Mortals meet demigods

Shadow Alexander

"Are you waiting for anyone?"

She looked up. "Um... no, I'm not."

"Oh, great. Do you mind if I sit here? Everyone else is annoying. I'm Thalia," the girl introduced herself. She swung her backpack onto a seat and sat down across from the lone senior.

"I'm Shadow. I like your circlet." Shadow gestured towards Thalia's head, using her elbow to keep her book open.

"Thanks, whatcha reading?" Thalia pulled out a nutrition bar.

Shadow looked shocked. No one asked about her books with actual interest. She lifted the book to show the cover. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm rereading while I wait for new books."

"It's in Greek." There it was. The comment about the language. Although people usually couldn't pick out the language with that level of confidence. Shadow nodded.

A group of juniors walked past their table. "Hey, Alexander.

Thalia looked at her in confusion. Shadow explained, "My last name."

The other girl nodded. "Makes sense, makes sense. So, why are you sitting alone, anyways? You seem to be well-known."

"Well known does not equal having friends."

Knowing that Shadow didn't have friends didn't deter Thalia. It egged her on, really. She was even more keen to sit with Shadow and talk throughout the lunch period. And it didn't change over the next week. Thalia always met up with Shadow during lunch at the nearly deserted table, and worked with her during their three shared classes.

It was a little over a week on a Friday after they met that Shadow messed up, in her eyes at least. The pair had left the cafeteria before their next class, and Shadow had been downright pissed. A few freshmen had been pushed around by some of the worst seniors in the school, and Shadow refused to sit by while it happened. The kids were fine now, but Thalia had decided to drag her friend outside to cool off. Shadow roughly shoved the push-bars of the exit doors and a bolt of electricity ran down her arm to the doors.

"Shadow!" Thalia clasped her shoulder and threw up her hand, stopping the electricity where it sparked. The electricity moved in its place, illuminating Shadow's dark brown skin, and matching the color of her eyes. Thalia was drawn to Shadow's eyes as she tampered down the possible explosion. They were a striking turquoise, pulsing with Shadow's breathing. "Shadow! C'mon!"

Thalia strained against the anger exuding from Shadow's burst of powers. It was a battle of wills; Shadow wanted to release anger and put the seniors in their place, while Thalia just didn't want there to be an explosion inside the school. Thalia couldn't really care if Shadow exploded something anywhere else, but in their school was only going to end horribly. She pushed back against Shadow more and felt the electricity convulse. Shadow's eyes seemed to calm down, swirling less and overall looking less like they were going to shoot electricity at you. Shadow blinked a few times, before pulling back in the energy and looking away from Thalia.

"Sorry. Normally I have more control over that." Shadow ran a hand through her black hair.

"And what exactly was that, Shadow?" Thalia dropped her hand to her side.

Shadow calmly pushed open the door again, obviously restraining herself from blowing it off its hinges. Thalia followed her over to a tree away from the other students sitting outside.

"Shadow?" Thalia said after a few moments. "How long has that happened? Do you know what it is?"

Shadow bit her lip. "The first memory I have of it happening was when I was six, but my mother says the first time was when I was two. On a smaller scale, obviously. It's electricity. It reacts to my emotions. I've learnt to control it. My mom homeschooled me until I could control it efficiently."

Thalia nodded. She had a theory. "What about your dad?"

"Never in the picture."

Thalia hummed. She pulled out a small blade from her backpack. "Permission to try and swipe this through your hand? Not with the edge, in case it doesn't pass through. I'm betting that it won't."

Shadow nodded, so Thalia pulled her hand towards her. She brought the blade down and the fuller lightly smacked Shadow's hand. "Congrats, Alexander. You're a demigod. Taking you to camp after classes sounds like a wonderful idea, now."

Thalia explained when she saw Shadow's confused look. Shadow texted her mom, and they made the plan to stop by her house before driving to Camp Half-Blood.

Shadow was overwhelmed by information and stories from Thalia during the drive. It wasn't a long drive, but Thalia crammed the mythology into the time they had. Shadow was ready to tell Thalia to shut up when she finally, finally, told Shadow they had arrived. Thalia gave her a tour before bringing her to the mess hall and leaving her at the mercy of the Hermes kids.

They were chatty and loud. Shadow wanted to sleep and hide away from the chaos. They were all talking to her and over each other, and while Shadow was thankful to not have to sit there awkwardly without the safety net of a separate table, she couldn't keep up.

Her reprieve came when a glowing thing appeared above her head. The table quietened immediately, and the rest of the mess hall followed quickly after. The cabin counsellor, Connor Stoll, stood up and waved a hand at the symbol. All of the kids were listening eagerly, so when Connor finally spoke, his voice was amplified.

"All hail Shadow Alexander, daughter of Zeus!" The mess hall erupted into noise. Shadow didn't notice Thalia approaching her until she had clapped Shadow on the shoulder and was motioning for her to follow her. The campers were back to their standard volume by the time Thalia and Shadow sat down at the cabin one table.

There was a camper already sitting there, with glasses and blond hair. "I'm Jason Grace, son of Jupiter."

"Shadow. Isn't Jupiter Roman?"

Jason nodded. "Yeah. Camp Half-Blood has the Greek demigods, Camp Jupiter has the Romans, but we visit each other and go back and forth all the time. I'm here to work on new cabins for more minor deities with Annabeth Chase."

"So that makes you our sister, half through our dad, while Jason and I are full siblings," Thalia pointed out.

"Welcome to the family. Heads up, Thalia's immortal," Jason told her.

Thalia slapped him. "Idiot."

Shadow could tell her new siblings were a bit nuts, but hey, she had siblings.

Weird. 

Thanks to @Shadowstream5 for the request.