What the book is about:
Mila and her friends: Zoë, Phoebe and Pat win a school competition about Greece and its culture. They win a prize: a cruise to the Greek islands with their boring form teacher, Ms. Jefferson. But while they are in Santorini, they are struck by a strange and powerful storm…While up at the surface they are feared dead, they find themselves captives in an underwater city –Atlantis.
During an audience with none other than Poseidon, the sea God, they are told that they will never see the surface again. Mila and her friends will not accept this. The four, along with all their friends fight to regain their freedom.
Chapter 1
Three Words: Life-Is-Boring
“Mila, Zoë and Phoebe: for the hundredth, thousandth time, stop talking!” Ms. Jefferson said sternly. Her beady, black eyes surveyed them from over her rectangular glasses. Mila had always wondered how they never fell off, over the tip of that pointed nose, which belonged to her pesky form mistress and boring history and geography teacher. After telling Mila to tuck her shirt in and scolding Zoë for bouncing her tennis ball on the desks. After asking Phoebe to please pay attention and to “put that ridiculous beauty magazine away” she turned round and asked if anyone remembered what she had been saying before she was “rudely interrupted”. Naturally Pat raised her hand.
“The competition miss. The one were we have to do a project on the Greek islands…” She said in a rush. Zoë gave a cough which sounded like “goody-goody”. Both Pat and Ms. Jefferson ignored her.
“Oh yes, quite right…”she gave another sharp look at the other three.
Mila yawned uncontrollably. She was a girl of jet black hair, dark eyes and a slightly pale complexion, her face showered with freckles. She had just turned thirteen and puberty was doing its job. Her chest was not exactly flat and she was just about in proportion. A rather striking girl, in other words. She liked to wear black; she also detested pink (unlike Phoebe). She was a girl of extreme talent when it came to music. Although she was known to love classic music, the genre to her liking was mostly rock, punk rock.
Her best friend, Zoë was rather different looking. She was black and had long, dark brown hair which was always in a strange and rather original hairstyle. She was also thirteen, a strong girl known to keep fit at all times. Her passion was sport and she usually carried a ball around her (any type) along with her skateboard. Zoë was also of a rather boyish character. A Skater. She was also rather loud-voiced, due to her loud and rather large family. She also tended to be a bit of a pig. On the whole she was the complete opposite of Phoebe and sometimes they did not get on very well. Zoë after all was known to be a bit of a tease but a fun person to be around with.
Phoebe was a rather girly-girly. She had beautiful blonde hair, which usually cascaded down her shoulders onto usually pink and very stylish clothes. She had a perfect, pale complexion. Puberty had not affected her very much in any bad way. Her chest was rather pronounced (but not too much). She was a beauty and she knew it, because it is needless to say she was very vain. She tended to be a spoilsport. Literally because she hated sport. It made her sweat and a broken nail to Phoebe was like the end of the world.
This leaves us to Pat. Or rather we had better call her by her full name, Patience Kastellanos. A girl of exceptional intelligence but of little words except when it came to point out what was right and what was wrong. She held an exceptional importance for rules though it must be said that she had wisdom, or what Ms. Jefferson called common sense. Something that apparently the rest of the girls lacked, or so their form mistress said. She was a girl of a slightly dark complexion; she wore round glasses and had a mysteriously Mediterranean look about her.
“As I was saying this final term we will be giving a great big importance to Greece and its Culture, its history its mythology…” Ms. Jefferson droned on and on and on. Pat and Mila nudged Zoë who was half-asleep and snoring rather loudly.
“…and the prize for this wonderfully exciting history and geography project is a cruise to the Greek islands themselves!” that did the trick! The whole class opened their ears wide and listened eagerly.
“…The winner for this educational project is a visit to Athens, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini. The groups may include a minimum of three people and a maximum of five. The projects must be given in by the…”
* * *
“Can you believe it?” Phoebe asked them incredulously. ”I’ve always wanted to go on a cruise…”
“Turns out the Jefferson can be a sport after all!” Zoë agreed rather enthusiastically.
“I just can’t wait to go to Greece and it’s still a long way away—“Mila started saying as she stretched on the turf during recess when Pat interrupted her.
“Uh guys, what are you saying? We are not one hundred percent sure we’re gonna win yet, are we?
“Sure we are! We’ve got you on the team! All you have to do is do what you geniuses do: get us a big A+!” Zoë said to her as she threw a basketball in its hoop nearby.
“But how do you know I’ll get an A+?” Pat argued.
“Trust us, we know” Mila assured her.
“Well even if we do, you’re gonna have to help me you know. I have it all figured out. We can all do a place each. Then give me your research and I’ll finish the rest. You guys must take care of the play though…”
“Come again? What play?” Phoebe asked her surprised.
“Don’t tell me you weren’t paying attention again!”
“Well we did pay attention while she was telling us the details of the trip, but when she started talking about the project again I didn’t bother. I think I fell asleep again. Mila had to wake me up.” Zoë confessed.
“Twice!”
“Well whatever, she told us we have to do some form of presentation and I thought it best to do a play of one of the Greek myths. Mila, you’re good at acting and essays so I didn’t think it would be a problem…” Pat told them.
The bell rang.
“Oh no! Why does recess always seem like its five minutes long?” Phoebe complained. “I didn’t even manage to finish my sandwich!”
“Well since you always spend most of the time looking at your reflection in your mirrors, I don’t wonder it seems so short.” Zoë teased. Phoebe aimed a kick at her but missed and everyone giggled as they started walking back to class.
“So who’s taking what place, in the project I mean?” Mila asked.
“Well if you don’t mind I’m taking Athens, Phoebe you could take Crete. Zoë, I know you’ll love Rhodes, the Knights of St. John occupied it before they went to Malta.” Pat said.
“Wicked!” Zoë said whose father was in fact Maltese.
“I guess that leaves that weird island she mentioned last – what was it called…Santonino?” Mila asked looking bored.
“For your information it’s Santorini and it’s a wonderful place!” Pat said rather angrily. “And mind you work hard on your research or you’ll be sorry!”
“Alright, alright; keep your hair on!” Mila called after her as she stormed away into the Biology lab.
Puzzled, they followed her and sat down. While Zoë and Phoebe argued about what they thought was wrong with Pat, Mila remained silent. She pondered over the matter. She wondered why Pat had lost her temper. She rarely did. For some reason serious Pat had always made living up to her full name Patience a primary priority in life but she’d never told them the reason.
* * *
After school Mila had a quick lunch then ran upstairs and began her research on Santorini. They had planned to meet every week to keep each other informed on what they had been doing. She logged on the internet and typed in “Santorini, Greece”. She found:
Santorini (Greece)
Before this volcanic island erupted in 1450 BC, forming Santorini’s crescent shape it was circular. These earthquakes are rather common. In fact the island is widely believed to be a candidate for the myth of the lost kingdom of Atlantis. Despite tourism, Santorini remains a stunning island with its white villages clinging to volcanic cliffs above black sand beaches. The citizens are famous for their use of donkeys as a form of transport. It is a very religious place having over 300 churches and many strange beliefs and fears such as that of the evil eye. This is one of the reasons the roofs of almost all the houses are painted in a deep sea blue, a color which they believe wards it off. The houses are also whitewashed in the summer, due to the heat.
“Wow!” Mila thought.
And “Wow” is what everyone said that weekend. The argument was forgotten by everyone except Mila who had made up her mind to find out Pat’s secret. Because she was sure Pat was hiding something.
That Saturday morning and many others passed and as Pat said a countless number of times, it did seem that they were enjoying their Greek project. There were occasions like when Zoë came running in, claiming that her name was ancient Greek, or Phoebe having the idea of writing a chapter about fashion and make-up through the ages and even volunteering to do it herself. There were other times when they got bored at their meetings and simply stated historical dates and passed round maps…
They had their meetings at Pat’s house were they were helped a great deal by her father who was Greek. Nobody knew anything about Pat’s mom. She was never mentioned, seen or heard from. Nobody said anything to Pat because they had a feeling that it wouldn’t be too tactful. They had meetings at Phoebe’s house were they all sat on her huge bed in her huge room. They always thought that either Phoebe and was extremely lucky or extremely spoilt by her parents when they entered her room, and by the time they would have left they would have concluded that she was indeed spoilt. However she was not all that lucky for her troublesome twin brothers were always up to some mischief or playing a trick on her (Zoë personally didn’t mind them and found herself giving them tips for he next booby-trap they would leave out for poor Phoebe). They were invited at Zoë’s house but avoided going there due to the great amount of noise made by her very big family. However when they did go there they spent half the time staring at the great number of trophies in her room which she had received through many different types of sports. They were however, particularly fond of going to Mila’s place, were it was not too loud or quiet and were they could use her computer. Her parents never failed to pop in with some snacks and her dog, Bobby was extremely sweet, always ready for a quiet game of fetch.
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I probably should not be commenting on this because I've read it a bit more than a few times 
(But I need the points so... 
