Work produced by one of Ella West's Twisty Plots teen writers' workshop participants...

The two troublesome twins stood before Gryffyth, the god of creation, knowledge and curiosity as well as the King of Gods. And Alto and Reigne’s dad.

“You two… As much as I love you guys, you are a pain.” Gryffyth sighed and rested his head in his hand.

“Wow, thanks, dad,” Reigne smirked. “Feeling the love right now,”

Gryffyth smiled down at Reigne. “You know what I mean.” His smile then vanished and an emotionless and nonchalant expression replaced it. “But whenever you two fight, something bad comes out of it, especially on Earth. I can’t just let you two go unpunished.”

Reigne and Alto shared nervous looks. Never before had they been punished by Gryffyth. Barely anyone has as he often let people go for small things, which it mostly was. The only bad situations he’s faced was Before Earth and a few incidents centuries ago when some minor gods tried to overthrow him. But those events were bigger than Reigne and Alto’s fighting, so they weren’t going to be cast out for all eternity or faced with difficult challenges for the rest of their existence, right?

“To show you how you should act, I’m sending you down to Earth.”

Alto’s face paled and Reigne stared up at her father in shock. “What?!” she exclaimed. “You can’t do that!”

Alto spoke quietly. “He can. But for how long?”

Gryffyth looked down at him, surprised by his voice’s quietness and tenderness. “Part of the reason why I’m sending you two down is that Eldest and I suspect the uprising of ancient spirits–”

“You mean like Juni and Liena?!” Reigne gasped. “Oh, sorry for interrupting, dad…”

“As I was saying, we suspect ancient spirits have managed to escape and have possessed mortals. You will remain on Earth for as long as it takes for you to stop the spirit from taking control and causing chaos. To prevent suspicion, you two shall pose as mortal teenagers, trying to find the humans a spirit possesses,” Gryffyth explained.

“This isn’t fair, dad–” Reigne started.

“Okay.” Alto interrupted.

Reigne turned to him. “How are you so chill with this?”

“This isn’t just punishment, Reigne. It’s a quest and a way to redeem ourselves to everyone. To show both mortals and gods that we are capable of good and not just constant squabbles. The fate of the universe lies in our hands, sister.”

Reigne was silent for a while before she nodded. “You have a point and, for once, I agree with you.” She turned to her father. “We’ll do it.”

“You’ll attend Willows High to keep up your appearance as mortal teenagers,” Gryffyth said. “Don’t disappoint me.” Then he snapped his fingers and everything went black.

The two gods appeared standing outside of a big building with a sign that read ‘WILLOWS HIGH’. They could see mortal students sitting on the steps out front and entering the building, going on with their days. No one seemed to notice their sudden appearance or strike it as out of the ordinary.

“What am I wearing?!” Reigne shrieked, causing looks from passing humans.

She wore a lavender crop top with high-waisted pale blue jeans. Her raven hair was tied back in a high ponytail and a white hoodie was wrapped around her waist. Her new outfit was almost completely different from her usual attire, a simple white dress and gold sandals.

“I quite like my outfit,” said Alto as he examined himself. He wore an oversized strawberry pink hoodie and old, ripped denim jeans paired with tall black boots. “Quite trendy for humans and it’s in our colours. I think dad did well.”

Reigne frowned. “I don’t care. I much prefer my usual dress,” she said, crossing her arms.

Before Alto could respond, a respectable-looking man approached the siblings. “You must be the two new students, Reigne and Alto?”

The twins nodded in reply.

The man smiled at them. “I’m Principal Fletcher and I trust you will enjoy your experience here at Willows High.” He then gestured to the short girl next to him. “This is Maria Stewarts, she will show you around the school before the day starts.” Principal Fletcher waved to them and walked into the school.

Maria smiled cheerily at the two. “Hi, I’m Maria! It’s nice to meet you, we don’t normally have new students here so it’s my first time doing this so I’m a bit nervous.” Maria had long wavy jet black hair and bright green eyes that lit up. She had a bronze complexion with freckles dotted on her cheeks. “I’ll show you to the office so you can get your schedule and then I’ll show you all the classrooms,” She grinned.

Reigne nodded “Uh-huh,” she replied, not paying attention to the short girl and stared up at the cloudy blue sky instead.

Alto smiled apologetically at Maria. “Sorry about Reinge, she means well but she’s still a bit homesick,”

“Oh, that’s fine! I get homesick a lot when I got on trips,” Maria then turned her attention to Reinge. “Do you cloud gaze? My friends and I have an unofficial Cloud Gazing group, we’d be glad to have a new member!”

“What?” Regine stared down at her. “Oh, sorry. Uh, no thanks…?”

Maria smiled. “That’s okay, don’t worry. Come on, let’s get going.”