“What- I, ugh, have no idea what you’re talking about.” Willow stuttered.
I raised my eyebrow at her. “Wooooow. You are a TERRIBLE liar.”
She sighed frustrated. “Look can we not do this now.”
“No.” I said stubbornly.
She sighed again and grabbed my arm. She began dragging me off somewhere, I was beginning to see a pattern with her dragging me off.
“Where are we going?” I asked after a minute when I noticed she was taking me farther away from the camp.
She stopped suddenly and we were in a large field that had lots of large white rocks and flowers. I immediately wondered how so many flowers were growing here when it was almost Winter.
“It’s magic. In this little field it’s always Spring time. I found it when I was six; I got lost during a game of hide and seek.” Willow spoke.
I nodded taking in its beauty. “So are you going to tell me?”
Willow shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. When she finally met my eyes she sighed. “It’s just… I wanted to stop being your friend before you could stop being mine…”
My eyes narrowed with confusion. “Wait- why would I stop being friends with you? Your one of the few people out there who are just as crazy as I am.”
She looked down almost embarrassed. “Well… normally… when kids get claimed they just stop talking to me- except to call me a freak.”
I shook my head. “Why would they do that?”
She sat down on one of the white rocks and I sat next to her. “I was never claimed, Arianna. Everyone thought maybe they didn’t want me because I was defective, or that my mom left me here because she was a teenager and they were both disgraced of me. People that I got close to before just turned around and stabbed me in the back. Well, except my best friend James. He’s been here since he was seven and he stuck with me the whole time.”
“Willow, has anyone told you that you are exceptionally idiotic?” I asked.
“…What?” The confusion was clear on her face.
“I am not the type of person that cares about what others think, and so is Kit. I don’t care if you were so defective that you had two heads and your mother was a teenager, your still a good person. and another thing- why do they think your mom was a teenage girl?”
Willow shrugged. “It looks like my dad is Apollo, which means my mom would have had to left me here.”
“She could have died.” I suggested.
She gave me a blank stare. “Geez. You sure do know how to cheer someone up.”
“Really? Most people say I’m terrible at it.”
“You are terrible at it. I was being sarcastic.”
“oh.” Was all I said.
Willow sighed. “I’m sorry for being a total poop face and ignoring you, Arianna.”
I smiled. “It’s fine and call me Ari.”
She smiled but it soon faded. “Now the only problem is that all of my friends, you, Kit, and James, are going to go on some quest and I’m gonna be some loner here that no one knows.”
“Hey!” I protested. “At least I know you! You are the wonderful, the stupendous Willow… Willow… um what’s your last name?” I asked sheepishly.
She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t have one.”
“What?”
“When I was found they gave me the name of the tree they found me under- a Willow.”
“So you don’t have a last name…” I trailed off starting to think.
“Um… yeah… that’s what I just told you…”
“YOU DON’T HAVE A NAME!” I jumped up from the rock, startling Willow.
“Ugh… well no last name…”
“And people think you were a mistake! That you weren’t supposed to happen!”
“Thank you?”
“I’M A GENIOUS!” I yelled.
“Wow, Kit was right, you are insane.” Willow muttered with wide eyes.
I grabbed her elbow, and this time it was my turn to drag her away. “Come on!”
~'~
Willow looked very confused as she sat in the big house with Chiron, Kit, Eryx, Ryan, James, and I. Hell everyone but me looked pretty confused.
I, on the other hand, was doing a happy dance in my head. It made since, more since than anything else. And I was the only one smart enough to figure it out.
“Ok Arianna, you called us all here, now what is all of this about?” Chiron asked.
I couldn’t help but let a large smile slip onto my face. I pointed to Willow, “I found the sixth person for our quest.”
“WHAT!?” Everyone, including Willow, said at once.
“Oh just think about it. She doesn’t have a last name!”
“She doesn’t have a last name that we know of.” Ryan corrected.
My eyes narrowed at him. “Same difference!”
“OK,” Eryx said. “but what about her being a mistake?”
“Well, her mom, or maybe her dad, did leave her here. She probably wasn’t planned and they couldn’t take care of her.”
“But how do we know that?” Chiron asked.
“Do you guys have any better theories?” I asked. The room stayed completely silent.
“I think Willow should go.” Kit said.
“YEAH!” Willow and I high-fived.
“We can’t.” Eryx stated.
I turned to him. “What? Why?”
Eryx stood- trying to intimidate me. “Well, what if we go with her and she’s the wrong person. As leader-”
“And who pointed you as leader.” I asked.
That seemed to get him angry. “The prophecy states that the children of the three will lead so-”
I cut him off again. “So me you and Kit will ALL be leading. And two out of three of the leaders say that Willow should go on the quest with us.”
“But the two of you have known that your demi-gods, for what, one day?!”He yelled.
“Let’s face it,” I turned to everyone. “Willow here is our best bet on the sixth quest member, and we need to find Pandora as soon as we can. If we don’t take her with us we could fail. And what impressions would that put on all of your parents, what if it causes us to die.”
There was a long silence.
“Fine,” Eryx huffed. “But if we are going to take Willow we might as well leave soon.”
“Oh yeah!” Willow said while punching the air.
Then something occurred to me. “Wait, where is Pandora?”
“Well,” James started. “That’s the problem. No one knows. But I’ve been doing some research and there’s a map. It shows all sorts of important people from Greek mythology. If we have any chance at finding Pandora- it’s that map.”
“Show off…” Ryan muttered under his breath.
“And how are we going to find the map?” Kit asked.
“Well… from what I know so far I can tell you it’s in the Grand Canyon- Colorado.” James said disappointedly.
“Can you research more on our way there?” Willow asked.
James rolled his eyes. “Do you not know me at all, Willy? Of course I can!”
“How much can you narrow down the location in three to four day trip? And we’re hitch hiking so you won’t have much spare time to do your research.” Eryx tone was very serious.
At that James’ face deflated. “Not much than. I might be able to get a twenty or thirty mile radius.”
Ryan face-palmed. “Dude, we can’t check all of that land- it would take forever. And if we ever did find it, we would still need to look for Pandora!”
“I know! I know! But we don’t have that much of a choice.” James muttered.
“Guys,” I started. “This is a mess. We are a mess. We need advice, I mean if we go looking with this attitude and arguing we’ll never get anything done.”
“Well,” Chiron said loudly, getting everyone to stare at him. “That’s not a bad idea. You six will leave first thing tomorrow morning for the quest. But before you start for Colorado, go into the city. James you already have Percy and Annabeth’s address. I’ll call them now to tell them you’re stopping by. I think Percy wanted to meet his new sister anyways.”