Chapter One - How it Started
Jane Kahele was a normal enough girl, in the beginning. She was pretty, calm, calculating. Some might even say that she was nice. The only odd thing about her was how perfect she was, how controlled. As a child of only four, even I would have expected for her to throw the occasional fit or tantrum, at the very least for her to trip or fall or find some way to stain the knees of her clothes.
Jane, simply enough, did not play. She did not smile, or giggle, or joke. What Jane liked to do was watch, and listen, just like her mother. Just like her father. You see, what made Jane special was that she wasn't entirely human, she was a demigod. Her mother, a manipulative, conniving, psychotic break of a woman, and her father Hypnos himself.
Jane, of course, was raised only by her mother. The woman was like a quiet pond in the morning, serene, silent, gorgeous. But with so much as one trip up, one mistake, one yell, the ripples destroyed her image, shattered the glass palace she'd made her life into.
The child was very much the same. She was her mother's perfect reflection. Neither of them much liked to speak about Hypnos, they never even mentioned him. Mary Kahele did, on occasion, bring other men into the home. She always treated them the same. She made them need her, she made them beg for her, worship her. All it took was the right words. A quiet whisper here, a deafening shout there, and Mary had them all wrapped around her little finger. And she slowly but surely taught Jane to do the same.
"A man will only want you so long as you are perfect, Janey dear," she would say in the morning, curling Jane's long hair and styling it for her. "But you must never, ever let him have you unless you are certain he is yours."
She taught Jane how a silver tongue could be quick, and deadly. She taught Jane how to tear anyone down with nothing but a harsh word, how to poke and pull at the cracks in their armor. It was not done by playing. It was done by watching.
Jane did not have friends. She did not have siblings, or company, or love, not from anyone but her mother. And Mary, well, in Maine, she was running out of friends too. The time had come for the mother and daughter to move.
When she was just four years old, Jane and her mother moved to Gladeview, Florida, ready to start their lives with their quick tongues and enough family money to sustain them for a lifetime. On the far, far opposite side of things, there was a little girl named Delphine Santiago, Delphy for short. Like Jane, Delphy was a demigod. A daughter of Minerva, to be precise. She grew up with her father, and all of /ten/ little sisters by the end of things. Delphy was one very, very important thing: Delphy was fun. She was reckless, and crazy, and almost never to be seen doing what she was supposed to. She was smart, witty, funny, and she was the best of friends with another girl from daycare, little Nia D'Andre. Delphy was five years old, and she'd already broken her nose once, gotten more scrapes and bruises that could be counted, chipped a tooth, and caused not one, but two civil wars at daycare. Little Delphy hated to be controlled, and she didn't think she ever could be.
Now, that's not to say Delphy couldn't be sweet or friendly either. She and Nia were the cutest little things to see around, and Delphy was a big part of why. See, the pair might have only been five, but they knew they were in love. They lived in their houses right next to each other, in Gladeview, Florida. Delphine wanted to be an ocean scientist, and Nia wanted to be what she called a deep-sea doctor. The two of them did everything together, went everywhere together. Nia's cousin, who she lived with, was already six years old and he sometimes bossed them around, but Delphy always stood up for Nia.
Things started out so good, and so innocent.
One year later, the three girls started school together, even though Jane was younger. She was smart enough to begin early. There were so many new people, and there was so much excitement. Delphy and Nia, six years old, were in Kindergarten together. They shared their snacks together and played together all the time.
Jane... well Jane didn't fit in so well. She was the youngest there, and the smallest, she was scared and fragile. But Delphy, Delphy wasn't scared of anything.
So Delphy said hello.
