Legends, Percy Jackson

vii. thalia's A+ driving.

"Can I drive?" Nico asked.

"Absolutely not!" Nina said immediately.

"No. Too young," said Apollo. Nina whipped her head towards him in frustration.

"Oo! Oo!" Grover's hand shot up.

"Mm, no," the god said. "Too furry." He glanced at Percy, "Nope." Then Nina, and immediately shook his head. "Wouldn't trust you with a goldfish, let alone my chariot." Nina threw her hands up. Apollo focused on Thalia. "Daughter of Zeus, Lord of the sky. Perfect!" Nina could not believe she was hearing this.

"Oh, no," said Thalia. "No, thanks."

"Yeah!" Nina agreed. "Artemis said no messing around."

Apollo brushed her off. "What Arty doesn't know won't kill her."

"Okay, but shouldn't you listen to what she says?" Nina asked. "Rule of seniority, and all."

The god narrowed his eyes at her. "I would smite you if I could," he said shortly, which . . . what? Nina wanted to take a moment later to dissect that. "C'mon," he persuaded Thalia. "How old are you?"

She paused. "I don't know."

Nina tilted her head. "You don't know? You look like . . . fifteen."

Apollo tapped his chin pensively, then pursed his lips. "Cannot believe I'm about to agree with that thing," he gestured vaguely at Nina. "But you're fifteen, almost sixteen."

"How do you know that?"

"Hey, I'm the god of prophecy. I know stuff. You'll turn sixteen in about a week."

"That's my birthday!" Thalia exclaimed. "December twenty-second."

Nina smiled at her. "Oh, happy early birthday!"

"Which means," said Apollo. "You're old enough now to drive with a learner's permit!"

Thalia shivered anxiously. "Uh━"

"I know what you're going to say," said the god in his own narcissistic way. "You don't deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot."

"That's not what I was going to say."

"Don't sweat it!" he continued as if she said nothing. Nina shook her head. "Maine to Long Island is a really short trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid I trained," he said, which seemed pretty fucking worrisome. "You're Zeus's daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky." Nina wondered if he was implying that the last kid he trained had been blasted out of the sky by Zeus.

Apollo laughed like it was no big deal. No one joined him. Even some of the Hunters in the very back seemed nervous.

Thalia tried again to protest, but the god refused to accept that as an answer. He hit some button on the dashboard, and a sign popped up on the top of the windshield. Nina had to read it backwards, which was extremely difficult with her dyslexia, but she was 84% sure it read: WARNING: STUDENT DRIVER. She wasn't sure what sort of help that would be if the sun crashed into the earth.