I wanted to do a fic that focused around Thalia's earlier life. And just to let you guys know for future chapters, I've got all of the woven parts planned out already. By woven, I mean...well, like how RR made Thalia and Jason be siblings. Or how the gorgons are after Percy in revenge for Medusa's death. That kind of stuff. Or...OH! The best example yet. How in TSoM Percy and Annabeth met Hylla and how Reyna saw them on Calypso's island, then Reyna happens to be Praetor for the twelfth legion. You see what I mean? How one thing leads to the next? I'm not just throwing random things into this story.

I don't own PJO/HoO, and now that I think about it, I don't want to. The books would never be done on time, no one would read them, and they would just plain stink. In my opinion, of course.

"Okay, kids. Time to pack up!" Katherine called to her class of first graders. Her red floral print dress flowed around her knees as she did her daily end-of-school routine of cleaning up after free time while the kids put their stuff away. She finished picking up the room just as the last of the stragglers hurried out the door. Katherine then began marking papers and doing her other duties. At about five forty-five she made her way to the door, the soft padding of her flats being the only sound in the room.

She made her way to the door, passing a desk with a drawing on it. She must have missed it. The teacher picked up the picture and checked the initials on the back. T.G. The kids barely knew how to write yet, so instead of having them write their full name, Katherine had just taught each one of them how to write their initials. She flipped the paper over, back to the front.

The picture was split in two, both parts with three people. The first one was of two adults and a child. The father and daughter looked similar with their blue eyes and black hair. The mother was blond with hazel eyes. They all seemed to be smiling, but there was something off about that drawing. The grey background seemed to be darker near the woman, and she seemed to be holding a green bottle in one hand. None of the smiles appeared to be genuine. The girl seemed to be staying closer to the man, as if she preferred him. Katherine could relate. But the next image was quite curious indeed.

It seemed to be the same girl, just a few years older. Maybe twelve? She was standing in between a young girl with blonde hair and a blonde-haired boy who seemed to be older than the girl in the middle. They all had their arms around each other and were smiling genuinely.

What was the oddest though (even if it wasn't odd to Katherine, it was still odd for a first grader's picture), was that each of the kids carried a weapon. Katherine brought it with her as she walked out the door. She would bring it back with her tomorrow. Still immersed in her thoughts of the drawing, Katherine pushed open the school doors and stepped out into the fiery light of the sun setting in May. The front steps should have been empty but one lone student was sitting on the bottom step, almost in tears.

"Thalia," Katherine called to the young girl. The seven-year-old turned around sharply.

"Oh. Miss Soleil. It's you."

Katherine walked up to the girl and sat down next to her on the steps. "Is this yours?"

Thalia looked over at the drawing and nodded. Katherine handed it to her. "What are these pictures?" she inquired.

"The first one is my mommy and my daddy and me. Mommy says that I look like daddy, so I made him look like me. Mommy is holding one of her bottles. I don't know what's in the bottles, but it makes her more mean. I'm next to daddy because I like him more than my mommy. The other one is from a dream I had. I'm older, and I have friends. Luke and Annabeth."

"That's interesting. Do you have these dreams often?"

"Nope," the little girl shook her head. "Just last night."

"Oh. Why are you still here? All the other kids left three hours ago."

"My mommy only picks me up usually because she comes home this way from work. She sees me and then she remembers. Today she didn't go to work and James told me he didn't want to be my friend, so I couldn't go with him."

"I can drop you off." At this, Thalia looked up, her big blue eyes shining with hope.

"Really? I can?"

"Of course. I think I know where your house is. Come on."

Katherine started up the car and turned on the radio. It began playing Route 66 by Chuck Barry. Both occupants of the car sang along with it and three others, laughing and talking, until they reached Thalia's house. Katherine glanced to the back seat to see Thalia looking slightly forlorn.

"Is this your house?"

Thalia nodded. Little did Katherine know that Thalia was scared of the awful things that might happen once she entered the house and saw her mom.

"Bye, Miss Soleil."

"Bye, Thalia. I'll see you on Monday."

As Thalia opened the car door, a man stepped out of the house. A man, Katherine noticed, who looked exceedingly like Thalia. Thalia's eyes became wide and shone with happiness. "Daddy!" the girl shouted, throwing herself at her father. Just as Katherine Soleil started to pull out of the driveway, the man nodded at her respectfully and said, "Thank you."

Katherine smiled and returned the nod. She drove home to her husband and three-year-old daughter. Only three years later would her favorite student disappear. Only three years later would she realize who that man really was. And only three years later would she truly wonder what begin to wonder–note that I said begin, as in the wondering would continue–what became of Thalia Grace.

Miss Soleil (the best teacher ever, in Thalia's mind) drove away and Thalia pulled herself away from her dad to wave at her. "Daddy! You're back! That's Miss Soleil. She's my teacher. Mommy didn't pick me up today, so she drove me home. It was fun. She's really nice. I like her. Why did you come back? I never met you, but Mommy talked about you a few times. She said I look just like you, and that she always wished that you would come back from O-lym-pus." She sounded out each syllable of the word carefully, trying to make her dad proud that she could say such a word so well.

Her father–her mother said his name was Zeus–laughed as they walked through the door. "I came back to see you and your mother, of course."

"Why didn't you come before?"

"My brothers don't know about you, and if they did know about you, they would never approve of you. Not because you're bad. You are a very good girl, Thalia. You are the best daughter a god could have. And you will be very heroic and brave one day. You will be a part of saving the world. But they wouldn't like that you're my daughter. That's why I had to go, so that you would be protected. If they knew about you, awful things would happen."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, Thalia. I wouldn't ever let anything happen to you if I can help it."

Today had been a great day. She hadn't seen her mother in the morning, she'd managed to make her own lunch and gotten the chauffeur (who only ever worked until two) to drive her to school, James had gotten sick (ha-ha, revenge!), she'd had a fun time with her teacher, and her father was back. Thalia threw her arms around him.

If, for some very strange reason, you want to flame this story, remember this: flames will be laughed at by me and my friends, then they will be deleted after we've wiped out faces of tears and we've gotten off the floor because our legs gave out because we were laughing so hard. :)