So I made a sword. I know, that sounds awesome, right? Well, in actuality, it was awful. It was slanting somewhat to the right on the hilt and was pretty blunt. As if that wasn't bad enought, I couldn't use it. After that we had time to write letters home. I wrote to Rita, trying as best I could to explain. She wouldn't be too worried. She had enough on her mind with all of the other kids in her house. She would write back, though. It wasn't that she didn't care, it was just that she never worried too much about us older kids. In free time a girl named Monite taught me how to play volleyball with the rest of the cabin. She was a year or two older than me and was an officiall determined Hermes child. Everyone else, even some of them younger than me, were determined. It was really irking me that I hadn't been claimed yet, even thought I hadn't been there long. My birthday was in seven days, surely I would be claimed in sometime then.

Dinner was really good, a lot better than Rita's cooking. The only annoyance was that I had to put some of it in the fire, in honor of the gods. I wasn't exactly willing, considering I didn't even know who my parent was, so I didn't know who to pray to. I just thanked Hermes, it seemed like the right thing to do. After that we had archery knockout. I was really good at that, actually. All of my arrows ended up in a cluster in the center of the target. I looked back at the rest of my cabin after I loosed the last one.

"Apollo?" Travis asked.

"What? I asked, unlacing the leather wristgaurd they had given me. I pulled my hair elastic out, relasing my black hair down to my shoulders.

"Your parent, Apollo maybe?" Travis repeated. I shook my head.

"I was brought to the whole foster care system by my father, who, according to my social worker, found me on his doorstep and didn't want his wife to know about his infidelity." I explained. It did bother me still, to tell the story of how nobody had wanted me, but I had gotten good at masking it. I had to tell it to a lot of people, new foster parents, possible adoptive parents, the social worker who inspected Rita's house to make sure we were safe and interviewed us all.

"Infi-whatsit?" Monite asked. I had forgotten that not everyone liked english as much as I do.

"Infidelity, it means unfaithful. In other words, my dad cheated on his wife with my mom and didn't want me." I said. Now it was starting to bother me. I looked down at the grass and closed my eyes to hold back tears.

"Oh," Travis obviously regretted his comment. "But hey, you're great with that bow and arrow, we'll have to get you a good one." He said, trying to be positive. I grinned at him, though it was mostly fake.

"Great."

I didn't sing at the campfire sing-a-long. Partly because I didn't know the words to the songs, but mostly because I wasn't really in the mood for it. When nobody was looking, I slipped away. It was dark and nobody noticed. I wandered from the ampitheater to the ocean. I took off my shoes and waded to my ankles in the waves. After my feet were close to numb, I sat back on the dry sand. I thought of what I had told the Hermes cabin. I thought of my mother, one of the gods who didn't bother to even leave a note with me in that basket. The only thing she had left with me was a silver locket with "Dia" enscribed in it. Of my father, who was more intent on saving a marriage he didn't beleive in in the first place that he had left a child with barely a word and no name. My first social worker had named me from my necklace. I held it in my fist as salty water fell onto the sand from my cheeks. I felt someone sit down next to me. I kept my head down and hoped I didn't know them and that they didn't realize that I was crying.

I lost my first wish. It was Percy. "Hey, Dia, what are you doing over here?" Maybe he hadn't noticed I was crying. I opened my mouth to greet him as I tried to figure a way to dry my tears so he wouldn't notice. All that came out was a sob. "Uh, Dia?" He asked uncertianly. "Um, what's wrong?" He asked. I sniffed and wiped my eyes.

"Did you hear? The story I had to tell my cabin today?" He looked at me skeptically. "I had to explain to them why it was impossible for me to Apollo's child."

"No, I didn't. Uh, if you don't mind or anything, why can't you be Apollo's child. I did hear you're really good at archery."

I stayed silent. Percy started to get up. "My mother left me with my father. So it was my mother who was the god.

"Why don't you ask your dad, maybe he knows who it was." I shook my head.

"He got rid of me the second he saw me. Didn't want his wife to know. " I blinked back tears again. "She did leave me this." I showed him the locket. "It's how I was named. Can you figure anytihng out of it?" Percy examined the pendent then shook his head.

"Any god could have given this to you, I dunno. But, if you want a bad story, my dad only claimed me to do his work for him."

I looked at him. "Really? What work?"

"I'll tell you tomorrow. By now, I think you're supposed to be in bed." He pointed to the ampitheater, which was empty.

The next morning we ate breakfast, placed in third in the cabin inspection, played volleyball, helped make lunch, and learned ancient Greek and Greek Mythology. You'd have thought they would have changed it to "Greek history" since it is, apparently, real. I guess that would just confuse everyone, though. After lunch I learned to throw javelins, spent our laundry time getting some new clothes from the camp store, ate dinner, lost pretty much every trial of strength I tried, and sang at the campfire sing-a-long. Well, I sang through what parts I could. On the way back to the cabins, Percy told me the story of his first quest, with Annabeth adding in things to deflate his ego. I tried to put it out of my mind that my thirteenth birthday was less than six days away.

Soooo, tell me what you think! - Em