misplaced || l. valdez

31 || the gang gets a makeover before taking a hike

° ~ •. ♆ chapter thirty-one ♆ .• ~ °
"the gang gets a makeover before taking a hike"

This time Mari had to be dead. Her memory of all the recent events were so foggy, she thought that Hera must have taken her memories again. She could feel her finger tips tingling with electricity and she swore she could still feel ice on her legs. She could hear whispering around her, and as the whispers got louder, she heard footsteps approaching her. Mari opened her eyes with a shout at a table at a sidewalk café.

Passerby looked at her, annoyed, and she sank in her seat in embarrassment. The tingling feeling she'd felt in her fingers had spread to the rest of her body, and she felt tired and weak. She was breathing heavily, and there was a throbbing pain in her head. She shivered as a light wind blew past.

When she looked around, for a second she thought that maybe she really had died. It was a pleasant sunny morning, a calm breeze blowing through the air. Other tables were filled with bicyclists, business people, and college kids, chatting and drinking coffee. Lots of foot traffic passed in front of quaint little shops. The street was lined with bottlebrush trees and blooming azaleas as if winter was a foreign concept.

Her friends were already awake, sitting in chairs around her. Leo was standing next to her, clutching a bottle of nectar.

"What— what happened?" Mari said, wincing in pain.

"You're alive!" Leo said happily.

"Oh. That's good. Right?" she said before her eyes widened in surprise. "What on earth are you wearing?"

Leo was wearing pinstriped pants, black leather shoes, a white collarless shirt with suspenders, and his tool belt, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and a porkpie hat. He looked really good in his new outfit, maybe without the hat.

"Aphrodite struck us." he said warily. "I look like a hipster pirate."

"A really cute hipster pirate." Mari mumbled, and Leo perked up.

"What was that?" he asked cheekily.

"Nothing!" she huffed.

"Nope, you definitely said I was a cute hipster pirate."

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"Guys, stop it!" Piper scolded them, and Mari turned to see what she was wearing.

She wore a turquoise dress with leggings and black leather boots, a snowboarding jacket, and a silver charm bracelet. Her hair had been done again, but more subtle this time.

"You should see what I got." Coach Hedge said. "I look great."

Mari looked to Coach Hedge and got blinded by a pastel nightmare. He was wearing a baggy canary yellow zoot suit with two-tone shoes that fit over his hooves. He had a matching yellow broad-brimmed hat, a rose colored shirt, a baby blue tie, and a blue carnation in his lapel, which he sniffed and then ate.

"That's nice, Coach." Mari said, turning away.

"You should look at yourself. You look amazing!" Leo said.