Blue eyes. The kind that held warmth, kindness, courage, determination and something that I hoped was love or at least admiration. I knew my eyes weren't that deep. They were only blue, glinting with nothing but hatred and the occasional spark when my temper rose. Luke's eyes were like water – they had a depth which you could lose yourself in. In comparison, my eyes were paint – neutral and plain, with only my father's spark to make them more than boring.

"Thalia," the small voice of a still shy Annabeth reached my ears and pulled me out of my silly daze. Luke could never love me as more than a sister. After all, he said we'd be a new family, together, just the three of us.

"Yeah, Annabeth?" I tried to be as calm as I could despite my confusion about my feelings towards Luke Castellan.

"Where are we going?" She was still young, so small in such a wide and terribly cruel world. I couldn't even answer her, which would make things worse. I had never doubted that Luke and I would survive together, but now we had Annabeth. I love her like a little sister (exactly the way I don't want to be loved by Luke) but it would be harder to make Luke fall in love with me when she was around. I really wanted Luke to love me, but something inside me doubted he ever would.

"We're going to a safer place, a place where we'll be safer. Does that sound OK?" Annabeth's blonde curls bounced by her ears as she nodded her head vigorously.

(note: this doesn't mean Camp Half - Blood because they don't know about it yet in this story)

I looked at her and saw a girl who was destined for great things. She was clearly a daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Her eyes were the gray of storm clouds and she spoke with conviction about things she had heard. I wanted to believe I was as brave as she when I was her age. I wished that I was that strong.

Luke had found us a safe place to spend the night and he had lit a fire for us to keep warm. Annabeth was sleeping, her small form curled up in the sleeping bag she was clever enough to bring. Against my advice, Luke had gone to steal some money from a nearby shop. I trusted him not to get caught - he was a son of Hermes, the god of thieves and merchants. He had said we needed the money to buy more food and that it could help us along the way.

'The way to what?' I had thought, remembering what Annabeth had asked earlier. I watched over Annabeth and the fire, turning everything over in my mind. 'Did I love Luke? Was I being ridiculous? Was this going to pass?' and the most important question of all - 'Could Luke ever love me back?'

"Both of you would be dead by now, Thals." I almost jumped when Luke snuck up behind me. 'Son of Hermes!' I thought to myself wickedly. I managed a startled smile, a genuine smile.

"You're lucky. I might've stabbed you. Don't do that to me again, Luke." I tried my best to sound serious but I don't think he was fooled. After all, he was the most talented liar I knew and, from my experience, I was a terrible liar. He would have to teach me how to lie sometime.

"I doubt you would ever stab me. You are dangerous, I'll give you that, daughter of Zeus." Just the way he said that made tingles run up my spine. I smiled in spite of my attempt to mask my feelings.

"Luke, where are we even going?" It just kind of slipped out. I didn't mean to ruin the moment and I really hoped I hadn't.

He stared out at the city skyline before answering. "Thals, I'm not going to pretend like I know. I promise we'll be safe, though. I promised and I'll do everything I can to keep you safe... both of you." It was so sweet but my heart dropped just a little at the end, when he said he'd do anything to keep us both safe. Of course, I wanted Annabeth to be safe, but for a moment I thought it meant 'I love you'.

"Do you reckon there are others like us out there, other demigods, I mean? I know I had a brother, but do you reckon there's more demigods?" I seemed to be on a streak of asking serious questions.

"Of course. I don't see why there wouldn't be. If three gods can have kids, then why can't all the Olympians. They had loads of demigods in Ancient Greece, so why not now?" He had a very good point. Why shouldn't there be more of us?

"The things that were following us, do you think they follow all the others as well?" Luke nodded and whispered the word 'yes'. I had seen him kill a monster and I had killed some too. It was needed. "Luke, you do realize that of the Olympian gods exist, then things like the Titans and the Underworld do too."

"Yeah, I've thought about that." he paused, as if thinking of what to say next, "Thalia, everything we know about the Greek Gods has come from middle school history classes. That information is merely what people think they now. Not everything archaeologists say is true. Sure, they corroborate with other sources, but honestly, people like us could make the world understand so much more." Again, he had a point, but I wasn't sure if it was a great idea.

"I'm not sure that we should tell anyone, Luke. What if people thought we were the freaks, not the monsters we've had to fight off. What if people put us in a zoo and looked at us all day, or worse, a mental asylum, for thinking we were the children of the mythological gods? I don't know about you, but it wasn't easy finding out I was a mutant. Do you really think mankind is ready to know that some otherworldly power is sitting right above one of the biggest cities in the world? I wouldn't be." I was confused as to where this conviction and passion was coming from but I was liking what I was saying and I just kept letting the words flow. Luke looked like he was contemplating what I had just said as if it was a speech worthy of a nobel prize.

He sighed deeply, tiredly. "You know what, you're absolutely right, Thals. I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. I guess I was just angry that people don't know how special we are. Mortals don't take kids with ADHD and dyslexia very seriously. They don't think we'll ever go very far. They just don't understand that we might save their world one day." He leant back on his elbows. I realized he was right - every demigod from our history lessons was a hero; they had all sacrificed themselves for the greater good or the safety of a city. I glanced at Luke. His eyes were closed as if he were thinking hard about something.

It wasn't easy being a demigod - to have grown up with one parent, ADHD, dyslexia and most demigods probably had a dodgy thing going on in their life, for instance, bullying, or, like Luke and I, a slightly insane parent. Annabeth's mother was undoubtedly Athena, and spiders hated all children of Athena. When Annabeth first found us she said she was running away from all the spiders, that they hunted her down wherever she went and she just had to leave her house. She ran away hoping the spiders would never find her.

I had run away after my mother had gone crazy and sacrificed my baby brother, Jason. Luke had left because his mother was completely insane and he just couldn't handle it. Annabeth had run from her worst nightmare. We were the kind of people who needed to band together to be strong. We were all weak in our own ways, and what we lost in ourselves was made up by the others. We were going to be the best family ever.