𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐨

── recording studios

          𝕿he recording studios was probably one of the only places that Aurora felt that she could truly be herself. She didn't have to keep up the mysterious persona and she could just afford to be Aurora Trueman, the Californian native, when it was her and her producer.

"Morning!" She pushed the door open with her foot, twisting with the coffee and pastries in her hand.

"Hi poppet."

It helped that the producer was her father.

"Hi dad." Aurora smiled, placing the food down as her dad swept her into a hug, picking her off the floor easily. 

"I saw the talk show last night, you were incredible."

The reason that Aurora strived so hard to maintain the mystery of her home life was for one simple reason alone. Technically her father didn't exist. Or, he did exist, he'd just been dead since the Ancient Greek period. Hence why she could never allow for anyone to find out his name or who he was.

Apollo, Greek god of music, healing, the sun, etc. 

Now, Aurora could admit that when her father had revealed himself to her at age twelve, she'd been a little surprised, followed by disbelieving and then anger, denial, bargaining and finally, acceptance. Most people only went through the five stages of grief when someone died, but Aurora? Aurora got to experience that when her father introduced himself.

She'd left the house when her mother had revealed that particular shocking piece of news.

"So, what are we doing today?" Apollo sat back down, drinking the coffee that Aurora had provided as she pulled her laptop out of her bag. "All your homework's done, right? That's a school thing, isn't it?"

"Yeah dad, that's a school thing." Aurora chuckled. Apollo could never be a proper father, who was there for his children all the time, and Aurora knew that she was lucky to be able to see him as often as she did and that he cared for her, in his own immortal way. "So, I had an idea for another song to go on the upcoming album but I want to make some changes to the instrumentals that I put together a few days ago, but I can't tell what it's missing? Then I've got some new lyrics for one of those songs we were working on a few days back."

"Alright." Apollo was nodding, flicking through her laptop as she pointed out her area of issues. Aurora took that time to stretch and warm her voice up, ready for singing later on. She knew that her father being Apollo meant that she was naturally blessed when it came to singing, but she was also aware that she shouldn't do anything to strain her voice.

With that, they were underway.

Apollo ordered in food and both father and daughter settled in for a full eight hour day of work, before finally, they were ready to leave with one song nearly completed and another in the works to be finished in the next two days.

"That's a wrap, poppet. Looking good." Aurora pulled her headphones off, stepping out of the booth as she joined her father. "Okay, what's your plan for the weekend? Have you got stuff on?"

"I've got an appearance on Good Morning America and then, nothing much." Aurora shrugged.

"Meeting with friends? Doing normal, teenage things?"

"I don't have friends, dad. Part of mother's contract for me. You know, the whole, remain a secret thing. She's worried that if I have friends, they'll go snooping or I'll reveal something and then it won't be secret anymore and something will happen." Aurora reminded him as Apollo sighed.

"You need friends, poppet."

"Thanks, dad. Tell me something I don't know." Aurora rolled her eyes. "How am I supposed to make friends? Hi, my name's Aurora Trueman, you may know me from my music or the TV show, by the way my dad's Apollo and a Greek god, that's why I'm so good at singing, please don't tell the tabloids."

"Then, what about demigod friends? You could go to camp."

"Mother would shoot me for missing out on appearances and all of that."

"Your mother isn't in the country." Apollo pointed out, rolling his eyes. "What's she going to know?"

"You know she keeps tabs on me with my manager. If I'm not doing the stuff that I need to then she'll get annoyed, so once again, still can't go to the camp." Aurora sighed. "Look, dad, it's fine. I'm alright."

"As a doctor..."

"Technically, you're not registered because you're ancient."

"As a doctor," He continued with a slight grin. "I would say it's unwise for this to continue. You are a teenager, you need to do stupid things that make me annoyed with you like sneaking out to parties and skipping school and having friends. This working yourself to the bone is not healthy, I've told your mother once and I'll tell her again. I am still your dad, hypothetically, I still also have parental rights over you and I'm telling you that you need more friends."

"I can't go to camp, dad."

"Well, maybe not full time, but you could always go in between your work schedules. Just ask your manager to start spreading it out more and say you really want to knuckle down on school work and the album." Apollo pointed out, before leaning forward to press a kiss to her head. "Just a thought."

"What would I even do at camp?"

"Learn to play the lyre, spend time with your other half-siblings, learn magical healing."

Aurora scoffed.

"It's never too late." Apollo chided. "They'll help with the music, and I'll walk you in myself. I'll finally be able to drop you off for your first day of something. You could learn to fight, canoe, ride pegasi."

"I can fight."

"You can shoot a bow and arrow because of genetics."

"I've killed monsters." Aurora grumbled as Apollo rolled his eyes. It was true that she had, mainly out of necessity. Her status, and the fact that she had to use electronics for her job, meant that monsters were always attracted to her, so she'd become very good at killing them quickly and discreetly. Whilst her dad had taught her archery, mainly as a fun little side sport to take up, and she was good at it, she'd had to take self-defence and been taught to use a blade in the case that a monster found her whilst she was at work.

Her dad had gifted her a small blade hidden in a ring for her birthday and that had gone with her ever since.

"Camp, Aurora. Think about it." Apollo shot her a look as Aurora sighed and reluctantly nodded, packing her things and getting ready to head home. "I've called your driver. He's outside."

"Thanks dad. I'll see you soon."

"You bet. Love you." Apollo kissed her head as Aurora smiled. 

"Love you too." With that, Aurora was disappearing into the car and being driven back to her home. 

∘☽༓☾∘

Aurora didn't have cereal for dinner that night, instead settling for a basic pasta dish with shrimps and bacon. It was tasty and Aurora packed the rest away, ready for the next few days before going through her emails and finishing her school work.

As she did, she thought on her dad's words. As much as she hated to admit it, she was lonely. She had no friends, she had no family close to her (her dad not included) and it was suffocating in a sense and depressing in another.

"Hi..." Aurora started her phone call quietly, asking her manager how she was and telling her about the studio session. "Listen, I wanted to ask if there's any chance that my interviews and stuff can be made a bit less frequent or all on one day kind of thing. I've got a lot of school work and this album and it's taking a lot of my mind up so I want to just focus on that. Obviously I'll still do them just maybe a little less frequent, is that alright?"

"Of course it is, Aurora. When do you want that starting by?"

"When's the earliest that you can do it?"

"I can do three weeks, does that work?"

"Yeah, thank you so much." Aurora smiled, saying goodbye to her manager as some weight lifted off her shoulders, before sending her dad a quick text. 

I've got my interviews changed dad, they'll be less frequent by 3 weeks so can go to camp after that. A x

She put it down before hearing it ding a moment later. 

I'm proud of you, poppet x

A smile appeared on her face as she put the phone down and clambered into her bed. Maybe, this time in three weeks or so, she'd finally have some friends.

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So Aurora is Apollo's favourite kid and they have a super healthy father-daughter relationship, which is very rare, but she doesn't have a good mother-daughter relationship. I love them both so much and yes, Aurora is going to camp soon-ish (next chapter). As a heads up, Aurora starts the first few chapters as 16, because we get pre-PJOTV first and then we move onto the PJO bit just so you can get a feel for her.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx