Miles Dilara and the Quest for Legends (A Percy Jackson fanfic)

8: Flirting is deadly

Alyssa did a cartwheel in the grass as we were waiting for everyone else to get back in the car. It had been a rough day of doing nothing. I leaned against the car with my arms folded. I frowned, everything seemed like it was too easy. We hadn't run into any monsters except for Medusa, and that one was on purpose. I didn't think that was a good thing. Whoever the big baddie was, they should at least be trying to kill us or capture us or whatever they wanted. I gave a frustrated moan. We didn't know anything at all, and I hated not knowing things. Pushing up my glasses, I peeked inside the hovervan through the open window. "Hey Soma?"

"What up?" she called, ruffling her own hair.

"Have you had any more dreams?"

She glanced over at me. "No."

"Nothing at all?"

Soma rolled her eyes. "No, Mom."

I bristled. "I'm just trying to save our lives."

"Yeah, Miles, I know. Give me a break." Soma grabbed some gum and popped it in her mouth, blowing a bubble. I sighed, then climbed into the hovervan. Tony was in the passenger seat, and I climbed in the back. Everyone else was still out stretching or taking a bathroom break.

"So we still heading to Jocelyn's?" Roxanne asked, ducking into the driver seat.

"That's the plan," I agreed. As we filed in, and started on our way, someone got out playing cards. Xander knew a lot of different games and taught us some of the easier ones. He, Alyssa, and I played some harder ones but no one else wanted to learn some complicated rules.

By now, Roxanne and Xander's faces were healed, thanks to nectar and ambrosia. But I still felt the tension between them, and I didn't know what to do about it. When I really thought about it, there was tension between almost everyone here. Beneath the carefree attitudes, we demigods held unspoken rivalries. I didn't know what half of them were, but I could tell that not everyone got along as well as they might seem.

Not that we seemed like we were getting along that well, I added in my mind as I looked around. I let out a slow breath. If we couldn't get this figured out, we would fail.

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"Look at that," I breathed. "The Gateway Arch."

"It's just a big arch," Tony scoffed.

"He has a point," Soma agreed.

"You guys don't appreciate the beauty of architecture," I responded. "Are you guys at least going to ride it?"

There was a chorus of sures and why nots that left me at least partially satisfied.

"Sorry, I can't," Jackson said with a grin. "I have to go." I followed his gaze to a trio of girls sitting at a table outside a food place. I laughed. Jackson was back in his element.

The rest of us went around, looking at the various shops and other touristy things. We all eventually went back to Jackson so that we could regroup for lunch. I rolled my eyes as I saw Jackson with an arm around a pretty blonde girl with ice blue eyes. The other two girls were giggling at whatever Jackson was saying. One looked to be hispanic and she had a cute bandana in her short hair, and the third was african american with curly brown hair.

As we approached, the girl next to Jackson said, "Oh, you must be Jackson's friends! I'm Tammi."

"And I'm Penni," the hispanic girl said.

"I'm Kelli," added the third.

"Did you like, coordinate that?" Jay asked.

Kelli laughed. "Sort of."