'Ello! Yes, finally, an update! O_O! I hope ya'll have been waiting for it! :D! Oh, and thanks Bri for helping me with the idea to this theme! :D!

This theme is about John! And Paige. But mostly John. XD It's about his drive, what makes him get up in the morning, what, if he really thinks about it, he finds makes his life worth living.

~*~*~Chapter Nine, Theme Nine: Drive~*~*~

"John! John, wake up! C'mon, get up, it's morning, and I'm hungry!"

A cute, perky voice broke through John's dream, which was one that was confusing and none to pleasant. It was more of a flashback, to be truthful. He saw an old friend . . . two, actually. One was younger than him, an African-American female of average height, with long black hair that reminded him of wheat and twinkling honey-brown eyes. It was hard to lose her, that little sister that he had never had. Her name was Nicole Jeremies. But it was the other one that had nearly split his heart in two. She had been tall, with lengthy, chocolately brown hair and eyes that sparkled like the sun. She had played the guitar and many other instruments that John knew he would never learn how to play. Her smile had been as warm as a cup of hot cocoa, and it had made him feel fuzzy inside, which John had never felt before he met her. Her name was Anna Shetland.

Annd Shetland and Nicole Jeremies were long since deceased, though.

John felt a sharp stab of pain to his heart almost every time he thought of Anna and Nicole. He had been standing right there, holding a sword, fighting the monster . . . yet he couldn't do anything when Anna got in his way. She had gotten slashed by the Nemean Lion's claws, deep in her stomach. There was too much blood spilling out of her to do her any good. She had died in his arms, and Nicole had died not to far away, with no one by her side. He was so stupid . . . if he could only have saved them . . . the memory just proved how worthless he was.

"John, come on! Wake up!" The young voice whined from above his head. John's eyes fluttered open and he looked above him, blinking a few times for his eyes to adjust. Standing there was six-year-old Paige West, his adopted sister. She smiled brightly at him. Her short, dirty blonde hair was sticking up in odd places and was frizzy. She held in her hand two ponytails, both a bright green color to match her t-shirt, which had a mint green turtle printed on a darker green background. She also was clutching a pastel blue hairbrush.

As John sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Paige plopped down on the bed next to him.

"John, could you brush my hair? Pleeease?" She asked, sticking out the hairbrush and ponytails with an adorable, innocent smile.

"Oh, um, gee, Paige, I . . . " John said choppily, not wanting to brush her hair, because guys just did not do that to their little sisters (if they did brush anyone's hair, including their own), yet not wanting to hurt her feelings.

"Pleeease?" Paige begged, sticking out her bottom lip in a pout. "Anna and Nicole used to! Why can't you?"

Anna and Nicole. Yes, they were something that had ruined his life. Or nearly ruined it. He wondered, several times in fact, why he even continued on with living. He could commit suicide . . . he could volunteer for a deadly Quest and die along the way . . . he could run away from this place, and slowly die off on the streets. Dying sometimes was the thing that sounded best. However, there was one problem: Paige.

No, problem wasn't the right word . . . she wasn't a problem. She wasn't a burden. John loved her, and he could never leaved her alone.

His dark eyes lingered on her light ones for a few moments, before he sighed and looked around the room, for his roommates. Jono, as far as he could tell, was still in a deep sleep, completely consumed by his covers except for the upper half of his face. Jonathan's bed was empty, and Johnny was snoozing, one of his arms laying limply ober the side of his bed.

"Okay, sure, Paige, I'll do it," he told her with a small smile.

Paige's face immediately turned from a pout into a grin as she handed him her hairbrush and two ponytails.

John started to comb down her hair, with a somewhat uncomfortable glance around the room every minute. What did this look like to other guys? He tried to shrug it off as Paige's use of the names Anna and Nicole rang in his ears. He could have saved them . . . he could have done something. And poor little Wally, out there all alone, kidnapped, most likely dead. It was a surreal nightmare.

John finished brushing Paige's short hair and put the two low pigtails in her hair. They weren't very good, but they weren't a complete mess, either.

Paige took the plastic blue hairbrush and fingered her hair once he was finished, as if giving in a silent examination. He bit his lip, hoping that she would not be unhappy with it. John felt a lift to his heart when she smiled at him.

"Thank you, John! Can we go eat breakfast now? I think someone was making pancakes!"

As her smile grew rapidly larger at the thought, John couldn't help but smile back. Paige wasn't a burden, she wasn't a problem . . . she was the farthest thing from it, as far as he was concerned. She was a gift, something that, despite hardships and terrible suffering, had seemed to end up with John for a reason. Little Paige, the adorable six-year-old daughter of Poseidon, was what - figuratively and literally - brought him out of bed everyday. Paige was the reason that he couldn't die, that he wouldn't die. She was his little sister, even his companion, the cloest thing to his heart. This girl was his little lamb. He protected her from the retched evils of the world, the people that she shouldn't meet, the things that she should never do. He sheltered her and cared for her. And truelly, John was fine with that. He needed her just as much as she needed him.

Paige West was John Potts's hope, inspiration and vigor. He would never let her go for the world.

"Yeah Paige, pancakes sound really good right now," John said, still smiling.

Paige grinned widely, showing two missing front teeth, and hopped off the bed. She bounded to the door and waited for him there. John slowly stood up and followed her. He would follow her to the ends of the Earth if he had to, and even beyond . . . he wasn't sure if he would have made it as far as he was today without her.

John and Paige are both owned by me, Element Wolf. As if you didn't know that. ;D But I hoped you liked it! :)

Next Theme: Breath Again