Okay, I'm not sure if I mentioned this or showed it in any way, but this story is supposed to take place just before summer two years after TLO. There is one summer in between.

Mary-Ann: I Meet My Dad's Wife

"And this is the climbing rock wall," Mercy said as we approached a huge wall sticking up out of the ground. I noticed blackened spots on it.

"Fancy a climb?" she asked. I simply shook my head. Good thing too, because suddenly lava was spurting from a crack on the wall.

I hadn't known Mercy for very long, but she had already managed to show me most of the camp, not that I remembered how to get anywhere but the Big House and 'Thalia's Pine,' because those were visible from most spots we had been. Mercy was a girl from Ohio, a year older than I was. She was an obvious gymnast, as she would sometimes opt to cartwheel or flip rather than walk.

Aside from that, she looked a bit like Hermione, only younger, tanner, and blonde. Mercy's eyes were a bit lighter blue, but her elvish face mirrored Hermione's a lot, which made sense as they were technically sisters. Mercy's blonde hair fell a few inches below her shoulders, and she had it streaked rainbow red.

"Have you got your shirts yet?" she asked randomly.

"Um... shirts?" I asked slowly.

She pointed to her orange shirt. "Your Camp Half-Blood shirt," she said. She had played around with hers, that was obvious. She had cut the sleeves into strips, which she knotted each of. She had done the same thing to the bottom, only just up to her belly and she had added beads to these strips with rattled with every movement she made. Whenever she was upside down for a second (flipping or cartwheeling), her belly was visible, and I noticed a few guys watch.

I noticed she also would sometimes tug on a leather necklace with three beads on it. I finally decided to ask as she was tugging at it, trying to decide what to show me next.

"Huh?" she questioned. "Oh, it's a camp thing. You'll get one at the end of summer. There's a bead for each summer. About something big that happened over that summer. This one was because of this quest that one girl had in The Labyrinth, and the monsters that used it to get into camp. Big battle. This one was for when we all went to the Big Apple and defended it from the Titans. Big battle, lots of deaths, but they're all mentioned on here. I barely survived that. And this one was last summer when Nico battled and defeated a Manticore that got past the camp's defenses." The first one had a maze on it, the second the Empire State Building and hundreds of Greek letters, and the third had what looked like a lion with a scorpion tail.

"Um, may I ask how often people die here?" I decided to ask.

"Um, well, last year, no one died..." Mercy said. "The years before, a lot... and so far this year, well, a few. Depends on how active monsters are and all. We're all kind of surprised right now by how the monsters started to pop up all over and attack. Usually, there will be a monster or two that we have to face or escape at some point or another, but not swarms of them, or waves of attacks." For the first time, she kind of looked worried.

"Why did you come back early?" I asked hesitantly.

"I'm not here early," Mercy said. "My mother is away a lot, so last August I decided to see how a year here would go... I don't think I'll do it again, maybe, I'm not sure." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of gum. She popped a piece in her mouth. "Want some?" she asked before she began to chew.

"No thanks," I said.

"Well, I guess I've shown you the whole camp really," she said. "Let's head back to the Mess Hall. It's almost time for grub."

She had already explained to me how the seating arrangements worked for the mess hall, so I wasn't really looking forward to that. My only apparent brother was still at his home, so I'd be sitting all alone. Apparently, table arrangements had recently changed, but it still left me alone at what was a smaller table than some of the other tables. All the Olympians had a table honoring them, whether or not they had any kids, as did Hades. But then there were several tables for the minor gods, each table being for several gods rather than just one.

The Mess Hall had people in it when we arrived. I heard Mercy squeal next to me when we entered and she ran and jumped into the arms of a boy a few years older than us, sixteen or seventeen. Next to him stood a boy that looked just a bit older, but otherwise almost the same. He was talking with a brunette I had seen earlier.

"Mary-Ann," Mercy called me over. "Come meet my favorite brothers!"

I sighed and approached, knowing I was about the meet the boys that Mercy talked about at least at every other sight we had visited. Usually it involved a prank they had pulled at each site.

"Hey there, Little Red," the one that Mercy had hugged said, messing up my hair a little more if possible. "I'm Connor."

"You better not be torturing her already, Connor," the brunette said, turning her green eyes on Connor.

"Calm your horses, Katie," Connor said. "I've barely met her."

"She's Dionysus's daughter." Katie added in a bit of a lower voice. It was still plenty loud.

This caught the attention of pretty much everyone. Most had not been around when Mr. D (calling him anything else just doesn't seem right at the moment) walked me to my cabin.

A few moments after everyone started to stare, they all broke into little conversations, whispering... about me.

I figured out which table was mine and took a seat. As if being alienated at school out of the choice of all my peers was bad enough, now I was alone due to some stupid rule about having to sit with only your cabin. I had kind of hoped that I wouldn't be all alone here but so far it didn't seem much different from school.

And then Troy was jogging up to me. "Hello," he said taking a seat next to me. A few people whispered a bit about it, but no one objected. "Dionysus gave me permission to sit with you as Pollux isn't here and he doesn't want you to be alone." He looked a bit nervous.

"He ordered you to sit with me, huh?" I guessed.

"He didn't order me to," Troy said. "I kind of asked to."

"Why?"

"Because you're new to camp and your alone at your table," Troy said. "I thought you'd like someone to sit with you..."

I glanced at the table where Mr. D was sitting, his eyes on Troy and me. I sent a smile at him, and he smiled back briefly, before turning to the rest of camp. Noticing that Mr. D wasn't watching his every move seemed to calm Troy down.

I cocked my head to the side. "Why were you sent to me?" I asked after a moment.

"What?" Troy asked.

"Why you?" I asked again. "Why not another satyr? Or one of the demigods?"

"Well, there was no actual evidence that there was a demigod where you lived," Troy said. "With the way things are right now, I guess that they sent me because I'm expendable."

"That's a horrible way to think of things," I said.

"If they had any idea who was there, Mr. D would have sent the best," Troy said. "He probably would have sent Percy, Annabeth, and Nico."

"Who?" I asked. I imagine that I must have had a totally blank expression on my face.

"The boy and girl from your dream," Troy said. "They are a son of Poseidon and a daughter of Athena. And Nico is a son of Hades."

"Wait... isn't Athena a virgin goddess?" I asked. I'm pretty sure that she was, at the very least. After all, Greek Mythology had been my best subject... ever.

"Um, well, her children are literal brain children," Troy said. "You know how she was born..."

"Zeus ate her mother when she was pregnant and Athena burst forth from his head," I said.

"Well, her children are similar," Troy said.

"They burst forth from her head fully grown and wearing battle garb?" That kind of freaked me out.

"Not that literal," Troy said. "But they're the combined minds of Athena and the fathers."

Okay, that wasn't quite as weird. Still a little, but it was something that I was at least able to wrap my mind around without wanting to cower in fear.

I still wasn't entirely convinced that this wasn't just a really big hoax... or a long, realistic, bad dream. "You know, my life was perfectly normal before you showed up, so I think I have you to blame for all of this."

Troy could only shrug.

I learned a few things about demigods during dinner. First, we'd have to give a portion of each of our meals to the hearth for the gods, and it was supposed to be the best bit. Second, I learned that Hermes had the most kids, followed by Apollo. I also learned that Braxton had a sister, Reis. She looked nice enough.

I also learned that a lot of the kids steered clear of Reis and Braxton, and not for any good reason, but because their mother was Eris. I learned that the kids from the Morpheus Cabin and the Hypnos Cabin spent most of their time together, and their cabins were connected through a door. I learned that there was only one cabin for all the children of the Erotes... not that it made a difference as only Eros seemed to have a child. As well, there was only one cabin for the children of Phobos and Deimos... which also didn't matter because the only child of Phobos was just a summer camper and Deimos had no children.

I also learned that the guys from the Hephaestus cabin were flirts. The girls from the Aphrodite cabin mostly wore pink (though there was an exception). The Apollo cabin liked to sing. The Hermes cabin liked to pull pranks. And Percy Jackson also was sitting mostly alone, except for a satyr, which Troy informed me was named Grover.

As soon as dinner was over, I decided to head to my cabin. I wanted to get to sleep early. Troy walked me most of the way until another satyr called him over. We were at the cabins and figured I'd find the cabin on my own.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the door was that my stuff was at the foot of a bed right by the door. The second thing I noticed was the woman sitting patiently on my bed wearing a shimmering silver robe. I don't know how I missed her at first. She stood a little taller than the average woman, a little short of six feet. She had long brown hair in beautiful waves that fell down her back and over her shoulders, and sparkling brown eyes. She was absolutely beautiful. Her skin was pale, but unlike mine, it looked like porcelain.

She smiled warmly, but a bit sadly, at me. "Dear child, you are certainly one of a kind."

"Um... Do you mind me asking who you are?" I asked. I figured she was a goddess, but I didn't know if I should just know who she was, or if it was proper to just wait until she introduced herself.

Her smile grew a bit as she giggled. "I am sorry," she said and stood. "I am Ariadne." She gave me a small bow... not like I was supposed to be bowed to, but more as a form of greeting, like some people shake hands.

"You're..." I began, but stopped. "I'm Mary-Ann," I said. I tried to imitate her bow, but miserably failed. "I'm sorry, I've never met a goddess before. And especially as you're Mr. D's wife..."

"You know your history," she said. "But, Mr. D? Is that how people are supposed to address their fathers?"

"Well, I hardly know him," I said. "Just the stories I've read about him. I don't feel familiar enough to call him anything but Mr. D. As well, I don't want him to treat me differently from the other campers, so I shouldn't treat him differently than how they should treat him."

"You know he will treat you differently," Ariadne said. "But, it is nobel that you're not using that as an advantage."

"Do you mind me asking another question?" I asked.

"Not at all," she said. "After all, I am the one that came into your..." she looked around, not sure what to call it, "hut..."

"Why are you here?" I asked, trying not to sound offensive.

"I make it a point to meet my husband's children," Ariadne said. "He is mostly faithful, but like any god, he does stray. I like to know what his children are like."

"So, I'm kind of a painful reminder for you?" I asked. Before I could stop myself, I went on. "You're not going to be cruel and subject me to a ton of labors the way Hera did to Heracles, are you? You look too kind."

She giggled again. "Not at all. And thank you for saying I look kind. I'm not sure if I have heard that in the thousands of yours I've been around. I think I'll like you, Mary-Ann. You're still growing into who you are, but I believe that you will make your father proud."

"By proud..." What I imagined would make the father of wine and madness proud before would have been a raving drunk. I really hope that Ariadne thought that's what I would grow into.

"You will do great things, child."

My cheeks flushed a bit. "I don't think so," I said. "I don't think I was meant for anything big. I'm still not entirely convinced that I'm a demigod."

"You must be," Ariadne said. "Only demigods and gods can pass the boundaries of this camp, for the most part."

"Oh..." I said slowly, feeling a bit dumb.

"You will get the hang of it," Ariadne said. "Everyone eventually does." She gestured to the bed where a small pile of orange shirts appeared. "I believe those will be your size. I look forward to dining with you tomorrow morning. But, for now, you look very tired. Get a good night's sleep." She then made her way out of the cabin.