Burning Passion: A Leo Valdez Love Story

Chapter 1

"That, good people, is how we do things in Leo World."

Let me tell you, having a destiny is not a good thing.

My name is Naia. I'm sixteen years old. My mom is famous and claims the reason she ignores me is because she's too busy and famous to play with her "txikitxo maitea", her darling little one, basically. It's Basque. That's where mom comes from, Basque Country. It's debatably in Spain and France, but I disagree. They have their own language, their own flag, their own culture, so why shouldn't they be a country? Idiotic Spanish and French government, that's why.

My mom was a real jerk. She was always ignoring me, and she really didn't give a shit about how I was.

She's a singer. You've probably heard of her, Maite Johnson. She had a Basque surname, but she changed it, because she claimed it was "unpronounceable". And she's never told me what it was. Like I said, she doesn't care what I want.

Honestly, I could commit suicide, and she probably wouldn't care.

In fact, I doubted she'd even come to my funeral. (Sorry, did that sound bitter?) Which would be pretty depressing, since no one else would come.

Yeah... I have a minimum amount of friends. Not because I'm antisocial. It's just that no one gets me.

Well anyway. I speak four languages: Basque, French, Spanish, and English, obviously. All of them fluently. We go on holiday in Europe a lot, since mom's really popular there. But we live in Nevada most of the time.

I never knew my dad. Mom refuses to talk about him, for some reason. Silly. I know.

Yes. And about my destiny. I'm one of those strange children that are half god. Yep. You heard me. I'm a demigod. And I only found out recently...

So, that's probably enough about me. Being the awkward person I am, I'm probably boring you with this endless chatter. So. This is my story.

******

The first sign was when the director turned into a green snake/woman.

I was totally excited today, and maybe a little bit hyper too (I have ADHD), because I was going to audition for a really important play. Performing is my life. Acting, dancing, singing... Anything like that. I don't play any musical instruments very well, but that's probably because my voice is, well, amazing. No other way to put it. It doesn't really need instruments, or anything to back it up. Nor other voices. But on the same token, I'm not out of shape or anything. I do karate three times a week. I'm pretty good, too. I'm a blue belt.

So, anyway, the play was a musical. It wasn't based on anything, just something the directors had invented. What I had to do to audition was recite part of the script and stuff, and then sing one of the songs they had picked out (I was pissed off that I couldn't pick my own, though). Naturally, I was going for the lead female role. But this play was different from all the others I had been in. It could get me a scholarship for RADA. Or something equally good.

Yeah. So mom had told me that if I didn't get a part in this, she wasn't paying for my education.

But no pressure, of course.

Well. Now do you understand? She's a crazy woman.

***

Later that day, I was at the rehearsal.

I had recited my lines perfectly. I was positive the director was impressed. And now, it was almost time for me to do the song.

I was kind of nervous. I didn't know why, though, since I'm usually pretty calm at auditions. But like I said before, this one was different, and I was under pressure to do well.