That night, he snuck outside like he always did. He crept into the woods, and then out of camp.

When he got to the clearing where Mrs. O'Leary was staying, he was surprised to see Thalia already there. She was staring at Mrs. O'Leary in wonder.

"I haven't seen you in years girl. How have you been?" Mrs. O'Leary responded by licking thalia, drenching her in drool.

"Ugh. that is one thing I did not miss." She turned to charlie. Her face brightened. "Hey, kiddo! How have you been?"

Charlie just stared at her. "I am technically older than you, and you just called me kiddo?"

She paused. "What have I become?" she looked a little freaked out, so charlie spoke quickly.

"A motherly figure? I mean from what I hear, you basically are a mother to some of the hunters." she seemed to calm a bit after that.

"Yeah… anyway, where did you guys go? I came to your house one year to find it empty and abandoned." she was angry now.

Charlie rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, that would be my fault. A monster attacked me in school, so we moved in order to avoid other monsters who might follow."

Thalia let that sink in for a moment before nodding. "I guess that makes sense. They went to Alaska to get away from all of that."

Charlie cringed at that. Thalia must have noticed because she spoke up, "what happened?"

So Charlie ended up retelling the story. He doesn't know when it started, but by the end, he was crying. Thalia looked somewhere between sad and angry.

"What are you gonna do about it?" she asked.

"I don't know," he replied. And he didn't. He had no idea where to start.

"Maybe you should start with a good night's sleep. Who knows, you may get a dream to guide you." she looked at him one last time before turning to leave.

"Hey, aunt thalia?" she turned. "Thank you. For listening." she nodded, smiled a little, and walked back to camp. He sat there for a while, thinking about what to do when he heard a twig snap.

He was on his feet in an instant. He turned in the direction of the noise. He pulled out Torrent but didn't uncap it. He walked slowly towards the area where the sound came from.

He reached forward and yanked the bush that was there aside. Standing there like a deer in headlights, was Adam Porter, son of Ares, and Charlie's least favorite person at camp. Except for maybe Mr. D.

He had met Adam his second day at camp. The guy had gotten under his skin, so he challenged him to a sparring match. He couldn't use torrent, so he used a blade that was unbalanced for him.

He won the fight, but not by much. Even with a proper sword, it would have been pretty close.

He sneered. "What are you doing here?" he spat. Adam got up from where he had fallen on the ground.

He glared at Charlie. "'What am I doing here?' What are you doing here? Every night you sneak out, so I decided to follow you in case you were betraying the camp. Why did you come out here, meet with a hellhound, and somehow talk to the lieutenant of the hunters of Artemis without getting killed?" His voice was low and angry.

Charlie sighed. "That hellhound was my father's. He sent us here on it, and I was coming to play with her. I know Thalia from when I was a child. She recognized me and wanted to talk. Good enough for you?"

Adam was a bit taken aback. His eyes drifted down. "Why do you have a pen in your hand?" he asked.

Charlie cursed silently and put the pen back in his pocket. "No reason."

Adam looked skeptical. "You know… that hero Percy Jackson had a pen that turned into a sword. Is that what that thing does" Charlie shook his head. "Then why did you have it out as you walked toward potential danger? Not very strategically sound for a child of Athena."

Charlie knew where this was going. "Percy Jackson, by all accounts, also had a large hellhound. Its name was… MRS. O'LEARY." He said that last part louder than the rest. Mrs. O'Leary, hearing her name, lifted her head up to see where it was coming from.

Adam chuckled and continued, "I thought so. Did you say that was your father's? Well, I'm pretty sure that that dog over there doesn't belong to a mortal named Blofis. Where'd you even get that name anyway?"

Seeing as Adam had clearly already connected the dots, Charlie decided to answer truthfully, "Blofis is the last name of my step-grandfather. I panicked and used that name. Happy?"

Adam shook his head. "Not yet. Who is your real mom?"

Charlie sighed. "Annabeth Jackson."

Adam looked confused. "Do you mean Annabeth Chase?"

Charlie shook his head. Adam was a lot smarter than Charlie gave him credit for. "No, I meant what I said. I guess technically it's 'Annabeth Chase-Jackson', but it's just easier to say 'Jackson'." Adam looked confused now. So maybe adam wasn't that much smarter than he thought.

He decided to spell it out, "They got married. If what they told me is to be believed, it was about halfway through college in New Rome."

Adam still looked a little confused. "Why haven't people heard about this? Them getting married would be a pretty big deal."

Charlie shrugged. "They said it was a small ceremony. They told me it was only immediate family members."

Adam nodded. Charlie wondered what he was going to do with all this information. He knew it was the only way to get Adam off his back. He had learned that Adam never gave up on something like this.

"Are you gonna tell people?" Charlie asked after a minute. To his surprise, Adam shook his head.

"No. I'm gonna hold onto this info for now. I want a rematch." Charlie stared at him.

"A rematch? Really?" he asked.

Adam nodded. "Yep! And a wager. You win, I do nothing with this information. Your cover stays. I win, I tell everyone who you are. Deal?" Adam held out a hand. Charlie thought about it for a minute. Then he shook Adam's hand.

"Deal."