Apollo and mum burst into my room singing happy birthday, whilst mum is holding my favorite chocolate cake!!!

“Happy birthday sweetie,” my mum says, happiness illuminating her face. 

“Yip, happy birthday kiddo, how does it feel to be old”, Apollo says grinning as if he hit the jackpot.  

“Honestly no different,” I say rolling my eyes and laughing at my brother's comment, he’s always so happy to see me and just loves me so much that I’m grateful for him and honestly can’t ever really stay mad at him.

They both exit my bedroom, and I hurriedly get ready for the rest of my school day to rush downstairs to my chocolate cake slice with ice cream, just the way I like it.

Once I've devoured my cake, I look towards mum and Apollo, and they have a look on their faces as if they have something important to tell me.

"Aggmm, I know I look amazing, so you guys can stop looking" I pause for a moment " like that", I say in a joking manner as I swirl my spoon in a circular motion pointing outwards towards their faces.

“Sis we have something to tell you but please act accordingly and don't get all berserk, okay,” Apollo pauses in a serious tone which honestly kind of makes me worry.

My stomach begins to tighten with knots; what do they have to tell me and why do they look so serious, did I do something, am I in trouble, well I can't be it's my birthday, so then what did I do and why will I go berserk?

All these questions race in my head as I sit in my chair, feeling like I'm being weighed down by a brick wall as I sit there just waiting for someone to say what I did wrong or what the heck happened.

“Okay, what is it?” I ask, no longer being able to handle the suspense.

“Well you see...” mum starts off saying.

“It's not really complicated but rather not known...” is what Apollo continues to say after mum said literally three words, making this even more unbearable, why can’t they just say what they want to say instead of babying it.

“Can someone please just tell me what you're trying to say!” I say as politely as I could through a smile with gritted teeth, getting a bit impatient.

“Well, sweetie the thing is we're not really human” mum exclaims, clearly having taken my comment literally and putting it out bluntly without any proper context.

“Haha, nice one mum” I laugh, clearly thinking it’s some joke, maybe a type of dad joke but just instead of a dad joke, it’s a really bad mum joke.

When there’s no response and a few beats of silence are left in the air after my laughter has died down, I look directly at my mum “Oh wait you weren't joking, what do you mean not human, are you guys, aliens, am I adopted?” I ask as all the questions flood into my head all just coming to me at once.

“Oh you're funny," Apollo says, "mum meant you, herself, and I, aren't human,”  he points at all of us trying to make it more clear to me that I’m not adopted and that they’re not joking at all.

“What do you mean," I respond confused, "I feel human, and I’ve done human things all my life,” I state, still trying to understand the concept of me not being human, feeling totally stunned.

“See that's where it gets tricky," mum says as she pauses to try to find the right words, "we're from a distant human bloodline," she waits for a beat to see if I'm understanding while I know for a fact my face looks dumbfounded but I give her a nod to continue.

"That's what makes only our race look human because of that distant human bloodline" she pauses, allowing me to understand my previous statement.

"But how is it possible that all of us look like humans, why doesn't Apollo have green skin," I ask, trying to grasp the concept of having only a distant human bloodline that makes our race look human and I continue to say, "how can all of one race have that genetic look because of one bloodline which clearly isn't our strongest bloodline."

"well because of that bloodline that mixed with ours it has become part of our genetics, basically every single one of us in our species will look like a human without fail and we will only have activated our non-human side at the age of 18,” Mum responds calmly as if it was nothing.

“Ummm, okay but then why are you guys only telling me now and then what am I truly ?” I question, now more curious about who I truly am.

“Well we didn't know when to tell you exactly because normally you would get told this information at age 16 before turning into an adult," Apollo pauses briefly his face looking somber, "but due to dad having passed we wanted to tell you when you were an adult" he continues, "also it was advised to do so, in fact, it's going to change for our entire race on when to tell their children."

"But why are they changing it to later, wouldn't it be better if they knew at an earlier age," I ask, my curiosity getting to me.

"This was only if a traumatic event has occurred for these individuals to prevent any higher risk," his tone sounding serious as he continues, "but now age 18 is officially when anyone with a traumatic event or without a traumatic event in our species gets told,” Apollo says naturally as if everything I’m being told is totally normal.

“To answer your other earlier question, you're a dreamer,” Mum says vaguely.

“What does that mean, like what do we do,” I ask, even more confused because just saying I’m a dreamer isn’t very helpful in this circumstance.

“Well dreamers can see the future but only glimpses of it and normally only in their sleep it would happen," she says as she continues to add, "but it is rare when they are awake, although we can have normal dreams like people, we can tell the difference from a normal dream and then having a glimpse into the future 'dreams', some dreamers start getting this activated before the age of 18 because it's not that much of a high-risk type of power and it's one of the most common, harmless traits to have” mum explains.

“Anastasia,  I know it's a lot to take on right now but please remember that this is a secret that has been kept for centuries by our kind and it is not to be told to just anyone,” Apollo says with a serious tone.

“I know that, of course, I'm not going to tell the first person I see!!!” I exclaim, kind of annoyed that he thinks I’ll tell anyone.

“We know honey, Apollo is just being cautious,” Mum says sweetly, calming my emotions down a bit. 

“Of course, I just want us to be safe,” he says with love in his voice, as he gives me a big bear hug clearly showing he cares. 

“I know, and don't worry of course I'll be cautious, but I've gotta go or else I'm gonna be late for school,” I respond sweetly. 

They both say their goodbyes to me as I leave the house on my way to go to school.