Disclaimer: Actually, this all does belong to me!
Beta: Thank you Ariadne's Twin for being a very helpful Beta, and thank you Zoe Nightshade for having a group of good Betas available.
Inspiration: Because the Percy Jackson archive doesn't have enough OC stories, right? But even among all the Mary-Sue, gets-claimed-by-one-of-The Big Three-and-then-becomes-the-hero-of-the-next-Great Prophecy, I've found several good OC fics. I'm hoping mine is more on the 'good' side of the scale.
Little Words:
Mistake: a word that means 'to do wrong'
Eric Huntington never meant to fall in love. Actually, that was a lie. He did mean to fall in love. Just not at seventeen. And most certainly not to an immortal woman, who, while beautiful, could never be any kind of wife or girlfriend figure.
Something else he hadn't meant to do was get this very beautiful, but very not-right-for his-future women pregnant. And if the Fates were determined to make him do so, then at least couldn't they have let him wait ten years?
But since Eric was a reasonable and levelheaded person, he didn't show any of his doubts to the immortal embodiment of force. Not even when the week old baby girl opened her eyes to reveal eyes ringed with red-just like her mother's.
He put on the facade of happiness because Bia didn't need to see that after seeing the angry red rings around her eyes, he actually feared his tiny daughter. Nor, he decided, did she need to know that unless he found a way to change the grades on all of his report cards since the fifth grade, he wasn't getting into a college, or getting an even half-decent job, and their daughter would therefore probably live a less then well-off life.
The other thing she didn't need to know was that Eric hadn't really been emancipated; his very sweet -but not quite all-there- aunt was living upstairs while his parents toured the world on a cruise the same aunt had won- though she refused to say how or with whose money.
Before she'd left, Bia had discussed names with him. They'd decided on Kiara. Eric had only agreed because it meant 'dark'- or at least, that's what Bia had told him it meant, and not only did he -being seventeen- think it was 'very cool' to be named after darkness, but he also thought that it kind of went with her heritage.
After Bia had gone, he'd decided to give the tiny, wailing infant the middle name Rosalind, hoping that by naming her after his mother, he might stand a better chance of not being kicked out of the house when his parents finally returned.
"You did what?"
Eric winced and bit the side of his bottom lip. "I-"
"I heard you the first time!" His mother yelled, glaring at her son through her emerald green eyes.
"You did?" Eric recoiled from his enraged mother; eyes darting to his father, who was throwing back shots of the Everclear he'd bought during their last road trip to Texas- he would be raging drunk within minutes.
"Yes," Rosalind replied, splashing some of her husband's alcohol into her cranberry juice. "And I have a plan."
"A plan?" Eric squeaked, eyeing his sleeping daughter.
Rosalind drained her glass in one chug and reverted her attention back to her son. "Our neighbors were on the cruise with us, and they mentioned that they have a daughter your age who wants to go to Stanford. Only, they can't afford to pay tuition, and they're too damn stubborn to ask their rich relatives for money."
"That's-"
Holding up a hand, Eric's mother continued her speech. "Your father is going to get her a full scholarship. And you, my filthy excuse for a son, are going to pretend that Trinity is the mother of your daughter. Got that?"
"Yeah," Eric whispered, tracing the name of Kiara's real mother in the thick layer of dust that covered the kitchen table. "Yeah, I've got that." Sighing, he brushed the three letters away regretfully: He really had made an enormous mistake.
Light streamed through the yellow curtains, and no matter where he looked, there were drawing of rainbows and unicorns, princesses and huge, multicolored flowers. There was even a four-by-four poster decorated with hearts and polka-dots with the word Friendship spelled across in huge, block lettering.
Overall, the room made Eric wonder if the government was lying when it said that his tax money was being used to improve schools.
He was jerked out of his musings by the voice of the kindergarten teacher, Ms. Elliot. "Mr. Huntington, the school board is... Concerned about your daughter."
Eric's eyes narrowed and he observed the young woman through dark green eyes, his expression difficult to read. "There's a school board for the kindergarteners?" He asked finally, his eyebrows knitting together skeptically.
The fair haired teacher seemed to believe he was joking, and started to laugh. And because he had learned it was easier that way, Eric laughed too.
"You're funny," The teacher said finally, recovering her breath. "But seriously, we had Kiara tested for ADHD, and she tested positive. Because of her disruptive behavior- she continuously hit other students during nap-time; and she wouldn't listen to anything I said- we have to put her on medications. But for the doctor to continue administering the-"
Ms. Elliot's rumblings were cut off by Eric, whose tone had gone from light and playful to icy and authoritative. "You did what?" He asked, his voice was low, but in the still room, they seemed to echo.
The kindergarten teacher looked almost offended, and she opened a drawer of her desk and handed him dark blue clipboard with a few leaves of paper on it. "I assure you, the drug is very light, and there are no lasting consequences."
"Did I give my permission for you to do this?" Eric asked; his voice still low and cold.
"Well, no. But you see, Kiara was starting fights, and we had to do something..." The young woman trailed off, seeing the steely look in her combatant's eyes.
"Don't ever give her anything ever again unless I say it's all right," Eric thundered, snapping the clipboard neatly in two. Heather Elliot jumped, surprised. Eric almost felt sorry for her; it wasn't like him to yell or throw any kind of fit.
But then he remembered the drugs his daughter was on, and he stormed out of the classroom to where his tiny daughter was sitting, eyes glazed over and legs swinging listlessly. They left together, Eric practically having to drag Kiara because her inborn senses had been so badly smothered.
He never did find out the real reason Ms. Elliot had called him to her office. If he had though, he would have been confronted with a badly drawn picture of a little, sandy haired girl holding the hand of a beautiful woman who she had claimed was a goddess.
