[ the second book in the drops of sunshine series ]
As much as she ended up loving her first one, AJ Hood never wanted to go on another quest. But somehow, she ended up on one anyway. And this time, it's not going to have a pretty ending... but at...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
~ ☼ ~
By the end of lunch (brunch? I had to admit it was way too early to be lunch, but a brunch where you eat pastrami rather than waffles seemed pretty pathetic to me) I'd totally forgotten about the woman who'd been standing across from us at Primanti Bros. After all, there were lots of weird people in every city, and I doubted Pittsburgh was any different.
But as Kiera led us back into Market Square, pointing out the huge glass-paneled skyscraper and telling us they had a massive Christmas display there every year, I caught sight of her again. She was standing across the street from us once again. Except we were now a different street. And once again, she was staring directly at us.
I turned rapidly.
"You okay?" Lucas asked me.
"Don't look backwards," I whispered, keeping my eyes locked ahead.
Lucas, to my annoyance, did exactly that. Then his eyes crinkled. "Mom?" he whispered.
Mom?!
I spun, but Lucas' expression had already changed. The woman was still staring at us, like she was daring us to recognize her. While Aria and Kiera were focused on the skyscraper, Lucas' eyes were wide.
"That's not my mom," he said.
I narrowed my eyes. "Then who is it?"
He ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know. But she - she reminds me of my mom. She has the same vibes."
"The same vibes?" I echoed. "What vibes, exactly, does the goddess Athena have?"
I said it so quietly that Kiera and Aria couldn't even hear it, but somehow the woman - the goddess, the crazy Steelers fan, whoever the heck she was - had heard. She squeezed her fists. Then she stormed across the street towards us-
And almost got hit by a car.
I yelped as the car screeched to a stop. The woman threw up her arms as the driver rolled down his window and yelled out, "Get out of the way, lady!"
What did the lady reply with, you might wonder? Something I unfortunately cannot repeat here, as much as I might like to. This is an official transcription to the Camp Half-Blood scribe, and they don't appreciate non-family-friendly content. Just imagine a lot of gestures and waving hands and four-letter words with various add-ons of the suffix "-ing."
The car swerved just as the lady finally got out of its way. It took off down the square, making a sharp right because of how small the street was. Meanwhile, the lady was standing just before us, shaking her head.
"Of course," she said, pointing at the bumper of the car. "Look at his magnet. Browns fan. No wonder!"
She turned to us. All of us were gaping.
"Sorry, kids," she said. "You shouldn't have had to see that."
She came up onto the curb; we moved to let her through. Then she stood there for a moment, wiping the sweat off of her neck as we watched her with jaws dropped. I could see why Lucas might confuse her with his mom. To my understanding, you never knew what a god might look like at any given time. I still didn't know how he saw the great and powerful Athena in this woman's dark ponytail, pale 30-something face, and black track pants.
