"Tanya!" I screeched, loudly, in search of my flighty little sister. She had feet that could go at, what was to me, an inhuman pace, but had a magnetic force that seemed to attract them to inanimate objects. Long story short, she's fast, but she's a major klutz. Usually, I could use this to my advantage. Unfortunately, the hallways in my house were lacking such objects. And that is where she lurked the most.

Her giggles echoed through the hallway, but I still couldn't see her.

"Tanya," I warned, using 'my indoor voice' as my mother would put it. The last thing we needed was for our neighbors to call the police. No. Not on my first night of official babysitting. That would totally suck.

My parents, after much argument, had decided that fourteen was old enough to stay home alone, and to hold responsibility for the house, and the brat that inhabited it. (Tanya.) Tonight was their anniversary, and they'd left me in charge. I'd thought this was great, until Tanya decided it was fitting to play hide and seek. Without asking me first.

Seriously, she just up and left. Disappeared. Poof. Gone.

"Say 'Marco!'" Her voice sounded muffled, like she was standing behind a wall or a door. I wasn't exactly positive. My hearing wasn't all that great, and neither were my 'seeking' skills.

I decided to play along, "Marco?"

"Polo!" She squealed from behind the mystery wall, door.

This was getting me nowhere. "Tanya," my tone was taking on a authoritative tune that I wasn't at all aware that I had, "If you don't come out right now, I'm telling mom that it was you who spilled hot chocolate all over her blueprints." I smiled smugly as I heard scurrying.

Yes, I sucked at hide and seek, but I was decent when it came to ultimatums.

"You're no fun," she whined, as her ten year old self rounded a corner and she marched right up to me. Her blonde hair was disheveled as if she'd been hiding in a closet, which she probably had, and she frowned deeply, her eyebrows creasing together, and her gray eyes narrowing, "You never let me have any fun!"

"This is my first time babysitting you."

"No one ever lets me have any fun!" She pouted "Mom doesn't let me visit Aunt Thalia and her friends, anymore-"

"You shot an arrow at Phoebe's backside," I pointed out, fairly, wincing as I recalled the memory.

She sniffed, as if my point were invalid, and continued as if I hadn't said a thing, "Daddy won't let me go to the park by myself."

"Because you nearly drowned three of your classmates the last time on a field trip," I couldn't keep the bitterness out of my tone. My younger sister had shown signs of inheriting abilities, not very powerful abilities mind you, but still abilities from our grandparents.

But me? I might as well have been born into a mortal family. Honestly. It was as if the half-blood genes skipped me.

I shook the thought away as Tanya continued her rant, "It was an accident!"

"It was not," I rolled my eyes. "You were just jealous-"

"That they had the balloons from the souvenir shop," she recalled, squinting her eyes, as if she were feeling envious all over again. She quickly recomposed her features to look indignant, "I was not jealous!"

"Okay, okay," I surrendered, "You weren't jealous. How about you go change into your pajamas and brush your teeth. Make me look like a good babysitter," I pointed my arm in the direction of the bathroom, smiling hopefully.

She pretended to think about this. "Nah!"

"Tanya, you don't have to go to bed just yet," I compromised, weakly. "Just get ready for bed."

"...Can we watch Spy Kids?"

My eye twitched at the mention of the gods forsaken movie that our entire family had been forced to endure thirty-three times. I'll admit I liked the movie when I was ten, as well, but after seeing it thirty-three flipping times... My eye twitched again. Tanya was watching me, expectantly. I sighed, "Fine! We can watch Spy Kids."

"All three of them?"

"Don't push it."

She crossed her arms, "I'm not quite in the mood to change into my pajamas yet. Maybe I'll just walk on over to Carlie's house-"

"We can watch two," I knew that giving into her demands would only make it worse, but really, she had gained all the stubbornness that had skipped me. Unfortunately. "And that's only if you do as I say," I pretended to tap a non-existent watch on my wrist, "Now."

"Two," she repeated, eying me skeptically.

"One...Two...Three...Four," my tone increased in volume as I said each number.

"Okay," she bit her lip. I knew giving in wasn't easy for her. "Okay, okay! Stop counting! I'll do it!" Her feet danced down the hallway and I heard the faint sound of the bathroom door slamming shut, and I smiled briefly to myself.

I should have known my peace wouldn't last long. I jumped slightly as the phone started ringing. Thinking that it was only my parents calling to check up on us, I didn't make any effort to hurry to the phone.

But as it kept ringing, it made me uneasy. As silly as it sounds, the phone seemed impatient to me. After about three more rings, I became alert. Something was up. Something...I didn't know what.

It could just be Tanya. Usually I got these paranoid feelings whenever she was up to her antics. The usual raiding my diary (ha, as if I even had one anymore...) But she was in the bathroom, and my heart rate increased in the slightest.

I picked up the receiver, "Hello?"

"Annabeth?"

I frowned. People usually mistook my voice with my mother's over the phone because it distorted our voices the tiniest bit. It must have been the only thing about me that was like my mother. My hair was black and messy like my father's, and my eyes were my own. Rather than sea-green like his, they were a darker shade of blue.

I considered lying, and claiming to be my mother, but after remembering all the times I'd seen teens on TV shows do that, I decided against it. The voice wasn't foreign to me. It sounded like the centaur from camp that I'd only met two or three times. Charon? No. That wasn't right. Chiron? "Uh, no. Claire, actually."

"Claire?" His tone sounded too forced, too cheerful. My paranoia grew. "Oh my. It's been a while. You sound so much like your mother." The way he said mother, I could tell he wanted to talk to her, but he probably thought it was rude to straight out ask. "Is she home?" Or maybe not.

I plopped myself onto one of the kitchen stools and leaned forward on the marble counter top, "No. She and dad actually went out tonight. It's their anniversary."

"Oh," he replied, sounding put off. "Well, do you by any chance know when they might be home?"

"I'm not sure," I glanced at the clock, "But it's already eight, so I don't think they'll be much longer. I could give you my mom's cell number if you'd like," the words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. I nearly face-palmed.

Half-bloods weren't supposed to have cell phones, I could hear my mother scolding me already.

"I'm not certain that would be such a good idea," he said, gently, probably having thoughts similar to mine at the moment. "Could you just have them call me back at the camp number, or perhaps Iris message me?"

I nodded, but then felt stupid, because he obviously couldn't see me. "Uh, yeah, sure. Um, if you don't mind me asking, is everything alright?"

"Yes," he said in a hoarse voice. "Everything...is just fine. Could you have them contact me?"

"Of course," I responded, tightly. He was lying. "Um. Bye."

"Goodbye," was all he said before hanging up.

The sound of bare feet slapping against tiles grew closer, "I'm ready to watch Spy Kids!" Tanya sang cheerfully.

I managed a small smile, "Okay."

Call me nosy; but what was going on?

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-Author Notes-

The sticky notes above^ will be for when the whole myth thing plays in. Just for reference, really. My only worry for this chapter is that Claire sounds a bit whiny when she refers to Tanya's 'powers'. Criticism is welcomed and appreciated. Also, same deal for the Review Replies space. I'll use that to respond to your questions, concerns, or advice. Sorry. I have OCD, and there needs to be a certain space for everything in my book. *sighs*

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