𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

vii ━━ too high a horse for a simple girl to rise above it

03. chapter seven

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

I HAD TROUBLE FALLING ASLEEP.

coach hedge spent the first hour after curfew doing his nightly duty, walking up and down the passageway yelling, "lights out! settle down! try to sneak out, and i'll smack you back to long island!"

he banged his baseball bat against a cabin door whenever he heard a noise, shouting at everyone
to go to sleep, which made it impossible for anyone to go to sleep. i figured this was the most fun the satyr had had since he'd pretended to be a gym teacher at the wilderness school.

i stared at the bronze beams on the ceiling. my cabin was pretty cozy. leo had programmed their quarters to adjust automatically to the occupant's preferred temperature, so it was never too cold or too hot. the mattress and the pillows were stuffed with pegasus down, so they were really comfortable. a bronze lantern hung from the ceiling, glowing at whatever brightness i wished. the lantern's sides were perforated with pinholes, so at night glimmering constellations drifted across the walls. the cd player sat on my nightstand. i wished i could play the music in the cd leo had gotten me, but that would result in coach hedge attacking me with his baseball bat, so i opted not to.

i had so many things on my mind, i thought i'd never sleep. but there was something peaceful about the rocking of the boat and the drone of the aerial oars as they scooped through the sky.

finally my eyelids got heavy, and i drifted off.

it seemed like only a few seconds had passed before i woke to the breakfast bell.

"yo, millie!" leo knocked on my door. "we're landing!"

"landing?" i sat up groggily.

leo opened her door and poked his head in. he had his hand over his eyes, which would've been a nice gesture if he hadn't been peeking through his fingers. "you decent?"

"leo!"

"sorry." he grinned. "hey, nice emo pajamas."

"i still don't know what emo means, but it sounds bad, and this isn't emo!"

"yeah, sure. the little white hearts are cute. anyway, we're landing. and, um..." he glanced out in the passageway, then leaned inside again. "thanks for not hating me, about blowing up the romans yesterday."

i rubbed my eyes. the feast in new rome had been only yesterday? "that's okay, leo. you weren't in control of yourself."

"yeah, but still... you didn't have to stick up for me. piper told me what you said to annabeth and percy."

"oh, yeah. of course i'll stick up for you. team leo for the win."

from above, coach hedge yelled, "thar she blows! kansas, ahoy!"

"holy hephaestus," leo muttered. "he really needs to work on his shipspeak. i'd better get above deck."

by the time i had showered and changed, i could hear the ship's landing gear extending. i climbed on deck and joined the others as the argo II settled in the middle of a field of sunflowers. the oars retracted. the gangplank lowered itself.

the morning air smelled of irrigation, warm plants, and fertilized earth. not a bad smell. it smelled like pennsylvania.

everyone seemed in such better spirits this morning.

percy was the first to notice me. he smiled in greeting, which for some reason surprised me. he was wearing faded jeans and a fresh orange camp half-blood t-shirt, as if he'd never been away from the greek side. the new clothes had probably helped his mood— and of course the fact that he was standing at the rail with his arm around annabeth.