My first impression of New York was terrible. The traffic sucked, the food was even worse, and the people were insanely rude.

     There was no green in the city, no nature; unless you count central park, which was totally artificial. I couldn't believe I was from this place. I missed the endless beaches, the warm sun, the friendly people. There wasn't a surfer in sight, no Taco Hut, and no palm trees.

    It was official. I was in hell. This was my real dad's way of punishing me for being alive.

     We kept going, past the city and into the rolling backwoods of New York that I didn't even know existed. Go figure. I stuck my head out of the window, inhaling the crisp air surrounding us. Everything was so green and vivid. It was nothing but rolling hills and pine trees for miles and miles on end.

    Danny told my dad to stop in the middle of an old country road below a four foot tall hill in front of a winding forest - and that was it. We were going to camp in the middle of nowhere.

    "Let me get this straight... this camp is run by a horse and a drunk?" I groaned as my parents unloaded our bags from the car.

    "Chiron is a centaur and Dionysus is a God," Danny chuckled.

    "God of what?"

    "Didn't you take Latin last year? And run the club? He's the God of wine."

    "So...doesn't he have anything better to do than be a camp counselor? Like...be, I don't know, a...god?"

    "He was sent here for something about chasing an off-limits Nymph...anyways, Zeus sentenced him to centuries of work at Camp Half-Blood and confiscated his powers. Any time he tries to make wine, it turns into Diet Coke or water," he stifled a laugh.

    "Okay, so the camp is run by a horse and a former drunk."

    Danny nervously chewed his lip and checked his surroundings carefully as if Dionysus was going to pop out of nowhere and pour Diet Coke all over him. Big deal.

    "That's the last of it," My dad....er...John slapped the back of our beat up station wagon and handed me my backpack along with the emergency suitcase my mom said she prepared for me, just in case this day would come.

     "We'll see you for Christmas, kid," my father let out a deep sigh.

    "Wait what do you mean I'll see you for Christmas? Aren't you two coming with me?"

     My parents looked at each other with saddened, sympathetic eyes.

     "We're mortals, Orion. We couldn't get past the camp's barriers even if we wanted to," my mother whispered.

    "This is goodbye for now, Oreo."

    I winced at the use of my old nickname. My dad hadn't called me that since I was a little girl. Then I felt it; the unfamiliar sting of tears brimming in my eyes, but I couldn't let them see me cry.

    "I guess it is, old man." I wrapped my arms around the man I called father for seventeen years and inhaled as much of his cologne as I possibly could hold in my lungs.

     "No matter what anyone calls you, or where you go, you will always be my daughter, Orion. You are mine no matter what any one or any God says." His words sent a wave of ice directly to my heart. It felt like I was being punched in the face, suffocated and stabbed with a knife all at once.

      When I finally let go, his sun tanned cheeks were stained with tears. I'd never seen him cry.

     My dad was the best example of a human anchor; he had provided for us his entire life, knowing I was never his responsibility to begin with. He had taken me in as his own out of the love for my mother. He had provided us with the strongest support system we could ever have, and here he was saying goodbye to the little girl he had raised. I was his; and I was being taken away from him.

    This wasn't fair.

    He turned away from me quickly, as if he was reading my mind. It's like he could sense the dark reality hidden beneath the layers of truth. This might really be goodbye for good.

     Then came my mother's goodbye, and by the look on her face I could just tell she'd be ten times worse than my dad. Artists always tended to be more dramatic.

     It took her a good five minutes to regain her self control; her body was shaking like an earthquake and she had tiny little tsunamis threatening to spill over in her eyes. She inched closer to me and took both of my hands into her trembling ones. I studied them, wondering how many times I'd looked at her typical stone rings, the ones she wore every day, but hadn't really noticed them. How I didn't pay attention to the odd ways she wore her hair, the crazy colors she'd paint her nails, or the way she snorted when she laughed.

     I think I'd miss her more than she'd miss me.

    "I thought...I thought we had more time," she croaked, "two more years. You were supposed to go to Brown, or Yale...Harvard, I don't know! We were supposed to know you'd be okay. This wasn't...it wasn't supposed to happen like this." My mother cupped my chin in her shaking hand and pulled me in for a bone crushing hug, but I didn't mind. I crushed her right back.

    It pained me to even think about when I'd see her again. December seemed like it was years away from this very moment.

    "I know you don't want this, and I know you don't understand right now, but this is who you really are. You're so special, Orion. You are destined for great things. And I'm so, so proud of you. I'm so proud to be your mother. Don't ever forget that, honey."

    "Daniel Tierra," my mother wiped her eyes when she finally let go of me and turned to look at my best friend. She put on her whole tough mom front, but I knew she was just trying really hard not to lose it again. "You do your job and protect our little girl with your life, you hear me?"

    What? Protect me? For as long as I could remember, I'd always been the one to protect him from bullies, snarky looks from teachers, and rude cashiers at the mall...how could he possibly defend me with that limp and those crutches? I was pretty sure I had never even heard him raise his voice at anyone. Ever.

    Danny ignored my doubtful look and confidently replied to my mother, "I'll do everything I can, Crystal. I promise."

    Before I turned my back on my parents, along with everything I had ever known, I whispered, "I love you guys," one last time, just to feel like a normal kid going to a normal camp.

    But, just like everything else in my life I seem to think is normal, I couldn't have been more wrong.