I woke up early the next morning. After I dressed for school, I walked down to the living room where I would wait for the rest of us. There were eight of us left. The lucky nine. We had survived the Greeks' war that took the lives of so many of us. It took several of the younger ones too. That damn son of Hermes. He was too charming, too inviting that he took most of us. We dropped from a hundred to eight. At least it made us core eight stronger. A surprise awaited me when I walked into the living room.

Mari sat in the big leather Laz-E-Boy chair in front of the TV and mantle. Everyone was always fighting over it. Her small, wiry, 13 year old body looked so small inside the huge chair. I smiled at her before sitting on the recliner next to her.

"Morning Mari." I said to her as I settled myself and turned on the TV.

Mari nodded and shifted in the chair. I could tell that she wanted to talk about something, but I waited for her. Over the 11 years that I had known Mari, I learned that if she wanted to say something, she would tell you when she was ready; not before. We watched in silence as some man with curly brown hair yelled at us about a product called 'Oxi Clean'. I shifted in my chair and heard Mari shift too.

"Titi?" Mari asked.

"Yes?" I answered.

"Why did you trust them?" She asked.

I automatically knew who she was talking about. It was the Greek demigods and the satyr. I remembered them like it was only an hour ago that we saved them from an Lrocippo. The demigods were a girl and a boy. The satyr was a male, at least 30 years old. I sighed and looked at her.

"Because they needed help." I answered.

"But they were related to the Son of Hermes. They could have killed us."

"But they didn't. We would have wanted saving from one of their monsters if needed be."

"But we don't need it. We have their Bronze melded into our weapons. They do not have the gold."

"True. But how many of their monsters have something else we don't know about? Like the Hydra and the Manicore."

"We know about them. For the Hydra, dodge the spit and burn each head stump. For the Manicore, watch for the spikes and cut off his tail."

I had to smile when she said that. Mari knew everything about fighting. It was in her blood. Her mother was Sekhmet, Goddess of fighting. She was the slight equivalent of the Greek God Ares.

"We know Mari."

"Then why? They do not know anything about us yet we know all about their Gods and monsters."

"Mari," I sighed, "We did it because it was the right thing to do. I would have wanted one of them to save us if we needed them."

"Why so you always doing what's right, Titi?" Mari asked angrily, "We don't need help."

I sighed again and answered, "I'm always doing what's right because it's right."

I glanced over at Mari and saw she was angry. I glanced again and saw that she was glaring at me. I turned back to the TV and we watched the news in silence. After a few minutes, I heard the sounds of the others getting ready for school. Water ran through pipes overhead for showers and sinks. Drawers and closets slide open and closed. I heard Cleo and Masi argue over a shirt, and then decide who would wear it. Jessi dropped his shoes on the floor by Jaq's bed and Jaq yelled at him. Ziyad fell pulling on his jeans. Kanna padded down the hall to the stairs. Ankh sat on his bed roughly and it squeaked in protest. In a few moments, Kanna jumped the last stair and walked into the living room.

"Morning Titi, Mari." Kanna said as she sat on the couch.

I nodded to her and she watched the news with us. I looked at her and smiled. She was wearing a shirt that said 'I'm Egyptian and PROUD of it!' and it had a hieroglyph of her mom, Hathor, on the back. Cleo had bugged Kanna until she bought it. It was in the Before time.

Next Cleo and Masi came down. They were talking about if kohl or mascara was easier to put on. Cleo liked mascara better, but Masi always liked kohl. Cleo said that the mascara made her fingers sticky, but Masi said mascara was too hard to put on. In my opinion, I liked kohl if I had time, mascara if I didn't.

"Morning everyone." Cleo said as she settled down to wait next to Kanna and continue her talk with Masi.

I smiled at them and kept watching the news. I had to smile a little. The boys were the last ones down. It was normally us girls they complained about in the morning. Jaq and Jessi came down next. Jaq was silent, like always, and so was Jessi. Most people thought our boys were emo for wearing 'eyeliner'. It wasn't eyeliner and we were just following tradition. If you went back to our traditional Egypt, everyone wore kohl.

I heard Ziyad run down the stairs. I was about to warn him about the last step again, but I was too late. With a loud thump, he fell.

"Ziyad, how many times do we have to warn you about the stairs?" Ankh asked lazily as he came down behind his twin.

I froze slightly and turned. Ankh was standing on the second to last step, half-glaring at Ziyad. I watched Ankh jumped down from the step he was on. His raven black hair fell in his face. It had always been long. Except for the time he played a mean joke on Mari. I met Ankh's eyes as he brushed his hair and bangs out of his face. Something crossed in the air between us as our brown eyes met and stayed for a moment. Then I looked away to get off the recliner.

Ziyad snorted, "You don't have to tell me. I just got excited."

"Like a Golden Retriever puppy." Ankh muttered under his breath.

Ziyad narrowed his eyes at his brother and started to say something, but was interrupted by Jaq. We all looked at him as he cleared his throat.

"We have a train to catch if we plan on getting to school on time." He told us.

We nodded and got up. In a few moments, we were traveling underground to our subway train. Ankh and I had sweet-talked the morning and the night shift workers into letting us all pass free. It had been hard, but after a little while of the '6 kids for two 15 year olds' plan worked. We boarded the subway train heading to New York and settled ourselves.

We sat in the back; out of the way of everyone else, unseen to others that didn't look closely. I watched the stations go by out the window. Kanna's head leaned against the window as she caught a few more minutes of sleep. Ziyad sat with Mari, trying to get her to smile. Jessi and Jaq sat together, Jaq listening to music and Jessi reading a book. Cleo and Masi sat together and talked. Ankh stood next to me, a step behind. I could feel the warmth from his hand as he gripped the handle behind my left shoulder. Another station passed before we were submerged into complete darkness of a tunnel.

I swallowed a lump that formed in my throat every time I was in the dark. I almost silently gasped for breath as my heart sped up. Even though I could partly see, I was terrified of the dark. I wasn't Before.

I half jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. The hand squeezed my shoulder softly and I looked up. Ankh looked down at me and half smiled. His eyes told me it was all right. I closed my eyes and took the strength Ankh gave me. He knew of my paralyzing fear more than the others. The hand stayed on my shoulder until a light showed at the beginning of the tunnel.

"It's over soon." Ankh murmured too low for anyone else but me to hear.

I sighed again and leaned gently into his hand. I felt Ankh smile. When the front of the train went into the light, Ankh's hand left my shoulder and returned to the handle. It was as if he never moved. In a few moments, we were out of the subway and walking into the bustling downtown New York City. Around the corner was our school, and the Greek demigods. There were also two twins of the Norse God, Loki, three children of the Aztec God Quetzalcoatl and the Goddess Coyolxauhqui, and two Nephilim, sons of the angels Gabriel and Michael. We knew them. It was the Greeks we didn't really know. For all we knew, the Son of Hermes could have been their best friends.