Now,NewYorkisaprettyunusualplace,especiallyifyou'reademigod. I was thinking random thoughts like so as I walked down the crowded side-walk towards the empire state building. I wasn't paying attention, so of course being me, I crashed into someone. And this someone happened to be a very attractive teenage boy. I sighed as I tried getting up off of the hard cement ground, but the boy stuck out his hand to help me up. I blushed, taking his hand as he pulled me up. I smiled apologetically.
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." I said, trying to not blush again.
"Its ok neither was i." he said, smiling at me. I ran my hands through my light brown hair, looking down at my scuffed Nike sneakers.
"Uh, ill go." I said, starting to walk past the boy. His voice stopped me mid-step.
"Hey, what's your name?" he called. I smiled and turned back around.
"Missy- uh, Melissa Cos." I said, the blood rushing to my face when I accidentally said my nickname. He stuck his hand out and smiled.
"Carter Kane, nice to meet you Melissa Cos." I shook his hand, he had a firm grip.
"So uh …" I said, putting my hand back to my side.
"Yeah, uh, I was just walking around, never been here before. Wanna get something to eat?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck. I smirked.
"Id love to get something to eat." I said, leading him through the crowd towards one of the best delis I'd ever been to.
Now, I know it was stupid getting a mortal in danger, being a demigod and all. But im just a daughter of Hermes, nothing special. What could go wrong? Well, im not just another daughter of Hermes, im the only Hermes kid since Luke that has the ability to umm … not 'hover' but I can … I guess lets just call it air walking. It's good for when you're pulling a prank and want to be silent. We ordered our food, gave the waitress our names and found a table to sit. We sat across from each other at the two person table, and chatted about nothing really. Weather, School (that one was hard to avoid) and all of that crap. We talked until the waitress came with our food, then we started to eat. One question popped into my mind, remembering something Carter had said earlier.
"So uh, you said you've never been in Manhattan before, but you seem to know your way around. Why is that?" I asked, taking a sip of my coke. Yum, real coke with real caffeine. He thought about his response for a moment before speaking.
"Well, I live in Brooklyn with my sister, Sadie." He explained.
"So you've just never bothered to cross the river?" I asked sceptically. We finished our food, left a tip and left the deli. We walked down towards the empire state building, which made me nervous. The amount of monsters that gathered there was frightening, especially when with a mortal. As we neared the building, he answered me.
"Well, see, its hard to explain. Ive got this really ah, protective uncle and he doesn't want us sneaking around, or leaving Brooklyn." He said.
"So how did you get here? Field trip?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer. He grinned all the way up to his soft liquid brown eyes and looked down at me (I know im short ok?).
"Nah, it's this little thing that I do called escaping." He said, laughing some. I could clearly see the empire state building up ahead, even for me the mist was making my vision hazy. An omega barely visible above the main doors.
"I know how to escape, why do you think im here?" I said, laughing. "And uh, let's go this way." I said quickly, grabbing his wrist and pulling Carter towards the closest side street that would lead us away from the empire state building. He chuckled.
"What? Don't like the empire state building or something?" he asked in a joking tone. If only he knew how un-funny that really was.
"Uh …." I said, or something intelligent like that. He cocked his head to the side in an incredibly cute way.
"Just some ah, bad experiences there." I lied quickly. Thank the gods for that ability being a child of Hermes.
"Thanks dad." I muttered quietly.
"What was that?" asked Carter.
"Nothing." I replied, smiling.
"Ah … I have a question …" he said.
"Shoot." I said, not expecting anything bad.
"What do you know about Egyptian mythology?" he asked, looking straight ahead. I laughed.
"Im more of a Greek mythology person. Why?"
"Oh I was just wondering. Tell me something I wont know about Greek mythology." He said, smiling.
"Hmm … well, lots of people don't know that Lord Hermes's Roman counterpart is Mercury." I said it so quickly I didn't have to time catch the 'Lord Hermes' part. I really hope he didn't hear that …
"Lord Hermes … you say that like you know him." He said, laughing a bit. I laughed nervously, trying to cover it up.
"Uh, yeah … I guess you could say that." I replied.
I swear Chiron has the worst timing of anyone ive ever met. I say this because just as things were getting back to normal with Carter, my gods damn watch rings. Watch rings? I know what you're thinking. Crazy, right? Well, since the last titan war, Chiron had the Hephaestus cabin invent these watches that are communication devices, and gave them to all the campers. Carter looked at my watch funny, and I started cursing under my breath in ancient Greek.
"Uh, you might wanna answer your watch." He pointed out. Oh how clever of him. I gave him a nervous smile and took a few steps away. I clicked the receive button, and was met by Chiron's yelling. Well it's about time.
"Missy! Where are you we've looked everywhere!" said the old centaur. I sighed.
"Im in Manhattan, don't worry. Ill be back by dinner, just going to visit my dad." I said, rolling my eyes.
"I did not give you permission to leave camp!" he argued.
"Since when am I a toddler?" I asked incredulously.
"You aren't, but there's a situation. Where are you?" he asked, when he said 'a situation' I knew this was urgent.
"Im near the empire state building, why?" I asked quickly.
"Group of hellhounds and Empousai found an Apollo camper, and he needs help." I he replied.
"Which camper?"
"Will solace." I snorted.
"William Solace needs help? Since when?" I said, trying not to laugh.
"Just get there and help him! He's near the entrance of Olympus." He said.
"Kay." I said, sighing and clicking the button on my watch. I looked around, and walked quickly back towards Carter.
"Can you wait here for a minute? My uh, dad needs me to do him a favour. It'll only take a few minutes im sure." I said exasperated like I was really annoyed with my dad, well, Iwas annoyed, but with Chiron.
"Oh. Kay." He said, giving me a small smile. He leaned back against the glass front of a store. I walked quickly until I was out of sight, and then I ran, ripping out my bobby pin (otherwise known as my hunting knife). When I approached the scene, I knew exactly what was going down: Will Solace was outnumbered. Once he saw me, he sighed in relief, and then put an annoyed face on.
"Ugh, they sent you?" he asked while fighting off an empousai. I decided to be difficult. I slowed down to a leisurely walk and made a face,
"What? don't want any help? Fine, I'll just g-"
"No! Sorry, I need help." He grunted after slicing an empousai in two.
"You better be sorry, you ruined my date," I grumbled as my hunting knife formed in my hand and I ran towards the battle.
It wasn't an over drastic fight, being that once there were two of us, we took down the monsters in a matter of minutes, but minutes took me away from Carter. When I heard his voice, I didn't even think about replying.
"Melissa is there something you're not telling me?" he asked, suddenly beside me with some strange curved boomerang like thing in his right hand, and a satchel slung across his back.
"What? No, of course not!" I said quickly without thinking about why he was standing beside me. Just as Will slashed through the last hellhound, he froze and turned towards Carter.
"Uh, who are you?" he asked nervously. I face-palmed and groaned. How could I have been so stupid?
"Um, Carter, this is my friend Will. Will, this is Carter Kane," I said awkwardly as I tried to figure out what the hell he was holding and where his satchel had come from.
"Hi Will. Now, if this isn't too imposing, why were you guys fighting giant dogs?" he asked, giving me a weird look.
"Carter, what do you know about Greek mythology?" I asked him, a grimace playing on my lips.
…
"So what you're telling me is that the Greek gods are real, and alive today in New York?" he asked, but it sounded more like he was making sure that he'd heard correctly.
"Well, yes." I sighed and rested my forehead on my arms which were resting on a table in a secluded corner of a coffee shop. The hostess lady had given us a dirty look when we'd asked for a table in the back, but whatever. It's not like that's the worst thing I've ever asked a hostess for while running into a restaurant. Ever asked one for a pot, or frying pan, or really anything that could be used to hit something in the head with? Yeah, I'm not allowed back in there anymore. Whatever.
"Ok, and you're also telling me that you're dad is Hermes, the god of travellers. Right?" he inquired.
"Yes!" I practically shouted, growing slightly frustrated with all of Carter's questions.
"Ok, ok, ok!" he said defensively.
"Anything else you want to ask, Mr. Twenty Questions?" I asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, just one. Know anything about the Egyptian gods?"
"Uh, no. not really. There's Ra, the god of the sun or something, then Osiris is the god of the dead?" I asked tiredly, sitting back against my chair. At the mention of Osiris his expression went a little sad, but then went back to normal.
"Well, it's a little more complicated then that, but yes, let's just go with that. So, have you ever questioned whether any other group of Gods were still alive today, I mean, other then just Greek? It makes sense, doesn't it?" he asked like he was waiting for something to click in my brain. And then it did.
"Omigods!" I shouted, and then slapped a hand over my mouth after getting dirty looks from the other customers, "The Egyptian gods are real too?" I whispered to Carter. He gave me a small grin and nodded,
"Yeah, except they're a little meaner then what you've told me about the Greek gods," he told me. I shrugged and let out a small laugh. Wow, I really like this kid. Not in like the, like-like way, but yenno, like a friend I guess?
"So, are you like, a demigod too?" I asked. He laughed for a few good minutes before finally calming down enough to respond,
"No, ah, sorry. That was really funny. My family is descended from The Great Pharaohs of Egypt, so my uh… uncle, my sister, and I have magic powers," he said quietly at the end, not laughing anymore. I liked his laugh.
"What about you're uh, parents? If you don't mind me asking,"
"Well, my mom she uh, she died around eight years ago. And my dad, well, that's a bit of a long story. Let's just say he's now the Gods Osiris," he told me quietly, looking down at his hands which were crossed on the table in front of him.
"Oh, I didn't mean to … uh…" I said awkwardly, trying to find the right words.
"No, it's alright. So uh, what do we do next?"
"I don't know. I can't exactly bring you to meet my dad…" I said, trying to make a joke, and it looks like it worked because he gave me a small smile.
"Well, have you ever wanted to meet a fourteen year old girl who think's she's British?"
"Uh, no…?" I asked, unsure of how to answer,
"Well, then let's go meet my sister, Sadie," he said, standing up from his chair and smiling down at me.