Not Your Ordinary Demigods

Chapter 1: Emma

If you're reading this, you've probably heard about the glorious adventures of Percy Jackson and know about Camp Half-Blood and demigods. Well, now it's time to take everything you think you know and throw it in the garbage. This is not a story about a single hero who saves the day all by themself. This is a story about a group of weirdos that love, support, and accept each other. Now that that's out of the way...on with the show.

Hi, I'm Emma. Nice to meet you, fellow human somewhere on Earth. Even by demigod standards, I'm nothing close to normal. Every demigod having ADHD and dyslexia is the first rule that you can throw in the garbage right now. What I have is exotropia for which I've worn corrective glasses since preschool (look it up, it's the eye condition Leonardo Da Vinci had), general problems with visual perception, nonverbal learning disorder, and other rare conditions you haven't heard of that I won't bore you with. You know that joke in sitcoms? "Children are like pancakes, the first one always comes out a little wonky." At my worst moments, that's what I feel like. The wonky pancake. Of course I feel like that with a younger brother and sister that are completely normal and mortal.

I had known about all my wonkiness for a while by the time I was ten (my mom had been talking to doctors about what was wrong with me since I was in kindergarten.), but that year one more piece of weirdness was piled on to that list. Spiders seemed to...follow me around. One night that summer, when I almost couldn't take it anymore, someone knocked on the door and said that he was going to take me somewhere where the spiders wouldn't bother me. We drove about an hour and a half to a camp, Camp Half-Blood. As soon as I got there, an owl appeared on my head and I was taken to the Athena cabin. One of my cabinmates explained that Athena had given me to my parents as a gift for being the intelligent lawyers that they are. Despite being the wonky pancake, my parents always have called me a gift.

When I was claimed, there was a boy next to me with a dolphin over his head. He was taken to the Poseidon cabin. He looked like my opposite twin. As tall as I am short, as dark as I am pale (even my eyelashes are blonde. Someone once mistakenly called me albino. For the record, my eyes are greenish-blue, not red. I do have some pigment.) Somehow I felt like I knew him. Over the summer, I learned his name was Evan and we became close. We even had nicknames for each other. I called him Bubblebrain and he called me Dolphingirl, due to my love of dolphins. I still can't stop talking about them once I get started.

During the summer, whenever I passed the beach I could hear whispers. I also found I could move the water. I never told anyone though, not even Evan. I didn't want to feel even more weird.

Then, the next summer middle school happened. We both came back...different. Evan had sorrow in his amber eyes. It disappeared a little the next year, but even now I don't think he's completely filled whatever hole that sadness left.

I had been bullied (for my "too liberal" political ideals) and excluded (I still don't know why) so all of a sudden Evan reminded me too much of the outgoing popular crowd. A wall formed between us. Now we simply run in different circles.

I'm a summer camper. I like to forget all about camp stuff during the school year. However, the last day of school always comes.

High school is actually not bad. I go to a specialized school for marine biology, and the people are for the most part nice. On the last day of Sophomore year, people actually want to sign my yearbook. As I pack for camp, I feel a sense of dread for the summer to come.