A Little Different iii || Clarisse La Rue x OC || PJO: TTC

III

Ciara walked along the streets of New York City, lit up in street lamps, Christmas light decorations and the giant Christmas tree in the middle of the Central Park square.

She was trying to hitch hike back to Arizona, she was going to go find Percy, Grover, Thalia and the two hunters of Artemis. But the necklace thing Zoe had given her wasn't working.

Ciara wandered the streets, kind of cold. Okay, a lot cold. The winter breeze hit her face, making her nose runny and cold. Her face numb and frozen.

She held her thumb out as she walked, after about 30 minutes or so later, a red convertible sports car kind of. It looked like the one Lana Del Rey drove in, in Chemtrails Over the Country Club. But this one looked more modern with a bunch of different buttons on the dashboard area.

"Need a ride?" The woman driving said, she looked badass. She had her hair hushed back in a orange bandana, which seemed a bit unfitting for the wear. She wore a leather jacket, with jeans and a cherry red scarf. A red and purple bruised eye was revealed as she took her sunglasses off.

"Uhm... yes.. please" Ciara said a bit nervously, she remembered in one of her foster homes where a woman was super protective of her and the other foster kids she had, always talking to them about getting in strangers cars, pedophiles, rapists and all that type of stuff. So a lot of those conversations stuck with Ciara.

The woman gestured for her to come in, Ciara went around the car and got in the passenger seat. The woman put the roof of the convertible up, and turned the heater on. "Where you going, kid?" The woman asked as she began to drive.

"Uhm, Arizona. Please" Ciara said, the woman chuckled softly. "Long way from Arizona, what're you doing in New York?" She asked, soft music played from the radio. It sounded like 80's or 90's music.

"I was uhm... visiting a friend, I guess" Ciara said, before asking, "what's your name, miss?" She asked the woman.

"Tilly, you?" the woman replied. One thing Ciara couldn't understand, is how the most badass women she has ever met in her life always have such cutsie and soft names, like this woman who Ciara could tell was a strong bad bitch who was also named Tilly. She then thought to Clarisse, Clarisse was one of the toughest people Ciara has ever met, yet her name was Clarisse. Ciara thought it was funny, and also kind of cute.

"Ciara", Ciara replied to the woman's question. "Nice to meet you, Ciara" Tilly smiled as she drove onto the highway.

The woman, Tilly was very nice. She gave Ciara some advice and some pointers, about who to trust and who to watch out for. Little things like that, they got to Arizona after a while.

"It's just up here" Ciara said, as Tilly slowed down and parked she gave Ciara a smile. "Hope to see you again, Ciara. You're a sweet girl, be safe" Tilly said as she drove off.

Ciara would always remember her, she walked up to Clarisses house and knocked on the door. She heard crying and muffled stuff from inside.

Madeline opened the door, letting Ciara in. She looked confused as she saw a boy around her and Clarisses age in the corner of the living room. Tattered and burnt clothes, murmuring to himself and rocking back and fourth and shaking like a dog hearing fireworks.

Ciara then realised who it was, it was Chris. He was a camper a few years back, before he left to go join Luke's army. She remembers Chris, he was there with Luke when Luke threw her down the giant pit to be fed to a giant drakon.

She felt a bit angry as she saw Chris, but also felt bad as he looked so... scared, so traumatised.

Ciara went upstairs to the room she shared with Clarisse, Clarisse on her bed searching stuff up on her laptop and writing things down. "Ciara! Good you're back, we're heading out tomorrow first thing. We're going into the labyrinth and mapping it out. We need to find the gold and the map before Luke and his army does" she said as she got up and packed things into her bag.

Ciara confused, "what? What labyrinth? What gold? Why's Chris here??" She said, shooting questions out like bullets at Clarisse.

Clarisse sat Ciara down and explained everything to her, how she found Chris walking out in the desert, how he kept mumbling about the labyrinth. Saying stuff about gold, he managed a few sentences. Luke and his army found out there was piles of gold somewhere in the labyrinth, years ago when pirates kidnapped Dionysus. They hid the gold and ships somewhere where no one would find them, in the labyrinth.

Ciara thought Clarisse was crazy, more crazy then crazy-Chris downstairs hugging himself like some freak in a psych ward. "Clarisse you can see what the labyrinth did to Chris! We're not going in there" Ciara argued.

"Ciara, Chris said that the gold holds a fortune like no other! He said the gold isn't just any gold, it wakes up the dead. Luke's going to use it to wake Kronos!" Clarisse said, she looked at Ciara with pleading eyes.

Ciara didn't like it, but with Clarisse she always ended up giving in. Clarisse knew it to.

"Fine" Ciara said. Clarisse gave a small smile and a small quick side hug. Clarisse wasn't a fan of physical touch, but it was nice when she did do it. She was like a cat, she just has to warm up to you.

(Sorry this chapter is a bit short. I plan on making the next chapter much longer so it's not to boring <33 I hope you guys like this chapter though. I love you guys )

Word count: 1000