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The sky didn't seem to let up. It roared and sometimes it felt bright enough that it could have been daytime. Bronte stared at the sky, watching the lightning flash. The purple streak flew through her eyesight, and even if she could have only seen it for a second, it was beautiful.
Her eyes seemed to spark at the sight, but it quickly vanished when someone yanked on her arm, pulling her away.
It was Annabeth's idea.
She loaded the four other kids into the back of a Vegas taxi and told the driver, "Los Angeles, please."
The cabbie chewed his cigar and sized them up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."
"You accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked.
He shrugged. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first."
Annabeth handed him her green LotusCash card.
He looked at it skeptically.
"Swipe it," she insisted.
He did.
His meter machine started rattling. The lights flashed. Finally an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign.
The cigar fell out of the driver's mouth. He looked back at them, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles...uh, Your Highness?"
"The Santa Monica Pier." Annabeth sat up a little straighter. Bronte had to hide the laugh trying to escape her mouth at the sight. She could tell she liked the "Your Highness" thing. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."
Maybe it wasn't the best idea for her to say that, because the can's speedometer never dipped below ninety-five the whole way through the Mojave Desert.
Bronte wasn't sure when she fell asleep. Between the lack of sleep from multiple nights before and the calming voices talking in the car, she fell asleep rather quickly.
Her head fell on the shoulder of the person next to her, making their cheeks heat up bright red. Percy's face flushed, as he tried to ignore the tingling sensation running through his body.
It was hard to see through Bronte's blonde hair at the others, and they were already in their own conversations, so Percy decided to try and get some sleep of his own.
⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆
Bronte had never been a good dreamer. Most of her dreams quickly morphed into nightmares, causing her to wake up instantly. That was the reason she never slept anymore.
Her brother was the main character in her nightmares, but each one was different. Sometimes it would be a reenactment of how he 'died', sometimes it was when she fought him at camp. Either way, they were never good ones.
