Mysterious Know it all, Chapter 1: Seemingly alone.
The sky was dark, without a star to light the black void above her. The air was cold for a summer evening. Sophie supposed it was because of the water. It always had an effect on the air, sending off a cool breeze and moistens its air particles with tiny dew drops. The thunder clouds didn't help, blocking out any light that may be needed at the pier.
Fortunately, she was the only one there, along with an elderly man out fishing. The reason she was there was unknown. She wasn't there to fish, she had no line. She was there to be alone more likely. It was a mystery to her why she would even bother to try and be alone when she was alone most of the time already. At least, that's what it felt like.
Sophie wasn't running away from her parents at that pier, for she didn't have any. If anything, she was trying to do a little soul searching to find her parent. The sea was calming, even on a dark stormy night such as this. She was unwanted where she came from, so no one noticed when she slipped away. Even if they did notice, she bet no one would really care. They were always telling her to go away.
While searching throughout her being she couldn't find one scrap of knowledge that would lead her to her parents. She was born an orphan, and dropped off at one of the New York orphanages for starters. There she grew up. She was taught how to walk, talk, and take care of herself. She needed to know this for she needed to fend for herself more than the others did. No one else got picked on every day.
She was an obvious target. She got called many names; Loner, freckles, frizzy, shrimp, loser, twig, toothpick. She couldn't help a few of the names. She was picked on so much people stole her food. She had a feeling it stunted her growth and made her skinny. People would often tug on her braids (which she started braiding after she earned the nickname "piggy" from her pigtails). However, on the plus of being picked on so frequently she had gained a great deal of speed. No one could catch her.
When she got older and started to see things, the adults assumed she was having vision problems. They made her get glasses. Most kids assumed that she had glasses because she couldn't read, and began to call her four eyes. She didn't stop them, she didn't want to be called "freak" instead. In truth, she couldn't read, and would even tease her for it sometimes.
She would just be lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling, and the other kids would shove a book in her face. They'd shout at her, "Read the book four eyes! Come on fidget, stop moving around and read the book!" they'd hold her down and force her to say what was written on the page. When she tried and failed, they would laugh and let her go.
Another time, they stole her glasses. They plucked them off her face, and ran away with them. She chased after them trying to get them back, but they just laughed and teased her,
"We're just doing you a favor, shrimp!" they would say as she tried to grab them. Then they would toss it off to their buddy, and she'd run over to grab it, while they were holding it out of her reach.
"This way, someone might want to adopt you, loser!" They tossed it off to someone else, "Or your parents might recognize you, freckles!" One of his friends shouted back, "She doesn't have any parents you idiot!" The guy holding her glasses shrugged, "Oops, my bad." Then he dropped her glasses, and when she tried to reach for them, he stepped on them, and ran away while laughing.
No one liked her, she didn't know why, but no one liked her. No one even bothered to remember that her name was Sophie. They would often mock her for her fears, even though no one would believe her when she said they were monsters. Dogs were a problem, whenever she saw them they looked as big as semis, but everyone said it was her overactive imagination.
She swore that the older kids put spiders in her bed, but they would always deny it the next morning while laughing at her discomfort. The birds didn't seem to like her either, and would often seem bigger and scarier to her than everyone else. So when she ran away at age eight, no one missed her. She roamed the streets of New York, watching for missing posters or want ads, or news articles about her disappearance, but there was nothing. It was like she never existed.
After living as a homeless person in New York for a few months, rummaging through dumpsters for food, and fighting off strangely aggressive strays, she stumbled across the long island sound strawberry farm. She thought maybe, if she was lucky, she could get a job, maybe even room and board there. Yet, as she drew closer up the hill, she noticed that it wasn't a strawberry farm at all, but a camp!
She thought maybe if she waited until morning, she could go in and pose as one of the campers. However, she had never been to camp, so she had no idea how to behave at that establishment. So instead, she walked over to the big blue house and knocked. She was very tired from all her walking, that she passed out on the front porch, to awake the next morning in a room inside the house.
It wasn't long after that she realized this place wasn't normal. She was greeted by a drunken pudgy guy named Mr. D and a wise middle aged man in a wheel chair named Chiron who offered her to play a game that she didn't even know existed. That's the moment she thought she was dreaming. Yes, that moment, not when the man took her downstairs to a projector room to see a video explaining the whole thing. Apparently, the world is not based off Christian belief, but Greek. Also, most of the aspects of Greek myths are alive in today's society, but is only visible to demigods.
The man continued to explain the whole concept to her, about how she was most probably a demigod and the world was dangerous to her. Tell me something I don't know she thought. The world was full of monsters that would attack her because of her parentage. Wasn't much more than what she was used to, children attacking her due to her lack of parentage. He said she was lucky to find that place when she did, since it was the only protection from the monsters in the world. He said she would have a home there for as long as she needed one, and hopefully they'd discover her parentage...with time.
She saw that Chiron was actually a centaur, which surprised her a little, but she just went with it since she still assumed she was dreaming on a back road or alleyway in New York somewhere. She was lead to cabin eleven to sleep, and she felt lucky that she was used to the old roommates-being-thieves routine (that, and having nothing to steal). She thought that maybe she could find a family at this place. People like her who she could connect to.
She got to know the daily schedule of camp and all the main activities, she grew accustomed to the life she had there, she quickly learned the campers' names. Unfortunately however, no one wanted to get to know her. She tried to join people in activities, but they just shoved her away. "Go away Sophie!" they would often say, at least these people remembered her name.
She spent most of her days after that sitting at the big house with Mr. D and Chiron, playing pinochle and chatting while sipping on coca-cola. One time she asked them, "How can you be sure I'm a demigod?" Chiron just stared at her in puzzlement, "What do you mean?"
"I don't feel very godly. Most times I feel like I don't belong here. Sometimes I feel like you made a mistake with me."
"As much as I would love for you to not belong here, I'm afraid this is where you belong. Not that I like it." Said Mr. D, not looking away from his cards; Chiron sighed, "We know you are a demigod because of that tree." He said. She looked at the tree and wondered what happened. Did it give out visions? Did it talk? Did it change colour? "That tree creates a barrier, and only demigods are allowed through without permission."
"Oh, how pitiful is that?" Mr. D said, and Chiron shot him a look, "My set of cards is dreadful, I feel you beat me again." Chiron shook his head and continued, "If you weren't a demigod then you wouldn't even be here. You wouldn't have been able to make it to the front door." He then returned to the game, and smiled, "Yes, you are correct. I have indeed won again, Dionysus." Sometimes she forgot that Mr. D was a god by the way he acted, and she couldn't help but chuckle at his defeat.
Yet here she was, a summer night on her own. She still had no friends at camp. Before, she hadn't really thought about her parent too much, she was focused on finding friends; but since that didn't work, she desperately wanted to know who it was. She has been at camp for five years with no luck, she thought having some alone time to clear her head might give her some answers; and if she got eaten by a monster, all the better for everyone else.
She finally thought of heading back to camp, she'd been out here for five hours and no sudden epiphany had befallen her. She pulled up her hood on her sweater. After five years the orphanage hadn't posted want ads for her, but the police might still recognize her as a minor out after hours, and she did not want to be carted off to the station.
As she began to leave the peer a giant figure immerged from out of the water. She immediately thought "what the heck!" She thought the gods wouldn't be as foolish to show themselves as fifty feet tall around mortals. Of course, the only person here was an old guy no one would probably believe and herself. Plus, who knew what the mist was doing at that instant.
Sophie had-since discovering she was a demigod- developed an uncanny ability to see through the mist, so her eyes were no longer fooled by such things. Right now, the mist might be transforming the sea god into something else, or the old guy might not remember what he saw. Sophie was still in awe as she saw Poseidon turn into water to shrink down to natural form.
Maybe this was a sign? Maybe this was why she hadn't been claimed? Maybe she was a daughter of Poseidon? She stood still... and he walked right past her. Maybe she was not a daughter of Poseidon after all? She sulked, but then followed the god towards downtown.
To her, the god looked wrong. He looked too young, and she always imagined him with black hair and green eyes. She always pictured him as a fisherman in his late forties, dressed in khaki shorts and a Bermuda top. This guy looked more like a model with his blond close-crop hair cut and shave, blue eyes and designer coat and jeans. She was still surprised that the god would wear armor in his spare time. Wasn't he caught up with the times?
She followed him as far as the empire state building. She knew she should stop there, she had been to Olympus on a few field-trips over winter break. She knew that otherwise, you would need a really good excuse to go up there. Better leave Poseidon to do his thing. She wondered what he could be doing here. Was it about the constant cloud coverage lately? She started to walk back to camp. It was a long walk, but she had a lot to think about. The gods? Here in New York? Did it have anything to do with what was going on?
When she got back to the camp, she was almost knocked off her feet. What was going on? The whole camp, it had changed.