Heroes of Olympus (The Throne of Stone)

Chapter 38 Nashville

Chapter 38

Nashville

 

Piper

“Explain now. Not later, now.” I said. I wasn’t going to wait for him to gather himself or anything, I needed answers now. I was sick of the gods being so cryptic.

“Let me explain, don’t jump to conclusions, okay?” Sam said putting down his guitar. “My parents...they aren’t a bunch of hillbillies in the country okay? They’re kind of....different. My dad is Jonas Levi. And my mom is Vanessa Levi. I just, changed my name.”

“Wait, aren’t they like super popular country singers?!” Jason said. I thought the same. Looks like I’m not the only one who had famous family connections.

“Don’t freak out! It’s really not a big deal. My parents sent me away 5 years ago so that they would be able to tour. I send them emails sometimes, but I think that after a while they got too much fan-mail and just stopped answering. It’s not complicated, just a difficult relationship. I’ve been living with my grandma Louis until I can go and buy my own apartment.” Sam looked at the ground, “I have absolutely no idea why Aphrodite wants me to go back. Especially now that I haven’t seen them for 5 years. Frankly, they didn't do so well as parents. They were too young to have kids, they weren’t ready, they wanted to put me up for adoption but grandma Louis changed their minds.

“Why would you keep that from us?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve never told anyone, it never seemed necessary. Even Autumn doesn’t know. I figured that if I told anyone, they would judge me for my parents. But I want to be my own person, not judged for their reputation.” Sam reasoned defending himself.

“It’s okay. I totally get it.” I said pulling on my shirt sleeve, “My dad is Tristan McLean.”

“Like, the actor dude?”

“Yeah. Pretty much the same thing. I don’t judge you for that at all. But do you have any other godly connections in your family? Like why else would Aphrodite be so interested in your past?”

“I really have no idea. My parents, aren’t at all godly, and I know I’m not adopted or anything weird like that, because there are pictures of my mom and dad together with me as a baby and I have a birth certificate. And she said I was mortal. So I really don’t feel like I’m godly at all.” That’s true, no matter what his parents were, he still seemed pretty normal.

“Well, we’ll just have to do what she says. I may hate her but my mom typically isn’t wrong. So where do your parents live?”

“Okay, number one, wait that was your mom? Number two, Nashville, Tennessee, naturally.” Sam shrugged. He clearly had more than enough weirdness for one day. I’m pretty sure that we all have had enough.

“Good, we can hit the road tomorrow.”

~

I had gathered enough money for 3 train tickets to Tennessee, which trust me, was not very cheap. But thanks to my wonderful connections we would have a train leaving 6 hours from now.

I had okay sleep, especially considering the weird, freaky demigod dream we all have. I think Sam would be the only one in camp who was capable of having good dreams. I can’t really remember my last great night’s sleep. I dreamed about them, what was happening. I imagined them being cornered by some roaring monster. But Frank and Hazel were missing. It really made me worry about them, hopefully we weren’t going on another wild goose chase for answers in Tennessee.

Clarisse came running. “Who gave you permission for a quest? You have to get approved to leave!” She was seething as always.

“Maybe you have forgotten, we’re a part of the Seven. And due to the current times, we’ve been approved for any quest we need to go on to protect camp.”

Clarisse jabbed a finger at Sam who was struggling to keep up with his enormous backpack. “He has NOT be approved.” She exaggerated.

“He has been approved by me, now get out of my way.” I said putting some charmspeak in my words. Clarisse’s mouth opened like she was going to say something else but it stopped and she shuffled to the side. She muttered under her breathe,

“Hope you pay for your stupidity.”

Apparently today was not the right day to piss me off. Anger bubbled in y chest and I whirled around. “This is stupidity? Trying to save your stupid behind is stupid? Frankly, you don’t have a camp to fall back on. Accept the facts for what they are, our camp that we love is dying! And if we don’t- we’re all going to die! Do you understand?” I turned on my heel, grabbed Jason’s hand and marched to Half-Blood Hill.

Argus was waiting with a taxi. He never spoke, but he was always there. The awesome silent type. Jason got in the taxi first, me next and Sam with the window seat.

“Do you know how awesome that was?” Sam murmured. “You just stood up to Clarisse.”

“Yeah, so? She’s just a worrier under all that armor. If you know what words to use you can always win an argument. Remember that when you argue with Autumn.” I grinned a little. Sam didn’t look me in the eye.

“We’re only best friends. You got it? Nothing more.” Sam may not notice but Autumn is like crushing really hard on him. And they’ve been friends for too long and she has been permanently placed in the “friend zone”.  But I didn’t want to mess with Sam’s head, which reminded me.

“Aphrodite said you have a glorious mind. Do you know what she meant?”

Sam threw his backpack on his lap, settling in. “No.”

~

We arrived at the train terminal. Travellers were everywhere, bustling with their luggage, endangering the lives of short people. So naturally no one expected to see Reyna.

She sat in full armor on the steps to the front of the train terminal with her dogs. Her hair was braided and she had her warrior face on. Great another person who didn’t want us to go on this quest.

“Look you can’t stop us-” Jason said.

“Oh, I’m not here to stop you. I’m here to join you.” Reyna said, she stood and marched toward the train, without a glance back at us. Because if she did she would have noticed the monsters following the train and she would have never wanted to go on this quest.