Dear Annie,
I met you again today. You looked different, but I could tell it was you. You had the same bossy, confident air about you that I loved. You didn't know me. I think, had you had a hammer in your hand, it would've been me you brained this time. Sorry for coming out of nowhere and scaring you. I just couldn't help myself…
"Who're you?"
Thalia bit her lip. She hadn't been expecting this. Lady Artemis had sent her to scout out a campground for them. A little girl wasn't part of the equation. Especially a little girl who reminded her so strongly of a different little girl, one she'd practically raised for a few months. She steeled her courage, and looked the little girl in the eyes and almost fainted. Those eyes… they were the wrong color, as was the hair, but…
"Annabeth?"
"Your name's Annabeth? Why d'you sound so hesitant?"
"No, sorry. I'm Thalia. You just… remind me of someone I used to know."
"Was her name Annabeth?"
Thalia swallowed the lump in her throat. "Yeah. Yeah, kiddo, it was."
"D'you miss her?"
"Yeah. I do."
"I'm sorry."
Those words startled Thalia out of her funk. Annabeth wouldn't have said that. She rarely apologized, and at seven, fresh from the father who ignored her and the stepmother who resented her, she rarely showed any compassion at all. She poked the little girl in the ribs. "A name for a name, kiddo. What's yours?"
"I'm Clarissa. Clarissa Anderson."
"Well, Clarissa Anderson, it's nice to meet you. What are you doing out in the woods all by yourself?"
"I ran away." Clarissa declared.
Thalia smiled inwardly. Yes, this was Annabeth. "Why?"
"A'cos I wanna find my mom."
"She left you and your dad?" Thalia felt a sense of deja vu.
"No." Clarissa said bitterly. "I'm adopted. She didn't wanna keep me. But I'm gonna prove to her that she should've."
Thalia's urge to grin disappeared. This wasn't a laughing matter. Annabeth-or a reincarnation of her-had run away from home to find her mother. The similarities were terrifying. She wasn't going to let this little girl leave what was probably a loving family just because Annabeth had done it. Even if Clarissa was Annabeth's reincarnation, she didn't have Annabeth's memories.