I smiled. “Hey, you little rascals.”
I climbed off my bike and braced myself as the large furry bodies bombarded me with love, wet tongues, and long claws. Two border collies, an Irish wolfhound, and the ballsiest little shih-tzu you’d ever seen hopped around me as I tried to make my way to the front door.
I laughed. "Alright, alright. Let's get you guys fed before you decide to eat me.”
I opened the front door, its creaky hinges reminding me that I needed to fix them. I was assaulted by the drool-worthy smell of my Abuela's Gambas al Ajillo.
After breathing it in deeply, I called, “I’m home!”
“Don’t track in any mud or I’ll skin you alive!” Came the high shrill of the woman who raised me.
“I love you too!” I yelled back.
Tugging off my boots, I walked into the kitchen, dropping my backpack on the table. By the stove stood an old woman no taller than four and a half feet. Her hips swayed back and forth as she listened to Julio Iglesias serenade her on the radio. I walked over and kissed her on the cheek before heading over to the dog's food bin and scooping up three buckets of dry food and a small can of wet food for the shih-tzu.
After feeding the dogs, I came back in. “Is there anything that I can help with?”
“Harold clogged the toilet again-” She began before being interrupted by another voice coming from the living room.
“I did not! It was you, you old bat!”
She rolled her eyes. “Regardless, we can't fix it. Can you take a look at it?”
I nodded. "Sure.”
Heading out of the kitchen, I caught a glimpse of my grandfather lounging in his recliner, reading the farmer's almanac. Both he and my Abuela bickered back and forth with each other about whose fault it was the toilet was clogged again. I knew it was probably hers, as she tended to flush things that had no business being flushed.
“You're insane!” she bitched.
“And you’re just as beautiful as the day I married you!” He said, leaning back in his recliner to give me a wink.
I shook my head. I asked him once why he married my Abuela all those years ago. She was a kind woman but could be a bit of a spitfire and had no qualms about hitting you with her slipper when you pissed her off. He told me that he just had a thing for Hispanic women, and the moment he saw her he knew they were meant to be together.
Opening the bathroom door, I looked at the toilet, which was in fact overflowing with water. I sighed and took off my socks to tiptoe over the dirty water on the floor. I picked up the top of the water tank to check if everything inside was okay. It was, so I did the stupid thing and attempted to flush the toilet. Unfortunately, this didn’t work, and the water that came rushing into the toilet only ended up on the floor. The damage was already done. I grabbed the plunger and attempted to fix it that way as well. Nothing happened.
I blew a raspberry and held up my hand to the toilet. "If the human method ain’t gonna work...”
Concentrating, I held up my hand and mentally commanded the water to push past the clog, forcing God knows what to break apart and down the pipes like it should have. All the water which had been in the bowl drained away. With a sigh of relief, I flushed the toilet; the water flowed steadily.
“There we go,” I muttered and then grimaced when I realized that I was still standing in brown water. Yuck.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated again, willing all the water off the ground and into the toilet. Brown puddles and droplets collected into a steady stream which arced off the ground and into the bowl. When the floor was ‘clean’, I flushed away all the dirty water. I would have to mop later.
I had debated about using my powers to do it in the first place, but it took a lot of energy out of me to just do this simple task.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” my Abuela said behind me.
I chuckled and turned to her. "That’s what almighty power over an element is for. Unclogging the toilet.”
“And watering the garden,” she added.
I chuckled. “And the garden. I’m going to go take a shower and do some homework, okay?”
“Dinner will be ready in a half hour.” She replied before going back to the kitchen.
I nodded and made my way up the stairs to my room.
I wouldn’t say I was a homebody, but I loved my room and would happily curl up in the warm brown sheets of my king bed all day, listening to music as I stared mindlessly up at the ceiling where my The Addicts poster was.
Pulling off my clothes, I was mindful about making sure to toss them in the basket. I knew if my room was even a bit messy, I would be meeting the wrong end of a slipper.
Strolling proudly naked into my own personal bathroom, another benefit of having my room, I stepped into the shower. Not even bothering to wait for warm water, I turned the knobs and let the icy cold wash over me.
My scales rippled over my body, their silver color combining with the water to make the light dance across the walls. I smiled and leaned my head back into the spray. I knew it was happening because I was tired and unable to really sustain my human form with the water washing over me, but the light show was always beautiful to watch.
Speaking of beautiful to watch, my mind flashed back to the girl I had a hardcore crush on. She just looked breathtaking today as she read that book, her cheeks flushed and mouth parted, pupils blown up with arousal. I wanted to be the one to stoke that fire. And I was so concentrated on doing that, that I hadn’t even realized I had tag teamed with Ajax.
My heart sunk as I thought about what Percy said.
There were others.
While it hurt a little, I was determined. I may not be the only one she was interested in, but I would definitely be one of the ones she chose, if not the only one.
Percy said that it was normal for our kind to mate in harems as there weren’t many females. But Atalanta was human, raised with different ideas, especially in America where a relationship was almost always one plus one equals two.
Well.
I wasn’t much different.
Unlike Percy and the others in this town, I was raised as a human just like Atalanta.
Adopted as a baby, I wasn’t actually related to my grandparents at all. Just an old couple with empty nest syndrome and a lot of love to give. My three older siblings were human and had left home many years ago. I saw my sister Anita far more often than my brothers, who I only saw once or twice a year around the holidays. They all had their own families now.
I loved my family. They treated me no differently despite knowing I wasn’t human. But being raised by humans did come at a disadvantage. I really didn’t know much, if anything about my culture and absolutely nothing about my heritage.
At least a few of the older of my kind in town were kind enough to teach me a bit about my powers. Though, I believe that was only because they didn’t want an untrained idiot making a mess of things. Once they were done teaching me the basics, they had, so to speak, tossed me up the creek without a paddle.
In any case, I think my unique situation awarded me an advantage. I could relate to Atalanta more than the others. I knew how scary and confusing it was to be seeing this town as an outsider, for people to be keeping secrets from you. Always steering the conversation away from the truth.
I never intended to lie to her, but I knew how important this secret was, so I was only waiting for her to ask me. Just like I knew she had asked Percy and Jason.
Okay, fine. Maybe I was making it a little hard on her.