Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes of Olympus or the Percy Jackson Series.

The Legacy of Aphrodite

The Beginning

At the start, I'd always believed that my mother had run off. I resented her every single day, not because she had broken my Dad's heart, but because she had left me to deal with it. My Dad, you see, was an angry man. And more often than not, I was the only one there for him to vent his frustration out on. I had been slapped countless times. Not hard enough to leave marks, but hard enough to injure my soul. And the worse thing was that after, he didn't even apologise. He went about his life and pretended nothing happened. I longed for a proper father that would beam at me every day, swing me around on my birthday, glare at any guys that broke my heart when it came to it. But that doesn't happen. It hurt to know that he didn't love me. Yet I couldn't run away. Where could I go? I had no friends at school. I tried to work hard, and get good grades at least, maybe plant a small seed of happiness in Dad's heart, but I could never focus properly. I didn't fit in. That was all until the new kid arrived at my school.

It was a normal morning. Wake up, brush teeth, Eat, run to bus, sit, get off bus, sit in the corner of homeroom. Hoping nobody would notice me. Hoping I could somehow blend into the grey wall behind me. And then an odd looking boy walked in. He had curly hair, set underneath a bright green cap. He wore a plain orange shirt, and jeans that seemed too big. He walked on crutches too. I wonder what happened….there goes my mind again. He loped in, among a couple of other stray people. They all stared after him. Then they turned back to their conversation, laughing. He turned his head towards me and gave me a bright smile. I felt like shrinking into my chair. The worst thing I needed right now was another person to increase my weird level. He swung towards me on his crutches.

"Heya, girl", he said, his voice friendly. It was contagious. I hadn't heard someone use that tone on me since, well, forever. How could I reject it?

"Hi", I squeaked, ignoring the consequences any sort of bond with this guy might result in.

"Bill's the name, you?"

"Jessica. Jessica Lang."

"Well, Jess, you seem like a mighty fine person. Anyone sittin' here? He gestured to the seat next to me.

"No. No one."

"Good." He sat in the seat awkwardly, swinging his crutches out of the way.

"Um", I said, curious, yet not wanting to be rude, "What happened to your legs?"

"Muscular disorder", he replied coolly. "Can't walk properly. Been with these babies since I was a kid." He patted his crutches affectionately. I nodded.

"So why doncha tell me 'bout yourself, hm? Since we're being so buddy buddy and all"

"Well", I said. "I have a Dad. My Mum ran off when I was born." At this, he nodded thoughtfully. "I don't have any brothers or sisters. My Dad never re married. Thats about it. My life isn't that interesting."

"No, no, it ain't borin' at all." He looked thoughtful again. "Do ya have any memories of her?"

"My mother? No. Not really. My Dad never kept any pictures, but he I remember my Dad saying she WAS very beautiful. Why?"

"Oh, nothin', really, just wanted to see where ya got yer pretty looks from." He smirked as a blush crept up my cheeks.

Just then, the bell went, rising shrilly above our conversation. Bill winked at me, and faced the front just as the rest of the class poured in, glancing at Bill, and sweeping their eyes right over me, as if I didn't exist. Normally, this would've sat fine with me, but today I felt annoyed. What right did they have to just ignore me like I was nothing but a speck of dust they could step on with their foot? I felt a warm molten rage build up inside of me. Where it came from, I had no idea, but it was there, and I couldn't control it. Suddenly, Bill was there, a steadying hand on my shoulder. I suppressed the anger and waited until it dissolved.

"You ok there, girl?", he asked, concern on his face.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine now, thanks."

The teacher called the roll, and then beckoned Bill to the front of the classroom. He swung his crutches around and loped forward.

"8F, this is your new classmate, Bill Greengrass. Take care of him, folks", he said monotonously, as if he couldn't care less if people took care of him or not. "Off you go". The class filed noisily out of the classroom.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. I spent the classes chatting to Bill-I had long since given up trying. I wasn't getting anywhere. Sums were a jumble of useless numbers and symbols. Shakespeare's words blurred into each other. I couldn't focus. I did get called out a couple of times by teachers, though. They all looked surprised, as if they had just noticed I was there, and a tad disappointed, like, "Oh God. Here's another chatterbox to deal with." I could care less though. I had a new friend, and I would stick with him. People gave us weirder looks than ever, though. But they mostly just kept about their business, so that was ok. By the end of the day, I had learnt that Bill had no family, but stayed at some kind of Summer camp. They had sent him here to get some useful stuff into his brain, apparently. Also that he had a liking for tin cans and veggie tacos.

That afternoon, I went home in high spirits. Only to come home to my Dad throwing things around. I opened the door cautiously, before shutting it again as a vase nearly crashed into my face.

"JESSICA! IS THAT YOU? COME IN HERE YOU UNGRATEFUL TWIT!", he roared. I sighed, mentally steeling myself for a lot of pain.

"I'm home", I mumbled.

"THATS RIGHT YOU ARE! WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?"

"I was at school."

"YOU COME RIGHT BACK, YOU HEAR ME? DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE WAITED FOR YOU TO COME HOME AND MAKE ME LUNCH?" he yelled, slapping my shoulder. I winced.

"Didn't I make some this morning?"

"YOU CALL THAT PATHETIC SANDWICH A LUNCH? I BET THAT YOU MADE YOURSELF YOUR OWN AND LEFT ME ALL THE LEFTOVERS, WHILE YOU WENT ALONG TO YOUR SCHOOL AND GOSSIPED ALL DAY!"

I stared out past him. I was used to this. The sooner it was over, the better.

"YOU'RE JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER. A USELESS GIRL THAT RAN OFF LEAVING ME WITH YOU, YOU USELESS FOOL!" he punctuated every word by hitting me. I flinched away.

"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT. I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU EVER AGAIN. AND DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT DINNER."

I fled up to my room, hot tears pricking my eyes, making everything blurry. This wasn't the first time he insulted my mother and I, but it still hurt. I collapsed on my bad and buried my face into my pillow, my only good friend that accompanied me during these times, letting the tears stream out. I lay there for a bit, just letting the bitter sadness flow out of me, before my energy left me and I fell asleep.

Bill was waiting for me at the school gate the next morning. I had left in the bleak hours of the morning, making sure I left something for my Dad. He seemed to pick up on my silent mood.

"Hey, Jess, whatsup? Ya'll ok?"

I sighed. "It's my Dad. You see, he isn't a very happy person. In fact, he hates me. He hits me sometimes."

Bill looked alarmed. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I'm used to it anyways."

He was silent for a while. After two minutes, he finally spoke up. "Jess? Have you ever thought of running away?"

I laughed dryly. "More times than I can count. But where can I go? It's not like I had any friends before you. Plus, they wouldn't let me stay with them anyway."

He was silent again. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, he said; "You know that camp I told you about?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"There's a lot of kids there like you that ran away from home. In fact, my mate Grover has a best friend called Annabeth that ran away when she was 7."

I was stunned. I couldn't believe it.

"You can come with me, if ya want. Pack your things and run away. Tonight."

"I…I….what about school? And I thought it was only a Summer camp?"

"They take Year-rounders too. And school, well, I've dropped outta a lot before. Another won't hurt. Besides. You don't care about it much, do you?"

I smiled. And said a word that would change my life forever. "Okay"

That day, I could hardly sit still. I kept whispering to Bill about the camp. Like, what do you do there? What kind of people are there? Are there any adults? Are they nice? He just chuckled and said "You'll see" This went on until our English Teacher, Mr Kennedy, frowned at us and told me to quiet down. When he saw that I was talking to Bill, he told him to take his hat off in class. Just to annoy him, no doubt. He didn't have a problem with it yesterday. Bill reluctantly took it off, and shook out his brown curls. But I wasn't looking at his hair. Because nestled in the mass of hair were two curling horns that were clearly sticking out of his head. I gasped.

Mr Kennedy looked at me and Bill again. "Mrs Lang, Mr Greengrass, is there a problem here?"

"No, not at all" Bill replied, looking at me strangely. I didn't utter a peep. Couldn't anyone else see them?

After school, we met back up outside the school.

"Hey, Jess, it's still on today, yeah?"

I was still in shock about the horns. They didn't look very fake.

"Uh, yeah, sure", I said, distracted.

"Cool. I'll meet ya up at yours at midnight, k?"

I gave him a nervous smile to tell him that I agreed with the plan.

I walked home. To my surprise, Dad wasn't there. Thank god, I thought.

I trudged up the stairs to my room and looked around. This would be my last night here. I didn't have a suitcase. In fact, the only bag I had was my schoolbag. I folded the few clothes I possessed-except for my school uniform. I wouldn't need that anymore. I added some of my belongings. A hairbrush. A small mirror. Toothbrush and toothpaste. A battered mp3 player and a set of earphones that I'd won in a dance competition. I crept downstairs and grabbed a bottle of water and some food. A sandwich. Two apples, an orange and some cold chicken. It wouldn't last long, but it was better than nothing. By this time, my bag was bulging. I flopped onto the bed. I should probably get a couple hours sleep before I set off….

I woke up at 11:40. I could hear the loud snores of my Dad in the room next to me. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't going to miss him, thats for sure. Yet I couldn't just leave him without saying something. He HAD been my only family for 14 years. After a long pondering silence, I took a sticky note and wrote this onto it :

Goodbye. I hope you find happiness one day.

-Jessica

I stuck it to his door and sneaked downstairs. I opened the door, careful not to make it squeak, and taking a final glance at my shabby home, took a step outwards, closing the door softly behind me. Bill was already there, green cap and all, a smile upon his face.

"You ready?"

I took a deep breath. "Yes. I'm ready."

We took off into the dark night.

-PurplePegasus