The Story of Nyssa Barrera (A Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Chapter 1

I was born in a quite dark area of rural California. Believe me, there is something called rural  California. It's embarassing, but my mom... she was involved with all the weird sort of people there and there illegal businesses. If anybody asks, that's what made me tough.

My mom was always telling me that I should be able to fend for myself and to stand up for who I am. I suppose she could have been a quite bad influence for a growing kid, but whenever she was home, she was totally a mom.

I'd spent my toddler years challenging neighborhood kids to wrestling matches, if you could called where I lived a neighborhood. I won all the time, of course. 

But the thing I did the most was, surprisingly, sit in the corner and question myself about things I'd seen. My mom and the local leaders bribing government officers to stay away from the illegal settlement, planning small robberies. My head used to spin wondering if it was maybe right, but then my conscience would stamp on my brain and tell me hard. Nyssa, you know what the right thing is. Do it. 

I don't know what I was planning to do. Would I have run away? Would I have confided in mom? Thankfully, it was around that time that Mil arrived.

Mil was a, I don't know, eccentric sort of guy, a few years older, but he understood me a lot. He introduced me to metalwork, which was a really good way for me to exhaust my energy and strength as well as my frustration. I was distanced from the other kids, but they were mostly rude and obtuse, so I ignored them, for the first time in my life feeling like I had a friend instead of competitors.

Mil was kind and encouraging, qualities my general acquaintances lacked. It wasn't long before I confided in him all that had been milling:) around in my brain for a long time. 

"It's not that I want to leave the only life I've known, Mil," I'd finished as we took an evening walk around the settlement. "But when I look at myself, I see someone that... that... doesn't belong." I sighed.

Surprisingly, Mil smiled and squeezed my shoulder.

And then even more surprisingly, he annoyed me. Waaaaay too much.