Reading About The Child Of Artemis

Gods and Dining

"I bet it was one of those soft gods." Ares said loudly looking towardsDemeter, Aphrodite, Hermes and Hephaestus. In turn they eachturned at him while everyone else rolled their eyes. Grover,Annabeth, and Ariadne stiffened their laughs by coughing slightlybefore Grover started to read.

The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car,

"And you didn't die?" Thalia questioned referring to Ariadne's eatinghabits. "Oh trust me, I was about to."

 somewhere in Kansas,

Jason, Piper, and Ariadne all shivered.

Even the apples Grover grew for us wasn't enough to fill my stomach. We hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and I was sure that was obvious. 

"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit." 

"We can't phones, right?" 

"I'm not talking about phones." 

"How else do you communicate?" Reyna questioned.

We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at me, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.

"All those damn references to the sea." Annabeth complained. 

 Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good. 

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

"Yeah what are you doing?"

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

"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out." I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place. 

"Your screwed." Leo stated.

"Excellent," Grover said. "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?" 

He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. 

"I-M'ing." '

"Instant messaging?" Gwen asked.

"Instant messaging?" 

Ariadne smiled at Gwen, "Welcome to the Ari's-think alike club." 

"Ithink you meant think like Ariadne Deer brain." 

"Nope I'm prettysure my ways right." Annabeth facepalmed after that.

" Iris -messaging," Annabeth corrected. "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."

"THAT'S NOT FAIR!" All the Romans complained at the same timewhile the Greeks shrugged their shoulders.

 "You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"