Welcome to Pyrrhia High

Winter Break

"I'm in!" yelled Winter. "I need to get away from my siblings, especially after ..." he shuddered. "the bathroom incident."

"I think he posted the story on Facebook," said Qibli. "It's one of the most popular posts."

"Dooon't," whined Winter.

"Yeah, I'd really like to," Turtle replied. "Maybe the nice beaches and clear skies will give Moon and me some ideas for our upcoming fanfiction."

"Wait ..." I said. "YOU GUYS WRITE FANFICTION?! Why didn't you tell me? We could've done an entire story together."

Moon and Turtle exchanged a small glance, refusing to make eye contact with me.

"What?" I asked.

"It's nothing," Moon shrugged. "We three can collab. It's just that maybe before we do, I could help you on your ... er ... grammar and plot."

"What's wrong with my grammar?!" I pouted.

"This," said Turtle. He opened up his phone and read what I wrote down below:

Glory and Deathbringer walked down le street together holding hands, Deathbringer zaid "Glory i really like you ... Glory blushed and said "I like you too" "Ok," The two held each other close and kissed Both felt so good. "you know i really like kissing you," said Deathbringer.

"And it's all crammed in one paragraph," said Moon. "But don't worry; we'll help you!"

"Yeah! In fact, my fanfiction was way worse when I started," Turtle shuddered a little. I assumed he was thinking about the time he wrote a Patroclus x Achilles fanfiction when we were studying the Illiad in the eighth grade. (Well, at least that ship was actually canon, unlike idiotic "historians" who claimed they were hetero bros being hetero bros.)

(A/N: Please tell me I'm not the only one who's heard of or read TSOA.)

(A/n: OK! STOP READING! PAUSE! It's time for intermission. I'll have it in every chapter from now on. Intermission is for a get-to-know-you purpose, in which I'll ask you readers a question, and you readers will guess my personal answer.

Q. If you were a demigod, who would be your godly parent?

Now try and guess MY godly parent! I'll comment if you guessed it right or wrong. You can tell by the format of my comment if your answer is correct. ;)

"Did you know," Winter suddenly interjected. "That it's physically impossible to lick your elbow?"

I immediately held my elbow up to my chin and stuck my tongue out. It didn't reach. I held my arm closer and reached my tongue out even more. Still didn't work but I think I'm getting there ...?

"Kinkajou, I think you should stop," said Moon. "You might twist a neck muscle."

"Not," I grunted, "Until ... I ... touch ... my- OW!"

I collapsed at the ground, holding my neck in pain.

Turtle rushed to the kitchen for an ice pack as Winter and Moon facepalmed. Qibli, meanwhile, gave me a high-five. (The sole reason why I appreciate him so much.)

"Does anyone want hot chocolate?" I asked.

"Me!" said Qibli. 

"Okay," I walked to the kitchen and fixed two mugs of hot chocolate. In one mug I poured whipped cream, and in the other went hot sauce. Guess which one Qibli would get?

The day of the trip, I met the others at the airport security line. Just when we were about to take off our shoes and jackets at the conveyor belt, I noticed a Muslim woman standing near the policeman.

"You'll have to take that off," said the policeman.

That immediately turned me on. With Moon and Winter by my side, I marched up to the policeman and began to rant.

"Sir," I snapped. "Have you no shame? She has the right to wear her hijab because it's part of her religion, okay? It's unjust and against the Constitution for you to force her to take it off. What if you were stripped of something you held dear to you as an everyday object? How would you feel, huh? I thought that you police guys were trained to RESPECT EVERY CITIZEN, not discriminate them like in the terrible old days. Now, how about you go apologize your sorry bottom to this nice lady?"

The policeman stared at me as if I'd grown two heads. Strangely enough, so did the Muslim woman.

Finally, the policeman said, "I was saying that to the man behind her. He has to take off his hat because of its size."

Sure enough, a man with a sombrero walked past us. He looked at me, raised his eyebrow, and put his hat on a basket.

"Ohh ..." my cheeks grew red. "Uh ... I'm sorry."

"... it's fine," he said. "Now ... get back in line."

I did my walk of shame back to a laughing Qibli and sympathetic Turtle, who patted my shoulder when I got there.

After we found our gate, we stopped for food at Dunkin' Donuts. Winter accidentally spilled his hot coffee onto Qibli's lap, which resulted to Qibli throwing a donut crumb at him. By the end of the fight, the couple looked as if they had challenged Meg McCaffrey from the Trials of Apollo to a food fight. And badly lost. Obviously.

On the plane, I became disappointed to find out that there were no movie players on the backs of the seats; only long-distance flights had them. Luckily, I got to watch Qinter nod off and fall asleep on each other's shoulders. I snapped a few photos as well and posted them online.

Then Turtle, Moon, and I discussed our fictional ships.

"To be honest, I would preferred Harry and Hermione to get together in the end," said Moon. "In fact, J.K. Rowling even stated that she'd change the Ron x Hermione pairing."

"But definitely not to Draco x Hermione, right?" I said.

"Never that ship," Turtle shuddered. "I can't believe it's like #2 in the top ships of Harry Potter. #1 is Harry x Draco."

"Grooooss."

"Oh yeah," said Turtle. "Would you like us to help you improve your writing?"

"Sure!"

"Okay," said Moon. "First of all, skip to a new paragraph every time a character speaks. If all the dialogue and action happens on one whole blob of words, readers will instantly lose interest or skim at most."

(*cough* Free tip you definitely should use *cough*)

"Okay ..."

We proceeded to talk for the next hours until the intercom buzzed:

"We are about to make our landing. Everyone, stay in your seats until you are free to get up. Thank you."

"Aww," I groaned. "They didn't even offer us ice cream."

"That's sad," Winter said blankly, Qibli's head still on his shoulder. Winter then muttered, "Oh, crap."

"What?"

"I just remembered that I have motion sickness on planes ... can I use Qibli to vomit on while he's still asleep?"

"NO. Take this," Moon handed him a plastic bag.

"Thanks. Launching on three ... two ... one ..."

I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the impact. And then it came.

Winter quietly spit into his bag.

"Seriously?" I groaned. "No shaking, pained groans, any of that? I was expecting you to be more dramatic."

"..."