The Daughter of Apollo.

Chapter 4 - An Exchange of Lies.

 (Sorry for Short Chapter)

How am I going to get out of this one? I wondered while my Ma gave me her best 'tell me what's going on' glare. It might not sound intimidating, but trust me, it was. I backed away a little, preparing myself for what was the biggest lie I had ever told.

"Look, Ma, it's not what you think." I told her, my voice calm but my palms sweaty as I held out my hands in front of myself, trying to calm her. "I just tripped and fell on my way to school today. The teachers and kids at school were really great about, really! See, they even gave me these band-aids!"

I was almost amazed that I was capable of telling so much lies at once. I bit the inside of my lip, trying to stop it from quivering. My Ma would definitely not fall for that, she was too smart. I hoped to whoever was watching that she'd just leave it alone, let me go to sleep and relive the same stuff at school tomorrow. I had already accepted that that was how it was going to be, Ma getting involved would challenge all my attempts at normalcy. I did not want that to happen. I held my breath, wondering what the woman in front of me would do.

"Ok." She sighed, reaching up to hold my hands gently in her own. "I believe you, duckling."

I almost fell to the ground with relief. "Thank you, Ma." I said, trying hard not to look or feel guilty of fibbing to my trusting mother. "Now, is Pa home?" Ma frowned, like she had bad news to tell me.

"He's – uh - going on a business trip and won't be home for a couple of days." Ma told me, I narrowed my eyes. Is she... lying to me? Ma smiled like she was trying to hide something. Yep, she is lying to me. I wondered what was going on. "But never mind that, dinner will be here in about ten minutes, finish up your homework until then, 'kay?"

"Ok." I smiled. I practically ran to my room, wondering how the hell I was able to get away with that. Pa going away always meant that we'd be eating take out for dinner, which was always something to look forward to. The rest of the night went on as planned, I did my homework and ate dinner with Ma. I went to bed wondering what on Earth Ma was keeping from me. The thought was bugging me until I fell asleep...

And started running.

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I went back to school the next day, feeling the same as I always did; tired due to my normal lack of sleep, excited to see Yasmine and dreading being bullied. The feelings were so repetitive that they honestly bored me. Every day there was the same. Nothing changed. That is, until I felt something different, just as I entered the locker area. It was like a tingle on the back of my neck, telling me that something was wrong. That I was being watched.

I need to find Yasmine. I thought. If something was wrong, my friend was my top priority. I racked my brain for where she might be at this time in the morning. She won't be in front of class, she hates just sitting around and waiting. That was one option down. She's definitely not in the library, not after that incident with Bradley and his crew. The incident being one of the times Bradley tried to pick on me and Yasmine stood against her own twin to protect me. That only leaves one option... And I started running.

I earned a few weird looks on the way there, but I didn't care. I've been through too much to care anymore. It was a few minutes later that I reached the spot, panting and wheezing. The feeling seemed to be getting more intense by the second. Get out of here, it told me, Run while you can. This was really frightening me. Normally if I got a feeling like this, I would just dismiss it as paranoia. But this is different. This is worse.

The first thing I noticed when I got to Yasmine's normal hide-y hole, was that there was no Yasmine to be seen. Second was that her bag was on the ground, a few zips opens, leaning against the brick wall of the school's entrance sign. Yasmine wouldn't just leave her stuff like this, there were too many thieves in our school. Something was definitely wrong.