gnossienne
n. the realisation that you didn't actually know someone as well as you thought you did
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'Look, I never wanted to be a half-blood.
Let's start from the top, shall we?
My name is Cassandra Jackson, but everyone usually calls me Ca...
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With some spare change from Ares' backpack, we took the bus into West Hollywood. Percy showed the driver the Underworld address slip we'd taken from Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium, but he'd never heard of a DOA Recording Studios. Figures.
"You two remind me of somebody I saw on TV." He waggled his finger between me and Percy. "You child actors or something?"
"We do a lot of stunt work for a few child actors." I told him, smiling sweetly.
He smiled back. "That explains it!"
Thanking him, we quickly got off at the next stop.
We wondered for miles on foot, looking for DOA. Nobody seemed to know where it was. It didn't appear in the phone book either.
Twice, we ducked into alleys to avoid cop cars.
Percy froze in front of an appliance store. In the window, a television played an interview with a very familiar face. Smelly Gabe was pulling the victim card, tears running down his face, crying how we had taken so much from him.
Grover pulled us both away before either of us could try and launch through the screen.
It soon got dark and hungry-looking characters started coming out on the streets to play. Now, I'm from New York and if we were back home, a scene like this wouldn't bother me. But L.A. was different. It had a chaotic feel to it all.
I didn't know how we were ever going to find the entrance to the Underworld by tomorrow, the summer solstice.
We continued walking past gang-bangers, bums and street hawkers, who looked at us like they were trying to figure if we were worth the trouble of mugging.
As we hurried past the entrance of an alley, a voice hissed out from the darkness, "Hey, you!"
Like an idiot, my brother stopped.
Before I knew it, we were surrounded. A gang of kids had circled us. Six of them - all white with expensive looking clothes and mean faces. Like the kids at Yancy Academy: rich brats playing at being bad boys.
Percy uncapped Riptide, instinctively. I pulled out my dagger, glaring at them all, keeping eye contact with at least one of them at all times.
The kids backed off at Percy's sword that appeared from thin air, but their leader was either really stupid or really brave, because he kept coming towards Percy with a switch blade.
Percy swung.
The kid yelled. He was a hundred percent mortal because the blade passed harmlessly right through his chest.
He lunged at Percy, switch blade ready to cause some serious damage. I pushed Percy out of the way and held up my dagger. His switch blade was pathetic in size compared to my dagger. Raising my leg, I kicked the leader in the stomach sending him crashing down into two other members of his little gang.
