Gods of Olympus

Chapter 20 - Carys's POV

 After Hoco was over, my dad dropped us all off at the afterparty at Disney's Mount Olympus Resort. It was tradition to spend the rest of the weekend there and since the school was paying for all our tickets, hotel rooms, and food, it was going to be so much fun.

Disney opened its Mount Olympus Park only fifty years ago and they are constantly adding the best rides from all its mortal parks. 

As soon as we got there, we all went to the Fantasy Kingdom park which was going to be open all night. The entire school was there, riding the rides, taking pictures, and hanging out with their friends. We headed over to New Orleans Square to ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, Percy's favorite, then we went on Haunted Mansion before screaming our heads off on the Hollywood Tower of Terror. 

We were there until early the next morning before we went to the Disney Studios park. Will went full fanboy as soon as he walked into Star Wars: Galaxies Edge. We all went on Star Tours first and sat down on the ride. As soon as Kylo Ren came on the screen, Will practically screamed with joy and when Kylo announced that there was a resistance spy on board and showed Will on the screen, Will was bubbling over with excitement. Afterward, when we were walking around the First Order area of Galaxies Edge, we got to meet Kylo Ren in person and Nico decided to join the dark side. We built lightsabers and droids, then moved on to the other parts of the park including Avengers Campus, Pixar Pier, and Pandora: The World of Avatar.

Later that afternoon, we went to the water park. The wave pool was insane as the waves went over ten feet high while everyone bodysurfed below. After watching the World Of Color show at the Mount Olympus Adventure Park, my dad picked us up and drove us home.

The next morning, everyone was buzzing with excitement as they talked about everything that happened over the weekend.

Will, Nico, and I were walking just outside the cafeteria to our next class, Immortal Training in Room Omega when someone called Will over to talk with them about an upcoming event. Will told us to go ahead and he would meet us at Room Omega later. Nico and I continued in silence. Occasionally making small talk awkwardly before I heard the shrill voice of one of my worst enemies coming from behind. I muttered a curse under my breath with an exasperated look on my face as Nico glanced over at me.

"Carys!" Gemma said, her voice dripping with fake politeness. I turned around and forced a smile on my face. Gemma flipped her curly brown hair and walked over to us.

"Gemma, hi! How are you?" I asked as she gave me such a fake hug.

"I'm just peachy! How's my boyfriend doing? Sorry, my ex-boyfriend. Your new boyfriend." Gemma said, enunciating the word boyfriend while I silently wished she would just shut up.

"Zephyr's amazing. We're so in love. He even bought me this necklace!" I said, gesturing to the heart necklace with a seven (my lucky number) hanging above my signature sun necklace.

"Oh isn't that nice. Where did he get that? Target?" Gemma asked, an evil look in her beady little perfect blue eyes.

"Oh it's Gorjana actually, but I can see where you might get confused." I retorted. I looked over at Nico and he looked a little amused at our trainwreck of a conversation.

"Hi there. I'm Gemma. Goddess of teenage girls and daughter of Heracles and Hebe." Gemma said to Nico, overpronouncing the syllables of Heracles as she extended her right hand.

"I'm Nico. God of the afterlife and son of Hades." Nico said, shaking her hand. I saw a look of terror flash in Gemma's eyes as she forced a smile.

"Pleasure to meet you," Gemma said, dropping Nico's hand. Nico and I exchanged a glance knowing what was going to happen next as his face became guarded. Gemma was still smiling as she turned back to me. "Why are you associating yourself with that boy? I knew you were weird but that boy is going to ruin your reputation." Gemma said with a clenched jaw as if Nico couldn't hear her. I looked over at him and felt so bad. Will told me what he went through at Camp Half-Blood. I decided I had to do something and I was done playing this game.

"Um excuse me? 'That boy' happens to be my brother. You can insult me all you want and I won't care but I am drawing the line at you making fun of him. Who cares if his dad is Hades? Cause I dam well don't. You're so conceded, you don't even know why Zephyr broke up with you! You don't have ANY of your Styx together so why should you keep insulting us when we are CLEARLY better off than you are? Holy Hera! You're so annoying and for the record, no one frickin cares that your dad is Heracles. Stay away from my family." I said.

"And by the way. If you ever mess with us again, you'd better hope your snotty friends are there to back you up." Nico said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Which means, get out of here you anemic loser!" I said with fake sweetness. Gemma turned red with anger and ran back to her annoying pack of friends. "Sorry about that... I couldn't..." I said but got cut off by Nico hugging me. Nico hates physical contact but I guess he made an exception.

"You really think of me as your brother?" Nico asked.

"I mean yeah. Will's my brother and you're Will's boyfriend so you're family." I said and we both smiled.

"Well thanks for defending me, sis," Nico said.

"Thank you for backing me up," I said. We walked to Room Omega but this time, we were chatting and laughing the whole time.