I never meant to ruin my mom's vacation. It's not my fault! I mean who expects to be attacked by some giant horned creature on the beach? Really, I mean there I am swimming, with my mom sitting on the beach reading one of her crazy seven inch thick novels, when this monster comes crashing through some dunes and straight towards my mom and I. You can bet I was even more surprised when my mom jumped up with a dagger.

I bet you are wondering what kind of normal mom carries around a dagger. Well, if you must know, my mom isn't really normal, and I am the complete opposite.

My name is Cassie Chase. I'm fifteen years old, and up until beginning of last April, my life was going great. Then everything was messed up. I'm always getting into trouble, even though most of the time it isn't my fault… I think. Could you say I'm a trouble make? Umm… yeah totally.

I guess the trouble really started when I was in class one day. It was my favorite class, Latin. It's the easiest class and probably the only one I will ever enjoy. We learned everything in that class, from the language to the gods.

Most classes are torture, especially for me because all teachers seem to have some vendetta against me. Maybe it's because I like playing pranks or it might be because I don't pay attention to anything the teachers say. What do you expect? Mr. Brunner is the only teacher who doesn't put students to sleep.

Mr. Brunner is my crazy Latin teacher. He always wears this tweed jacket and he sits in a wheel chair with a blanket on his lap. Even though he is in a wheel chair, he always is coming up with fun lessons, like arena days where we take on the part of gladiators and fight to the death… or until we can't name someone, their spouse, children, ancestors, and the god they worshipped. Even test days aren't that bad, mostly because Mr. Brunner gives away the answers by putting them in the directions. He does that all the time.

But it's on days like my last day of school, before spring break, where we debate the powers of the gods that I have the most fun. It never starts out as a debate, but then someone says the infamous line "well in my opinion (insert god/goddess of your choice) is the best," which just sets everyone off, and soon everyone is taking sides and talking at once.

You may be asking which god/goddess I think is best, but I don't exactly know. My mom thinks Athena is really important, mostly because she used to hang out with people who were really into mythology at some summer camp for geeks, which is where she met my dad. But I have no idea who my dad thought was most important because he hasn't been around since before I was born. All I really know about him is that he has dark hair, bright eyes, and he used to live in New York. Really helpful, right?

Any way, back to the debate. I wasn't really paying attention during class that afternoon, not until people started shouting. It was the shouting that caught my attention, and it took me a moment to realize that everyone was talking at once. I wasn't until I heard someone yell "No, it's Zeus!" that I realized we had gotten back into the gods debate. Again. As I listened to everyone, I noticed Mr. Brunner pull out a whistle, and I instinctively covered my ears. But even with my covered ears, I could hear the shrill blast from his whistle. I knew that some students had bought it for him after out first few debates, two ending in nosebleeds and the other ending in a blown up classroom (don't ask!).

When the blast had ended, everyone was staring at Mr. Brunner, who pulled the whistle away from his face. "Well," he started. "How about today we pick two gods, male and female and debate over them?" Everyone glanced at each other before nodding to their teacher. "So let's see," he said. "How about Poseidon for the god, and hmmm…. Athena for the goddess." He looked at us, how looked back at him. "Well, get on with it. Pick your sides."

We looked at each other, before jumping up and choosing sides. I took a moment, thinking over my decision. Usually I would go straight for Athena, but something inside of me seemed to pull me towards Poseidon. I mean Athena is all smarts and strategies while Poseidon is more go-with-the-flow and hope everything comes out okay, which is more my kind of way. As I stepped over to the Poseidon side, I felt warmth spread through my body and I felt oddly… safe?

I joined the group of people on the Poseidon side of the room, which was closest to the windows. I settled myself against the wall, and watched as everyone else chose their sides.

"Well, now that everyone has chosen their sides let's begin. Please send up the first sponsors for your candidate," Mr. Brunner said. Of course everyone on my side looked at me, because they knew that I almost always won debates. Sighing, I approached the front of the room at the same time as another girl did. She was almost as tall as me, just a few inches shy, and she had black hair and electric blue eyes. She seemed to give off electricity, and I mean seriously. It seemed as if there were little sparks shooting off her. I didn't know her name, but I recognized her as the girl who sat in the back of the room and never said a thing.

"Well ladies, I think we will start with… Jennifer," Mr. Brunner began, glancing at the electrifying girl with blue eyes. "You have a minute. Begin."

That is when my day went down hill.