Back again! This chapter's sorta long, just because I wanted to fit a lot in and get some character develpoment rolling-plus it was too cute of an idea for me to leave out.

Disclaimer-I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise, or Rick Riordan.

Mira's POV

As the rest of the cabins faltered out of the Big House, disappointed that I didn't choose their cabins for my first night here, I slowed my step, then sped up to catch Annabeth before she could disappear like Grover, Percy and Nico did.

"Hi, uhm Annabeth?"

She whirled around to face me, eyes slate grey in the dim light. I could sense interest, confusion, and just the slightest bit of dislike, but I was dead set on having her as a friend.

"Yeah?"

"Since Grover disappeared and I have no idea about anything around here, could you maybe give me a tour? I don't want to impose or anything, but I'd really rather you show me around then some other people here."

Her gaze softened as she saw insecurity, and rushed in to help like a mother hen.

"Sure. And listen, about what happened with Percy-"

I put my hands up in a defensive gesture. "Nothing happened, I promise you." She looked about ready to open her mouth and say something, but I wanted to get this whole thing cleared up right now. "And I swear on the River Styx that I will never romantically or sexually do anything with him for as long as the two of you are together."

She gaped at me. "You pick up things quick, don't you?"

I laughed a little bit at what I assumed to be the rare sight of a child of Athena confused. "So we're cool now, right?"

Annabeth smiled back at me, and I got only happiness at my promise and a strange sense of relief off of her. "Definitely. Now, there's a lot to learn, and I'm sure that you can't get all of it just by names."

She linked her arm with mine, and I just kept sending more 'You will like me' thoughts out over the icy blue thread that drew from her.

Let me be frank here for a moment.

Percy Jackson is a very attractive boy. He almost has that whole bad boy look going for him, with the shaggy dark hair and the sea green eyes and the fact that he's just a little ditzy, but then he open his mouth and he is just so sweet I think that if I licked him I'd taste sugar. It's half endearing-and half repulsive. His thread is so clean and so perfect, aside from being strengthened by the curse of Achilles, and being dotted by a few encounters with Annabeth that I never plan on looking at. So as I was saying, I wouldn't be able to stand being with him, so making my promise to Annabeth was easy. I really had no want for him, which was obviously something different, because a lot of the other girls here had this sick kind of desire for him painted all over their threads.

"Hello? Earth to Mira?"

I snapped back into reality, and noticed she was holding a sword-it was nicked in just the right places, so I assumed that it was the same sword I had defeated the hydra with. I had grown just the slightest bit attached to it.

"Here. This will be yours for now, until you can persuade one of the Hephaestus boys to make you your own. You want to go try out your skills on a dummy?"

"Nah, I think I want to see the rest of camp first." I smiled at her, and she easily agreed with me. The sword swung from my hand.

We were just walking past the big house when a girl with fire on her head raced over to us.

"Annabeth! I heard that someone's the daughter of The Fates! Where is she? I need to meet her!"

Annabeth sighed. An oozing, distrustful commitment momentarily blackened her thread. "Mira, meet our resident Oracle of Delphi."

"Rachel Dare." She smiled and stuck out her hand. "I guess you're the daughter of The Fates?"

I hesitated to touch her hand but still did; I could almost sense the commotion we were about to cause.

She smiled at me and began to talk, to ask many, many questions, but I didn't hear her. Her thread, which had been such a bright white before, was suddenly coated with a thick green mist. It would be a while before it happened-what it was, I wasn't sure, but I just knew that it would be important when it did.

Bringing myself to concentrate on her fast-thrown words, I answered as best I could. "It's not really like that. I can't see the future, or tell what's happened in other people's pasts. But I see theses threads that extend from inside of people, and I can get a sense of them from that thread. For example, yours is white, very pure and very well-meaning. You're privileged-there are certain dark spots where you've thrown your weight around, times you regret, times you think have tarnished what you want to do, which is help. And there's a bright green mist surrounding the end. Something very big is going to happen, and very soon."

Rachel balked. "Bright green?"

"Yeah…that's what I said, right?" I was confused.

Annabeth's face was white as well. "Her eyes go bright green when she speaks a Prophecy…"

Just then, Rachel's eyes began to glow and the light from her was so intense I had to look away for a moment. When I looked back her mouth had fallen open and a voice that wasn't her own echoed from within her.

"Doves make the choice to lay with Death

Six hearts beat to a final breath

To follow the thief in the dead of day

Forever the ones who the gods will say

A man made of night up against a wall

The prison keys returned when the doves fall"

Rachel shuddered, and the green light faded. Annabeth was recording every word, and those who happened to be outside were staring at us, our odd trio of heads, one blonde, one red, one dark.

"We…we have to go tell Chrion about that, right?" I was stumped by how upset they all were, but surprisingly interested as well.

Rachel shook her head, and smiled at me. "Yeah. I'll go do that. I kind of felt this coming on for a while now; you guys go on and finish your tour!" I could tell that she wanted to ask me more questions about me being what I was, but she obviously had no time as of right now.

Annabeth shook her head as well, and trotted me over to each cabin, showing me all the differences and explaining to me about each god and their children. Most of it I already knew, since Greek Mythology was kind of my thing, but the more personal aspects that they didn't mention in the hundreds-upon-hundreds of books I'd read about it were really interesting.

She told me about the pact of The Big Three, which it turns out was broken anyway. She told me all about Thalia's Pine Tree, and about how she joined the Hunters of Artemis to escape a prophecy that had Olympus' fate resting on its shoulders. She told me all about The Great Prophecy and the Second Titan War, which I could see scarring everyone's threads, and about how Percy saved the world. Her eyes got all moony when she said this, but then she began to tell me about this Hermes kid named Luke, and a storm cloud bristled in her eyes, as if she dared me to call him an enemy after all he sacrificed.

We had just passed the Aphrodite cabin and, amidst all the catcalls, Stacey, the girl who helped me before, walked over with two other girls I found to be twins, Bethany and Danielle White.

"How's camp treating you so far?" Stacey was kind, but the other two girls looked at me with daggers for eyes.

"Awesome! I haven't had to kill anything yet, and I've been asked out like, five times already! It's great here!" Being around her made me want to act like a ditz and only talk about menial love flings, and I gave into that urge.

She laughed, and I couldn't help but think that it was beautiful. "So tell us-why did you choose to sleep with-uhm, sleep in-Nico's cabin?" All four pairs of eyes were then sparking with a hint of gossip, even Annabeth's, and I knew quite exactly where they were heading.

Let me tell you something.

I noticed Nico the second I walked into the Big House. He was sitting in a corner, all quiet and what-not, but he had presence, and I got a sense of pure power rolling off of him in waves. It wasn't the same with Percy, who had power in a more goody-two shoes kind of way; Nico had power that wouldn't mind throwing a few switches just to see what would explode. I scanned the room, seeing if anyone had ties to him, but none did, and then I realized that they were afraid of him. That automatically put him even more in my liking. Fear is fun to watch, and none excites more fear than a son of Hades.

Not that their fear of him was what I liked-that was just an added bonus. He was easily five inches taller than I, and I could see a wiry kind of strength about him. He wasn't small and skinny, though Annabeth still saw him that way, so I assumed he had grown up recently. I certainly wasn't complaining. After I had announced that I was going to be staying with him, he looked at me with eyes that pooled like molten iron, and I couldn't help but get lost in their depths.

I had a feeling that we were going to have a lot of fun together.

But my mouth had to say otherwise. "Well, I kinda guessed that everyone else had like, no room but he looked like he was the only one, right? So he'd have room and I was just totally overwhelmed by everyone being so pushy!"

"I totally get that!" She beamed at me, but Bethany and Danielle glared out of the corner of their eyes, dislike seething in wires along their interconnected threads. "Stay with us tomorrow night?"

"Definitely!" She gave me a quick, hard hug and trotted off with a wave and the thick smell of perfume, her evil minions following behind her.

"You just get along with everyone, don't you?" She could tell that I was telling a little bit of a fib about Nico. The connection I had to people with their threads occasionally worked both ways, and Annabeth was one of the smarted people I had used the connection on, so she would get it pretty soon.

"I try!" I gave her a brilliant smile, and then she decided that we should go visit Poseidon's cabin and see if that's where Percy and the rest of them had disappeared to.

Annabeth put a finger to her lips as we approached the cabin's steps; we were obviously trying to be discreet, and either listen in on their conversation or scare the Styx out of them. We flashed each other wicked smiles-we had known each other barely three hours, but through the link I'd made with her thread, we already knew how to play to the other's strengths.

And so we snuck up on the boys and listened to them speak.

It appeared that Percy and Grover were giving Nico advice on something of a very pressing matter.

"Just be funny!"

"Or stupid, like Perce. That works pretty well for him!"

A soft flop made it sound like Percy had thrown a pillow at Grover's head.

"Grover eating pillow!" Tyson's voice boomed through the cabin walls.

"Dude that's my pillow, you nasty goat!"

Grover mumbled something back, his voice muffled through the tearing and gulping as he shoved the pillow in his mouth. "Shounla phrow za illo ima phirsh plashe."

Annabeth and I giggled silently to ourselves, stupidly ecstatic over this secret peek into what the guys did when we weren't around. Not that I'd around here for long enough to know them, but I'd gotten a pretty good feel for most of the people I'd encountered.

"Look Nico-she obviously had a reason for what she did. You don't have to listen to us if you don't want to. Just go for it! Do what feels right."

We all heard Nico nearly choke on his laughter. "Okay. I'll do what feels right." I could sense the sarcasm in his voice.

I could feel Percy and Grover smile, happy they had made a breakthrough. "Yes! And what's that?"

"Getting away from the three of you."

Annabeth and I panicked, not having enough time to get out of there before Nico opened the door and nearly ran right into us.

"Uhh…" We said it simultaneously, glancing at each other, knowing we got caught.

Nico backed up a step with a deceptively innocent face, the shyness I'd seen in him before near evaporated after his little chat with the boys and, looking down at us both, he called over his shoulder to Percy and Grover.

"Guys….I think we've got some eavesdroppers…"

At the tone in his voice they came and flanked him, foe-angry looks carved onto their faces. Just then, Juniper turned the corner and peered out from behind the cabin's walls, proving that we hadn't been the only ones listening in. The three of us exchanged scared looks-I'd never gotten caught spying by two demi-gods, a satyr and a Cyclops before. How was I to know if they were going to skin us alive or not?

"Are you two thinking what I'm thinking?" Percy narrowed his eyes at Annabeth, Grover scraped his hoof along the porch like a bull ready to charge, and Nico looked at me with a fire in his eyes and growled.

"Get 'em."

Without a second to spare, we turned and ran, scattering like geese in a mad panic. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Grover run to grab Juniper and grab her arm before she could disappear into a tree, twirling her into his arms as he scolded her, but I knew it was fake. The love decorating his thread was so impossible it made me laugh, infected with their combined ecstasy.

I couldn't give myself much time to think though, as Nico was catching up, so I threw on the speed and pumped my legs faster, using a convenient root to launch myself over the deck of Zeus's cabin. I felt a spark course through my legs as I dived over the porch, and knew that if I touched it I would surely be electrocuted to death. I heard a shrill scream from Annabeth and threw my head around to see her being swung into the air by Percy, who had apparently caught up to her by whacking her on the ankles with Riptide's hilt. I thought that was cheating, but I guessed we really didn't have much of a choice in it.

All this happened in less than half a second. With my head still turned I noticed that Nico wasn't behind me anymore. Thinking I'd won and he'd given up but not really believing it, I ran into the shadow of Hera's cabin and found that I'd thrown myself right into his arms. We fell, sprawling backwards onto the damp ground, and I realized at the same time he did that we were in a ridiculously awkward position. His face got just the slightest bit red, and I giggled like an Aphrodite girl.

"Shadow traveling. Neat trick."

At that I bounced up to my feet and darted away before he could grab me, right to the center of the cabin-square, where Percy was still struggling with Annabeth; Grover having neatly gotten Juniper into the cabin with less time than it took me to run to Zeus's cabin. I was in the clear with surprise on my side, but then Percy stuck out his foot just as I passed, making me stop to prevent myself from completely falling on my face. As I was trying to get back up, I heard a slap of hands as Percy high-fived Nico, and realized I was screwed. I made one last desperate attempt to get away that was practically a crawl, but Nico scooped me up in his arms and held on tight even as I squirmed and protested.

Once I realized that my struggles were getting me nowhere, I resorted to sulking silently as he carried me back to Percy's cabin. Percy pulled up next to us, holding Annabeth in a similar manner. Our feet were touching, and I got an idea that I spelled out for Annabeth with my eyes. Counting silently in our heads, we kicked each other's carriers hard in the side. They yelped in pain and loosed their grip, so we leapt out of their arms.

"Admirable effort." Nico grabbed me around the waste and slung me over his shoulder. "But not quite fast enough."

What I found so amusing was that his cheeks were bright red. It was infinitely obvious that he found this whole predicament so awkward, and that he was only doing it to not be ridiculed by the other guys.

I found it so amusing I actually laughed out laughed, which made the crowd we had amassed laugh at Annabeth and me.

"Hey-no laughing!"

I could tell he was faking it.

They dropped us next to Juniper, whose hands had been tied together.

"Nico's friend pretty!" Tyson, excited to meet a new person, startled another laugh out of me.

"No laughing!"

"Oh, shut it, teddy bear." Nico pulled back from me. "Thank you, Tyson. And may I say that you have the prettiest eye I have ever seen."

"Did you just call me a teddy bear?"

"Nico's friend say I'm pretty!" Tyson jumped out of the cabin with an excited little hop. I doubt he'd gotten a compliment from a girl, ever. "I tell Matte! I tell everyone!"

"Now he's never going to leave you alone."

"She called me a teddy bear."

"I know; He just seems like such a sweet kid."

"Is anyone listening? She called me a teddy bear!"

Grover guffawed at him, a bleating surprising sound that scared me halfway to Hades.

"She can't be serious. You're not serious, are you?"

"Untie me and I'll tell."

"Never."

"Then you'll never know."

He was about to reply, but Percy cut him off with a slap to the chest. "Shut up. We need to decide what to do with the spies."

They all crossed their arms at the exact same time, and the three of us-Annabeth, Juniper and I-exploded into a mixture of giggling, gasping and torrents of maniacal laughter. Somehow, we had managed to get ourselves captured by a water-brained nineteen year old, another nineteen year old who was part goat, and a fifteen year old who talked big game but couldn't touch a girl without his face lighting on fire, and we thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

We were still laughing our asses off when Percy yelled. "Tickle them!"

That shut us up for about half a second, and then we were screaming for help so loud we could have woken the dead.

We were rolling around on the floor, kicking at the air, helpless as they tickled us.

"HELPPPP! SOMEBODY HELP UUUUSSS!"

We were still like that when Chiron kicked the doors open, bow drawn, followed by the entire Ares cabin, swords at the ready. Everyone stopped short, awkwardly not looking at each other until Chiron sighed at us and lowered his bow.

"Really?" Clarisse and the Ares kids just scowled at us and walked away dejectedly, as if they were hoping for a fight, which they probably were.

Chiron looked disappointed. "Boys, let them go. What's going on here?"

"They attacked us-"

"They were spying-"

"Hunted us down!"

"Though they were assassinating-"

"Tickled to-"

Chrion raised a hand and we all shut up.

"Percy, Nico, Grover, you appear to be the culprits here-kitchen duty for a week."

"What? But-"

Just then Mr. D appeared at Chiron's right shoulder, and we saw smoke in the distance.

"The Stoll brothers have blown something up, and the campers are expecting someone to do something."

Chrion sighed again and cantered away to deal with the new destruction. Mr. D turned to us. We all stilled. No one liked him, but he was still a god, and so he had to be feared. "Nathan, Pierre, Gabe- I believe you need to go find gloves in your size."

As soon as he disappeared, and they untied us, we gave high fives all around and laughed at them.

Grumbling, they walked away to do exactly as told.

"Well, I've got to go. Nice meeting you, Mira!" Juniper puffed out of there and returned to her tree, I assume, while Annabeth and I walked to the arena. The Ares kids had taken over again, but we grabbed a quiet corner for ourselves. We sparred for a while, Annabeth completely kicking my ass, when the dinner horn blew.

I sat with Athena's kids, since Annabeth was my newly minted friend, and it was a very mentally stimulating dinner. We talked about all sorts of things, and this was even before we donated some food to the gods. I paused then, at the very back of the line, and scraped a good half of my meal into the fire. "For…the gods, I guess." I know that most times, when a demi-god sacrificed food to the gods, a certain smell was supposed to appear, but there was no smell, mostly because the food didn't burn.

"I guess I have to sacrifice to a certain god…" I thought for a second, thinking about who would be the most logical. "Oh well, duh. That was a stupid question to ask myself. For Athena."

Then the food burnt, smelling like candle wax and book papers. Smiling to myself, I realized that I could sacrifice to everyone, and I decided that I would.

If only I knew what trouble that would get me into.

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