Annabeth Chase and the Lightning Thief

Chapter 21 - We meet a god for dinner

The god interrupted our dinner.

We were in a shiny white diner, happy laughing families all around us and the delicious smell of milkshakes and burgers scenting the air. Immediately, it made me suspicious. Something bad always happened at the most casual, and appealing places. And it always found us.

A waitress came over and didn't look very impressed by our ragged clothes and grimy complexions. She probably thought we were beggars. She was right.

"Well?" she asked skeptically.

"We, um, want to order dinner," Percy said pleadingly. He looked like he could eat the waitress herself, he was so hungry.

"You kids have money to pay for it?"

I almost let out a whimper I was so hungry. Grover looked ready to cry. Percy had his mouth half-open as if he was preparing to drool.

We were saved from answering by a tremendous roar that shook the diner. Looking outside, I saw a gigantic motorcycle had pulled up to the kerb and on it was my least favourite god.

The diner was silent as everyone watched the biker step off his red and yellow flamed bike with dark human skin that was supposed to pass as leather. It also had shotguns attached to it, but everyone was more interested in the biker as he stepped into the diner.

He was bigger than any wrestler I'd ever seen, almost as big as a sumo wrestler, but with muscles instead of fat. He wore a red muscle shirt with a black leather duster and black jeans. A hunting knife was strapped to his thigh and red wraparound shades that covered his eyes. His face was handsome but cruel-looking, scarred and set in a permanent scowl. His hair was cut in an oily black crew cut and he radiated an air of menace and hate.

Oh Styx, I swore to myself as he approached Percy, Grover and I. What did the god of war want with us? Or more precisely, Percy.

Like zombies, every one in the diner stood, gazing at Ares, but he waved his hand and they all sat back down. The waitress looked dazed.

"You kids have money to pay for it?" she asked us again, although I doubted she remembered she'd already asked us.

"It's on me," Ares told her, sliding in beside me. He was so big, he took up the whole seat so I had to press myself against the window so I wouldn't have to touch him. He stunk like blood and sweat and his mere presence was making me feel angry, angrier than I'd ever been in my life. Angrier than Percy made me. Angrier even than how I felt towards my dad.

He made me want to hurt someone, make them feel how I've felt. Closing my eyes, I regained my composure quickly, thinking of my mother and how she was better than this. Strategy. Ares's strategy was good, but not good enough.

"Are you still here?" he asked the waitress, who was gaping at him. He pointed at her and she jerked, then marched back to the kitchen at top speed.

He was watching Percy now, a smug look on his face. I could see Percy getting angry quickly, his fist clenching and his jaw gritted. His green eyes went cold and there was bitterness and resentment on his face. Ares was getting to him worse than he'd got to me.

Only Grover looked untouched. He was fiddling with his reed pipes, refusing to look at Ares. He had a lot to be angry for though, such as the destruction of the native world, but maybe Ares only had power over demigods.

"So you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?" Ares asked Percy, grinning wickedly.

I really hoped he wouldn't do anything stupid.

"What's it to you?" he snapped back.

I was wrong, as usual. At this rate, we'd all be turned into snakes, Ares sacred animal. I didn't like snakes, but not as much as I didn't like spiders.