I scrambled around the corner so he wouldn't see me.

Once off the porch, Grover wandered towards the forest, not looking back.

When I was sure that Grover couldn't see me, I crept back under the window.

"-couldn't say in front of-" Chiron said

"-Athena has a point-" Dionysis insisted

"-important?-" Athena asked

"-smell like-" Demeter said impatiently

"SILENCE!" roared Zeus.

Everyone shut up quickly, and I held my breath so they wouldn't be able to hear me breathing.

"Now, Lord Hades, I believe you have something to say?" Zeus continued.

"Thank you, brother," Hades said in his dark silky voice.

"What are you doing, you idiot!?" a voice frantically whispered behind me.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. I turned towards the person guiltily, but quietly, so I wouldn't be struck down by the wrath of the gods in the room behind the wall.

It was Lucy, thank God- Thank the gods, I corrected myself- and not a counselor or some random camper.

"Why are you here?" Lucy hissed. She looked terrified and yet extremely pissed all at once.

Not waiting for an answer, she took my arm in a death grip and hauled me off the porch.

I put up no fight, because that would make too much noise, and that would lead to my eavesdropping being exposed.

Once we were out of earshot of the Big House, Lucy gave me an earful.

"You imbecile!" Lucy shrieked. "The gods could have fried you to an absolute crisp if they had caught you listening to their solstice meeting!"

"Yeah, about that," I said, not believing that Lucy's wrath was real, because it was completely unfounded.

"Mattie, shut up and listen to what I am saying." Lucy said sharply.

I shut up. Lucy had a dangerous glint in her eyes that really freaked me out.

"Mattie, the gods discuss things that would scare the crud out of you and scar you for life, if the nightmares didn't drive you insane first." Lucy said, gripping my shoulders and shaking me.

"Lucy, they weren't discussing anything freaky." I said, gently taking her arms off of my shoulders.

Lucy still looked pissed, but not as scared. "What were they discussing?" she asked slowly and with white lips.

"Um, the parentage of one of the campers." I said, shrugging.

Lucy's eyes went wide and her face went pale.

"I personally don't see what the big deal is, and neither do Athena and Demeter," I continued, oblivious to Lucy's emotional state.

"Who was it?" she asked.

"I didn't hear her name, you yanked me away before they said it." I said. I looked closer at her face. "Are you ok?" I asked worriedly.

"Thank the gods." Lucy whispered softly.

"What is it with all this secrecy?" I exploded. "First my parents telling me I'm adopted; Then coming to this camp, a place that I thought was a fictional setting from a book; Allie, who was supposed to help me these first few days here, dumping me on you and going off with her twin brother; and now you and the 'mysterious parentage' (here I did air quotes and a snobbish expression) of one of the campers... I'm sick of it!" I threw up my hands in exasperation and bagan to stalk off.

Lucy put her hand on my shoulder. "Allie and Alex aren't twins." was all she said.

I blinked owlishly. "But they look so similar..."

Lucy held up her hand. "Truce?" she asked. "I don't berate you for your stupidity, and you don't tell Allie I told you this, 'kay?"

"All right." I sighed. "More secrecy." I grumbled under my breath.

Lucy sat, patting the ground next to her.

I sat down, waiting to hear the information I wasn't allowed to let Allie know that I knew.

"Allie and Alex have a 'missing' triplet sister, Anna." Lucy began slowly.

"So they're like the Quagmire triplets from A Series of Unfortunate Events?" I asked curiously.

Lucy stared at me.

"What?" I said. "Whadid I do?"

"You read the most obscure books."

"I do not! They are very well known-" I began indignantly.

"Do you want to hear this or not?" Lucy asked.

"I wanna hear it." I said meekly.

"Allie and Alex don't speak about her, because its too hard." Lucy continued. "They arrived when they were ten, beat up and desperate for medical attention."

"what-" I began

"Let me tell the story, Mattie." Lucy said with a sigh.

"Sorry."

"They were attacked in New York by some monster, I'm not sure of the kind. Chiron fixed them up pretty well, and for a few weeks, they were happy."

"Uh-oh." I said "I sense a but coming..."

"Mattie!" Lucy cried. "stop interrupting!"

"Sorry!" I cried. "Wait, I remember Chiron saying something earlier about your Keeping abilities, and you haven't failed with me, blah blah blah, 'look at Allie, Alex, and Natalie, not to mention Anna!'" I quoted.

Lucy nodded. "I was their Keeper, but Anna didn't trust me, and convinced the other two to ditch me. After I realized it, I tracked the monster to the alley where it had cornered them, and the four of us were able to kill the monster. Chiron and the campers treated their wounds, and they settled into camp life."

Lucy sighed and closed her eyes. "And then came that disastrous visit of-"

"The Hunters, right?" I asked excitedly.

Lucy cracked open one eye.

"I can't not interrupt." I told her. "I have ADD, remember? What's the difference between ADD and ADHD, anyway?"

"You are sidetracked far too easily, Mattie. Where was I? Oh, yeah, the Hunters. This wasn't the visit where their cabin burned down, that was..." Lucy thought for a minute. "Wait, maybe it was. I don't remember. Anyway, Anna took an immediate liking to Artemis, and joined the Hunt. Allie and I believe it was due to the security that the Hunters could give her, the security that her alcoholic mother and absent father couldn't provide. Allie still believes, to this day, that it is her father's fault that Anna deserted her and Alex. She thinks that if he had claimed them when they first arrived, that Anna would have felt like she belonged, and not have joined the Hunt."

"Oh," I said softly. "Allie's more messed up than I am."

Lucy laughed. "By half-blood standards, you are not messed up at all."

"Not messed up? One of my parents is a god, for crying out loud." I said with a grin.

Lucy smiled. "What about me? I have goat hooves!"

We laughed, finding it much more funny than it should have been, but what the heck. It had been a stressful and surprising day.

Author's Note: Can you believe I updated so soon? Neither can I. I can't believe I wrote 1,152 words of this right after posting the last chapter. My muses love me right now, I guess.

Also this isn't the end or anything, I just cut the story here, otherwise this chappie would have been 2,000 words...

Thanks to my new reviewers:

storm-brain

rose (anonymous)

The Ocean Is My Inkwell

EdwardCullenIsCoolerThanYou

Ard Rhys

kelly jackson (anonymous)

And to my "regular reviewers" for Chapter 5:

Coco96

olympianchef213

Annie-morphs

[[12/27/08]]