Some people are good liars. The Stolls- if they kept at it for awhile- could get you to believe that in actuality, you really are a satyr, but Grover, on the other hand, can't lie to save his life. But being a part of the world that is the Olympians shapes most of us into good liars pretty quickly. Because if you can't logically explain why you read Ancient Greek but not English, or why there's a knife hidden in your sleeve, or why you constantly disappear only to return with a new series of cuts a couple minutes later, you either get blasted for revealing the gods to mortals (kind of an unwritten rule, if you tell someone you don't trust completely) or shipped off to an asylum.

I can count on one hand the mortals I've told: my mom (but that doesn't really count, since she already knew), Rachel Dare, and Paul. But I've had a few close calls. There's only one time I've ever really slipped up, and even then, it wasn't my fault- well, kinda. Still, blame my pesky step-grandparents and my stupid cousins, not me.

It was the week of Thanksgiving of last year. I was out of school on holiday and relishing in the sleeping-in-late, the going-where-I-want-when-I-want, etc. Earlier that day, I'd taken Annabeth ice skating in Central Park before she left to go back to California (she'd been staying in New York, working on Olympus). Cheesy, I know, but girls love that stuff for some reason. Plus she'd never ice skated before, and I could definitely get used to her clinging to me for dear life.

I threw open the door of our apartment, cold and windburned, when I saw them sitting on the couch. I didn't know who they were at first; I mean, if you found an old man and an old woman just sitting on your sofa, you'd probably be concerned too. They were staring wide-eyed at me, and it was all I could do to not stare back. Just as I was about to ask who in Hades they were, my mom walked into the living room, followed closely by Paul. With a small wave, Mom continued into the kitchen (presumably to make something for the guests), and Paul walked up to me, a tight smile on his face.

"Hey Percy. Did you have fun with Annabeth?" he asked through almost gritted teeth.

"Uh... yeah. But why are there two elderly citizens on our sofa?" They seemed pretty offended at being called elderly, but didn't say anything.

"Well, my parents dropped in for a surprise visit all the way from Minnesota. Isn't that just... lovely?" Paul finally turned to the old people, I guess to introduce me.

"Mom and Dad, this is Percy. He's my stepson and goes to Goode." The woman smiled warmly, but the man seemed disapproving. I gave a small wave and attempted to smile back.

"It's nice to meet you. Are you guys staying for Thanksgiving?" The woman nodded.

"We thought that since we haven't really met you; I mean, what with not being able to make the wedding and all-" She glared pointedly at her husband, and surprisingly, he glared right back. "that maybe we could pop in for a visit. And here we are!"

"Why the hell are you half frozen?" Paul's dad (I can't bring myself to call them my grandparents) interjected gruffly.

"Um, I just took my girlfriend skating. She lives in California, so I don't get to see her very often during the school year-"

"Young ladies have no common sense these days. Fallin' for long-haired skaters and ruffians." He glared at me, and I reflexively flipped my hair out of my eyes.

"Oh, ignore him. You must be awfully cold and wet after skating though. Why don't you go dry off?"

"Uh, right on that," I passed by Paul, who pointedly glared at me.

"Let's try to keep this week free of... you know," he whispered. I nodded.

"If only it was that easy," I muttered, more to myself than him, as I trudged back to my room to change.

A few days had passed, uneventful, until finally Thanksgiving was here. No monsters. No crazy gods asking me to run errands. Not even an IM from Camp. It was kinda weird, but I wasn't about to jinx anything. As much as I love saving the world and all, relaxing- even if only for a week or so- was pretty nice. But, as always, I spoke too soon.

It all started when I was helping my mom cook dinner. I know, bad idea. I can barely make toast without catching something on fire. But this time, I was being extra careful to keep everything burn-free. I'd already set the table with my mom's fancy china- the dishes I hadn't already broken- and actual cloth napkins. I think Mom was just trying to impress Mr. and Mrs. Blofis, but she'd gone absolutely overboard with the food, so no complaints here. There was a giant turkey, heaps of stuffing, cranberries, and rolls, pumpkin pies, and a giant plate of freshly baked blue cookies. It was like dying and going straight to the Isles of the Blest. Anyway, I was trying to differentiate between all the forks (who needs three forks for one meal? I mean, seriously) when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" I shouted, presuming it was a delivery guy or something who wanted to get home. But when I opened the door, I was shocked- almost literally. Before me stood a girl about my age, with choppy black hair and electric-blue eyes. Freckles spotted her face, and her silver parka, black jeans, and tall hunting boots were obviously keeping her warm, even in the cold New York weather. She waved her hand in front of my face.

"Uh, earth to Kelp Head! Come in, Kelp Head. Percy! Hello?" she laughed.

"Thalia! Why... uh, why are you here?" At the mention of my cousin, my mom came running to the door.

"Thalia!" They hugged and my mom invited her in. Soon, we were all sitting on the couch with huge cups of hot chocolate. Thalia had taken off her jacket to reveal a shirt with her new "favorite" band on it, Vampire Weekend (it has nothing to do with vampires nor their teen romances, so she's okay with it).

"Finally got a new shirt, huh Pine Face?" She stuck out her tongue at me and turned to my mom, who seemed kind of worried as to why my cousin .

"Honestly, I'm fine, Mrs. Jackson. I'm sorry I interrupted your dinner."

"No, it's not a problem. We were waiting on Paul to come home anyways." Mom smiled.

"So how've you been?" I asked. "Artemis turn anyone into a jackalope lately?" She laughed.

"No one since she last threatened you. When's the last time I saw you, anyway? Six, seven months ago?"

"Not my fault you choose to galavant around the country hunting monsters. Are you guys in New York right now or something?" Thalia's expression turned stormy.

"Well, Artemis gave everyone temporary leave for the holidays. She refuses to celebrate Christmas, so Thanksgiving is our 'big vacation' for the year. I don't really get tired of the Hunt, but a few of the new girls were missing their families. All the girls whose parents are... well, dead, are staying at some hotel in the city, but I... kinda wanted to spend Thanksgiving with my family," she admitted, as if it was hard to say.

"Well, you've definitely come to the right place," my mom smiled. "You're welcome to stay as long as you'd like. Be warned, though, Paul's parents are in for the week. So no references to our friends in the Empire State, okay?"

"Sounds good to me," Thalia replied. "I just can't believe Percy's been able to survive this long with no spontaneous attacks."

"I'm right here!" I shouted. They laughed and we all went back to the kitchen. Thank gods Thalia was a much better chef than I, so I happily resigned and instead completed the important task of taste-testing.

"I'm grateful for a delicious meal, and the fact that everyone is here to enjoy it with me," my mom started. We don't exactly 'pray' at my house, so instead, we go around and say what we're grateful for. We all sat around the candle-lit table, hungry and ready to eat.

"I'm grateful that my parents are here and can finally meet my wonderful wife and son," Paul smiled, and turned to his mother, who was frowning slightly.

"Aren't we going to do a traditional prayer?" I vaguely remembered Paul saying he was raised as a strict Catholic. He paled a little, as if he was afraid of being sent to his room.

"Um, Sally, Percy, and I aren't exactly Christian..." Thalia responded. My step-grandpa turned to her sharply.

"Who are you, anyway?" For a fearless lieutenant of Artemis, Thalia looked pretty intimidated. I didn't blame her- Mr. Blofis was almost as scary as Hades himself.

"This is my cousin Thalia. She's... uh, almost sixteen?"

"That's so nice you have your little cousin here. Where are you from, dear?" Mrs. Blofis asked. I could tell Thalia did not at all like being called my 'little cousin', but she responded anyways.

"I, uh, travel a lot. I go to an all-girls... school, so..." She trailed off. Mr. Blofis was still glaring.

"That's no reason to not celebrate a good Christian dinner," he scoffed. Obviously fearing the start of a war, Paul turned to me almost frantically.

"So what are you thankful for, Percy?" I took the hint, and tried to hurry it along so I could eat.

"Um, I'm thankful that one of my favorite cousins-" There was a loud CRASH! and I heard a voice call from the living room:

"WHAT? I thought I was your favorite cousin! Thanks a lot, Percy!" Who else but Nico di Angelo pulls himself off the floor and strides into the dining room.

"Hope you guys haven't eaten all the pumpkin pie yet, I haven't had any in sixty-eight years," he mentions as he nonchalantly pulls himself a chair in between my step-grandparents. For the first time, he notices Thalia and Mr. and Mrs. Blofis, who are staring at him like he dropped out of the sky (somewhat true, actually).

"Pinecone Face," he nods to her.

"Death Breath," she replies jokingly.

"Perce, who the Hades are the elderly people?" Mr. Blofis looks pretty pissed at being called elderly again, Mrs. Blofis just looks plain confused, and the rest of us are mentally face palming.

"They're my step-grandparents, who are NOT in-the-know about our ancestors from Greece," I whisper loudly.

"Oh, okay," Nico replies. "Pass the rolls please, Mrs. Jackson."

I guess I'm pretty used to my annoying cousin randomly shadow-traveling to and from my house, as are my parents and Thalia. And I can see why he'd want to be with his only family (and all their food) on Thanksgiving. But Paul's parents were in definite shock.

"How did you even get here? Do you have no manners? Just how old do you think you are?" Mrs. Blofis screamed, obviously having had lost all sense of self-control. Nico looked up calmly, his mouth full of food. He swallowed and was obviously about to tell them off, but I interrupted his tirade.

"Nico," I warned. He glared at me with eyes as dark and deep as Tartarus itself.

"C'mon, it's not like they wouldn't find out eventually," he scoffed. Without waiting for my reply, he turned to yell at them.

Without explanation, Nico was jolted back to his seat. I'll deny it later, but if you looked closely, you could see the lightning as it hit him. I turned to Thalia, who was innocently cutting her turkey, just in time to see her shoot a death glare at Nico. He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Will someone please explain what the HELL is going on here?" Mr. Blofis stood up so fast, he spilled his water all over me. I wasn't thinking; being a demigod hyper-activates your reflexes, so you do things impulsively. I held up my hand and felt a familiar tugging sensation in my gut. The water rose up off my previously ruined pants and channeled back into the pitcher on the table. A simple trick I'd done a million times at camp (surprise surprise, Grover is extremely clumsy), but I didn't realize what I'd done until I saw the faces surrounding me. Thalia was slashing across her neck, Paul had his head in his hands, Nico gave me a look that clearly said 'I told you so,", and my mom looked disappointed but not surprised- she's seen me do enough stupid stuff before to know where this was headed.

"Who- what the hell are you?" Mr. Blofis's voice was suddenly quiet, and he held on to his wife as if shielding her from me.

"I can explain..." I tried to get up, but they shied like horses from fire.

"I'm out," Nico said. He shut his eyes tightly and dark shadow swept out of nowhere and enveloped him (which obviously didn't help my close-to-fainting step-grandparents), but Thalia grabbed his hand and pulled him out before he could travel away.

"You aren't going anywhere, Death Breath."

"They already know, why do I have to be here?"

"'Cuz you're the one who started this in the first place!"

"Guys!" I shouted. They stopped their bickering and looked at me.

"We should explain," I said. I took a deep breath.

"Where should I begin...?"