Hi! I'm on a roll! Hopefully I'll get one more chapter done before I go to sleep-away camp, but I don't know. I just really happy that I've updated within a week after the last one. Again this chapter was written while traveling, I was in the back of our rental minivan on the way back from my Uncle's house when inspiration struck! I spent the hour in the car writing, and then when we got back to the hotel I hid under my covers and wrote until midnight. Granted, we left my Uncle's house at 10 so I really only wrote for two hours, but still! Enjoy!

Annabeth's POV

Later that evening, my family went out to a very late diner at Chower's, which is a restaurant on Pier 39. Percy, Thalia, and I had a table to ourselves, which I made sure was not within listening distance of the rest of my family.

It wasn't until after we ordered (clam chowders in sour-dough bowls for Thalia and me, chicken tenders for Percy) that anybody talked.

"So," said Thalia, "care to explain what is with your family?"

While sight-seeing, I had determined that the entire trip would be much like last night's dinner: everybody ignoring us unless completely necessary, with the exception of my Aunt Fran. That was decidedly better than mixed reactions; I could deal with the silent treatment, but of all my relatives to pay attention to what we do, it just had to be Aunt Fran. My father's sister in-law, she was the most judgemental of all my relatives, and the one with the biggest reason to have a grudge against me. She was the one attacked by the hell-hound two Christmases ago.

I found myself explaining all this to Percy and Thalia, along with the story of what happened two years ago. I felt a bit guilty complaining about my family to them, knowing about Thalia's mother and Smelly Gabe and the fact that they had it so much worse than I've ever had.

"Hmmm," said Percy when I was done. "I guess that means Aunt String-Bean will be giving us the evil eye for the rest of this trip."

"Aunt String-Bean?" I laughed. Leave it to Percy to make me feel better.

"Well, she's tall and slender, so she's Aunt String-Bean."

"That's actually really clever!" I turned to Thalia, who had been awfully quiet throughout this whole exchange.

She was staring intently at something behind her, using the convex mirror of the back of her spoon.

"Empousa, ten-o'clock," she said, gesturing over her shoulder at the bar maid who was currently flirting with a college aged gentleman. I blinked. Sure enough, the mist shifted and revealed the tell tale mismatched legs, which were showing an awful lot of knee.

"What do we do?" asked Percy.

My mind was racing a mile a minute. Thalia stood up.

"Hey Aunt String-Bean!" she shouted, drawing her bow. "Duck!"

My family turned to look at us, as did probably the entire restaurant. Thalia notched an arrow and let it fly straight over Aunt Fran's head. It pierced the Empousa's skull just above the nose with a thud. Thalia snapped her fingers.

"You can go back to your dinners now, and forget whatever you think happened."

I put my head in my hands and sighed.