After Nico had left, Ali remained leaning against the tree and breathing heavily. Her head was buzzing.

"Caught his interest?" Ali muttered to herself as she ran a shaking hand through her hair. She had no idea what he had meant.

Maybe Nico di Angelo thought she'd make a good throw rug for the Hades cabin.

Ali swallowed and forced herself to calm down. Being close to him sent her senses into overdrive and made her lose her ability to think straight. She didn't like the effect he had on her. After a few more minutes of deep breathing, she willed herself to start walking back to the pavilion. Passing through the woods and noticing, for the first time, how peaceful it was made her feel homesick. True, woods were rare in New York where she had been raised but seeing all the trees reminded her of the times her father would take her out and they would take walks in central park. They did most of their father-daughter bonding during those walks.

The thoughts made her miss him.

Ali grew up with mostly just her father. He worked hard for them both and he always made sure to put a smile on his face whenever he was around his daughter but Ali could see past her father's smile. When she was old enough to understand that her mother had left them (Ali knew nothing except that about her), Ali was probably around 9 or 10, that was when she began to notice how her father's smiles rarely reached his eyes. His eyes, exact copies of her's, remained distant and sad. Ali knew that it was because of her mother. It was because of the woman that had left them, that had left him. That woman caused her father to feel such sadness. Ali guessed, because she never dared ask for fear that her father might have a breakdown of some sort, that her father loved the woman. Loved her so much that he still longed for her.

That thought had made Ali mad. How could he still love her, after she abandoned them? Ali could never understand it. So Ali hoped and wished that something would take his father's mind off the woman who had left them, that someone could take her place and prove better than her. When she was 13, Ali's prayers were answered.

Janice Richter was 3 years younger than her father, a 2nd generation American-German living in New York, and a socialite/magazine writer. Ali's father and Janice had met at a company thrown party that the magazine Janice worked for was covering. A year after that, they were married.

Ali couldn't believe it at first but Janice turned out to be everything she was hoping for; a stunner with long straight red hair, green eyes, and milky skin, Janice was fashionable(she greatly influenced Ali's choice of clothing), energetic(she loved going for runs and would often make Ali come along with her) and a great cook. Janice was also spontaneous which Ali loved because her father was strictly by-the-book. They balanced each other out and Ali couldn't have picked someone better for her father. As a mother, Janice was everything Ali had ever wanted; she was supportive, caring, and loving. Ali thought she and her father had finally bounced back from the emotional mess that her mother had left them in and for a while it was all good... until she was sent off to Clarions Ladies Academy.

She was 16 when her father decided it was time for her to enter Clarions. Ali refused from the beginning but her father was determined to send her. Janice could only offer her words of encouragement and promise. Ali's schooling had always been her father's decision, there wasn't much Janice could do to get him to change his mind and so Ali was sent off. It upset Ali that she wouldn't be able to see her family everyday. Still, she remained at school. At Clarions, she had a few acquaintances, people she ate lunch with but no one she could really call a friend. Somehow, Ali had felt detached from all of them. She despised being at Clarions, it gave her an uneasy feeling; like she wasn't safe. Ali never shared this with anyone, they'd call her a nutter. She knew because it wasn't normal to feel like someone was watching you and Ali felt it constantly, even before coming to Clarions. Maybe not while she was at home or in her dormitory at Clarions but sometimes when she was out on the streets on New York or by the woods near her finishing school, she felt it; eyes burning into her. She'd always look around during those moments but she never saw anyone and nothing serious ever happened... until a year after she had started at Clarions.

They had an assignment for biology; to pick one of the tree's in the wood by the school, to take photos of it, and explain it's markings. Ali didn't like the idea of going into the wood but she refused to let her unease control her into getting a failing mark. So she went in, right after classes that same day, well before sun down, with her disposable camera, a pad of paper, and a pencil. She didn't feel like going too far into the wood, the idea of being in the place she avoided the most was not appealing, so she made sure she could still see the school's dormitory building when she chose a tree. After she had picked one, she snapped 4 pictures and began observing and writing down the markings of the tree. It couldn't have been more than 5 minutes when she heard a rustling behind her and soft, hoarse voice that made her hair stand on end.

"finally. I've been waiting for you, pretty"

Ali had bolted, throwing the pad and pencil away in mad panic. She could hear that thing, whatever it was, running after her and murmuring things. The disposable camera was bouncing hard against her chest a dashed through the wood. For one horrible moment, the thing had caught up with her, she had felt its claw like hand grabbing at her school blazer and felt herself being slowed down. The thing was pulling her to a stop. In pure desperation, Ali grabbed the disposable camera, swung it by the strap from her neck and flung it backwards. It must have hit whatever was trying to get her because Ali suddenly felt the thing let go off her blazer and heard a pained howl. Picking up her speed, Ali hoped her camera had gotten the thing good. Finally, she could see the dormitory building clearer and bigger now. She was nearly out of the wood. Unfortunately, her camera attack had only managed to delay the monster from getting her, she could hear it coming closer and it sounded angry now.

"Think you can get away? No, I've waited too long!"

With her last ounce of energy, Ali made a desperate leap out of the wood and onto safer ground. She had landed badly and was sprawled on Clarion's backyard; a stretch of grass that separated the dormitory building from the wood. She heard an angry curse in a different language from the direction of the wood, sitting up and looking back she found nothing but tree's. A few seconds later, a girl, one of the new girls at school had come running out of the building. Her name was Rachel, she said, and she had just seen everything from her dormitory window.

"OUCH!"

Ali was snapped back to reality when something hard collided with her. Just like the fateful day she had been recalling, she ended up on the ground. Looking up, Ali watched a group of four well-built and mean looking guys jogging by. One of them had "ARIZ" tattooed on his arm.

"Watch where you're going, wimp!" The tattooed guy yelled as they jogged away. Ali opened her mouth to argue but was distracted by a hand coming into her line of vision. Focusing her gaze on the person the hand was attached to, Ali was greeted by the sight of a boy with brown hair and the most brilliant sea green eyes she had ever seen in her life.

"Don't bother, you can't win an argument with a child of Ares. They tend to turn verbal debates into physical one's. Need a hand?"

Ali nodded and grabbed his outstretched hand, he pulled her to her feet.

"Thanks" Ali said, dusting herself off. The boy smiled at her, "Rough first day?"

Ali nodded again, "You could say that".

Again, the boy smiled "Mine wasn't much better" He stuck out his hand again "I'm Percy Jackson"