Author's Note- Ada's name is pronounced as such: Ae (as in made)-dah (as in dark)
Chapter One- Life as It Were
I truly believe that I was born singing. My birthday, the 31th of October, was celebrated by our entire community due to the fact that I was the first child in my family. My Father was a renowned military captain who had married my Mother when she was eighteen and he was thirty. Mother and Father lived in a small but well-kept cottage in Athens, Greece. My parents, however, rarely had time for me after my godly sister Aphrodite was born when I was ten months of age. Aphrodite was the fixation of my parents and all adults. She was an angel. A pearl. A diamond. I was cast aside by my parents and cared for by my father's slave, Mara. Mara became my companion, my caretaker, and my defender.
I was not formally invited to my sister's christening. Mara and I sat in the very last pew, waiting for the treacherous ceremony to be over. Even though I was barely one year old, I could still register the significance of my baby sister's name, Aphrodite Athena. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, everything I was not and my sister was. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, as well as our city's namesake. My name had no such meaning. I was merely Ada. Ada meant nothing to my parents, let alone anyone in our city.
Over the years, more of my godly siblings came into being. By the time I had turned thirteen, my siblings were: Aphrodite, twelve years, Dionysus, ten, Hestia, nine, Hera, eight, Apollo, six, Artemis, four, and Poseidon, two. All seven of them were named for the great gods and goddesses. I was the only one of my parents children not named for a god or goddess. I was worthless.
I was just plain old Ada. Ada, with dull brown hair and bland brown eyes. Ada, unlike her blonde-haired, blue-eyed, godly siblings. Ada, whom no one knew of. Ada, who sang to herself night and day. Ada, whose singing nobody understood. Ada, whose presence was ignored in her own home. Ada, forced to obey her parents while they disregarded her. Ada.
My godly siblings were always pushing me into the shadows and leaving me behind in the dust. I, older than my siblings, was left in the tracks of my younger brothers and sisters. But I knew no other ways. I only knew the life I was forced to live as my parents' unwanted child. A life of misery.
Though Mara was a good companion, sympathetic and kind, she often became displeased with my ordinariness. We grew further and further apart as the years went by. Eventually, my parents decided that I no longer needed her, and instead gave Mara the post of caring for my youngest brother, Poseidon, named for the great Olympian god of the seas. Poor Mara spent those first few years dealing with my brother's oceans and rivers of tears and wet diapers.
After I lost Mara, I became more independent and mature. I came to be someone who didn't need attention or help. I taught myself housework and survival. I composed my own songs and wrote my own lyrics. Though I was happy, I was missing something in my life. I simply didn't know what it was.
War first hit in August of my fourteenth year. The Spartans proclaimed war against us on the Seventeenth and our Athenian soldiers fought long and hard. My cousins, Ethan and Xander, battled amongst many, many others. Every family knew at least one member of their kin was off at war. The war lasted nearly eight months. Then all of a sudden, it ceased. For the next year or so, Athens rebuilt it self. All was well. Mother and Father relaxed again, and Mara smiled once more.
Leave me some love, people! Please? I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Planning on weekly posting, if my writer's block doesn't kick in too much. Also, if you haven't read my other Fanfic, Tad From Above, please do. It's a Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie Fanfic, but there wasn't a category so I put it in the Misc. Books section. Enjoy!