My new life with my family was very unsteady.

Some days were great. We all got along, I played with my brothers and talked to my dad, and Grace had the courtesy to stay out of my way.

But other days, she would make little jabs at me that I didn't have the energy to turn into a fight. The times I did turn them into a fight, it often lasted for days. We got in screaming matches and I would storm upstairs and not come out until the next morning. Sometimes we didn't speak for days.

One night, after a particularly bad fight, I stormed up to my room and threw myself onto the bed, sobbing. I flopped onto the mattress and covered my face with a pillow, but it didn't block out the noise coming from the kitchen.

"She's a freak, Frederick!" I could hear Grace yelling through the floorboards. "She doesn't belong here!"
"She's just a child," my father argued.
"She's done nothing but disrupt this family! Pretty soon, she'll be bringing monsters to our doorstep!"

I listened to my stepmother rage about me with a resigned sigh. I should have known this wouldn't work. she was right. I didn't belong with this family. I wanted to see my real family.

I searched through my drawers until I found a golden drachma. I ran to the bathroom with my head down and turned on the shower, hoping no one would hear me. The rays of sun through the open window made a faint rainbow in the steam within minutes. I tossed the drachma into the rainbow and it vanished. "O Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering," I muttered. "Show me Luke Castellan."

The steam rippled and a picture appeared. My breath caught as the dining pavilion at Camp Half-Blood appeared. The sounds of forks scraping plates and kids talking and laughing brought tears to my eyes. It suddenly hit me hard how badly I missed the place.

"Annabeth?" Luke was sitting at the Hermes table with seven or eight other year-rounders, staring at me in disbelief.

"Hi, Luke," I said awkwardly. I hadn't called him in almost a month. I hadn't meant for it to happen, but time passed and October turned into November and we hadn't spoken since.

Luke looked troubled for a second, then his face broke into a grin. "I was beginning to think I would never see you again! What's up?"

"I just needed to talk to you about something..." I smiled shyly. "I forgot it was dinnertime, sorry."

Luke waved his hand. "Whatever. How's life among the mortals?"

I opened my mouth, then glanced at Luke's cabinmates and some of the kids at other tables who had taken notice of me. "Um..."

Luke looked back at our audience. "Oh, okay. Um, one sec." He stood up and, to my surprise, the mist moved to accommodate him. He waved to get Chiron's attention and pointed at me. Chiron nodded. Luke began to walk towards what I knew was the camp boundaries. No need to guess where he was going.

"So what's going on?" He asked when we were safely away from the crowd.

I tried my best to explain what was happening while Luke walked. The mist screen was placed right in front of him, so the picture was moving backwards. I tried not to get distracted by the psychedelic swoop whenever Luke made a turn as I told him that my stepmother was just as horrible as I remembered.

"Okay, you can say 'I told you so' now," I said miserably.

Luke had reached Thalia's tree by now. He sat down and leaned against the side of the tree, taking a deep breath. "I'm not going to say that."

I smiled a little. "I don't know why I came back here. I miss camp."

Luke pressed his lips together. "Annabeth... I don't want to tell you what to do, but... If you're that miserable, maybe you should come home."

I shook my head. "I can't quit. I have to stick it out. Besides, I promised my brothers I wouldn't leave."

He frowned, looking mock serious. "But... Grace is the evil stepmother. Aren't the twins supposed to be the ugly stepsisters?"

I put my finger to my chin, pretending to think. "Only if you're Jacques the mouse."

"Does that make Grover Gus-Gus?" Luke pondered.

I giggled. "And Chiron's that crazy duke."

"I was thinking the fairy godmother, actually."

I burst out laughing. Luke leaned his head back against the tree, chuckling.

When we were done laughing, Luke cleared his throat. "I'm not telling you what to do," he said sincerely. "But I know you'll make the right choice, Cinderella."

He waved his hand and the picture dissolved.