Every night is the same. I go to my room, brush my hair, mom has a requirement I can keep it long as long as I keep it nice, clean my face, do a quick gargle of mouthwash, and then fall asleep to the sound of ocean storms on my laptop. Don't judge me, it's relaxing! Well it's relaxing enough to help me fall asleep though unfortunately my dreams are another story.
I'm always visited by the same man he has dark shoulder length hair the same color as mine though his has some gray coming in and the same piercing sea green eyes that seem to contain waves, but while his skin is darkened from what is obviously too much time under the sun mine is dark due to my moms native heritage. The first time I saw him he gave me a sad smile and apologized before saying "my beautiful daughter, I'm so sorry I've missed so much". Instinctively I moved to tell him that he must be confused, I'm not a girl. I may be short for my age and have long hair but I'm a guy, I have to be, but something stopped me from saying those words. As I moved to speak, a feeling like a wave came crashing over me, I didn't want to correct him. Heck if I know why I stopped, last I checked guys can't be girls, but I decided to roll with it. I mean it's just a dream and all guys dream of being a girl sometimes right? The dream always starts off this way, I wake up on the beach of Long Island sound, I brush my hair out of my face admire for a second my hands and how they're just ever so slightly more feminine and enjoy the slight differences in the way my body moves before the man gives me a smile, the kind I always thought my dad would give me, and then he takes my hand and we walk into the ocean. Then we just swim, never bothering to come up for air and he asks me about my life, how I'm doing in school, if I made any new friends, and how my mom is doing. One time he asked about Gabe, my stepdad, but when I told him about him he got really angry and the "air" around us crackled with power and we were suddenly sitting in the middle of a whirlpool. Let's just say I avoided talking about Gabe from then on. This time however I got really excited and started telling him about Mr. Brunner and how he's the first teacher who ever cared about me and how cool it was to fight with the swords he brought in while learning about mythology and how I was really excited to go on the field trip but that I really hoped I didn't mess it up like all the others. This earned a deep hearty laugh to which I frowned but he assured me that everything would be okay. We talked for a while longer while I swam around accomplishing maneuvers that even dolphins would be jealous of when suddenly the dream around me started to shake. 'Noooooooo' I thought, 'I don't want to wake up yet.' I clenched my eyes shut tight trying to will my body to ignore who ever was trying to wake me up when the man's hand clamped down on my shoulder, "come now Hydna," I quirked my eyebrow at the name as it was definitely new, "Grover needs you to wake up, I'll see you soon." Then just as I blinked I was suddenly in the real world again with Grover's awkward attempts to shake my awake while holding onto his crutches and the stupid feeling of wrong that always came from settling back into my body after one of these dreams.
"I'm up" I groaned before sitting up in bed and silently cursing whichever god thought it would be funny to make me a boy.
"Hurry up Percy," Grover said, his voice breaking halfway through, "the bus for the field trip leaves in 40 minutes." I flinched slightly when his voice cracked, scared of that eventually happening to me before shaking the thought out of my head, guys' voices cracked. It's just part of becoming a man. I nodded at Grover that I understood before getting up to start changing. I pulled my hair back and up into a beanie I had lying around, Ms. Dodds hates long hair on guys and she's helping chaperone the trip, before pulling on a baggy hoodie and a pair of cleanish jeans. Finally satisfied that I looked acceptable I pulled on my purple high tops, a girly color but one I enjoyed, and walked out to meet Grover for some breakfast.
"I really hope Nancy Bobofit leaves us alone today," I commented with a hopeful smile crossing my lips, "I have a feeling that as long as nothing insane happens this field trip will be fun."
Gods, I wish I kept my stupid mouth shut.