Raging Seas [pjo au] || 1

δέκα

CHAPTER TEN
( GOING TO A WATERPARK,
BUT NOT FOR FUN )

THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON, THE train arrived in Denver.

Kali woke with a start. The nightmare she had – the same one from before, except this time Percy took Lana's place at the cliff – caused her to wrap her arms right around her pillow... Wait. No, someone's arm. Percy's arm. It was almost embarrassing.

She detached herself from him with a mumbled apology, and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, then at her sore neck. Gods, that was worst nap she had ever had. It didn't even make her less tired, just more miserable. Her hunger had grown in size, too, since they hadn't eaten since the night before at the dining car back in Kansas. To top it all off, she felt gross – none of them had taken showers since camp, and she was not counting her impromptu swim in the muddy Mississippi River as a bath.

"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said when they all finally go off the train. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."

"Nereid," Kali corrected, almost absentmindedly.

Annabeth nodded. "Right. Nereid."

"We can't use phones, right?" asked Percy.

"I'm not talking about phones."

They wandered through downtown for about thirty minutes, and Kali helped Annabeth keep an eye out for a place that would be good for an I-M. Occasionally she would get distracted by the distance skyline of the Rocky Mountains – they were beautiful, and almost looked like a tidal wave of earth and dirt.

Finally they found a do-it-yourself carwash. No cars were using any of the stalls, and they headed over to the one farthest from the street, keeping an eye out of patrol cars. Four kids hanging out at a carwash with no car in sight would no doubt set off an on-duty cop's suspicion.

"What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.

"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"

"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."

"Kali?"

She searched her pockets, and came up with one lonesome penny. "Sorry, Grover."

Percy took out the last bit of change he had. He passed over a quarter to Grover, which Kali saw left him with two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place. Just to be get some sort of reaction from him, Kali placed her penny with his change. He made a face and tossed it back at her, and she sputtered as it hit her face before she was able to catch it.

"Excellent," Grover said, ignoring them. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."

"What are you talking about?"

"I-M'ing," Kali and Grover said at the same time as he fed in the quarters and set the knob to 'fine mist'.

"Instant messaging?"

"Iris-messaging," corrected Annabeth. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."