I shoot out of my sleep in a cold sweat with banging at my door. "Steven! Steven, get up! By the gods, boy! Wake up!"

I scramble and unlock the door to see Chiron pale and frantically clopping in place. "What– what's going on? I-I just woke up, can I at least brush my teeth and my hair–?"

Chiron steps to the side, and behind his nearly glowing white horse half is Rachel Dare herself with her auburn hair and eyes bright with warning. "Steven, thank the gods. It looks like it's your turn."

I blanche and look over at Chiron. "For what?"

Her eyes go black this time, forcing me to wonder why they were glowing in my dream. Sometimes demigods have prophetic dreams, or dreams of the past but this doesn't make sense. I don't try to make it make sense either, I'm trying not to gasp for air at the sharp acidic scent of the smoke pouring from her. "A demigod alone and unchosen,
Will break the mold, unloved and unbroken
A lonely quest to reunite true blood
And quell the fury from The Ones Above
You shall go to the other side in opposite affair
But lose your home and have life lain bare."

She falls forward and I catch her before she can hit the ground. I can't imagine what being a human oracle is like, but I can guess it's not a fun job to tell heroes horrible poems about their fate.

Not that I'm a hero or anything, don't get it twisted.

I'm choking on my air for multiple reasons, thankful when the smoke disperses so I can get enough oxygen in my lungs to tell Chiron, "I-I already had a dream about this. I heard the prophecy already."

Rachel coughs once and rolls her eyes. "Glad I wasted my time, then."

"That's enough, Rachel," Chiron says with a grim smile. "He means thank you."

"Right. Thank you, Rachel." I hesitate as the silence between all of us makes me realize I'm just in my boxers and a ratty old tank top. As politely as possible I set her back on her feet and make sure she won't collapse again. "I'm not a jerk, I promise."

Chiron sighs, once again taking on the poise I'm so used to him having. But I'm afraid already, so it's not like it's really helping. "Come with me after you pack your things, Steven. Immediately."

I was there in five minutes because I own basically nothing, wondering why in the cosmos I was the kind of person that got to be violently woken up after a terrifying nightmare and a horrible day. "Chiron, what's going on?"

"Aphrodite has been offended and it has caused chaos in Olympus," He said simply.

I'm baffled as to why this is suddenly my problem. I'm pretty sure she hates me. This chair is too small, my knees are pushing up against the table and the amount of eyes on me are making me blush for no reason. Rachel, Mr. D, and Chiron all watch me carefully to the point that I start to feel like maybe I should say something over the ticking of the clock. "Okay... so it's my fault?"

Chiron shakes his head. "No, it's not your fault, Steven. You've done nothing but exist as peacefully as possible."

"Though," Mr. D smirks. "Your tiff with Lilith was rather entertaining, Sara."

It would be so much different if he'd at least call me boy names. That would make it better, I'm certain it would. But no, he insists I must be a girl. "I'm not a girl, Mr. D!"

"The backbone in this kid!" He bellows, sipping at his Diet Coke with whimsy as his eyes go swirling purple with irritation. "Watch your tone with gods, boy."

Close enough, I'll take it. It's mostly because I have a feeling if I looked into his eyes any longer my mind might snap like a glowstick. "What's going on? Why am I here at three in the morning?"

Chiron smiles at me sympathetically, his brows tented with effort. "Steven, this... isn't your camp."

My heart pounds once and stops. I'm feverish and faint at the same time, my head is spinning and my world stops on its axis. I look to Rachel and she gives me an encouraging look. It's sweet, but it doesn't stop the turmoil inside of me threatening to pull me apart like a freshly baked cookie. "What? I'm... I'm not Aphrodite's son? So I'm human?"

"No. When you were claimed, your mother was unaware of your residence here. It has recently caused turmoil between the gods and mass confusion. Some are being reclaimed, others are being claimed by multiple gods. Part of Olympus demands you go to where you were always meant to be. Others insist you stay because they believe you aren't..." He trails off as he looks at what I can imagine is a pitiful expression on my face. I can tell what he was going to say. They believe I'm irrelevant and unimportant, and who cares if someone irrelevant and unimportant is somewhere he doesn't belong? His horse half of him grows antsy and his tail flicks. "Aphrodite has gained enough on her side of things to formally invite a strong division between the gods. You are not one of us."

I slump in my seat and let the table scrape harder against my legs so I can feel something besides self pity. "Gee, thanks Chiron. You're always giving me these great pep talks."

"Yeah," Rachel inputs. "A little harsh on the tone we're going for here."

Mr. D sets down his can so hard the tinking sound echoes. "You are not Grecian, Steven De Mayo. You," He stands and his form changes so fast I almost don't have time to look away.

It doesn't matter. The surprise takes me out anyways.

Bacchus himself grins at me. "You are a Roman."

I'll be honest, the first thing I do is grin. I get to leave? "I'm sorry?"

Chiron smiles too, though it's a bit strained. "You're a Roman, Steven. And we're going to send you home."

*

Home. The thought has been circling my mind over and over again. I'm going home. The thought fills me with a nervous kind of joy. Screw this place, respectfully. Screw the Aphrodite cabin, screw being a background character. My mom noticed me. Well, she noticed me eventually, and she's furious I've been so mistreated... in a way.

Or she's confused and has no idea if I'm even hers anymore.

Whatever. Regardless of everything, I'm going on a quest to find my home. The place where I belong wants me there and I want to be there. Maybe I could even make a friend.

For the first time ever recorded in history, I mutter, "LOL." and actually LOL.

Chiron watches me eat breakfast and shakes his head. "Steven, get your head out of Elysium. This isn't what you think it is. You're too little trained to go on a quest... We at Camp Half-blood have failed you." He blinks slowly. "I'm so sorry, Steven. For everything."

"Hey, it's okay." It's not, but if anyone in this entire camp has ever been my friend, it's been Chiron. "Being bullied builds character."

He chuckles heartily and it makes me do it too. "So it does. Eat up, you leave in an hour."

Between bites, I rifle through the millions of questions I have. "What's it called?"

Chiron raises an eyebrow as he munches on an apple. "Camp Jupiter. The Roman counterpart of Zeus."

My dad taught me all about Roman gods and their stories. He'd read them to me at night, or sing me songs of their battles and strifes. We'd even write music together about it, we even wrote one about Persephone. He wanted to call it Wicked Garden Goddess, but I felt she was widely misunderstood and we decided to name it something kinder, but truthful: The Lost Girl In The Garden.

Sometimes I feel bad for stopping his music dreams in their tracks before he took off. He would tell me the Greek version too, but I always preferred the Roman side of things. Messy, but in a different way than the Greeks. Refined messy. Wild. Full of love and yet lacking it completely, like how I felt having no friends and no life. It seemed like Grecians were Lie, Hate, Kill on a consistent enough basis that I just couldn't relate. I always thought it was a total joke I ended up at Camp Halfblood as the son of a Greek goddess but now the joke is the reason my mom's throwing a fit.

Venus. My father always told me the most detailed stories about her to my request. I've always been a romantic, a lover if you will (and I don't blame you if you won't). She was born of the sea, she was closely associated with Poseidon and born already in adult form. She has cults dedicated to her domain over fertility, love, victory and (you guessed it) sex. People worship and praise her for her blessing in their romantic affairs, and her symbol is and has always been my favorite flower: a rose.

To be totally frank with you, I've never once had a crush on any girl ever, at least not... not ones outside of books. Or any boys for that matter, not that I'm against it. I probably just haven't met the right person. There's plenty of LGBTQ relationships at camp nowadays and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous. Nico Di Angelo and Will Solace still counsel their cabins, and Nico has a whole lot of work on his hands since he's the son of a Big Three and they were revealed to have a lot more kids than they were supposed to have (which is zero). His dad is Hades, god of the underworld. Nico's actually really... uhm... scary and I'm afraid he might summon a skeleton to snap my neck? But even past the outside gloom and doom he radiates, he's actually pretty nice.

I'm too shy after this long to talk to him. I'm too shy to talk to anyone.

Here at camp I just try to train, sleep and eat. I really truly hate sword fighting. It doesn't fit in my hand, I'm not fast and agile like the others. Chiron jokes that I must be more of a defense kind of guy. I'm good at horseback riding though, and I can make friends by singing to any animal I choose like a Disney Princess. Despite my confrontation with Lilith, I have a lot of patience. I can sit and befriend an animal slowly over the course of months, but my biggest bucket list item is to befriend a pig.

Obviously that should be the last thing on my mind right now, but that's what I'm thinking about: pigs. They squeal when they're excited and scared, they snort when they're sniffing things just like pugs but way cuter, and their little curly tails remind me of my hair. And they're pink!

I glance up at the photo, one of the 13 hanging in the mess hall, of my mother. It burdens me every day that I have to eat about six feet from a mostly naked picture of my mother, so I try to stare at my food and not be weirded out. Just saying, she could be in ceremonial robes or her Olympus garb, she doesn't have to be basically naked.

Ugh, anyways... "Who's going with me?"

Chiron chuffs at me and one of his hooves stamp as his face turns maroon, dark skin wrinkling as his nose does. He's clearly not pleased with what he's about to say. "You're going alone, Steven. We have no escorts at Camp Half-blood, and I have been told you aren't allowed one."

Mr. D walks in clearly annoyed just as my eyes practically roll out of my head in shock.

"What?!" I explode, shooting out of my seat. "Why?! I've never heard of a quest with only one person! I could be killed!"

Dionysus laughs and dips his hand into a bucket of chicken. "Everyone's dying, Suzie. Have some empathy," He tells me, ignoring Chiron's glare.

"I could die, right?" I ask, unsure suddenly. I'm not important, and I've never really had real run ins with monsters. I've seen them, but my father told me they were just daymares and got me prescribed anti-psychotics. I know it sounds bad, but he just wanted to keep me until 18, that's all he asked.

And he didn't even make it that far.

"Possibly." Chiron sounds absolutely heartbroken, which only serves to scare me more. He surveys my tall, bulky body smooshed into this chair and opens his archery vest to dig into his pocket. After digging around he then produces a small, rounded gold bracelet and tosses it my way. "It is dangerous to go alone, take this."

I stare at the inscription as it writes itself before my very eyes. Other demigods can read Greek, our minds are most often hardwired with ADD/ADHD so we can translate things like that. I can't read Greek, Chiron said maybe it was because I was a weird amalgamation of parts.

But I can read this.

"What does it say, Sally?" Mr. D asks with strange gentleness. "Can you read what it says?"

I swallow. "Stephanus: De Minoris. Steven: The Underestimated."

Chiron smiles, the edges of his eyes crinkling. "Very good. Are you done eating?"

I glance at my plate and nod. "I think I've had enough. I'm too nervous to eat more." Things feel so much bigger than me right now. Why would I need to go back home? Why would it cause so much chaos? Sure it might be offensive and we all know how gods can be, but it's starting to freak me out on top of everything else.

When I put it on, it adjusts to fit my wrist and a sharp pinch of pain has me crying out as I start to bleed. "Ow! What in Tartarus did you give me, Chiron?" Dionysus belly laughs at me as I try to slip it back off, but it doesn't budge. Another few tries and I'm panicking full send, grunting with effort but it doesn't move and the pain ebbs into nothing. I look up at Chiron. "It's stuck."

"It must like you then," Chiron replies smoothly, stopping my struggle in its tracks. "Steven De Mayo."

The way he says my name, with heavy gravitas and serious concern snuffing out his earlier playfulness, makes me nauseous. "Yes?"

"Do you accept the quest I have laid before you?"

I shove my plate away and take a deep breath, smoothing my fingers over the edges of the table like I'm trying to commit it to memory. I am.

I may not belong here, and I might not ever come back, but I take the time to appreciate my beginning.

So in a way, I guess I lied. I did start at the beginning. And thank the stars I did.

"I accept my quest whichever way the Fates thread it."