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chapter four ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
004. Lesson Learned, Thalia Can't Drive
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Cassie was cold and frustrated. She shivered as the wind blew snow into her hair.
Artemis had told them dawn was coming but by the looks of it, the group didn't know if they'd trusted her. The sky was just getting darker and the snow wasn't letting up any time soon.
The daughter of Ares turned to her bestfriend. Percy was busy staring at Westover Hall in the distance.
He was lost in thought and if Cassie had to guess it was probably about him being a criminal again.
Something like the teachers noticing that the di Angelos and Dr. Thorn were missing and then blaming him. Sounds about right.
The Hunters packed up the camp faster than Cassie could blink. Instead she was busy huddling with Percy as she nudged the boy.
He turned to her and she nodded in the di Angelo's direction. Bianca was sitting on some log and talking to Nico. The sad look on the little boy's face made it clear she was informing him about her choice to join the Hunt.
Cassie really hated how selfish Bianca was being. Thalia and Grover joined the duo wondering why Artemis had spoken to them.
The goddess was currently staring off to the East expectantly.
Percy told them all about it as Cassie was busy fiddling with the blue cap in her hands. Grover turned as white as a ghost when he heard what Percy said.
"The last time the Hunters visited camp, it didn't go well." The satyr recalled with a shudder.
"How'd they even show up here? I mean, they just appeared out of nowhere." Percy muttered.
"They tend to do that." Cassie shrugged.
"And Bianca joined them. It's all Zoë's fault. That stuck-up, no good—"
Thalia was interrupted by Grover's dreamy sigh. "Who can blame her? Eternity with Artemis?"
The daughter of Zeus scoffed. "You satyrs. You're all in love with Artemis. Don't you get that she'll never love you back?"
"But she's so... into nature."
"You're nuts."
"Nuts and berries. Yeah."
Cassie covered a laugh. "Keep dreaming Gro." She pat the satyr on the back.
Then the sky started to lighten.
Artemis stamped her foot impatiently, "About time. He's so-o-o lazy during the winter."
"You're, um, waiting for sunrise?" Percy found that hard to believe.
"For my brother. Yes." The goddess nodded.
Percy kept quiet to be polite, but it didn't make sense to him.
He knew the legends of Apollo or Helios driving a shining sun chariot across the sky, but then again the sun was a huge star super far away. Apollo driving the sun didn't exactly fit.
"It's not exactly as you think," Artemis was reading his mind at this point.
"Oh, okay? So, it's not like he'll be pulling up in a—"
Suddenly warmth flooded over them and light peaked from the horizon.
"Don't look. Not until he parks." The auburn-haired girl warned.
Parks?
Percy turned and the other followed suit. Cassie covered her eyes with her hand.
It got drastically hotter and Cassie almost felt her hoodie melting away. Then the light died.
The brunette lifted her hand and woah was that car amazing. The son of Poseidon's jaw dropped. In front of them was a red convertible Maserati Spyder. And to make it even better it glowed.
The two shared a look of amazement as they realized it glowed because it was extremely hot. So hot the snow around it melted and they were standing in wet green grass.
The driver-side door opened and a grinning guy got out. For a second, Percy almost mistook his as Luke, but it definitely wasn't him. The seventeen or eighteen year old had the same sandy hair and natural good looks.
But he was way taller and the right side of his face was scarless. His smile beamed playfulness and he wore a tank top with jeans and loafers.
"Wow, Apollo is hot." Thalia whispered as she leaned towards Cassie.
"I don't see it." The brunette shrugged.
"He's the sun god," Percy obliviously remarked.
"That's not what I meant."
"Someone has a type." That got Cassie a jab to her stomach. "What I'm not wrong!"
"Little sister!" Apollo cheered. He flashed a smile and Cassie was sure she was going blind. "What's up? You never call. You never write. I was getting worried!"
"I'm fine, Apollo. And I am not your little sister." Artemis looked unamused.
"Hey, I was born first."
"We're twins! How many millennia do we have to
argue—"
Apollo didn't let her finish. "So what's up? Got the girls with you, I see. You all need some tips on archery?"
"I need a favor. I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood." Artemis managed through clenched teeth.
"Sure, sis!" Apollo then paused and raised a hand as if telling them to wait. "I feel a haiku coming on."
The Hunters groaned making it obvious that this has happened before.
After blaring his throat, the sun god lifted his hand.
"Green grass breaks through snow.
Artemis pleads for my help.
I am so cool."
He grinned, expecting applause.
"That last line was only four syllables," Artemis told him.
That dampened his mood. "Was it?"
"Yes. What about I am so big-headed?"
"No, no, that's six syllables. Hmm." Apollo started mumbling under his breath.
"Lord Apollo has been going through this haiku phase ever since he visited Japan. 'Tis not as bad as the time he visited Limerick. If I'd had to hear one more poem that started with, There once was a goddess from Sparta." Zoë left out a huff.
"I've got it! I am so awesome. That's five syllables!" He bowed and looked around happily.
"And now, sis. Transportation for the Hunters, you, say? Good timing. I was just about ready to roll."
"These demigods will also need a ride. Some of Chiron's campers." Cassie was slightly offended by Artemis' wording.
"No problem!" Apollo scanned them over. "Let's see.
Thalia, right? I've heard all about you."
Thalia's face flushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."
Cassie raised an eyebrow and quietly scoffed.
Apollo offered a charming smile. "Zeus's girl, yes? Makes you my half sister. Used to be a tree, didn't you? Glad you're back. I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. Man, I remember one time—"
'Didn't he just say she was his half sister and now he's calling her pretty?' Cassie disliked how there family tree worked.
"Nice to meet you! Cassandra right?"
The brunette's gaze shifted to the god's outstretched hand. She shook it with a nod.
"Yeah unless my mom lied to me at birth."
Apollo's chuckled, "Funny, I like this one. Seems like a good daughter of Ares. Nice shades!"
Cassie mustered a smile. It was only polite.
"Brother, you should get going." Artemis interrupted his small talk.
"Oh, right." Apollo's eyes narrowed at the son of Poseidon "Percy Jackson?"
"Yeah. I mean... yes, sir." Percy said awkwardly.
Calling a god anything but 'sir' could be seen as disrespectful and Percy didn't feel like risking it. Could offend them and then they would blow stuff up.
Apollo silently stared for a bit, which was sort of unnerving.
Finally he broke his little trance, "Well! We'd better load up, huh? Ride only goes one way—west. And if you miss it, you miss it."
Percy's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the Maserati. The small could only fit two people max and there were almost twenty of them.
"Cool car," Nico complimented.
"Thanks, kid." The god nodded in appreciation.
"Don't mean to be rude Lord Apollo, but if you're expecting us all to squeeze into that I'd rather walk." Cassie sassed.
"Oh." Took him a bit to actually realize the problem. "Well, yeah. I hate to change out of sports-car mode, but I suppose..."
He pressed a button on his car keys and car beeped. Chirp, chirp.
The car began to glow again. Cassie swore she had almost been blinded five times by now. Half of them were from Apollo just smiling.
When the light faded, the Maserati was now a Turtle Top shuttle buses. One's sports kids used on trips to games.
"Right. Everybody in."
Zoë had the Hunters start loading the van. She grabbed her own camp pack and was stopped by Apollo.
"Here, sweetheart. Let me get that."
The attempted flirting didn't sit well with Zoë or Artemis.
The former backed away and glared murderously. While the latter took to scolding.
"Brother, you do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to, or flirt with my Hunters. And you do not call them sweetheart."
Apollo raised his hands in innocent. "Sorry. I forgot. Hey, sis, where are you off to, anyway?"
"Hunting. It's none of your business." Artemis said.
"I'll find out. I see all. Know all."
"Just drop them off, Apollo. And no messing around!"
"No, no! I never mess around."
Artemis didn't seem to believe that. With a roll of her eyes she turned to the half-bloods. "I will see you by winter solstice. Zoë, you are in charge of the Hunters. Do well. Do as I would do."
Zoë held her head high. "Yes, my lady."
Artemis knelt and inspected the floor. Whatever she saw troubled her. "So much danger. The beast must be found."
The goddess rushed into the woods and disappeared.
With her out of sight Apollo swiveled around. He spun his car keys on his finger before grabbing them.
"So, who wants to drive?"
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The Hunters shoved their way into the van first and went as far back as they could. It was obvious they wanted to be no where near Apollo or the other males in the group.
Bianca sat with them leaving Nico with Cassie. Weird since the eldest girl had just called the daughter of Ares crazy a while ago.
Nico excitedly bounced in the driver's seat. "This is so cool! Is this really the sun? I thought Helios and Selene were the sun and moon gods. How come sometimes it's them and sometimes it's you and Artemis?"
"Downsizing. The Romans started it.They couldn't afford all those temple sacrifices, so they laid off Helios and Selene and folded their duties into our job descriptions," Apollo explained, "My sis got the moon. I got the sun. It was pretty annoying at first, but at least I got this cool car."
"But how does it work? I thought the sun was a big fiery ball of gas!" Nico remarked.
Apollo let out a laugh and ruffled Nico's hair. "That rumor probably got started because Artemis used to call me a big fiery ball of gas. Seriously, kid, it depends on whether you're talking astronomy or philosophy. You want to talk astronomy? Bah, what fun is that? You want to talk about how humans think about the sun? Ah, now that's more interesting."
Cassie raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms waiting to hear whatever the god claimed humans thought.
"They've got a lot riding on the sun... er, so to speak. It keeps them warm, grows their crops, powers engines, makes everything look, well, sunnier. This chariot is built out of human dreams about the sun, kid. It's as old as Western Civilization. Every day, it drives across the sky from east to west, lighting up all those puny little mortal lives. The chariot is a manifestation of the sun's power, the way mortals perceive it. Make sense?"
"No." Nico said, shaking his head.
"Well then, just think of it as a really powerful, really dangerous solar car." Apollo summed up.
"Can I drive?" The young boy innocently asked.
"No. Too young!"
"Oo! Oo!" Grover let out.
"Mm, no, too furry." Apollo denied. He glanced over Cassie and Percy thoughtfully.
The brunette had her sunglasses on to keep away the bright light.
"Too dangerous and agitated."
Cassie's face scrunched in offense but she didn't complain. Being called dangerous by a god was a compliment. Then Apollo looked to Thalia.
"Daughter of Zeus! Lord of the sky. Perfect."
Thalia's eyes widened and fear flashed in them. "Oh, no. No, thanks."
"C'mon, how old are you?"
"I don't know." Thalia muttered.
Cassie frowned, it was the sad truth. Thalia had been a tree for seven years. She should be nineteen but she felt like she was twelve. And looking at her you'd decided she's somewhere in between.
Chiron's best guess was that she still aged while a tree but much slower.
Apollo tapped his lips before coming to a decision. "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! December twenty-second." Thalia agreed.
"Which means you're old enough now to drive with a learner's permit!"
Thalia didn't seem too sure. "Uh"
"I know what you're going to say. You don't deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot."
Cassie shot the god a 'really' face. Apollo has an ego doesn't he?
"That's not what I was going to say!" Thalia rejected but Apollo didn't notice or care for that matter.
"Don't sweat it! Maine to Long Island is a really short trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid I trained. You're Zeus's daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky."
Apollo laughed as his joke but the demigods didn't find it funny.
Thalia tried one last time to protest but surprise, surprise it didn't work.
Apollo pressed some random button and a sign appeared on the windshield.
Cassie and Percy squinted to read it. Eventually they made out WARNING: STUDENT DRIVER. Took a while because it was backwards and they're dyslexic.
"Take it away! You're gonna be a natural!" Apollo pat her shoulder.
Percy's face twisted in subtle jealously. He really wanted to start driving. Sally had given him the wheel to her Mazda a few times on the empty beach road at Montauk. Driving the sun chariot couldn't be much harder.
"Speed equals heat. So start slowly, and make sure you've got good altitude before you really open her up." Apollo instructed.
Thalia grabbed a hold of the wheel so tight she'd be strangling it. Cassie sword the daughter of Zeus was ready to puke.
Percy had the same idea. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. N-nothing is wrong." The shakiness of her tone contradicted her words.
Thalia pulled the wheel back and it tilted. The whole bush quickly shot upward. Cassie grabbed onto the seat in front of her to keep from tumbling. She caught Nico by his sleeve and pulled him beside her, quick to fasten his seatbelt.
Randomly the daughter of Ares thought back to their first quest. Just a year ago they were on a bus with the Furies disguised as grandmas.
Cassie remembered, Percy's terrible driving and how he made the bus lurched to the left, sending the Furies to the right. She had caught Annabeth who stumbled at the sudden movement.
"T—Thanks."
"Whatever. Don't mention it."
The brunette frowned at the memory but was brought back to reality when Percy went falling beside her.
"Ow," Grover yelped as the son of Poseidon tumbled onto him.
"Sorry."
"Slower!" Apollo directed.
"Sorry! I've got it under control!" Thalia reassured.
"Sure you do," Cassie muttered and Nico stifled a laugh. "And those trees definitely aren't on fire."
Percy glanced back and sure enough a patch of trees where they'd taken off from was smoking.
"Thalia, lighten up on the accelerator." The son of Poseidon offered.
"I've got it, Percy," Thalia said through clenched teeth.
"Loosen up."
"I'm loose!"
"You're stiff as a board." Cassie retorted. "Probably from all those years as a tree." She whispered the last part to herself and thankfully on Percy heard.
He let out a chuckle.
"We need to veer south for Long Island. Hang a left." The sun god directed.
Thalia listened a little too well. She spun the wheel and threw Percy into Grover for the second time. Cassie and Nico were smart enough to be at least holding on.
"The other left," Apollo corrected.
Cassie pulled a face. Did this guy even know where they were going?
Percy looked out the window again and the sky was getting darker.
"Ah..." Cassie could hear the forced calmness in his tone. "A little lower, sweetheart, Cape Cod is freezing over."
The daughter of Ares inspected Thalia. She was sweating and as pale as a ghost. Did the girl have a fear of heights?
Thalia pushed forward and the van dropped straight down towards the Atlantic Ocean. Someone let out a scream but it wasn't Cassie. Maybe Percy, who knows.
New England was on the right and the bus was heating up.
Apollo had flown to the back but was climbing up on the rows of seats.
"Take the wheel!" Grover practically begged.
"No worries. She just has to learn to-WHOA!"
Oh they should definitely be worried.
Right below them was a New England town that used to be covered in snow. Now it was on fire as each building began to smoke.
"Pull up!" Percy cried.
The son of Poseidon learned his lesson and held on this time when Thalia pulled back on the wheel.
They glanced back and thankfully the sudden cold had extinguished the fires.
"There!" Apollo gestured somewhere in the distance. "Long Island, dead ahead. Let's slow down, dear. 'Dead' is only an expression."
They'd certainly be dead but the end of this.
Cassie felt a tug on her hoodie and turned to Nico. The little boy leaned in closer to whisper something.
"Does this normally happen?"
The brunette raised an eyebrow. "What? Lighting stuff on fire or burning down an innocent town?"
Nico's mouth fell open and Cassie realized her mistake.
"Uh, nevermind— no that never happens. This is the first time actually! Besides everything's fine. Don't tell your sister I said anything."
That didn't convince Nico who furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you lying?"
"Not necessarily, it's only happened once or twice. Also before you hear it from anyone else, that trireme fire was a total accident."
Nico seemed more pleased with that answer and nodded his head.
"Does Thalia know what she's doing?"
"Oh— absolutely not." Cassie mumbled.
Camp Half-Blood was finally in sight. The valley, woods, and beach were just how they left them. Percy stared at the dining pavilion.
Nico pressed his face against the glass and looked at the cabins in amazement.
"I'm under control. I'm under control." Thalia said, though it was more to reassure herself than anyone else.
"Brake," Apollo said.
"I can do this."
"BRAKE!"
Thalia's foot came down on the break and the sun van came down at a forty-five-degree angle. It dove right into the lake and sent a wave of water towards the shore.
FLOOOOOOSH!
Steam came from the extremely hot bus and frightened the naiads from the water.
The van resurfaced as well as some overturned half-melted canoes.
Apollo managed a smile. "Well, you were right, my dear. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important shall we?"
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ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ author's note
i'm too lazy to write anything here but, i didn't re-read this chapter because i didn't feel like it soooo let me know if you catch any mistakes <3
Bye loves and thanks for reading!
—Just Another Overthinker