I stretch and yawn as light fills my vision, it's a few weeks after my quest for the gods and they've been great "morning" I grumble to the person standing over me "morning sleeping beauty" the person (PS it's Percy) says with a hint of laughter, those words wake me up once again "uhm...yeah let's let's go to breakfast" I say with a forced cheerfulness that took me years to master. Percy scrunches his eyebrows suspitiously but nods "hungry?" he asks as I climb out of bed and I nod with wide eyes, he laughs and I release the breath that I've been holding "I'll meet you there" I say as he leaves the cabin.

He gives me a suspitious look with a hint of concern but leaves anyway, once he's out of the room I rush to the shower and turn the hot water on to it's fullest letting the steam fill the room and rush back remembering that I forgot the drachma, I grab a drachma from the counter and run back to the shower, I toss the drachma in "oh iris goddess of the rainbow pplease accept y offering. Show me my mother and father" I say still running.

I don't notice the water on the floor and slip, hitting my back against the sink "ow" I say quietly and look at the message and catch my breath, tears falling from my eyes, my parents are sitting on the couch yelling at each other about wether or not they should go shooting. Ok "but we promised the coach that we'd be there!" My mom yells at my dad and my dad glares "I don't care! We're not going!" my dad yells, do they even care that I'm gone?" If Ilah were here she'd want us to go!" my mom yells "If Ilah were here she'd be in her room doing nothing!" my dad yells back, now I'm just an argument?

Tears started running down my face as I collapse to my knees with my head in my hands, the words of the bullies circling through my head "worthless" "ugly" "bitch" "idiot" all the words echo through my head slicing my heart with invisible daggers...they don't care, I blink fast and the tears stop falling but I don't want to move, my appetite just vanished, I thought they'd at least be looking for me, I want to scream in pain, my chest feels like it's being crushed under a 50 ton truck with pin piont precision.

Percy's POV

I get to breakfast and sit down, I grab my food, sacrifise to dad and wait for Ilah to come but even after breakfast nothing, she doesn't even come for archery, maybe she's asleep but after all my activities she's still gone and I start getting worried "hey guys!" I yell to the seven and Nico and Donovan. They all rush to me and smile "yeah Perce?" Leo asks but once he sees my expression he asks "what's wrong?"  and I sigh "Ilah, I left her at the cabin before breakfast but she never met up with me" I say.

"wait what?!" Thalia yells from behind me "not good. Phoebe!" she yells and the hunters all run to my cabin and we follow "Ilah! Ilah!" Thalia yells "where are you?!" Phoebe yells and we see steam coming from the bathroom, suddenly Clarrisse runs into the cabin "what's going on?" she demands "llah's here" Thalia says pushing open the bathroom door with her bow on the ready but instead of a monster we see ilah on her knees on the floor with her head tucked between her arms and a lot of mist.

Thalia rushes to Ilah and shakes her, Ilah looks up but her expression is vacant, emotionless even "Ilah...what happened?" Thalia asks and Ilah holds back a sob as her eyes fill with fresh tears "I Im'd m-my adopted parents" she says with only one quiver in her voice "and?" Phoebe asks. Ilah looks down and pushes herself to her feet "it's nothing" she says with absolutely no emotion in her voice "NO it is something Ilah!" I yell and she flinches "no yelling...please" she beggs with one tear sliding down her cheek.

I stop and nod "Ilah what did you see?" I ask "nothing" she says "Ilah...you can talk to us" Annabeth says and everyone nods "can we go somewhere else?" she asks looking around the cabin and as we nod she takes off running into the woods, we follow with help from the hunters to the clearing she loves so much. She sits there with the same vacant expression "you want to know what's wrong? Fine" she says with no emotion.

"my first day of middle school I got called a freak, it developed until at third grade 2 people were calling me names like freak and ugly, I had a friend that helped but in 5th grade we had a fight and it got worse, the 6th grade me and her were friends again but she never defended me from the people anymore. 7th grade I watched little ones but they still got to me after school, 8th grade was fine until this one guy triggers me by telling me that I'm a 'useless ugly selfish idiotic bitch' that crossed the line

I ran to the bathroom after school that day and...I-I cut....I cut myself" she says looking down ashamed while everyone stares at he with wide eyes "at first it was ok I'd scratch myself with a paser if I really couldn't take the pain anymore but then my house turned it worse, me and my adopted parents started fighting more and scratching just wasn't enough anymore so I started...cutting, I still have the scars on my thighs, arm and shoulder" she says pulling up her sleeve and showing us the back of her arm.

It's faint but there are white lines, scars just under her elbow "I stopped cutting about a year ago but today I saw my parents fighting and yelling and they used me as a argument strengthener and then my dad called me worthless" by this time tears were streaming down her face "then the words of the bullies came back into mind. I collapsed and then you guys found me, you probably think I'm weak now" she says quietly

I grab her and hug her and next thing I know it's this massive group hug "you'll never be weak, this just proves that your stronger than we thought" I whisper to her "ok now that my appetite is back....I'm hungry" she says and we all burst out laughing "better" she says quietly but I still hear her faintly in the back of my mind.