"Everybody stands as she goes by. 'Cause they can see the flame that's in her eyes. Watch her as she's lighting up the night. Nobody knows that she's a lonely girl. And it's a lonely world. But she gon' let it burn, baby, burn, baby."- Girl On Fire, Alicia Keys

The girl, Keiki, was lightly pressing a knife against my throat, she had a small smile on her lips but her eyes were completely emotionless.

"Three teenage kids aren't exactly stealth machines" she told us matter-of-factly.

Shrimp, Willet, and Baby Blue

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Percy reaching for Riptide in his pocket. "Move another inch and your girlfriend loses her head" growled Keiki. Percy froze, looking confused, I was too, there was no way she could have known that me and Percy were going out, funny how that bothered me more than the act that she was holding a knife against my throat. "Lucky guess" Keiki said, as if she was reading my mind. Something told me that there had been no guess in what she had just said. I was even surer of that when she continued to disarm us, taking my dagger, Percy's pen and Thalia's bracelet. There was no way she could have known a pen and a bracelet were dangerous. She laid out all our weapons and sighed wearily. She pulled them into her lap and sat down, leaning against one of the walls in the alley. I gently rubbed the spot where her knife had been just a few moments ago, Percy stood next to me protectively, Thalia stood on the other side of me. There was an awkward silence Keiki sighed, her face looked tired, but her eyes stayed cold and hard, like chunks of stone. "What do you guys want?" she asked looking at our weapons. I looked at Percy; she said it so bluntly, as if she was expecting the worst.

"Are you guys demigods?"

"What?!"

"De-mi-gods, demigods"

"Um well yeah, how do you know about demigods?"

"No idea, all I know is that I'm one too"

"Who's your godly parent?"

"Buddha"

*Choke*

"What?!"

"Just kidding, I don't know"

"You don't remember us?" asked Thalia after a pause.

"Nerp" said Keiki.

"Oh" there was an awkward silence as Thalia studied Keiki who started to hum the birthday song (does that song even have a name?).

"'Course you don't" Thalia said, looking at Keiki strangely. One thing was for sure, Keiki was a weird one.

"We met you when you were about seven, you told us to call you Keiki because your favorite food was cake" I explained to Keiki.

"Cake? I don't even know when was the last time I had cake…" Keiki mumbled, looking confused. Percy sat down next to her, "Don't worry about it, the important thing is that we're here now and that we're going to take you to a place where you'll be safe." Keiki looked at him for a bit, then wrinkled her nose, "Where are we goin' Shrimp?"

"Shrimp?" asked Percy, offended.

"You smell of the ocean", she said ocean the same way you would say dead cat that's been sitting in a pile of trash in the hot sun all day. Just to clear things up for anybody who might think that actually smells decent (I don't know, there are some pretty weird people out there), in other words, she said it like it was something utterly repulsive. Percy opened his mouth to protest but Thalia gave him a look that clearly said shut up, "Camp Half-Blood, the only safe place for demigods like us. It's in Long Island. But no one ever notices it because it's protected by magical borders called Mist, which are reinforced by the Golden Fleece. The Golden Fleece is protected by a dragon." I don't know why I said it; the information just sort of flowed out. Keiki just sat and watched us for a while, like she was deciding whether we were crazy or not. She sighed, closing her eyes and running her hands through her hair, "Fine Willet, I'll go" she sighed, Willet? "Even though I'm sure ill regret it". Regret it? One question at a time, "Willet?"

"Willets eat shrimp" she answered with a devilish grin. I felt the heat rise into my cheeks. I didn't know exactly what she meant, but it didn't sound PG.

:::{)i(}:::

Keiki's POV

A white van took us to the camp. Nobody seemed to understand the strangeness in that. I mean c'mon a white van. Even saying white van makes most people suspicious. But the kids didn't seem to realize. They were pretty clueless, they only realized I was homeless when I told them I had to leave behind my last possession in Texas, even after I left without saying goodbye to anyone and without bringing anything. Something about the kids was weird, it made me nervous… I really missed Baby Blue.

If you asked me why I had decided to go to a camp in Long Island with three complete strangers I would have no answer. I truly didn't know, but something about the whole situation was so… déjà vu. Dragons, Golden Fleece, demigods, magical borders, Mist, it was all so familiar. It was like seeing a movie and you're positive you've seen the actor somewhere but you just can't remember where. Stuff like that probably didn't happen to most people, but then again, I wasn't like most people. It was funny to see these three kids next to me, thinking they had found someone else that was just like them, as I said earlier, so clueless. I would never be like them, or anyone else for that matter I would always be different always alone, and outcast, I didn't fit in no matter where you shoved me. I learned to deal with it, I even learned to use it to my advantage, but it would always be hard to See, it reminded me of what I would never have. It was especially painful to Look at them, the ties between them were so strong. Especially Shrimp and Willet, I swear I have never seen so much pink in my life, the tendrils thick and tightly wound as old tree roots, forming a connection that would take something much stronger than an axe to sever. Well thank you Shakespeare, for that informative description of the tree roots of love.

I sat with my head against the window or the rest of the car drive, I couldn't bear much more of Shrillets' (you know you like the name, at least it's better than Wimp) bright pinkness. It started to rain. I sat separate, my forehead against the cold glass as the kids talked to each other in whispers, I'm sure I heard them laugh once or twice. For some reason it made my empty stomach ache, Stop it, I told myself, you're used to this, you're used to being the outcast, alone. A place as damn big as the world could get lonely real easy.

Gosh, sorry this took 1000 years to write, ive been... so ummm busyyy... :/ eep