Disclaimer-I do not own the Bartimaeus Sequence, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or any related works by their respective creators. I do own my OCs, and the plot of this story - so please, no copying.

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Chapter 5:

Tension

As the group sat in an awkward silence, May fished through her backpack for her glass bottle of milk. She tried to ignore the stares when she finally retrieved it. Calm down, she thought as she opened the bottle. The cool liquid was a welcome relief from the anxiety she was suddenly experiencing.

The other people there were all older than her, save for the girl with the Uggs. She had never liked Uggs. If the need to run arose, Uggs would be very inconvenient choice of footwear. Then there was the guy with the facial hair. She had never been a fan of that either. The older teenager with the muscles looked terrifying, as if he was some bodyguard for hire. The boy with glasses was like the Villain in Glasses, pushing them in the exact same way. She wondered if he had seen Log Horizon before and was intentionally copying the main character. The goth girl was the type of girl her mother had advised her to avoid – goth girls were rebel girls, and rebel girls ended up doing drugs. And then there was the djinni with scarlet hair, the one who both terrified her and amazed her at the same time.

God, she needed to focus.

But focusing just made the group before her seem a hundred times more daunting. May awkwardly sat down at the end of the table, muttering a quiet, "Excuse me," as she sat next to the girl with the Uggs. Her early enthusiasm had faded. Now she was left with the thought, Fudge. What on Earth did I just get myself into?

No one was talking. The tense silence was incredibly unwelcome, and May was partially tempted to start blabbering about how nice the weather was. Then she realized that it was raining, and that most people don't appreciate the rain in the same way she did.

Glances were given between different people (did djinn count as people?), telling May who was closest with who. Muscles and Glasses looked at each other, Facial Hair trying to join in only to be ignored. The djinni and Goth gave each other far longer glances. Longer enough glances that May believed that if they were telepathic, they could have had a very detailed discussion on some random topic.

But then the girl with Uggs just sat there looking confused. Confused and sad.

Maybe the girl was the best place to start?

"Hi," May began, turning to her with what she hoped was a friendly smile. "I'm May Acker. Wait, I told you that already. What's your name?" Her question was one that she had been asking people when they first met since she was little. It was a good way to start a conversation then, and she hoped that it would be now.

"Abby Bell," the girl replied. She gratefully returned the smile. May felt like this was a major victory in her short, thirteen-year-long life. If she looked past the makeup and Uggs, Abby could very possibly be best friend material.

One person down, five more to go. She could totally do this. Definitely. May took a deep breath. "I think that I probably interrupted some major explanation earlier, but could we restart?" She should have expected the stares. "Like maybe with an introduction? You know, say your name and…a food that you like? Maybe explain what you are?" Now that the attention was on her, she forced to begin. "Like this. I'm May Acker, and my favorite food is milk. Er, drink. Beverage. Close enough. I'm a purely human girl. And I can see things others can't. Oh, I'm thirteen years old!"

To her relief, Facial Hair continued the conversation. He cast a nervous glance at the two boys next to him before speaking. "I-I'm L-Leif Oak-Oaksfield." She flashed him what she hoped was a reassuring grin in an attempt to boost his confidence. "I li-like blueberries. And I-I'm a s-satyr that s-seeks demigods. I'm a Se-Searcher at C-Camp H-Half-Blood."

There was something ironic about a satyr being named after a plant. Maybe that was intentional. She would have to ask Leif about that later-She paused her train of thought. May still didn't know if this was just a quick meeting before she never saw them again, or if she was going to be a part of their group.

It was also ironic that the people who were the less intimidating speaking first. Abby was the next one to speak, quickly looking at the goth girl. "I'm Abby Bell. My favorite food is crepes…My father…My dad was killed by a cyclops…" Fresh tears began to stream down her face, and the goth girl seemed unsure about offering Abby a hug for comfort. "I never knew my mom."

May was surprised to see the looks on both Muscles and Glasses' faces soften upon hearing her speak. She hadn't expected them to react in that way. She also hadn't expected Abby to be an orphan now.

She did what she felt Abby needed the most – she gave her a hug. She barely knew Abby. But that didn't matter. Abby needed a reassurance that things were going to be okay, even if they were far from it.

Abby finally pulled away, desperately trying to dry her tear-stained cheeks. "Thank you," she whispered.

"You're welcome," May said with a smile. She almost said, "That's what friends are for," but that was being too hopeful. Oh God, she wanted to be hopeful. She wanted her, Abby, and Leif to be like the Golden Trio. She wanted to always be a team, always wanted to be able to rely on them if times got tough.

She looked at the remaining four people. One would have to speak up eventually. That person proved to be the second most intimidating (the djinni was the first) – Muscles. "My name is Hunter Cline." May was surprised to hear that his voice seemed almost gentle. He spoke quietly, and when she paid closer attention to him, she realized that he seemed very relaxed. Not tense and prepared to punch someone in the face. "My favorite food is steak. I'm the son of Ares, god of war. I don't know my mother by blood, but I do have two who I consider to be my mothers even more than her. Before Leif found me, I was living in Provincetown, Massachusetts."

It was at this moment that Hunter stared at the four across from him, as if he was challenging them to speak up about his parents.

Glasses quickly took over the conversation. "My name is Allen Ellis." Cue him pushing up his glasses. If he didn't watch Log Horizon, she would be shocked. "My favorite food is escargot. I'm the son of Athena, and before Leif found me I was going to a Catholic school in upstate New York. Hunter and I have been dating for the past three years."

There was a tense silence, and like his boyfriend, Allen challenged everyone with a glare. Suddenly, Goth spoke. "It must cost a fortune when you two go out to eat."

Shoulders relaxed, and smiles appeared on their faces. Maybe Goth wasn't so bad after all?

"I'm Geist," the djinni suddenly introduced himself. "It's short for Geist of Germany. I'm a spirit. Specifically, a djinni. No, we don't usually come out of bottles and grant wishes. Although I think the majority of us have had brief stints in similar objects…" He shuddered at the memory. "Spirits like us are summoned by magicians through complex rituals. Most magicians are assholes and greedy bastards-"

"Geist," Goth threateningly said. "my sister is listening to you right now, so stop the fucking swearing."

May snickered.

"Sure thing, Ms. Profanity." That gained the djinni a lighthearted punch to the shoulder. "As I was saying, most are like that. But my current summoner, though she can be annoying at times, doesn't fall into that category. She's also sitting right next to me."

The girl sitting next to him was the goth one. For some reason, to May's eyes, she seemed almost scared. But of what? All that she was doing was telling them who she was. Geist had even done a bit by saying that she was his summoner.

"My name is Riley Bell," she began. "Abby is my adoptive sister, and though my father and my sister aren't related to me by blood, I still would fight an army to protect them." She looked at Geist nervously. The djinni gave her a reassuring smile, and May noticed that his hand squeezed Riley's. "My dad found me on the doorstep of his house, with a little note tucked into my blankets saying that my birth father had died while serving overseas, and that my mother had died during childbirth."

Riley's voice caught in her throat. Geist once again squeezed her hand, as if the truth was that terrifying. May was both curious and worried at the same time. What could Riley be getting to?

"My mother didn't die during childbirth. A foliot – that's a rank of spirit – informed me that her real name was Seishen. Just Seishen. She had died several years later, around when I would be three years old."

"Riley, you never told me-" Abby began. But her sister raised a hand to cut her off. The younger Bell sister obliged.

"Look, Abby, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry that you had to find out this way, and that I couldn't wait until you were older to tell you the truth. I was always planning on doing it, I swear…" Riley took a deep breath. "Seishen was a djinni. Just like Geist is. I'm only half human, Abby."

Her sister simply stared at her, shock written all across her face.

A/N Hey there, all you wonderful Souls! This isn't my usual type of Author's Note. In fact, this is from several months ago, when the first version of this chapter came out. Because it came out on my one year fanfiction-anniversary, I thanked a lot of people. I want to keep this up because it means so much to me.

If you don't want to read what follows, I'll tell you this now: Have a great day/night, and see you in Chapter 6 when it comes out!

I'll jump back a year for a quick moment. Imagine I, a writer intent on the goal of embracing my beloved fandoms through writing, having been writing fanfictions since I discovered a link to this wonderful website on my favorite author, Johnathon Stroud. Now that I have become a dedicated fanfiction writer, I truly admire him for that – but that is a story for another day.

A year ago, I decided to create account simply to review. My first fanfictions, in my opinion then and now, had been trash. The character that was the center of almost all of them was constantly out of character. The ideas were good though, and they were different. That same thought of writing unique plots, along with a picture I found on the world wide web, made me bingewrite and publish Truth: The One Thing Often Overlooked.

I was shocked to find that people liked it. It was an amazing feeling, one that I had never truly experienced before. And now I have officially become obsessed with this wonderful world of fanfiction.

So yes, this is my fanversary. I've been a part of this website for one year, and I've loved every minute of it.

There's a lot of people that I want to thank. First off, I want to thank every single writer on here. Your ideas inspired mine. And even if I haven't read your fanfiction, I'm grateful that other people treasure their fandoms enough to write stories about them. Next, I wanted to thank all of the readers. Without you, I would simply be posting my stories online. Your inputs help me a lot, even though you don't know it.

Now here's the part about the specific users.

Thank you Zelda48, curligurl0896, ThreeKittiesDancing, Tyto11, FlareHeart404, ThatRandomMooshroom, GalaxyFangirl, Darksorceress16, Animefox46, NoxPerpetuo, BlockDebockle, EnhancedHD, Fluffy543, Void of Shining Darkness, Platypotato, DarkWolf133, Mr. Villager, Watcher321, HiDeKiThEhIdDeN, and DiamondMiner37 for reviewing my stories.

Thank you iamsolarflare for being the first person to review my first story on here. Without it, I might have never gotten this far.

Thank you LarkSweetsong for being my first friend on Fanfiction – I'm sorry for the lack of PMs lately. I really want to catch up on your story and review it first.

Thank you FlufferNutter Sandwich for the creation of Phoenix and Carly. Both of them have really impacted the course of A Hero's Destiny. Like with RavenstarIsAwesome, I haven't forgotten you.

Thank you Dannyjamesjannydames for the creation of Aleks. He has impacted A Hero's Destiny and its sequel so much, and my writing in general that I can't begin to describe how thankful I am. Like with FlufferNutter Sandwich and RavenstarIsAwesome, I'll never forget you.

Thank you RavenstarIsAwesome for being an awesome reviewer and friend. Though I haven't heard from you in ages, I still remember you.

Thank you DawnTotadile for being a great friend, and for all of our fandom-based banter.

Thank you The scribe of the 4th brother for sticking with A Hero's Destiny and a bunch of my other stories. You always come up with great dares, and I'm glad to call you friend.

Thank you Raiden the OC. Or, as I prefer to say, Random the OC. You were the first person who ever asked me to be friends; now looking back, I realize that – even if away from the screen – I'm the one who asks first. You've unlocked my love of roleplay. You're one of my most consistent readers. Like The scribe of the 4th brother, you have been granted the ability of creating great dares and questions.

Finally, thank you CsMelody. You were the first person who ever understood my Bartimaeus rants. You've been a great friend in the time we've known each other, and I love our discussions. There's been countless times you've been awesome towards me – like reading Entwined Worlds without reading Heroes of Olympus.