James was barely paying attention though, because as Eliza walked into the yard and the strengthened breeze finally met her, his eyes were locked on. He could feel a catch in his throat, his pulse ringing in his ears like a shotgun had just went off nearby, and his heart was hammering like a drum. Her red hair danced this way and that in the wind, her recently sun-kissed skin was gilded gold by the sinking sun, and her dress was whipping against her body bringing it out on display. Eliza threw him a smile as she hurried to the car and a blush rose up her face at the dazed look which had fallen over his features. She dashed to the back seat to get out of the wind. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that Christian was staring after her as well. He took a deep breath to lash up his rising temper. “I guess you’re the baggage check?” Christian commented derisively. James bent to haul in his first bag. “Yup.” he set it in the trunk, added a second and then the skateboard.

“James!” Blakeney shouted from the center of the intersection, the streetlight now casting the creeping fog into a dense green mist. “James, wait!” Eliza heard Blakeney swear from her place by the car. She had just watched James sprint off into the woods after Kali . . . alone . . . again. Why does he have to always do that? she questioned herself in frustration. Blakeney spun towards her. “Eliza, stay here.” He darted off into the night in the general direction that James had gone. “Great,” she spat to nobody. “Now I’m stuck with a whimpering baby.” She was referring to the curses and screams Christian had shouted out during the soldiers’ attack. Having never seen something like that, anyone would be scared, but she figured he ought to handle it just a little better than that. Just then, Christian attempted to open the back door, his eyes still stretched wide in fear.Eliza slammed it closed with a bump of her hip. “Stay in the car,” she ordered. “Whatever,” grumbled Christian.

Blakeney drove the remainder of the way back to Eliza’s parents’ house. They had to stop there first so that he and Eliza could pick up her car and keep up with the charade of a weekend spent there. After a few hours of restless sleep, the three of them seemed to have awakened fully with the rise of the sun. As the freeway ran north by east, the early morning sun blazed brightly before them. Buttery golds and pearlescent pinks washed away the steely gray which had colored the pre-dawn sky and as the car came up on rises of the highway, they caught sight of the brilliant, painted display. Whenever James caught a sunset—even a sunrise—he couldn’t help but think of his father and that first, life-changing conversation. Zeus had toyed with the wispy clouds during a particularly beautiful dusk to prove his identity. And then, the god had told James he was his son. Though he fully accepted it these days, he still found it a little overwhelming at times. How awesome the honor and responsibi

James had just taken his seat in the back row of third period Pre-Calculus, when Christian walked in with a map in hand and a half-puzzled expression filling his face. He gave a rueful half smile at the sight of the new boy. Christian spotted him and hurried over. “Damn this place is huge and the teacher’s . . . they’re stupid hard. I already have homework.” He took pity on Christian and chortled. “Here, sit down.” He pointed to the empty chair. When Christian had slung his bag to the chair and plopped down, he continued, “Yeah, it’s tough here. But you’ll get used to it.” Christian shook his head, his bangs falling across half his face. He flicked them away. “Hope so.” “Hey James,” said Jennifer West. He had been so engrossed with Christian’s anxieties that he hadn’t seen her sit down on the other side of him. She was wearing a sky-blue shirt—the school’s crest embossed in navy blue over the left side of her chest—and white shorts that stopped short of mid-thi

It was after class the next day and James found himself in the Li-brary with a few books on the table before him. He wanted to get a jump start on his homework so that he wouldn’t have to spend the entire weekend trapped in a book. He cracked the first one—a number which discussed the use of bows and arrows by Genghis Khan for his Military History class—and began to read the first chapter. Or he tried to anyway. He breathed a heavy sigh as soon as he realized he had read the first sentence several times. He closed his eyes and clapped a hand to his forehead. Ever since working with Christian yesterday, his thoughts had been elsewhere. He couldn’t help but run the afternoon through his mind over and over. It was like that annoying song that gets stuck in your head and never goes away; it just replays over and over. But if James was honest with himself, there was a single word which described the undertones of each rerun: jealousy. The lingering doubts of himself as the element of air