Finn always knew she was a demigod. How you might ask? Well to start, the books. Although it didn't make sense why someone who was trying to keep themselves a secret would publish books about their very existence, the books made her begin to notice things that she might have otherwise ignored. The second reason was that she was dyslexic, very dyslexic and had a really hard time learning new languages. But when she was about ten, she and her brother started to learn Ancient Greek because of their fascination with the books, and Finn picked up the language almost immediately. From then on, when ever she saw Ancient Greek texts in museums or history books, she was able to read them. This might have not raised any flags if she hadn't read the books, she would have probably just passed it off as her brother being a really good teacher. The final and most convincing reason was the fact that she was constantly being watched. At first it was by random people that she saw in malls and airports. She noticed that whichever way she turned there was always someone looking back at her, ready to make eye contact, an uncomfortable amount of eye contact. Next it was teachers, she noticed that each year her school would hire someone new that would end up teaching Finn, that teacher would then disappear the next year like they had never even existed. Even stranger, one of the people that followed her, was always there. Like everywhere, no matter were she went. The person was a man that usually was dressed in all black with dark sun glasses, even when they were in doors. Sometimes his face and clothes would change, but those dark sunglasses and that intense feeling always stayed the same. At first she couldn't remember what he looked like. But then she started to make drawings of the man and started to notice him more often. Now that she looks back on it, there isn't a memory that Finn has of traveling without the man in it, just in the moment she wasn't able to put all the pieces together. She figured this probably had something to do with the mist, but now she was a 15 year old demigod and the mist was easier to see through. She always wondered who this man might be, perhaps a monster who was waiting for just the right moment to attack her. Or more hopefully an allie of some sort waiting for the right moment to take her to camp. She really hoped for her own sake that the second option would end up being true
The only thing that didn't make any sense to Finn was the fact that she already had two parents who had raised her so she had no idea how she could have a godly parent. She also didn't understand why she hadn't been claimed yet. In the book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians it had said the gods had agreed to claim all their children by 13. But still, Finn's 13th, 14th, and 15th birthdays came and went without even being taken to camp half blood. She was still waiting for her camp day to come in the summer before junior year.
It was mid July and Finn was walking to her town pool for swim practice. She was thinking about if her brother, Thomas, might also be a half blood. He had been the one to introduce her to the Percy Jackson series, and the two of them had spent many hour talking about if they might be half bloods. Unlike her, Finn's brother had actually faced monsters, usually if he avoided public situations he was fine but sometimes that wasn't enough. Once for instance, in fifth grade, Thomas's childhood bully had grown to the size of a small elephant and tried to decapitate Thomas with the chain of a swing set. Somehow, Thomas had managed to disintegrate the monster with a sharp piece of metal post he had found on the ground. Despite all this happening in front of the whole school, no one seemed to believe Thomas's story and he ended up getting suspended for breaking the swing set. Finn remembered Thomas coming home that day crying, she honestly didn't blame him. At just eleven years old he had single handedly defeated his first monster and had no one he could talk to, except Finn. From then on he carried that piece of medal around with him were ever he went. He must have not had a strong scent though because he only had to fight 2 more monsters on the next 7 years. Now he was 18 years old, 5 years past when he should have gotten claimed. But the two of them had stopped caring, they figured they would just stay as antisocial as possible and avoid dark alleys and they might stay alive long enough to go to college.
One thing Finn was not willing to avoid however was swimming, Thomas thought it was a bad idea to leave the house at all but eventually he realized Finn was not going to change her mind so the two of them joined their town swim team every summer. Finn wasn't old enough to drive yet, and the carpool that Thomas was in didn't have any room for her so Finn was forced to walk a mile each way to get to practice. She enjoyed the walks. They gave her a chance to let her long dirty blond hair out of its usual ponytail, and she liked seeing the trees and houses in her neighborhood even though they were the same ones that she passed everyday. Of course, just like every other time she left the house, she was followed by monsters and the man in black. Last summer the man in black had disappeared. This had made her walk a little more interesting, usually the monsters kept a safe distance ( at least 20 yards) but last summer they had started coming closer, some of the brave ones even hissed at her. Because of this, Finn found herself strangely happy when the man in black returned this summer and the monsters resumed their regular 20 yard barrier.
When Finn arrived at the pool that day she was suspicious to see a bulky boy already in the pool swimming. Usually the whole team took as long as they could at the benches getting ready. They would take ten minutes putting on sunscreen and then spend another 5 minuets pretending to look for their caps and goggles all to avoid jumping in to the cold water. Even Finn, who loved swimming, didn't like the feeling of the the cold water so soon after she woke up. So it obviously was worrying to see someone she didn't recognize swimming all by himself right as practice started. She spotted Thomas for across the pool, she could tell the we're thinking the same thing, MONSTER. What's even more worrying was that when Finn asked a group of people who the new kid was they gave her a weird look like 'are you stupid'
"That's Johnny" one of the girls replied "he's been on the team forever"
"Oh" Finn tried to laugh although it came out more like a nervous puff of air "I didn't recognize him"
The girls giggled as she walked away but she ignored them. This was the first time a monster had showed up at the pool, and Finn was worried that just ignoring it wouldn't work this time. That monster had come here for a reason and it most likely wasn't so he could improve his breaststroke. Finn decided she would help coach today so that she could keep an eye on the new athlete. Skipping practice to help teach the younger kids wasn't unusual for Finn, she had been swimming since she was six and knew more about the sport than most of the coaches did. With just this information you would probably think that Finn was a child of Poseidon, Finn had considered this but knew that that was impossible due to her huge fear of fish and almost everything in the ocean. Finn couldn't even go near an aquarium without having a severe anxiety attack. It was actually kind of ironic, a swimmer who was afraid of the ocean. But Finn didn't love swimming because of the water or really even the sport itself. She loved it because of her brother and the bond that they had over it. Some of the best memories Finn had from her childhood were made by the side of that long pool in Hillside, New Jersey. When she sat by the side of the pool with her brother, sometimes she forgot the constant danger she was in and she just felt like a normal 15 year old kid.