𝔐𝔬𝔦𝔯𝔞𝔦𝔬 - 𝔉𝔢𝔪𝔒ℭ𝔵𝔏𝔢𝔬 𝔙𝔞𝔩𝔡𝔢𝔷

11. I Send The Gods A PR Package!

In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people think that it's just really bad luck; when you're a demigod, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.

So there we were, Annabeth, Grover and my brother and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.

I had healed by the rain, mostly. There was still a long line along my back, just thinking of it gave me shivers. My arms no longer punctured, but my clothes still very much were.

Grover was shivering and braying, his bit goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

I was still drained from my shadow-travel, but Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."

"Most of our money was back there, I only have twenty bucks. The rest was in Percy's bag." I reminded her. "Our food and your clothes."

I took my backpack off and slid on my Montauk hoodie, making the slight chill in the air go away.

"Well, maybe if your brother hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?" Percy argued.

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."

"Sliced like sandwich bread." Grover added. "But fine."

"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.

Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans . . . A perfectly good bag of tin cans."

I rolled my eyes, grabbing my iPod out of my pocket. Thankfully, it survived our brawl on the bus.

'I was scared of dentists and the dark, I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations.'

We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.

After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line behind me, next to Percy.

I didn't feel like listening to anymore old couple fights, so I turned my volume up.

'I wanna grab both your shoulders and shake baby, snap out of it (snap out of it!)'

"I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave." I heard Annabeth say.

I smirked and looked at Grover, who raised his eyebrows, also grinning.

"We're a team, right?" My brother whispered.

'Sounds like you're settling downnn, and giving up.'

"Kie!" I looked back over at Grover, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Yeah?"

"Can I have a headphone?"

"Yea, sure." I handed him the left one, and we walked on. 

'I've been waiting so-o patiently for you to snap. Out. Of. It.'

"You're pretty good with that knife," Percy said.

'It's not a spell, your hyp-no-tized. Darling how could you be so blind?'

I nudged Grover. "How could those two be so blind, is the real question."

He nodded, picking at his reed pipes. "Man, I hope these still work."