Chapter 29 - Livy Gets Claimed

The next day was the 13th. I figured Piper would be too busy to practice her charmspeak, so I went to find Leo. I was wearing my worst clothes, because I figured I was going to get pretty dirty today.

"Leo? You here?" I called out inside the bunker.

"Hey!" He walked up to me. "So you figured that Leo wouldn't have Valentine's plans?"

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Do you have Valentine's plans?"

Leo blushed. "No. I decided that all the ladies were too lovely to pick just one this year."

I nodded. "Yeah. And I decided it was a good idea to let my boyfriend be snatched by a crazy goddess and shipped off to California so he'd miss the Valentine's dance at school. We both made some good choices this year, huh?"

Leo grinned at me. "So, since we are too lonely hearts this Valentine's weekend, how about we do something super romantic like figure out why the engine keeps making that weird clanging noise?"

I nodded. "Sounds like a lovely, romantic weekend to rival Paris. Let's do this."

We spent most of the day working on the ship. Leo had brought some magic plates and goblets to Bunker 9 so we could eat when we wanted to. I only left for activities I knew my cabin mates would miss me at - Chiron had planned special Valentine's Day things like "Shoot Like Eros" archery sessions, making Valentine's Day crafts for our mortal families, and learning to bake little heart-shaped cookies the campers could give each other. At each session I tried to focus on my siblings, making sure they had a good day today. Any time someone mentioned Percy it felt like that wound was being poked with an icicle. But I tried my best to just take a deep breath and say that I was sure he'd be back next year.

Leo and I did, in fact, figure out what was making that weird clanging sound in the engine, which is always good. Since the engine is full of super powerful magical ingredients, it's even more worrisome than a usual engine when it clangs.

Piper found me at the dinner table. I was trying not to be annoyed by all the lovey-looks my cabin mates were sending their crushes at other tables. Piper took the last french fry from my mouth and ate it as she sat in front of me. I could only smile at her. I was really enjoying being better friends with her.

"How many today?" I asked her as she swallowed the french fry. She knew what I meant - how many broken hearts did she have to help today.

She grimaced. "I stopped counting after twenty. I need to blow off some steam, can we -"

"Yep." She gave me a grateful smile and we both went to the arena to work on Piper's unarmed combat skills.

Jason and I didn't meet that night - he had asked for the night off to prepare for Valentine's Day. I went to the campfire sing-a-long with my cabin and tried to get really involved with the songs. But in truth, all I could think about was Percy and how he should have been there. After I got my cabinmates back to the cabin, where they all eagerly talked about what was happening tomorrow, I headed two doors down. I walked inside the Aphrodite cabin, which was absolutely a mess. Everyone in the cabin was running around, finding makeup and hair accessories, talking about who was helping who tomorrow. I managed to find Piper in the mess. She was sitting on her bunk, supervising the disaster. Probably making sure that no one killed anyone else with a curling iron. I caught her eye and pointed outside. She nodded gratefully.

"Thanks I needed to get out of -"

I held my hand up to stop her. "This time, I'm the one that needs help. Or at least, I need to vent, ok?"

Piper looked confused for a moment but caught on fast. "Oh. Right. Percy. Annabeth, I'm so sorry, I should've realized how hard today would be for you, I should have -"

I held up my hand again. "Piper, you had enough on your plate. But I hoped since you're helping everyone else with their love life today, you wouldn't mind helping me with mine."

We were walking towards the beach. I wanted to be alone, and with Percy gone the beach had become calming to me. It reminded me of him. I kicked off my shoes and socks and buried my toes in the sand. Then I took a seat on a flat rock, my feet positioned so each wave would cover them, then uncover them as it washed back out to sea.

Piper sat down next to me. I couldn't see her but I could hear her breathing, so I knew she was there. "So, you've never really told me a lot about him. I mean, I know some. I've heard about him from the other campers. He sounds like the biggest hero… but I guess I haven't heard much about him. What's he like? How'd you meet?"

I was silent for a few moments. "We were twelve." I begun. "I was desperate for a quest. I had been here at camp for… years. Almost half my life. I had only really gotten to see the world when we went on field trips. Chiron had told me that I would only get a quest when a child of the Big Three showed up. Every time a new camper showed up I wanted to be the one to show them the ropes. I insisted on it. I was hoping that each one would be the right camper, and they'd see how much they'd need me on the quest. I spent every day preparing, learning everything I could, learning every weapon I could, just in case the quest needed that. When Percy showed up, he was hurt. Dragging Grover in behind him. He had just beaten the minotaur and lost his mom. He was…. A mess." I commented with a sad smile. And so I talked. I told Piper about our first quest together. How much Percy annoyed me, but I grew to respect him and his opinions. How I even decided to take his advice and try going home to my dad's for the school year. I knew it was late - almost curfew - and didn't want to get Piper eaten by the cleaning harpies, so I stood up.

"Thanks, Piper." I told her.

She looked confused, "All I did was listen."

I nodded. "But you let me talk about him without any of the pity I've felt from the others. That's something. It helped, I think."

Piper pulled me into a hug, our feet still in the surf. Then we collected our shoes and headed back to our cabins.

The next morning I woke up before my cabin mates did - thank the gods. I had slept in Percy's sweatshirt and with his picture held tight to my chest. I didn't want to see the pity on their faces or hear the "I'm so sorry about Percy" comments I'd no doubt get if they saw me like that. I grabbed a light-weight pink sweater from my trunk - Rachel had lent it to me, as I didn't really own any Valentine's looking clothes - as well as a pair of jeans and went to the bathroom to get ready. When I was dressed I braided my hair with some pink ribbons Maya had given me the day before. She had insisted that we all wear them today so our cabin would match, which was a pretty cute idea. I walked back into the main area of the cabin and saw the other three were getting up.

Maya bounced up to me. "You're wearing the ribbons!"

"Of course I am!" I told her with a smile. She did a happy twirl, showing off her freshly braided hair complete with pink ribbons. Then she ran over to her bed where one of my sisters was patiently waiting for help with her hair. I grinned and went to help everyone get ready for the day.

At breakfast, Chiron announced no combat practice today so everyone would be uninjured for their dates tonight. Will looked relieved that he may not be needed today. I left as soon as I was done eating - I needed to get to the Big House to decorate for Livy's party. I had brought a cake mix and got to work in the kitchen. Jess joined me within minutes and we worked on the cake while she caught me up on her life since joining the Ares cabin. She sounded like she was really enjoying her life at camp, making friends and learning about her demigod abilities. We put the cake in the oven and went to work decorating the rec room with streamers and balloons. The Stoll brothers showed up to help finish decorating, and I let them after they promised on the River Styx not to turn any of the decorations into pranks. By the time the cake was ready to be pulled out of the oven, the room looked ready for a party. Jess and the Stoll brothers went to work bringing in magic cups from the dining pavilion so we could all have punch or whatever we wanted. I went back to my cabin and got Livy's gift as the cake cooled off. Then we tried our best to decorate it, but it looked more like it read 'Hippy Birthpay Lily' than 'Happy Birthday Livy'.

When we were ready, Milo entered with a blind-folded Livy. She took off the blindfold and we all yelled, "Surprise!" She blushed. All her cabin mates from Hermes were there, as were some of Jess's friends from Ares and Maya came from my cabin - she had been reaching out to Livy recently when she saw how lonely Livy was feeling.

"Wow." Livy said, clearly a little overwhelmed.

I went to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Your friends all wanted to celebrate your first birthday at camp. We made you a cake that, uh -" I showed her the cake, "It reads 'Happy Birthday Livy', I promise." She grinned at me. We all played some fun party games like pin-the-tail-on-the-centaur and musical chairs (thankfully Will had lent me his iPod so I didn't have to resort to using Chiron's music). Then Jess cut the cake with a broadsword, which felt both appropriate and a little overkill. We were all enjoying the cake when I went up to have a word with Livy.

"I hope this is ok, all the attention. I just wanted to show you that, well, we all love you. You belong here. Even if we don't know who your mom is."

Livy blushed and nodded. "It's actually really nice. I'm enjoying it a lot. Thank you, Annabeth." Then she wrapped her arms around me and we hugged for a while. When we pulled away I noticed something glowing above her head.

"Chiron!" I called out, pointed to above Livy's head. The room turned to look and saw what I did - an image of two crossed torches.

Livy looked alarmed as all eyes were on her. "Your mom -" I said quietly.

Everyone in the room bowed to Livy as Chiron announced,

"Hail Livy Miller. Daughter of Hecate, Lady of the Crossroads. Goddess of Magic."

I could tell Livy was overwhelmed and wanted to run. I threw an arm around her and led her to the porch, calling back after us "We'll be back in a few minutes for gifts, ok?" I grabbed a magic cup on the way out.

I sat her down in a rocking chair on the porch and whispered, "Fruit punch." to the cup. When it filled up I pressed it into Livy's hand. "Here. It'll help calm you down if you have something to drink."

She nodded, but I could tell she hadn't really heard me. I leaned against the railing of the porch.

"This is a good thing, Livy. You know who your mom is now." She nodded, but still didn't seem to be paying attention. We sat in silence for a while longer.

"I'd thought it'd be Athena." She said suddenly. "I just… I like to read, and build stuff, and…"

"Hey, I'd love to have you as a sister." I assured her. "But Hecate is great too. You'll probably learn to do all kinds of cool magic."

She gave me a small smile. "I guess it kind of scares me, to have all this power now."

"You always had it, really. Now you just have a name to put with it, and you can learn to control it."

Livy looked at me for a long moment. "That makes sense. Why hasn't it come out yet? Why didn't people, like, turn into pigs when I got mad?"

I grinned at her. "I don't know. Maybe you had no desire to turn people into pigs at the time."

She gave me a small smile but nodded. "Thanks. It's…. Different, I guess. It's like the world spun around and settled back into place. Everything's the same, but I keep looking for what's different."

"Yeah, that makes sense. The world hasn't changed, but how you look at it may." I said simply. "It'll be ok, though. You'll settle into this new chapter too."

She smiled at me. "Thanks. For getting me out here to talk, for bringing me to camp, for, well, everything."

I got up and went to give her a hug. "Hey, we might not be sisters, but that doesn't mean we aren't friends. I'll always be your friend Livy."

Her arms tightened around me and I heard a soft, "Thank you."

"Now." I said, straightening up. "Time for gifts!"

She grinned at me and we headed back into the Big House for the rest of the party.

Livy seemed to really like all her gifts - the Stoll brothers had managed to "acquire" some Imagine Dragons CDs - Livy's favorite band. Milo and Jess had gotten her a digital camera - I didn't know how they afforded it, but I thought about Milo telling me he was being trained as a pick pocket and decided I didn't really want to know. Besides, Livy was thrilled - I learned she had always wanted to take up photography. My gift was a small makeup kit. Livy had told me that her dad and stepmom wouldn't let her wear makeup until she was thirteen, so it seemed like a good gift idea. She smiled at me when I assured her that I'd teach her a little bit, and that the Aphrodite girls would love to help her with the more advanced stuff. My makeup skills pretty much stopped after eye liner and foundation - the Aphrodite girls knew all these weird words like contouring and blending and smokey eye and, well - I was a lot more comfortable with words like dracanae, myrmeke, and hydra.

After the party, I walked Livy over to her new cabin to introduce her to her siblings, officially, for the first time. I knocked on the door to Cabin 20.

Lou Ellen opened it with a smile. "Annabeth! What can we turn you into today?" She said with a smile. Lou Ellen always liked to joke about turning me into different animals, but I'd rather not have that experience.

"Nothing today, Lou, but I brought you a new sibling. Meet Livy, daughter of Hecate."

I saw the other Hecate campers get up with a smile and come to introduce themselves to Livy. Everyone seemed super friendly, like they were genuinely excited Livy was here with them. I was grateful - Livy would settle right in with this crowd. When Lou Ellen promised to take Livy in and get her settled, I gave Livy a last hug before she was pulled away by her siblings.

"Remember, this is just a new chapter." I whispered to her. "You'll do well here." When I pulled away, I could tell she was nervous but happy. "I'll check on you after dinner, ok?"

She nodded and Lou Ellen put a hand on each of our shoulders. "I promise, we'll take good care of you Livy. We won't turn you into anything without your permission. And we'll teach you how to handle your magic. You'll like it here."

Livy and I both smiled at her gratefully. I waved to them as Lou Ellen walked Livy into the cabin and I headed off to find my own siblings.

That night, I pulled out my journal.

Dear Percy,

Livy, one of those new demigods I rescued, got claimed today. I realized I never told you about how I got claimed. It wasn't flashy, like yours was, with the hellhound and the injuries and the bowing. My mom came to me when I was little, ready to run away. She sat me down and explained who she was - who I was. And she offered her help to get me to somewhere safe. Someplace where I'd meet people like me. People who loved me and accepted me. I don't know if she knew about you or not. But I'd like to think so. I'd like to think she knew she was bringing us together. Even if she doesn't necessarily approve of you, she knew I'd need you. That you'd bring out the best in me.