A/N: I am SO SORRY for not posting for what, five months? It's been forever. I hope that you like this chapter, and you don't hate me.

At about 7:00, the three of them arrived at the hideout on the James River. Thalia brushed away the curtain of leaves, and ushered Annabeth in.

"Whoa. This is amazing!" Annabeth said. The hideout was not small, but not big either. There was a rack of weapons against the far wall, and two separate sleeping areas, one for Luke, Annabeth reasoned, and one for Thalia. And her now too, she guessed. There was a little nook where there was some food, but it was all non-perishable and didn't need to be warmed up. It was amazing.

Thalia smiled as she came in after Annabeth. "It is, isn't it? I think that this one is the best one that we've made so far. Luke can confirm that. Can't you, Luke?" Thalia shot Luke a look.

"Ummm, yeah. But, I bet that we will make even better ones with Annabeth."

"Right." Thalia looked around the hideout. "So Annabeth, what do you want to do first?"

"Train. I want to learn how to fight. That way, if the monsters come after me, I will know how to fight them."

Thalia looked at Luke, while Annabeth looked up at both of them beseechingly. Thalia sighed. "Fine, but we aren't starting till tomorrow. You look exhausted, and you need to eat something. Luke, do you think we should give her some ambrosia and nectar?"

Luke paused, considering. "It couldn't hurt. If anything, it will make things better. But not too much. You know what happens if someone has too much godly food."

"What? What happens when people have godly food? What's ambrosia? And nectar?"

Luke laughed. "This one's on you Thalia." Thalia stuck her tongue out at him, but led Annabeth to the food nook.

"Ambrosia and nectar are the food of the gods," Thalia explained, "demigods can have it, but only in small doses. It helps us heal when we get hurt, and it tastes like our favorite food. However, mortals can't have it at all, or they will burn up on the spot. Ambrosia is the solid version, I guess, and nectar is the liquid."

"Oooh! Can I try it? Please please please?" Annabeth begged, bouncing up and down.

Thalia laughed. "I guess so, you did have a couple scrapes and stuff when we found you."

"YAY!"

Thalia opened a bunch of cupboards, grumbling about how nothing was the same in any of their hideouts. She finally found a square of ambrosia, and gave it to Annabeth.

"Here you go, it's the last one we have. Luke, where do we go to get ambrosia again?" Thalia asked.

"I have a contact, Thalia, don't worry. I'll go get some more for this hideout tomorrow when you two are training." Luke said absentmindedly.

Annabeth thought that it was odd that Luke would go somewhere to meet someone that only he knew. Well, Thalia could know too, but from the look on her face, she probably didn't. While she was thinking, she took a bite of the ambrosia. It tasted like those chocolate chip cookies Helen made, on the off chance she let Annabeth have one. But it was better than that. It tasted buttery and chocolatey and amazing.

Thalia looked at Annabeth's awestruck face. "You really like it don't you?"

Annabeth didn't like it. She loved it. It was the best thing she had ever tasted.

"I love it. Can we start training now? Pleeeeeease?" Annabeth made puppy eyes at Thalia.

"Tomorrow. You need to rest on an actual bed, and eat an actual meal before you can start training. It's great that you're so excited, but we need you to be rested before we start training. Plus, we're going to need to start heading north soon. The letter from Ath- your mom said that we needed to go to a special camp in New York. We should stay here for a couple of days, rest up and stuff, and then start heading north."

Annabeth nodded. That seemed reasonable. "Well, it's past dinnertime, can we eat?"

Thalia nodded. "Luke and I normally eat around 7:30, and it's 7:25 right now. We might as well get stuff out now."

"Ok!" Annabeth said, and strained to open the cupboards. She was too short, and fell back with a grunt of frustration.

Thalia walked over and opened the cupboard. "What we normally have is soup. We have lots of tomato soup, we have carrot soup- although no one really likes carrot soup- we have minestrone, we have clam chowder, we have chicken noodle soup, we have split pea soup, and there's probably more that I just can't see."

Annabeth was amazed at the variety of soups. She decided to go with a safe one, one she knew she liked.

"Could I please have tomato soup?" she asked.

"Yep! Normally Luke and I share a can, but how much do you eat?"

"Ummmm, I don't know. Not that much, but I was never allowed to get seconds at h- at my old house." she said.

Annabeth noticed the way Thalia looked at her, like she pitied Annabeth.

"Please don't feel bad for me, I was never really that hungry anyway." Annabeth said, now feeling bad for making Thalia upset.

"Annabeth, I just want to let you know that you can eat however much you want here, okay?" Thalia said suddenly.

"Yeah, okay."

Thalia changed the subject. "So do you think we should just split a can between the three of us?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I guess so, yeah."

As Thalia opened a can of tomato soup, Annabeth found a step stool, and grabbed three bowls. Thalia poured the soup into the bowls, giving Annabeth a bit less. They took the bowls over to the little table, and Annabeth marveled again at how well put-together the little hideout was.

"Luke, dinner!" Thalia called.

"Coming!" Luke said as he emerged from one of the sleeping areas, presumably his own.

"Tomato soup today Luke, because we need to eat it." Thalia said.

"Alright then, I'm fine with tomato soup." he responded

The three of them ate their soup in comfortable silence. Thalia was the first to stand up.

"Ok guys, we should turn in early tonight. Annabeth just got here, and Luke, you'll go meet your mysterious contact tomorrow morning while Annabeth and I are training." Thalia said, leaving no room for argument.

Annabeth and Luke put their dishes in a basket that said 'dirty dishes' on it in bold letters. Annabeth assumed that they would go wash them in the river tomorrow, because they didn't have a sink or anything.

Once everything was cleaned up, Thalia went into one of the sleeping areas. Annabeth followed her.

"Hang on," Thalia said, "I need to move some stuff around to fit you in as well. And I need to change into pajamas. We'll get you some tomorrow."

Annabeth nodded, and waited for Thalia to come back out. Once she did, she had pajamas on, and had taken off the makeup that she had on. Thalia gestured for Annabeth to come in.

The space looked much bigger from the inside. There were blankets and pillows strewn about, it looked very cozy. There wasn't a hard floor- it was a huge mattress.

"Whoah." was all Annabeth was able to say.

"Yeah whoah!" Thalia said, "I put it together myself. I'm glad you like it."

"I love it."

"I'm glad. Now we need to go to bed. Remember, we're training in the morning!" Thalia said.

Annabeth was afraid that she'd be too excited to go to sleep, but she could already feel her eyes closing. Right before she drifted off, she said, "I'm glad that you and Luke weren't monsters."

"Me too kid, me too."

Athena surreptitiously glanced down from Olympus. Zeus had yelled at her for hours about routinely checking on her daughter. He stopped when he realized that his daughter was down there too. He asked Athena to keep it quiet, because of the pact that the Big Three had made decades ago. If Hades or Poseidon found out, Athena reasoned that the girl would be dead in a heartbeat. She assumed that Zeus didn't want that. And if Thalia died, Annabeth would probably die too, and Athena definitely didn't want that. So she made a deal. Zeus would allow her to visit Annabeth whenever she wanted- without being seen- and she would be able to give Annabeth a magic item. In return, Athena wouldn't say anything about Thalia Grace.

A/N: So, how did you like this chapter? Let me know in the reviews. We have Luke being suspicious, Thalia/Annabeth bonding, and a lot of soup. (actually the word soup looks like it's not a word now, so that's fun) Please review, follow and favorite! Plus, if you're feeling up to it/are part of The Hunger Games fandom, please go check out my SYOT, of Deceit and Trickery! I got literally no response on my last chapter, which I published last week. If you guys could submit characters for it too, that would be great. I need the rest of the tributes and the escorts really soon, because I aim to do the Reapings late July or early August. Speaking of submitting characters, I'm going to need campers! I'll be accepting 10 at first, and I might add more over time. Not all Athena kids though please. PM me for the form. Would you guys like it if I did a question or two for you guys to answer in the reviews? I want more people to interact with me, and I'll respond to a couple of reviews per chapter if I get any. (wink wink nudge nudge) Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Until next time! I'll probably update in about three weeks. Love you guys!

-Annabeth