Counselor's Undertake

Part 8

Grace, Daughter of Athena, 14 days

"The Golden Apple... Shouldn't be too difficult." Grace whispered to herself, as she walked away from camp with Sage and Jackson. She looked in Jackson's direction, not completely sure what to make of him yet. Grace had been lucky, when the quest groups were chosen. She got to complete the task with one of her friends. Sage and Grace had known eachother since Grace got to camp, and they were pretty close. But Jackson? Grace didn't know him well. She made an effort to avoid the Ares cabin, some of those campers could crush her with little to no effort if they felt like it. Maybe he wouldn't be so bad? Only time could tell. She looked back ahead, into the distance. The sky was a pretty mixture of red, yellow, and orange hues, and Grace sighed softly. She imagined that she was sitting on the roof of the Athena cabin, watching the sun- "No. We're not going to be homesick already." she muttered quietly, blocking out her thoughts. Grace looked towards Sage, "So? Where are we headed?" she asked. Sage bit her lip, and thought for a minute, as if there was a map inside her head. "We'll go through Pennsylvania, then to Ohio... then through Indiana. Once we get through those three we'll figure it out, assuming we make it that far." Sage said, as if she had been thinking for hours on this. Jackson nodded, "Ok, we can do that- easy peasy" he muttered. Grace smiled, "Yeah, Sage has her charmspeak- I have- well, nothing- Jackson, I honestly know nothing about you- you got any magic?" she asked. Jackson shook his head and stuffed his hands into his pocket. "Well then, we have Sage's charmspeak, and some swords." she said, trying to sound upbeat as she could. Grace knew that if they lost faith this early on, there was no way she, Sage, and Jackson would be able to make it all the way to Washington, never mind find the apple and make it back. She took a deep breath and looked back ahead. Grace smiled, New York City wasn't far from where they stood, even if it's just a little progress, that's a little closer to Washington than they had been before, and every little bit counted, right? "Why don't we get a cab or something in the city?" Grace suggested, "Faster than walking." Sage nodded, "Might as well. How far do you think they'll take us?" she asked, turning to Grace. Jackson looked back up at the two girls, "Probably drop us at the Pennsylvania border, maybe we can get a little further in than the border, but unlikely." Jackson said, like he'd done it all before. Grace nodded, "And we'll go from there." she said, smiling at Jackson, who was looking away again. Nobody spoke again, until they reached the city. Grace pointed out an empty cab, parked at the side of the road. "Sage? You think you can work some charmspeak on the driver?" She asked. Sage pursed her lips but nodded, she hated using her charmspeak on anyone. Especially mortals, but there was no other choice. Grace and Jackson stopped at the edge of the sidewalk, and Sage knocked on the window of the cab. Grace couldn't hear what she was saying, but she could see Sage talking, and the cab driver nodding along. Grace turned to Jackson, "Hi." she said, smiling. Jackson looked up, but he didn't smile. He simply nodded hello, looking back down at the concrete. "I don't know you really well." Grace said, "Your and Ares kid, your name is Jackson, your 15, that's about all I know." Jackson looked up again, "Maybe that's all I want you to know." he said gruffly. Grace frowned, "Ok then..." she looked back to Sage, who grinned and waved them over. "Sage got us a ride." Grace said to Jackson, before walking towards the daughter of Aphrodite. "Hop in, I've secured us a ride to Pennsylvania." Sage said, sitting down in the front passenger seat of the cab. Grace opened the car door, and sat down, holding her backpack on her lap. Jackson sat beside her, and looked out the window, saying nothing. Grace set her bag on the car floor, at her feet, and pulled a pad of paper and a pen out of the main pocket. She flipped through the book, until she found a specific page. She absent mindedly began to sketch out an apple, and after a few minutes of drawing and shading, she realized Jackson was looking over her shoulder, watching her draw. She looked up at him, raised an eyebrow. "Your staring-" she said quietly. "No! I was just watching you draw- its nice-" Jackson said, clearly embarrassed that Grace had caught him. Grace laughed softly, "Thanks." she said. Jackson looked down at the drawing again and sighed softly, "Sorry about earlier." he said. Grace tilted her head, in confusion. "What do you mean?" she asked. "I was being rude. You asked about me and I responded without thinking. Its an Ares thing I think-" he said. Grace smiled, "It's alright, I don't mind. I've been told worse things." she said. Jackson almost smiled, but didn't say anything more. Grace turned to face the window, watching the city go by. "Progress has been made. Not much, but a little is better than none at all." she said softly. Sage turned around and gave Grace a weird look. "Talking to yourself?" she asked with a hint of amusement in her voice. The tips of Grace's ears turned pink, and she didn't respond. Sage laughed softly and turned back around. Grace sighed, note to self. Don't say things out loud, Sage has scary good hearing, she thought to herself. She leaned back into the seat, and fell asleep.

I said the chapters would get longer, and I was successful this time. Hopefully the longer chapter wasn't boring- I hope your enjoying the story so far! I know I am :) -Sparks