PROLOGUE. ' beams of sunlight '

HARLOW KINGS is of the ripe age of ten when she arrives at Camp Half-Blood. Her mom had dropped her off at the edges of camp, staring in confusion at the sign that blurred between 'Danger! Do not enter!' to the words 'Camp Half-Blood' not only in English but in another older language right below it. Ancient Greek? She has no idea.

All things considered, Harlow could've lived her life onwards without a care in the world- without even knowing that she was a demigod... or whatever her mom had quickly tried to explain to her. If fate had pulled itself in another and sewn just a bit more- she'd still be back in Brooklynn and wouldn't have had to cancel that sleepover with Jenny Wu from two roads down. But alas, that is not always the case.

Funds were tight for her and her mom, she was a demigod who needed a place to stay, and so the only viable option was Camp Half-Blood. That's what her mom had told her on the car ride over, anyways. Whether or not she was to believe that was a totally different set of statements.

The whole ordeal had been casual. So stupidly casual, actually. The biggest dilemma Harlow had faced was the fact that (as previously said) she'd be missing out on a sleepover with Jenny Wu two roads down. In the grand scheme of life, that seemed like no big deal- to a ten-year-old Harlow it was perhaps a bigger deal, but even then she was only upset she wouldn't be getting the killer food Jenny's mom usually made for them.

There aren't many changes to her life- or perhaps there aren't enough for Harlow to want to stay at Camp Half-Blood forever.

In her first few hours, the only thing she has gathered is that white trainers don't stand a chance against muddied pathways and that the 'Hermes Cabin' as people are calling it needs a serious extension. It's warmer inside the cabin than it is outside with the number of bodies packed into one place (which is sort of worrying- Harlow's pretty sure the summer heat here is terrible).

The shocking things come after breakfast, obviously.

It all started with a tour. One held by another 'demigod', March Castillo- some son of Athena. He was dressed in frayed jeans with a grey tank top whilst Harlow had been fitted into an unflattering shade of putrid orange that she hated along with her prized flared jeans that were already getting dirtied.

The older guy (probably sixeen or something) grinned at her, "Don't worry, you won't have to wear that shirt all the time. It's just tradition for new campers to wear it on their first day. You can swap out of it tomorrow- most do."

She looked around at the war of colours surrounding her. Some people walked past wearing normal t-shirts with little funny graphics on them and other things and the other half seemed to have condemned themselves to the putrid orange 'Camp Half-Blood' t-shirt she was also wearing. Except, they all had little necklaces with beads on them for some strange reason.

She gave him a blank and very unimpressed look.

He laughed, fumbling for a set of steel-grey glasses that he pulled out of his pocket and placed on the bridge of his nose. The grey seemed to make his already grey eyes pop more- which then proceeded to practically mesmerise everybody when you took into account his dark, freckled and brown skin. He ran a hand through his buzzed and bleached hair and grinned.

"I should really get contacts," he said- more so to himself than to Harlow. Then, as if realising he was meant to be showing the absolutely petulant and impatient ten-year-old around, he bounced back and stuck out his hand. "March Castillo, son of Athena."

"Harlow Kings... I'm some weird frogspawn...." she furrowed her brows, "no- godspawn... no- I... I can't actually remember the name."

"Demigod?"

She snapped her fingers, "That!"

"Well..." he chuckled, "doesn't sound anything like 'frogspawn' but... Let's give you a tour, Harlow Kings of some weird frogspawn."

Considering her mom had dropped her off at an unruly six in the morning and it was now only half past eight, he was outrageously upbeat for so early in the morning and Harlow was too grumpy and sleep-deprived to be awake. Considering she was also not of the age where her mom would allow her to have coffee, those emotions were ramped up by the tenfold. Even if she'd drank some here, her mom would end up finding out. Sometimes, Harlow swears her mom can just see things before it happens- maybe she's a mind reader, or maybe Harlow is paranoid.

She doesn't test her luck either way.

March proceeds to take her around the camp, explaining the basis of Camp Half-Blood and why Harlow has arrived on their shore.

"One of your parents is a god," he explains so plainly in a tone Harlow would think her mom would use when she's teaching the middle schoolers or high schoolers at her school in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Academy of the Gifted and BAGs for short- or as Harlow likes to call it: the school she's thankful she doesn't go to). "Could be a god or goddess or whatever is in between- but you're the child of a god, hence making you a demigod or a half-blood."

"Which am I?" she asked.

"Which of what?"

"Am I a demigod or a half-blood?"

March snorted, "Half-blood is just another word for demigod. You're both."

"Huh," she muttered, still not very impressed.

After a while, Harlow's infectious 'sunshine' personality seemed to shine through- as her mother liked to call it. She started to nod a bit more, talk a bit more- and generally not look like she'd been sucking on a sour lemon.

She walked with a small bit of upbeat energy in each step- ruffling through her unruly bangs she'd begged every night to grow faster along with the rest of her long black hair in general. She thumbed her long silver earrings too- the ones her mom had given her- heavy and packed with small gems that clashed with the orange of her shirt violently.

After showing her around the strawberry fields (where March had managed to snag a couple strawberries for them), they set off on their way to the large collection of buildings up ahead. Apparently, Harlow had entered camp the wrong way- going from the back instead of the front.

"Usually the strawberry field is seen last," March explained, "And usually- I have to be quick, or else all the Demeter kids gun for my neck when I steal their strawberries." He shot her a smile, "You made my job easier."

"You don't sound like somebody who's the kid of a smart goddess."

He laughed, because that was the only thing he seemed to do, "Sure I don't. Just you wait, though. Come capture the flag and you'll see what these babies can do." He gestured to his head as he said the last part, grinning maniacally like some mad scientist. Then, he paused and squinted, "Hey- I think that's the Big House up ahead! Perfect."

Harlow thought the 'Big House' was far from perfect. She actually decided the moment she looked at the blue barn-house place that she wanted to run far, far away from it actually. Something about the place seemed off.

Something was static, old, trapped.

She shivered in the scorching heat and turned her back to the Big House, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Was it just her, or was something watching her?

"Over there," March said, as if sensing her great discomfort, "are the cabins."

He glossed over them all quickly. Greek Gods and Goddesses as certain numbers- kids of the gods in certain cabins- no DNA which meant a free-for-all in dating if you had different godly parents (March, from the looks of it, only mentioned this when in direct contact with somebody from the Demeter cabin).

"So those three cabins..."

"They are reserved for Hera- she's the marriage goddess so obviously..."

"No babies for her," nodded Harlow, humming softly to fill the silence. She pointed to the two other cabins. "And those two?"

"That one-" he pointed at the larger one looking like the colour of a cloud with a large golden 'ONE' "is for Zeus, King of the Heavens. The other one is for Poseidon, god of the seas. The Big Three: Zeus, Hades and Poseidon made a pact. They said they'd never... they'd never have kids again so as to make sure no catastrophes happened again."

"So where's Hades' cabin?"

March smiled bitterly, "Ask the sky people themselves, Lowie."

Lowie.

She didn't mind the nickname.

"Sky people?"

"It's what us old campers use when we want to er-" he winced, "talk shit about the erm... sky people."

"Of course," she nodded. "Bad sky people."

He laughed, and Harlow did too. She had no idea why they were laughing- but it felt good to laugh, especially after what a taxing morning it had been.

"You're taking this all really well," he said as they continued to walk past cabins. "Any reason why?"

"I don't... I don't know, actually. I still think this is a big prank, actually." She stared March dead in the eye, "Would you believe your mom if she told you last night to pack some things because you're getting sent to a camp in Long Island of all places for 'demigods'? A mom- who by the way- has a degree in science and teaches chemistry in a stupid BAG school."

"... Probably not."

"Exactly," Harlow nodded, "Unless I see something believable- this is all a setup."

After being introduced to Cabin Eleven (led by some blondie called Luke Castellan), Harlow Kings finally got some evidence that said hey- maybe this isn't a setup.

Such evidence includes the following activities:

Flying horses (pegasus, she thinks the cabin leader calls them), rock climbing- but with lava, sword-fighting and... arts and crafts. The last is actually needed. After three hours of information overload on what exactly a 'demigod' is- Harlow needed an hour of sticking together lollipop sticks to make something. Even if that 'something' was a lyre she'd spotted on the front of one of the cabins.

The weirder thing happened after two days of being at camp.

It wasn't necessarily any of the activities that got weirder. All of that was the exciting and fun bit. Arts and crafts... Archery- they were good, they were fun. She liked that stuff. She was even slowly starting to train herself during the next two days not to mind climbing the lava wall- even if she really didn't like the prospect of burning to death and the demigods around her fishing out a freshly fried 'Harlow Kings' lightly salted.

The weird thing arrived in her dream- the weirder thing happened when she woke up.

Harlow Kings was no stranger to a realistic dream, she'd had an active imagination for as long as she could remember. Events seemed to play just like they did in her mind and she had a sense of deja vu thrumming through her body to prove it.

This was no different, really.

In the beginning, when I mentioned Harlow Kings thought nothing much would change- perhaps I should've stressed she believed no major changes would happen to her.

Harlow is as ordinary as they come as the daughter of a chemistry teacher with an affinity for dance and music (which she has tried and succeeded to robe her daughter into with an arguably varying degree).

Before this half-blood stuff, she'd go about her morning like every other kid. Wake up, go back to sleep, watch TV and laze around because she was a kid.

The new environment was hardly about to change her too much. She was still snarky, still stubborn and still falsely labelled a 'sunshine' girl (stressing the 'falsely labelled' mostly due to the gloomy look she always was described as having). She was Harlow Kings, and Harlow loved to dream.

Then she saw it, she saw her.

Blonde braids, sunny smile and a spirited laugh.

Harlow wasn't sure if ten-year-olds could fall in love- or if she was even falling in love, but something like a thousand butterflies erupted in her stomach at that moment. Something so stupid for a ten-year-old to think, but something so true: She was ethereal.

Gold clasps laced through with bleached blonde braids as muffled words spilt out of glossed lips, freckles dotted across the girls face with piercing grey eye that were almost identical to the one's she had seen on March along with brown skin dotted with freckles. She was dressed in some sort of tank top- with golden suns and silver moons plastered across it, tied with some sort of hair tie at the back.

"Percy Jackson!" The girl laughed as a block mop of hair tackled her, "stop messing around! When I get my revenge, oh hades-"

"Shut up!" he laughed, bumping into her, the two of them laughing.

What the hell is this? She thought to herself. Are they dating? What's happening?

"You're so stupid," she grumbled affection filling her eyes. The blonde haired girl was stunning- so pretty. "Seriously, why do I like you?"

"I dunno," he shrugged goofily, "Why do you?"

"Saved your ass all these years, I guess." She hummed, "Saved all of your asses, actually."

"I'd say I did some ass-saving, actually." argued the black-haired boy. Was his name Percy Jackson? "Especially down there. Plus... I'm pretty sure, Ms Annabeth Chase- you'll find a certain son of Poseidon did some major ass-saving down there?"

"Huh, suppose so." she teased. Her smirk was big and full of confidence that was almost infectious. Then, it softened- and Harlow nearly melted. Annabeth sighed, ".. It's all over now, isn't it? We can be normal again."

Normal again?

"What're we gonna do?"

"Move in together, obviously," Annabeth seemed to announce, declaring it with her pointer finger in the air. "Hopefully Reyna will have us there..."

"Moving in with me, huh?" Percy mocked. "Harlow's not gonna be too happy with that."

If Harlow could freeze in a dream- this would be the specific moment.

"Isn't she your best friend?" teased Percy.

Best friend.

Somehow, if Harlow was to know these people- the idea of the words Harlow, Annabeth and Best friend all being linked together made her want to wretch loudly.

"Shut up, you're so stupid." Annabeth grumbled, leaning into his side. "Where are the rest of us?"

"I think everybody is sleeping," Percy shrugged. "Not us though, huh? Maybe you've made me a night-owl, Annabeth."

"Whatever, idiot." she grumbled. "Love you."

"Love you too."

She'd have clawed to get more out of her dream, had it not been for the fact she was snatched out of her dreams by people standing over her and yelling.

"Harlow- hey HARLOW! Wake up, dude!" yelled one of the Stoll brothers.

"Can't believe it-" somebody muttered.

"Just as I was about to fall asleep too!" somebody else added.

"It's so bright in here," Harlow finally said, rubbing her eyes and looking at the blazing shadows across the room- the almost sun-like light burning out through windows into the dead of night.

There were noises from outside.

"LUKE WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR STUPID LIGHTS-OUT RULE?" Somebody yelled outside. "CUT IT OUT, MAN! My cabin needs sleep!"

"Understood, Lee!" called back Luke Castellan, quickly apologising with a charming smile before running to the front door to speak quickly with some 'Lee' guy.

The light dimmed just a bit and the front door creaked open as a wave of gasps sounded throughout the cabin.

They were all staring at her.

"What?" she said, looking around her, "What is it?"

Somebody else had walked through the door-

Annabeth?

But younger, Harlow's age.

"You've been claimed," Annabeth Chase said, blonde locks wrapped behind a grey silk scarf. "Fast for our age, really." She narrowed her pretty grey eyes at Harlow, and she almost felt like she wanted to melt right there on the spot.

Best friend, no. The word Best friend didn't fit whatever concoction Harlow was planning in her mind for her and Annabeth.

What else was there?

What more was there?

(...Love?)

"Harlow, right?" she asked, coming closer. She smiled a bit, and Harlow found her face forming a smile back on autopilot.

"That's me."

"You've been claimed," she said kindly, "Do you know what that means?"

March Castillo had explained it to her.

"No."

"Your godly parent has chosen to claim you," Annabeth explained, helping her stand up. Their hands touched, and sparks flew through Harlow. She stared at Annabeth- the lights dimmer now with only a faint golden glow surrounding her head now like a halo. Annabeth grabbed something, and moments later Harlow was staring back at her own face- a sun hovering above it.

"Hail Harlow Kings," Annabeth said as more and more campers gathered not only in the cabin but outside too. "Daughter of Apollo- god of light, healing, music and... prophecy."

Prophecy...

Prophecy...

The future.

Was that what it had been? The future?

A future of some Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase planning to spend the rest of their lives together?

Harlow frowned.

No.

"Welcome to the Apollo cabin, Harlow." A tall brown-haired guy said in front of her. "I'm Ataru, your cabin councillor."

She shook his hand as he stuck out robotically, not listening as people rushed to help pack up her stuff. She was sure he'd repeat whatever important stuff he was saying- but it was hardly as important as what was going on in Harlow's head.

Prophesy- the future. Foretold- set in stone, maybe? No...

If her dad was the god of prophecy, couldn't it be... altered- just for her? Surely that was an option, surely that was the case.

Later on, just a week later as she was packing her stuff up to go straight back to Brooklyn for the school year- she drew out her notepad, staring down at the necklace she'd attached to the side in a hurry. She thumbed the clay bead, analysing it intensely, practically memorising its being.

There on the bead itself was the Hermes Cabin the night Harlow had been claimed with light blazing out of the window pains cutting through the sharp darkness as stars shot down behind them like a blurred constellation.

Maybe it was fate, maybe it was infatuation- but something told Harlow 'best friend' wouldn't cut it as a descriptor for whatever was up with Annabeth. Maybe they weren't close now, but.... They would be.

They definitely would be.

Harlow clicked her blue glitter pen and flipped to a new page, donning the necklace with a single bead before she wrote the words in a glittery midnight blue that looked like the galaxy itself was spread onto the page in her crappy notebook.

The words read: 'MY GRAND PLAN FOR ANNABETH CHASE AND I (to be edited accordingly through the years)' before writing underneath: 'time span: as long as it takes'.

The first chess piece had been moved.

The game had begun.

rosie speaks!

i'm trying out writing with normal text
mostly so when i write essays for school
i don't revert my brain back to lower case.
anyways guys- wow!!

this is the prologue, obvs this spans a good
few books so we are once again in for another
fucking ride lads. first of all tho-

harlow being whipped from day one is so
REAL OF HER. bc honestly same girl same.

next chapter is such a banger i was planning
it all out and i love it. next chapter is
just so fucking fantastic it makes me giggle
and swing my legs or whatever the
phrase is bro.

Is this edited? no, not at all.
oh well!!! love u all sm <3333

thoughts?

word count: 3,368 words