Welcome, reader, to my journal, my past, present, and future, where it never ends, just like the starry skies. My name is Diana Chen, demititan. Here is my story:

I guess you could call today as my luckiest unlucky day. I mean, shouldn't it be my happiest day? I just turned fourteen not even an hour ago and my family and friends are planning a surprise in the afternoon, even though I shouldn't have known that. Let's just say I have sources. However, that's beside the point. Either my eyes are playing tricks with me or I have been seeing...strange things.

It all started in the morning. When I sat up after awakening to creaks and shuffles in my dark room, I stared at a figure outlined in the brightening light of the day from my large window. The figure was…the hazy shape of a girl? I think it was, but I did not see her appearance. My eyes slid down to her body, where it seemed that she was in armor; by the way it glinted off in the dim light. It must have been designed to protect from swords, unreliable in present warfare. Her hand was holding…something, but my eyes seemed to have not processed it. When I blinked again, she vanished into thin air. Before I could think about it, my nose scented the aroma of fresh, warm pancakes that were waiting for me downstairs. My ever-early mom, Artemine Chen, was banging on my door.

"Hurry up, xiao lao hu, and change. I know you hate cold pancakes, so come downstairs before they cool down," my mom said, leaving hearing distance before I could reply. I completely dismissed the earlier incident as a mere dream and rushed to change from my pajamas. As I left my large room, I grabbed my backpack before running downstairs to attack my breakfast.

As I walked towards my school, a banner flew in the light summer breeze. "Welcome to Kauai Public School, Elpis Grace," it proudly displayed. Apparently we got a new student, as that was our tradition in greeting new people at our small tight-knit family school.

"Hey guys," I called out to my friends, waving.

"Hey back to you, D.C," my best friend Catherine Blanchard quipped. "We cornered the new girl. I was just starting to interview her."

Kate Blanchard was our newspaper captain this year. Because of our small school, news travel fast, but with my friend who pokes her nose into everything, the news travel faster. Before the day is out, everyone will know who Elpis is, inside and out.

Holding her large notepad in one hand and a pencil in another, she asked Elpis, "Elpis, tell us where you were from and how was your life there."

Elpis glanced at the sky before answering. "I was born in New York City on June 21, to my mom, Emma Hamilton and my dad, Julian Grace." Her voice lingered at her dad's name and she looked at her feet uncomfortably before she continued on with her story. "My father worked as…um, C.E.O. of United Airlines, while my mom worked as the top pilot. When I was younger, my father would take me to school, and every other week my mom would fly around the world. I would be left at school until it was six. I learned to love school. After school was out for the summer, I would fly around the world with my mom. However, as I grew older, I could only see them for a few hours: early before work, and late in the night. We would hardly ever stay together. Anyways, because my dad held such a high position, I became rich. I also did not like crowded cities, especially NYC. So I, with permission, decided to come here to Hawaii, where I will stay for a while with my cousin."

During the time that she spoke, I was looking at the sky. It looked as if the clouds and sky were battling each other. Before she started speaking, the sky was cloudless. However, as she spoke, clouds appeared in the sky. The more she talked, the more clouds there were, and the darker they got. But when she finished, the sun began to peek out again. I looked at my friends, and they seem to have not noticed the weather.

Not wanting to have that happening again, I interrupted, "Hey, the weather is nice today. Do you want to go out and surf later?"

Each of my friends nodded, but Elpis shook her head. "I have hydrophobia, but I'll go with you guys."

After of few minutes of chitchat, the bell rang, signaling the start of school. We parted our ways, but Elpis followed me. "The Administration Board told me that I have the exactly the same classes as a student named Diana. Catherine told me earlier that you hold that name. May you show me to our classes?" she asked.

"Yea, sure, our first class is Greek. I love languages, so I'm fortunate to take a "dead" language," I said. We walked quickly to our first class; I did not want to be late.

Our teacher, Mr. Dranias, appeared as the second bell rang. "Welcome to class again, everybody. Today, we are reviewing the roots of all the verbs we have learned so far. Let's take role." Mr. Dranias did not notice the new student until he stumbled upon her name. "El…pis? Elpis Grace?"

"Here," Elpis answered.

"Oh are you our new student?" Elpis nodded. "Welcome to Kauai Public School. We're very fortunate to have you here. Have you ever learned Greek before?"

Elpis glanced at me. I smiled, and she said, "Ναι. Πρώτη γλώσσα μου ήταν Έλληνες." (Translation: Yes. Greek was my first language.)

Mr. Dranias congratulated her. "Excellent, excellent. This is going to be an easy class for you then. Tell me, then, how much do you know?"

Elpis began to talk about all the Greek mythology in excellent detail, with the rest of the class listening like they have never heard each story before. The girl told story upon story, and she was in the middle of the tenth story when we heard the ending bell ring.

"Oh, class, we never got to our lesson, but that's okay. Tomorrow, expect a quiz on all the stories that Elpis just told during the whole class period." Groans could be heard throughout the classroom. "You are dismissed everybody; have a nice rest of the day!"

After all those stories, I felt the sudden urge to ask her about more stories that she knew, but I managed to test my patience to wait until lunch. We walked to math class down the hall, me impatiently waiting for lunch to come.

When the lunch bell rang, the whole school ran down to the beach, excited to eat lunch and surf. Elpis and I together walked quickly to my friends to finish our food. Catherine, still holding her notepad, asked Elpis, "How was your day so far?"

"Excellent, I'm so happy to have friends already," she responded. The rest of the people pounded her with questions while Catherine speed wrote all her responses. I never got a chance to ask about more stories, which I was slightly disappointed.

When we finished eating, Catherine, Melanie Brown, Kini Kealoha, and I sprinted down with our surfboard to kill our remaining time for lunch. The rest decided to stay dry and score us. As I dove under the water, I saw another weird creature: a merman, I guess, with a trident. He was fighting another creature, it seemed. However, they disappeared in a second, so I thought it to be as an imagination. I kicked up to fly for my first wave.

The end score was Catherine with sixteen points, Melanie with ten points, Kini with a whopping thirty points, and me with nine points. The ending lunch bell signaled us for the last class of the day.


Okay, so I rewrote my story because after one year of inactivity, I was unhappy with my imagination. So, enjoy this new rewrite and please review, as with each review, I'll become a better writer ^.^