Chapter One

"Is that it?" 

Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, joined her sister, General Antiope, in the center of a room. On the table between them was a baby made of clay.

"That's it," Antiope confirmed. 

Hippolyta gently placed her hand on the baby's forehead. Slowly but surely, the sculpture came to life.

"You're bringing it to life," Antiope said, wonderingly.

Hippolyta nodded. "Not only that," she said, "I'm giving it some of my powers". 

At a look from Hippolyta, Antiope placed her hand on the baby's forehead. After a minute or so, Hippolyta cradled the baby in her arms.

"Can we keep it?" Antiope asked, betraying her military façade for the first time.

"I'm afraid not, Antiope," Hippolyta said, walking out of the room. "I'm taking her to Olympus- our work with her is done".

"You ready?" 

I stared out of the passenger-side window of the minivan at the high school and the students milling about.

I shrugged. "I don't know," I said. 

I glanced over at Hailey, my older sister. "It's high school. It's a new environment. And a new group of students, as well".

Hailey nodded sympathetically. She knew all about what I was talking about. Eighth grade last year had been manageable because my classmates, after attending classes with me for three years at minimum, had grown used to my powers at odd times. I'd even been looking forward to high school up to about a week ago, since I'd be with my classmates and they, at least, would've been able to explain the more more frequent occurrences. But for whatever reason, my mom had decided to send me to a completely different high school where I knew no one- not even my fellow freshmen.

Thanks, mom. Big help.

"Kelsey, you'll do fine," Hailey said. "You and me are kind of in the same boat".

"Not really," I said. 

"I'm going to be a freshman this year, as well," Hailey said.

This was actually true- Hailey would be attending the Georgia State downtown campus. 

"Yeah, but you don't have superpowers," I said jokingly, and opened my door. 

I slung my backpack on, squared my shoulders and walked across the parking lot.

Despite my various trepidations, the day passed without a hitch- or I should say, it passed without a hitch right up until my final class before lunch- Marine Biology. 

Don't worry, though- it wasn't bad. 

I have to admit, knowing there was a Marine Biology offering made going to this high school more bearable. I kinda liked the idea of having both Biology and Marine Biology every morning. Civics I could bear. The there was Algebra 1- blech, but gym class the next session more than made up for it. Then there were the afternoon classes. Art I knew I was going to love. Latin I could handle.

But I digress.

Marine Bio started with the usual intro to the class by way of the syllabus, but then the teacher decided to toss out some random questions to see how much we actually knew before class started in earnest the next day. I found this a pleasant surprise after what the previous teachers had done, which was basically "syllabus and movie", but my classmates didn't feel the same way. 

"Does anyone know the basic zones of the ocean?" asked Mrs. Rillmann.

I glanced around at the rest of the class- some were slumped in their chairs and others were staring at the clock.

My hand shot straight up.

"Kelsey," said Mrs. Rillmann, surprised.

I stood up and gestured at the blackboard.

"Sure," said Mrs. Rillmann, holding out a piece of chalk. 

Once at the blackboard, I drew a gently sloping line. 

"Now, there're two ways of looking at this," I addressed the class. I drew a box around the slope I'd previously drawn. 

"We have the intertidal zone, and then the continental shelf...

I drew two different lines on the part of the box below the slope.

"The continental shelf is also known as the neritic zone," I said. "But when you get past the neritic zone on a horizontal basis, you go from the neritic zone to the oceanic zone- named, oddly enough, because you're in the open ocean at that point". 

No reaction from the class.

"But we can also talk about the different zones in terms of depth," I added. "In other words, on a more vertical basis".

I drew two lines extending out from the box.

"We first have the photic zone," I said, writing that above the first line. "That's the first two hundred meters or so, and that's where sunlight filters down".

I noticed the other kids in the class were exchanging stunned looks with each other, like who is this kid?

"The second zone is the aphotic or twilight zone, with minimal nutrients, and then there's the benthic zone, or the ocean floor," I concluded.

I tossed the chalk back to Mrs. Rillmann and walked back to my seat with my classmates in stunned silence.

My final class of the day was Latin, and I was glad I had just one class left at that point- whispers had been following me around since Marine Bio, although I strongly suspect that had less to do with me knowing the ocean zones and more to do with the fact that I already knew the Latin names of several ocean animals. 

I might never understand fellow high schoolers, I guess.

After the usual syllabus review, Mrs. Stevenson asked us a question.

"Who can finish this quote?" 

"In English?" one of my classmates asked.

Mrs. Stevenson shook her head.

"Tibi nunc fortuna non potest determinare quo iret..." she said.

My classmates stared at her like she'd grown a second head, but I recognized the quote easily. She wanted the second half of "your present circumstances don't determine where you can go". 

"Yeah, that was probably too hard for people who haven't heard Latin before," she said, but right then I raised my hand.

"Here we go," someone said.

"Kelsey," Mrs. Stevenson said, surprised.

I stood up and said "quo modo committiur statuere".

The eyes of every student in the room didn't leave my face for the rest of the lesson. 

When Hailey rolled into the carpool lane at the end of the day I dove into the passenger seat. 

"You okay?" she asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "But let's get out of here".

Credit to Hailey- she knew that meant that I wanted to leave and when she wants to leave a place, she burns rubber. She peeled out of the parking lot. 

Hailey glanced at me when we pulled into the driveway. "So..."

I shrugged and unbuckled my seat belt. "Everyone was staring at me. And I don't like being stared at like that. I don't want to stand out like I did on my first day". 

After a quick snack I headed up to my room, slung my backpack on the floor and collapsed on my bed. I got off easy today, I thought. I don't start P.E. until tomorrow. 

And tomorrow is another day.