The war god was waiting for us in the diner parking lot.
"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."
"You knew it was a trap and you still sent us in there," I said furious.
Ares gave me a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled black-smith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."
Percy shoved his shield at him. "You're a jerk."
Annabeth and Grover caught their breath, I would have been surprised too but I was too mad. Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back. "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, it read: KINDNESS INTER-NATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.
Percy said, "You're kidding."
"If we wanted to ride with animals, or even one, we would've just asked you for a ride." I said.
Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punks. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job." He slung two blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed one to me and one to Percy. Inside mine was clothes for me and Annabeth, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, a bag of Double Stuf Oreos and a book. Percy had the same, minus the book, and clothes for him and Grover instead of me and Annabeth.
Percy said, "We don't want your lousy—"
"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, giving Percy his best red-alert warning look. "Thanks a lot."
I gritted my teeth. I knew I should not have argued with a God, especially the God of war but, in all fairness, he was the reason I was mad enough to snap at him. I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us. Great, I thought. We'll make the papers again tomorrow. I imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAWED TWINS BEAT UP DEFENSELESS BIKER.
"Before you go, you owe me and Percy one more thing," I told Ares, trying to keep my voice level. "You promised us information about our mother."
"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead." The ground seemed to spin beneath me.
"What do you mean?" Percy asked.
"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?" Percy asked.
"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."
"Nobody's controlling us." I said.
He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kids."
I balled up my fists. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues." Percy said.
"Who knew for a guy who had a relationship with the goddess of love, would be so scared of things that represented it." I shot.
Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. I felt a hot wind in my hair. "We'll meet again, Percy and Alex Jackson. Next time you're both in fights, watch your backs." He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street.
Annabeth said, "That was not smart guys."
"I don't care." Percy snapped. I didn't respond, it had finally hit me that my mom was actually alive.
"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that god." Annabeth said.
"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but ..." He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck. "If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."
I didn't like it, but we had no better option. Besides, I'd seen enough of Denver. We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us. The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter. The trailer was dark inside until Percy uncapped Anaklusmos. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals I'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing I didn't know the name for. Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL! Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.
"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo trans-port?"
"This is anything but kindness!" I whisper yelled hearing footsteps approach the truck.
Grover probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and I would've helped him, but just then the trucks engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down. Well, Grover, Annabeth and I sat down, Percy fell into the bag of turnips. We huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies, the order for us went, Grover, me, Annabeth, Percy. Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. Annabeth was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but Percy pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, I had a feeling we might look a lot better to the lion than those turnips. I found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then used my own sword to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. I gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope. Grover calmed the antelope down, while Annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon off his horn. She wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but we decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. We told Grover to promise the animals we'd help them more in the morning, then we settled in for night. Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened our bag of Double Stuf Oreos and nibbled on one half-heartedly; I tried to cheer myself up by concentrating on the fact that we were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to our destination. It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty-first. We could make it in plenty of time. On the other hand, I had no idea what to expect next. The gods kept toying with us, mainly Percy and me, but still. At least Hephaestus had the decency to be honest about it—he'd put up cameras and advertised my friends as entertainment. But even when the cameras weren't rolling, I had a feeling mine and Percy's quest was being watched. We were a source of amusement for the gods. I decided to start reading the book that was in my bag so I grabbed it and started reading it.
"Hey," Annabeth said, "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Percy."
"That's okay."
"It's just..." She shuddered. "Spiders."
"Because of the Arachne story," he guessed. "She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?"
Annabeth nodded. "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things. Anyway, I owe you."
"We're a team, remember?" Percy said. "Besides, Grover did the fancy flying."
I thought he was asleep, but he mumbled from the corner, next to me, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?" Annabeth, Percy and I laughed. Weird they didn't say anything about me, even though I was the one to tell Grov- No, no, no, don't get jealous that's just the Ares talking.
Annabeth pulled apart an Oreo, handed Percy half. "In the Iris message ... did Luke really say nothing?" I looked at Percy, and he looked at me as if to ask if he could tell them, to which I just nodded, putting my book down.
"Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree." Percy said. In the dim bronze light of the sword blade, it was hard to read their expressions.
Grover let out a mournful bray. "I should've told you the truth from the beginning." His voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, Percy wouldn't want me along and if I brought it up, Alex wouldn't want me on it either."
"You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus." Percy said.
He nodded glumly.
"And the other three half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp ..." Percy looked at Annabeth and me . "That was you two and Luke, wasn't it?"
Annabeth put down her Oreo, uneaten. "Like you said, Percy, a seven-year-old or even two seven-year-old half-bloods wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward Alex at first then for help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me with them. They were ... amazing monster-fighters, even without training. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us."
"I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp," he said, sniffling. "Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn't just leave Luke, Alex and Annabeth by themselves. I thought ... I thought I could lead all four of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I'd just been a little quicker ..."
"Stop it," I said. "No one blames you, no one ever blamed you. Thalia didn't blame you either."
"She sacrificed herself to save us," he said miserably, "Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so."
"Because you wouldn't leave three other half-bloods behind?" Percy said. "That's not fair."
"Percy's right," Annabeth said. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Grover."
"Neither would I or Luke. We don't care what the council says." I finished.
Grover kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the three most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia, Percy and Alex."
"You're not lame," Annabeth insisted. "You've got more courage than any satyr I've ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy and Alex are really glad you're here right now." She kicked Percy in the shin.
"Yeah," he said. "It's not luck that you found Thalia, Alex and me, Grover. You've got the biggest heart of any satyr ever. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the one who finds Pan."
"Yeah, I'm glad you're on this quest too." I said.
I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Grover to say something, but his breathing only got heavier. When the sound turned to snoring, I realized he'd fallen sleep.
"How does he do that?" Percy marveled. "I don't know," Annabeth said.
"No idea," I said.
"But that was really a nice thing you told him." Annabeth told Percy.
"I meant it." He replied. We rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around on the feed sacks. The zebra munched a turnip. The lion licked the last of the hamburger meat off his lips and looked at me hopefully. Annabeth rubbed her necklace like she was thinking deep, strategic thoughts.
"That pine-tree bead," Percy said. "Is that from your guys first year?" She looked. She hadn't realized what she was doing. She actually does it a lot without realizing.
"Yeah," she said.
"Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. We've both got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress—now that was a weird summer...." I trailed off looking at my own necklace.
"And the college ring is your father's?" he asked.
"That's none of your—" Annabeth stopped herself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."
"You don't have to tell me." Percy said.
"No ... it's okay." She took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard with-out her.... That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."
"That doesn't sound so bad." Percy said.
"Yeah, well... the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood."
"You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?" I ask. She wouldn't meet our eyes.
"Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."
"You shouldn't give up," Percy told her. "You should write him a letter or something."
"Thanks for the advice," she said coldly, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with." We passed another few miles of silence.
"So if the gods fight," Percy said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"
She put her head against one of the backpacks Ares had given us, and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you two."
"Why?" he asked.
"Because, Alex is my best friend and you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?" Annabeth shortly fell asleep.
I put down my book and packed my things in my bag, "I'm gonna go to sleep now too," I whispered to Percy.
"Yeah me too, Goodnight Alex."
"Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the lion bite," I said laying down.
"Really?" Percy called out to me.
"Yup," I said laughing. Then I slowly fell asleep.
.......
I didn't know how long I was asleep for since my watch broke back on the first bus we went on, but I realized, one, I didn't have a nightmare for once, two, the truck had stopped moving and three, no on else was up.
"Guys!" I whisper yelled shaking, Annabeth and Grover as they were next to me, "Guys! Guys! Guys!" I said shaking them.
"What Alex." Annabeth grumbled.
"The truck has stopped and I think they are going to come back to check." I said fast.
She shot up and started grabbing her stuff, then realized the boys, weren't up yet. "How do they do that?" She asked,
"I don't know! But you wake up Percy, I'll wake up Grover," I said grabbing my bag. I moved next to Grover and started, tapping, shaking, and yelling at Grover but he wasn't waking up so I slapped him, not hard, but not light either.
He shot up holding his face, "Why-"
"The truck has stopped and I'm pretty sure I heard them say they were going to check on the animals. Sorry I slapped you but you are a heavy sleeper!" I rambled. I looked over to Percy and realized he wasn't up yet, he must be having a nightmare, he never normally sleeps deeply. "Grover can you try waking up Percy," I said.
"Sure why don't I slap him," Grover replied still rubbing his face.
"You're a heavy sleeper!" I heard a door open. "Guys I think they're coming!" I whisper-yelled at them.
Percy shot up after a minute or so of Grover shaking him. "The truck's stopped," he told Percy . "We think they're coming to check on the animals."
"Hide!" Annabeth hissed. She had it easy. She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Grover, Percy and I had to dive behind feed sacks and hope we looked like turnips. The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.
"Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes. "You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face. The lion roared in indignation. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.
Next to me, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous. I put my hand over his shoulder to try and calm him down, last thing we needed was an angry Grover, it seemed to work as he slowly relaxed a little bit.
The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"
The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at me then Percy. I heard it say: Free me, lord, lady. Please. Poseidon kid thing. I nodded trying to show that I would try to help him while Percy looked too stunned to react.
There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer. The trucker inside with us yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?" A voice outside—it must've been Eddie's—shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"
"What are you banging for?"
Knock, knock, knock.
Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?" Our guy Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.
A second later, Annabeth appeared next to Percy. She must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer She said, "This transport business can't be legal."
"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"
That's right, the zebra's voice said in my mind.
"We've got to free them!" Grover said. He and Annabeth both looked at Percy, waiting for his lead.
The zebra said, Open my cage, lord and lady. Please. I'll be fine after that.
Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but I knew they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. I grabbed my sword and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage. The zebra burst out. It turned to me and bowed. Thank you, lady.
Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing. Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. We rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. We'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas, well technically I did, but no one needs to know that.
Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"
"Now would be a good time to leave," Annabeth said.
"The other animals first," Grover said. Percy and I cut the locks with our swords. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra.
"Good luck," I told the animals. The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets. Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos.
"Will the animals be okay?" Percy asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all—"
"Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."
"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked. "It only works on wild animals."
"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned.
"Hey!" Percy protested.
"Kidding," she said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."
"I mean you weren't wrong." I mumbled.
"Hey!" Percy protested again.
"Ok sorry, kidding." I laughed.
We stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was a hundred and ten degrees, easy, and we must've looked like deep-fried vagrants, but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay us much attention. We passed the Monte Carlo and the MGM. We passed pyramids, a pirate ship, and the Statue of Liberty. Which made me realize that if I ever leave Camp, I want to go sight seeing. I wasn't sure what we were looking for. Maybe just a place to get out of the heat for a few minutes, find a sandwich and a glass of lemonade, make a new plan for getting west. We must have taken a wrong turn, because we found ourselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air-conditioning that smelled like flowers—lotus blossom, maybe. I'd never smelled one, so I wasn't sure.
The doorman smiled at us. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?" I'd learned to be suspicious, from experience. I figured anybody might be a monster or a god. You just couldn't tell. But this guy was normal. One look at him, and I could see. Besides, I was so relieved to hear somebody who sounded sympathetic that I nodded and said we'd love to come in.
Inside, we took one look around, and Grover said, "Whoa." The whole lobby was a giant game room. And I'm not talking about cheesy old Pac-Man games or slot machines. There was an indoor waterslide snaking around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors. There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games, each one the size of a widescreen TV. Basically, you name it, this place had it . There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine.
"Hey!" a bellhop said. At least I guessed he was a bell-hop. He wore a white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts, and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."
Percy stammered, "Um, but..."
"No, no," he said, laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, room 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides." He handed us each a green plastic credit card.
I knew there must be some mistake. Obviously he thought we were some millionaire's kids. But I took the card and Percy said, "How much is on here?"
His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"
"He means, when does it run out of cash?" I asked.
He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."
We took the elevator upstairs and checked out our room. It was a suite with four separate bedrooms and a bar stocked with candy, sodas, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy towels and water beds with feather pillows. A big-screen television with satellite and high-speed Internet. The balcony had its own hot tub, and sure enough, there was a skeet-shooting machine and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons right out over the Las Vegas skyline and plug them with your gun. I didn't see how that could be legal, but I thought it was pretty cool. The view over the Strip and the desert was amazing, though I doubted we'd ever find time to look at the view with a room like this.
"Oh, goodness," Annabeth said. "This place is ..."
"Sweet," Grover said. "Absolutely sweet."
There were clothes in the closet, and they fit me. I frowned, thinking that this was a little strange. I threw Ares's backpack in the trash can. Wouldn't need that anymore. When we left, I could just charge a new one at the hotel store. I took a shower, which felt awesome after a week of grimy travel. I changed clothes, ate some food, drank a few lemonades, and came out feeling better than I had in a long time. I came out of the bedroom and found that Annabeth and Grover had also showered and changed clothes. Grover was eating potato chips to his heart's content, while Annabeth cranked up the National Geographic Channel. I sat on the couch watching tv with Annabeth. Shortly after, Percy came outside changed and showered as well.
"All those stations," he told us, "and you guys turn on National Geographic. Are you insane?"
"It's interesting." Annabeth said.
"Yeah, it actually is quite informative." I said.
"I feel good," Grover said. "I love this place." Without his even realizing it, the wings sprouted out of his shoes and lifted him a foot off the ground, then back down again.
"So what now?" Annabeth asked. "Sleep?"
Grover and Percy looked at each other and grinned. They both held up our green plastic LotusCash cards.
"Play time," Percy said.
I couldn't remember the last time I had so much fun. I've lived at Camp for almost half my life and it was amazing but there was nothing new, this was definitely new. I went rock climbing multiple times since I was so good at it thanks to practice, played a few rounds of Pac-Man, played dodge ball a few rounds, and made a snow cone or four. I saw Grover a few times, going from game to game. He really liked the reverse hunter thing—where the deer go out and shoot the rednecks. I saw Annabeth playing trivia games and other brainiac stuff. They had this huge 3-D sim game where you build your own city, and you could actually see the holographic buildings rise on the display board. I thought it seemed pretty cool, but Annabeth loved it. I saw Percy a few times when he was going down the bungee cord for the hundredth time.
I was in the middle of my fifth game of Pac-Man when I felt someone at my shoulder tapping me, "Hey Alex, Alex, hello." They said.
"Little busy here, whoever you are." I said. I felt my shoulder get grabbed and the person turned me away from my screen just as I was about to get a ghost. "Wha- hey, no I lost," I said annoyed.
"It doesn't matter Alex, where's Grover, we have to get out of here," Percy said pulling me from my seat with Annabeth coming towards us.
"Oh great you found her, I can't find Grover." She said panting.
"Well you didn't look very hard," I said pointing to him at the Virtual Deer Hunting game.
"Ok we gotta go," Percy said.
"What why, this place is perfect." I said trying to get back to the game.
"Alex don't you understand, this place is too perfect." Annabeth said as she dragged me to where Grover was.
"So?" She looked away to Grover, "Grover!" Percy and Annabeth both shouted.
He said, "Die, human! Die, silly polluting nasty person!"
"Grover!"
He turned the plastic gun on me and started clicking, as if I were just another image from the screen. Percy looked at Annabeth, and together we took Grover by the arms and dragged him away.
His flying shoes sprang to life and started tugging his legs in the other direction as he shouted, "No! I just got to a new level! No!"
The Lotus bellhop hurried up to us. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"
"We're leaving," Percy told him.
"Do we have to?" I whined.
"Yes." He said.
"Such a shame," the bellhop said, and I got the feeling that he really meant it, that we'd be breaking his heart if we went. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members."
Grover and I both reached for the card, but Annabeth yanked back our arms and said, "No, thanks."
We walked toward the door, I don't get why we had to leave in such a hurry. Then we burst through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk. It felt like afternoon, about the same time of day we'd gone into the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had completely changed. It was stormy, with heat lightning flashing out in the desert. Ares's backpack was slung over my shoulder and Percy's over his, which was odd, because I was sure I had thrown it in the trash can in room 4001, and Percy did not have his on his back a second ago.
Percy ran to the nearest newspaper stand, don't know why. He read it for a bit then looked at us strangely, "Guys, look," he showed us the newspaper which looked fine Then I noticed the date: June twentieth. We had been in the Lotus Casino for five days. We had only one day left until the summer solstice. One day to complete our quest. How could this happen? Maybe that's why Percy and Annabeth wanted us to leave in such a hurry.
How are we going to complete an over ten day quest in one day?
A/N: Not that you need to know this but I'm gonna tell you anyway, I was up for two hours last night doing over half this chapter and then I woke up early to finish it and I accidently deleted all of it, so I had to spend forever of my morning rewriting it. But honestly I'm fine with it cause I like writing this story. Hope you liked it.
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