I took down another one of my sketches of the moon, then a sketch of Paul. When it came to a sketch of my mom, I took my sweet time, savoring her beauty. Remembering how her eyes twinkled when I showed her one of my drawings, or Paul let her read a new poem of his.

It always seemed odd to me how moms hair was brown, a compromise of midnight black and golden blonde. Her eyes were a gorgeous blue, the color of the sky right after the sun went into hiding, yet before the moon was to rise. Her skin was flawless though it was as if it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be tan or pale. She was very thin even though she ate as if there was no tomorrow- everyday. From the very bottom of her feet, to the tippy top of her gorgeous hair, she was perfect- goddess-like in fact. It seemed like the end of the world when she died just 2 weeks ago.

I hadn't realized I was crying until a tear dropped on the picture. I quickly wiped my eyes hoping no one was around to notice.

"You do know that it's okay to cry, right?" My twin brother, Paul, asked standing in the doorway of my blue room.

"Oh shut up, Pollo Boy!" I retorted. I hated it when people saw me cry, it showed weakness.

Paul clutched his heart acting hurt. "How can you say such a thing to me, my dear Artemis? I thought you loved me!" He began to fake sob. After about a minute of his desperately sad fake crying, he peeked up at me to check if I was falling for it, knowing I hadn't.

"Oh come on!! That used to always work on you Arty you ol' wart!"

"Yeah, when I was 5! And don't you even try to go all tickle monster on me cause I will... will...!"

Paul almost immediately caught up on my bad mood and moved to sit on the bed. He pulled me into a comforting embrace and began to stroke my head.

"It's okay to cry about mom Emmy-Lemmy. You can cry in front of me." He whispered to me while sobbed into his shirt. "Soon we'll go away to that snobby boarding school place and we can leave all this behind."

I began to cry even more. He just had to remind me of the school that we were to be attending in a matter of 2 weeks, Olympian High, the most prestigious, not to mention most expensive, high school in America.

Another way you could say would be that our new guardian, Uncle D, a man who we have just met, is sending me and my brother away to living hell. Isn't that nice? And we were to be leaving in an hour. I had been taking down the sketches on my bulletin board just before and still had the other half to go.

I untangled myself from the embrace and grunted. "Just get your lazy ass out of my room and finish packing you crap."

He just laughed and did what he was told.




"Daaaaaamn!!!" Paul exclaimed waking me from my nap. We had flown from New York City, our old home, to sunny Los Angeles, California. As if that 5 and a half hour flight wasn't exhausting enough, Paul and I had to endure another 2 hours of driving in a car until we finally reached our final destination, the hell house school we were to be living in for the next year.

"Emmy, Emmy look at that!!! Do you SEE that! And that's only the dorms!! The school has got to be like, 20 times bigger!! Emmy are you listening to me?!" And I wasn't listening to him, I was to busy staring at the palace we were going to live in.
The building was practically built for the queen of England. The grass was as green as it could get without being artificial, and the fountains were spewing gorgeous clear water. There were statues of the gods and goddesses of Greek, Roman, and even Celtic mythology.

"Emmy, Em, Emelia Everheart will you answer me!!" I hadn't realized Paul had been trying to grab my attention for the last 5 minutes.

"Shut up Paul, you know that's that not even my name, gosh! The driver stopped, come on get out." I nagged my twin as he slowly opened the door of the hummer limo, then slowly put one foot out of the door, then began to slowly put the other one out the door. I pushed him out the door then proceeded out the door carrying my iPod Touch in one hand and putting my D&G sunglasses on with the other. My brother and Mr. Driver were taking out the luggage and loading them onto a .... Bellhop?

"Em come on, we have to go register."

I took a one more look at my new home sighing and followed the 2 to the building.



"Artemis and Apollo Ortega from New York City."

I was in the dorm office admiring his size and classiness. The reception lady (aka Ms. A) was a very appealing woman with striking platinum blonde hair and sky blue eyes, was slouching (which to me was very unattractive) over a Mac desktop.