"What's going on in there?" I asked as Ethan opened the door.
"Who's the fashion-fail in the muumuu?" Erica added.
"I know, right? Ms. Lucia is subbing for Mr. G. She's so nice," Ethan gushed with a bright smile.
"Right," Sarah drawled.
"Anyway, do you still have any of those little wooden-stake darts?" Erica asked.
"You mean pencils? Yeah, why?" Ethan questioned.
"Some vampire jerk stood her up. She wants to make a point, but I-" Sarah was interrupted by Ms. Lucia slamming her hand on the door.
"All warriors must get to work. The hour of judgement approaches," Ms. Lucia said weirdly.
"Uh, so, where are the girl warriors?" Sarah asked.
"Banished. Maidens have no use but to serve their queen when the hour is at hand," Lucia said and closed the door.
I scoffed at her in disbelief as we turned around.
"Well, that was weird," Sarah commented.
"Makes me want to turn that sub into a sandwich." Erica walked away.
~~~
"You girls have any bloodstone?" Benny turned around, facing us. "It sounds vampire-y."
"All outta bloodstone. But I can make your head bleed on a rock," Erica offered.
"I might have some in my crystals somewhere," I said, walking over to Benny and reading the list over his shoulder. "So our freaky sub gave us freaky homework?"
"And you're not freaked?" Sarah questioned.
"Hot teacher, frozen brain. Done," Erica stated.
"My brain is not frozen. I just-" Lucia walked by and Ethan looked at his list. "Have to find frog hearts. Yeah," he walked away.
"Something's up with your boyfriend," Sarah whispered.
"Baby?" I walked up to Benny, putting on the high, innocent tone. "Benny?"
"Is something wrong, doll?" Benny grinned.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing, but I have to find frog hearts with Ethan." Benny frowned. "For the princess."
"I thought Lucia was a queen, as Ethan put it," I said, cupping his cheek.
"Lucia is a princess. You're my queen," Benny said, kissing me softly. "I love you."
"I love you too," I said, walking over to the girls.
"What did you stare at that made your eyes that wide?" Sarah smiled.
"Nothing." I grinned foolishly. "But there's definitely something up."
~~~
"Jane, is Ethan here?" Sarah and I walked onto his front porch.
"Yeah, but he's acting kinda insane. Even for him," Jane explained.
"Let's go see," I motioned to her.
We walked inside the house and climbed the stairs.
"Lucia demands gold!" Ethan said insanely.
"What's a Lucia?" Jane asked, concerned.
"Gold for my queen!" Ethan ran out of his room.
I walked over to the jewelry, putting it back in its proper place. Mrs. Morgan wouldn't be happy if she found it like this.
"I think Ethan and the guys at school are under some sort of spell," Sarah stated. "It's up to the girls to save the day."
"All right! Count me in," Jane said coolly.
"I meant me, (Y/n), and Erica," Sarah rolled her eyes as she dragged me out the door.
Jane sighed. "Of course you did."
~~~
"Masta eecha luciana," the boys chanted as they walked down the stairs without shirts on.
"Praise the Sun King," the group said robotically.
"I am totally praising the Sun King," Benny shouted.
"I praise him twice as hard as you," Ethan gloated.
"The Sun King is pleased. He will soon return to us. You may cheer," Lucia announced.
"Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!" the boys cheered.
"Soon, the final ceremony will demand the ultimate sacrifice. Who among you is worthy to be my chosen one?" Lucia declared.
The boys fought and then chanted again. They headed out the doors to outside, where we couldn't follow them because it was boiling.
"That Lucia thinks she's so hot, it makes my blood boil!" Erica growled.
"All praise the sun god," I muttered.
"What?" Sarah looked at me, worried.
"It's Tamil. Masta eecha luciana is Tamil, for all praise the sun god," I explained. "She's brainwashing them, I know it."
The crystal hit the sunlight and hit Erica's skin, making it hiss. "Ow!"
"That's not the only thing that's boiling. Lucia's heating the whole world up," Sarah added.
"The sun is turning my skin into human fondue! If I find that Sun King, I am going to knock his teeth out." Erica raised her fist.
"We need a plan, and fast. Think, what would Ethan and Benny do?" Sarah asked.
"No offence, but that's a really stupid idea." Erica glanced at me.
"I'd like to say you're wrong, but you're not. Especially when we add Rory to the equation," I sighed.
"Why think like nerdlings, when we can kick butt like vampires." Erica walked away.
~~~
"Okay! Where's whatser-face?" Erica, Sarah, and I barged into the room.
"The queen prepares for the Sun King's return," Benny explained.
"I'm going to be the chosen one," Rory bragged.
"Whatever. I'm not leaving without smashing something," Erica said.
"Well, she seems to like that skull," Sarah pointed out.
"We will die in defense of the sacred skull," Ethan growled. "Especially Rory."
"Sweetie?" I whispered sweetly to Benny, getting close to him.
He seemed to snap out of it when he stared into my eyes. "Hey, milady." His eyes flashed orange and then he backed away from me robotically.
I walked out with Sarah and Erica.
"His eyes were orange," I said in disbelief.
"There's definitely something wrong," Sarah agreed.
~~~
"I am a witch, why can't a figure this out?" I groaned in frustration as I skimmed through the spell book.
"You can't blame yourself, (N/n). Gramme and I haven't even taught you about this yet." Grandma walked in, sitting down on Ethan's bed with a heavy book. The girls walked in after her as I turned in the chair at the desk. "I'm glad you called me."
"I figured we needed to come up with a plan like Ethan and Benny would," Sarah said.
"And then give up, call you, like Ethan and Benny would if (Y/n) wasn't already involved," Erica added.
"Lucia is an ancient Maztak name. Now the Maztaks were pretty big on gold and animal hearts, too. Look," Grandma started.
"The Sun King and the Sun Queen created the Earth together, but an argument between the two brought eternal night to the world," Sarah read from the book.
"Too bad they didn't have couples' counseling," Erica commented as I snorted.
"Prophets say one day a queen will make an offering so pleasing that the Sun King will return in an explosion of light that will end the mortal world?" Sarah's tone rose as she read.
"At least I won't have to finish that essay," Erica snorted.
"Lucia had the boys build an altar at school. She said the hour of judgement was tonight at sundown," I stated.
"Well, what are you doing yammering with an old lady? It's up to you girls to save the world!" Grandma remarked.
"Grandma's right. It's girl power or nothing," I sighed.
"We need to get our geek on and come up with a plan fast." Sarah stood up.
"Yay!" Jane smiled fakely.
"She said girl power, not little girl power," Erica corrected Jane.
"Boo," Jane sighed.
~~~
"Where's our big plan?" Erica asked.
"I'm trying to find Lucia's weakness and her power source. What exactly are you doing to help?" Sarah snapped.
"Lucia's only weakness is her taste in robes," Erica replied. "And glass heads."
My eyes widened. "Her crystal skull," I said with a smile.
"I bet that's her power source," Sarah finished. "Check this out. The Sun's rays are lighting up the skull."
"So what?" Erica questioned.
"So, what happened in the original myth? Why did the Sun and the Earth split up in the first place?" Sarah looked at me.
"Uh, long-distance relationships never work out?" Erica guessed.
"Nice one," Jane commented.
"Here it is. They split because the moon goddess came between them." Sarah found the paragraph.
"Great. Gotta give the Moon Goddess a call. Got her cell number?" Erica asked sarcastically.
"Maybe we don't need the actual moon, just something that will channel the moon's energy," Sarah reasoned.
"Well, maybe I'm just a 'little girl', but I know a big geek who paid six months' allowance to buy moonstones online," Jane explained. "He even sleeps with the moonstones under his pillow."
Erica walked over to the bed and pulled out a pair of dirty underwear from under the pillow. Erica dropped it, disgusted. "Ew! Great, now I'm going to have to go chew off this hand."
I sighed and went over to the bed, reaching under the pillow. I felt the plastic and pulled them out. "Okay. Got 'em. Let's go," I said simply. "Thanks Jane!"
"You're welcome!" Jane called after me.
~~~
"We got our moon rocks," Sarah started.
"And paint for the windows," I added.
"Sarah, (Y/n), we're risking our lives with a flimsy plan based on one old legend," Erica pointed out.
We felt the ground shaking. "Come on. Time to dethrone a queen," I said determinedly.
We lowered the helmets and splashed black paint over the windows. We ran into the school and took off our helmets as we walked into the classroom.
"The weather girls are here with an updated forecast," Sarah announced.
"Yeah, cloudy with a hundred percent chance of butt-kicking," Erica said darkly.
"Warriors! Attack!" Lucia commanded.
We threw or punched any of the boys that blocked our way.
Lucia smashed a window, the sun beaming in again. Lucia picked up the skull, walking over to Ethan.
"Wow. You guys look hot. It's a shame we have to destroy you," Benny glared at me.
I placed the moon rock against his forehead until they fell to the ground.
"Accept the sacrifice, my Sun King! Purify the Earth in eternal fire!" Lucia held the skull over Ethan.
"Here's one final offering. For the Moon Goddess!" I yelled, throwing the rock to Ethan.
He placed the rock against her forehead, making her stagger. She moved to the center of the room in shock and dropped the skull, shattering it. She screamed, disappearing into a ball of light.
"What happened?" Mr. G asked.
"We saved the world." Sarah flipped her hair.
"And we looked pretty amazing while doing it," Erica added.
"True story," Benny said, and kissed my forehead.