A/N: To make up for having chapters posted late(ish, we didn't really set a schedule...) here's a new chapter way earlier than any of you expected. Enjoy!

"Have you been claimed yet?" Nico asked us as we were setting up our picnic.

"Claimed?" I asked.

"Yeah, your godly parent is supposed to claim you by showing you some sign by your thirteenth birthday."

"Well, the day before my thirteenth birthday, my aunt kicked me out because she said I had wings or something. I'm not sure if that means much, since she was always hallucinating about monsters," Laila muttered. "Does that mean anything?"

"I'm not sure, but we could ask Chiron," Luke said. "How about you, Grace? Has anything weird happened to you?"

"On my thirteenth birthday my father took me around town, where we found this old cathedral with three scary angel statues. I blinked once and they were surrounding me! Then I blinked again and they stayed in the exact same spot!"

"That's a bit... creepy," Laila commented. "Angel statues?"

"Yeah." Laila's stomach grumbled again.

"Enough talking about this stuff, let's eat!" Luke suggested, pulling out a picnic basket.

We split the food into four equal portions, and Laila scarfed down her food faster either of the guys.

"How does she do that?" Luke asked.

"Just keep chewing," Laila replied with her mouth full.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," I reprimanded her. She stuck out her tongue with food still on it. "Laila, that's gross."

"So your shield was pretty cool," Luke commented. "I've never seen anything like that before. The dagger was a bit like Riptide, don't you think, Nico?"

"Yep," was his short reply. I got the feeling that Nico didn't like Luke that much. It must have been the betrayal and lingering mistrust over it. I wondered why he had come to our picnic with us, but my train of thought was interrupted by Laila asking me if I could turn on the force field again.

"Why? So you can injure yourself again?" I smirked at her.

"No, I want to see what will happen if I shoot it with an arrow," Laila said. "I'm also curious to see what would happen if someone were to stand right next to you while it was on. It had about a 3 foot radius when it was... enabled before. Would it protect the other person or force them out?"

"Let's find out," Luke said. "I'll stand next Grace, and Laila, you fire an arrow at the force field after it's activated."

He came over and stood next to me while I rubbed the moonstone on my wrist to activate the force field. As soon as it was activated, Luke flew across the forest and slammed into a tree. Nico covered his mouth with his hand to hide his amusement, but Laila didn't even try. She burst into laughter, and then fell over with the force of her laughter, which only made her laugh harder as did the look on Luke's face as he got up and brushed himself off. After about 5 minutes, her need to breathe won out over her laughter and she started to calm down.

"Okay," she said breathlessly. "I'm gonna shoot it now."

"Please try to aim it away from my head, just in case," I said.

"I'll try," she answered and picked up her bow and arrow from where she dropped it when she had her laughing attack. She shot the arrow, aiming about two inches to the left of my ear, but when it hit my force field, the arrow turned into ash after a huge spark lit up the forest.

"It looks like it's foolproof, but what would happen if someone went at it with a sword?" Nico asked from where he was standing. Suddenly, the force field started to flicker, and then it was gone.

"I guess even this has a fault," Laila said. "That was about 10 minutes. Maybe it just doesn't work after that about of time, like how a computer goes to sleep after a certain amount of time. Will it work now, or does it need time to 'refuel?'"

I tapped my bracelet again, but the force field didn't start up.

"Maybe it needs another 10 minutes," I suggested.

"Well, while we're waiting, I just want to ask," she paused, "are you going to going to finish your sandwich, Grace?"

"You can have the rest of it."

"Great, thanks!" she said and snatched it off my plate. After watching Laila scarf down all the remaining food, I tried the force field again, and this time it worked.

"Do your thing, Nico," I said. He grabbed a sword, then changed his mind and grabbed another one, then walked over and stabbed the force field. There was a huge spark, and then was thrown across the forest, but not as far as Luke was.

Laila was laughing again. She was really too amused by others' pain.

"Sorry, Nico!" I called, giggling a little under my breath.

He huffed as he stood up. "Well, it's about 2 o'clock. We should better head back before someone thinks we're lost in the woods and will never come back."

"I bet Aria would like that," Laila smirked.

"Can we talk to Chiron about the claiming thing we spoke about earlier?" I asked, as soon as Laila was done laughing quietly at her private jab at Aria.

"That sounds like a good idea. Nico, you should go talk to the counselors of some of the minor cabins, to see if they have any idea about who their parents might be," Luke suggested. Everyone agreed this was a good idea, and we went our separate ways, even though Laila seemed quite disappointed to leave Nico behind.

As we walked back to the camp, I noticed that some of the trees seemed to almost move.

"Why are the trees moving?" I asked.

"Oh, they're dryads. I'm sure that Laila will be able to explain it to you, seeing as she knows a lot about everything else," he chuckled.

"Well, a dryad is a spirit that lives in or near a tree to protect it, and their lives are connected with the trees and—"

"Okay, I get it, Laila. You don't need to go overboard."

We chatted some more until we reached the Big House. Chiron was standing on the front porch with Mr. D playing some card game.

"Ah, Grace, Laila. I was expecting you to get here sooner or later. I expect Luke told you two about the claiming process?"

"More or less," I responded.

"Can you think of anything special that happened on or before your thirteenth birthday?"

"We discussed this a little bit with Luke and Nico," Laila said. "On my thirteenth birthday, my aunt kicked me out because she was hallucinating and thought that I had wings. She looked pretty freaked out, but I'm not sure if it's anything special since she was always hallucinating about something. If it wasn't monsters, then it was angels."

"And I had some freaky Angel statues scare the living Hades out of me once I blinked, one my thirteenth birthday."

"Why didn't you mention this sooner? I think I know who your parents are!" Chiron exclaimed.

A/N: How did you like it? If you liked it, tell us why in a review. If you hated it, and think it should be at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, tell us that and why. Maybe we'll be better next time. If you want some sort of updates from Laila and Grace, join "Grace and Laila's Nook of Awesomeness" on Facebook.