I grab a bowl of Cheerios and walk back over to the Hephaestus table. Since all the cabins are dedicated to gods and not Titans they put me in the closest god that I was related to. At first they tried the Apollo cabin because Helios and Apollo are very
similar, but I've never really been the best at singing or poetry, music, etc.

"Morning Elly." Everyone at the table says in unison. Now I'm not just worried about this quest but also what they have planed.

"What's wrong? What happened? Please don't hurt me. I swear I didn't do it." I rush my words in a deep panic to get out of whatever they're planning for me.

"Nothing's wrong, we were just talking about the breakfast today. Orange juice and honey nut Cheerios are our favourite."

"Funny must run in the family its my favourite too." Little Harley makes a face of disgust as he swallows his orange juice, "yuck this orange stuff is not my favourite." He takes another sip of it only to backwash the sip back into the drink.

"I'll be right back." I say I go back to the buffet thing they have set up, which is pretty strange because they usually just hand the food out and you get your drink by whispering into the cup you get. I pick up a glass of apple juice and walk
back to the table.

"Here you go buddy," I tell Harley, "try this." He takes the cup and takes a sip. Enjoying this juice much better he pushes the orange juice away. I scrunch Up my nose which does not go unnoticed by Nyssa.

"You like orange juice but not Apple juice?" She asks questionably.

"Apple juice tastes like warm pee." I say forming my face in to a disgusted look.

"How do you know what pee tastes like?" Nyssa asks. Heat rushes to my face, "it's a long story." Leo leans forward, "we got time."

I take a breath before beginning, "my dads a trucker so when he's on the road and has no time to stop he pees into a bottle because that's just what you do. So one time when I got in the truck I saw a bottle filled with what I thought was Apple juice.
And ah yeah you get the rest." I shiver with disgust remembering how I spat out the pee immediately. My dad laughed at me the whole time until we got home and then again when I got out of the bathroom from brushing my teeth.

Jake, Shane, Christopher, Harley, Nyssa, and Leo all move away from me while pushing there food away.

"For the record I was six." I say taking a bite out of my cereal.

"That doesn't help. You still drank your dads pee. That's nasty." Jake shakes his head.

I nod my head about to respond before the bell rings signalling that breakfast is over.

OoOoo

Later on in the day after I finished training with Annabeth, I made my way back to the Hephaestus cabin to shower.

As I approached the door I heard muffled voices. About to just barge in I stopped myself when I heard my name.

"Elly can't find out," I heard Nyssa saying, "it would ruin the whole surprise." Sounds of agreement are heard from the other cabin members.

Not wanting to know about the surprise I pushed the door open. All chatter stops.

"What's going on?" I ask them.

"N-n-nothing, I mean we're ah just eh. We were just.." Christopher tries but trails off. Nyssa gives him a disapproving look before answering, "we were discussing where we should put your bed. Since your not very handy with any of the Hephaestus skills
except fire, we thought we could help you." Everyone nods very enthusiastically.

Harley starts yammering off about all of the cool stuff we could put on the bed.

"Um why do I need all this on a bed?" I ask.

"It's kind of like a tradition." Leo explains. And with that they began working on my bed.

OoOoo

When my bed was completed with a flat screen tv, blankets with adjustable temperature, eye ball rattling speakers, and much much more, the cabin headed out to dinner because they worked through lunch. I had brought them snakes and water but most of them
just waved a hand in thanks and began working again.

We all settled down for dinner whispering into our glasses what we wanted to drink that night. I had begun making comfortable conversation with the table when Chiron's voice boomed throughout the dinning pavilion.

"We have four very special guests joining us today, they will be staying until Elly's quest leaves in two days. If they wish to stay longer, they are perfectly welcome too, the decision is theirs. Please welcome Ted, Sean, Zoey, and Cooper." My fork drops
into my plate. I glance around my table waiting for someone to cave and yell, "JK!" Maybe with an added jazz hands affect.

I peal my gaze away to look at the people who just appeared. Sean stands with Cooper in his arms while Ted looks around beat red with Zoey doing a queen wave in his arms.

Hesitantly I walk towards them, as if they weren't real. I was so convinced I would never see them again, and yet here they are.

"Why are you guys here?" I ask them. Ted pulls out a beaded necklace, the one mom gave to him as a college gift. I remember the look of shock on his face when he saw it, she had never taken it off. A fact I found silly since she said she got it at summer
camp. Now I know what she means, I can't imagine living without this place now.

"The story's mom told me and Sean when we were younger, she told you too but you were to young, they're true-"

"Not that we can say we're surprised." Sean cuts him off setting Cooper down to give me a big hug. Ted and I just nod towards eachother neither of us ever being the touchy kind of family. Cooper hugs my legs and I have no idea where Zoey went, I can hear
her voice coming from over where the Aphrodite cabin sits.

"But how did you get here?" I continue to question them.

"A satyr showed up told us about you and this place, told us about mom... and what happened. Normally we wouldn't have believed it-" again Sean cuts Ted off.

"Normally we wouldn't even be home! But since Dad left and is nowhere to be found, this was the only option for Zoey and Cooper."

"Wait what? Dad left?" Out all five of us Ted is the only one who calls dad by his actual name. Having known are real dad prior to his death he just calls dad Edward.

"It's just us now Elly. Chiron said we could stay here. Ted and I will during the summer but when school starts back up again we can't. Your gonna have to stay here too." Sean tells me. When the stray tear falls down my cheek he wipe my face.

"Tears can be for later. It will have to be for later. The only people who can cry right now are Zoey and Cooper. Stay strong Elly. Your strong now, but stand tall and strong, keep your chin up." Ted speaks his words like he's talking to himself. He probably
is talking to himself. Strength is something we value in our family. Not physical strength but emotional.

"Elly!" I hear Leo call from behind me, "why don't you introduce me to my nephews and nieces!" Ted and Sean look confused, while the twins look ecstatic.

"Guys this is Leo, I guess he's our uncle."

"Uncle Leo!" Zoey calls as she wraps her arms around him. Cooper waddles over and grabs his hand, a huge smile on his face.

"This is Ted and I'm Sean." Sean introduces them and they begin talking for a while. I make a quick escape and run over to sit by Nyssa.

"Did you guys plan all this?" I ask her.

"Well we weren't about to do nothing for your birthday." She tells me. I had completely forgotten about my own birthday.

"You forgot about your birthday didn't you?" I hear Piper laugh behind me. I turn around to see her and Hazel holding a huge cake.

"Yeah I did, but now I'm glad someone remembered for me." I laugh as everyone joins in to sing happy birthday.

OoOoo

Mostly everyone's asleep now and I can't help but feel almost at peace for a moment. Nobody yelled at me today or told me I would probably die on my quest, which has been happening a lot lately, really only from Drew and her friends. Everything was as
close to perfect as it could get.

So so so sorry for the late update.

For about the next two weeks I will not have any wifi so now more updates from me :(

Thank you so much for reading!

-avril