Chapter 1:
Out of all the crazy things in my life, I never expected THIS to happen.
Now I know what you're thinking. You think I'm about to tell you about how I'm such an epic demigod. Wrong. I'm human. Well...I thought I was human, until my 15th birthday. But unlike my parents and three brothers, I am NOT a demigod.
I was born to Percy and Annabeth Jackson on November 20th, 1997, which happened to be children's day. That won't be very ironic until much later in my story. I was named Vilmaris, 'Ris' for short by Poseidon. I was never told why he named me, and why my parents didn't. Out of all my siblings, I was the youngest, yet the ONLY one to actually come from labor. My parents realized my mom was pregnant, and pregnant for real. It was so unlike what they expected because their first three boys came from Annabeth's mind, not her...you understand?
This was just one sign that I was human. I was given the breath of life like any normal teenage girl. But I lived out that life in the beginning differently than that of 'normal teenage girl'. I was Surrounded by my two hero parents who'd saved the world much too often. My three brothers had powers and the reflex's of demigods. I grew up memorizing monsters and gods along with my abc's. I was taught Greek and Latin, along with English. I was constantly watching my family become more powerful and stronger every year, and instead I would just become more weak. Helpless and little. The human who didn't do anything.
What makes me even more weird...compared to the demigods I live around...is that I was born schizophrenic. My brothers and parents are all dyslexic and ADHD, while I have two separate personalities. My schizophrenic is mild...but sometimes I'll go from my fun, calm and normal teen girl self to a girl who bullies her siblings, curses a lot and acts powerful. And I am anything...anything...but powerful.
So why do I get a story? Why not my twin brothers Luke and Charlie, named after the dead heroes Luke Castellen and Charles Beckendorf? Why not my brother Ethan, named after Ethan Nakamura? Well, it's a long tale, and that's why I'm telling it to you. (Actually my Mom's forcing me to write this down so that future generations will figure me out...so...Hi future generation!) Anyway, I'm not the best of a writer. But I'm good at telling a story. And a story is what you get. Believe it if you wish, but if you believe in my Dad, the son of Poseidon or my mom the daughter of Athena, then you'll believe in me. The daughter of seaweed brain and wise girl.
I stared at my plate. I didn't know what I wanted today for dinner, and I got to decide every day. Getting to decide what you eat for dinner may sound awesome, but it really just gets boring after a while. And if it was pie, cake or anything that could multiply my brothers' amount of ADHD, then it went out the door or into my dad's stomach. Lasagna. I smiled and decided I would have...lasagna. Suddenly, my plate began to steam the Italian dish and I grabbed my fork, very satisfied.
"Lasagna again Ris?" Luke asked me with his face full of spaghetti that was swaying from his mouth. I took a bite and smiled.
"Yes. Lasagna is the best, it's SO much better than spaghetti."
"Says who?"
"Say's me."
Luke laughed. "Says NOBODY."
My dad walked in, his arms full of goblets. "Actually," He said as he set each goblet at the table, "Blue spaghetti is the best." My mom rolled her eyes and took a bite.
I looked around me. My entire family sat at the kitchen table that was placed directly under a glass dome that opened up to the sky. We lived in a very nice Victorian style house in New Rome. Or New Greece. Okay...it's really just called New Town. My mom designed our home, and it was probably the best out of all the others in our neighborhood.
"So...Ris, how was school?" I gulped down my food, burning my throat. I was dreading this question. Well, I honestly regretted it every day, because if you simply said "Fine" parents will usually ask for a 'better' explanation. But today I regretted it because of a certain couple quarter grades in math, science and English. Especially, English. When you attend a school where everyone is a child of a demigod or a grandchild of a demigod, you learn a lot more in English than just commas and apostrophes. You learn Latin and Greek.
"Uh...er..."
"Ris got a D in English" Ethan said in his brotherly, mimic voice. The kind that brothers use when they know they're getting you into trouble. I Knew I shouldn't have told him about my grades on the way home from school.
My mom's sweet and calm face changed faster than in an instant, as if she was schizophrenic like me and could suddenly be an entire different person. She did that a lot. "YOU WHAT?" This was great...now the mood of our dinner went from neutral to lets-hate-on-Ris.
"Got a D in English..." I squeaked, fear rising in me. My mom was a caring women, but when you got grades below a B+, she went from a pretty bird to a man eating hawk with a jackhammer. Her face went red, and by the way she clenched her jaw and tightened her lips, you could tell she was controlling her temper, not wanting to blow. But it was too late, and her engine exploded like Greek fire.
"I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS! I TESTED YOU AND DID HOMEWORK WITH YOU FOR HOURS! YOU'RE NOT EVEN DYSLEXIC AND YOU STILL WONT RAISE UP THAT GRADE!" She was screaming at me now, her head leaning over the table. Her long blonde curls were about to fall into her gravy, but she didn't seem to notice. I was scared, and could just tell that there would be more. I never understood why homework was such a big deal for my life. I wasn't going to grow up to become anything special. After the school year was over I'd be forced to spend my entire summer with Mr. D and play pinochle while my brothers and all the other kids learned to sword fight and control their powers.
I stared and stared at her. She didn't yell very often. But tonight was a night when she yelled A LOT. But my Mom's a strong women, who's very...and I mean very...intimidating. My Dad grabbed her hand, and she smiled towards him with satisfaction, and a little annoyance. "We'll talk about this later Ris. AFTER dinner."
After that, the table was quiet and hardly anyone spoke. My dad couldn't take it. He stood, shaking the table. "Okay, stop it. All of you. I can't handle having my family's dinner table be full of-" He stared at Ethan, who was gripping a spaghetti noodle, in a position to throw it. You could tell my Dad was on the verge of laughing. I turned and looked at Charlie, whom was also stifling a laugh. Luke punched him in the arm, the two of them completely identical with my mother's curls and my father's black hair.
Percy gave the twins a half smile, and he couldn't handle it. My Dad busted out laughing and fell into his chair, my brothers all following. Ethan launched up and threw the spaghetti noodle at the ceiling, watching to see how long it could stay there and all the boys followed his example.
My Mom rolled her eyes and just watched as the boys began throwing spaghetti noodles at each other. I wasn't going to even try throwing my lasagna noodles or else my Mother would kill me. But of course...my Brothers were treated completely differently.
"Come on Ris!" My Dad called to me, throwing a spaghetti noodle at my face. I shook my head no and threw the noodle back. He shrugged and turned around, only to duck seconds later with his fast reflex's. Ethan Rolled under the table and grabbed the spatula and started swinging it like a sword, while Luke Jumped onto Charlie's back and screamed, "AT DAWN WE RIDE!" While pointing a fork at my Dad.
My mom laughed and jumped from her chair, before grabbing a fistful of spaghetti, getting ready to do who knows what with it.
My family could even make a spaghetti war look cool.
I grabbed my plate and went to the kitchen, attempting to escape all of them. Nothing was more stressful than trying to eat your dinner while four boys, all taller than 6"2, and my intimidating mother had a food fight.
I slipped up to my bedroom, escaping the laughter. I knew I should have gone and played with them and enjoyed the memories of my family. But even if I tried just a little bit to have fun, my parents would freak out and think I would get hurt because I was human. It wouldn't be fun for me anyway, I don't have any interest in fighting my demigod siblings. Fighting them would compare me to a mouse, and them a hawk.
Ethan can control water like my Dad, so fighting him in a real sibling wrestle would be out of the question. Luke and Charlie both have Athena's battle strategy on their side and always have the advantage. Plus they inherited my Dad's wonderful sword fighting ability.
Me, I inherited nothing but some straight blonde hair and green, grey eyes that look like someone threw up into my iris's.
I grabbed my back pack and pulled out my history book. I took it to my white desk, and was going to attempt to do homework. If that's possible with my family downstairs.
I flipped open the book and found the correct page. My thoughts grew cold when I saw the title heading for Chapter 14. The great impact of the Prophecy of Seven.
I groaned aloud, and slammed my face against the book causing a sting into my forehead. I was so excited to finally be done with the units on my parents. Last week we barely just finished the unit on how my dad and mom defeated Kronos. Now we had to study the seven demigods? At school I would go in and have to study the story of how my parents were super great. And when kids in my class found out I was their daughter, it would always remind me about the fact that I wasn't special at all. I grabbed the assignment list and skimmed down for my homework.
Read sections 14:1 through 14:6 and answer chapter review.
"I don't wanna answer the stupid review," I found myself saying to my textbook. Wow. I was talking to my textbook now? "Whatever. Screw History." I cleared my entire desk of with one arm swing, letting all the books fall to the floor with a 'thump'.
I decided to skip homework and listen to music on my bed. I grabbed my iPod and my favorite book, peter pan. I knew it was a bit old fashioned for me, but I've always loved the story of Never Land. I imagined it was real, and someday I could actually go there.
I poured myself into my book, and it must've been hours before I heard a knock at my door. In came my mom, wearing her purple pajamas and bathrobe.
"Hey Ris, so for spring break we're driving out of New Town to Camp. It'll be an emergency, so we're spending your 15th birthday out there. Is that okay? Wait, of course it's fine. So pack up, we're leaving early in the morning." She spoke so fast, and fed me the words so quickly that before I knew it, I was in my room alone all over again.
I was spending my birthday at camp? Were they serious? My mom knew I hated camp. I did NOT want to spend my birthday with Mr. D on the front porch of the Big House. I'd be bored out of my mind, and nobody would even remember unless my family reminded them.
And when I got there, all the other kids would be there. My parents call us the 'second generation'. My parents and the five other main demigods call us that because they think one day we'll all become the new Camp heroes that everyone looks up to.
I already knew for sure that my parents were going to attempt to throw me a great old birthday party with all us 'second generation kids'. Even though I'm pretty positive none of them like me. Except for Grover and Juniper's son, Chester. But he's been off at satyr training for a year, and I'm not allowed to write him because the instructors say it "distracts him" from the world of training.
I reluctantly grabbed my suitcase from my closet, and half heartedly threw my cloths into the suitcase, not really caring about which ones would be better.
Suddenly, Charlie popped into my room. "Oh and by the way Ris, your boyfriend Chester's going to be at camp tomorrow."
My heart glowed. It wasn't going to be so bad! I'd actually get to hang out with someone! Wait...did Charlie say...boyfriend? Angry, I grabbed my pillow and threw it at his face. He dodged it easily and laughed before shutting the door behind him.
"He isn't my boyfriend!" I called out to him through a closed door. I heard a muffled 'whatever.'
To think maybe this time Camp wouldn't be so bad. I'd have Chester. He makes everything better. But leave it up to me to take one good thing and immediately think everything else would be good too, because I was wrong.