OH, CHÉRIE!¹ percy jackson

008

❛008❜

THEY HAD ARRIVED ON the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. the sign said welcome to cloudcroft, new mexico. the air was cold and thin. the roofs of the cabins were heaped with snow, and dirty mounds of it were piled up on the sides of the streets. tall pine trees loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, though the morning was sunny.

all of her friends were freezing in their boots by the time they got to main street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. as they walked, percy and ivy told grover about their conversation with apollo the night before – how he'd told them to seek out nereus in san francisco. neither of them mention the position they woke up in.

grover looked uneasy. "that's good, i guess. but we've got to get there first."

ivy tried not to get too depressed about their chances. she didn't want to send grover into a panic, but she knew they had another huge deadline looming, aside from saving artemis in time for her council of the gods. the general had said annabeth would only be kept alive until the winter solstice. that was friday, only four days away. and he'd said something about a sacrifice. she didn't like the sound of that at all.

they stopped in the middle of town. everything was pretty much visible from there: a school, a bunch of tourist stores and cafés, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.

"great," thalia said, looking around. "no bus station. no taxis. no car rental. no way out."

ivy scoffed. "there's not even a mall."

"there's a coffee shop!" said grover.

"yes," zoë said. "coffee is good."

"and pastries," grover said dreamily. "and wax paper."

thalia sighed. "fine. how about you two go get us some food. percy, ivy, bianca and i will check in the grocery store. maybe they can give us directions."

they agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with them, but she did.

inside the store, they found out a few valuable things about cloudcroft: there wasn't enough snow for skiing, the magazine collection was too big for the population of the town, the grocery store sold rubber rats for a dollar each, and the only easy way to get in and out of town was through a personal car.

"you could call for a taxi from alamogordo," the clerk said doubtfully. "that's down at the bottom of the mountains, but it would take at least an hour to get here. cost several hundred dollars."

sighing at their luck, ivy found herself looking through the magazines. it looked like they were going to be stuck in buttfuck anyway. a title caught her eyes, helipress. the magazine had the professional photo of a helicopter in the front, she grabbed a copy and walked back to the cashier.

percy had a rubber rat on the counter. she placed the magazine next to his item.

the son of poseidon knitted his eyebrows at her. "you're serious about the helicopter thing?"

"yes," ivy said confidently. she flipped her over her shoulder, raising a perfectly shaped eyebrow at the boy. "when i'm in the air i don't want you begging me to teach you how to do it."

percy blinked at her, looking stunned for a second. before clearing his throat and paying for their items.

then they headed back outside and stood on the porch.