted back, "I'M COMING! QUIT YOUR SHOUTING, WOMAN!"

"BOTH OF YOU STOP SHOUTING!" their mother shouted.

The boy got dressed as quickly as possible, washed his face, packed his bag and grabbed a slice of toast before his sister started shouting like the Corporal at his Army Cadets, which means to say she was shouting at the top of her voice constantly, flitting about the place, completely agitated. Well, on the brightside this Corporal's bossy nature got her brother to school on time for the school trip to London.

"Hurry up, Felix!" his friend from America, Carter, called as they got onto the coach that was parked right outside the school gates.

"Dilly dallying as always, Wilson," Mrs Donatti, an elderly Italian lady wearing unfashionable cardigans in colours that did not compliment her complexion in the slightest, said distastefully. "At what time were you up this morning?"

"Six-thirty," Felix answered, struggling to keep his tone polite.

"Hmm," was all his teacher answered. "Get on the bus."

Felix sat with Carter in the middle of the bus.  

All the way to London, the girls were either laughing at gossip, listening to music, or sating their Googly Bands craze, or chatting about Chatimals. The guys were throwing paper aeroplanes around the coach, or falling asleep. Felix, on the other hand, was drawing on the window with a black felt-tip pen; he was drawing a King Kong with flighter planes around him.

 "You're not supposed to be doing that, Lex," Carter said, as he stabbed his Capri Sun packet with a straw. "Donatti will cook your bacon."

Felix ignored his friend, a grin on his face. "Now!" he suddenly said.

Carter and some of the other kids in the vacinity looked; the King Kong Felix had drawn had lined up perfectly with the Gherkin so that it looked like King Kong was climbing the Gherkin with fighter planes shooting at him.

"Felix."

Felix turned around at the sound of a girl's voice, slightly shocked. Aria Castellan, a dark-haired, dark-eyed girl with freckles, olive skin and an Italian accent to her English, who also happened to go to Army Cadets, smiled at him. "That's cool," she said, looking pointedly at his King Kong drawing.   

She looked away again, smiling. Her best friend, Ashley Marin, chuckled under her breath, shaking her head and giving Felix a slight nod  -  his drawing had indeed impressed Aria Castellan.

Carter and the rest of the boys, though, looked impressed; Aria was notoriously hard to impress and it frustrated them as they all vied for the girl's attention. Felix turned back to Carter with a beaming look on his face and Carter gave him a thumb's up.