Men and Directions

I wanted to write another Percy Jackson fic. So I did.

For the record, I totally made up state route numbers and the like. I have no idea what New York looks like.

Disclaimer: If I were Rick Riordan, I'd have a book coming out in… *checks* …FIFTEEN DAYS. OMG.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare got two days off every year, plus holidays.

Her choice of escape? The mall. (Hey, she was a teenage girl now, and she would be frivolous while she still could.)

Of course, right before she left, Chiron just had to call her back to the Big House, because Apollo just had to insist that Rachel had to have an escort. (He was really showing a lot more investment in his Oracle as of late, after what happened to the last one.)

And Annabeth Chase volunteered.

Now, it wasn't that Rachel didn't like Annabeth. In fact, they'd gotten to be almost inseparable over the last year. Who'd've thunk, right? It was that Annabeth invited Percy.

Now, it wasn't that Rachel didn't like Percy. Once she'd gotten over the whole no-romance-for-the-rest-of-forever thing, she'd become very comfortable with Percy as a friend. But Percy plus Annabeth got… well, annoying.

But! Those thoughts could wait, because Rachel Elizabeth Dare had a fat paycheck (thank you, godly bosses) and it was burning a hole in her pocket.

Annabeth got clearance to borrow a camp van, and Rachel hopped in, her insides churning with the desire to vacate the premises, ASAP. The girls spent most of the ride preparing themselves for the sticky glory of Cinnabon and debating which would weigh more, their bags or the roll.

Annabeth's phone rang, and she tossed it at Rachel. "I can't answer it! I'm driving!" Rachel rolled her eyes at her pragmatism and answered the call.

"Hello, Percy."

"Red? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth let out a giggle.

"Not you too!" Percy groaned.

Rachel smirked. "What do you want?" she reverted back to the original order of business.

"Oh, right. I'm taking Blackjack over to my mom's to pick up some stuff, and then I'll take the car up 48. Meet you at the food court?"

"It's like you read our minds," Rachel agreed, hanging up the phone without a farewell salutation, as she always did.

"Where is he?" Annabeth asked.

"He's going back home for some stuff, and then he'll take 48."

"That's totally dumb. He should take 725, like us. Much faster."

"You're the daughter of Athena," Rachel consented, knowing how tedious an argument with Annabeth over traffic patterns would be.

Nearing the intersection of 48 and 725, Annabeth went into the left turn lane. Rachel's eyes wandered, and then she noticed Percy in the right turn lane to their right.

"Hey, what's he doing?" Rachel elbowed Annabeth.

"What is he doing?" Annabeth tossed Rachel the phone, and Rachel called Percy again.

"Hey, what's up? I'm almost there."

"No, you're not," Rachel countered. "You're about to turn onto the wrong street."

"What the – Are you a traffic copter now as well as an oracle?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Look, just go straight; if you go right, it takes you west into the slums."

Percy scoffed. "No, it doesn't."

"Yes, it does."

"I'll bet you fifty bucks I get to the mall faster than you."

"Dude, it is so on."

Annabeth turned left, now planning with Rachel how best to spend their upcoming windfall.

An hour later, Rachel and Annabeth were nursing aching, Cinnabon-filled stomachs with banana and strawberry-kiwi smoothies, respectively, when Percy finally trudged up to them, fifty bucks in hand.

Nice try, Captain Navigation. Maybe next time you should ask Aphrodite for directions. *buuuuurn*