That night, Annabeth got to know Thalia and Luke a bit better. They talked about their families, and why they ran away.

"Why did you run away, Luke?" Annabeth asked. Luke's face immediately got hard. "My mom" he said, "She went crazy, and I have never known why. It was always bad, but right before I ran away it started getting even worse. She was obsessed with making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cherry Kool-Aid, and chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were always burned. It was awful. My dad was always out of the picture. That's why I ran away."

"What about you, Thalia?"

"My mom went crazy too, but not the same way as Luke's mom did. She found out that my dad was a…" she paused and looked at Luke. Annabeth waited as they communicated with their eyes, and they came to an agreement. "Well, he was a very important leader, who controlled a lot of things. My mom let that get to her head, and then, well, she started doing bad things. My dad left, and my mom was very… disappointed. He came back, and my mom had my brother. I ran away a few years later. I found Luke, and we've been on the run together ever since. What about you Annabeth? Do you want to say why you ran away?" Annabeth's face fell.

"But," Thalia rushed on, "if you don't want to, that's ok as well. Neither Luke nor I will judge you for anything you say or don't say." Annabeth thought that even though Thalia looked scary, she was actually really nice.

Annabeth paused to think. Should she tell Thalia and Luke about the spiders, and Helen, and the Greek books, (which she still hadn't figured out what they were for) and her dad, and the monsters, and running away, and the strong suspicion she was beginning to have that her dad just helped her because he wanted her out? But they told her their stories. Now it was time for her to tell them hers.

"It's ok, I'll tell you. See, it all started when spiders came pouring into my room. I am really scared of spiders, so I started shaking. They crawled all over me, and they were biting me and spinning their cobwebs all over me. I tried to not scream, because I knew that my stepmother, Helen, would come instead. I couldn't hold it in anymore, and I called for my daddy. He didn't come in. Helen came in instead, and she was mad. She asked if I wanted to wake Daddy up, and if I did it again, there would be big consequences. I tried to tell her about the spiders, but she just wouldn't listen! It happened again the next night. She said that I had to stay in my room for the next day and night, and-"

"Whoa, hang on" said Luke, "You're saying that your stepmother confined you to your room and your dad was fine with it?"

Annabeth blushed. "Yeah. He- well, he doesn't really care about me. Not the way he cares about my twin brothers. And Helen is like the boss, and he goes along with whatever he says. "

"Luke, let Annabeth continue with her story." chided Thalia. Annabeth was immensely grateful for Thalia.

"So my dad was allowed to visit me twice that day." Luke and Thalia shared a horrified look. "And the only thing that I was allowed to have were my clothes and books. All of the books were about Greek mythology, and I didn't know why."

Annabeth didn't know why she told Luke and Thalia about the books. Maybe they would know why? Or maybe it was just because she trusted them and wanted them to know all of the details. She looked over at them, and it seemed like they were having a conversation with their eyes. They did that a lot. Well, they had known each other for a while. They told her that Luke was eleven and Thalia was nine when they met each other. So it made sense that they would communicate without words.

"And then, my dad came in, and he knew that I was running away, and he told me that we have a special connection to Greek mythology, and I was confused. Then, he brought me granola bars and gave me money, but I think that it was just so that I would leave and leave him with his normal family. And then that night, the spiders came, but I didn't cry out, I just climbed over them and ran!" Annabeth said that part with pride. "Then, I distracted a big black dog-"

"That's a hellhound" said Luke

"-and a big man with one eye,"

"Cyclops." Thalia cut in.

"And then I inched around a big monster with 9 heads!"

"A hydra?" Luke was appalled. "How did you get around a hydra?"

"I snuck around. I tried to make as little noise as possible."

"Well, it certainly worked. It is very hard to face a hydra and stay alive." Luke said.

Thalia saw the look of horror on Annabeth's face, and quickly said, "All right, on that note, let's head to bed. Annabeth, do you have a sleeping bag? If not, we happen to have one extra." The look of relief on Annabeth's face was evident. It was obvious that she didn't have a sleeping bag. "Go into bed," Thalia said, "we'll be right in there."

"Ok." Annabeth went into the tent and found the sleeping bag that she assumed Thalia was talking about. As she crawled in, she heard a whispered conversation between Thalia and Luke.

"It's obvious that she's a demigod. How could she be anything else? With the way she attracted the monsters. And with the spiders, it's obvious who her godly parent is." From the tone of voice, Annabeth assumed that it was Luke. What was a demigod? Well, demi- means half, and god is self-explanatory, so…- wait. Her mom was a goddess? Which one?

"But Luke, we don't want to scare her. She came out of a mentally abusive household, and now you want to tell her that her mother is the Grey-Eyed One? She would either faint or start screaming. And neither of those are good options." That was Thalia whispering in hushed tones. Annabeth suddenly put all the pieces together. She had grey eyes. And wasn't there a Greek myth about a goddess defeating a spider, and all spiders hating the goddess's children? And that goddess was the only one with grey eyes. So that meant that her mother was Athena. Goddess of wisdom, warfare, and crafts. Luke confirmed it.

"Her mother is Athena. She said that she distracted and crept by monsters. Any other demigod would have charged them, even if they were only seven. We should tell her."

"Not tonight, Luke. How about in the morning."

"Fine. But then we tell her everything."

"Fine. But it's getting late, we need to head in."

"Ok. Goodnight, Thalia."

"Goodnight, Luke." Then Thalia headed into the tent where she and Annabeth were sleeping, and Luke went in to his. Annabeth felt her eyes start to close, and the last thing she heard before she went to sleep was, "Goodnight Annabeth, daughter of Athena."

Athena was happy. It seemed like the Thalia and Luke were good kids, and she was glad that Annabeth would be with them. And that Annabeth would learn the truth in the morning. Then they could get on their way to Camp Half-Blood. And maybe she could send a note to them. She quickly grabbed a spare piece of parchment and a pencil.

Dear Annabeth,

I am sorry that I have not been much of a mother to you, but I hope that you will forgive me. As you now know, I am one of the Olympian Gods, and that means that you are a demigod. I would advise you and your friends to head North, to Long Island in New York. There is a special camp there for demigods, called Camp Half-Blood. I will give you the blessing of Athena as you are on your way, so that you will be able to get there without many monsters to follow you. The only way that this protection will cease to exist is if my father, Zeus, or my uncles, Hades or Poseidon undo it. Safe travels.

Love,

Mother

A/N: I hope that you liked this chapter! In my mind, Frederick only helps Annabeth so that she will leave. Also, I believe that Annabeth was mentally abused by Helen. Please review, your reviews light up my day. I've had a rough last couple of days, and so that's why I didn't update on Sunday. Sorry! I'll try to update Wednesdays or Thursdays, but that might change, as I'm running out of pre-written chapters and I have my SYOT which has no pre-written chapters. Anyway, thank you all for reading, have a great day!