Chris' POV

I liked Clarisse. She was great when she wasn't trying to murder me, or skewer me, or try to bring any harm to me whatsoever. We had a lot of fun together, talking laughing, joking, if I was lucky I could sneak in a make-out session in every once and a while. I always thought that Clarisse was going to be my girl, and then it happened and I was totally psyched. But... now I wasn't so sure we could make it.

Three days with that damn baby and I was ready to strangle it.

When you see the babies in the movies you see perfect babies that never cry and just sit and play and make adorable cooing sounds. The ones that sleep ALL the way through the night, and at change time they don't squirm or even move- the parents could change the baby with one hand! The grandparents and aunts and uncles were always begging to hold them, and every time someone that held the baby that wasn't comfortable with babies- it fell asleep. I wish Charles slept.

Clarisse, Charles and I had spent 3 days in a crappy motel room. She wanted to wait to go back to camp until we had everything figured out and I wasn't fighting that. Clarisse was convinced we just needed a couple days to break into the whole parenting thing personally I wasn't so sure, I mean we were 18- We were practically babies ourselves. Though I was sad since Silena and Beckendorf had trusted us with the only baby they were ever going have, and we were screwing it up.

I didn't know how these teenage parents did this! Then it hit me, I WAS one of these teenage parents. I was now one of the people that their grandmothers were ashamed to look at, and that got the dirty looks in the super market. Mom always said that these teens that thought they could raise a baby were stupid, they should give the baby up for adoption because it can have a much more loving home. I'm guessing she only said that was because I was a teenage pregnancy, then child services came and took me out.

I wasn't ashamed of being a teenage pregnancy as most people thought, without them I wouldn't have been born. I was glad they tried to keep me as well, and that they wouldn't look back on me and say that I was a mistake. At least, I hope they don't. Mom never liked to talk about my birth mother, all she ever said was the only good choice my birth mother had ever made was to give me to a more deserving family. Dad didn't talk about her at all, maybe mom had made him or maybe he was just uncomfortable talking about it.

The first time I had ever asked about my birth parents was when I was 7, I had brought in a picture of my mom and dad for a project. The teacher wanted us to compare similarities between us and our parents for health, but when I brought the picture to show the class none of the kids could find anything remotely the same. The bullies in the class threw rocks at my head, call me the unwanted freak. So what did I do for payback? I cut holes in the bottom of their backpacks so it would break just as they got on to school property, and I defaced their pictures. But even the prank didn't make me feel any better, not only had I been unwanted but my mommy and daddy hadn't even bothered to tell me.

I asked them that day when I got home if I was adopted, mom and dad sat me down and told me that they didn't love me any less because I wasn't biologically mine, blah blah blah, and that I was still their son. I was crushed, they didn't even tell me! All I wanted was my mommy to hold me and tell me it was all going to be alright, problem was I didn't know who my mommy was.

If I did stay, Charles would know who his birth parents were.

I shook my head to get rid of the memory's floating around in my mind. I had to focus on the road ahead of me or I might just pass out from exhaustion. Last night we had ran out of diapers- before we checked in to the cabin we had bought some- So at 9 am Clarisse had sent me out to go buy supplies. It wasn't her best plan since I had no clue on what to buy, but I wouldn't have done a good job with 4 hours of sleep either.

I looked around to try and find some sort of place that sells anything remotely 'baby', God I didn't have any experience with this! I've never babysat a day in my life, I don't have any siblings, any cousins I'd had were all older than me, Hell, I don't even know if i LIKE babies and here I am trying to raise one.

I saw the 'Babies R Us' on my left and turned quickly, causing squeals behind me and probably a couple middle fingers. I circled the parking lot, there were so many pregnant women and women holding little babies; theirs weren't crying. I didn't see one man, god I really hoped one of them could help me. I had to think of a lie and quick, teenage father? Nah, the mothers would tell me the best was to give him to an orphanage. My mother passed of cancer after giving birth to my little brother? No, they'd know I was lying. Damnit! It's never been this hard before to make up a lie, Charles had already stop me from sleeping, now he was dampening my lying abilities!

Would the truth work? Or at least half the truth, my girlfriend and I were raising her best friend's baby after she died... Damn, it worked. The women would sympathise for our friend's death, think it was very honourable that we were trying to raise the baby, and think it was sweet that I stayed with her through this whole thing. Perfect lie that was the truth, awesome! I'd have to use that more often.

Walking into the 'Babies R Us' was even scarier than I had imagined. I couldn't focus on one thing, my eyes kept darting around so quickly it started to give me a worse headache that the time Clarisse had smacked my head with a shield. The warehouse was just so big, there was probably hundreds of baby things in here, how could something so small need so much stuff?

"Overwhelmed?" A tiny voice rang, I thought for a minute I was imagining it. But when I turned there was a tiny little girl probably 8 or 9, with her silky black hair done up in piggy tales. She was obviously Mexican or half Mexican or whatever; she had the dark skin and the black hair, even the happy and light brown eyes.

"Just a bit" I shoved my hands in my pockets, my eyes were trying to focus on the little girl but the colors behind me were just so bright, they just made you want to stare at them. She stuck her hand out waiting for me to shake it, I grabbed it once and shook. The little girl smiled at me brightly, she reminded me of someone- I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"I'm Kathleen, Just call me Kat" Her eyes were just so bright and happy, I was half convinced she was a Demi-God. Probably Hermes by the mischievous glint in her eyes or even Demeter, Should I say something? I had never done this before, two for two I guess.

"Chris, I mean, my name is Chris... And yours it Kat, nice to meet you..." Why was I stuttering? This was a ten year old girl, not Hermes or Zeus!

"I can help you, I've done this twice! Well, My Mommy's had two other babies, so I know this store inside out" Kat smiled, showing a missing tooth. This kid was so adorable, I was curious if she was like Charles when he was a baby? Loud and didn't sleep.

"I'll take all the help I can get, Kat, thank you" I smirked, holding out my arm; which she took gladly. We grabbed a cart and headed towards aisle one.

FRG-FRG-FRG-FRG-

"Well, How do you know we don't want it?"

"You just don't it's bad for babies!"

"Well, what makes it bad?"

"The fact that there is BPA and PBA in it, Chris!" Kat placed her hands on her hips, as if she was challenging me. I looked over to the bottles, hundreds of different choices. My brain hurt.

"Alright, so which one are we getting?" I sighed into my hand, raking it down my face. I was in way over my head! A 10 year old that had her hair in piggy tales and wears a jean skirt knew more about baby products than me. Dad, help me. I prayed silently.

"The Glass, BPA and PBA free... Probably Bap free too"

"Which one's bap again?" she turned to look at me, that's when I realized she was joking. We both giggled, the giggles turned into laughs, and the laughs soon turned into hysterical laughter. Kat was pretty awesome, for a ten year old that is. She had no plans for the future, she would do what the fates had planned for her. Genius little girl.

"Alright, we have Diapers, wipes, Johnson's baby wash, baby formula, bottles and nipples- next we need clothes!" My eyes widened as she led me towards the overly large selection of baby clothes. Mixtures of Blues, Greens, Reds, Pinks, Purples, and Yellows. So many, Charles was just one baby- How hard could it be?

"So, I think we should start with the nappies" Nappies? It sounded like something you blew your nose into, but it was probably the pieces of clothes Kat was leading me towards. Just a guess.

"Aw, there Kinda cute" I looked at the so called 'Nappies' the ones with 'I love my mommy' and 'My big brother rocks!' Kat saw me, and held up the 'Just like my Daddy' Nappie. I put it in the cart.

"What about these?" Kat held up a set of three nappies that were on sale for ten dollars, I just nodded and went back to my search. A couple nappies later we headed over to clothes, we got the basics- a set of jeans, ten shirts, probably twenty Oneize's, and I got the tiny little booties to keep his feet warm.

I was starting to feel prepared. Then she sprung something on me I hadn't thought of.

"To the Toy section!" Kat yelled pushing the cart with one hand and pulled me in tow with the other. I had seen the section before, but I had thought they were for older babies, toddlers even.

"Why does he need toys? He's just a newborn he eats, he sleeps- well Charles doesn't actually sleep but you get my point- and he Poops! Why does he need entertainment" I asked as she stopped in front of very colourfully shaped animals. Mostly butterflies and elephants, but there were a couple mixed in the Fray.

"He needs to develop his senses, sound, hearing, colors... you want Charlie to be a smart baby, don't you?" Kat asked, arching her eyebrow up. I sighed in defeat, A ten year old girl was beating me at my own game. I looked at the toys, I grabbed a cute looking puppy, a dragon, and a circle thing with tabs that made noise. Kat was throwing a couple in, when she walked over and grabbed a giraffe that was on a pedestal.

"This may be expensive, but it's worth it! I've heard nothing but good things about it!" Kat handed me the giraffe- it was a twenty dollar giraffe.

"This so called 'toy' is twenty dollars, haven't we spend enough?" I looked at our cart, there was probably more than a hundred dollars' worth of product in there. I was feeling less and less prepared.

"Look Chris, babies are expensive... If you don't want the toy don't buy it" Kat looked hurt, I raked my hands down my face.

"No, Kat it's not that... it's just I have no idea what to do for this baby! I don't even know if I can stay with the girl I love because of him!" I sat down on the floor, closing my eyes. It was hard to believe that only 4 days ago life was normal, now here I was trying to raise a baby with my 18 year old girlfriend who might kill me if I do something wrong.

"Chris, Babies are hard in the beginning- if you want I can get my mom to teach you some tricks... and If you love her, and she loves you you'll find a way to make it work" Kat flashed her missing tooth, her whole face seemed to radiate happiness. There was just something about Kat that I just couldn't out my finger on, something familiar about her. I liked this girl, she was a sweet little angel- I just hoped she wouldn't turn into a monster.

Clarisse's POV

I was going to kill him. He would be dead the second he walked through the door, Maybe a spear through the head, or maybe Maimer could make a guest appearance... It didn't matter, I sent Chris out to buy diapers! How long does it take to get one lousy bag of diapers, there can't be that much selection, I mean the just hold babies poop! I didn't watch that much T.V. But there were always Huggies commercials on about how fantastically they catch babies' poop, so I would have just gotten the Huggies and ran back. Damn, I knew I shouldn't have trusted him with something like this.

"Please, Charles, Stop crying" I rocked the crying baby back and forth and nothing was working, His diaper was full but I couldn't change it because Chris wasn't back yet! I had tried bottle feeding but he just wouldn't take it. I was horrible with kids! I can defeat a Drakon, I can get hades to raise someone from the dead, but looking after a baby?

The door opened to find Chris with probably 35 bags of stuff on his arms, and behind him was a little Mexican girl wearing pig tales carrying one super large bag of diapers. If I hadn't of been holding Silena and Beckendorf's baby that was raised from the dead, I would have thought it was the craziest thing I had ever seen.

"Hey sweetie, sorry I took a bit longer than i had thought, babies need a lot of stuff" Chris smiled wide, kissing my cheek. He hadn't shown any intimacy in three days, and now he called me 'Sweetie' and kissed me? Something was wrong. Still aware of the crying baby in my arms I turned my attention to the Mexican girl, something was very odd about her- not monster odd, but I feel like I know her.

The little girl walked over to Charles and put in a green giraffe soother in his mouth, almost instantly he quieted down. She smiled and kissed his hand, Chris was unpacking the baby stuff, things like bibs and a baby monitor- Was he serious about keeping Charles?

"Teach me, Everything" I told her, she smiled- Showing a lost front tooth.

"Hello Clarisse, I'm Kat, I'm also your saviour- Let's get to it shall we?" Kat smirked, turning back to the many, many bags. Suddenly I was afraid of a 10 year old girl holding diapers. What was the world coming to?

Heyyy! I could not believe how popular this story is, Thank you all so much for the reviews and the Story alerts, this is just fantastic. And a special thank you to my super awesome friend Kat who introduced me to Percy jackson, and another special thank you to the reviwer who corrected me on Silena's and Chris' name spelling! You rock. I'll try to update as soon as I can, keep reviewing and keep loving it!

~FRG