THE PROPHECY ² / Percy Jackson !

35

THEY ARRANGED A MEETING IN TIMES SQUARE. They found Rachel Elizabeth Dare in front of the Marriott Marquis, and she was completely painted gold. Her face, her hair, her clothes-everything. She looked like she'd been touched by King Midas.

And Viviene hated it.

Viviene was wearing black sweats and a normal red t-shirt. And also, she had sunglasses covering her eyes.

Rachel was standing like a statue with five other kids all painted metallic-copper, bronze, silver. They were frozen in different poses while tourists hustled past or stopped to stare. Some passerby threw money at the tarp on the sidewalk.

The sign at Rachel's feet said, URBAN ART FOR KIDS, DONATIONS APPRECIATED.

"Great, she's kind too." Viviene mumbled to Annabeth." I think Percy has found a replacement for me if we don't work things out."

"Oh, please. You are so much better." Annabeth snorted." She would never be able to kill a nemean lion. Or have super cool powers."

Viviene shot her best friend a small smile. What the hell would she do without Annabeth?

The three there for like five minutes, staring at Rachel, but ifshe noticed them she didn't let on. She didn't move or even blink that Viviene could see. Being ADHD and all, she could not have done that. Standing still that long would've driven her crazy.

It was weird to see Rachel in gold, too. She looked like a statue of somebody famous, an actress or something. Only her eyes were normal green.

"Maybe if we push her over," Annabeth suggested.

"Or punch her." Vivene gasped, sharing a look with Annabeth.

Percy thought that was a little mean, but Rachel didn't respond.

After another few minutes, a kid in silver walked up from the hotel taxi stand, where he'd been taking a break. He took a pose like he was lecturing the crowd, right next to Rachel. Rachel unfroze and stepped off the tarp.

"Hey, Percy." She grinned. "Good timing! Let's get some coffee."

They walked down to a place called the Java Moose on West 43rd. Rachel ordered an Espresso Extreme, the kind of stuff Grover would like. Annabeth and Viviene got fruit smoothies and they sat at a table right under the stuffed moose.Nobody even looked twice at Rachel in her golden outfit.

"So," she said, "it's Annabell and Valentina, right?"

"Annabeth," Annabeth corrected.

"It's Viviene," The daughter of Ares took of her sunglasses before adding,
" Raquel."

"It's actually Rachel." The mortal replied kindly."What's wrong with your eyes?"

Viviene's jaw clenched.

"Do you always dress in gold?" Annabeth butted in, interrupting her best friend from either punching Rachel or shooting her a snarky remark.

"Not usually," Rachel said. "We're raising money for our group. We do volunteer art projects for elementary kids 'cause they're cutting art from the schools, you know? We do this once a month, take in about five hundred dollars on a good weekend. But I'm guessing you don't want to talk about that. You two are half-bloods, too?"