Bianca di Angelo's Writing Contest Entries

I Get a Job as a Guide for a Underground Death Maze

 Title: I Get a New Job as Guide of a Underground Death Maze

Being frozen is not fun.

Standing in front of The Marriott Marquis, painted in gold, I was posing like a statue for a good hour or two. My back was aching, my arms felt like they were going to fall off, the gold paint felt tight and crusty on my skin, and don’t even get me started on my unblinking eyes. At least it was for a good cause, for Urban Art for Kids (which was what the sign at the bottom of my feet). The other kids surrounding me were all painted in copper, bronze, and silver. Seeming like I was standing there forever, I finally saw a familiar person: Percy and some blonde chick. They stared at me for a while, but I didn’t say anything.

“Maybe if we push her over,” the blonde chick said to Percy. I kept ignoring her though, I needed to stay in character. A kid painted in silver came up to where the rest of us were posing and posed like he was lecturing a bunch of people. Sighing in relief, I stepped off of my tarp.

“Hey Percy!” I smiled, then I remembered I was super thirsty from all that posing. “Good timing, let’s get some coffee”

I led them down to my favorite coffee shop, Java Moose on West 43rd. Man, I just love their espressos. In fact, I ordered an Espresso Extreme while Percy and Annabeth got boring old fruit smoothies. La-ame. Anyway, we walked over to a table with a stuff moosed that hung over it so it could stalk you while you were drinking coffee. I looked over at the blonde girl, I remember Percy mentioning her. What was her name? Arabell? Anabella?

“So,” I began. “It’s Annabell, right?”

“Annabeth,” the blonde corrected through gritted teeth. God, didn’t have to be so rude about it. “Do you always dress in gold?”

Did she seriously just ask that? “Not usually,” I confessed. “We’re raising money for our group. We do volunteer art projects for elementary kids ‘cause they’re cutting art from schools, you know?” I still couldn’t believe they’re cutting art from schools. I mean, who does that? It’s a crime to humanity! I continued telling them about the charity. “We do this once a month, take in about five hundred dollars on a good weekend.” It was almost worth standing frozen in a pose for hours and feeling like your eyes were bleeding. Annabeth stared at me like I was boring her. “But I’m guessing you don’t want to talk about that. You’re a half-blood, too?”

Annabeth’s eyes grew big in a alarm. “Shhh!” She looked around, as if she were making sure nobody heard me. “Just announce it to the world, how about?”

I mentally groaned, I didn’t like it when people smart-mouthed me. Smirking, I stood up from my chair, “Okay.” Then, really loudly, I yelled, “Hey, everybody! These two aren’t human!” I pointed at Percy and Annabeth really dramatically. “They’re half Greek god!”

Everyone just kept about their business, like the didn’t hear me. Idiots. I bet if I said ‘Hey look, it’s Justin Bieber’ everyone would’ve went screaming and freaking out.

I shrugged as I sat back down, “They don’t seem to care.”

Annabeth formed a look of annoyance on her face, “That’s not funny.” Actually, it quite was. “This isn’t a joke, mortal girl.” Mortal girl, MORTAL GIRL. Did she just call me mortal girl? Okay, fine, if she wants to be that way she can--

“Hold it, you two,” Percy intervened. “Just calmed down.” I rolled my eyes, we weren’t even fighting yet.

“I’m calm.” I thought about my recent memories with Percy, then said, “Every time I’m around you, some monster attacks us. What’s to be nervous about?”