a story as endless as the ocean . pjo / allie jackson

0.8 reincarnation gardening 101

0.8 I Take a Class on Reincarnation Via Gardening

Before anyone (read: Zoe) could object, I grabbed the keys and hopped in the driver's seat. There was no wall or anything keeping the front seats and the back separated, so once I was seated, I grabbed my phone and wallet and threw my duffel to the back. Thalia, not wanting to sit in the back with Zoe, hopped in beside me and threw her bag to the back as well.

I knew Zoe wasn't too keen on letting me drive and lead this quest, but there wasn't really anything she could do about it. I was the most stubborn person ever, according to... literally everyone, so I just knew she was going to love me.

"Alright Grover, where to?" I asked once we hit Manhattan, around two hours later. He did his little ritual thing and then did it again, just to make sure. He looked confused, but shrugged and put his acorns away.

"Washington, D.C.," he said.

"D.C.? What in Tartarus?" I said. "Are you positive?"

He looked at me sadly and almost offended, but then seemed to realize why I wanted to be sure. "I'm positive. I won't mess this up intentionally, Allie. This is Luke we're talking about. And Brylie," he said earnestly.

"Alright. D.C. it is."

Thankfully, we didn't have to stop until we hit Maryland. We were running on empty for almost 20 minutes before we'd come across a gas station that didn't look like it came out of the 1960s.

Grover practically jumped out of the van once I'd stopped it and Thalia and I walked in so we could get some drinks and a few snacks that'd last for a week. I bought us all a coffee, which Chiron would have given us very deep frowns for, but I was having a hard time not falling asleep at the wheel and everyone else was complaining about being tired (no one really wanted to go to sleep, mostly because if a monster attacked us, they wanted to be prepared).

"Grover, are you sure?" Thalia was asking as I came up them sipping my coffee. She gave me a thumbs-up as I passed her the cup I'd gotten for her.

"Well," Grover hesitated despite his earlier confidence, and I felt my heart sink slightly. "I'm pretty sure anyway. Like, ninety-nine percent. Okay, eighty-five percent."

"And you did this with acorns?" Bianca said skeptically, like she couldn't believe it.

I rolled my eyes. "He's a satyr," I pointed out to her dryly. "Grover was learning that spell when you were learning addition."

She flushed in embarrassment, glancing at the ground. "D.C. is about sixty miles from here," she said, quickly changing the subject. "Nico and I..." She frowned. "We used to live there. That's... that's strange. I'd forgotten."

"I dislike this," Zoe grumbled. She glared at Thalia. "We should go straight west. The prophecy said west."

"Oh, like your tracking skills are better?" Thalia growled.

Zoe stepped toward her. "You challenge my skills, you scullion? You know nothing of being a Hunter!"

"Oh, scullion," Thalia repeated mockingly, her expression. Unlike Zoe's glare, Thalia's rising anger actually did make me feel worried. "You're calling me a scullion? What the hell is a scullion?"

"Whoa, you two," Grover said nervously. "Come on. Not again!"

"HEY!" Everyone turned towards me. "Grover's tracking skills should be better, considering he's been around Luke since he was twelve. Since Luke, Brylie, and Artemis are all together, I suggest you keep your mouth shut, so we can find them quicker. Need I remind you, we only have a week until the solstice. Grover says D.C. is where we need to go. Like Bianca said, we are only 60 miles away. Worst comes to worst, we lose a day."