A/N: sorry this took so long! :(

Ali's eyes widened in surprise, despite the fact that she had never seen a god or goddess in the flesh before, she could tell this woman was an immortal.

Ali stood up, staring apprehensively at the woman.

The goddess frowned "You don't even know your own mother when you see her?"

Ali's eyebrows went up "Aphrodite?"

The goddess gave her a dazzling smile. She waved her hand gracefully and a golden chair decorated with diamonds and pearls rose up from the cabin floor. Aphrodite sat down on her throne and crossed her legs.

"Did you want something?" Ali asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Her momentary shock of being faced with a real immortal now wearing off, she began to realize that this was the woman who had abandoned her.

The goddess stopped smiling "You aren't happy, Alithra?"

"Should I be?" Ali asked

"Well I think you should" Aphrodite replied, irritation underlined in her voice "After all, I have claimed you"

"Yeah, claimed" Ali scoffed "What am I, A Mercedes Benz that got towed and that you're coming to collect after 17 years?"

Aphrodite sighed "I left because-"

"Thanks but no thanks" Ali cut her off "I'm not interested to know why you didn't want to stick around"

"I left because I had to!" Aphrodite said loudly, rising from her chair, all grace and poise gone "How can you be so stubborn that you refuse to listen to your mother!"

Ali stared coldly back at her "You aren't my mother"

And with that, she left the room, leaving Aphrodite fuming and staring at her retreating back.

Out of the cabin, Ali looked around to find a place she could go to. Amongst the other side of the cabins she could make out a faint outline if blue. Figuring that it was a beach, she decided to go there. One hand covering her eyes from the sunlight, she walked towards the beach. Once there, she sat down on the sand and brought her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them.

"So, I heard you've upset our mother"

Ali looked to her left just as a guy around his early twenties sat down next to her. He had curly blonde hair, green eyes, and was wearing checkered shorts, a green Lacoste shirt, and flip flops. He had a golden bow strapped to his back.

Ali stared at him "Our mother? You're not…" She glanced at his bow again "Cupid?"

Cupid nodded and smiled "Didn't expect me to be so handsome did you?"

Ali smiled a bit "No, I didn't"

Cupid stretched out his legs and crossed one over the other "Honestly I didn't expect you to be so pretty either. When mother came back to Olympus ranting about how one of her demigod daughters had upset her, I thought for sure she finally found a daughter that was…uh… less then attractive"

"So she's not still in the cabin, waiting for me to come back so she can blast me to pieces?"

"Nah" Cupid said "So, what did you do?"

Ali looked at the horizon and sighed "I told her I didn't consider my mother since she abandoned me"

"Ahh" Cupid said, laughing "The demigod syndrome"

Ali looked at him again "What?"

"It happens to all demigods, Ali" Cupid replied "Trust me, for you guys, this is a normal thing"

"All demigods hate their immortal parents?" Ali asked, drawing shapes in the sand with her pointer finger

"At one point or another" Cupid answered "But they get over it"

"I don't think I ever will" Ali said, looking down at what she had drawn. It was a broken heart. Cupid reached out his own pointer finger and ran it gently through the cracks of the heart. When he had finished, the heart was whole again.

"Trust me, Ali" He said, looking at her, his green eyes sparkling in the sunlight "You will"