The apartment was small with two bedrooms, one for Sherry and Lacey, her two year old, and one for Adam and me. From the front door you could see the door to my bedroom, the living room and the kitchen in one glance. If you walked a little further a hallway to your right led to the bathroom and Sherry's room.

Speaking of Sherry, she was sitting at the kitchen table with her head in her hands. I walked over to her.

"I'm home." I said softly, gently touching her shoulder. She placed her hand over mine and I saw a piece of paper on the table. "What's wrong?"

"Just the super." She said, sniffing, and I knew she had been crying.

"They're not going to kick us out are they?" I asked. This had been a constant discussion between the two of us since Sherry had rented the apartment, whether or not we'd be able to pay rent or not.

"Not unless I pay this months and last month's rent within the next two weeks." She said, patting my hand. This was one of the rare occasions I wished I had a job. "I'll have to put in extra hours at the hospital."

"But you're already working double shifts." I argued. "You can't keep doing this, you'll run yourself into the ground. I can't outlive another mom!" At this point I was yelling and there were tears in my eyes. Even though I hadn't taken to calling Sherry mom, I had become attached to her and I didn't want to lose what we had.

"Oh, honey." She stood up and hugged me. She smelled of latex gloves and hand sanitizer. "You're not going to lose me. I promise."

"Mom? Is dinner ready yet?" A small voice said. I looked up. Adam was standing in the doorway to our room. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine." Sherry said, breaking the hug. "Dinner is almost ready. Did you finish your homework?"

"I need help." Adam said, glancing at me with an imploring expression.

"Alright, let's see how hard a six year olds homework can be." I said motioning for him to lead the way back into the room.

It turned out, he didn't really need help he just didn't want to be alone in the room anymore. So like the good "almost" sister I was, I sat with him on my bed while he finished his homework. Despite all the crazy stuff that had happened during the week, it was nice to just sit and relax.

"Meet anyone new today?" Adam spoke up from the floor. It was a question he asked every day. A way he could get involved in his "sisters" life. It had started when I met Dylan and up until today the answer had always been no.

"Yeah. I didn't catch his name though." I answered, leaning over to watch him write out another answer. He was working on English.

"Was he nice?" He asked.

I contemplated my answer for a bit. The man hadn't come off as rude, but I hadn't really talked with the guy either.

"He was okay." I finally said. Adam looked up at me, his dark eyes always looking like they could see right through me. He was too smart for a six year old.

"Did you think he was cute?" He asked.

"He was attractive for a twenty-something year old. But I wouldn't say he was cute." I answered. "Why?"

"Just wondering." Adam said before going back to his homework.

"What about you?" I asked. "Meet anyone new?"

His pencil stilled mid-sentence, but it lasted for only a second before he started writing again.

"No." He said.

I gasped. "Do you have a crush?" This time the pencil didn't still.

He didn't answer.

"You do! What's her name?" I asked. His head snapped up and he was blushing.

"Why does it always have to be a girl?" He demanded.

"It's not?" I asked, confused.

He shook his head like he couldn't believe me then went back to his homework. I sat up on the bed and leaned towards him.

"Adam. Is it or isn't it?"

"Does it matter?" He asked quietly.

"Yes. Is it or isn't it?"

He threw his pencil down and sat up on his knees. He looked me dead in the eye and I knew the answer. It wasn't a girl.

"Please don't tell mom." He begged, quietly. "I don't know what she'd say, or do, or-"

He was interrupted by me pulling him into a hug.

"Don't worry, little brother." I said then let him go. "I'm going to go help with dinner"

And I got up and left the room.

XXXXXXX

An hour later, the four of us were sitting down to eat, when someone knocked on the door. Well more like nearly blew the door off its hinges with the force of their pounding but since talk was kind of slow I was glad to be out of the kitchen. Until I opened the door.

Dylan was standing in the hallway having a panic attack. Normally I would chalk it down to him wanting to do something to calm his ADD, but I could tell this wasn't normal.

"We need to leave. Now." He said. His hands were shaking and he kept looking behind him as if he expected someone to come charging up the stairs.

"What?" I asked, confused. With an irritated huff he pushed pass me into the apartment. "Dude!"

I followed him. By the time I caught up with him he was in my room packing a bag for me. Sherry looked positively horrified as she stood in the hallway holding Lacey.

"What is going on?" I demanded. He was seriously starting to freak me out.

"We need to leave. Finish packing." He said, then rushed out into the hall. I started to follow but Adam stopped me. I tried to go around him but he kept moving in my way.

"Move Adam." I told him.

"No. Now finish packing." He closed the door and stood in front of it, arms crossed, blocking the exit. Grudgingly I went to my bed and started throwing random clothes items into the bag. With an irritated noise, Adam strode over to the bed and grabbed the bag. "You do not know how to organize."

"Trust me kid, when you turn sixteen, you won't care what's organized or not." I shot back.

While he was reorganize my bag, I walked over to the door and put my ear to it. The voices were faint, but I could still hear them.

"-Don't have time to explain everything." Dylan was saying.

"I know. Her mother told me everything before she passed." Sherry said. My mother?

"Then I hope she explained what the dangers are." Dylan sounded worried.

"She did, but only some. Although I had expected it to happen sooner." Sooner? Expected what to happen?

"Well, so did we." Dylan explained. "Something must have triggered it. Her memories or something weird happened."

My memories? The only thing I could think of was the warm glow.

"We need to get her to camp before every monster in the entire area feels it." Dylan said. He sounded panicked again. "But whatever we do, she can't know that she's a half-blood."