A Little More Than A Daydream

Chapter One

My name is Emmalie James.

For 16 straight years, I had believed that, although shy, awkward, and clumsy; I was a completely ordinary teenage girl, and that my life would always be that way. I would grow up, graduate university, get a job at some office, maybe met someone special, settle down and get married, have children. And that I would grow old and die happily with my partner and family by my side.

However, during the Christmas holidays of 2019, just after my 16th birthday, something incredible happened to me. Something that would change the course of my life forever.

I became a demigod.

What is a demigod you ask? Typically, in mythology, a demigod, is the child of an immortal god, and a mortal human/nymph/any other mortal creature. So, by this logic, one cannot just become a demigod, you have to be born one. However, I can tell you with the upmost certainty, both my parents were humans.

So how did this happen?

Well, my story begins, on one random seemingly normal day within the Christmas holidays. It was a beautiful (although scorching hot) day. My fan was blowing full blast around my room, but did little to cool the heat. Outside, birds sung to each other, while inside my beautiful ginger and white cat was lounging on my bed, a loop of tinsel wrapped around his paws. Downstairs the tree had been decorated, and the yearly excitement of secrecy, presents and holiday cheer was in the air, as was the delicious smell of homemade baking...

And I was completely and utterly bored.

You see, while other families might take this time to travel, have a holiday, visit the beach, my family last had a holiday when I was around 7 years old. That was 9 years ago. Every time school was out, I was left to myself. What made it worse was my very best friend, lived on the other side of the city. It didn't help that she and her family had gone on holiday too, I wouldn't see her for another 2 weeks at the least.

Now don't get me wrong, I live in a family of 5. My parents, me, and my 2 siblings. However, my older brother, Jason, is 19 years old, has a girlfriend and is basically never home, because when he isn't working or studying for university, he is either hanging out with his mates, or on a date with his girlfriend. And my younger sibling, Damien, had a lot of health problems. We got along with each other just fine, but he had been really sick recently, and was currently in hospital. We could video chat and play online games together, but it really wasn't the same without him here.

So here I was, stuck in my bedroom, with no one to play with except the cat – who now wanted to sleep. In my head I made a mental list of the things I could do, crossing one after the other off. I couldn't do anything with the computer, cause my parents were rather strict about time limits. Mum was in the kitchen, so I couldn't exactly bake anything. And I didn't have schoolwork because it was the holidays.

With a sigh, I turned to my bookshelf, scanning for something to take the boredom off. Nothing really caught my eye, until I noticed a paperback tucked beneath my old schoolbooks. Curiously I got up and unburied it.

Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief.

I smiled as I read the title. I hadn't read this series in ages. I had collected every single book, and read all of them several times, until I could practically recite it word for word (an exaggeration I am sure). Before I knew it, I was on the bed beside my cat, already leafing my way through the first page. As I read, half remembered daydreams flittered at the edge of my mind, enthusiastically greeting me like long lost friends.

The rest of the world faded out, aside from the purring of my cat beside me, as I got lost in the world of Percy and Annabeth. However, as I read, my mind began to wonder. Oh, how much more exciting their world was. As demigods, they faced danger every day, there was never a boring moment. One day they would be at camp half-blood, playing dangerous war games, the next they would be battling ancient monsters.

How much I wished I could join them, even just for the holiday, so they would lend some excitement to my life. Give me something to do other than rereading old books. There were so many things I would do differently too. Deaths I could prevent, monsters we could avoid.

I pictured myself alongside Percy as he discovers camp half-blood. Maybe I was an older student at his school, who bumped into him and his friend Grover. Grover being who he was, would be able to smell I was a demigod too, and decide that I needed to come with them. Or maybe I was on a different school visit to the same museum, and got caught up in the same room with him as he faced the fury.

I had always had a good imagination, and having watched the movies as well, the scene came to mind instantly. I could see the details as the old hag transformed into a smoking bat like creature, screeching her head off as she took to the air, flying fast towards the terrified 13 year old boy with sea green eyes.

"What ho, Percy," An older gentleman in a wheelchair rolls into the doorway, and chucks a small stick at the kid.

A stick, that glittered gold in the weak sun ray that peeked through the windows. As it flew through the air, the pen transformed, becoming long and flat, with a handle at one end. The boy's quick reflexes allowed him to catch the pen-now-sword, just as the fury reached him. With a jerk, the boy screwed his eyes shut pointing the sword at the bat creature. With a guttural cry, the bat creature could not stop herself as she ploughed into the point, exploding into a cloud of golden dust, that hung in the air long after she disappeared.

With a start, I realized that my bedroom had vanished, and that I was now on my feet, standing in the very same room I had been imagining. The golden dust was still raining down on the boy with dark hair holding up a golden pen.

My mouth dropped open.

"How?" I whispered.

With a start the boy opened his eyes and stared directly at me.

"Y-you saw that right?" He stuttered, gesturing at the space where the dust had vanished.

I nodded my head in shock.

I raised my hands and turned them over. They looked real enough. The room I was standing in looked real. The boy, who I had only ever imagined, looked real too.

I knew I had always had a good imagination, but my daydreams had never come to life before. This was a new one on me.

"Ah there you are, Percy." The man in the wheelchair had reappeared. "Emmalie, I see you're here too."

I nodded, too shocked to reply. It took a moment for my brain cells to connect. Though considering they had just crossed through dimensions, it should only be expected. These people never existed in my world, and as much as I had wished I could join them, I never believed it would actually happen.

Was I delusional?

Maybe I was in a coma.

"You coming?" Mr Brunner asked.

I looked up, Percy and the man were already at the door.

"We have to leave soon. Lunch breaks over." He said.

I nodded, then hurried over to them. Even walking seemed like the most normal thing to do. But as I walked, I noticed something even stranger. My hair, which had been cut short in the last couple of months, now hung halfway down my front. It was long, and a dark red colour.

The last time I had dyed my hair red, had been when I was 14. And all the red bits had been cut off when I cut my hair short. I ran a hand through it.

My hair felt real too.