Before Katy's arrival

Daemon's POV

Today turned out so much different than what I thought it was going to be. I thought I would have to make an excuse to leave. But then I met cute little Aaliyah. Dee was right she was really adorable and REALLY smart for her age. While we were in the middle of The Lightning Thief, I could tell that Aaliyah was getting tired of reading because her eyes started to look puffy. I placed a piece of grass to bookmark the page we were on and asked, "Are you getting tired of reading Aaliyah?" She nodded her head and rubbed her eyes.

She smiled and said, "My mommy says that sometimes she feels like she should have never introduced me to books because I go through so many really fast that the world is going to run out of books for me to read."

When she said that it reminded me that Katy would always have books laying around everywhere. Once I actually found one in the fridge. Aaliyah interrupted my thoughts by saying, "Can we play a game?"

"Sure. What game do you want to play?" I said with a smile. I saw her trying to think of a game to play while she hummed and pat her face.

"I don't know. Do you know any games?" she asked.

"How about Running hide and seek?" She nodded her head, got up, and said,

"You're it. Count to thirty. And no peeking."

I closed my eyes and started counting to thirty out loud. I don't know why but I couldn't say no to her. Usually when a kid would ask me to play I would walk away. But there was just something making me want to play with her. When I got to thirty I yelled out,

"READY OR NOT HERE I COME!"

There weren't that many places to hide so I looked behind A LOT of trees. I couldn't find her. Kids her age usually hide behind the closest tree. I started to panic because I didn't know where she was.

"AALIYAH WHERE ARE YOU? I GIVE UP." Right when I was going to yell again and ask Dee for help I heard giggling above me. I looked up and saw Aaliyah sitting on a branch of a tree. She was up really high and when I say high I mean HIGH.

"Aaliyah get down from there you're gonna get hurt" I yelled.

She just giggled some more and said, "It's ok. I've climbed taller trees."

"Aaliyah you're gonna give me a heart attack if you don't come down," I wasn't even joking. She has me scared to death. She just smiled down at mean and replied,

"That's exactly what my mom says every time I climb trees. But I'll come down only cause you're fun to play with."

While she was climbing down I was scared she was going to fall so I got prepared to catch her. But to my disbelief she got down to the ground without a scratch. When she walked over to me she asked, "Can we get a snack I'm hungry?"

"Yea let's go. But no sweets." She pouted and made her eyes bigger and realized that was her little puppy dog face. I just couldn't just say no.

"Ok fine"

"Yay!"

She grabbed my hand and started doing that little hop skip thing she always did as we walked back to the picnic. I sat her down on one of the blankets while I went to grab us some food and drinks. I grabbed all the sweets that were there. Ice cream, cookies, brownies, cake, doughnuts, muffins, and cupcakes. She could choose whatever she wanted and I would eat the rest. While I went to the cooler to grab us drinks I heard someone say behind me,

"So what do you think of her?" I turned around and saw Dee smiling at me. I didn't want her to have the satisfaction of knowing that I actually did adore Aaliyah just like she said.

"She's ok for a kid"

"You are a liar. I saw you two together and it was just the cutest thing ever. Especially when you would hold her hand. Just admit that I was right."

"Ok, ok, she is really adorable. Now would you like to join us for a snack?" I asked while I grabbed a juice out of the cooler for Aaliyah.

"As much as I would like to, I can't because a teacher duties to do. Also Aaliyah doesn't really like juice she likes milk."

"Really?" Usually kids her age prefer really sugary things.

"Yea she LOVES milk. I am not joking." She glanced down at the plate of sweets I was carrying and scolded at me, "Are you seriously going to give her all of that?! Oh my gosh Daemon." She grabbed a piece of lasagna and handed it to me.

"Here give her this, then you can give her sweets. She said her mom is coming later. I don't want her to think all I do is give sugar to children."

With those parting words she walked towards people I don't know and didn't care to know. I went back to Aaliyah and saw her holding a ladybug in her hand. I handed her the milk.

"OOOOHHHH I LOVE MILK!" She opened the carton of milk and took a long drink of it. I then handed her the lasagna and said,

"My sister says that you have to eat this before I give you sweets"

"Ok" I expected her to whine and say she wanted sweets. Aaliyah truly wasn't like other children. While we were eating I wondered when her mom was getting here, not because I wanted to get rid of Aaliyah but because I didn't want her to leave.

"So when is your mom getting here?" She swallowed the piece of food she had in her mouth and said,

"My momma's coming in the last hour of the picnic. I can't wait for you and Ms. Black to meet her!" I could see the enthusiasm in her eyes of her mom coming.

"You love your mom a lot?"

"Yeah she's the best mom EVER!"

"What about your dad?"

Her smile went away. She started picking at her lasagna and said, "I never met him. My momma says he left before I was born."

"Oh I'm sorry Aaliyah" I felt really bad for even asking her.

"It's ok my momma says that he didn't know she was pregnant when he left. She tells me about him sometimes. But it's not a lot, I can tell it hurts her to talk about him. She loved him a lot. I think she still does."

"Well what do you know about him?"

"My momma says that I get my eyes from him and my curls." She said while she grabbed her a piece of her hair. Aaliyah stood up and I thought she was going to run away. But instead of running she walked over to me and sat on my lap. I was really surprised and didn't know what to do. So I just didn't say anything because I didn't want to upset her anymore.

"So what's your mom like?" She instantly got happier and grabbed another ladybug she found on the ground.

"My momma is really pretty. She says I only say that because I'm her daughter. But she actually is. People say I look like her except she has grey eyes and wavy hair. She loves to read like me. She likes to garden whenever she has time. Recently she hasn't had time because she works and goes to school and takes care of me. At night we always read together. And before we moved here my mom would take me to my grandma's house and we would watch zombie movies together."

I just stared at Aaliyah for a long time everything she said reminds me about Katy. Can she really be…. No….but what if she was? I asked really carefully

"Aaliyah what's your mom's name?"

She looked up at me and before she could answer my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw a text from Matthew all it said was Arum beyond the woods of the school.