Forever never lasts Long

Five years. Five years since she told her little, eight-year-old, half-sister, Phoebe, that she was only going to stand outside for some fresh air. She looks back on it with so much guilt. She had lied to a little girl who was the only child in her cabin to not know what love is, the only to be unloved, beaten, and untrusting towards everyone.

The minute passes.

Five years ago, she slipped through camp, carrying and small suitcase filled with clothes, when stopped by her mother. Who was trying to stop her, telling her that she was making a mistake. Only to be replied with a dull, "He's the only one who's made a mistake."

The old grandfather clock strikes twelve.

Five years ago, Piper Mclean crossed the boarder between Camp Half Blood and the mortal world, carrying her unborn children.

Piper's P.O.V.

Nicholas Kyle, Natalie Gracie, Leonardo Nathan, Noah Reese, Phoebe Noelle, and Jasien Rosemarie, my six 'babies'. People always tell me that I went over the top with their names, and people always try to give them dull, common nicknames. Leonardo is my only child that has a public nickname-Leo. Nobody uses nicknames for my kids but me.

Right now the "little angels" are fast asleep, obviously- it's midnight, they're four, what do you expect? -. I'm sitting in my bedroom with Jasien cuddled up against me. Out of all my kids, she's my trooper, but is the most dependent, even though nobody knows about it. I run my hands through the little patches of blonde curls atop her head, one way she reminds me of my self (besides the fact that her eyes tend to change color), she is determined to be a rebel. And she's pretty f*cking good at it. Three months ago, she took my razor and shaved off her pretty blonde curls. Last week, she manipulated the winds and air to pull all the posters off the walls in a school hallway because her teacher tried to make her do math problems. Jasien doesn't like school, and she REALLY doesn't like math. Yesterday she and her two of her best friends, Chase and Chance Jackson (Two of the triplets of Percy Jackson and Annabeth Jackson (Nee Chase) from their first pregnancy.), were playing on the roof of an old, abandoned, building near the stupid prep school they go to. But she reminds me of her father so much. She looks so much like a little bald-ish girl him with kaleidoscope eyes, and she seems to let off a feeling of power and leadership, much like all the Jackson kids.

Nicholas is what I think of the perfect, all-American boy. Mischievous, adorable; thinks girls have cooties; loves ninjas, dinosaurs, and guns. The only thing about him that doesn't feel as American about him is that he lets his silky brown hair fall to his shoulder. But, it's still adorable. And he has the prettiest blue eyes to match his father's. At the time, he's going through an 'I'm going to be an American soldier when I grow up!', phase. But I have to say; he's pretty set on this dream. I think he really will become a soldier the moment he's old enough. I totally support him. He understands that he could die, he's the child of two half bloods and all of his friends are the children of at least one half-blood. He can be whatever he wants. The down side to this: he must always be wearing at least one piece of camouflage at all times, which is hard because his school requires khaki uniforms.

Natalie is a bit of a girly girl. She was the first of my girls born, second of all my children. She has pretty, hip length, chocolaty brown, straight locks of hair, Cherokee tan skin and electric blue eyes. She's going to be a charmer one day, boys wrapped around her pinky finger, like play-dough in the palm of her hands, breaking hearts left and right. But she is NOT like a lot of Aphrodite daughters, specifically, Drew. She can fight her own fights, and kick a lot of ass in the process. Like her father, though, she fallows the rules, never breaks them. Teachers love her, the "popular girls" of her school's pre-k classes hate her because she doesn't play with them, and the boys are already breaking their neck trying to catch a sneak peak at what's to come.

Leonardo… he's too much like Leo Valdez. Always making sarcastic comments, making things into new things – sometimes bombs -, and making people feel awkward and/or bad about themselfs. He's the only one of his brothers that keeps his hair semi-short. Which is a good thing cause we don't have to brush his brown, and very visible blonde streaked, curls too much. He's also my ladies' man. If you could see him you'd probably know why the teachers always pinch his cheeks. With his incredible hair, amazing tan skin, and different colored eyes (one is blue, the other is kaleidoscope. Ever seen that before?) he is pretty flipping adorable.

Noah is my rock star. He wants to learn how to play all rock instruments. He and Evelyn Valdez are trying to start a band called "Nolin", I think that's pretty smart for four year olds – Noah, Evelyn; NO-ah, Eve-LYN; NO-LYN, get it? Evelyn might have gotten a head start at playing guitar but my Noah is the KING of the drums. I actually don't know weather he's actually good at playing because of practice and hard work, or because all children have this extreme natural ability to hit things (don't worry expecting mommies, it goes away over time, if you're lucky.). If it were the latter… well Jasien would make an INCREDABLE drummer. Anyway, he looks quiet a lot like Nicholas… except his hair is blond and reaches his shoulder blades; his eyes are like mine –kaleidoscopes- and he has my skin tone. Other than that the two boys are very alike.

Phoebe is my second youngest – Jasien being youngest – and is my favorite child most of the time. Always doing as she must, doesn't argue much, she's a 'go with it' kid. BEST FOUR YEAR OLD EVER! I do not like most kids. I like my friends' kids, cause they all know that life isn't all butterflies and sparkles. But they are all so hyper and noisy! Okay, Phoebe is sometimes like that, but when I tell her to shut up or sit down, she does so the first time asked. Wonderful much. She takes after her namesake, Phoebe Walker, one of the… I don't know… three, maybe four half siblings from camp that I liked. My child has the same eyes as Leonardo, but her hair is dirty-dish-water-blonde (personally, I find that rude when someone, like a teacher, or some parent calls her hair that color to her face, I prefer to call it sun-bleached-dandelion) with very light brown streaks, and she is very, very pale, with freckles on her cheeks and nose. Where they came from, I don't know.

Down stairs, I hear a knock at my door. "Konk-Knokity-Knok-Knok, Knok-Knok", repeats fives times before I shove Jasien off, and trudge down the stairs, mumbling, "Who the in the name of everything f-cking holy, is up at this flipping time of night… people with no life…" chuckle, "or Leo". As I reach the first floor of my tiny town house, out of the corner of my eye, I notice a little lump on my couch, Evelyn. I scoop the frizzy, black haired girl and make my way to the door. She probably weaseled her way through the cat door, again. Every Friday, in the middle of the night she comes over to my house so she won't miss Saturday Breakfast. I cook/host Saturday breakfast, Hazel and Frank cook/host Sunday dinner, Annabeth cooks and she and Percy host holiday meals (We don't trust Percy with the children's' food), and everyday the kid's go to Leo's house for after school for snacks. We once started breakfast without Evelyn because we thought she was spending the day with her grandfather – Hephaestus, who is one of the three gods that knows their grandchildren exist -, but she wasn't, so every Friday she wiggles through the cat door and sleeps on the couch. And Leo and I usually let her stay on my couch, that's the strange thing

I pull open the door to find Leo standing there, in his boxers. "You do know it's February, right?" I say with as much venom as I can muster, he needs to childproof his locks… scratch that: Evelyn proof them, child proof failed a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ng time ago – what if she got kidnaped, or lost, or hurt…

"I know what time it is, Piper." He says with in a grave tone. "But tomorrow, after breakfast, get the kids dressed nicely, we have to meet with someone important."

"Who?"

"They asked to be unnamed for the time-being."

"Leo Flipping Valdez, it is the middle of the night-" I try to say before being cut off.

"You and I both know you were up, don't deny it." All of the adults in our "little" "family" know the day I left camp, I found my kid's' father kissing another girl. It scared me, I don't know why it still bothers me, but it does. I don't give a f—k about what he does any more.

With an icy glare, I say, "I don't dress up unless it is absolutely needed… they need to be more important than my kids teacher if you want me to wear a bra, better than their principle to wear it inside my close."

Rolling his eyes, he say, "More important than the president." That can mean one thing, a god who doesn't know our kids yet.

With a low grumble, I hand him his kid and say "Fi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ine"

He smiles… and begins to walks back to his house. I sigh, shutting the door. I make my way up the stairs, knowing tomorrow is going to be no fun.