Underground Angels

Chapter Twenty | I Compete with the Archery Queen

“Oh yeah, it’s uh – great.” It wasn’t really a lie, she thought.

Mark spoke up “Have you met Gabriel’s friends yet?”

“Oooh, are they nice?” cried Bernie: Noel could picture her mother’s ecstatic smile.

“Um, yeah, they’re nice. This guy Stephan, he’s really good at cars, and Constantine likes a lot of the same books as me.”

“Wasn’t there a girl, too?” inquired Mark.

“Oh, yeah – Lola.” Noel looked behind her, checking to see if anyone was around “She’s…interesting.”

“But you’re having fun?” the worry in Bernie’s voice was evident, and Noel had a pang of homesickness.

“Yeah Mum, I’m having fun.” From behind her a large horn blared, signalling the start of game day. Noel didn’t know what kind of games demigod children played, but she was mildly frightened to find out. “I gotta go.”

“Okay honey, want me to fedex the portable toilet? You never know about those camp ones –”

“Bye, Mum.” Hanging up, Noel headed for the grounds, wondering what kind of games awaited her.

            It seemed the point of every game was to try not to die as little as possible. Kids wearing toques with CAMP MED written on them stood at the side at all times, bouncing and waiting to charge in and take a moaning kid away on a stretcher.

All of this scared Noel shitless.

A little while after lunch Constantine found her, huddled on a log, parka pulled down over her knees. The Cyclopes girl from that morning, Rachel, was with him, large eye blinking curiously.

“Hey, what’ve you been doing?” asked Constantine, sitting beside her.

“Hiding, mostly.” She admitted, holding up her hands to the fire.

“From what?”

“Danger.”

Rachel laughed “She’s not really fit for festival life, is she?”

“C’mon Rachel, give her a break – she just got here.”

Shrugging, Rachel stood “Well I’m not hiding. Want to go watch Lola kick everyone’s butts in the archery competition?”

“I do!” Stephan appeared from behind a tent, freckled face flushed with excitement.

“C’mon, it’ll be fun. Lola’s pretty good, and she does kick everybody’s butts.”

Pondering it for a moment, Noel stood. “Okay, as long as we’re a fair distance away.”