It Was a few days later, when the news came. She had a sister, a sister named Thalia. Well ¼ sister would be more accurate, but still… Father had had another daughter with some singer actress lady, and she was coming to camp with two other half bloods! Thalia was almost thirteen, though, so Jude wasn't sure if she'd want to be around a little kid like her. She traced the scar that stretched from her left eyebrow to the right side of her jaw absent-mindedly. She always did when she worried; it got on Clarisse's nerves a lot, and made Hestia worry, but for some reason, it helped her think.

She had heard her two closest friends saying that she was just messed up that way(Clarisse, but she had said it in a good way) or that it reminded her of what she had to lose, and what she had to gain(Hestia, but Jude couldn't quite make sense of that). Jude just did it out of habit; when she was still at the Dursleys, staring into the dark cupboard, she would trace her scars, memorising her face. It calmed her down, and it still did.

But back to Thalia. Jude knew that her dad's weren't supposed to have children, they had sworn it on the river Styx. She wondered if she had counted, though. After all, they never really chose to have her… Eh, she was alive, and that's what mattered in her book. She thought back to her old dreams. What would she do if she got a letter from a magic school? Would she be considered even weirder than she was now? For, Jude knew that she was thought of as the Camp oddball, the goof.

Not in the way she acted, but because of what she was, and how she looked. Oh, she was getting off of the topic again! Crimeny! The six-years-old thought back to her big sister, whom she hadn't even met yet. Wasn't there a prophecy thingy about the next child of the eldest gods? Did she count? What if the Olympians wanted to kill her big sister? Jude made an irritated noise that she had learned from Mr. D in the back of her throat and leaned her head back on the tree. Drawing circles and things in the sand, she never even noticed when someone came up behind her.

"Hey, Jude."

Jude screamed and threw electricity at whoever it was that had spoken. Oops… It was Clarisse. "Sorry, Clarisse," she murmured, ducking her head down.

"Aw, stop it. I should have known not to scare you. Chiron told me to tell you that you were gonna have to be tutored in normal school, though."

"Figures, that. Hey… you talked to your dad again?" Whenever Clarisse talked to Mr. Ares, she was always quieter. Jude thought that if she ever met the War God, she'd have a bone to pick with him. Of course, that would probably get her best non-Olympian friend mad at her, but still…

Jude looked at Clarisse. "Well?"

The larger girl rolled her eyes. "Yes, Jude, I talked to my father. I swear, though, he must be-" she stopped short, and her eyes flickered toward the sky. Jude understood completely. It was annoying when your parent got all angry with you and then thundered when you tried to talk to someone about it. Father was like that, very temperamental. Emphasis on the mental bit.

"Why don't we go swimming? I figured out how to make the air bubble stay for over thirty minutes."

Clarisse grinned. "You did? That's awesome! Wait - what happens after thirty minutes?"

Jude rolled her eyes at Clarisse's mom-ish-ness. "I pass out, float to the surface, wake up about an hour later. Oh! I was eavesdropping on Mr. Chiron, and he was talking about how we could manipulate the Mist! Want to ask Hestia to teach us?"

Clarisse shook her head. "Naw, she'd never agree. I love her, but she's always neutral, always yields. Now let's go swimming."

"'Kay!" Jude chirped, jumping too high in the air, and then slamming into the water without so much as disturbing a drop. She sniggered behind her hand when she heard Clarisse mutter about show offs.

She still was wondering what her new sister would be like.

Jude decided that she hated Remy Dallas. The girl talked to her like she was a baby, and stupid at that. It was all the six-years old could do though, to repress a maniac grin when the cheerleader tried to pat her on the head and was thrown backwards. "Oops! I'm sorry Priss Daily!"

Remy glared at her. "MISS DALLAS, Judida."

"Call me Judida again and you'll find yourself in Tartarus. Now let's play!" The latter sentence was a complete one-eighty from the dark and disgusted tone of her earlier, more threatening words. Remy Dallas gaped at Jude in shock and said in a weak voice something about testing her favourite little student to see what level she was at.

Jude debated telling her that she already had learned everything in Primary school because Judida had wanted her to be ahead of the game so that she had more time to plot her escape or something like that. Jude was honestly just amazed that she remembered everything in her dreams. Nah, she wouldn't tell Blondie.

By the end of the morning, Blondie had declared Jude completely insane and out to kill all of the campers. This condition was worsened when she saw Jude just sitting there, smiling and nodding to everything that the blonde ranted. At lunch, people stared more than usual, but, as per usual, Jude ignored it an drank her liquefied tuna sub. Well, she didn't always have a liquid tuna sub, but usually some liquefied meal, just to see if she could actually have it. She hadn't come up with anything yet that hadn't appeared.

After lunch, she toddled off to find Hestia, and see if Clarisse was in a mood to play fight. "Hestia! Hestia! Hey, Hestia!"

The goddess turned. "Yes, Jude?"

"Wanna play?"

Hestia eyed her suspiciously. "I thought you were being tutored…"

"I was."

"Judida, what did you do?"

Jude made a face at the name Judida. "Jude. And I just answered Blondie's questions…"

"You want to drive the camp mad. I declare, even Mr. D won't be able to keep up with your insanity."

"Thank you."

Hestia rolled her eyes. "I'll play with you and Clarisse in a bit, but right now, I'm a bit busy. Clarisse is attacking a tree. Go fight with her."

"'Kay!"

Clarisse was, indeed, hacking a tree to bits. Thankfully not one with a dryad, but hacking it to bits, nonetheless. "Clarisse!"

"WHAT!"

Jude stepped back at her friends' raging tone. "I-I'm sorry… I can… I'll go, if you want me to, I just… Sorry."

Clarisse let her spear fall. "Oh, stop, Jude. Come here. I didn't mean to yell at you."

Jude traced her scar as she walked up to the large girl.

She was not prepared for a hug.

At all.

In any sense of insensibility.

And yet, she hugged Clarisse back. Somehow, she supposed that they both needed it.

Jude bit back a scream. Monsters. Monsters. Monsters. They were storming the hill, and aiming at a girl that looked like Father. She made a goat boy, a human boy, and a girl maybe Jude's age go forward, and tried to hold off the monsters. Jude ran faster. She had to help them! The older girl, the one that made the others go ahead, fell down just as the other three reached the border. Jude reached them, along with some other campers, a few seconds later.

Why the bloody blue blazes wasn't anyone trying to help that girl? Jude tripped over someone. The little blonde girl. She was watching, frozen, while a bolt of lightning hit the older girl, and turned her into a pine tree. The monsters were leaving… Then that was…

"Thalia," the two new demigods whispered, obviously distraughts.

Her big sister.

Jude was silent as she helped the blonde girl up, and walked with them to the Big House. She didn't even think that they noticed her. Once they had reached the door, Jude stole back to cabin one. She had been staying in it for the last few weeks, hoping to get to share it with a sibling, just like everyone else did, just to see what it was like. But that wouldn't happen now, would it?

Should she offer the new kids to put Thalia's things on the bed she had made up for her? Or would they be mad if she did… She'd talk to Clarisse and Hestia. But she did know that she wanted to help them. She had to.

She didn't know why, but she had to help the people that her sister had loved.

The camp was sad after that night. Some people tried to ignore, and others gossiped about what they had seen, but it seemed to be the silent agreement of all of them not to ask the new kids, Annabeth Chase and Luke Castellan, about Thalia. They were in Hermes Cabin for now, and Luke was already claimed by his Dad, Hermes, but Annabeth wasn't. Jude had snuck in one day while everyone was out, and had stuck a box of hers, Hestia's, and Clarisse's homemade chocolates in each of their knapsacks. Clarisse's Mum was a really, really good recipe maker.

She hadn't told Clarisse or Hestia about wanting to talk to Luke and Annabeth yet, but she ended up not having to. They came to talk to her.

Annabeth stood slightly behind Luke, and the boy was standing in front of Jude, shifting slightly from foot to foot. It was free time, and almost everybody was swimming or practising their archery or sword fighting skills.

"Um, you're Jude, right? You see, some people were saying, I mean, we heard, um, is it true that-"

Annabeth seemed to be frustrated with the older boy, for she babbled out, "Is it true that you're Thalia's sister?"

Luke nudged her, and muttered something like and along the lines that Annabeth needed to learn tact. Jude stifled a giggle. Were you allowed to be happy if your sister just died, even if you'd never met her? Well, turned into a tree, but still… As the two were still waiting for an answer, Jude just nodded.

"I am, sort of. I'm the daughter of all the big three. So she was… is…. Like my ¼ sister, I think. I only found out about her a few weeks ago." Seeing as they didn't look violent yet, she added timidly, "Erm, if you want, I already had her bed made up in Cabin One, if you want to keep her stuff there. Well, whatever she didn't have on her when Father made her into… the tree."

Annabeth whispered something in Luke's ear, and he stood up and nodded. "We'd like that," he smiled.

It had months ago, now, and Annabeth was eight now, and Luke fifteen. Clarisse had had her tenth birthday, and Jude, Jude was still six. Annabeth and Luke were teaching her what they knew from school, and in return, Clarisse and Jude taught them Ancient Greek and how things were done at Camp Half Blood. Annabeth and Clarisse didn't get along very well, and neither blonde really tried to get to know Hestia. Hestia had explained that people could be like that sometimes, and to just let it lie. Even Clarisse had agreed with her for once, even if it was obvious that she was reluctant to.

Not much happened, and right now was one of the few times that she spent time with just one of her friends. Today, it was Luke. She'd never spent time with just him before, but she liked it. Clarisse was fun to fight with, Annabeth, to study, Hestia to play around, and Luke… well, so far, it seemed that Luke was a very good friend to just sit around with. They were just tracing pictures in the sand, and occasionally leaning on a rock or something and looking at the water.

"Hey, Jude?"

"Yeah, Luke?"

"Have you ever been on a quest?"

Well that was an odd question. Her dad's would never let her quest, she was too young, they had said when she last asked. She had even sent them separate letters, and what did they do? They conspired with one another and wrote a joint letter, outlining every reason they could think of to keep her safely tucked away in Camp Half Blood, and then each of them had in red ink written in capital letter, complete with underlines, 'NO!'

"Uh, Jude?"

"What, oh? Oh, I'm sorry, Luke. I was just thinking of something."

"Are you ganna answer my question?"

"Eventually."

"Ju-ude!"

Jude giggled behind her hand. "No, I haven't. My fathers' would never let me. Why?"

"All of your scars."

Jude tried not to tense up, she did, but she hadn't told Luke and Annabeth about her old home life. She wasn't sure if she wanted to explain it to him, least of all right now.

"What happened?" Luke was looking at her curiously, obviously noting that she had gone rigid as a rock. He was staring mostly at the long scar across her face.

"I…" She wouldn't lie to her friends, never. She pointed at the long scar, "When I was three years old, my Aunt Petunia had me cook breakfast for everyone for the first time ever. She pointed everything out, and told me to have everything ready in ten minutes. I started slicing a loaf of bread after I put the bangers in the pan, and I nicked my finger with a sharp knife. I got blood all over the counter. Aunt Petunia screamed at me, and then she took the knife, dipped it in the fat in the pan, and held my face so that I couldn't move. She cut all along my face, and then threw me into my… quarters." She would have to thank Annabeth for teaching her that word, later. "The rest of them are from the same sort of thing. Mostly it was my cousin and Aunt, because my Uncle couldn't stand people that hit their kids. I think I have all of two scars from him, one on my knee, and one on my finger."

Luke looked at her strangely. "If your Uncle didn't like people like that… why did your Aunt and cousin get away with it?"

Jude laughed at that one, a dead, bitter sound. Like there was nothing good in the world. "Because, Luke, if he didn't see it, it didn't happen. He never saw it. I'm gonna go to my cabin, okay? Just… let me be for a while."

Jude brushed off her somewhat dusty jeans and walked quickly to Cabin Three, not even daring to look and see what Luke was thinking.

When she got to her Dad's cabin, she held Alice Ridley close and cried. She didn't know why, but every time she talked about them she just had to cry. Why did she even care? She hadn't seen them in two years. No-one could trace her here. And besides, crying was bad, it meant people could hurt you. She wasn't supposed to cry! She looked at the fountain her Dad had put in for her first Christmas at Camp. 'To keep in touch,' the note had said. Father and Daddy went all out that year too, silly dads. Father gave her a metal locket, with a shield that electrocuted anyone that touched it, even with a weapon or through cloth, and Daddy gave her a box of little stones containing Greek Fire, complete with hand-made instruction manual on how to use them to the most destructive effect, or any effect. There were about a hundred. Jude thought that they were all trying to get her to pick a favourite.

She was right.

Jude slipped off the bed, and sat on the side of the fountain. Would she call one of them, or all of them. She almost immediately discounted the latter idea; the last time she had tried that, they ended up yelling at each other for an hour until she ran out of the room wailing.

She didn't want to play favourites with her dads… She tried to think. Maybe a girl would understand, but she had already talked to Hestia, she didn't want to bore her. Clarisse… Clarisse would murder someone, and she didn't want to tell Annabeth yet. Just not yet. Mr. D's wife? No, she'd only met her once…

One of their wives? Maybe… Hera, Goddess of Marriage and families. Well, perfect families, anyway. Persephone, goddess of… springtime, right? And Amni… Amphri… Amphitrite… Yeah, Amphitrite, Dad's wife, with the hard name. But wouldn't they not like her, because she wasn't their kids? Well.. All the stories said they didn't like proof of their husband's infidelity. She wasn't, technically. She was a mistake of blood falling from Olympus.

Jude let out a short, harsh breath. Okay, she could do this. If nothing else, she'd know if her… Aunt's? Step Mothers? She needed a family tree, for the love of Pete… She'd know if any of them or all of them hated her, if nothing else. She fished out a golden drachma from the fountain and held it up to the water, where it was making a rainbow, and said politely, in her best please-oh-please-oh-pretty-goshing-please voice, "Oh, Miss Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering. Hera, Amphitrite, and Persephone, please." Miss Iris always was faster when Jude added the 'Miss' bit. And saying 'please' always helps.

The holographic images of the three goddesses appeared, and they all seemed in a bit of a huff for being called. "Yes?" they asked together. They looked at each other, shrugged, and looked back at Jude. Was it a grown-up-lady thing?

"Um…. Mrs. Hera, Mrs. Amphitrite, and Mrs. Persephone, I was kinda… I wanted to talk to someone about something, and I don't wanna play favourites with my daddies, and I already talked about it to Hestia, and she looked all mad about something and I don't wanna talk to her again in case she yells at me, and I was sorta hoping tha', if you didn't hate, me that, maybe, maybe you could, I don't know, talk to me, but if you're really busy, I can go, and I'm really sorry, and I - I- I…." as Jude spoke faster and faster, her accent became much more pronounced, and she tried not to lose her nerve, because the goddesses were looking at her funny now.

Jude took a deep breath, and said as evenly as she could manage, "I was hoping to talk to you because I really need to talk to someone, and I don't want to play favourites with my daddies, or make them think I am, or bother Hestia, or get Clarisse mad, but if you want to go, I'm sorry."

Mrs. Amphitrite raised her eyebrows. "Well, I for one don't hate you, but what exactly is it that you want to talk about? You haven't said. have you?"

"No, she hasn't," Mrs. Persephone said dryly. Mrs. Hera rolled her eyes at them both.

"Just go ahead and tell us, sweetheart."

Jude smiled a little at her, and said as clearly as she could, "Well, I was talking to Luke, and he asked me about-about my… scars, and I told him about them, and then I left, and I started to cry once I got in here, and it happens every time that I talk about it and I don't know why and am I turning into a nutter?"

She said this all very fast and very much in fear of the three ladies' answers.

Mrs. Hera spoke first. "Your scars? How did you get them?"

Mrs. Amphitrite gave her a look that said 'stop playing a dummy, Hera, we need to help her.'

Mrs. Hera gave her a look that said, 'I am, haven't you ever heard of therapy, or psychology? One of the most inter3esting things Humans have come up with, and helpful, too.'

Mrs. Persephone gave them both a look that said, 'Both of you stuff it!'

Of course, Jude didn't see any of this, as her face was hidden behind her hair and her doll, as she was trying to figure out what to say without crying again. "I, um, ," she mumbled, just loud enough that the other three people could hear.

Hera, Amphitrite, and Persephone each talked to her and helped her for innumerable (well, they didn't exactly keep track, okay? Yeesh….) hours that day, and continued in the afternoon, and only finished around bedtime. It was never going to be a regular thing, but they each let Jude know that if she needed someone, they were there.

Jude felt a lot better after she talked to them.

AN/AR: Okay, maybe you think that the wives are a bit OOC, and I admit, they are. But, two are mums, and the other probably should be one. They don't hate Jude because, from the way I interpreted it, they didn't like their husbands Demigods before, because they were proof of infidelity. Well, Jude isn't exactly that, now is she? By this time, it's been two years, and I think the Gods would've figured out what had happened by now. So, they did. The wives know that Jude was made by lucky chance, and they're not going to be utterly horrid to a scared, crying, little six-years-old girl, for Olympus' Sake!

Sorry for the rant… -ish.

Blessings,

Mercy.