Child of Zeus {Interactive Story} (PJO/HOO/TOA)

TWENTY-THREE: Johnny Does Something Stupid

I made it to Valencia Central Valley Park with ten minutes to spare.

Johnny, who'd been assigned the task of getting new clothes, was sporting new jeans and a colourful tye-dye shirt, a New York Yankees cap covering the horns hiding in his shaggy blonde hair. He had two bags in his hands, and was waiting for me on one of the park benches.

I sat beside him, and before he looked at me he started speaking.

"Got you a (your favourite colour) shirt and some shorts like you usually wear. Do you know how expensive girls's clothes are? You and Diana cost me a fortune. She's gone to the public bathroom over there to change. You should too. Here,"

Johnny turned to give me one of the bags in his hand. Then he paused.

"What happened?" He bleated like only a sheep could. "You look like you've seen Aethalides again..."

"We're on the news, Johnny." He face fell as slack as mine had, and he started chewing on the neckline of his shirt.

"Nation wide manhunt. I almost got arrested. Couldn't get our breakfast, but we can make due with what Diana got then use my left over money to buy food in Russia after we change the currency."

I took the bag from him. He continued to stare at me dumbfounded.

"Y/N, you look pretty shaken up, maybe you should sit down for a while longer before running to the bathroom to change..."

"You look shaken up, too." I told him, standing despite his protests. His blue eyes softened as I drew in a shaky breath. "I'm scared that we'll be on the run for the rest of our lives. But before that, we need to save the world so the rest of our lives doesn't consist of only a few more days. And that means we don't have any time to rest. I'll be right back." I disappeared to get changed.

~

When I got back, the chariot hadn't arrived yet, but Diana had reconvened with Johnny, grocery bag in hand.

She was wearing something new that made her look even more ravishing than she had before; a white long-sleeved crop top that showed the beginnings of abs. Damn, it made me jealous, but I pushed the thought away and jumped into their conversation.

"Johnny told me about the news," the columbian goddess acknowledged. "We'll be out of here soon; then we can worry about it after we save the world."

"My sentiments exactly." I agreed, tightening the straps of my bag on my shoulders, and then absentmindedly playing with the dagger at my side.

"Guys, there's a question I have to ask."

"Yet another thing your satyr did not go over, I presume?" Diana joked, playfully nudging Johnny with her elbow. But I wasn't smiling.

"Okay...Shoot."

"Do monsters ever decide not to attack demigods?"

"What do you mean?" Johnny asked, a little too alarmed for my nerves at the moment.

I looked across the grass yard that led to a sandy playground, where kids of varying ages played to their hearts content, as parents watched them from benches like the one I was on not too far away. I wondered how they'd all react when a pegasus or two landed in the clearing with a chariot in tow. I suppose the mist would block it, maybe they would see a really large bird, or something.

But as my eyes fell upon a girl who hit the sand as she dive-bombed off a slide, laughing and grinning with four missing teeth, I wondered if there was a way the mist didn't work on kids.

Of course, I was probably wrong. But maybe our imagination as a kid wasn't always just our imagination. Maybe, when we thought there was a monster under our bed, there was, but it never attacked because we weren't a threat yet. Maybe the dragons we told our parents we'd seen in the sky were there, but the mist affected them too strongly for them to see anything but an eagle.