Glory wondered if she was normal. She thought she saw a satyr in her neighborhood the other day, and her mom took her to the doctor after that. After all, a satyr was a mythical creature. But the doctor admitted that something was wrong with her blood.

“What does that mean?” her mother had cried out. The doctor had shook his head and never replied.

Glory never knew what that had meant either, but lately at school she would come home, trying not to cry after a group of popular kids called her “Death Girl” because of her clothes. She would never go to school, she decided.

She flopped down on her bed, cranked up the radio, and listen to Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do”. Then she heard her favourite part.

I trust nobody and nobody trusts me,

I’ll be the actress starring in your bad dreams.

I trust nobody and nobody trusts me,

I’ll be the actress starring in your BAD DREAMS!

She opened her laptop and resumed watching Mulan, and found that she had stopped on the part where Mulan plans to run away in her father’s place. Glory had enough for another omen of leaving. She decided to act.

Clatter. Bang. “Glory?” her mom poked her head into the door.

“Go away.”

“No. What happened at school is something I can’t blame you for.”

Glory looked up, surprised. “You know about that?” She wondered who told her mother about this.

“The office called. Now I know about your problem.”

“Well, tell me! I’m not missing out on this part of the movie!”

She looks like she she’s going to explode, Glory thought.

“Okay. I’ll tell you.” Then her mom left the room. “Are you coming?”

Glory knew better than to not oblige. Her only choice was to follow her. The room dropped to a grave temperature.

“I know who your father is.” My mother led me to my mom’s room’s balcony. “He’s not your mortal dad.”

“Ugh. Not that again.” Glory groaned. Stories about children of the gods, demigods, they were called. She had gotten over that phase, obsessing over the Rick Riordan series Heroes of Olympus. “You made me read that when I was eleven. I’m thirteen.”

“And you still love it.”

“I don’t obsess over it!”

“You still have your Camp Half-Blood t-shirt!”

“I never wore that!”

“Okay, fine, I’ll break it to you now. Your dad’s a god.”

Glory raised her eyebrows. Her mom didn’t seem to be joking. She sighed. “Is this a prank?” She couldn’t believe it. For once, her mom seemed serious enough to be convincing.

“Well, I never knew which god, but it is definitely an ancient greek god.” Her mom looked at her right in the eye. She never did that unless she was really serious, and the only other time when she did, that was when, Glory won the school’s Young Geniuses finals.

Glory decided she had enough. She left the room, walking into her room. She heard her mom calling after her. She packed her laptop, clothes, radio, phone, and some of the snacks she stashed in her room. She walked past her family picture of her mom, dad, herself, and her two older siblings leaving for college and her three younger siblings running to their new cabins at camp. It was summer, the perfect time to leave, and she didn’t want her mom knowing where she was going, so she didn’t leave through the front door.

She jumped out from the window.