Devin's POV:
After watching a few reruns of Spiderman with my sister, and brushing my teeth about twenty times, I slipped down the dark hallway to my 'for-now' bedroom, as my Uncles called it.
I slid the door open, and was washed in darkness. The room's walls were covered in pasty black paint, and the lava lamp on the black metal desk brightened up the room so I could see a black-sheeted bed, a dresser, a bookshelf, a laptop on the bed, and a flimsy poster that hung against the wall by only two pieces of scotch tape.
I quietly strolled into the room, and slipped my t-shirt over my head, and onto the floor. My shirt rumpled up beside the bed, as I slipped under the warm comforter. I flipped off the lava lamp, and whispered, "Nighty night."
Now, since I was a tri-blood, dreams were even more important than a demigod's. So, for example, if you dreamt of receiving an iPad for Christmas, 90% out of 100, you'd end up finding one in your overfilled stocking. And, if you had a dream of somebody falling out of a tree, you'll wake up with a broken arm. Awesome how dreams work, right?
My dream started out with my sister. She was standing next to one of her best friends, Morgan, granddaughter of Nike and Athena. Morgan and Tam were laughing about something, when a guy walked in front of them. He had brown hair and light green eyes. He gave my sister a lopsided grin, as he said something that made her laugh hysterically.
When I realized the guy was just another lovesick mortal, I'd mentally rolled my eyes. Morgan and Tam got most of the guys' eyes, because, as my friends had stated, 'Tam has a hot ass'. I'd punched my friend in the face for that comment, because his eyes should've been averted away from the lower and mid region of my sister. Don't worry about him; all he suffered were a few bruises and a broken heart of his fantasy love life with my little sister.
The guy chatted my sister up, then said, "My name's Tony Rad. My dad used to be friends with yours. Ask him if Brad Rad rings a bell."
Tam smiled, and said, "Okay, Tony. My dad said your dad was a… magician, right?"
"Oh… Yeah! A magician! My dad loves magic! That's what being a son of Hecate can do to you. But, being a grandson is so much worse!" He smiled slyly as he pulled something from his sleeve. A bouquet of real red roses with spiky thorns, was in Tony's grasp. He handed them to my sister, and said, "Oh, and, mind the thorns. They could prick you. But, I do know some healing magic."
"Cool, thanks. This is like, totally awesome," my sister grinned.
Morgan nudged Tam in with her elbow, saying, "Dude, why can't I get a guy like that? You are so frickin' lucky." Tam just shrugged in reply, while Morgan ran off to find her cousins for a bit of friendly sparring.
Tony turned toward my sister, and said, "Ya know, there's this awesome party a couple miles away from camp. Wanna ditch?"
My sister hesitated. Thank the gods of Olympus she was taking this seriously! But, just like that, I could hear Jake Stoll shout from behind me, "Tam, what are you doing hanging out with that loser? C'mon! You're gonna miss me kick Clarisse's butt in sword-fighting!" The moment Jake spoke, my sister abruptly turned away, and she smiled at Tony.
"Let's get the Hades out of here," Tam uttered darkly.
Tam's POV:
I sat in my room, my blue laptop positioned on the corner of my bed, while I plugged my MP3 into my ear buds. My ear drums exploded into a wild assortment of beats, and lyrics pooled through my ear canals, into my body, into my mind. The words escaped my mouth, as if I knew the lyrics by heart, which I guess I sort of did:
"Are you out there, where the rainy days began
To feel rather sad, and the walls are closing in like the darkness around me
It's so hard to look away, when the daylight doesn't ever stay,
Above this dull apartment view, oh I will surround you
It's quite clear that I'm stuck here,
So I'll devise a plan and cut out a door in my new living room floor
The porch light is so bright,
That I will quickly sneak down the dark metal shape of the rusty fire escape
I bought a one-way ticket, cause I knew I'd never see the ground
Unless I was aboard a jet plane, and we going down
When I wiped the tears from my eyes, the warm water took me by surprise
And, I woke up beside the ocean, I realized
I MUST BE IN CALIFORNIA!
Aloha, my happy West Coast Friends
Do you feel alive when the breaking waves arrive, and rush all around you
The beach homes in Oceanside are quite well-known by the evening tide
And we can sleep where we reside with redwoods around us
The blue air is up there and could I bring it down,
I'd bottle it up and save it for a sweet summer night
I bought a one-way ticket, cause I knew I'd never see the ground,
Unless I was aboard a jet plane and we were going down
When I wiped the tears from my eyes, the warm water took me by surprise
And I woke up beside the ocean, I realized
I Must Be In California!
Am I awake or is this just a dream?
The New Year is out here, and I will make a lovely list of your charms
So I'll never feel alone in your arms
I Must Be In California!"
The music subsided into endless chimes, guitar strums, and drum beats. I hummed silently to the fading chorus, as the singer occasionally sung, "I must be in California!" I smiled, and opened my laptop. I checked my Facebook first, gaining five new messages from Jake and Morgan.
Since using the computer had been the reason why I was in trouble in the first place, why the heck was I on it now? Because of boredom, duh!
Since the clock on my laptop said it was about 10:00, I shut it down. Then, I stood up, walked slowly toward my bed, and laid myself down on the fluffy comforter.
My dream started out like any other. I was sitting on a green bus bench, a newspaper on my lap. The sky was a hazy gray, and a big cloud of white fog was drifting up the street. For some odd reason, it was pouring sheets of rain, but I wasn't getting wet. I could feel the rain, but it didn't touch me. Does that make any sense?
To make the dream even weirder, something started to rush through the fog toward my paint-chipping bench. When the fog exploded into frigid air, the black figure clopped forward. A black-coated horse stood in the street, its coat glistening with slicked rain. Its raven hair spread around its neck, and its almond-shaped eyes were a deep, dark navy blue. Long, black feathery wings flapped along its sides, like a giant butterfly. Even through the pouring rain, I could see the tip of a long spiraling, pointed black stick sticking out of the horse's forehead. A horn. The horn on the horse was accented with gold and silver flowers, rubies and sapphires were encrusted in the expensive metals. The Pegasus-unicorn-horse-thingy cocked its slender snout toward me, its eyes daring me to step forward.
This was what always happened in the dream. There was always a horse, a really majestic Pegasus, with the horn of its ancestor, the Unicorn. And, it was always dressed in precious metals from the Underworld. I'd never understood the dream, but dreams weren't meant to be understood, anyways.
The horse's eyes were large, blue pools as it stared at me, from across the road. I wanted to stand, to reach out to it, but then I'd leave the shelter of the bench. And then, I'd get wet.
You might be thinking, Isn't that the point of rain? But, actually, this rain was enchanted. This rain was from a long time ago, when Uranus was killed. Ya know, Gaea's husband? The rain had this yellowish tint, because it was actually ichior. Uranus's blood was falling from the sky. Yeah, I thought it was gross, too.
The horse whinnied in impatience, as its polished silver hooves smacked the wet asphalt, cracking it. The horse was glaring through the rain, its tail swooshing swiftly. I stood up from the bench, and held the newspaper over my head. I took my first step. And then my second. And third.
By the time I'd taken about eight steps, the newspaper had a golden-ringed hole in it from the rain. Yeah, the rain was that powerful that it could burn things.
Since the newspaper was utterly worthless, I tossed it over my shoulder. I tugged my hood over my head, slowing advancing toward the horse. If horses could smirk, this one was. The horse's eyes slid toward my feet, as if he were anticipating my moves, like a chess master. The horse neighed, and took a couple steps forward. As did I.
When we were within arms-width apart, I slipped my hand out of my jean pocket, and placed it on the horse's snout.
And, just like that, something hit me.
No, something literally hit me!
I opened my eyes to see a white plush pillow obscuring my vision. I mentally groaned, and slid the soft white lump off my face. My brother stood in the doorway, doubled over, in giggles. I rolled my eyes, and chucked the pillow at my brother's head. "Devin, so not funny."
"Really? 'Cause I thought it was hilarious." Devin turned away on his heel, and called over his shoulder, "Hurry up and come downstairs!"
Slowly, I slipped from my bed onto the floor. I crawled down the hallway and stairs, just to bug Devin. When I'd entered the dining room and had sat down in one of the expensive mahogany chairs, Persephone came out with skeletal servants, each holding a black bowl.
A skeletal servant with army fatigues placed one of the bowls in front of me. Tiny puff-like shapes were drowning in creamy milk, along with mini marshmallows. I picked through my bowl, to eat the gooey pale puffs, first. Then, came the marshmallows. I'd found a green trident, a white skull, a yellow sun, a pink dove, an orange sledge-hammer, a multi-colored caduceus, a pretty peacock, a bunch of mini purple grapes, a pale bunch of wheat, a silver arrow, and a red bull head. To top it all off, a giant lightning bolt marshmallow zigzagged across my cereal. I loved Olympian Charms.
Devin ate plain wheat toast with strawberry jelly (doesn't he just make you want to smack him?), Uncle Nico had some leftover Papa John's pizza, Uncle Jared and Jason ate the same thing: eggs and bacon. The food was all enchanted, which made it okay for us to eat (remember the pomegranate seed Persephone ate?).
Hades was at the head of the table, guzzling some orange juice from his glass. Afterwards he wiped his mouth with his robe sleeve, which caused the souls in that place to stir into tortured cries. He gave me and my brother a smile, as he asked, "How'd you both sleep?"
"Uh… Great." We both said. We turned toward each other, and glared.
Uncle Jared and Nico shared a glance, like Yeah right.
Persephone took a seat beside me, and said, "Okay, girlie. What's the gossip upstairs? I've been down here for so long, even Aphrodite would be disappointed in my lack of knowledge of who's-dating-who."
I laughed, and said, "Okay. My friend, Morgan-"
"The granddaughter of Athena and Nike?"
"That's the one! Well, anyway, she's dating Bryce Telloney, the son of Hermes," I stated. "Also, Jake just broke up with his girlfriend, Jazzy. She's some Justin Bieber obsessed child of Apollo."
"My taking is you don't like her," My grandmother observed.
"Of course not! Also, Connor Stoll's kid, Callie, is dating some mortal guy named Nathan Lash. She said she was going to be his prom date, and that she'd send us tons of pics, but I mean, we need proof, so now she has to drag Nate to the camp when we have our dance-" I was interrupted by Devin's dramatic choking of his orange juice.
After Uncle Nico had patted Devin's back, Devin shouted, "A dance? Who said we were having a dance at camp?"
"Uh, Piper and Jason's daughter, Hayley? Her siblings are planning a Prom night for camp a couple weeks before the fireworks. Where were you when she told us about it?" I asked.
"I so totally wasn't playing videogames in the broom closet of the Big House with the other guys! Where did you hear such a thing?" Devin quickly rambled.
"I'm going to ignore everything you just said. Now, back to what I was saying before I was rudely interrupted! So-" Omigods! Stop interrupting me!
"Wait. Who are you going to the dance with?" Persephone asked, her brown eyes wide with excitement.
"Does it necessarily matter at this moment?"
"Yes! Of course it does!" Uncle Jared chimed in, his voice high and squeaky, I guess to imitate a girl's.
"Um…," I trailed off, racking my mind for someone without the first name Jake and last name Stoll.
"How about Tony Rad?" Devin asked, but he quickly slammed his hands over his mouth.
"Uh, who?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Nobody! Slip of the tongue!"
"Um, okay. Hmm… How about that Damon Thorn guy?" I asked. Everybody, even the skeletal servants, turned and stared at me like I'd just made my hand disappear before their very eyes.
"The Punishmenter?" Uncle Jason asked, his hazel eyes wide with surprise.
"Yeah. What's wrong about him?"
"Well… hmm… It could be the fact that he's dead! Oh, and, he's been damned to the Fields of Punishment for all eternity! That's the problem! Your father and mother would skin me alive if I let you date someone like Damon Thorn!" Uncle Jared blew up.
"Well, sorry for telling you all what I thought! Maybe, next time, I'll keep it to myself!" I shouted back.
Devin looked around at everyone's faces, and then said, "I'm going to go play with the hellhounds… maybe take a tour of the Underworld along the way. Tam? Wanna come?"
"Yeah. Let's go." I stated dismissively.
My brother and I walked out of the room, and slowly retreated down the dark cobblestones toward the hellhound kennels which had been moved outside of the palace.
Riley's POV:
I sat across from my youngest son, Derek. He had a stuffed satyr in his chubby hands, and he teethed on the satyr's fuzzy ear. I grabbed a bunch of baby blocks, and placed them in front of him. Derek gazed at them, then said, "Rwex. I want my rwex."
Our doorbell rang sharply. I stood and raced to the door, opening it all the way to see my sister, Annabeth, standing next to a six-month pregnant Thalia. Annabeth was carrying her youngest daughter on her shoulder, and Thalia was rubbing her tummy.
Annabeth's two oldest kids, Zach and Paul, both stood to the side with their younger sister. Annabeth and Thalia gave me hugs, as did my niece and nephews. I invited them in, and we sat down in the living room. The boys ran off to look at the display of monster mementos downstairs, and I stayed upstairs with the girls and babies.
Annabeth was explaining her architect job, as well as Percy's new job as a marine animal whisperer and horse whisperer. Thalia chimed in, saying she had been working at Olympus, helping Artemis with new weapon designs since she was no longer a Hunter. Also, Nico was working to become a defender of the Underworld gates, along with Jared and the new son of Hades, Jason.
Derek came over to me, and sat in my lap. Once he was sitting by me, he started to sing The Wheels On The Chariot.
"The Wheels On The Chariot Go Up and Down, Up and Down, Up and Down,
The Wheels On The Chariot Go Up and Down, All Through Olympus.
The Satyr On The Chariot Goes Munch, Munch, Munch, Munch, Munch, Munch, Munch, Munch, Munch,
The Satyr On The Chariot Goes Munch, Munch, Munch All Through Olympus.
The Minotaur On The Chariot Goes Rawr, Rawr, Rawr, Rawr, Rawr, Rawr, Rawr, Rawr, Rawr
The Minotaur On The Chariot Goes Rawr, Rawr, Rawr All Through Olympus!" Derek laughed as he clapped his hands.
"That's an… interesting song. Did you teach him that?" Thalia asked.
"No, and neither did Jesse. Devin thought it would be funny to teach his brother a song, and I told him it had to be rid of curses. So he made up this song." I stated.
"Well, it's brilliant. Ya know, Derek should sing it to Apollo." Annabeth laughed.
"Speaking of your other kids, where are they?" Thalia asked.
"Down in the Underworld for 'punishment'. But, I don't think it's necessarily helping. Tam and Devin actually have fun down there, since they can play with the monsters and hellhounds. And, Tam can maneuver herself anywhere. I bet she's given Hades' palace a makeover by now," I said.
"It's better than them going to camp. I don't think Mr. D would enjoy your kids anymore then mine." Annabeth replied.
"Well, Big Three's with the combined knowledge of Athena are pretty hard to compare towards. So you're right. We're so good, I even scare myself with my smarts."
Here's a Poem I found on my grandpa's dusty old bookshelf:
IV
Ode To Liberty
The nodding promontories, and blue isles,
And cloud-like mountains, and deciduous waves
Of Greece, basked glorious in the open smiles
Of favoring heaven; from their enchanted caves
Prophetic echoes flung dim melody.
On the inapprehensive wild
The vine, the corn, the olive mild,
Grew savage yet, to human use unrecognized;
And, like unfolded flowers beneath the sea,
Like the man's thought dark in the infant's brain,
Like aught that is which wraps what is to be,
Art's deathless dreams lay veiled by many a vein
Of Parian stone; and yet a speechless child,
Verse murmured
Her lidless eyes for thee; when o'er the Aegean main
I got this from a book and it said this was published in Prometheus Unbound. The author of the entire book was Percy Bysshe Shelley!
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, or West Coast Friendship. I do own Tony, Damon, Tam, Devin, Jake, blah, blah, blah! And, if you want, you can use Olympian Charms and The Wheels On The Chariot if you get my okay first! REVIEW!