𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒆 ― percy jackson

011. TEAM BONDING TIME

                         "Hey!" Percy yelled. "You owe us a ride!"

                         Ares scoffed, "See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

                         The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which Aurora could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.

                         Aurora cursed, "Oh for Aphrodite's sake!"

                         Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched, "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."

                         He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to Percy. Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos.

                         Percy said, "I don't want your lousy—"

                         "Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, giving Percy his best red-alert warning look.

                         "Thanks a lot." Percy gritted his teeth.

                         Aurora, too, wanted to refuse any help from the war god — her pride dealing a massive hit from the embarrassment she'd just undergone. But she was smart enough to know that they had no other means to get the bolt back to Olympus, with their time crunch.

                         She nudged him and shook his head. She didn't know if he understood her message or not, but nonetheless slung the backpack over his shoulder and clenched his jaw.

                         Aurora looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served them dinner was watching nervously out the window like she was afraid Ares might hurt them. When she caught Aurora's eyes, her entire expression morphed into one of surprise and she muttered something along the lines of: Oh my god, That's Aurora Stark.

                         "Shit!"

                         Grover was behind her, so she yanked him at an angle so she wasn't able to be seen. Grover yelped in surprise but didn't say anything.

                         Aurora peeked over Grover's shoulder and watched as the waitress dragged the fry cook, out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up his Iphone, and snapped a picture of them. Aurora gritted her teeth in annoyance, she could not afford to keep making headlines, especially with everything her father's company was going through.

                         "You owe me one more thing," Percy told Ares. "You promised me information about my mother."

                         "You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

                         Percy's eyes were wide, "What do you mean?"

                         "I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."

                         "Kept. Why?"

                         "You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."