I know I said I'd update on Thursdays but my internet ran out so I couldn't. On the bright side I have written three chapters ahead so I should update regularly.

Percy POV

Apollo leads us to a big red van like thing and hands Hazel over to Thalia. We climb in the back and Nico pulls Hazel's head into his lap and pushes her hair out of her face. The drive to the hospital is spent in silence and it feels like it takes hours rather than minutes. When we finally arrive Apollo gives us all a sad smile before driving away and leaving us to face the huge building one our own.

Thalia scoops Nico up and I shift Hazels head onto my shoulder, we stand like that side by side for a few minutes before Thalia finally gets up the courage to approach the doors and I follow her. As soon as we get inside I take a seat while Thalia goes to explain our situation to the ER nurse. I'm only there for a minute before someone is wheeling a gurney towards us and I'm having Hazel taken out of my arms and then someone is leading me and Nico away. They take us to a conference room and they tell us to wait for a social worker.

As soon as they leave I turn to Nico, "Don't tell them your surname Nico or they'll take you back to your parents."

Nico nods and climbs onto my lap. We'd done this before, of course or at least I had. I'd been taken back to Gabe and my mother, they left again though this time it was a little more violent. After that if I was ever caught it was Percy, just Percy. Few people know my surname now, it's Jackson.

Finally the door opens and a man walks in, he's pretty old and in a wheelchair so I suppose I should say wheeled not walked. "Hello, I'm Mr. Bruner but you can call me Chiron," he says, taking a seat across from us.

I don't respond, just stare at him while Nico buries his face in my shoulder. Apparently Chiron is used to this because he just continues, "I'm your social worker. Apparently you're homeless, is that true?"

"Where is she? Where's Hazel?" Nico asks, lifting his head to look at Chiron.

"She's being taken care of," he says kindly then turns back to me, "How many more of you are there? And where?" he sighs when I just look at him, "We're not trying to hurt you, we're trying to help you. I know you've probably been through this a thousand times but I'm begging you to trust me."

"There are two, they're in the sixth abandoned warehouse on Carmen." I say, they'll find the rich brats and say we kidnapped them. The rich brats will say we did and then I'll be blamed and sent away, that's how this thing works.

"Carmen?" Chiron asks, obviously confused by the street slang.

I sigh, "Sixth Street."

"All right," he nods, making a note in his little black book. "Now, what's your name?"

"Percy," I answer, "Where's Thalia?"

"Do you have a surname, Percy?" he asks and I shake my head, asking again, "Where's Thalia?"

"Your friend is in the room next door with another social worker, we thought it would be best if the person who dealt with her was female." Chiron explains.

I shake my head at him, "No, you thought it was better if you kept us separated in case we tried anything. I know how this whole thing works."

Chiron sighs again, "We're trying to help you. Social services isn't the enemy."

"I know that, you're just not very good at weeding out the good foster parents from the bad. You're stuck in a system but I just want to stay out if it." I say, pulling Nico closer to me. He's crying, maybe because of Hazel or maybe because of this how blasted situation or maybe just because he's had enough.

Chiron sighs yet again and says, "You and the little boy will be taken to a foster home not far from here and we'll keep you posted on what happens to the little girl, Hazel you called her. Your friend Thalia will also be told what happens to Hazel but we'll be sending her to an all-girls home somewhere else. You can see her sometimes."

"I want to see Hazel!" Nico shouts, "I want to see my sister, she's only nine. She'll be scared, I need to go to her." He sobs, pounding his fists against my back.

They don't let us see her though and all I can do is hold him while he screams. No one bothers to try and comfort him. They just put us in a car with Chiron, giving us pitying looks and whispering to each other.

Piper POV

No one follows us as the blond dude drags me out the room, he's fuming and he's starting to hurt my arm. He pushes me away from him as soon as we're in his desired room. It's huge with floor to ceiling windows making up one wall, though they don't have any glass and most are covered in plastic.

I stumble as he shoves me backwards, "Ow, what do you think you're doing?" I shout.

He glares at me, "You think you're so great don't you? With your big fancy mansion and a million servants but you are a petty stuck-up bitch. You have no idea what it is to care about another person more than yourself. You think you are all there is and that you have the right to force your rule over us just because of circumstance. Do you think this was a choice we all made? Do you think we want to be homeless and hungry?" he shoves me again.

"Well of course you do otherwise you'd be living in a mansion wouldn't you?" I laugh but I'm feeling uncertain. What does he mean? Of course they chose this, right?

"No, you absolute idiot. Maybe I would but Percy, Nico, Hazel, Leo they would be living in hell holes. Nico and Hazel were kicked out of their home because they weren't their step-mothers children. They were six and seven years old. Leo's mother died and nobody would take him in so he had nowhere to go. Percy's family abandoned him while he was at school. We want love and safety, we want what you have but you hate it. You despise us!" he shouts and he's so angry that he's flushed red.

I stare at him, all my life I've been taught that being poor was a choice. That the poor were stupid and worthless but some of them were just children who wanted more. Most of them. Not a choice, how could it not be what it my parents told me it was? What my mom told me, I correct myself. My dad always left the room when the topic came up.

"I'm sorry," I whispered and he stops. He goes dead still, staring at me in shock so I continue, "I've been taught that what you are is a choice but maybe I was wrong, maybe."

He wavers, like he's considering whether or not I'm telling the truth. Maybe he decides I am because he says, "I can show you, the truth that is. What it's really like, the good and the bad."

"What do you mean?" I ask, even though we're thirteen and somewhere deep down it is still ingrained in me to think he's a rat and stupid it feels like we're older than that. Like we could just maybe be like those couples in books, in love with one another. I'll be fourteen in a month anyway, that's old enough to be in love.

He takes my hand and leads me over to the windows, the sun is coming up now and it's beautiful. I've never been up this high before or in this sector of the city without a bodyguard. There are people on the tops of the buildings, running along them or just sitting on them. Most of the people on the streets are beggars or scavengers, a lot of them are like me as well. The rich glaring at the poor with distain.

There's a group of kids asleep two buildings away from us, older than the ones in this building. Maybe sixteen or seventeen. Kids.

"There are more of us than you think," Jason says, "We just keep away from you. On the rooftops, in the trees and under the ground. The city is not what you think it is, we even have our own sectors and domains. Right now we're in Carmen, no one owns or controls this part. It's free, though Luke and Reyna do tend to keep an eye on things around here. They control the surrounding sectors, Amber, Ruby, Lake, Swallow, Emerald and Finch. They probably control more but those are the official Titan/Jupiter sectors. The Hunters control Gemini, Ares and Silver. There are other less friendly gangs controlling most of the other sectors." He shudders.

"You have your own rules here?" I ask, staring at the parts of the city he pointed out. Strangely enough someone took the time to paint lines all over the tops of the buildings and on the ground clearly marking the sectors. "And how do you know what sector you're in, are they colour coded?"

"Yes and yes. They are coloured coded but I don't know how or why, that's Percy and Thalia's thing not mine. I just know the order they go in and who rule the ones I get to go to." He explains with a shrug. The streets is more complicated than I thought. I stare at him, with the sun turning his hair golden he looks like some sort of deity. Like a god. Impressive and fair.

I shake my head, what am I thinking? He's a street kid I can't like him. "Um, are they in charge? Percy and Thalia?" I ask.

"Yeah, Percy saved Nico and Hazel, me too for that matter. Thalia saved me and Leo, we look after each other but Percy and Thalia look after us. They find the food and the blankets, they keep us alive." He sounds sad as he says this, like he wishes it was him who did all of that.

I take his hand even though it's been drilled into me that I'll catch some sort of terrible disease if I touch one of them. "How old are they?"

"Fourteen, almost fifteen but they've been doing this since they were ten." He answers, gripping my hand really hard.

Ten, they were ten. When I was ten I was throwing tea parties for fairies and wearing little high heels not looking after a bunch of little kids on the street. Maybe Annabeth is right, maybe these kids do need our help. He turns to look at me, he's crying now. The sun making the tears glisten and his blue eyes bright and I kiss him. I kiss him because I want to break the rules my parents have enforced upon me for my entire life, because he looks like he needs it and maybe, just maybe, because I like him a little bit. Because I love him a little bit.