Carin ☥

I ran down the huge flights of stairs. Some kids joined me along the way who also realized they were late for breakfast. It was like this most days when Ra keeps me up all night. Sometimes he just talks to himself about the extent of the universe and weasels. Other times he has late night discussions with Huitzilopochtli and Apollo about who will be in charge of the sun next year.

When I reached the end of the stairs, the stranglers and I emptied out into the Great Room. And "great" was an understatement.

The cedar beamed ceiling was four stories high and ancient Egyptian weapons and musical instruments lined the walls.

Three levels of balconies went around the room, with rows of doors looking out into the main area. Most of these rooms were occupied with trainees.

At the far end of the Great Room was large double door marked with the eyes of Horus on them. They lead to the library. They used to be padlocked a long time ago, but Carter and Sadie quickly changed that when new trainees started coming into the house.

A fireplace sat along the left wall. A car could easily park in it. It wasn't lit, the summer heat and humidity of Brooklyn was enough to keep us sweating for decades. A plasma screen TV broadcasting a football game sat above the mantle.

Massive brown leather sofas sat around the fireplace. All of them were occupied with trainees, most of them older than me.

On the floor was a snake skin rug that seemed to roll on forever. No normal snake could ever reach that length.

Next to the fireplace was a section completely made out of ice. Several penguins waddled around on the chilly surface. (You can thank Felix for that one.)

But the most impressive object in the room was a statue of the god, Thoth. It was thirty feet tall, made out of black marble. He was dressed in traditional ancient Egyptian clothes, a kilt, sash and a neck collar. In his hands were a stylist and a roll of papyrus. Replacing Thoth's head was an ibis head.

I looked to my left at two glass double doors. Everyone was gathered outside on the patio eating breakfast. Outside, through glass walls, you could see the terrace wrapped around the house. It had a swimming pool, dining area and a fire pit.

I opened the doors and walked over to the buffet table. The smell of fresh eggs, bacon and pancakes welcomed me.

I grabbed bacon, pancakes and a glass of OJ.

I looked at younger trainees as they threw bacon into the pool. I remember I used to do that when I was little. I smiled at the thought.

An albino crocodile with skin as white as chalk was jumping out of the water and snatching up the bacon. The crocs name was Philip of Macedonia.

I sat down on a lounge chair and Isa sat across from me in another lounge chair.

Isa was like me, her mom was a past trainee. Jaz to be exact. Isa is short for Isabelle. But never call her Isabelle, unless you want to spend the rest of your life as a shrub.

Jaz now lives in North Carolina, not to far from here. She sent Isa to train with us only a year ago.

She's 12 years old, like me. We're some of the youngest trainees.

She is healer, just like her mom, so she's great to have around if something goes wrong, which it normally does.

She follows the path of Sekhmet, a path most healers follow. Which I don't understand, because Sekhment has a pretty bloodthirsty attitude.

"Hey how's your mom doing with those termites?" I asked.

"Good," Isa said as she pushed a blonde curl behind her ear. "Thank the gods she called Walt or else we never would have gotten them out of the house."

"How did Walt get them out?"

"He still had some left over amulets," Isa said. "He'll be back at the Brooklyn house in about a week."

Uncle Walt didn't use amulets anymore, not after Anubis saved him. I guess he kept some around.

Isa's green eyes grew wide. She quickly ran her fingers through her hair.

"How's my hair?" She asked quickly.

"Why do you want to-"

I turned around and glanced in Isa's direction. A muscular African American guy was headed our way, Adam, my cousin.

"You're not crushing on my cousin Isa, right?" I asked, but I knew it was stupid to deny the fact.

"How can I not? Adam is so hot," Isa said.

I rolled my eyes.

Eh, Ra mentioned.

"Thank you," I whispered into my amulet.

Adam had coffee bean colored skin and soft deep brown eyes. He could easily pass for a high school quarterback with his ripped biceps.

"Hey Carin," Adam greeted as he sat down on the lounge chair.

"What did my dad do now?" I asked.

Adam and I tend to ignore each other around people, we look nothing alike. People always question if were related, even if we both have dark skin. It just makes things weird if we're together, and we have enough weird things in our lives.

So when Adam comes over to me when young trainees are around (they never shut up) it's probably because the world is ending. (Okay that was a little extreme.)

"Nothing, it's Khufu," Adam said.

"What did he do?" I asked.

"He was versing a trainee in basketball and he lost. Now he's well...trying to kill the kid," Adam answered.

"Well...GO!" I yelled.

I sprang from my seat and ran inside with Adam.

We ran through the great hall, nearly knocking over the Thoth statue.

We swung open the library doors and sprinted through, just a little shortcut to the training room.

Don't freak out, this happens a lot. When you're the child of the people who run the house, your expected to solve each problem. So far Adam and I have been living up to the title.

We pushed open the side doors to the combat training room.

A giant statue of Ra stood on each side of the room. They each held their sundisks in front of them so they were perfect for using as hoops for basketball.

These people are so disrespectful. My sun disk holds special power-

"Shut up," I said to my amulet.

Adam turned to me.

"Not you," I corrected. I twirled my scarab beetle around on my neck.

"Your hosting Ra," he noticed. "When did this happen?"

I shook my head. "There's no time for this!"

I noticed he had an amulet around his neck too. But it wasn't a beetle, it looked like a spine.

"Your hosting-" I said.

"Grandpa," he finished.

Our grandpa is god of the underworld. It's a very long story that I don't want to get into detail about. But basically it had to do with a stone coffin, a red pyramid, a cat with knives and my dad as a very large demon chicken hawk character called an avatar. Yes, very demon, I know. (I heard it was frightening.)

I snapped back to the present when I heard screams and baboon hollers.

Adam and I sprinted to a group of kids gathered around the center of the room. We pushed past them, no one bothered to object. I gasped at the sight. Khufu was clawing at a kids face. The kid tried to fight back, but his staff was out of reach. All he could do was scream and cry.

"Khufu!" I yelled.

Khufu froze and looked up at me.

My three foot white staff expanded into a seven-foot long one. I knew Khufu wouldn't put up a very good fight, but I wasn't afraid to use magic if I had to.

"Don't make me use this," I threatened.

"God I forgot my staff," Adam whined from behind me. I heard him face-palm himself in shame.

I passed him a stick of bubble gum.

"Try and look menacing with that," I whispered to him.

"But this is a stick of gum!" Adam complained.

I shrugged and turned back to Khufu. He still stood frozen on the kids head.

"Don't make me use it," I threatened again.

Khufu whimpered and clambered off the kid.

I still pointed my staff at Khufu. "Ha-tep." A gold hieroglyph shimmered in front of Khufu. The spell meant meant 'be at peace.'

I heard the room door open and then slam shut with a crash.

"What is going on here?" I heard someone yell.

Adam and I turned.

"Hi mom, Aunt Zia," Adam croaked.

Oh this looks bad.

Great job, Ra remarked snarkily.

Zia and Sadie stood in the front of the gym. Both had their hands on their hips. My heart sunk when I looked at their facial expressions: angry was an understatement.

"I'll ask again," Sadie yelled as she swept a strand of dark purple hair out of her face. "What is going on here?"

All the trainees hurried out of the room. Even Khufu managed to waddle away.

"We were helping a trainee," I tried to explain.

"Yeah, the baboon started attacking one of them. Nathan I think," Adam said.

"You know, the small ten year old with the blonde hair and the hazel eyes," I followed up.

"Yeah that's Nathan," Adam confirmed.

Get out of here now, Ra suggested. I couldn't agree with him more.

"Um...we will be going now," I said as Adam and I hustled out of the room.

For all of you adults reading this book, please, do not be a helicopter parent. Just let your kids solve problems on their own such as a baboon on a rampage.