A/N Chapter 2! As always, reviews and suggestions to improve are great. I've already written about seven chapters of this, so expect updates around every week, at least until I run out.

Megan

The bell for third period, science, rang. Megan Estelle groaned. She sucked at science. She swung her bag over her shoulder, crammed her science notebook into it, and joined the crowd of students jostling each other to get to their classrooms. She passed some of the few kids who didn't treat her like garbage, Piper Mclean and Jason Grace.

Megan waved. They waved back. Piper leaned over and whispered something in Jason's ear. He nodded and looked grim. What was that about? She wondered. She also passed some girls who were whispering and giggling. Megan rolled her eyes. This was how it was at Malibu High School.

Most of the bratty kids mommies and daddies were rich or famous, sometimes both. Piper was one of those girls, but she was nice. One time Piper told Megan in secret that her dad was Tristan Mclean. Megan managed to avoid screaming aloud in excitement for Piper's benefit.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost slammed into an annoying boy who was in English class with her. He sneered, "Watch where you're going, Estelle." Megan gritted her teeth and forced herself not to retort. Her hands fingered her silver bracelets. If only they knew what those bracelets could turn into… She thought

She walked into her classroom. Megan's teacher, Miss Emporia, always seemed to make the class be on their best behavior, especially the boys. As she started a lecture about rocks and minerals, Megan drifted off. She didn't want to think about her treacherous past, but she couldn't help it.

Megan's father was Wes Estelle. When she was seven years old, her dad left to go to the military. She remembered the kind look in his eyes as he held her close. "I'll be gone for two years. Only two. Then I'll be back. In the meantime, you will be staying with your Great-Aunt Tessie." He left, leaving a crying Megan behind.

Her Aunt Tessie was about a million years old, and had wrinkles on every part of her skin. She was so mean, she could make hungry lions back off. The two years Megan stayed with her were pure torture. The only bright spots were when her dad's letters would come every month.

Then one day, the letters stopped. Weeks past. Then a letter from her dad's general came, making it official. Officer Estelle had died in combat.

Megan cried herself to sleep for a week. She didn't want to believe she was alone in the world, except for Aunt Tessie. Oh, and her mother, who probably didn't know or care that Megan was alive. Finally, she woke up with a plan in her mind. She would run away.

The next day, Aunt Tessie ranted about what a useless little girl she was, and that her father had been a fool to go to war. Megan contained her anger. When her aunt fell asleep, she snuck into Tessie's room and stole fifty dollars out of her wallet. She grabbed a bag she had packed and ran away.

As Megan roamed the city, she slept in abandoned alleys. She noticed signs that offered money for her capture. Whenever she found one of those, she tore it down and shredded it. She decided to use the fifty dollars to by a train ticket.

After a few weeks in the new city, Megan ran into a big, burly girl with stringy red hair. Megan started to back away. "Hey, wait." The girl called. Megan hesitated. "I'm not going to hurt you." She continued. "I was wondering if you could see those things." She pointed across the street, at a huge dog that was definitely not your average Great Dane.

Megan jumped and stifled a scream. She had seen monsters like that before, but she always assumed that she was imagining things. But, if this girl could see them too…

"You can see them." The girl studied Megan more intently. "Listen, I've been watching you for a while now, and-" Megan cut her off. "You've been what, now? I don't know what you're talking about, but you've got nothing to do with me. Go away." Megan turned to leave.

"Hey, wait!" The girl said again. "Those monsters, I can see them too. I think you're like me." "In what way?" Megan asked cautiously. "Well, you're on the run, right?" The girl said. Megan nodded. "Maybe we should go together. My name is Millie. Actually, it's Millicent, but don't ever call me that." "Megan." She replied. Millie held out her hand. Megan took it. They shook.

"So what is the thing about the monsters?" She asked, curious. "Ok. You're not going to believe this, but," Mille went on to explain a little bit about how the gods were real, and they sort of followed western civilization around.

When Millie was finished, Megan was staring with her mouth open. "So you're saying that my mom is a goddess?" She asked. "Where did you find out about this?" "Well, my mother explained it to me…" Millie's face darkened. "Doesn't matter. What matters is, we are both in danger from those monsters you saw over there."

Megan was still confused, but she sensed that asking more questions about Millie's past would be bad for Megan's health. They traveled together from then on, not really knowing where they were going. Sometimes, a monster would appear, and Millie would grab her bronze spear and shred it. She explained that her mother had the spear in her room for some reason, so Millie just grabbed it when she ran away from home.

Megan hated not being able to defend herself, but she had no choice. She didn't have any fancy weapons, at least not the kind that killed monsters.

A long time later, Megan guessed that it was her tenth birthday, even though she wasn't really sure. Millie went off to try to find some food, and she was left alone.

Suddenly, a glowing silver light appeared. When it faded, a beautiful woman of about twenty was standing there. She smiled. "Hello, Megan. You have grown."
"Excuse me?" Megan replied. "How do you know my name?"
"I am your mother, the goddess Artemis." Megan backed away. "You mean it's true? About the gods being real?" Artemis nodded. Megan swallowed a lot of things she had wanted to say to her mother, and then thought about everything she had ever learned about the goddess Artemis. She was the goddess of archery, hunting, and she was a maiden goddess. That made another question pop into her head. "Wait, weren't you not supposed to have children? Aren't you a maiden goddess?" Artemis nodded again.

"You are my first child in, well, ever. Your father was a kind man, and I chose him so I could have a child. I knew that that the world needed a daughter of Artemis."

Megan did not quite know what to say to this, but one thing was clear. She wasn't supposed to exist. She was a demigod that was even weirder than everybody else. She heard Millie coming back.

"I must go." The goddess warned. "But first, take these." She handed Megan two silver bracelets with crescent moons in the center. "What am I supposed to do with these?" She asked. "You'll find out." Artemis replied. Then just like that, she disappeared.

"Oh, sure!" Megan shouted at the spot where the goddess had disappeared. "Just go! Don't explain anything to me, and leave me these useless bracelets!" Suddenly those useless bracelets were a bow and arrow in her hands. The tip of the arrow was shining bronze. Megan shot an arrow at the nearest garbage can. It crumbled to dust. "Wicked," Megan muttered. Millie appeared at her side. "What are you yelling at?" She asked. "Nothing," Megan muttered. For some reason, she didn't want to tell Millie what had just happened.

The next few months were pretty easy. Just the occasional monster. Megan tried to keep her new weapons a secret. It was a bit hard. Whenever she thought about her bow, the bracelets instantly turned into a bow and arrow. Whenever she thought it back to a bracelet, it turned back into one.

For Millie's thirteenth birthday, she and Megan received a monster attack. A giant scorpion appeared in the alley, scuttling after a little boy of about five. It cornered it, and raised its pinchers. "No!" Megan screamed. Her bracelets turned into a bow. The scorpion barely had time to look up. A volley of arrows pierced the monster, and it crumbled to dust.

The little boy sat up. "You guys are superheroes!" Millie and Megan laughed. A woman appeared in the alley, and picked up the boy and kissed him furiously. "Jake!" She screamed hysterically. "Where were you? We've been looking everywhere for you-" She faltered. "Why are you covered in dust?"

"Superheroes!" Jake said proudly. For the first time, the woman noticed Megan. "Who are you?" She focused on the weapons. "Are those guns?" She asked. She pulled out her phone. "Yes, officer, there are to adolescents with guns in the alley next to the supermarket. Yes, I'm sure. Please come quick." Millie understood what was happening faster than Megan did. "Wait!" She shouted, but it was too late. A police car pulled up and hauled Mille and Megan in. They took their weapons, still under the impression that they were guns.

While they were in the car, Megan hurriedly whispered her story about Artemis to Millie. She looked shocked. "You mean-"
"Hey, no talking back there." The policeman said. As they arrived at the police station, she noticed a sign that said, WELCOME TO MALIBU!

Megan sighed. They were at the movie star city. When they walked into the interrogation room, the police scowled at her. "Now, if you tell me your names, nice and quick, things won't have to get ugly." Megan sighed. "Megara Estelle," Megan hated her full name. The policeman glanced at Millie. She raised her hands. "Millicent Warrington," She muttered.

The other policeman jumped on the computer and logged the names on to the military records. "Miss Warington's home town is New Jersey. We'll take her there. And miss Estelle…" He frowned. "Nothing. Nothing there. It's blank." Megan gasped. Her dad was in the military. How could nothing be there?

"Well, then I guess we'll have to keep her here." The police leered at her. "We'll keep her in one of the foster homes." The policeman seized Millie and marched her out of the room. Mille looked determined. "It's ok. I'll come and find you. Stay safe." Megan was too shocked to respond.

She looked down, and realized that the bracelets on her hands had returned.

Megan was jerked out of the past, and she saw Miss Emporia glaring at her. "Did you not hear me, Miss Estelle?" Somehow, Megan felt that she was in deep trouble, worse than she ever had been before.