"This is me trying..." (Book 1 of the Storm Decology)

"Don't ask questions"

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, somewhere in kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since camp half-blood, and I was sure that was obvious.

*the night before*

"Vicky?" Grover said, looking at me trying to put on my jacket without brushing my pulsating wound.

"What Grover?" I said gritting my teeth as I slid the jacket over my wound.

"Can I clean it?" He said, reaching his hand out to me.

"What do you mean clean it?" I whispered, narrowing my eyes.

"I can smell the infection from here, i can smell your flesh rotting, let me clean it"

I narrowed my eyes and took my jacket off again. I walked to the bathroom. Grover followed. He grabbed a towel from the little dispenser, and wet it down with water. "Is there anything you wanna talk about?"

I hissed as the paper towel made contact with my skin. "Im fine "

"Your veins look like ink! And , and they're all the way to your shoulder, and down your arm! When did this happen?"

I swallowed, as Grover cleaned it. "When i took the whip for percy"

"Oh my gods" Grover gasped.

He cleaned it in silence for the rest of the time. "Thank you Grover I said after he finished cleaning it. But you can't tell anybody, i don't want people worrying*

He looked down at his fake feet, "so you want me to lie?"

"That's exactly what I want you to do* I said, holding my head up, swallowing hard and gently putting my jacket back on.

"Then i will lie, i owe you at least that*

"Grover," I said walking out of the bathroom. "You owe me nothing"

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

"We can't use phones, right?"

"She's not talking about phones?" I said grinning, "I love Iris Messaging."

We wandered through downtown, Annabeth and I were looking for a source of flowing water if I remembered correctly. The air was dry and hot, it was weird after the humidity of St. Louis.

Finally, we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered towards the stall furthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars.

I smirked as Percy leaned over to grover. "What exactly are we doing?" He asked as Grover took the spray bottle.

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

I pulled my wallet out of my boot and gave him three quarters.

"Why do you have a wallet in your boot?" percy asked, narrowing his eyes at me as i put my wallet back in my boot.

"Don't ask questions" I said looking at Grover as Grover looked at Percy.

"OKie Dokie Wait, if your father is king of the gods, doesn't that make you princess of the gods?"

I rolled my eyes, "I don't know, maybe I"shrugged.

"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"

"What are you talking about?"