Hey! Two (or more, depends on how long I can avoid my history homework) chapters in ONE day! Hehe, what a record ;) I realized I need one of these lil' fellas ;)

Disclaimer: "I don't own PJO. Deal with it."

Thalia POV(And so it shall be for the rest of the story, or maybe not :P)

I was doing pretty well, or so I thought, when I reached the subways station about three hours from my mother's house. Gah! I need a new name for her… hmm. Oh well, I'll get to that later! Right now, I have something to focus on. Not looking like a runaway kid who's trying to steal a subway ticket. Yeah, that's going to be a little harder than I thought.

After trying for 45 minutes, I decided to wait on one of the benches for someone to drop their ticket. I sat by some guy, he looked about eleven. He was wearing an old beat up coat. He had really bright blue eyes, slightly pointed ears, a slightly mischievous look, and messy blonde hair. I would never, ever, admit, but he looked really handsome, for an eleven year old. I guess.

Anyways, he was doing the same thing I was. Watching ever person who bought a subway ticket with a hungry look. Then I realized he was alone. Why on Earth would any kid sit alone and look at peoples' subway tickets? The same reason why. He had to be running away! Well, no, maybe I was just wanting-

Whoa! Thalia! Self! Me! Old lady at four o' clock, dropped ticket. GRAB IT WOMAN!

My inner self yelled at me and shook me out of my thoughts. My ADHD kicked in and my hand shot out and before the old lady could even realize it, I had snatched her ticket, and sat (somehow, don't ask me how, I have no idea how) in the exact same position. The old lady looked around for her ticket. As she did this, I pulled a book out of my backpack to hide my face. I heard her shuffling around. I wanted so badly to give the ticket back, but I knew I needed to get out of the station. Now. I could feel it in my veins. I kept my book firmly up and pretended to be intensely reading it. I heard her ask the blonde guy next to me if he had scene her ticket. I really, really hoped he wouldn't rat me out. I couldn't have this happen! I needed that ticket.

I moved the book ever so slightly, and gave the blue-eyed boy a pleading look, without the elderly woman seeing the ticket.

He faced her, and said, "No ma'am, I'm afraid I haven't seen it. I know the man who cleans the floor just came by, he might have swept it up."

He had a really convincing voice, and to help matters, the actual sweeping guy was a little ways away. The old lady thanked him and shuffled over to the guy.

A grin spread on to the boy's face as her turned toward me.

"That old lady must have been really blind, because you're book is upside-down."

I blushed crimson.

"Um… thanks…" I stuttered.

"You know, you're really fast at that. Stealing that is."

I blushed even more; I probably looked like a giant tomato.

"Oh, thanks."

He started to say something else, but then paused and took something out of his pocket. A pen, a ballpoint pen. He threw it in front of a middle-aged woman talking on a cell-phone, and as he reached for his pen, they collided, causing a minor tausle of her cell phone and bag. After apologizing and grabbing his pen, and then handing the woman her bag back, he went back and sat by me.

"What was that about?" I asked, thoroughly confused.

Then, a wide grin spread on his face, even wider that the one before. He uncurled his hand that was over the pen, and had a subway ticket there too.

I gapped at his hand.

"How did you…?" I trailed off.

"I've been doing this for a while."

"Oh. That's… nice. I've been doing this for," I glanced at the clock. "Five hours."

He looked slightly surprised.

"Hey, you're pretty good for five hours!"

We laughed. I don't even remember why it was so funny. I guess it was just the conversation in general; the oddity of the subject, along with the fact that we talked about it like most people do the weather.

"Well, where are you off too?" I asked him, referring to the ticket he had snatched.

"Ah, I'm off to Clearview" I looked at my ticket, then smiled slightly and looked up at him.

"Looks like that's where I'm off to, too." We both smiled.

"Well, I guess since we're going to the same place, I'd better introduce myself. I'm Luke, Luke Castellan."

He held out his hand. I shook it, saying, "And I'm Thalia, Thalia Grace."

And for the first time, I didn't say my last name with disgust.

Luke and I rode to Clearview, and then we stayed overnight and were able to get two tickets from where someone had ignorantly left them on a bench. From there we caught a few more rides, stayed on street benches, and eventually ended up in Washington DC. There we found a really cheap hotel to stay at, and I used the money I had been saving to stay somewhere, combined with some that Luke pitched in to get a room. The clerk didn't seem to realize that we were kids, or maybe he didn't care. We sat our backpacks on the small table, and I had an urge to open the curtains. I opened them and looked out onto the street. The sun was setting on the other side of the hotel, and the view was only an alleyway with a few dead pigeons, and we were on the fourth floor, which disturbed my height problem, but at least I had made it this far. Luke had sat on the couch and turned on the news.

"And I woman in WestPoint, New Jersey has reported her neighbor's missing child. The old woman claims her neighbor often yelled at her child, and had heard her beating the girl too. She said she was about to report it, when she noticed for about a week that there were no sounds from the girl. She visited her neighbor, and found that she was drunk, and there was no sign of the young girl anywhere. Now she is very worried about the where-abouts of nine-year-old Thalia Grace-" With is I viciously turned the news channel, and it's stupid plastic-surgeried news lady.

Luke stared at me. He stood up and hugged me. Unknowingly, I had been crying. Luke patted my back soothingly, and told me it would be ok. After a few minutes of this, I stopped crying and went to my backpack. I took out a Swiss army knife that I had taken from my mother.

"Thalia, um… I really don't think you should-"

In one fluid movement, I took out the sharpest blade, grabbed my hair, and cut it it right below my chin. The long locks of wavy black hair fell to the floor, and Luke and I stared at them. Then Luke walked up to me, closed the knife, and then took my chin in his hand.

"I like your hair better this way."