Anti-Hero || Leo Valdez

48 - We Carpool to the Battle

The next day the group prepared for war.

Via double-checked the stringing of her bow and the sharpness of her arrows and knives. Pat had taken Leo and left earlier than everyone else to wake Festus up from suitcase mode. Thalia counted out her hunters' arrows and made sure everyone had plenty, and Piper covered for them by telling her dad and grandpa that they were going on a field trip for the weekend.

"You signed my permission slip last month, remember?" she insisted, her words woven with charmspeak.

"Oh, you're right," her father agreed, looking slightly dazed. "Huh. I wonder how I forgot."

Piper exchanged a knowing look with Via. Lies were hard, but the truth was harder.

Via spotted Pat's truck pulling up in the driveway. They all said goodbye to the McLeans and filed out the door. Via wasn't sure how they were supposed to fit in there with all of their stuff, but Thalia just threw everything that wasn't food into the hunters' collapsable tent, immediately solving that problem. Via, Piper, and Reyna hopped in the trunk with Aurum and Argentum since the cab was full, and they drove a few minutes down the road to where Leo had brought out Festus. Pat and Thalia got out of the truck and came around to the back.

"Okay, you two and me are supposed to go with Leo," he announced, gesturing at Via and Piper. "Reyna, you get to ride shotgun. Thalia -- " He held out the keys to his truck, but as Thalia made to take them, he yanked them back. "Not a scratch."

"Pat --"

"Not! A scratch." He deposited the keys into Thalia's outstretched hand and closed her fingers over it.

"Oh...kay."

"Does the truck have a bench in the front?" Reyna asked as the three girls climbed out of the trunk. The golden dog tried to climb down, but Reyna told him, "No, Aurum, stay."

"No," Pat replied. They began walking around the truck. "The other four are all in the back. It's a squeeze, but they all fit."

"We have small butts," said Eliana, who'd had the nearest window rolled down.

"That's not the brag you think it is," Evelyn told her.

A column of fire shot into the air. Everyone jumped. Via whirled around to see Festus stomping around grumpily. She clutched at her heart, her pulse still racing from the jumpscare.

"Sorry!" Leo yelped, cringing as the outer branches of tree that had been too close to the dirt road smoldered. "He doesn't like being compressed into suitcase mode. Makes him grumpy... though you'd think he'd be used to it by now."

"He's bigger than I remember," Reyna commented, then added quickly, "Don't say it, Crystal --"

Crystal giggled and said, "That's what she said."

"We never should've watched The Office," Lydia grumbled.

Via thought everyone was acting rather nonchalant considering what they were going into. She couldn't help wondering -- were they really this unbothered, or did they all have the same coping mechanisms? Maybe even a bit of both? It was kind of funny, but also kind of sad.

"He looks... different," Piper told Leo, staring at Festus. "Did he get a redesign?"

"Yeah, and you'll never guess which amazing and wonderful person did it," Leo replied. He wrapped one arm around Via's shoulders and the other to point at her. Piper smirked at Via's face turning pink from the praise.

"Hold on," Pat protested, holding up his hands. "I'm pretty sure the redesign was done by me."

"It was both of us," Via said. "But it was my idea. That's why Festus loves me so much."