A/N- I'm back! Here's a really long chapter to make up for the time that I was gone. I decided to take things slow with Leo and Ellie, so this chapter is basically about them. I hope you like it, I don't own anyone except for Ellie.

Leo's POV

We were all shocked. There was an awkward silence in the room and it was bugging me.

"So, that was something huh?" I spoke up. Everyone glared at me. I held my hands up in surrender.

"Do you think she hates me?" Percy asked.

"No, I just think she needs some time to adjust." Annabeth replied.

"I'm going to go talk to her." Percy said. He stood up, but Annabeth pulled him back down.

"Percy, give her time to think. She needs to cool off first." Piper advised.

"Leo, go talk to her." Jason said.

"Why me?" Don't get me wrong I wanted to talk to her, but they just said it themselves, she needed to cool off.

"Because Leo, as annoying as you are at times, you can make her laugh. You both have the same sense of humor." Percy said.

"Um alright I guess." I stood up and walked out the door. I walked for a good five minutes until I realized that I didn't know where she went. Just great Leo. If I were a sad teenage girl, where would I go? Maybe she was in her cabin. I walked to cabin 3 and knocked on the door. No answer. I sighed. Maybe she was in the forest.

I made my way into the thick forest that surrounded the camp. I was walking around when I heard some shuffling. I saw a figure climbing down a tree; it looked like it was girl. I walked towards her. I stepped on a twig and her head turned to look at me. It was Ellie.

"Oh thank the Gods, its just you." She said.

"Yeah, I came looking for you." She looked pretty upset. Her eyes were bloodshot and there were tearstains on her cheeks.

"Why?" she asked.

"Well I figured that you needed someone to talk to." I said. Maybe this was a bad idea.

"Thanks. So what do you want to hear?" she asked.

"Start from the beginning."

"Then we're going to have to sit down because this is going to be a long story."

We found a log to sit down on by the beach. She cleared her throat and began.

"So I was born on October 18 in New York City. Um I guess I had a decent childhood. I had friends, was well liked and my mom was always loving. I had everything i ever wanted, so I can't say that I never had anything. Gabe never really bothered me, which was really good. When I turned 10 was when things started going bad. " She looked down at the sand and bit her lip.

"What do you mean?" I wanted to know what had made her so upset.

"When I was 10 my mom sent me across the country to California. She said that I had to go to boarding school because that school would help with my dyslexia and ADHD." She said. " I remember that day clearly. I was at the table in the kitchen, doing my homework. She sat down next to me and said she wanted to talk. I was confused because I didn't know what I did wrong; I had thought that it had something to do with the test I failed. Mom just straight out told me that she was sending me away. I didn't think anything of it at first. I thought she meant somewhere in New York, like to visit a long lost family memeber, but then she goes and tells me she's sending me across the country! Mom told me to pack because I was leaving on Friday. I felt like she didn't love me at all. I kept thinking what kind of a mother would send her child across the country alone? I don't see why she couldn't send Percy. I mean he was older and he was a guy, but he got to stay in New York." She paused before speaking again. She was right in a way; her mom could've sent Percy away instead.

"I never really had a close relationship with my mom, although I would've liked to. I guess things work out in the end right?" she looked at me. I sighed and ran my hands through the curly mop that was my hair.

"So tell me about your boarding school."

"Uh, it was pretty big and it was by the ocean. I had the most amazing view from my room. My bed was by the window so when I woke up, I'd wake up to the waves crashing on the sand. It was really hot in California though. I also learned how to surf in the time that I was there. I was also cast as the lead in my schools play, I was on the swim team, and the schools dance squad. I had a lot of friends too, but you saw how that turned out."

"Well you know that your mom did it to protect you, right?" I said. I didn't want her to think that it was because she wasn't wanted. She was too nice and pretty to be unwanted. Wait where did that come from?

"Yeah I know, that's what Percy told me and I get why she did it. Having two demigods under the same roof is like putting a sing in neon lights that says come get me. Its not what worries me though. He told me that all of the monsters could reform. I really don't want the things from Starbucks to reform; I mean I told them all of my secrets when they looked human. They know my weaknesses and they could easily kill me."

"They're not going to reform right away, so I don't think you should worry. By the time they do reform you'd already be trained. I heard about the fight with Clarisse, good job by the way. She was having relationship problems with Chris, so don't let it get to you."

"Thanks." There was an awkward silence for a while, and I was about to speak up, but she beat me to it.

"So what about you? What's your sob story?" she asked. I didn't want to tell her for fear that she would think I was a killer. I debated whether or not I should tell her in my head. I wanted to say it as normal as possible, but being me, I didn't.

"I killed my mom." I said bluntly. She looked over to me and scooted closer. Well that was odd; I was expecting her to take off running.

"Surely it wasn't your fault, right?" she said.

"The problem is that it actually was my fault. We stayed late one night and my mom and I were about to lock up. Mamá forgot her keys, but she was sure she had them, so she went back into the warehouse where she was working. I was 8 years old at the time. Just as my mom went back inside, the doors shut and I was on my own in the dark, and a shape moved up. It was Gaea the earth goddess, she warned me that one day 'they' will ask me to work against her and she couldn't have me doing that. The fates wouldn't allow her to kill me, but she could cause me pain in a different way. She angered me and I set fire to the room with my hands. I screamed as Gaea ran to me but then she disappeared. The warehouse set on fire and came crashing down onto me. I got knocked out and when I woke up I was with the hospital and they told me that my mother died." I hadn't noticed that i was crying until Ellie reached out and wiped away one of the tears.

"Leo, it wasn't your fault. You couldn't control it; I mean you were only 8 at that time! It was Gaea's fault so don't blame yourself." she tried comforting me.

"My mom even told me that I had to control myself, and I didn't. I fell like I've failed her." I was looking down at the ground thinking back to how my mother had warned me. If I had listened, maybe she wouldn't be dead.

"Just stop Leo, don't do this to yourself. I wish I could change all of the terrible things that have happened to me, but I can't. It's in the past and you have to move on."

"I guess you're right Ellie. Sorry about the talk, though. I was supposed to be the one cheering you up, but I guess it was the other way around."

"It's cool." She hesitated for a second, and then pulled me in for a hug.

"Thanks for listening though." She whispered. I hugged her back, patting her back awkwardly. She smelled like flowers and sea salt, a strange combination, but a good one. We pulled back and I cleared my throat. Well isn't this awkward. What am I supposed to do?

"We should be getting to the campfire, your brother is going to cause a tsunami if you don't go back." I said. She laughed and shook her head, "Well we wouldn't want that now would we? By the way what did you mean when you said that you set fire to the warehouse?"

"I can, um, I can create fire." To show her, I extended my palm out in front of her and made a flame dance around my hand.

"Whoa, that's so cool! I can do that with water, but I mean I can't make it appear randomly!" she looked like a little kid who just saw a magic trick at the circus.

"Yeah, I guess it's pretty cool."

"Pretty cool? No, that is freakin' awesome!" She was jumping up and down, trying to see how I was doing it.

"Alright, it is pretty amazing. Now let's go." I said grabbing her hand. She laced our fingers together and pulled me along. Halfway through her running, and me being dragged, she started skipping. Like full on skipping. Man, can she change moods in such a short time.

"Come one! Skip with me!" Eh, why not? I joined her, and we started skipping through the woods, which is pretty hard considering all of the nymphs that keep moving.

"You and I are going to be best friends, Leo, I can tell." She said. Did she just friend zone me?