Daughter of Poseidon

Pearls and Poker

"So, where to?" I asked.

Argus had dropped us off at Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, unloaded our bags and then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the car park. Rain was pelting down from the grey sky, Zeus was probably angry, again.

I had caught Percy wistfully staring at the old apartment blocks, then muttering under his breath, "Smelly Gabe's was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her-"

"What are you talking about?" I had asked.

"Nothing." He had said, and had then gone off to talk to Grover.

Right now, Percy was rummaging around in his backpack and after much effort, produced the map.

"Auntie Em's garden emporium apparently." He said, answering my question

"Any idea where that is?"

"Somewhere in New Jersey."

"That's really helpful."

"What do you want me to do, turn into a pearl sensor?"

"If you can . . ."

"You're impossible." Groaned Percy and ran off to talk to Annabeth.

Suddenly, I had a stroke of, what I hoped to be, genius. I ran to the nearest person in the busy station and asked if I could borrow their phone. A kind man who was buying newspaper said yes and I went to use it to search where 'Auntie Em's' shop was. I was going fine until Grover came and knocked the phone out of my hand

"Hey!" I said.

"Don't use electronic devices with signal, they're like flares to monsters."

"So?"

"I really don't want to meet one when it hasn't even been five minutes since we started."

"Closer to five hours."

"How are you counting?"

"Since we left the border."

"That doesn't count, Argus was with us."

"It sounds cooler."

"No it doesn't."

"Alright."

"See!"

"What were you doing with that phone, playing Angry Birds?"

"Well, I found out where Auntie Em's emporium is."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Oh, where is it?"

"Near some place called Stillwater."

"Never heard of it."

"Me neither."

Grover adjusted his backpack.

"Listen, Anya, I'm so sorry about what happened that night. I know that you haven't been really wanting to talk to me, but that's fine. After what you went throug-"

"Don't be. It would've happened sooner or later. I wasn't ignoring you, I just didn't have a chance to speak to you. Anyway, why did you look so relived when Chiron said you could go on the quest?"

Grover shifted, uncomfortable. "It's about my searcher's licence, see. I lost you, then Thalia, and I had to have Percy protect me when I was taking him to camp last year. They thought that I wasn't competent to have a searcher's licence and this is my last chance. I'm such a bad seeker." He put his face in his hands.