A Girl Named Maya Hale- Based off of The Percy Jackson Series

Chapter 1- My Life

Name? Maya Kennedy Hale. Age? 12, almost 13. Life Story? Well, that question is a little harder to answer in one sentence.

My life was pretty ordinary. I lived in a small house on Long Island with my mom, stepdad Robert Walker, and two stepsisters, Sarah my role model who I greatly admired in just about... EVERYTHING who was 14, and Evelyn who was a cute 8 year old. I always loved playing with her. They were all so caring and we were all just one happy family.

I loved my stepfamily. They were some of the nicest people I knew. (Ok, I don't know that many people, but you get the point.) But they just weren't... real, you know?

My mom, Natalie Hale was the most amazing person ever. She never acted like she was disappointed in me and always had a smile on her face. I loved her so much I would take a bullet for her and I knew she would do the same for me in a heartbeat. She was so beautiful with her caramel coloured hair, which I proudly inherited, and warm dark chocolate brown eyes that made you want to melt into a pool of happiness every time you looked into them.

But I never met my real dad. My mom told me that he was a Marine and had died right before I was born. I was upset that I had never met my dad and I never would. But, my mom always told me stories about how brave and handsome and generous he was, and she would sometimes cry when she told me how excited he was to come home and meet me when I was born. But that day never came.

It was June 24th. I woke up happy because it was finally the last day of 7th grade, and I had made it through the year. I've been kicked out of some schools once or twice so it was always nice when I wasn't.

I love school, I really do. I mean I'm not a very good student, I have dyslexia and ADHD which makes the words of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" float off the page and I have a temptation to run around my math class 52 times. But school keeps me out of trouble, and trust me, I get in serious trouble.

Just last week the police had to walk me to my front door and explain to my family that I had stolen my neighbours 2 horses and brought them to a nearby stable because they weren't doing so well.

I mean it's not my fault. The neighbours who had the horses didn't have enough room for them to even run. I was just trying to help.

Once, I kicked a very tall man in the knee and it shattered or something like that (hey I kick hard), but the police didn't believe me when I told them he only had one eye and was trying to set me on fire. My mom couldn't believe the price of the man's hospital bill she had to pay.

And when I was 5, I went to the aquarium with my mom and had gone upstairs to the opening of the big shark tank. My mom had turned around for 2 seconds. Apparently, you're not allowed to hold a banana muffin over the tank and wait for the sharks to jump up and get it. I mean the sharks didn't bite my hand off or anything. They actually seemed to really like the muffin. That was my first and last trip to the aquarium. Ah, good times.

So staying in one place for 6 hours meant I usually couldn't get in any trouble.

***

My radio alarm clock went off at 5:55, playing "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. Ew. That song was so old and overplayed.

I turned it off and tiredly rolled out of bed and put on my workout clothes and my bright blue sneakers to go running. I grabbed my MP3 player and house keys and went out the door.

I liked running. It helped me think. I ran around my neighborhood for about half an hour while blasting Taylor Swift and Phillip Phillips.

I opened the door to an empty house. I checked my watch. It was 6:52 a.m. Usually someone was up by now. They were probably sleeping in.