It’s been a while since my entire family died. Their death still affects me. I don’t know when it won’t be. I wish I could meet another child of Hades who can help me if there is one. No, I don’t think Hades would get laid with another mortal, especially when he has a wife named Persephone. I looked up at the sky. ‘Hades, if you are going to give me some advice. This would be a perfect time. You know? I need some fatherly advice.’ I thought. “Why are you looking at the sky? It’s not about to rain.” Velma said unexpectedly. I jumped up in surprise. “Velma! Don’t scare me like that!” I said. Velma put her hand on her ghostly hips. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you had gotten used to me saying things randomly and appearing everywhere. I guess not.” Velma huffed. “Look, Velma, I’m still getting used to it. Anyway, I was hoping my father would help me during the grieving process.” I explained. “You do notice that Hades lives underground, right?” “Yes, but I’ve heard from someone that Hades visits Mt. Olympus during the winter solstice. It’s November. So, Hades must have come there early.” Velma nods. “Uh huh.. I see. May I remind you that we are in school?” “Yeah, I know. I’m not an idiot. So?” “And you know that school comes with bullies or annoying people.” “What are you trying to tell me, Velma?” I noticed that Velma was making a gesture to turn around. I wondered why. “The Spectra Stars are behind you.”

When I turned around, Velma was right. The Spectra stars were in front of me. Here’s a little background on them. Cassie Little is the leader of the group. She likes spiders and weaving fabrics. Once, she even uses her spider friends as her backup to get revenge on a student who bothers her. For some reason, she likes to boast about how she could have become the most excellent weaver in the world due to her fantastic talent if it weren’t for that wise girl. Plus, Cassie is like the bossiest one. Valerie Simons is the artistic one. She likes making sculptures and talking to snakes. However, she never takes her sunglasses off. I often wonder why. Could it be her blindness or just wanting to look fabulous? I don’t know. Her sculptures do seem pretty realistic, though. I’ll give her that. Sometimes, I would overhear her rant about how she hates her ex-boyfriend, a surfer, for getting her into trouble with his niece. Did you know that her ex’s niece is the same wise girl? Wow, it seems like the intelligent girl did something to make Valerie and Cassie hate her so much.

Sandy Ferns is the last one in the group. She is quite the charmer and boy-crazy. I would see her charm a guy, and then the guy never returns. I often wonder what must have happened to the guys who went missing. The Spectra stars are exchange students from Greece. That’s what I know about the Spectra Stars so far. They are often quite mysterious, though. “Funny to see you guys here,” I said. “Nice try, Omisha. Or should we say Miserable Misha?” The girls started to laugh at me while looking at each other. I didn’t think it was funny. “Don’t try to play with us,” Valerie said. “I wasn’t playing with you. Anyway, what do you want from me?” I asked. “We want to ruin your life,” Sandy said. Valerie elbowed Sandy. “Ow!” Valerie sent Sandy a glare. Cassie rolled her eyes. ‘Once I get what I want, I’ll ditch those idiots.’ Cassie muttered. Then she smiled at me. “Misha, we’ve heard about your incident with your family dying. It must be saddening and pathetic to be an orphan now. Right girls?”

Valerie and Sandy nodded at Cassie. Sandy was making a crying face to mock me. “This is you when you are crying like a baby. I’ve seen you cry, and you are all like wah!!” Cassie and Valerie laughed at me. “Nice one, Sandy.” “Okay, I’m an orphan now. So what?” I asked. Velma was folding her arms. Cassie just smiled at me again. Why does she keep on smiling at me? I want to know why. “It just proves to us that your family doesn’t love you. We heard from a friend about the juiciest gossip. It was a good rumor that was spreading around the school. Is it true that your family was killed?” I wondered which idiotic friend they had spread that rumor to. ‘We should ditch them.’ Velma whispered to me. Easier said than done. They would block me from leaving. ‘I wish I could, Velma. It’s not as easy as ABC.’ I muttered. Velma huffed. The Spectra stars were looking at me weirdly. Their uncomfortable stares remind me of when I saw a monster with many eyes staring at me. “It’s not true. It would be foolish for an idiot like you to believe it.” I said. Cassie frowned. Valerie was clenching her fists in anger. “How dare you call us an idiot? You’re an idiot! Not us! Ooh. I want to suck all of your blood! Since I’m the hot one. No one calls me an idiot. I’m Sandy Ferns, the E-” Cassie covers Sandy’s mouth before she can continue. “Sandy Ferns is the Empress of Winfield High. That’s what my friend meant.” Cassie interrupted. “Yeah, you are the empress, Sandy. Isn’t that right?”

Valerie elbowed Sandy again. Sandy rubbed her arm in pain. “Yeah… I meant to say that. You should bow down, bitch. The Empress is what Cassie and Valerie like to call me. It’s my nickname for the group. We each have our nicknames. Valerie’s nickname is Queen Cobra. Cassie’s nickname is Miss Web.” Valerie and Cassie sighed in relief before glaring at Sandy. Huh? What the heck just happened? Valerie stepped towards me and grabbed my shirt. ‘Listen, you pathetic outcast. If you make us mad again, you will get what’s coming towards you. We are watching you punk.’ She whispered to my ear in a cold and harsh tone. Then she started to sniff me. I noticed that there was something different about her. There were some pigments of green scales on her body. It was only a little bit, though. Once I blinked my eyes, they were gone, and Valerie was acting like her calm self again. “Girls, let’s go. We are done here.” Cassie said. Valerie and Sandy followed Cassie. I stood there, dumbfounded by what had just happened, before shaking my head.

‘It’s okay, Omisha. Just pretend everything is normal as an average demigod's life can be..’ I thought to myself. I walked into the school as Velma floated in front of me. “Omisha, did you see it? There’s something weird about the Spectra Stars. It’s like they are hiding a deep, dark secret. I can’t just put my finger on it.” “Yeah, I’ve seen it… So? The Spectra Stars are always weird, Velma.” “But this time, it’s different. Valerie had some green scales.. Green scales!! This might be a clue.” “Unless it could have just been some algae or some design she made. It was gone when I blinked. She must have taken it off.” “Why are you acting like it’s natural all of a sudden? Do you not believe me?” “I do believe you. I don’t want to jump to conclusions. Alright? Besides, there are a lot of weird things happening at Winfield High. I want to pretend everything is normal, like a normal kid living in a normal world. That way, everyone only knows me as the outcast, not Omisha Cadow, the daughter of Hades. Got it? And I’m sorry, Velma.”

(The Spectra Stars)

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Cassie glared at Valerie and Sandy after leaving Omisha. “You two are absolutely idiots. What were you two thinking? Thanks to you two, our cover was almost blown.” The leader growled. “Don’t blame it all on me. It was mostly Sandy’s fault. She was the one who started it all.” “Hey!” “At least I can control my temper better than she can,” Valerie said. Cassie looked at Valerie. “Oh please, you did worse. You showed pigments of your scaly skin. Don’t think that I wasn’t paying attention because I was watching. If Tartarus finds out, then we will be punished for failure.” Cassie warned. “Yeah, Valerie! You almost revealed yourself as Medusa to the Hades demigod.” Valerie slapped Sandy across the face. “Let’s not forget what you did, Sandy. You got so offended and about to reveal yourself as an Empousa. Nice job on not controlling your temper.” Sandy frowned. She was about to argue, but Cassie interrupted her. “Both of you are idiots. Medusa and Sandy, I need you to focus. Tartarus, Pontus, and Uranus sent us to this mortal school for a reason. We were supposed to make their granddaughters miserable. That’s our priority at the moment.” Cassie said. “I thought it was spying on them, then killing them. Did the mastermind suddenly change his mind?” Sandy asked. “Who knows? Let’s ask them. What a bunch of amateurs. I bet my gorgon sisters Euryale and Stheno could have figured things out much sooner.” Valerie said. Sandy rolled her eyes. “I don’t think so. Have you forgotten a certain Poseidon demigod killed them? If you forgot, then I can tell you his name. His name is Percy Jack-” ''Don’t you ever mention my ex’s spawn name in my presence again.” Cassie went to find a perfect place to talk to the Primordial gods. “Valerie and Sandy, you can settle your argument later. We can talk to our bosses in the girl’s bathroom.” “Why in the girl’s bathroom?” “Just do what I say.” They went to the girl's bathroom.

Once they entered the bathroom, there were a couple of female students in there. One of them smelt very familiar to Valerie. ‘I smell a daughter of Poseidon in this bathroom.’ Valerie thought. She resists the urge to take off her sunglasses even though she wants to turn that sea spawn into stone. `Φυσικά, οι θνητοί πρέπει να είναι εδώ. Είναι πάντα παντού.’ (Of course, mortals have to be here. They are always everywhere.) Cassie muttered in Greek. ‘How are we going to get rid of the mortals?’ Sandy asked in a whisper. Cassie thought for a moment before smirking. ‘I have a plan.’ Valerie and Sandy watched Cassie walk towards a spider on the wall. ‘Hello, little spider.’ ‘Hello Arachne. What can I do for you?’ ‘I need you to do a task for me.’ ‘What is it?’ ‘You see those girls in the bathroom.’ The spider moves his head. ‘I need you to gather your spider army that is hidden all over the school and scare those pesky mortals.’ The spider went to gather his army. ‘What was that for, Cassie?’ Valerie asked. ‘You’ll just have to wait and see. Help is on the way.’ Eventually, a girl noticed a crowd of spiders crawling out of an air vents and started screaming.

“Ahhhh! It’s a spider!” Other girls started screaming as well. “Come on, Nebula. This bathroom is spider infested. We have to get out of here.” A mortal girl named Alice said. She grabbed Nebula and ran out of the bathroom with other girls. Valerie glared at Nebula before closing and locking the door. Cassie giggled while thanking her spider friends. “Finally, it took you long enough. Anyway, this room is cleared. What’s next?” Valerie asked. Cassie pulled out a drachma while turning on the sink. “Are you doing an Iris message? I can’t believe you are using the demigod’s method of messaging. I thought you hate demigods, Arachne.” “Sandy, I’m not doing an Iris message. I’m doing an Arke message. Arke is the titan of messaging and Iris’s sister. I still hate the demigods. Besides, I still despise Athena. Anyone who is a friend of Athena is an enemy of mine.”

Cassie placed the drachma into the sink filled with water after Valerie turned the faucet on. “Oh.. Titaness Arke.. show us Tartarus, Pontus, and Uranus.” Cassie demanded. They waited for a while. Sandy looked at Cassie as she was feeling a bit impatient. “Are you sure this is going to work? Arke seems like she is taking so long.” Sandy said. Cassie elbowed her in the arm. “Ow!” “How about you be more respectful and patient? She takes a while to send a message.” Cassie said. Valerie snickered at Sandy getting hurt. Suddenly, the water rose up to form 3 circles. Pontus, Tartarus, and Uranus appeared in the water circle. Valerie and Sandy gasped in amazement. The Arke message actually worked! Cassie smirked and bowed to the mighty primordial gods. Valerie and Sandy quickly bowed. “Oh.. mighty Tartarus -” Tartarus raised his hand to shush Cassie. “This isn’t the time for formalities. What’s your progress on our granddaughters?” Tartarus asked. Valerie and Sandy looked at each other. They wonder how they are supposed to tell the primordial gods about their progress not being so well. “Umm… It’s not doing so well.. We are trying our best though.” Valerie nervously laughed. Uranus growled and stomped his foot angrily. “NOT DOING SO WELL?! WE GAVE YOU ONE JOB! ONE JOB! HOW DARE YOU FAIL US?! YOU ARE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH!” Uranus screamed.

Uranus’s anger reminds Valerie of Poseidon’s temperamental brother Zeus. She wonders why the sky gods get so angry quickly. No wonder Zeus and Hera match each other so well. Their wrath is full of anger and passion like their strange marriage. While Tartarus was showing signs of disdain in his face. “Uranus, there’s no need to get so furious. We need to civil ourselves. We will show our rage at the gods. Now.. let’s see if they can explain themselves. But one question appears in my mind, why did you call us?” Pontus asked. “Lord Pontus, forgive us. We seek a reminder of what we should do in our part of the plan. My teammates Medusa and Sandy are quite confused.” Cassie explained. “You… called us for that! When we could be taking our domains back from Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades by now. You waste our time calling us, just to remind you? Ugh! Why did we even bother hiring dumb monsters? They are unreliable. If it were my titan children, they would do it right.” Uranus said. Tartarus sighed. “Oh, shut it. Your kids sliced you up many years ago. Your own wife plotted to kill you.” “I’ll win Gaea back, Tartarus. You just watch. Once I’m the ruler of the skies again after killing Zeus. She’ll be coming back to me.” Tartarus rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, your task is to make our granddaughters miserable. Once the time is right, then we want you to strike and bring them to us alive. We will do the manipulation process for them to join us. If not, then we’ll kill them ourselves. Understand?” Tartarus asked. The Spectra stars nodded. “What if we fail?” Sandy asked. Cassie glared at Sandy. She gave her the ‘Are you fucking crazy? They are giving us another chance. Stop ruining it!’ look. “Hmm… if you want to know so badly, then fine. The promises we made to you won’t really happen. Say goodbye to becoming a more famous and talented weaver than Athena. You will always become second rate to the goddess, Cassie.” Tartarus said. “You’ll remain a gorgon with your snake hair. You’ll no longer have your original looks, Medusa.” Pontus said. “There won’t be any men left to satisfy your thirst for blood, little Empousa.” Uranus said. “WE SHALL TORTURE YOU IN EACH OF OUR RELMS. IF YOU DON’T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN, THEN DON’T FAIL US! OR ELSE YOU WILL FEEL OUR WRATH!” They warned before swiping the Arke message. “You heard them. We can’t fail this time. I don’t want to be tortured and be second rate to that stupid wise goddess.” Cassie said.