The Forest Gods' Reign [Published]

Chapter 7: The 4th of July

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I woke up the next morning bright and early at 6:30. Quietly, I sneaked downstairs, careful not to wake up Katie, who was fast asleep on an air mattress in my room, and I could just barely hear Connor playing his guitar from in his room next door. I was outside in my backyard shooting at an empty Coca Cola can with my BB gun when my cousin walked out of the house about a half hour later, but I ignored her as I concentrated on my sights. Ping! A BB pellet hit the can and sent it flying a few feet backwards in the grass. Meanwhile, Katie sighed from behind me, smoothing out her blonde hair, and asked, "Why are you up so early?"

"Did I wake you up? Oh, I'm so sorry," I replied sarcastically. I fired another shot. Ping! The can flew backwards another five feet. The shiny can now lay over fifty feet away. Ping! Sixty. Ping! Seventy.

Katie looked impressed. "You're a good shot," she stated, and I just shrugged because I'd had lots of practice, and I'd hit targets a lot farther away before.  Then, without saying another word, Katie sat down on the back porch steps and watched me shoot for a while. For once, I actually managed to tolerate her presence, and she didn't seem too annoyed with me either.

About an hour later, my mom called from the kitchen, "Breakfast!" And together we raced back inside. While we ate, I tried to engage in polite conversation with my aunt and uncle, but my mind was elsewhere. I watched with jealousy as I saw Connor, Zach, and Luke head into the forest together. Zach saw me looking at them from across the street and waved at me with a smile, which only made me feel even worse.

Sighing to myself, I looked down at my plate and hoped Alec would forgive me for not training with him for the next few days, because I realized that I had forgotten to tell him about my other plans. Then I tried to tell myself that I didn't care if Alec was mad at me or not, but it didn't work, which was strange because I hardly knew the boy at all, and I had never felt that way about anyone before. So, I simply stabbed my fork into my pancake in anguish, feeling conflicted and itching to get my hands on a monster, just so I could have the satisfaction of sending it down to Hades.

Of course, no one else in the room noticed my violent assault on the pancake. Instead, they continued to talk about the best tourist attractions in Paris. Suddenly Katie's cell phone rang, and she ran upstairs to answer it, while I wondered why she would have her phone on during breakfast anyway. It was considered rude in my house. Meanwhile, my mother finally excused me from the table, so I went outside to sit in the rocking chair on the front porch.

I sat quietly in the antique rocking chair on the porch, listening to the birds sing joyfully in the warm summer heat of the Woods. If I listened very closely, I could just barely hear Pan screaming from inside the forest, trying to scare the living daylights out of any god, nymph, satyr, or monster nearby. I found it funny that while the rest of the state of Washington was having rainy days, our county had the brightest sunlight. The Woods was almost always like a pocket of warmth in the middle of the dreary, rainy state, probably due to a few of Zeus's weather tricks.

I was just wondering how long Katie was going to talk on the phone when Josh and Cole ran by Zach and Luke's house next door. They grinned and waved when they saw me, and then they quickly jogged their way up the street to meet me.

"Where's the rest of the Monster Watch?" Cole asked curiously, his caramel-colored hair shining in the sunlight. Still angry that I wasn't allowed to go into the forest, I just pointed across the street towards the edge of the trees, not saying anything, and Cole nodded in understanding.

Josh ruffled his short, curly, brown hair and said with a grin, "So, where's your cousin? I heard she's hot. But not as hot as you or Alicia or Becca, of course." I frowned and stuck my leg out, playfully kicking Josh in the shin. "Hey!" he exclaimed, and Cole laughed, his brown eyes twinkling.