Day 22

Another day at Camp Half Blood.

I wish I wasn't so slow at foot racing. As Percy put it, being slower than a tree is simply humiliating. I met another one of my half sisters, a tree nymph. Yet another daughter of Zeus. Or (in more general terms) child of Zeus. Why do I see all these signs about my father but never see him personally? I'm his only half blood kid since…forever.

Archery. I'm not nearly as good as the Apollo kids, but I do fairly well. I've also gotten quite good at ducking from stray arrows. Most of them coming from Percy, of course. (He sucks at archery.)

I'm too scared to go into the water for canoeing and kayaking. What do you expect? Anyone who makes fun of me gets their eyebrows shocked off. Clarrise has half an eyebrow left. Ha!

Climbing wall is still too hard, and I've tried to skip it whenever I can.

Swordplay I suck at. Must I go on?

So anyways, things are back to normal at camp. Well, Silena wants to hook up Justin and Minerva up together. She's been trying to convince me to be a go between kind of person for them. She said something like, "Zeus is perfect for a go between! If any of the Aphrodite kids tried to do it, they'd get suspicious! But Zeus is perfect! Especially for Athena and Hermes!"

"Um, I'll think about it." I replied and ran away. Far away.

Some days I think I'll go off and join my half sister, Artemis, and her Hunters. Except that stupid Zoë Nightshade will be there, and she'll say, "I told you so." About Luke, of course.

Annabeth mentioned that she might join the Hunters if Grover asks for one more enchilada or Percy drenches her in water again.

Day 23

Well, after Silena cornered me about the Justin and Minerva thing for the third time today, I finally broke down and said yes. She left satisfied. Jeez, Aphrodite kids are VERY persistent when it comes to "matters of love." They also enjoy romance novels, although they hate books that have to do with a word starting with "Art" and ends with "emis." I bet you don't know what that is.

About five minutes after that, Annabeth came to me. She was upset. Well, she was soaked and shivering, so no duh! (Percy had probably dunked her in water or something again while they were sparring.) She started yelling all this stuff about Percy.

First, I got her into dry clothes. Then I sat her down in my cabin (where I have all the privacy I want, thank you very much). Then she poured her heart out to me.

Apparently, Percy is a first class jerk who doesn't give a damn about her feelings. Wow. He isn't that bad of a guy, right? I told her this. Then she burst into tears again.

I knew it. Annabeth likes Percy.

But really, Annabeth acted so out of character. She wasn't the smart daughter of Athena that I knew. Was love really this powerful? (Well, Silena would say yes. But that's just her.)

"Stop it." I told her severely. "Are you a daughter of Athena or are you another one of Aphrodite's kids?"

"Athena's." she sniffed.

"Good. So behave like it. Annabeth," I sighed. "I totally understand what you're feeling. But just wait, be patient, and you might be surprised. Boys are really dense, and it takes a while for them to understand those things."

Annabeth nodded.

After a little while, she was back to her old self again. This time, she was sprouting all these facts on the Great Wall of China before I finally managed to kick her out. (Which took over an hour.) Great, now I know all these facts about the Great Wall of China.

Day 24

Anyways, Silena managed to maneuver Justin next to Minerva when I came out to play volleyball. How did she do that, I have no clue.

And how did she manage to make a sword pop out of nowhere?

"Here ya go, Justin." I heard her say. "A nice sword, I'm sure you're so valiant and strong. Isn't that right, Minnie? Why don't you demonstrate some swordplay, Justin?"

"Um, no thanks." Justin mumbled, and blushed. He's a little shy.

Minerva looked like she didn't want to be called Minnie.

"Oh, hello, Thalia!" Silena turned around and beamed at me (in fake surprise). "How are you? Don't Justin and Minerva look absolutely darling next to each other like that?"

"Um, sure." I said, and turned around to walk away.

Unfortunately, she grabbed on to my wrist and pulled me closer to them. "Here, Thalia, sit next to Minerva."

I sat next to Minerva, who was trying her best to look at the sky. I heard her mutter very quietly. "Please, Mom, if you hear me, save me."

No reply from Athena.

Silena talked a lot about random, everyday things that absolutely bored me. It was unbelievably awkward, but I kept quiet and listened (tried to listen) to Silena talk about the latest summer colors.

At dinner, I noticed Minerva staring dreamy eyed at no one other than Travis Stoll! I think Silena noticed, too, but she doesn't care. Knowing her, she'll probably try her best to hook up Minerva and Travis. Then Justin and someone else. Then Percy and Annabeth. Then me and someone. Groan.

Thalia Storm does not like boys.

Luke didn't count. Or doesn't count right now.

Why am I suddenly thinking of Luke? That good for nothing traitor! I can still picture him, though. Not in the picture that Annabeth showed me, of when he was nineteen, but back when we were a trio. His face unmarred by the scar, his smile much easier, his hair blowing in the wind. I passed up my chance to join the Hunters for Luke, but now that whenever I think about him, I get a sick feeling in my chest.

Ugh, having a diary doesn't exactly make things less confusing.

Day 25

A week of bad romance all around. Silena broke up with this boy from the Apollo cabin. Or rather, she broke his heart. Silena is definitely Aphrodite's kid. The only thing is that I wonder about my dad.

Here, I'll make a list of things that makes me have that awful feeling inside my chest.

My dad, whether he cares or not.

Luke.

My mom, whether she'll accept me.

What age I really am

The prophecy about Percy or me or whoever

That actually made me feel better. Just a little.

I think I improved in archery even more. Next to the Apollo kids, I'm the best archer in camp. No, sometimes I can be just as good as them. I wish I joined the Hunters when I had the chance whenever I think of Luke.

I'm going to ask Annabeth if I could borrow her hat, the one that can make you invisible. I'm going to do something.

Day 26

Okay, so I spied with Annabeth's hat.

I was just curious. Love is a weird thing. A very weird thing. I want to find out more about it. (Yes, I know some things, I looked at some adolescence books for Zeus's sake! Wait a minute, Zeus is my dad, so am I cursing my dad? Ah, who cares.) Why does Annabeth like Percy? Why does Percy like Annabeth? (I'm calling it Percabeth. I hope they don't find out! ) Why does Minerva like Travis? Why does Grover like the Hunters? (I've heard him talk about them.) Why does Girl X like Boy Y?

I dare not ask Silena. Quote and quote, "Love is all powerful."

I snuck around a little, and bumped into MINERVA AND TRAVIS MAKING OUT BEHIND CABIN ELEVEN! I am dead serious. And totally disgusted they would kiss after knowing each other for a little while.

Then I heard giggling. It was coming from the Aphrodite cabin. I snuck over, and peeked into the window to see what was happening. There was a fully grown man there, one with freaking wings. Yes, wings.

Now, normally angels have wings. This was no angel. I recognized him at once. Eros, son of Aphrodite and Ares (also known as Cupid), the guy who shot love arrows at people, making them fall in love.

Silena was furious. I strained to listen to the conversation.

"Not fair! I wanted to hook up Justin and Minerva! They would seem like a cute couple!" I heard her say.

"Now, little sis, no need to get so angry! I just wondered how Minerva and Travis would be!" Eros laughed. Another girl, about thirteen years old, smiled admirably to her older brother.

"If you take the 'R' out of brother, he becomes a bother." Silena snapped, and then sulked.

They talked some more about boring stuff, when Eros announced he was going to cut his visit short and leave.

I stayed outside, until Eros came out. He was walking away toward the camp's borders, when I ran up to him and touched him lightly on the shoulder. He turned around.

I took off the cap. "Hi. I'm Thalia, daughter of Zeus." I said.

"Thalia. Yes, I've heard of you." Eros said, inspecting me critically. "You're the one who might be in the prophecy, you or that son of Poseidon."

There it was again! The prophecy!

"Yes." I replied politely. No use angering a god. "I have a few questions on love."

Eros's eyes softened. "You're talking about Luke, aren't you?"

"How did you know?" I blurted out, and then blushed. Just slightly.

"My mom's the goddess of love, and I'm her most trusted servant. There's not much I know about love, dearie."

I didn't like being called dearie, but I didn't say that! "Why is love so confusing? Why do you fall in love with a certain person?"

"Well." Eros said. "There are three kinds of love. There are crushes, which isn't true, true love, but more of a strong attraction, usually to the person's physical characteristics. You follow?"

I nodded.

"Good. The second kind of love is god invoked. That means Mom or me or some other immortal in the love department. The most common. This kind of love is deep, serious, and true. God invoked love is NOT fake. Understand?"

Another nod.

"The third kind is perhaps the most confusing, but most powerful. It's when you love someone on your own, for their own being, their existence. Without anyone meddling at all. It's kind of hard for a young one like you to grasp. It's what your little friends Percy and Annabeth feel for each other. And it's what you and Luke felt, too."

I nodded yet again, but tears stung my eyes. Luke was gone.

Eros smiled. "I hope I clarified things for you, dearie."

"Yeah, you did." I choked.

Eros turned around and walked outside the camp. I watched him leave. Luke…

Day 27

I can't stop thinking about Eros. And Luke. Especially Luke. Why did he have to go away? Why? That doesn't sound like the Luke I know, the one who smiled easily, loved Coke better than Pepsi, and never held any grudges.

This sounds stupid, but I want to join the Hunters. I rejected them last time, especially Zoë Nightshade and her stinging remarks. "Men can't be trusted, and Luke is no exception!" Those words hurt now.

Annabeth asked what was wrong with me today. I had missed nearly every target in archery, didn't touch my food, and was silent and listless all day.

Luke happened to me. Why did he leave?

Day 28

Forget Luke. I hate him. I also hate love.

End of another chapter! This is dedicated purely to romance and emotion! I would like to make this fic livelier, but Thalia is the more serious kind. I didn't like it when Thalia chose to join the Hunters after just a minute. (Bianca, too. Those kind of decisions take a long time.) So I decided to make this so it would make more sense that Thalia joined the Hunters.

And google up "percy jackson blue trident" and click on the first thing that comes up. Join the forum there!

And you are more than welcome to use "Storm" as Thalia's last name whenever you like.