It's Us

20

4 months and a half from home

I wake up in a room smelling of fresh flowers. The windows gleam with the natural light of the morning sun. I hear chatter all around me but I don't mind it. I'm safe, in Cabin number four, in New York. In Camp Half Blood.

I turn in the bed and a pang of guilt hits me. On the headboard is a picture of my parents when they were my age. I'm sleeping in the bed my mom used to. With her siblings. But I ran away from her and my dad and my brothers.

I miss them, obviously, but they belonged in a safe haven like Camp Jupiter. They have a shop, a job, friends, a family. They belonged. I didn't. I lied about having similar interests with the people around me, I told my parents I had friends. I kept my grades up and studied hard but when it came down to it, I didn't belong in a place where I had no outlet.

Everywhere I went I wasn't Amria-Lily. I was Travis Stoll's daughter. Katie Gardner's daughter. Oleander's little sister. Samuel's caretaker when my parents were at work. I wasn't me. I was known second hand.

"Good morning, Acacia," Rosalyn says. My Aunt.

For a moment I forget that I never told them my name so the teasingly came up with one for me. Acacia. Its tree with yellow and white flowers, but in Greek it means thorns.

I crashed the taxi into the side of the Hephaestus cabin. I kind of hurt the camp a little bit. The name makes sense.

"Do you want to tell us your name yet?" She asks.

"No, sorry."

"That's okay, a lot of demigods have hard backgrounds...just let us know when you're comfortable enough to share." She smiles like my mom does. I feel a little guiltier about lying to her but force it back down.

I nod.

"That's okay, we're about get breakfast," Rosy tells me. "Go on and get dressed, we'll wait for you."

•••

I've spent that past two months here and although the Hephaestus cabin fixed the wall that I crashed into, I can still never look at any of them in the eye.

I eat my breakfast of french toast and fruit, when two more children of Demeter sit down on either side of me. "Hey, Acacia," Leah sings in the voice that I already know means she wants to interrogate me.

I laugh.

"You've ben here for two months, right?"

I nod.

"We're friends, right?"

I nod again.

"So you trust us, right?"

"Well..." I mock her pretend to be iffy on the question.

Leah playfully punches my arm. "Hey!"

I laugh again, "You already know the answer to that—yes, I trust you."

"Okay," she smiles, "Then who are your parents? Where did you come from? What's your real name? How are you sure your a daughter of Demeter if you weren't claimed?"

The questions flow off her tongue due to her curiousness.

"My parents are nunya—"

"Nunya?"

"Nunya business."

Leah makes a face at me.

"Come on, Leah, stop questioning her." Peyton rolls his eyes at our other friend. "She's here and she's safe now, that's all that matters."

"Aww, thank you Pey," I put a hand on his shoulder. Technically these people are my Aunt and Uncle since their children of Demeter like my mom...but I don't tell them that. I don't really like thinking that I'm bending the truth so much I might be lying a little bit.

Peyton gives me a small smile.

"It's okay though, answering her questions give her a reason to act stupid. It's her free pass for the day, what would she do without it, you know?"

Peyton laughs as I tease, but Leah playfully hits me again. "Just answer the question!"

"I used to live very far away. My name is nunya," I wait for her to interrupt me but she doesn't, "And this is how I know I am a descendant of Demeter."

I turn and will an Acacia tree to grow in a small patch of dirt. It's only a shrub, so it's small, but I will it to grow enough so its flowers appear.

"Okay, okay, whatever." She slouches in her chair for a second, unsatisfied with my answer. She's so much like a child of Athena with her need to know basis.

Suddenly she sits back up, goofy smile plastered on her face. "So, Cia, Peyton and I were thinking about hanging out at the pier. Maybe you can even bring your boyfriend."

I blush and groan at the same time. "He isn't my boyfriend."

"He flirts, you flirt, then you...hang out." Leah puts the last word in air quotations. In truth, he really isn't. It's a long story, but no matter how much we flirt...that's all I'm looking to do. Flirt.

My blush deepens. "Yeah, I'll go with you guys. I'll invite him, but I'm not sure he'll go."

And so we eat, I invite my flirty friend, and we head off to the pier. We smile, and splash in the water. Play in the sand. Skip our lessons. Hang out. Chat. Have fun.

But they don't know I'm not a demigod.

I may control plants like they do, but it took me longer to tame then it would for a normal child of Demeter.

I may be accepted in their camp, their cabin, their family...but I'm a child of a demigod. I'm only a legacy.

It pains me how much I have to lie to them...but I could fit in as myself in Camp Jupiter. Maybe if I twist the truth slightly and play a part, while still also being who I am...they'll like me.

I can live this.

I tell myself that I can live this life.

And no one will ever know.