Chapter 2

The two demi-gods exchanged looks, debating which one of them should explain. Before either of them could come to a decision, they were interrupted.

"Wait, wait, wait. What kind of demi-god am I supposed to be? There are tons of gods in this world, so I need you to clarify."

Desirae crossed her arms over her torso. She leaned back on one of the support beams of the jungle gym and slightly narrowed her eyes at the other 3.

"Well, one of your parents is a Greek god, making you a demi-god. Or, technically speaking, a demi-goddess," explained Annabeth. "We wanted to ease you into the news. For some reason, it was hard for Grover to find you. That's why Percy and I are here. We came here to help him find you."

Percy turned to the brown-haired beauty. "We weren't sure that you were the one we were looking for until a few days ago."

"That's not possible, though. Let's say that, for argument's sake, the Greek gods exist. What exactly qualifies me as a demi-goddess? Is it my blood type? My irises? My collection of works attributed to Homer?"

"Actually, it's your parentage*. Your combination of ADHD and Dyslexia is what helped us identify you but, besides that, we were just guessing. We don't know who your godly parent is, but you do have one. There are others like us out there. We're all gathered in a secret location. We came to take you there."

"This makes no sense," Desirae sighed while rubbing her forehead. "How do I even know that you're telling me the truth?"

"Dez, please. You, yourself, know that you're different. Just think about the languages you know. One of them is not like the others," Grovers pleaded.

Desirae blanked out for a few seconds to think about Grover's words. She wanted to say that he was wrong, but he wasn't. She had many questions, and she thought of only one person who could answer them for her.

She shook her head in slight denial and scooted over to the slide. "I need to think about this. Come see me in an hour at my place. I don't know what state of mind I'll be in, but I guess we'll have to see."

"Dez-," Grover started.

"Please." Her eyes shined with something that made the 2 demi-gods and satyr feel sympathy for the girl. Grover nodded his head and watched one of his best friends slide away.

Desirae walked to her townhouse with her cellphone clutched in her left hand. She searched her contacts for the name she was looking for and began to send them a message.

~

Desirae sat in her favorite spot on her living room sofa, staring down the man who was displayed on her computer screen. The man who was video-chatting her was her landlord, who just so happened to be her step-father Markus. He had been her step-father for 15 years and her adoptive father for 14.

She leaned forward in her seat, one hand covering her mouth in contemplation. She huffed in a mix of confusion and disbelief and rubbed one of her eyes.

"So, what you're saying is that they were telling the truth?"

"Yeah. I wanted to tell you earlier, but a long time ago your mother made me promise that if anything happened to her, I had to wait till you were 19. Honestly, if you had asked me earlier, I would have told you. I'm sorry Dezmeister," Markus pouted guiltily.

"It's ok. I know that you and mom wanted me to have a somewhat normal childhood. 'Cause, let's face it, I would have totally let it go to my head. Who knows what I would have done?"

"Wow. I am so glad that you aren't feeling angsty and angry. Thank you for that and understanding my reasoning."

"I'm glad too. You raised me by yourself since I was 7. I didn't want to make life harder for you by being that kind of kid. You're an agreeable person, so it would have been hard for me to be mean to you in a hurtful way."

Markus snorts in amusement. "You mean you roast me to ashes out of love?"

"Absolutely," Desirae nodded.

"Yeah, sure. I'll believe that for now," he deadpanned. "So now that light has been shed on the subject, what are you going to do?"

"Go to this 'secret location' they mentioned, I guess. If the Greek gods exist, then that means that the monsters and creatures do as well. I've read a lot of Greek mythology and I want to be away from all those monsters I read about."

"Oooh, we got a smartie!" he joked. "Someone get her a Ph.D. or something!"

"Okay, I'm gonna go now. Just one more question, though."

"Let me guess, you want to know your father's name."

"Was it that obvious?"

"I could see where this was going. Anyway, your mother only told me the name she knew him by and that he never told her his real identity. His name was Carter."

"Thanks, for everything," Desirae smiled.

"I love you, kid."

"I love you too, dad. Even though you fall asleep before we get halfway through watching a movie and crack lame jokes, you old man."

"Ouch. You hurt my feelings. I'm hanging up now."

Desirae cackled in delight. "That's what I'm here for. Talk to you soon!"

Markus waved at Desirae before clicking off the video chat. She sighed with a small smile on her face and stood up. If I'm going somewhere, I should bring some of my things, she thought. She jogged up the stairs to her room and took out a medium-sized backpack. She began to fill it with things she felt were essential for her existence. Like her favorite teddy bear, for example. A total priority. The items she felt were essential only took up half her bag, and she was okay with that.

She whipped out her phone and looked at the time. It was almost 2 o'clock. Grover, Annabeth, and Percy would be here at any minute. Should I start a new show? Desirae thought. I totally should. She leaped back onto her sofa and turned her tv on. She changed the screen input from HDMI 1 (where her cable is connected) to HDMI 2 (where her Roku is plugged in) and chose the Netflix application. She scrolled through until she came upon the 'International TV-Shows' section (a.k.a the place where her heart and soul reside). She picked on what she hadn't seen before and settled back down into her Desirae-shaped dent on her sofa.

25 minutes into the show, someone knocked on the door. Desirae knew that it was Grover and company because no one ever visited her at home.

"It's open!" she yelled over her shoulder. She was invested in the show and didn't want to miss anything crucial that could happen in those few seconds it would take to answer the door. A thief could walk through the front door and she wouldn't even notice it.

"That's a pretty dangerous thing to do Desi— Oh, I know you did not just start a new Kdrama without me," Grover sassed when he entered Desirae's living room and saw what she was watching.

He made himself at home on the reclinable two-seaters with Annabeth— although she sat on it a bit unsure of how they'd be welcomed— while Percy sat on the sofa with Desirae. He didn't sit too close but he also wasn't on the polar end of the furniture. She told the two to make themselves at home before even responding to Grover.

"Chill bro, I'm still on episode 1. I'm roughly half an hour in," she muttered. "Let me finish this episode and we can go."

"Go? You mean we don't have to go into a deeper explanation about why you need to come?" Percy questioned, sitting up slightly from the casually comfortable position he was slowly sinking into.

Desirae paused the show and looked at the trio. Their faces were a mix of emotions. Annabeth looked relieved, yet slightly astounded and a bit confused. Grover looked happy but a bit upset at something. Percy was just amused and surprised, but unsure about what to do.

"Yeah. I talked to Dad and he told me my life story. Apparently, Mom made him promise to wait until I was 19 to tell me."

Grover sighed and leaned back in the reclinable seat. "I'm glad he told you and you, in turn, decided to come with us willingly—"

"Wait, what?"

"— but I had a multimedia presentation that I wanted to try out. You really would've liked it. It has memes, gifs, music, and more!" He crossed his arms and pouted, only being half upset.

"Ok, I'm going to ignore that 'willingly' part because I don't want to know what y'all'd've* done if I said no. My bag is by the door with the necessities. Do y'all have wifi at the place we're going to?" Desirae inquired.

"Yeah," Annabeth nodded. "We've got to know what's going on in the world outside of where we're going somehow."

"Great!" Desirae exclaimed. "That means that I can continue watching my show there. Let's go!"

She quickly stood from her spot on the sofa and immediately plopped back down into the Desirae-shaped spot. "I stood up too fast and flew through time and space itself. I need a second."

~

The drive from North Carolina to New York is a long one. Roughly 10 hours with minimal traffic. Grover, Annabeth, and Percy decided that they would rotate driving shifts. The person who would take over the next shift would sit in the passenger seat while the other would sit in the back with Desirae. The group of 4 were 6 hours into their journey and Desirae had moved on from watching whatever was going on outside. She was now playing her '✨ʀ ᴏ ᴀ ᴅ ᴛ ʀ ɪ ᴘ✨'* playlist through her earphones at a low level and writing something on her iPad with her decorated Apple Pencil. Percy had taken the first shift and was now sitting in the back with Desirae. Annabeth and Grover were having a conversation in the front seat but Percy was curious about Desirae.

"What are you doing?" he asked quietly, leaning towards her.

"I'm writing about today in a short story form. Most people keep a journal or a diary, I'm keeping a virtual book of short stories."

"How can you write in a moving vehicle? Whenever I try, I get distracted and usually get a headache."

"It's a talent," she smirked. She swiped right a few times— probably to go back a few entries—, looked at Percy and handed him the Ipad. "Wanna read it? I mean, it's written in ancient greek so I don't know if you'll understand it. But seeing how we're children of ancient beings, there's always a chance that it's hardwired into our brains...actually, maybe that's why it was so easy for me to learn it."

Percy smiled at the girl's rambling. He found it cute how she slightly deviated from what she was doing.

"I can read it. You're spot on about ancient greek being hardwired into our brains. I can't say that I'll be able to read it all without getting slightly nauseous, though."

The two in the backseat share a sweet smile before Percy looks down to read the short story while Desirae shyly looked out the window. They sat in silence for a few minutes as Percy read the entry she had left it on for him. He admired her penmanship skills as well as her storytelling skills. She had a way of capturing events that, when a person reads the story, they can't help imagining how such events occurred. As he reads the entries, Desirae drifts off into the land of sleep. Those weeks of sleep deprivation during school were finally catching up to her. Her head was heading towards the window but a bump in the road caused not only her head but her whole body to lean towards Percy. The dark-haired male was startled by the abrupt action and decided to accommodate her in a comfortable position with her head against the sliver of the seat near the door.

With that, he smiled and continued his reading, not knowing what would await the quad within the next few hours.

Page count: 7 (9 with the picture)

In the media box above, you will find a picture of her townhouse living room.

Here are the asterisks from this chapter...

*parentage - /ˈpɛːr(ə)ntɪdʒ/ (noun) the identity and origins of one's parents.

*y'all'd've - meaning 'you all would have'

*✨ʀ ᴏ ᴀ ᴅ ᴛ ʀ ɪ ᴘ✨ - The playlist of songs Desirae listens to while on the road. Also the name of this book's unofficial playlist. There's no theme or anything, just some songs that were playing in the background while I was writing. Find it on Spotify and Apple Music now!

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/%CA%80-%E1%B4%8F-%E1%B4%80-%E1%B4%85-%E1%B4%9B-%CA%80-%C9%AA-%E1%B4%98/pl.u-AkAmV0Nc273754l