Disclaimer: I own nothing.
McKenzie studied herself carefully in the mirror. She hardly glanced at her face, knowing exactly what she would find, but rather focused on her outfit-dark denim jeans and a green t-shirt.
Deeming herself "good enough," she grabbed her bag and hurried down the stairs.
McKenzie ran into the kitchen and shoved an apple into her mouth, then dropped it, quickly eating the bite. She was moving towards the door when a voice stopped her.
"Slow down, Supergirl. Can't a father see more of his little girl than a blur as she races out the door?"
McKenzie smiled as she turned around to face her dad.
"Sorry, Dad. I'm gonna be late for school. See you after?"
"You have to pack for camp then," her dad reminded her, shifting his weight onto his prosthetic leg.
McKenzie sighed. "That's the worst part about camp," she confided. "You spend all year thinking about what you're going to bring, then the night before you leave you finally get it all to fit, and then you get there, and you don't even get to wear any of it. It stinks. Like, epically."
Her dad grinned. "Don't worry, 'Kenzie." He said, ruffling her hair affectionately. "Someday a guy will fall for you and think you're beautiful no matter what you wear."
"Dad!"
"I know it's awkward, honey, but I also know you've got to grow up some day, and-"
"No, not that!" McKenzie said, rolling her eyes.
"What?"
"You messed up my hair!"
And with that, McKenzie turned around and walked out the door.
McKenzie sprinted to school, too worried about being late to even enjoy the refreshing run as she once would've. She was no daughter of Athena, but she had been late far too many times this year, killing harpies, hellhounds, empousa, and even the occasional Cyclopes in those early morning hours. Of course, she just couldn't go to school without a shower, her hair neatly done for those ever windy days, those leftover Algebra II problems completed that she hadn't bothered to finish the night before…
Anyways, she didn't want the teachers to hate her any more than they already did.
McKenzie arrived at the school about five minutes after leaving her house, a new record for her. She slowed her pace to a jog as she neared her locker.
She threw her books into it and walked quickly to her first period class, History. She just got into her seat as the bell started to ring.
After nodding apologetically at the teacher's stern glance, she proceeded to completely zone out.
She thought about Camp Half-Blood, which was just about her favorite place in the whole wide world. She would be attending it again tomorrow, after her flight from Ohio to New thought about her friends, and smirked as a memory crept into her brain.
McKenzie was out jogging with her siblings (except for her good friend Rosa, who was sick) along with some of the other cabins who had track at the same time as them. A lot of her out-of-shape siblings groaned and moaned, but she loved the feeling of fighting the wind, struggling to keep her behind as it blew her hair back. It made her feel… powerful. It was something she didn't experience too often.
She was leading the group in laps as she jogged steadily, her lungs slightly breathless, but still breathing, unlike many of the others.
She was in her element.
That was about when she got soaked.
Cayden, one of her "best friends" so he called himself (truly, it was a pity thing) had pushed her under Percy's personal water bottle falling from the sky as she ran past them. Glaring, she pushed the sopping wet hair out of her eyes as she spun around the face them.
Percy was trying to hide a grin while Cayden's eyes sparkled with mischief. She narrowed her eyes and said, "What was that for?"
Percy started to reply, but Cayden cut him off. "You were just looking so hot and sweaty m'dear. We thought we'd save everyone the stink and give you a nice, cold shower."
McKenzie swatted at him, but he leaped out of the way with practiced ease and ran away laughing.
McKenzie looked to her friend, Regina, for backup, but Regina was too busy laughing to notice.
"Come back here!" She called after him angrily, but it was no use. She saw many eyes rolled, especially from this weird Goth daughter of Hecate, Mina, or something, but she didn't care. She was too busy trying to solve the problem at hand - catching up. His legs were long, while hers were short. While normally she'd be just a bit faster, she was getting tired while he seemed to have been walking the whole time.
Suddenly, McKenzie smirked, as an evil genius idea popped into her head. Vines grew around Cayden and stuck him in place. She swaggered excruciatingly slow to where he was, and grinned evilly when she arrived.
"So, Cayden…"
The bell jerked her out of her thoughts, and she pushed her way through the crowds to get to her next class, typing. She groaned as she thought about it. It was so boring. In what world did you spend the entire class period pressing buttons? The mortals', apparently. 'A, A, A, A, A, S, S, S, S, S, D, D, D…' That teacher was getting paid way too much for such a useless job.
The school day passed lazily enough, and then it was time to go. Breathing out in relief, McKenzie shoved past the other students, rolling her eyes at all their supposed "problems."
"I mean, really, he knows I like lilies better!"
"I can't believe she turned me down!"
"That F? I mean, really! I worked really hard on that!"
"The coach is so stupid. I totally deserved to make the team. If I had been on it, we wouldn't have lost."
That was the one thing McKenzie held against mortals; their inability to see anything but themselves. While they complained about how he didn't ask her to dance, or how she didn't respond to his ceaseless, obvious flirting, she complained about how the world was ending, she was going to die, and monsters were going to take over the universe and reign for a thousand bloody years.
So she continued to move through the halls, not stopping to talk to anybody. After all, who would want to talk to her?
She stopped at her locker, threw her backpack on the floor, and knelt down to enter the combination. She looked in dismay at the cheeseburgers, cereal, and crumpled up papers all mixed together. She hesitated for a moment, before reaching in, grabbing it all, and stuffing it into her back, meanwhile chanting, "Ew, ew, ew, ew."
That was almost all it took for her to drop her disgusting, sloppy habits and become and organizational freak. Almost.
McKenzie shuddered, grabbed the backpack, and left the school building. Absolute relief flooded her as the sun hit her face as she walked home.
About halfway home, she heard a child's yells. Frowning, she picked up her pace. As she grew closer, the screams became louder and more frantic; she began to run.
She halted in front of the scene. There was a boy, maybe twelve years old, shouting, as two empousa advanced on him. Obviously, he could see what they were.
McKenzie leapt in front of him and glared at the monsters.
"Don't you dare touch him!" she cried dramatically, unable to resist adding that slightly taunting, sarcastic note to her voice, hoping beyond hope that this would be the monster to finally respect her as an enemy.
One of the empousa laughed, looking her up and down. McKenzie was, to say the least, very small. Between being skinny, bony, and just over five feet at the ripe old age of fourteen, she had a hard time stopping the monsters-and even people, too, from laughing at her. Usually, though, they stopped by the time they were mangled and bleeding on the floor.
Glaring, McKenzie reached for her belt. Her backpack and binders tumbled to the ground as she felt for her knife.
After a moment of feeling blindly for a weapon (probably not the smartest thing she's ever done, but definitely not the dumbest), McKenzie realized something. "Oh, crap," she muttered, picking up her backpack and looking through it for something potentially lethal as the empousa surrounded the boy.
Panic started to increase as she continued to search, and she couldn't find anything to protect herself and the boy with. Her mouth slid into a deeper frown.
She was so intent on finding pointy things that she didn't notice a Pegasus land. A boy slid off the back of the animal and rolled his eyes at the scene that awaited him.
He tossed a small, sheathed sword to the kid, and before you could say, "Shishkobob-in' Monster Fishin'," the air was clouded with monster dust.
"AHAH!" She screamed victoriously, a long knife raised above her head. She drew it back, and was about to throw it when the monster dust cleared, and she realized she had almost stabbed the boy (Boy-Snack, not Boy-Always-Stealing-McKenzie's glory).
Grinning awkwardly, she stuck out her hand for him to shake. "Hi…I'm McKenzie Hood, daughter of Demeter."
A/N: Thanks sooo much to everyone who read this! I hope you liked it! Also, special thanks to lioness94, my beta-reader, for making this story a lot better than before and being really quick about it! Everyone say, "Thank you, lioness94!"
