Sorry this took so long to write! I had written and re-written it several times, unhappy with how it sounded. Eventually I scrapped the entire thing and did the storyline from scratch (as you may have noticed, the prologue is completely different from the original). I did my best to stay true to Riordan's characters, so if Nico or Chiron seem different than they were originally, please let me know.
Nico, Chiron, and Camp Half-Blood (c) Rick Riordan.
Sora Mizuno and other unfamiliar characters belong to me.
Please enjoy reading!
Fall had come at last. Sora felt strange to be going to school without her uniform, after having become accustomed to wearing one during her short time in Japan. Sora had been born in America, but her grandparents still lived in the Land of the Rising Sun, and so her parents send her to school there every few years. Not that Sora minded-she enjoyed her home country just as much as she loved the country of her birth.
A car honked past her and she sighed. While not as big as Tokyo, New York seemed to be much louder, almost as if its noise level was trying to make up for its lack of size.
"Hey, Sora!" a voice called out behind her. Sora turned to see her new friend Nico di Angelo waving at her.
"Ohayo, Nico!" Sora smiled. The two of them had met during the school's open house a week ago. Nico had come alone, apparently because his father worked all the time, so during the summer Nico attended a boarding camp. Strangely, none of his friends seemed to go to his middle school, so Sora had introduced herself.
"Opposites attract, I suppose," Sora's mother, Chihiro, had laughed when she met Nico. Indeed, Sora and Nico were so different it was almost funny; while Sora dressed in light colors and almost always wore a skirt, Nico wore shirts like Day of the Dead, an aviator's jacket that was almost too big for him, ripped jeans, and black sneakers. His untidy black hair made his dark eyes seem even more drawn out (which contrasted against Sora's bright hazel eyes).
"What does your schedule look like this year?" Nico held out a sheaf of crumpled paper, which Sora recognized as a class list. Sora set down her school binder (a handled bag that Sora used for school no matter where she was) and rummaged through it, drawing out her class curriculum with a triumphant, "Ah!"
"Let's see…" Sora scanned the paper. "Mythology, Algebra I, Orchestra, Earth Science, P.E., Study Hall, French, and History, in that order. Ugh…French is going to be hard…"
"Hey! Looks like we'll have Mythology together!" Nico gave a disappointed click of his tongue as he compared the two papers, seeing nothing else in common. He did notice, with mild surprise, that Sora had rewritten her schedule in Japanese.
"Just keeping in practice," she explained, slipping the paper back in her bag. "It's a slight culture shock to constantly switch between English and Japanese, even though I'm fluent in both."
Nico laughed. "Kind of like learning Greek. Only I'm not quite fluent yet."
"Your dad is making you learn Greek?" Sora shook her head as they headed off again.
"In a way, yeah," Nico chuckled, as if it was some sort of inside joke.
They walked the rest of the way in silence, each absorbed in their own thoughts. The few trees in the city were turning beautiful shades of red and gold, and the crisp autumn air mirrored the cerulean sky above them.
"Good morning, sensei," Sora greeted her Mythology teacher as she and Nico walked into class.
"Good morning, Miss Mizuno," he replied, his wheelchair creaking slightly. Nico coughed quietly, looking at him.
"Umm…Chi-" he began.
The teacher cut him off. "That was the bell." He looked meaningfully at Nico, and the two took their seats.
"Do you know him, Nico?" Sora asked, slightly confused at the exchange between the teacher and the student.
"Yeah," Nico grumbled, clearly unhappy. "He's the activities director for the camp I go to." Sora looked at the teacher in surprise.
"I'm not allowed to have a part-time job away from the camp?" he grinned to show he was only joking. Nico didn't laugh. Addressing the rest of the class, he said, "I'm Mr. Brunner, your Mythology teacher. Unfortunately, the previous teacher, Mrs. Coolidge, had been called away, and so I offered to take her place." Nico quickly stifled a snort and turned it into a cough.
"You might want to get something for that cough, Mr. di Angelo. You don't want that spreading." Sora laughed as Nico's face went slightly pink.
"Now-how many of you know anything about Mythology?"
Sora yawned. Science was almost over-just five more minutes and class would be let out for the day. Normally, Sora enjoyed science, but today the teacher had decided to go over every single school rule in the entire rulebook, effectively settling everyone into a comfortable stupor and boring them to tears. Sora, glancing at the clock for the umpteenth time, started imagining what they would have for dinner that night. Her father would be home early, so they would have homemade tempura, takoyaki, and small seaweed-wrapped onigiri. Sora had an insane sweet tooth, so she would be in charge of dessert-
"Miss Mizuno!" the teacher snapped. Everyone looked around for a moment, unsure of who 'Miss Mizuno' was.
"Y-yes?" Sora stammered, feeling everyone's eyes zero in on her.
"Are you paying attention?"
Sora blushed. "Yes, Ms. Nathair."
"It didn't seem like it," Ms. Nathair harrumphed like her entire day had been ruined, and went back to the textbook. Sora sat up and shook her head, resolving never to space out in class again.
When the bell rang, Sora gathered up her belongings with considerable relief, quickly walking out the door to her locker. Dumping unneeded books off, she ran outside to try and meet up with Nico. Not seeing him, Sora attempted to chase off thoughts of disappointment by convincing herself that he had been held after class like she nearly had been. Sora didn't look like it, but she had a tendency to fidget during school-something that her parents had called ADHD. Her hazel eyes flashed and she started singing, a cheery tune that had come from a new CD given to her by a friend.
"好きよ好きよ,これはもう運命よ,定められた。"[1] She hopped over a cardboard box with a "Nyao!"
"What was that, a cat?" asked Nico.
「ニコさん！ここで、ニコさんはから来たのか？！」[2] Sora gasped, startled into speaking Japanese.
"English, please!" Nico laughed. "I didn't mean to scare you, Sora. You okay?"
"Sorry…I said, 'Where did you come from?' I didn't hear you come up behind me." Sora took a few deep breaths to calm her heartbeat.
"Yeah…I got held up in class. Apparently the teacher's never had to deal with ADHD before, so I had to explain the whole deal to him. What a pain…"
Sora looked at him curiously. "You have ADHD?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Mama and papa tell me I've got it too." She laughed.
"Really?" Nico stared at her, a small frown creasing his pale forehead. Sora, self-conscious of his stare, remembered something.
"I just got a new cell phone, would you like my number?" Sora took out a small silver flip phone from her pocket, a little star charm dangling off of it. Nico, seeing it, made a face and resisted the temptation to take a step back.
"Um…sorry. My family isn't…er…all that big on cell phones. I personally don't find them all that reliable, either, since there are a lot of places that don't have service."
"Like the mountains?" Sora was very surprised. What kid didn't have a cell these days?
"That's another place." Nico hunched his shoulders slightly and shuffled his feet. "C'mon, the bus will be here soon. Don't want to miss it, right?"
"Y-yeah…" Sora followed the pale, dark-haired boy to the bus stop, making it just in time. "See you later, Nico!" she called out the window.
"Later!" Nico waved slightly, then leaned back on one foot before turning back into an alley. He didn't reappear. Thinking back, Sora decided that he was a very strange person. Not unlikable, but definitely someone not used to having many friends. It was almost like there was something about his life he wasn't willing to-or not allowed to-share.
It's not my business, Sora reminded herself as she walked through her front door. "Mama! Papa! Tadaima!"
"Welcome home, Sora!" Katsuya Mizuno poked his head out of the study to greet her. Sora took off her shoes, carefully set them aside, and gave her father a big hug. "How was school?"
"It was fine. Mythology seems like it's going to be a lot of fun, so I'm looking forward to it. Algebra was relatively easy, since it was all review. Same went for orchestra, but science was really boring. Ms. Nathair went over the entire rulebook with us." She decided not to mention spacing out; her parents wouldn't like the idea that she had stopped listening to a teacher (even if she hadn't been the only one).
"That's okay. I'm glad your day went well, otherwise," said Sora's mother, coming out from the kitchen. "Really, Sora, you're so bright I often wonder whether we shouldn't have named you 'Hikari.' " [3]
Sora laughed. She liked her name the way it was, especially how it was written. [4] "I'm going to do my homework in my room. Let me know when to start on the daifuku, okay?"
Once in her room, Sora closed the door and flopped onto her bed, head in arms, without bothering to turn on the light. Sora's room was similar to the one she had in Japan, the only differences between them being the computer on the desk by the foot of the bed and the bookshelf full of English literature. Her bookshelf in Tokyo was full of books like Night of the Milky Way, as well as mangas like Honey Hunt and Black Bird (one manga she managed to buy signed by the author).
She sighed, wishing she had one of those books with her now. Mangas weren't the same in English. First day of school is always hard, she told herself firmly. Deciding she might as well start on her homework, she began to get up-and froze. Staring at her from the mirror on the back of her door was another girl. She was older than Sora, but had similar features, like an older sister. The girl had long, waist-length hair, and was wearing something like a cross between a kimono and a sari (later Sora would recognize it as a Greek chiton). But the strangest part of the apparition was the eyes: bright gold, like coins, glinting in the half-light.
Sora gasped and sat up swiftly, staring at the reflection that wasn't a reflection. Rubbing her eyes, she looked closer, only to see herself as she'd always been-short black hair, light jacket, skirt, and long socks, with regular, normal hazel eyes.
"Early bed tonight," she told herself crossly. Digging her homework out from her bag, she got to work.
[1] Song and lyrics by Kanon Wakeshima. Translation: "I love you, I love you. This is the fate that has already been stated. Meow!"
[2] Romaji: "Niko-san! Koko de, Niko-san wa kara kita no ka?" Literally, "Nico san! Where did Nico-san come from?"
[3] A Japanese name meaning "light." Written as '光'
[4] 「水野ソラ」, literally "sky belonging to water"