Elise drummed her fingers next to her on the bench. This skills assessment was getting really boring really fast. So, her cabin mates wanted to figure out what talents she had inherited from Apollo. That was fine. Did it really have to take up her entire day?

Her archery skills were atrocious (which meant another thing she couldn't fight with.) Her singing voice was mediocre at best. She had discovered that her talent with poetry was limited. All she had been able to come up with was this:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Is this good enough?

I have other things to do.

They all assured her that it was normal for demigods to only pick up one skill from their parents. Will was a medicine nerd; Kayla and Austin were archers. They called it a matter of balance. If everyone in the cabin was the most powerful Apollo kid to ever live, the whole camp would implode under their awesomeness.

Then they sort of stopped talking when they decided that would actually be really cool.

Now Elise was in the amphitheater, trying to memorize and preform just one of Shakespeare's sonnets. It was a difficult task. She was beginning to wonder if Shakespeare was sitting next to her, he would cringe at his own work. She did that a lot. Whether she was drawing or hearing her own voice recorded… And she was distracted again.

"Alright, Elise," the stand-in head-counselor, a camper called Bert, called from the stage. "Take it from the top."

Elise sighed and began. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? For thou…" She searched her mind for the next line. "For thou… For thou art stupid and got nothing. Way to go."

Bert sighed and ran his hand over his face. His patience with Elise's poor memorization skills was clearly wearing thin. "Don't sweat it, Elise. I guess preforming just isn't your thing. It's alright, though. I think we know that your skills lie in the infirmary."

"Yeah," Elise agreed, twisting her little finger nervously. "Speaking of which, I'm due there about now. I had better get going."

Bert excused her and she headed off in the direction of her patient. While she was walking, Percy came to join her with a friendly, "Hey, Elise. What's up?"

The pair of them had become good friends over the course of two days. That incredible feat was one of the few talents Elise had. Elise smiled. "Oh, nothing much. I just got out of a 'skills assessment.' That basically means that in one day I figure out everything I can't do. I was just heading over to give Jason his shot."

Percy nodded. "Nice, I'll come with you."

They reached the infirmary to find Jason, up and about. He stared at them like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Jason, what are you doing up?" Elise questioned calmly.

"Oh… well… um… I was just going to get a drink of water," Jason replied sheepishly and clearly untruthfully.

"Why don't you go lie back down and I'll get you your drink of water," Elise replied.

Jason cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up on his face. "Well, actually, Elise," he began. "I was really hoping I maybe might be able to take a walk or something."

It was a little bit unlike him. He obviously hadn't entirely coped with the idea of taking orders from Elise. If Will was here, maybe Jason would be more apt to listen to "doctor's orders." She knew it must be difficult to for him to have to listen to someone younger and less experienced than himself.

Elise couldn't think about that now. "I don't think that's a good idea…" she mumbled. Except she couldn't exactly let him stay in bed the whole time, could she? Exercise was good for him, wasn't it? She wished Will was there to tell her what to do. She was in charge now, and she had to make a decision. "Alright, Jason, go ahead. But don't go too far and come back soon. Don't over-work yourself."

Jason laughed. "Don't worry, Mom, I won't. Coming, Percy?"

"Nah, I'm good, bro," Percy said, shrugging.

"Suit yourself," Jason sang, walking out the door.

Elise silently walked into the back of the infirmary to get Jason's shot ready. She really wished Jason wouldn't have brought up moms. She knew he didn't do it on purpose, but the subject of mothers was a sensitive one.

"Hey, are you okay?" Percy called from the doorway.

Elise glanced up at Percy. He seemed genuinely concerned, which was not a good thing. She hated when people worried about her. "I'm fine," she said, smiling. "You didn't have to stay here. You could've gone with Jason."

"It's alright. I wanted to stay here. Are you alright?"

Elise sighed. "Really, I'm fine."

"I can tell that you're not," Percy announced. "It's alright. You can tell me."

Elise twisted her little finger nervously. "I haven't ever told anyone about this," she warned.

Percy sat on one of the infirmary beds and gestured for Elise to continue. Taking a deep breath, Elise began. "I was thinking about my mom," she explained. "My mom met my dad when she was a senior in high school. My grandparents told me that she's impulsive type. Anyway, I was born before she graduated. My dad, well, he was nowhere. My grandparents never even met him.

"Mom… people knew she was unstable from the moment I was born. She didn't want me. She didn't want to even look at me. She screamed at the doctors and nurses. She was violent. They say she was upset about my dad not being around. Well, then she started going off about Greek gods, and they decided that she had cracked. They put her in an asylum and left me to my grandparents.

I love them a lot, but they're getting up there in age. It was getting hard for them to take care of me. They got a note that said that I would be safe here, free of charge. So, here I am. Chances are I'm going to stay here as long as I can. But it's not a bad place to spend the rest of my teenage years, is it?"

Percy cleared his throat. "Um, no. No, it's not."

"Please don't tell anyone. Especially not Nico. I don't know why I said that, but yeah, especially not him. Or Jason, that would be bad. Or—"

"I won't tell anyone," Percy promised. "But, you've never really had a mom."

"She's still alive…" Elise pointed out, furrowing her eyebrows.

"But you've never really known what having a mom is like," Percy insisted.

"No, I guess not," Elise confirmed, shrugging.

Percy was silent for a little bit. Then, out of the blue, he announced, "You need to meet my mom."

Elise looked at Percy like he had suddenly become a fish. Wouldn't it be strange if he could actually turn into a fish? "What?"

"Annabeth and I are going to my house this afternoon to visit my mom," Percy explained. "You should come with us."

"Oh, I couldn't. I would hate to arrive unannounced," Elise said.

"Don't worry about that. She doesn't even know we're coming. She loves everybody. You've got to come."

Elise considered his proposition a bit. "If you insist…"

Percy's house was a tidy apartment in Manhattan. Just standing outside the door, Elise could smell the welcoming aroma of cookies and hear the clicking of keys on a laptop. She was doing her best to understand the character of Percy's mother from what she was experiencing and what both Percy and Annabeth had said of her. They made her out to be a loving woman, which was good. It would be awful if Elise's first experience outside of camp in a year was meeting a terrible person. However, Elise was still a bit nervous about invading her home.

"Well, here we are," Percy sang. He burst in the door without even knocking. Of course, it was his house. Why would he need to knock? "Mom?"

Percy's mother, a kind-looking woman with dark hair, looked up from her laptop and shot out of her chair. "Holy Poseidon… Percy? Annabeth? What are you two doing here?" She wrapped her son in a tight hug that probably would have suffocated a normal human being, and did the same for Annabeth.

"We were given a little vacation," Percy explained with a crooked smile. "We just got in a few days ago."

Miss Jackson shot Percy a nasty look. "You mean you've been in New York for a few days and you haven't bothered to visit?"

Percy rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Erm…" was all he could manage to say.

Miss Jackson's wrath soon vanished and her attention turned to Elise. "Who's this?" she asked with a happy tone in her voice.

"This is our friend Elise Mosely," Annabeth introduced. "She's the daughter of Apollo." Annabeth didn't seem to understand why Percy wanted to bring Elise along to visit. As much as she hated keeping the daughter of Athena in the dark, she was grateful that Percy hadn't told her anything.

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Jackson," Elise greeted with a friendly smile.

"Oh, please don't call me 'Miss Jackson.' Last names can be so confusing. Call me Sally," Sally instructed her.

"Alright, Sally," Elise said with a brief laugh.

"Why don't you help yourself to a cookie, or a few cookies? They're fresh. I got the feeling that I should make them, and I didn't know why. Now, I get it. The bottomless pit has arrived."

"You're so funny, Mom," Percy said, clearly not finding her very funny.

First: Sally Jackson's cookies were like nothing the world has ever produced. They topped nectar, ambrosia, or any other edible thing that the gods have ordained. Second: They were blue. Elise did not understand why they were blue but she wasn't complaining. It told her that Sally was a fun-loving person. Third: It was really easy to eavesdrop on Jackson/Chase conversations. She listened in from the kitchen.

"Percy, something is really driving me crazy," Sally whispered rather loudly. "Have I met Elise somewhere?"

"No, but don't worry. I've thought the same thing several times," Percy assured her.

"I have to admit that I have thought she looks sort of familiar," Annabeth agreed.

"It's just, I can't put my finger on it," Sally continued. "I know I've seen her somewhere. Does she live up here?"

"She comes from Florida," Percy informed. Elise had no idea that her face could be the cause of such a commotion. She had always figured her face was just your average, ordinary face. It was kind of weird to think she had a special, drive-you-crazy face. She almost laughed at the idea of it.

"I like her hair," Sally suddenly announced. Elise could almost feel the confused expressions on Percy and Annabeth's faces. "It's nice and curly. It adds personality to her. It's the kind of hair I would write about."

Elise smiled to herself. She had never really liked her hair. If having a mom meant someone liked the things you hated about yourself, she liked the idea of having a mom.

While Elise was at the house, she met Percy's stepfather who insisted she call him Paul instead of Mr. Blofis. After dinner, they all played several games of Uno. (Annabeth won more than half of them. Elise was pretty sure she had purposely lost the others.) The three demigods left well after dinner with plenty of promises that they would return soon.

Elise liked Percy's family a lot. They had done so much to make her feel a part of the family. If Elise was one for tears, she probably would've cried. She had never felt so completely welcome.

Annabeth retired to her cabin early, leaving Percy and Elise standing just inside the ring of cabins.

"Percy, thank you for making me go with you," Elise said. "And tell your parents that I said thank you again for having me. I really enjoyed myself."

"I'm glad you did, Elise," Percy replied. "My mom told me to tell you that you're welcome back any time. I can tell that she really liked you."

Elise thanked Percy once more and headed off to her cabin. She had a warm feeling all over. She liked having in a way known what it was like to be a part of a complete family. That night, she slept better than she had since arriving at camp.