Chapter Ten Burning Pancakes and Evil Dreams
That night, we camped out in the woods. We had taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's. The ground was littered with soda cans and fast food wrappers. We decided to sleep in shifts. Percy took the first watch. I was out and asleep before I knew it. Suddenly, I was woken up by someone touching me.
"What? Who's there? What do you want?" I asked instinctively, holding out my sword.
"It's me, Grover. It's your turn for the shift." Grover whimpered.
"Oh." I said. "Sorry."
I sleepily rubbed my eyes and looked around the dark woods. I had to say being on shift was boring. Nothing was even happening. I sighed and my eyelids started to slide close. I jerked them back open.
Hoot. Hoot.
I smiled at the sound of the owl hoot. I hoped Athena was watching over me and helping me. We needed a plan to get to Los Angeles. We didn't have any transportation or money. We could walk, but we'd get there in about 5 years. Taking an airplane wasn't an option. And like I said, no money to get a cab or bus.
Before I knew it, the sun was peeking out from behind the tall trees. Grover mumbled and tossed and woke up. The first thing he said was, "Food."
"Good morning." I said. "I'm going to cook breakfast in the Medusa's kitchen. At least, I'm going to try."
"Good luck with that." Grover said.
"Help me," I pleaded. I was no good at cooking.
Grover seemed reluctant. He finally gave in.
We went back to the warehouse and looked for something good to eat. Mmm... pancakes sound good.
I made the pancake batter and cooked it with much difficulty.
"Annabeth, that pancake is about to burn!" Grover yelped.
"Watch it, you're getting batter all over the place!"
"Aaaaaah!"
"Eew... I think this pancake should be thrown out."
"AAAH! FIRE!"
After Grover and I ran around frantically and put out the fire, Grover said, "Um... I think I'm going to go and... watch over our things..." With that, he took off, leaving me alone to cook breakfast.
When I finished making good batches of pancakes, I found maple syrup and topped them off. I divided them onto three paper plates: one for me, one for Percy, and one for Grover. I carried the plates back to where we were camping out.
"Mmm!" Grover mumbled and with that, all his pancakes were gone before I even finished one of mine. Grover still looked hungry and gobbled down Percy's share of pancakes.
"Oops." Grover mumbled. "Did I do that? Percy's not going to be happy when he finds out he missed pancakes."
I shrugged. Oh, what did I care if Seaweed Brain got anything to eat? "Just don't tell him." I said and finished eating my pancakes. I went back to the warehouse and got a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips for Percy's breakfast. Hey- it's not my fault Grover ate the pancakes! Besides, I was still a little mad at Percy from last night.
When I came back with the chips, Grover was emerging from a cluster of trees carrying a pink poodle.
Pink? That has got to be a fake poodle.
