Sunburn- phoebus apollo

--x. the jackson twins go snowboarding with a pig

THEY'D ARRIVED ON THE OUTSKIRTS of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO. The air was cold and thin. The roofs of the cabins were heaped with snow, and dirty mounds of it were piled up on the sides of the streets. Tall pine trees loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, though the morning was sunny.

Even with her lion-skin coat,  Rhea was freezing by the time they got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As the questers walked, Percy told Grover about his conversation with Apollo the night before—how he'd told him to seek out Nereus in San Francisco. Rhea only listened, keeping out her private conversation to herself.

Grover looked uneasy. "That's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first."

Rhea tried not to get too depressed about their chances. She didn't want to send Grover into a panic, but the girl knew they had another huge deadline looming, aside from saving Artemis in time for her council of the gods. The General had said Annabeth would only be kept alive until the winter solstice. That was Friday, only four days away. And he'd said something about a sacrifice. Rhea didn't like the sound of that at all.

They stopped in the middle of town. They could pretty much see everything from there: a school, a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.

"Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."

"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.

"Yes," Zoe said. "Coffee is good."

"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."

Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you two go get us some food. Rhea, Percy, Bianca, and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

They agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. Bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with them, but she did.

Inside the store, they found out a few valuable things about Cloudcroft: there wasn't enough snow for skiing, the grocery store sold rubber rats for a dollar each, and there was no easy way in or out of town unless they owned a car.

"You could call for a taxi from Alamogordo," the clerk said doubtfully. "That's down at the bottom of the mountains, but it would take at least an hour to get here. Cost several hundred dollars."

The clerk looked so lonely, Percy bought a rubber rat. Then they headed back outside and stood on the porch.

"Wonderful," Thalia grumped. "I'm going to walk down the street, see if anybody in the other shops has a suggestion."

"But the clerk said—"

"I know," she told him. "I'm checking anyway."

Percy let her go. Rhea knew how it felt to be restless. All half-bloods had attention deficit problems because of their inborn battlefield reflexes. They couldn't stand just waiting around. Also, Rhea had a feeling Thalia was still upset over her and Percy's conversation last night about Luke.

Bianca, Rhea, and Percy stood together awkwardly. Rhea was never very comfortable talking one-on-one with people she wasn't close too, and she never got the time to bond with Bianca unlike Nico. Rhea wasn't sure what to say, especially now that she was a Hunter and everything.

"Nice rat," Bianca said at last, directing her attention to Percy.

Percy set it on the porch railing. 

"So... how do you like being a Hunter so far?" Percy asked.

Bianca pursed her lips. "Are you both mad at me for joining?"