a story as endless as the ocean . pjo / allie jackson

1.4 the worst amusement park ride ever

1.4 If I Ever Step Foot Into Another Amusement Park It Will Have Been Too Soon

The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train finally rolled into Denver. This time, the boys didn't stop me from getting a spot that had better services, especially because we hadn't showered since leaving Camp Half-Blood and it was obvious. Thankfully, we all left Kansas smelling much better than we had when we entered, but I wasn't able to charge my phone, which had gone dead sometime the night before.

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

"How?" I asked, crinkling my eyebrow. "The rainbow thing Nessa told me about? Because my phone's dead and in all the packing the girls helped me do, I can't find my charger."

Luke flashed me a grin and I felt fire pool in my stomach and chest again. Damn him for being so good looking. Damn godly genetics in general, actually. Nothing but trouble for those who carried them.

"Yeah," Luke confirmed, regaining my wandering attention. "The rainbow thing. Also known as Iris Messaging, or IMing. We make a rainbow, toss in some drachmae, say who we want to speak to, and voilá! Instant connection. Better than anything your phone has. Faster, too."

"Okay," I crossed my arms. "Slight problem with this plan. We have no way to make a rainbow."

I sure as hell didn't want to try experimenting with my budding powers. I didn't care how well it always worked out on TV, me messing with my as yet unknown abilities was asking for another national monument to be destroyed. Violently.

"We'll find someplace," Luke assured me. He grabbed my hand and started to tug me along. I huffed and fell into step, twisting my wrist to be more comfortable.

We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Luke 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. In other words, no rainbows conveniently waiting to be used as a messaging service by a couple of ragged part-human teenagers.

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.

Grover took out the spray gun. "It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Luke?"

"Don't look at me," he said. "The dining car wiped me out. Angel, we need your credit card."

I sighed while I pulled out my credit card from my phone case. "We'll need to go to that ATM we passed and get some actual dollars and then turn them into coins."

"Great idea," Luke declared brightly. He jumped over to my side, pecked my cheek, and yanked the card from my fingers before dashing off. Grover looked at me confused.

"You're just going to let him take your card like that? You do know his father is the god of thieves, right?"

"I know," I nodded. "But no matter how good he is, he doesn't know my pin code and that's a Black Card. He'll be back in a second. And that's also if he did want to take my money."

Sure enough, he was. I walked over and met him before he got the whole way. "I don't—"

"I know. Nice going, Pretty Boy," I commented, taking my credit card back and kissing his cheek, like he did mine. I didn't look back to see his reaction, but I heard Grover bust out laughing, so it had to have been good.