5 Chapter 4

Fifth grade was my final year with Leah. Although we'd be going to the same highschool, she was going to a different middle school than I was. I knew that although we've had the same routines for years, things between us could change just as quickly.

Leah was my best friend, so of course we'd keep in contact, but staying in contact was another thing entirely. Thus I was determined to make the most of my time with her. I mean, honestly I was a bit scared of middle school. What if I couldn't make any friends like last time? I didn't care before but after having Leah with me all these years, I'd grown used to talking with someone.

Either way, I had her now and that was what was important. Speaking of Leah, I had finally become fluent in Japanese thanks to her brother. I now wanted to set my sights on learning other languages like Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Latin, and German. Well, those were the ones I had at this point. I wanted to travel to China, Korea, Egypt, Rome, and Germany to be able to see different pantheons they had. Perhaps I could find someone equal in power to me.

Though, I'm not sure if it would be the best idea since I wanted to stay under the radar. I was curious about different cultures pantheons though.

At that thought I looked down at my hands. It was the night after my first day of fifth grade as I thought this. I made my rings appear with a thought. I have learned now that taking off all thirty-nine rings I have left will let me access about ten percent of my power. The locket, when taken off will allow fifty percent, and from there I can access all one hundred if I need to.

Of course ten percent is still a lot, it'd be more than enough to beat that "King of the Gods" Zeus. Not that I want to, though. I'd rather spend my time learning and exploring as opposed to fighting. It was ultimately pointless to fight anyone.

I was happy where I was, my progress was steady and I had fun with what I was doing. Yes, I could just access that ten percent of my power and learn it all in a second, but it was much more rewarding this way. Being able to learn such things slowly was nice.

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It's been about half a year since the first day of fifth grade. I study with Leah as usual afterschool. Today we're at my house, with my father upstairs and my mother at work. Leah sat at the kitchen table, fumbling with her mechanical pencil while trying to figure out an algebra problem. I decided to make us a snack and was by the counter, chopping fruits into cute, small shapes.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a small black shadow from outside the kitchen window. I pointed it out to Leah, "Hey did you see that?" I asked.

"Hm?" she mumbled absentmindedly, probably still thinking about a math problem. After a second she looked up to where I was pointing and squinted her eyes. "Uhh, no I don't see anything."

I looked back at the shadow, it was gone. "Weird." I muttered. "Yep, really weird." Leah said with a hint of sarcasm. She dropped her pencil, pushed out her chair, and walked over behind me while I continued cutting fruit. Moving to my right, she quickly grabbed a fruit animal I'd made and bounced back to her chair.

"H-Hey! Atleast wait until I'm done cutting them!" I said, while slightly amused and annoyed.

I finished my last fruit animal and walked with the plate to the table.

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Today Leah and I decided to take a break from studying. We only had a couple months left until the summer and we were determined to make the most of it.

I wanted to try painting my nails. I had never done it before and I'd seen quite a few people with nice looking nails lately. Thus, I asked Leah if we could try doing that as a break.

She was practically radiating with excitement as she found a few bottles of nail polish around her house for me to pick. I suppose she didn't expect this since we mostly only study together and read.

I decided on some pastel colors. There was a light green, blue, purple, and pink so I picked those. They seemed to go well together and the other colors she found didn't really match as well.

I tried painting my left hand. Even with some amount of control, the paint always got on the skin around my nails. Leah painted my right hand while my left dried. Hers looked a little bit neater, probably because she might've done this before on her off time.

The nail polish had an odd smell to it. It wasn't a bad smell, just odd. I've never smelled anything like it before. I wrinkled my nose and Leah laughed.

"Hmph, well I'm sorry I've been too busy studying to paint my nails!" I said with hints of faux annoyance and sarcasm in my voice.

She laughed again at that and I sighed.

We continued the rest of our evening talking, reading, and doing more beauty related things. It seemed that Leah had gotten excited after doing our nails and proceeded to give us both a full spa treatment. It was, amusing, to say the least.

Finally it got dark and my mom pulled up to Leah's house to pick me up. I said a quick goodbye to Leah and her family and headed to the street where my mom was waiting. She waved at Leah's family, but it seemed from the light of the car that she had bags under her eyes. She probably wanted to get out of there quickly to get some sleep, so I hurried up.

As I was walking down the driveway I heard a chilling voice from behind me, "I will feast on your flesh, demigod!"

Wait what....

WAIT WHAT