Perfect does not exist. Yes, I know it has taken me quite awhile to figure this out but as I stared in the long mirror in this dumpy motel, a forever fifteen year old crying in her sleep and a way too deep four year old sleeping in a twin bed, hands interlocked behind me and the moon casting an eerie shadow over our belongings, I'm finally realizing it.

I looked in the mirror. My nose is too big. My eyes are two small. My ears stick out too much. My hair is in dire need of a cut. Grant it now my skin is clean because I took a nice long shower and my hair is no longer resembling a birds nest but I am far from perfect. I'm not always right, however much I think I am. I don't always act like I should.

Thalia though on first glance may seem glowing and happy and all beautiful. She's already Artemis's right hand man (or rather…woman?) and her skin is flawless and her eyes and striking but she's not perfect.

Percy with his messy black hair that always seems to fall just right in his big green eyes, with is big strong arms and his tough, tan skin. Beneath all that he's just a sixteen year old kid who gives out reassuring smiles but on the inside is a five year old with too many responsibilities who just wants someone to hold his hand. Percy's not perfect.

The gods, almighty and all-knowing with their power and menacing stares, with their "brilliant ideas" aren't perfect even if they have numerous buildings named after them, even if people cower in their glory, they're not perfect.

I'm not perfect.

Thalia's not perfect.

Timmy's not perfect.

Percy's not perfect.

The gods aren't perfect.

Nothing's perfect and you know what it doesn't completely suck. It's actually kind of nice.

"Annieee" Timmy sat up suddenly, his hair a rumpled mess.

"Yes Timmy?"

"I made a big mistake!"

"What? What's the matter Timmy?" His eyes were open wide and he looked as if he'd done the worst thing possible.

"I-I-I there was this boy in my dream and he was kind of scary and he scared me so much that I told him where we were. I'm so sorry Annabeth, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have! I'm a bad person!" he buried his head in his hands, whimpering. Was it Luke in his dream? Oh gods no! We had to get running! Where was my bag? Was it in the bathroom? No, no it was…

"You're not a bad person Timmy" I patted his curls reassuringly. "You just made a mistake."

"Then I'm a bad person!" he persisted.

"Just because a person makes a mistake doesn't make them a bad person."

"It doesn't?"

"No, it just makes them human."

"Oh" he seemed a little shocked, like "Whoa-she's-right-for-once." I am often right Timmy if you didn't notice, just not in the emotions department….LUKE! Gotta get a move on it. Where's my bag, where's my bag?

"THALIA GET YOUR SCRAWNY BUTT OUT OF BED AND GET YOUR STUFF TOGETHER! We're leaving! Now" I kicked her affectionately awake and we did what any normal person would do, we ran. Oh and boy did we run.

We were out of the crappy motel, past the little bagel shop, speeding ahead of the bus stop, way out of the crazy town, sprinting past the forest we'd been traveling in earlier, skipping through Nashville and across the Tennessee border, breathing heavily, clutching out sides when I halted to a stop. Timmy was still flying ahead and rammed into my butt, Thalia sped to a stop a few feet away.

"What?" Thalia raised an eyebrow, her tear stained face shining in the dark.

"Timmy….." How could I be so dumb?

"What Annie?"

"What did the boy look like?" Luke wasn't a boy. He was a man. How could I be so stupid, not asking him what the scary boy looked liked?

"Well his eyes were black and his hair was black, really black, and he looked sad and angry and mad all at the same time." Timmy shuddered as he spoke, his little shoulders shaking. Thalia gave me this look like "That-ain't-Luke" and I sneered back with a "no-freaking-duh."

"Nico! Not Luke!" I cried, collapsing on the cement sidewalk, narrowly missing a piece of pink chewing gum. Yick. We were in a sleepy little suburb with a bunch of identical houses with little manicured front lawns. It was all rather eerie. Just so.....proper and weird and movie "settish" in a bad way.

"Who's Nico?" Timmy cocked his head to the left questioningly, his light brown hair falling into his big purple eyes.

"He's a good friend of mine. A little boy, just twelve. He's had a pretty tough life. His sister died a couple years back and he blames it on Percy, never gotten over it. I feel so bad for him."

"He didn't look twelve in my dream, he looked more like your age."

"Maybe's he's grown, he ran away awhile ago. I suppose he's going through puberty and such, I mean it's possible that he's just hit that age and shot up like Percy did. Oh I remember when Percy turned thirteen, his voice started cracking, we teased him relentlessly. It was so funny when he started shaving, he would always come down to breakfast with his face covered in bandaids, he didn't ever get how to do it without cutti-"

"'kay Annabeth, not really caring about that at the moment, caring a hell of a lot more about if I can collapse next to you 'cause it's my little cousin Nico coming or if it's Kronos coming."

"Sorry, sorry. So he probably just hit that age, yeah know, Tim?"

"Oh…." He nodded his little head vigorously. I jumped to my feet and started pacing back and forth. Should we go back to the motel for Nico, or……

I felt a light squeeze on my hips, two strong hands, and I immediately started screaming and kicking my leg back and elbowing the person behind me, freaking out. Great just what I need when I'm about to have a mental breakdown, some creepy rapist man in the little suburb.

"ANNIE STOP!" a gruff voice cried, putting there hands in front of their face protectively.

"How do you know my name?" I backed away, utterly creeped.

"Annabeth it's me!" he cried as if I would know.

"Who are you?" I took another step back, tripping over Timmy who scowled up at me, rubbing his skinned knee. I gave him an apologetic look and he shrugged, hopping back to his feet. His Spiderman, light up, Velcro sneakers flashing dimly in the dark street.

"It's me Annabeth" the person gripped my shoulders.

I looked at him, his hair was shaggy and black and his eyes were dark and seemingly emotionless, like big black holes. His skin was pale but had an olive under tone that made him look quite Italian and his black jeans fit tightly, his grey shirt fit loosely. He was actually rather attractive in a weird way. Way out of my league though, probably around ninteen or twenty. He looked almost scared of himself, of his large muscles and his strong jaw, like it was something knew and scary to him. It was almost amusing the way he realized he was holding me so tightly that it hurt. He looked familiar but I couldn't quite place it. Who was he?

"Who are you?" I wiggled in his grasp, floundering around.

"It's me! Nico!"

I am soooooooooooooooo sorrry. I can't believe it took me this long. I've been so busy and I am so sorry! You have no reason to still be following this story. I get out of school in like a week so I should be able to update quicker. I am so sorry again. I apologize for the short length, long wait, and errors. To whoever is reviewing named C why have you given up? I'm not sure I quite get what you mean. To those who reviewed thanks a million I love you guys to pieces. Ok you know the deal, clickety clickety on the review button and I'll be happy. Love you guys. Over and out.