Okay, so maybe this is sort of on semi hiatus, as now it's summer and I have no idea when I'll be near a computer again, but I can promise that this story will eventually be finished if that's any comfort to anybody!
~~Also, this takes place around the same time as my other story, Surprise! and they're both in the fall/winter of the year directly following the Battle of Manhattan leading up to when Percy disappears.~~
"So Janine, you're a child of Hephaestus? How come I've never seen you around camp?" Angie asked. Come to think of it, I'd never seen her around camp either.
"Because I don't go to camp, and I'm not a child of Hephaestus." Angie turned and glared at us frantically.
"But you just said-"
"I know what I said Rachel, and I never said that I was the daughter of Hephaestus. My older sister was."
"Was?" Zoey asked cautiously.
"Yeah, was. She died. Last summer actually, nobody could ever tell me why. Just that she died fighting Kronos or whatever." I looked at Angie and Zoey, who gave me a small nod. Her sister died, Janine definitely deserved to know what actually happened.
"Last summer was the Titan war. Over fifty demigods died. But we won. I'm not going to tell you that she died for the greater good, because those are empty words. But I will tell you that we live in a better world because of everyone that fought the Titans. What was her name?"
"Morgan, Morgan Colt."
"Of course!" Zoey yelled, standing up. "You look just like her! I knew Morgan; we always took archery together. She was even worse at it than I was; and trust me, that's an accomplishment. I don't know why I didn't see it before. You have the same eyes, and hair actually, though she kept hers much shorter."
"You seem like you actually knew her."
"Not as well as I could have, but wait here a second." Zoey ran off into our room.
"She probably knew her better than I did," Janine said bitterly. "Morgan lived at camp year round, she only came home for Christmas and my mom's birthday. Even after my mom remarried and had me, whenever Morgan came over it was like the sun and moon rose and set with her. And she's, well, she was my sister. Now she's dead. The worst part is here I am all bitter about it when she actually did something with her life and I'm a little jealous that our mom loved her more."
"Janine I-" I began, but Angie cut me off."
"There's this girl at Camp, Annabeth. She's the counselor of the Athena cabin and my half sister. Athena talks to her, she got tasked with rebuilding Olympus of all places after it got destroyed. Do you know how much it hurts to have your mom brag about your sister to other Gods and barely remember your name?" I looked at Angie worriedly, I'd never heard her say anything of the sort before. "it's not like you can fault Annabeth for it, she's amazing and one of the first people at camp that was nice to me, even before I got claimed."
"You just wish you got some credit every now and then," Janine finished for her.
"Yeah, exactly."
"I found it!" we suddenly heard Zoey yell from the other room. She ran back in carrying a small, bound book. "This is my camp photo album. I knew I brought it, I just couldn't find it."
"That's because you're the world's messiest person…" Angie muttered under her breath.
"Here! I found her." Zoey presented the book to Janine.
"That's, that's Morgan," Janine said, tearing up a little. "Can I have this?" She asked, pointing to a picture of Morgan. She was in the forges; don't ask me how anyone got a picture down there. Morgan wasn't looking at the camera, she was building what appeared to be a…actually, I have no idea what she was building, but she was quite intent on it.
"You want it, it's yours."
"But Janine," Angie said. "What about what you just said?"
"What if this was Annabeth. Would you want it? I might not've liked her very much, but she's my big sister and I love her." After that we all sat in silence, Zoey going through her photo book, Janine staring at the picture and Zoey and me simply thinking. I'd never had a sibling, and I was only jealous of those that did at times like these. Some people think being an only child is awesome, but it's actually really lonely.
After about three minutes of silence, Angie clapped her hands.
"We need to get back to what were doing before Janine came in. If Cora tries anything we need to be prepared."
"Cora?"
"Look, Janine we don't have time to give you the whole story," Zoey said. "So let's just say that Cora is actually an Empousa, who we think wants to hurt Dana. Also, she has a mistress that wants to hurt people and isn't afraid for us to know that."
"That's pretty much the whole story, Zoey," Angie commented, smirking.
"Oh go away," Zoey said. Angie just smiled wider.
"Anyway, as Zoey put it, we need to get Dana to camp without Cora noticing that we have her."
"Wait, has Dana been claimed?" I asked.
"Claimed?"
"Nevermind Janine, it's a camp thing," Angie said. "She probably hasn't, why would she have? She's been living in the mortal world all this time."
"But didn't Percy make the Gods swear to claim them all by 13?"
"Maybe it was never safe," Zoey said, ominously.
Suddenly, we heard a scream coming from down the hall. Zoey took off her neclace and a glowing bronze sword took its place and Angie grabbed the knives that were hidden in her boots. I grabbed the sword that Percy gave me last year, thankful that I'd forced him to teach me how to fight.
"Sorry, Janine, but we need to go."
