𝕬LYA DISTINCTLY REMEMBERED telling Luke no when he asked if he could drive. The reason for that "no" would be because the boy had never even sat behind a steering wheel in his life, much less know how to operate one.
After they had finished their skeptical meal the night before, the two demigods had piled back into the camp van. Alya drove and drove for countless hours straight with only Luke's conversation to keep her company. Unfortunately for her, majority of those hours the boy spent asleep.
When he woke up, he had found Alya with lazy lids forcing her eyes to focus on the dark road ahead, being startled to concentration from time to time by the occasional blinding street light.
Because of this, Luke had insisted she pull over and rest for the night. It wasn't like they had a time limit or anything, there was no need in risking injury or sleep deprivation. That was how he had convinced her, anyways.
She remembered him insisting that she lay down in the backseat even though she had been perfectly content with reclining herself in the front seat ( it wasn't a proper way to sleep, he had insisted ). They each took a blanket that'd been stuffed into the floorboard in the back row, snuggling up underneath them and using their own arms as makeshift pillows.
Alya distinctly remembered both of them going to sleep for the night; Luke curled up in the passenger seat, her stretched out in the back.
Even though she had been halfway asleep already, she remembered that.
So now, why was she waking up to the van moving?
The girl woke with a start, fully rested and energized to continue their long journey to Florida, only to realize that the journey had apparently continued without her.
It took her a moment to realize that the van was, in fact, moving. When the thought dawned on her, immediate panic spread throughout her as she hesitantly looked to the driver's seat, already knowing and dreading who it was she would see.
Yep, just as she had feared.
Sitting there with his hands unusually steady on the wheel, was Luke in all his morning glory, the early sun rays illuminating his face with a golden glow. If it had been a different circumstance, Alya would've melted away and admired how she was pretty sure not even Apollo could make the sun look so beautiful, but there was definitely something more important to worry about.
Like what the actual hell was this boy doing driving, for example.
"Luke?" She asked him through gritted teeth, tossing the blanket across her lap off and discarding it onto one of the back seats. She was very tempted to climb over the center console into the passenger seat right then and there, but decided that would probably just distract her illegal driver even more.
