When Cassandra Mills and Andromeda Yoshino first met, they hated each other.
It was most unusual for Cass. She normally got along well with all of her foster siblings. It wasn't exactly unusual for Andi. She'd been in enough foster homes to know better than to get attached. But in truth, neither girl really knew why they hated each other. There didn't seem to be a reason behind it, and yet they couldn't stand each other. It certainly didn't help that they had to share a room and had such similar school schedules that they couldn't go two class periods without seeing each other. Most nights, the halls of the Mills home were filled with the echoes of arguments over the littlest of things. Cass's moms tried to intervene every time, but it never quite stuck. Cass and Andi simply loathed one another. And maybe, in another timeline, that would be all there was to it because, in another timeline, Carol and Dinah Mills would realize there was no place in their home, in their family, for Andromeda Yoshino.
That was not this timeline.
In this timeline, Carol and Dinah were able to chip away at Andi's walls until eventually, she let them in, and soon after, they realized they couldn't bear the thought of not being in Andi's life. So, in this timeline, rather than contact her social worker and ship her off to yet another foster home, Carol and Dinah decided to adopt Andi. It was then, at the dinner table just moments after hearing the news, that Cass and Andi realized their current arrangement of the past six months wasn't going to work. There was no longer a question of whether or not Andi was truly a member of the family. There was no longer that hesitation of getting close, getting attached because there was no longer the possibility of being kicked to the curb as Andi had been time and time again.
That night, as the girls got ready for bed, they were unusually quiet. Normally at this time, they'd be arguing because of something or other, but instead, they silently pondered where to go from here. Luckily for them, they didn't have to ponder long, because the next day, Dinah brought them both to the mall. The intention was to shop for clothes since Andi had few and Cass had outgrown hers as well as decorations for Andi's side of the room because now that Andi was officially getting adopted, it was time to personalize and plant roots. They were never even going to go into Barnes and Noble because both young girls disliked reading (a side effect of having dyslexia), but then Dinah remembered out of nowhere that they still needed to replace their set of the Chronicles of Narnia that got damaged thanks to a flood years ago.
While Dinah tracked down a full set of the books, Andi and Cass aimlessly wandered the children's section, still not talking to each other but for a different reason than before. A woman who worked there noticed them and approached, asking how she could help.
"We're good, thanks," Cass had said. "We don't read."
That piqued the woman's interest. "Really? Neither of you? Why is that?"
"We have dyslexia," Cass explained. Even though the girls didn't get along, Cass never hesitated to speak for Andi because she knew Andi didn't really enjoy talking, especially not to strangers.
The woman, whose name tag identified her as Nina, immediately grinned. "Follow me. I know just the books for you."
Cass and Andi reluctantly followed Nina until they reached a section packed with books all by the same author: Rick Riordan. Nina's glittering gray eyes searched the shelves for whatever she was looking for. Then, she plucked a graphic novel out from between two other copies and passed it to Cass.
Cass squinted at the cover. "The Lightning Thief?"
"It's about a boy named Percy Jackson," Nina explained. "He thinks he's just a normal kid, but then he finds out he's actually a demigod, like from the Greek myths. That's the first book in the series, and then there's actually a second series coming out now, and there's a spin-off series too."
Andi frowned. "That sounds like a lot of reading."
"Well, there are the graphic novel versions, so there's less reading and some really great art," Nina added. "And Percy is like you guys. He has dyslexia too. Most of the main characters in that universe do. They also have ADHD. The really cool thing is, their learning disabilities are actually part of what makes them heroes. While it makes things hard in the mortal world, they realize what they thought were flaws are really strengths."
Cass's eyes lit up. Andi kept her expression blank, but the hint of a smile tugged at her lips. Nina's grin widened and she pulled a copy of The Sea of Monsters - The Graphic Novel from the shelf. She handed it off to Cass.
"Try the first two books and see if you like them," Nina said. "I think you will."
"Girls?"
Cass and Andi turned to see Dinah standing at the other end of the aisle, her arms full of books. At the sight of the two books in Cass's hands, Dinah smiled. "You find something you like?"
"Well, she-" Cass started to say, and turned back to look at Nina, but the girl was gone. Cass and Andi exchanged confused looks.
"Let's go buy them and then head home," Dinah suggested. "I don't know about you two, but my feet hurt."
Shaking off her confusion, Andi smirked. "That's because you're old, Dinah."
Dinah returned the smirk tenfold. "Guess who's not getting ice cream on the way home now?" Andi's face fell. Dinah giggled. "I'm kidding, peanut. Now come on, my feet actually are killing me."
The next night, Dinah and Carol found their daughters curled up on Cass's bed, reading The Lightning Thief together. If Dinah and Carol didn't know better, they might've said that book was magic. Not only did it spark a love for reading in both of their daughters, but it also led to Cass and Andi forming a bond that would stand the test of time and turmoil. It was the works of Rick Riordan and their shared passion for the world he had created that turned them from girls sharing the same room to sisters.
So, Andi rationalized as she lay on the ground, bleeding out with the screams of her sister ringing in her ears, this all kind of made sense. If Cass and Andi had to be thrust into a fictional world, it made perfect sense for it to be the world of the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles. It was what brought them together.
And so, she thought to herself, why shouldn't it be what ended them?
*
kaylee bryant as andromeda "andi" yoshino
(snow white)
"actually, this has been a great distraction from my panic attack"
alisha boe as cassandra "cass" mills
(hawkeye)
"today's been fun if you ignore all the times we almost died"
amanda arcuri as jillian "jill" abano
gabrielle union as carol "mom" mills
grace park as dinah "mama" mills
everyone else as described
*
edit (7/1/22): this has been up for almost an entire year and no one told me i published it unfinished. i feel like a total moron but oh well!!