This update came faster than I expected...

I don't own PJO.

R&R. :)

Anastasia is human. She's just a normal person. Or so she thought. She knows many things about herself, but unfortunately, not everything. Quite a few important things, she hasn't found out yet. And now, what she didn't know was that her life is going to be much more different.

This is what she knows, or so she thinks she knows: Her full name, also one that most people don't know about, is Anastasia Lydia Coll. Everyone calls her Tia. She doesn't have a mother, nor a father. A lady and her husband adopted her, so that means she is an orphan. The lady, by the name of Liza, became her mother. The husband, who's name was Mark, died in an accident about a few months ago.

Liza doesn't really care about Tia, as long as she's happy, satisfied, then it's alright. She is the "let loose" kind, so Tia lives life the way she likes without any disturbance from her mother. She likes Liza enough, but sometimes, hard to avoid, she feels as if she had been neglected. Her friends all envy her, because her mother doesn't care about her grades, and the fact that Liza lets her do whatever she wants.

And she really does.

So she goes wild.

No kidding. Her closet is oversized. Everything's in there, from strapless shirts, ball gowns, designer jeans, khakis, silk robes to puffy skirts, 5-inch-high platform heels, thigh-high cowboy boots, push-down socks, lacey gloves with no fingertips, etc.

And don't forget the jewelry.

And what's hard to imagine is this: all the outrageous outfits, all the wild wild WILD stuff, and still she doesn't care. In fact, Liza actually takes a liking to her closet! Très weird, I know.

She doesn't know what race she's from, nor her nationality.

Oh, by the way, let's just say she's lucky the family she got adopted into was rich. Mark was a billionaire, and that's the way she'll remember him.

Alright, enough introductions. So, back to reality.

She was packing her bag. Liza was out again, doing Lord-knows-what, but no doubt spending – wasting – money. So here's her perfect chance to "get out".

She took a sling-over backpack, threw a few shirts into the bag, a pair of jeans and a pair of sneakers. And some energy bars. Her silver bracelet was on her wrist. She doesn't know what it does, but she's had it since she was a mere child, she remembered. And the necklace was with her too, around her neck. It had a silver chain, with no end. No clasp, no lock, nothing. And hanging from the chain was a pretty transparent pendant. In the tear-drop shaped pendant, was a kaleidoscope-ic colored structure of a circle with 8 arrows. Not that she knows what it means, though.

Anyway, she had on a hooded sweater, jeans, and on her feet were combat boots. She looked around her room, promising herself that someday she was coming back to collect all her stuff.

Tia stood outside the gate, forcing herself not to look back. She had half a mind to chicken out, go back in, and forget about her curiosity. After all, she had heard the phrase "curiosity kills" one time too many. But her curiosity won.

To her right, at the end of the row, was a forest. To her left were other mansions, quite alike hers, only without secret passageways. Ahead was a gorgeous recreational garden with a fountain spewing clean, fresh water.

Tia had never been in the woods, so she decided to give it a try. She hoped there were no snakes in there, because she hated snakes. One look at even a tiny one would make her legs turn to jelly. As she got nearer to the forest, she felt something stirring inside her.

Then suddenly a voice spoke in her head, "You had choices," it said. "But you chose the woods. Dangerous, yes, but a great choice. Very few people would think to venture in the woods, so you could practice your powers unseen."

Powers? Tia thought. She was just a human, not at all like those people in those Greek myths that she read. Demigods, that's what they were called.

The voice seemed to be able to read her thoughts, because it said, "That's what you think, not what you know. Don't worry. Everything's gonna be fine."

Said a voice in her head. Did it really expect Tia to believe that? Seriously?