We sat in my front room with a glass of juice in my hand and lemonade in hers, facing each other. I'd gotten cleaned up and changed out of my uniform. Laura had called her Mum and okayed a sleepover. She's changed into some of my clothes (we were the same size, albeit a slightly different style) and her uniform was in the wash for tomorrow. My iPod was playing Taylor Swift softly in the background.
"So," I began. "What do you want to know?"
She furrowed her brow and thought hard.
"How many gods are there?" she asked.
Start of easy then.
"I honestly have no idea," I said. "There are definitely the Twelve Olympians, but there are countless others that don't get much of a mention in mythology, like Hestia, goddess of the hearth, or Phoebes, god of fear. That's more a question for a child of Athena, no me."
"A child of Athena would know something like that?" she asked, obviously confused.
"Most probably," I said, sitting back and resting my head on the back of the sofa. "All demigods inherit gifts from their parents, usually something to do with what their parents are patrons of. Athena, for example, is the goddess of wisdom, so all her kids are incredibly bright. On the other hand, kids of Ares, god of war, are usually quite violent or angry. No offence," I added hastily, looking up at the sky.
It stayed silent.
"Who are you talking to?" Laura asked, looking up at the ceiling too.
"Sometimes the gods listen in to mortal conversations. I was just apologising to Lord Ares in case he heard and took offence at the comment. Seeing as nothing particularly bad has happened, I'd say he's not paying attention."
"Oh," she said, shocked.
"What else?" I asked, trying to change the subject.
"How many demigods are there?" she asked.
"How long's a piece of string?" I replied. "I have no idea. There are a couple of hundred at Camp, but they're only the claimed ones who can get every summer. There could be a lot more alive in the world. If they're not at Camp, they are probably blissfully unaware of their heritage."
"Do you ever wish you didn't know?"
I had to think about that. Did I? If I didn't life would be a lot simpler, a lot safer. But then again, I would be a completely different person.
"No," I said. "I love my life the way it is. I love the places I've been, the people I've met – I have a whole other family I never knew about. And I found my Mum." I smiled slightly. "I wouldn't change that for anything."
"Anything you wish you didn't know, hadn't done, or seen?" she asked.
I knew the answer to that straight away, but I didn't know if I could tell her.
"A few," I started carefully. "Knowing that there are monsters in the world doesn't exactly make me the happiest of people. I'm constantly looking over my shoulder for something that might want to kill me. The gods sometimes ask us to do things that end up getting us killed."
My eyes glazed over remembering.
"I've seen terrible things," I said, "Horrifying things that still haunt me. I've seen my friends, my family, killed before my very eyes. Wars you can't imagine. Creatures I can't even begin to describe. The world almost end because of evil several times. I've been close to death so many times I've lost count."
I shrugged, taking a haggard breath.
"But, I suppose it's all part of the deal. With all good comes bad. I supposed the amazing things I've experienced have to be balanced out with negativity, or the world would fall out of balance."
We sat in silence a few moments.
"Going back to what you said earlier," Laura began, obviously sensing my discomfort. "About demigods inheriting things from their parents?" I nodded. "What did you get?"
I smiled broadly, a laughing sigh escaping me.
"Well, my mother's the goddess of dawn. Therefore, I can manipulate light. I can bend the light so it's like I'm not there; I can create copies of things or people by refracting the light; I can make people see things that aren't there; I can see really well in the dark; I can create flashes light that can be used as really sparkly fireworks or to blind someone; and, a little mundanely, I can always tell when dawn is and work out the time from there, so I don't actually need a watch."
"Wow," she said. Her expression turned mischievous. "Can you refract the light now?" she asked excitedly, her eyes sparkling. "Create something?"
"Urm, I don't know if I'm allowed to use my powers in front of you, you being mortal an' all."
"Oh, go on. Be a rebel for once!" she asked, bouncing up and down on her seat.
I laughed nervously.
"It's not that simple. I'd be in trouble with a god. That's a little more serious than a detention."
"Go on, Sparkles," someone said behind me. "Zeus is cool with it, I checked."
I stood and spun, facing the intruder. My face lit up.
"Annabeth!" I practically squealed, throwing myself into her arms.
She laughed and hugged me back.
"'Oh, hi Nico, Percy'" I heard a mocking voice say next to her. "'Hi, Eden It's good to see you, how are you?' 'Oh I'm fine thanks, how are both of you?'"
I released Annabeth and took in Nico, moody as ever, and Percy, possibly a little more tanned, standing behind her.
"Hey, guys!" I said hugging them both, too. "What are you guys doing here?"
"I'm heading back to Camp, actually," Nico said. "Taking Frances to the beach when I get back. It's romantic, apparently." He shrugged and Shadow Travelled away.
"Ignore him," Annabeth said. "He's always like that. I'm here to because Chiron put me in charge of explaining to different worldwide governments about the existence of the gods and answering any questions that they might have. This week I'm talking to Parliament and thought I'd make Nico drop us off here first and not at the hotel we're being put up in."
"And whilst she's talking to politicians, I get school kids," Percy grumbled.
"You don't do political, Percy, we've been through this," Annabeth chastised. I laughed.
"So you're the powerful demigod coming to talk to us, then?" Laura said from behind me.
"That's me," Percy said. He extended his hand. "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. Nice to meet you."
Laura took his hand and smiled warmly.
"Laura Demarc, and the pleasure's mine."
She turned to Annabeth, her hand still out.
Annabeth shook it warmly.
"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. It's nice to finally put a face to a name. Eden is constantly saying how 'me and Laura did this' and 'me and Laura did that'."
I blushed a little.
"Well, she is my best friend, what do you expect?" I asked.
"Don't let Rachel or Frances hear you say that," Percy said, shaking his head. "There'll be a cat fight in no time." He paused, looking into the distance. "No, wait. Do let them find out."
Annabeth slapped his arm.
"You disgust me sometimes, Seaweed Brain!"
"Hey!" he said defensively. "I'm a guy, I can't help it!"
I rolled my eyes at the pair of them.
"You guys want to stay here?" I asked. "My dad's out so I have the room, and we've got an X-Men marathon planned with pizza…"
"We're in," they said simultaneously.
"I'll just go and phone the hotel," Annabeth said and went find the phone.
"But we need the phone. What about pizza?" Percy whined, following her out the room.
"Sorry about this," I said to Laura. "We will finish this conversation, and I'll do Sparkle Bunnies and everything."
Her eyes grew large.
"There are sparkle bunnies?" she asked
