User blog comment:Percy Jackson12/The Seven/@comment-4515675-20111028062819

I know the majority of the fans insist that it's Annabeth but up until now we weren't given one solid evidence that it could be her. The talk that Hera had with Percy and the prophecy about the mark of Athena don't point to her as the 7th member. What they mean is that Annabeth will be important in the quest and her actions will put Percy in a very difficult situation.

I don't know why people keep clinging to the idea that it has to be someone that we already know. How many new characters have been introduced so far? Would it really surprise you if RR made yet another one appear in the next book?

Think about it this way, for most of the gods in the Olympian week we already knew characters who had them as a parent. RR could have chosen Nico, Clarisse and Thalia instead of Hazel, Frank and Jason if he really wanted to stick with his old ones. Instead he brought something new since the story is no longer about just Camp Half-Blood. You have to keep an opened mind and think that maybe he's just pointing at Annabeth in order to tease us and confuse us.