WARNING: badly written but a rewrite is up on my page
REDAMANCY | Lorna and her friends are the demigods of the great prophecy. Together, they will sail to Rome, with a camp of demigods trying to kill them, to save a son of Hades, and follow the Mar...
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25. Birthday
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Lorna tried to make the best of the situation.
Once she and Jason had gotten tired of pacing the deck, listening to Coach Hedge sing "Old MacDonald" (with weapons instead of animals), they decided to have a picnic in the park. Hedge grudgingly agreed. "Stay where I can see you."
"What are we, kids?" Jason asked.
Hedge snorted. "Kids are baby goats. They're cute, and they have redeeming social value. You are definitely not kids."
"Thanks, Coach," Lorna said sarcastically. "I feel really important."
They spread their blanket under a willow tree next to a pond. Piper turned over her cornucopia and spilled out an entire meal—neatly wrapped sandwiches, canned drinks, fresh fruit, and (for some reason) a birthday cake with purple icing and candles already lit before she decided she wanted to rest on the boat.
Lorna frowned. "Is it someone's birthday?"
Jason winced. "I wasn't going to say anything."
"Jason!"
"There's too much going on," he said. "And honestly...before last month, I didn't even know when my birthday was. Thalia told me the last time she was at camp."
Lorna wondered what that would be like—not even knowing the day you were born. Jason had been given to Lupa the wolf when he was only two years old. He'd never really known his mortal mom. He'd only been reunited with his sister last winter.
"July First," Lorna said. "The Kalends of July."
"Yeah." Jason smirked. "The Romans would find that auspicious—the first day of the month named for Julius Caesar. Juno's sacred day. Yippee."
Lorna didn't want to push it, or make a celebration if he didn't feel like celebrating. "Seventeen?" she asked.
He nodded. "Oh, boy. I can get my driver's license."
Lorna laughed. Jason had killed so many monsters and saved the world so many times that the idea of him sweating a driving test seemed ridiculous. She pictured him behind the wheel of some old Lincoln with a STUDENT DRIVER sign on top and a grumpy teacher in the passenger seat with an emergency brake pedal.
"Well?" she urged. "Blow out the candles."
Jason did. Lorna wondered if he'd made a wish—hopefully that he and Lorna would survive this quest and stay together forever. She decided not to ask him. She didn't want to jinx that wish, and she definitely didn't want to find out that he'd wished for something different.
