𝙇𝙮𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙨 (𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙮 𝙅𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙭 𝙁𝙚𝙢! 𝙊𝘾) 𝙏𝙏𝘾

Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate.

Let's take a moment to appreciate this drawing ^^

Sylvia looked out the window of the van. It was all she could do not to throw up everywhere. Zoe's driving was almost worse than Thalia's.

As they drove, she thought about Nico. She really hoped he'd be okay without Bianca or herself. He was (surprisingly) up before Sylvia left, so she was able to say goodbye to him. No matter how many times she asked, though (because she felt bad for the poor girl), he wouldn't agree to wishing Bianca good luck or anything.

She'd ended up asking Will right before she left to talk to Nico regularly and be a friend to him that was actually his age, though she felt like he would've done that otherwise, given his very secret crush on the di Angelo boy, but it was better safe than sorry. Of course, that meant Nico would probably be in the infirmary--extremely bored--half the time, but you win some and you lose some, y'know?

Lux squeezed her hand tightly. Usually, Sylvia wouldn't like that, but it was Lux, so it was fine. She was pretty sure they were feeling carsick, too.

"Zoe, how about you let someone else drive?" Sylvia suggested. "If any of the cops notice you, we'll be done for. You look a lot younger than you actually are."

In almost any other context, that would be a sort of compliment, but apparently the huntress didn't take it that way. She just scoffed and shook her head.

Sylvia thought back to her previous conversations. One was with Chiron, who warned her about the dangers of both her quest and, for some reason, music. He'd given no other explanation to what that meant, though.

Then there was the one with Zoe. Though that one was more of an argument. If being a Hunter meant listening to her for eternity, Sylvia definitely wouldn't become one. The discussion was about Phoebe, who the Stolls had pranked with centaur blood, which was poisonous. They most likely put the blood on the inside of the shirt they gave her. She was apparently covered in hives. Sylvia knew there wasn't a way she or any of her siblings would be able to heal her in time, so she tried to convince Zoe to take Clarisse on the quest instead, but she was adamant on saying no, insisting that the camp was the land without rain where they were supposed to lose someone, although Sylvia could tell the lieutenant didn't really believe her own words.

After a while, Sylvia got bored. "Where are we, and will we stop soon?"

That very second, Zoe pulled into a rest stop. "We are in Maryland. We'll only be stopped for a few minutes, so hurry."

She made it seem like it was life-or-death, instead of just 'go pee now or you'll regret it,' which is what Sylvia would've said.

She entered the convinuence store with Lux and waited outside while they were in the bathroom. She kept both hands in her pockets at all times, one on the steel knife, and one on a celestial bronze one. Fawkes was previously asleep in her pocket, but woke up when she got out, flew to the roof, and laid down on it, apparently absorbing sunlight, kinda like photosynthesis. Sylvia guessed the phoenix deserved it.

Lux exited the washroom and Sylvia entered. While on the toilet, she noticed a 'smudge' of blood.

Great, she thought, sighing. Of course I get it at the most inconvenient time possible. I couldn't have gotten it last week, when I was doing nothing but working at the infirmary, or next week, when I'll either be dead or finished with this quest. Why the heck is it even this early?

At least I have tampons, she reminded herself, grabbing one from one of her pockets.

When she was done in the restroom, she washed up, added a tiny bit of makeup, because her period usually made her face look bleh, and headed out the door, joining Lux, who had waited for her. She made a split-second decision to get hot chocolate for her and her sibling, because damn, it looked good, and joined Thalia, Bianca, Zoe, and Grover as they left the store.