A/N

Hi everyone! I'm so happy you clicked your way in here! So... To begin with I'm going to say that this is a little sneak peak. I'd really like to know if you think I should keep writing on this... So please tell me what you think.

And credit to Rick Riordan who gave me both inspiration to start with this and who've made all the basics (like the gods, demigods, camp halfblood etc)

Happy reading! :D

PS: This is my first story ever I publish here and the first one I write in English from the beginning (usually I translate) because English isn't my mother tongue.


If you'd ask me to give you a short presentation of myself, it would probably sound something like this:

Hi!

My name is Heraine Black, but everyone just calls me Hera. My friends call me Hera… My only friend calls me Hera. My only friend that happens to be a thirteen years old boy named William Youth. I'm thirteen years old and attend seventh grade at Frost Middle School, a small boarding school a few hours' drive from the orphanage where I live. I got long auburn hair, gray eyes and a few freckles over my nose.

I sound like a normal girl at school, maybe with a lack of friends, but… That's pretty much all I'd tell you. But there is more.

Hera. Like the goddess. Why, you might ask? Well… It wasn't until I met William, that I first got called Hera. He came up with the name during a rainy afternoon when we sat at the attic of the orphanage. He lives there too.

Anyway… Will and I became best friends. He made me forget about my situation and made me happy again, something no one else had managed to do. He even made me laugh. But we were quite… lonely at our school. I don't know why, but everyone seemed to stay away from us. Maybe because we were the only orphans there and we always stuck together. We often sat at a bench outside school during the breaks and just… being. No conversation, nothing at all. We were just looking and listening at the sounds of the younger kids playing around at the front yard. And I used to like it, until we found out that the other kids in our class talked about us behind our backs.

As you might have figured out, I'm an orphan. I've never had a mother and my father died a month ago. That's way I'm staying at the orphanage; I have nowhere to go. No relatives, no other family. It was just me and dad. He said that my mother left me on his stairs with only a letter for explanation. Many times I said that I was adopted but my father promised that he was my real father. I don't know how he knew that, but I believed him. He was my real father and my mother had abounded me.

My life looked pretty much the same every day; I woke up at 6am and went down to the large dining room for some disgusting breakfast. The only thing I enjoyed with the breakfast was to talk to Will again. After that I had lessons all morning (the first one started at 8am) and lunch at 12am. We had one break during the afternoon, mostly at 3pm, and then the day ended at 4:30pm. Dinner at 6pm and bed at 8:30pm. End of day.

I hated school but no one believed me. Not even Will. Why? I had the highest grades in almost every subject. The only subject I didn't was very good at was Latin. Nothing made sense. Latin, in the other hand, was Will's favorite subject and he couldn't stop talking about the class during the afternoon break. I tried to nod and say a few "Mhm" at the right places, but Will noticed that I wasn't interested. As the wonderful friend he is, he stopped talking about Latin class.

Maybe it's time for me to introduce Will for you. Will is, like I've said before, thirteen years old and goes to the same boarding school as I. He also lives at the orphanage during the holidays and he is my absolute best and only friend. Will, or William, is quite tall and he got messy brown hair in the same color as I. He's eyes is deeply blue, like the ocean, and he loves medieval stuffs. He once told me that the father in one of the families he'd stayed with had a real sword at the wall. Well… Will had been thrown out of there when he stabbed a vase and a drawing with it. He went back to the orphanage for the seventh time in a row and the orphanage didn't want him there. They said he was violent and always made up some trouble, but when I came there he seemed to calm down. Maybe because he got someone in his own age (most of the kids there were younger than us) and because he got someone to talk to, someone who understood him. I did.

Will's mother died in a car accident when he was five and his father was in prison for two cases of assault and one murder, Will's younger sister. His family was gone, just like mine, so he had no other choice that to go to the orphanage. He'd just turned thirteen and had been through so much already; ever since he was three, he'd been beaten by his father and when he was six he watched his own father kill his four years old sister. I felt sorry for him. Really sorry. His story made me cry and it made me feel stupid. My father's death was nothing against what Will had been through.

Though Will and I were completely opposite, we liked each other's company. When we were at the orphanage we mostly spend our time at the attic, making up fantasies about how our lives could have been. About better lives. About lives where we could have been taking care for each other, been there for each other all the way, from the beginning. We could have been siblings. Actually, one of the women who work at the orphanage once said we looked like siblings; both of us had auburn hair, the same nose, and freckles. The only thing that separated us was our eyes. Mine were gray, just like my father's and Will's was blue, dark blue.

So now when you've get to know me, maybe it's time to get to the real story. And it starts a sunny morning in the beginning of June…

"I've lost it!" I said loudly when I put down my glass of juice and my sandwich at the table where Will sat. He looked up at my, tired as usual, trying to understand what I was talking about.

"What are you…?"

"My necklace! The necklace I got from dad!" I said in panic and sat down at the empty chair. I could feel tears burning in my eyes and I buried my face in my hand. That seemed to wake him up a bit cause he looked worried at me.

"Calm down, Hera… I'm sure you'll find it… You sure you've looked for it…?"

"Of course I have! Jess couldn't even sleep last night because of me. I've been looking in the whole room, in all of my bags and clothes… I've even checked Jess' stuffs!"

"Okay… Where did you last saw it?" Will asked and looked me in the eyes.

"I don't know! I knew I had it yesterday but…"

"Hera. Look at me…" I did as I was told. "Where did you last saw it?" I heard Will repeat and I took a deep breath. His eyes always calmed me down.

"Latin class. I held it in my hand when we went out of there…"

"Then it must be there, right?"

"Yeah… You're probably right… Thanks, Will."

"Any time, Hera," he smiled back at me and took a bite of his toast. That smile could make anyone happy again. "Have I told you that I hate this school's food?" he asked and ran a hand through his auburn hair, smiling at me.

"Never heard of it before…" I responded with a smile before I took a bite of my sandwich. It almost made me vomit. I could swear the bread was moldy.

Still hungry after the uneatable breakfast I and will went to the Latin classroom and started to look for the thin golden chain my father had given me for my thirteenth birthday four month ago. One month before he passed away. The necklace was the only thing I had left from him and I always wore it. And now it was gone.

But we didn't find it. I suffered through the English class and though Mrs. Gordon saw I wasn't in the mood, she kept asking me questions I had to answer in front of the whole class. The same thing repeated itself during both History class and Math class. I almost forgot about my missing necklace, the necklace I always kept near me. Mr. Hanks was kind enough to give us a tiny break for ten minutes before we had to go to Latin class and I and Will immediately got out to the front yard. So did everyone else.

As usual, we sat down at "our" bench by a big tree I didn't know the name of and the necklace once again got into my mind.

"Oh my god! Did you hear her? She was like; "No, sir. The equation isn't right if there's the number five there." I suddenly heard Misty Bestray say. She and her friends stood right outside the door, smoking cigars like crazy.

"Yeah. I mean. Can't she just stop sometime!" another one said and breathed in the smoke. I balled my fists, trying to concentrate at anything but their conversation. I knew who they were talking about; me, who else?

"Hey, your necklace looks like the one she uses to wear… Right, Bianca?"

"Yes, you're right, Nelly… Where did you get that from, Misty?"

"My mom sent it to me. It's not hers!"

I stared into the air in front of me. Misty Bestray had my necklace. I knew it. It must be mine.

"Okay, if you say so…" Bianca or Nelly said and probably shrugged her shoulders. I couldn't see them.

"Just ignore them, Hera," Will said, trying to calm me down. It didn't work.

"She got my necklace!"

"Maybe she doesn't…" But he didn't sound very sure.

I got up from my seat, leaving Will with a begging look in his face.

"Ops… Geek warning…" Nelly murmured and Misty turned around.

"O…! Heraine! We were just talking about you!" she said with a fake smile. I didn't smile. I didn't talk. I almost didn't breath.

"Can I get my necklace back?"

"What? It's not your necklace, stupid. It's mine. My mom sent it to me," she said and swung her high blond pony tail in the air. Her eyes were deeply marked with black eyeliner and mascara and she blew the smoke from the cigar in my face.

"No she didn't. That necklace is mine."

"And how do you know?"

"It's a tiny note at the back of the charm that says 'Be brave, darling'" I said and Nelly and Bianca started to look at each other. They were both Misty's puppets and always did as she said.

"No there isn't!" Misty said angry and stared at me. She was taller than me but I didn't bother. She was more stupid as well.

"Okay, so you don't mind to turn the charm around and let your friends see it…?" I said, trying to got an excuse for her to turn on it.

"Yeah… So if it says… whatever-you-said… How does that proves it's yours?"

"My father gave it to me before he died. Those were the last words he said to me…" I said, quiet this time. I didn't like to talk about it.

"Yeah, right…"

"Come on, Misty… Just give it back to her…" Nelly said. Her eyes were a little red in the edges and she smiled to me.

"Fine then!" Misty shouted and took of my necklace. She gave it to me with an angry look and almost spitted at me. "Don't think I feel sorry for you!" she shouted after me when I went back to Will. He smiled at me but it was a sad smile. Maybe he'd heard what I'd say over there…

"I found it," I said when I sat down next to him again and put on the necklace again. The little charm was the shape of a round little key and on the backside, with my father's own written, three tiny words were written; 'Be brave, darling'.

"It's pretty…" Will said with a smile and pointed at the necklace. "Is it a real key?"

"I don't know, actually…" I answered and shrugged my shoulders. "I think it's too small to fit in a locker.

"Maybe… But at the medieval, they made these really tiny locks so the thieves couldn't break them with a knife or something!"

"Really…?" I asked. I didn't really believe him.

"I don't know. But it sounded quite possible, right?" he said with a charming smile and hit me with his shoulder. I couldn't help but smile at him. As I've said before; He knows how to make people happy again.

We made it through Latin class and then went for lunch. Unfortunately the food wasn't eatable (when was it!) and we went hungry for our PE lesson. The day continued just as usual and nothing odd happened. Well… Not until after dinner anyway…

Will and I sat in a tiny room on the second floor and watched TV. Will's eyes were stuck on the TV, but I wasn't interested at all. I was playing with my necklace, as I always did when I felt something was going to happen. The little piece of thin gold was spinning between my fingers and I was all stressed up; I had a very hard time trying to sit still.

"Can you please stop moving, Hera? I'm trying to watch!" Will complained and I managed to say a quiet 'sorry'. But it was impossible to sit still.

"HERA! Please!"

"I'm sorry. I just have this feeling…"

"What felling!"

"That something is going to happen…" And just when I'd say words the door flew open.

"That's her, sir," Mrs. Gordon said, showing two tall, mystical men in expensive costumes into the room where I and Will sat.

"Heraine Black?" one of the men asked and I nodded carefully. Dad taught me not to talk to strangers.

"Hello. My name is Tim. Tim Holt. I'm here with something your father left for you," the man began. He wore a black suit and shining black shoes. He's face looked hard as stone, like he didn't have any emotions at all.

"Something my father left for me…?"

"Yes, my dear. George…?" The other man stepped forward. He got blond hair, just like my father used to have and he was also dressed in a black suit and long black shoes. He gave me a tiny smiled while he gave me a heavy wooden box. I put it in my knee, wondering what it could be.

"What is it?" I asked, confused.

"I'm afraid we don't know that…" Tim Holt answered and gave me an emotionless smile. "That would be all. Thank you for time, Mrs. Gordon. Goodbye Miss Black." And the two men were gone.

"What is it?" Will asked and flew up from his chair as quick as the men and Mrs. Gordon was out of sight.

"I don't know… I've never seen it before."

"Really? This is so exciting!" he said and sat down next to me in my armchair.

It was a really nice box; the wood was nicely smooth and glanced with tree oil and on the top there was a really beautiful pattern of gold. I took a deep breath and tried to open it.

"It's locked…" I said a little disappointed and looked at Will. "I don't have any key."

"Your necklace!" he said loudly and almost jumped out of the chair. "Try it, try it, try it!

"Okay… Calm down, Will!" I raised my hand to uncap my necklace and let the chain fall down into my palm. "You think it'll work?"

"Yes! Try it!"

I took a deep breath and brought the key to the lock.

"Wait…!" I said and hesitated. "Light. I need light." Will ran for the lamp in the corner of the room; the only source of light "Hold it over here," I said and looked close at the lock. It was made of golden metal and with tiny letters, just above the keyhole, it said 'Be brave, darling'.

I took another deep breath, stuck the key in the keyhole and twisted it around. A tiny 'click' could be heard and I opened the box.


A/N

So... There you got it... You liked it...? You want to read more...? Let me know :D