Warriors of Wisdom

Chapter Thirteen

I was frozen in terror. The bus already departed from the station. We were the only ones on the bus. I turned toward Hayden who was sitting on my right, and I started sobbing into his shoulder. He stroked his hand through my hair.

"She's gone now." I cried. "And it's my fault. I should have been there to help her."
   
Hayden kept raking his hand through my hair. "It was not your fault. It wasn't our fault, and it wasn't Amelie's fault either. She's a good person. She'll end up in Elysium for sure." That made me feel better, knowing that Amelie would get to spend her afterlife in the Underworld paradise.

Alex was sitting on my left. He put his hand on my shoulder. "Hayden's right. But I still feel bad for Amelie. We barely knew her, and now she's gone."

"Mr. Holland, stop living in the past! Even though the past was ten minutes ago. Stay in the present! We have a demigod to save.

Alex whistled. "Hayden Warren, you sure are something."

"I know." Hayden smiled. "Well, California here we come!" I admired him for trying to get our hopes up, but we really weren't in the mood. It was only after about 30 minutes when Alex and I really started relax. We told stories of our adventures in and out of camp. The boys gave me a few more demigod lessons. We would laugh at Hayden's horrible singing whenever "Who's Lovin' You" came on (though I knew from last night that he wasn't such a terrible singer, but I didn't want to mention that, especially since Hayden still thinks Alex doesn't know about it). I really wanted to just imagine that we were just three friends having a road trip together. Right now, we were three friends having a road trip together while fighting for our lives. We watched as the sun set beautifully in the distance.

"There's my dad, pulling the sun chariot down." He said as pointed toward the sun. I looked at his expression, and it wasn't hard to read. He looked disappointed and upset.

"Hayden?" I asked as gently as I could. "Is there something you want to tell me? About your dad?" I could see the sorrow in his eyes. His head was hung low, and shadows were cast on his face.

"It's just, really hard to talk about."

"You don't have to worry about it. I won't judge. And you said it yourself: if you need to show weakness, then go ahead." He seemed to have bought my words. He looked over at Alex. He was asleep, his head reclining on the back of the seat.

"When I was about ten, that was when I found out that I was a demigod. Apparently, my mom 'sensed' Apollo's presence and told me that my father has finally come home. He came in, and my mother went a little," He made a circle motion around his ear with his finger. I got the message: she went a little out crazy. "When he came back, he was happy to see that I had grown up, but he said he was actually there to speak to my mom."

I put my hand on his reassuringly, so that he knew he had nothing to worry about. "Go on."

He took a shaky breath. "My mom went on and on about how she had missed him, how he missed my first steps and words, blah blah blah. The truth is, she didn't even know that Dad was Apollo. She thought that he was just some normal guy. But she sensed something different this time around: he was bulkier, he had a bow and arrows slung over his back, and he seemed to have radiated power. Dad finally confessed that he was Apollo. My mom's sanity couldn't take it. She went crazy. She was just mixed with all kinds of emotions and," He took another deep breath. It must have taken him a lot of effort to talk to me about something like this. "She went through a state of depression after that. It was really hard for me to go through this with her, but I did my best to help her. One day, she met an old man that sold her drugs. Said that they would fix her problems. Eventually, she became addicted. Now me, being a ten year old at the time, I didn't know what to do. My mom was going insane. One day she got so loaded on drugs that she," Tears were starting to stream down his eyes. I wiped them away from his cheek. I got what he was trying to say.

"Hayden, I am so sorry. I had no idea." I sympathized. I've never felt this sorry for someone.

"Hey, it's okay. Even before that, my mom really wasn't the best. If I got a bad grade at school, she would refuse to feed me, even though she knew that I had ADHD and dyslexia. If I got in trouble for something I didn't do, she would refuse to take me to any of my activities or to see some of the few friends I had. But when she, you know, died, I felt bad for her. I should have been there for her. Instead, I was being selfish."

"You were not being selfish, Hayden. That was her, not you."

"Anyway, I couldn't stay mad after she died. I couldn't even be mad at Apollo. Even though the news was a little crazy at first, he didn't intend to hurt my mom. She should have taken the news better." He looked out the window, where the sun was sinking behind the horizon. "I didn't know what to do. They were about to take me to a foster home, since I had no close relatives to stay with. That's when I ran away. I was all over the news. People were trying to find me and take me to an orphanage. Luckily, Apollo helped me along the way. Even your mother, Athena, guided me. She knew that one day I would be a good fighter. They led me to Camp Half Blood, and I've been there ever since." I realized how hard it has been for Hayden. My whole life, I was in the protection of my loving father who cared for me very much. Hayden's life was even harder than mine, and all of this happened when he was only ten years old.

He put his other hand over mine, which sent a chill down my spine. Why? "Don't worry about me. Like I said, I don't like to live in the past. That stuff is behind me now. My main focus is on this quest." I smiled. I admired the way that he could turn almost any situation into something that is even slightly good. He would always be there to make me smile or laugh, and I was fine with that. "Besides, how long have we been on this bus?" He peered over our seat to where the driver. "Oy, driver! Where are we? How much longer?"

The driver groaned. "One or two hours, kid."

Hayden turned back to me. "Go get some rest. You need it after the day we just had." I didn't want to go back to sleep, knowing that I might slip into another horrifying dream, but Hayden's words were like Alex's charmspeak. After a few seconds, my eyes fluttered shut, and I was asleep.