I don't own PJO or HOO and everybody knows that. Except maybe my dog. I'm not quite sure she knows that.

Chapter 2- Worry, Worry,Worry

"Luke, are you even listening to me?"

"Of course I am, Mark. You were just telling me about the Pokémon card you just won from David."

"It's not Pokémon, it's Mythomagic. And, you know what, I'll just go talk to Jack. At least he actually listens to me when I talk."

Luke watched as his friend stormed away from him, going to talk to a dark haired boy instead. He sighed. He had been paying less attention to school and his friends lately. But it wasn't his fault. There were just so many things going on in his life right now. Most importantly, his mom's and Tavy's seizures were becoming more frequent. His mom hadn't gone to work for almost two weeks now. This meant less money, less food and fewer pills. That was kind of ironic. The times when his mother really needed the pills were the times when she couldn't afford them. If she didn't get better soon, he would have to steal again.

The fact that Thalia and Fly were living with them didn't make the problems any smaller. If anything, it just made them bigger. More people to feed, for instance. Thalia refused to wear any more dresses. That led to a shopping trip, which led to more money being spent. In her defense, Thalia bought few clothes, and they were mostly cheap. Black shirts and pants for the most part. She seemed to like black.

Another good thing about Thalia: she cared for her brother. Changed diapers, feed him and put him to sleep. Luke didn't know that other people cared for their brothers like that. It was usually their mothers that did most of the caring. Then again, Thalia had said that their mother hadn't cared much for them beyond making sure that they wore pretty clothes.

She also wasn't as freaked out by his brother's seizures as other people might be. That could be due to the fact that she had a flying baby brother. Still, the money was running short. Luke dreaded the thought of having to steal again. Especially because of what had happened the last time. He had got caught and had had to return all of the things he had stolen. At least they hadn't arrested him or his mom.

The school bell rang. Recess was over. Luke got up from the swing he had been sitting on and walked back to class, still thinking about what he would have to do if his mom didn't get better. On the way to the classroom, Mark shoved him towards the wall. Luke was distracted, so he fell down, hitting his head on the wall. Mark and Jack laughed. Had that happened any other time he would have punched them both in the face. He couldn't afford to have any problems now though, so he just glared at them. He just wished that the seizures would stop.

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Thalia wasn't dumb. She had noticed when her mom's situation had started going bad. She had also noticed when her mom had gotten pregnant with Jason. And she had noticed both these things before the drinking and big tummy had started. Therefore, she definitely noticed that there was something wrong at the Castellan's.

There had been less food, though still enough for the five of them to cope. Tavy's and Mrs. Castellan's visions had also become more frequent. Luke also seemed more absent and sad, though he tried to hide that from her. She had seen him letting those kids push him. He had a big problem on his mind.

She was quite sure she knew what the problem was. Money. It's always money. How to solve that problem was the real question. When that had happened at her mom's house, she had always sold something she had found on her house and thought that might be valuable. She had become a good dealer, which is a strange thing for seven-year old girls to be. However, she couldn't just sell something from Luke's house. That would be stealing.

However, if she couldn't sell a valuable thing she found laying around, then what could she sell? She pondered that problem during math class, twirling her hair as she thought. That helped her concentrate. Her hair was the one thing both her and her mom liked. Long, straight and dark. Good for twirling and waving around in rhythm with the music. When the history class started, Thalia's face lit up. She had just had an idea.

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Luke and Thalia happened to have gym at the same hour that day. Thalia had asked Luke if he could pick up Jason after school today, because there was something she needed to do. Luke had nodded, too busy thinking about Tavy to bother asking Thalia what she was going to do. That was why he was at the school Tavy and Fly attended at three thirty that afternoon. He greeted Tavy's teacher and told her that Tavy hadn't come due to a cold. She had said she hoped he would be better soon and he thanked her.

Luckily for him, they had told Fly's sister the general lie about he and Thalia being cousins. That plus the fact that the teacher knew him from when Tavy had been one year old had helped him pick up Fly without any problems.

When he arrived home, the first thing he did was check on Tavy. His little brother was asleep, tears on his eyes. Well, at least he was asleep. Talking about sleeping, Fly looked like he was about to fall asleep any moment now. Luke took him to his crib and laid him down on the crib that had been Tavy's. He smiled. Fly looked so peaceful.

Tavy woke up a few minutes later, and he insisted in going outside to play. He looked well enough, so Luke let him. He heard Tavy speaking to someone outside and caught the words "pine tree". He smiled. Tavy had been calling Thalia that ever since they had met. Luke took out his schoolbooks and started doing his homework. A few moments later the door opened.

"Hey Thals."

"Hey Lucky"

Luke rolled his eyes.

"So, what is it that you did today instead of picking Fly up?"-he asked, without looking up from his homework.

It was Thalia's turn to roll her eyes.

"Well, maybe if you looked at me you would know."

Luke raised his eyes to look at Thalia. Her hair had been cut short, shorter than his. She was smiling a shy smile, a rare one to see in Thalia's face. Luke's mouth fell open.

"What happened to your hair?"

Thalia rolled her eyes again.

"It's in the laundry, washing."

Luke ignored the sarcasm.

"Why did you cut your hair?"

Thalia made a sad face. Luke couldn't tell whether she was faking it or not.

"You don't think I look pretty like this?"-she said with a really childish voice.

"No, you look great, it's just…"

"I know you need money, so I decided to sell my hair. It was worth quite a lot, mind you."

Luke did a very good imitation of a fish.

"But, your hair…You didn't need to…"

"It's okay, I never really liked it anyway"-she lied-"Besides, it'll grow back. Consider it my rent."-she smiled.

Luke looked like he wanted to say something, but before he could say anything, Tavy screamed.

"Wolf!"

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Little cliffhanger there for you. Sorry if the chapter was a bit boring, but it was kind of a filler. You can't just have life-or-death situations in all your chapters. It's the calm before the storm. Anyway, hope you liked it. Review please, reviews make me happy.

WriterCat97