I stood frozen in my spot for a long time. I couldn't figure out if my head had gone completely blank or if it was working overtime.
"Nora?"
I slowly turned my head, dad stood in the hall, he looked just as lost as I felt. He just opened his arms and I stepped into them. He hugged me tight. I felt his chin resting on my head.
"So?" He asked quietly.
"I dunno."
"Well step one. Sally is making enchiladas, come sit and eat. Can't make smart choices when you're hungry."
He led me back into the kitchen. Heads turned in my direction.
"Wow cool! Gifts from Apollo!" Percy grinned.
"Ya..." I held them up.
Chiron nodded. "A gift from the gods is a big honour."
I just nodded and sunk into a chair. Holding the things in my lap I wasn't sure what to do with myself. I needed to paint. My fingers itched, it help relieve stress. And as if Mr Miles could read me like a book, he slipped paper and a pen out of the inside of his leather jacket and slid them across the table. With a wave of relief I grabbed the pen. I felt a settling calm.
Mr Miles smiled at me and patted my hand when I mouthed a thank you. "I should get going. I need to report back to Mr D." He groaned as he got up. His hooves clip clipped across the floor, he scooped his pants and boots off the floor.
"I should be going as well. Paul, if there is any other questions please don't hesitate to contact me. I will be at the school for another day or two, trying to smooth things over, and then we will need to figure out where Eleanora will go next."
He rolled his wheelchair out of the kitchen and the front door opened and closed and it was quieter in the house. Paul and Sally were at the kitchen and stove making supper.
"So..." Percy started.
"So." I said, the pen still flying across the page. "like music?" I asked awkwardly. What do you say to a guy your age, you just met, who's your great uncle on your godly side but your potential step brother on your mortal side.
His sea green eyes lit up and a lopsided grin appeared, he looked like he would be trouble, the mischievous twinkle in his made it even worse.
"Depends. Apollo has some questionable tastes sometimes... But his other kids at camp have better taste."
"There are other kids?" I peeked up.
"Oh ya! A whole cabin!"
"Wait...a whole cabin?" I gasped. My hand clenched around the pen, "dude really is a fuckboy."
Percy spit his blue coke out and threw his head back and laughed.
"I think we're gonna get along great, Nora!" He laughed.
I couldn't help but crack a smirk. I stood up and motioned with my hand, "come on. I'll show you my record collection."
"Whoa! Like old vinal?"
"Only the best!" I grinned.
"So cool!"
He came bounding after me and I led him down the hall to my room. It was weird, I literally just met this guy, but I felt comfortable around him. I felt like I could actually be myself, maybe because he was also a demi god. As he flipped through my records, I sat on my bed, my sketch book on my lap and pencle in hand and doodled while he told me about his life growing up.
"Whoa wait, so because your mom knew who Posiden was, she had to marry this Gab guy and he stunk so bad monsters stayed away?"
"Yep. He was a really piece of work." He shuddered and his face was slightly pale.
"I had to go to Camp at 12 or 13. Monsters got worse. Mom wasn't happy...but it was fight or flight. And Zeus gave me a no fly order."
I snorted. "Nice."
He gave me a blank look.
"The pun. Fight or flight. But Zeus...lord of the sky said you couldn't fly...so you literally had to fight."
"You're a smart one." He grinned, folding his arms and leaning on my desk. "You'd get along with Annabeth."
"Who's she?"
I saw his cheeks grow pink. And I smirked. I went back to my notebook and asked nonchalantly. "She pretty?"
"Uhh...ya, ya I guess."
"What colour eyes?"
"Grey blue. And they get all stormy when she's mad at me, and lit up when she's all excited and figured out a problem..."
"Uh huh. And her hair?"
"Blond. Like sunshine, and it's curly. She hates it though, she won't actually ever complain about it, because she's the daughter of Athena. But when it's hot it gets worse, and it's frizzy."
"Why would she not complain about her hair?"
"Because that's what children of Aphrodite do. She's a blond haired girl, people already don't take her seriously, so she thinks if she's complaining of her hair or looks or something people will brush her aside. But..I don't understand why she'd have to complain at all..."
"You like her?"
"Yeah. Wait! What?" He froze, his eyes wide in horror. "No."
I raised an eyebrow at him. He deflated.
"Maybe."
"Okay tell me more."
He produced a bag of blue candy and flopped into my bed and we ate candy while he talked about this Wide girl named Annabeth and his best friend Grover. He told me stories about his quests and the other Apollo kids, he told me how his mom was captured by Hades and how he had to rescue her and prevented a huge war between the gods. He also told me of his half brother who is a young cyclops.
"Man... No offense, but your life is a mess."
He snorted, "tell me about it!"
"But...your friends, the other demi gods seem kinda cool. And I like Mr Miles and Mr Brun- Chiron. They were cool."
"Ya. The gods kinda like to uhh use us, their children, to do their bidding, their dirty work."
"Ya. Well I'm 14 and a half and I was only just claimed," I used my fingers as quotations around claimed, "by my father...and he claims he's always been watching? I call bull. He probably forgot about me until I started noticing weird things."
"Not gonna lie, but ya. Probably." Percy shrugged.
I groaned and leaned against the wall, I leaned my head back into the thin beam of setting sun.
"So. My dad and your mom." I finally said.
"Your dads cool."
"Ya, apparently you've been here before? Or at least met him."
"Uh ..ya." he sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. "I dunno, my mom introduced me to him a while ago."
"Why are you sorry? I've been busy causing fires in old theatres and blowing up buses."
He laughed again. "Well...he was gonna find out about me sooner or later, but now he has you...his brain probably feels like mush."
"But if your mom knows all this it's probably helpful. She can help him through it. But he's a pretty easy going guy, goes with the flow. By tomorrow it'll be like it always was, won't affect how he treats me, or you. Or your mom."
"I figured. He's heard some pretty sketchy lies from me and my mom. Well not lies...just half truths."
"He always believed me when I couldn't explain the freaky things in my life and he just believed me."
Percy nodded, he deflated slightly like he was holding his breath.
"My mom has never been this happy before. So, future step sister."
"On the mortal side. Your still my great uncle on the godly side."
"Eww. Don't talk about that. It's so weird."
"Deal."
There was a knock on the door and dad poked his head in. "Supper."
🔆
Dad managed to convince Goode High School to accept me and Percy for the next school year, despite the fact that I’d gotten kicked out of every school I’d ever attended. I tried to protest, Percy tried protesting, telling him it wasn’t a good idea, but he wouldn’t listen.
Now dad was standing out front, greeting future ninth graders and potential transfer students as they came up the steps. With his salt-and-pepper hair, denim clothes, and leather jacket, he reminded me of a TV actor, but he was just an English teacher. I actually prayed to Apollo I wouldn't have my dad as a teacher, as cool as he was, it would be weird.
Goode was this big brownstone building overlooking the East River. A bunch of BMWs and Lincoln Town Cars were parked out front. Staring up at the fancy stone archway, I wondered how long it would take me to get kicked out of this place.
I sat in the back of Ms Jackson's car with Percy sitting beside his mom in the front. Somehow Percy and I both groaned.
"Just relax you two." His mom didn’t sound relaxed. "It’s only an orientation tour. And remember, dear, this is Paul’s school. So try not to…you know."
"Destroy it?"
"Yes."
"No promises." I muttered from the back seat. I saw Sally smile at me from the rearview mirror.
"I'm sure you will be fine. It's just orientation. Just the morning."
"Great. Percy wanna bet we can get kicked out before the school year starts?"
"Absolutely."
"I give it two hours." I grumbled.
"That some kind of Apollo proficiency?"
"No. Just a continuem of bad luck, and a pattern likely to continue."
"Guys. Come on. Happy thoughts." Sally tried to inject some positivity into her voice. "Nora, isn't Miles is taking you to camp finally? And Percy, don't you have a date?"
"It's not a date!” he protested. "It's just Annabeth, Mom. Jeez!"
"She’s coming all the way from camp to meet you."
"Well, yeah."
"You’re going to the movies."
"Yeah."
"Just the two of you."
"Mom!"
"It's a date." I said from the back, and grinned, "look Sally, see how pink his ears are! It's totally a date!"
"Nora! Your as bad as my mother!"
"Worse. Buy her flowers."
"Open doors for her."
"Pay for popcorn."
"Guys! It's.not.a.date."
I leaned forward to Sally and whispered, "it's so a date!"
"Guys!" He yelled.
Sally held up her hands in surrender, and I fell back laughing. Sally was trying hard not to smile.
"You’d better get inside, my dears. I’ll see you tonight, Percy. Have a great summer Nora. Call us when you get to camp."
I got out of the car and grabbed my bag, shouldering it. Dad was greeting a girl with frizzy red hair. She wore a maroon T-shirt and ratty jeans decorated with marker drawings. When she turned, I caught a glimpse of her face, and the hairs on my arms stood straight up. She looked at me like she knew who I was, her eyes went wide and I froze. I heard the car door slam behind me.
"Does the school have a side entrance?" He hissed in my ear.
"Down the block on the right. Why?"
"I’ll catch you inside."
And he dart to the side of the building. I was about to follow when Dad called and waved me over. I slowly and cautiously walked closer. My hand was holding the necklace Apollo gave me. I wasn't sure why I felt so tense around this girl. She didn't change into a monster, and she didn't look threatening. But her doodled pants made a small smile turn the corner of my lip up.
"Ahh, Nora!" Dad smiled as I walked up, he gestured to the red headed girl. "This is Rachel and she's also an art major."
I spun the marker in-between my fingers.
"Oh, uh. Hi."
"Hi. New school next year?"
I just nodded. She looped my arm and pulled me up the steps of the school. Dad smiled at me and then turned back to the other kids walking inside the building.
"So. What's your name? Mr Blofis is your dad?" She looked at me skeptically.
"Nora. And yes he's my dad."
"Your real dad?" She asked, she stopped walking and pulled me aside close to the lockers.
"Excuse me? You don't know me." I snapped.
"No, not what I meant." She waved a hand in frustration. "I can see a gold aura around you. There's something... different about you." Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"I...I don't know what your talking about." I felt my hands become sweaty and I felt the panic rising. I wrapped backwards.
"Please tell me what's going on!" She hissed, "why are you flowing like some kind of walking beam of sunlight?"
"I- I don't know!" I stammered, "I... gotta go. Gotta find ...bye."
I spun in my heel and dashed down the hall, weaving in and out of people. I heard her call my name but I kept going. I turned a corner just as Dad called to Percy, he was surrounded by a bunch of cheerleaders. His face was white and his eyes snapped to me and dad, he shoved past them and accidentally kneed one in the thigh.
Clang.
Her leg made a hollow, metallic sound, like I’d just hit a flagpole. I winced at the horrible noice. Percy looked at her funny, and glanced down at her leg.
"Ow," she muttered. "Watch it, fish."
I dashed into the hall, the cheerleaders laughing behind him, he hurried over.
"What was that clang noise?" I asked the second he skidded to a stop in front of me.
"You heard that?"
"Daughter of Apollo, I can hear anything if I want."
He pulled his lips down and nodded, "well that's cool."
"Ya, figure that out of the sub way the other day. If I want to, I can eavesdrop on pretty much any conversation. It takes a lot of concentration but-"
"Guys!" Dad snapped his fingers, breaking out conversation.
"Sorry."
"Welcome to Goode!" He smiled at us.
"Hey, Paul- uh, Mr. Blofis." Percy glanced back, but the weird cheerleaders had disappeared.
"Do I call you dad? Or Mr. Blofis?"
"Percy, Nora..." he frowned taking a closer look at the two of us, who had plastered some fake smiles on. "You both look like you’ve seen a ghost."
"Yeah, uh-"
"That girl you introduced to me?" I cut Percy off, "she's weird and I don't like it! She said she could see me glowing, and demanded to know who my real dad was. Who is she?"
"No idea, Honey."
Percy kept glancing around and drumming his fingers, my hands were fiddling with the necklace and spinning the marker.
Paul clapped me and Percy on the shoulder. "Listen, I know you’re nervous, but don’t worry. We get a lot of kids here with ADHD and dyslexia. The teachers know how to help."
"Don't think that's our only problem." I muttered.
"Yep. Those cheerleaders, for instance. I have a bad feeling about them…." Percy agreed.
Then I looked down the hall, and shuddered, I stepped backwards. The redheaded girl, Rachel was coming down the hall. Percy also lost more colour in his face. That didn't reassure me.
Don’t notice me, I prayed.
She noticed us. Her eyes widened.
"Where’s the orientation?" Percy asked Paul.
"The gym. That way. But-"
"Sorry Paul. Bye."
"Percy?" he called, "Nora!"
But Percy grabbed my wrist and pulled me back into the main onrush of kids moving into the gym.
🔆
Well, step siblings. What do we think?
Percy and Nora. We can't break up PercyBeth, so step siblings it is!
I also altered the time line just slightly. So Paul knows about Percy and the gods and such I know in the OG book Paul doesn't know yet, but because of Nora, he needed to know. And it works. :) I hope.
What do we think so far? Nora will meet some of her half siblings and possibly go on her own quest...to meet up with Percy later.
🔆
Nora Abilities:
° Vaporize monsters with fire power
° Amazing artist-
° Can hit any target
° Has a glowing aura
° Has amazing hearing- can hear whispered conversations from far away
° Can look at a human and know every medical thing about them when she concentrates
° Knows physical weakness of a human just by looking and concentrating