I'VE GOT A COMPETITION IN SIX DAYS. And we just finished out show...Friday. Yay.
So I could tell you all to wish me luck and tell me how awesome I am, I wrote this.
That's the only reason though. Not because I'm in love with Nathan or anything...
As far as bathrooms go, the one at Such-and-Such High School (Cass's eyes had glazed over once Rozzie and Lex had started to gibber about such details that meant next to nothing to her) was unimpressive.
And Cass thought that Nico looked far too comfortable sitting on the sink in a girls' bathroom.
He just sat, joining in on the conversation now and then, rather pointedly ignoring Karson's glares, which were becoming more and more frequent and less and less civil. "Do you remember when you dared Jordan to eat that slug?" he said suddenly, like they were old friends. They might have been, considering that Cass understood just about nothing that was going on.
Yay.
"And she did it?" Lex said, smiling as she remembered. "I got it on video." She was tugging at her bun in the mirror, trying to get her hair tie out of the tangle of knots that made its living as her hair. She seemed to finally realize that it was just too big to be allowed and was slowly working it back to its normal, if not somewhat bushy, size. The process basically included ripping knots out with her fingers, and something her hair came out with it, so she was just holding a little tangled ball of fluff in her hand. She didn't seem to mind. "Ari and I made a movie out it." She grinned.
There was the mysterious Ari again.
Cass looked up sharply, opened her mouth, and took a breath, but, probably due to the three Mountain Dews she had previously consume, Lex began to gabble before she had a chance to start her interrogation.
Karson was a less social alternative to the enthusiastic conversation going on, but Ella was sitting on the disgusting floor next to her feet, singing her cleverly parodied songs about how much Karson loved Nico (which is not how it seemed to Cass) and constantly untying her shoes, just because she could.
Which left Cass with Nathan.
Which they both viewed as a problem.
Nathan, on his part, seemed relaxed, lying back against a stall with a piece of grass sticking out of his mouth, tapping his foot in the air, in time with some song that only existed in his head. But Cass just knew that inside, he was disgusted by the fact he had to be within ten feet of her. Sharing the same air. He was probably thinking about her pit stains, or how bad her hair looked, or that big red mark on her face from Rozzie slamming her into the window of her car. Maybe even taking up on Ella's astonishing ability to parody songs to make something up about how much he hated Cass Hart.
She could only hope is what anything other than country. She could stand being insulted. But not if it was a wannabe cowboy doing the insulting.
On her side, Cass was about as uncomfortable as she had been when Lora was spitting rapid-fire pop culture references at her while they ate cookies shaped like zombie bunnies with their heads on crooked. Except for the fact that it was about ten times worse.
In other words, she was miserable.
Not to mention that Ella Grace kept shooting her looks that Cass found confusing. Like she was waiting for one of them to explode. Either Nathan from hatred, of Cass from unease.
That seemed like the kind of thing Ella would enjoy.
But Cass was too inwardly invested to notice that it wasn't only Ella doing the look-shooting at the two of them. Nico and Karson were certainly shooting their fair share, and after a short bit of gossip in Lex's ear, her and Rozzie felt the need to join in.
It was the overwhelming silence that finally broke through Cass's thoughts and made her look around at them all. "What?" she demanded.
Nathan snorted.
And everyone hurriedly went back to his or her own discussions. Or glares, in Karson's case.
Cass looked at her reluctant companion. "What?" she asked again.
He glanced at her, eyebrow raised, and said nothing.
Oh, how she would grow to hate that stupid eyebrow and it's ability to rise.
Before she could make Ella's day and explode, the door opened and Jordan walked into the bathroom with whoever Ari was supposed to be.
Regardless of what Cass had expected, Ari was a wholly un-mysterious looking person. She was tall, especially compared to Jordan and the even shorted Lex. But really, she was tall for anyone. She had long, wavy brown hair and very large, expressive eyes. Cass coldn't tell what color they were, because they seemed to change from blue to green and back again. She was wearing a Hogwarts P.E. t-shirt under a maroon hoodie, and Cass couldn't tell whether she was tan or pale either, because her face in its entirety was painted dark blue. "'Sup?" she asked with a wave and a laugh.
Everyone was quiet.
Then Ella did her job and filled it. "You're blue! I love blue!" She darted up from the floor and grabbed Ari's face, her palms coming away covered in blue and Ari's cheeks having a lack of paint in curiously hand-shaped spots.
"I am blue. That is correct." Ari looked spectacularly un-bemused, which made Cass nearly give into the urge to slap.
It would have been more out of frustration at her lack of control than her irritation at the tall girls lack of Just-Met-the Grace's syndrome.
But before she could decide which road to take, Ari sat down, cross-legged, in the middle of the circle the group of demigods had made, which seemed a little attention-grabby to Cass.
"So," she said, rubbing her hands together as Cass looked at her. "Let's get started."
The amnesiac looked at her blankly. "Get started on what?"
Ari's shoulders drooped. She turned around to look at Rozzie. "Didn't you tell them?" she accused. "I don't usually do the explaining."
Jordan grinned at her. "Does it mess with your cosmic balance?"
"Not any more than you do, I'm sure," quipped Lex.
Rozzie opened her mouth to tell her that, yes, they had been told. Then she snapped her mouth shut. "Nope," she said sheepishly, remembering. In her excitement at having thought of Ari in the first place, she'd forgotten to inform anyone of why she was important.
Nico saved her. "Ari's a psychic."
Ari grinned. Ella grinned. Nathan grinned. Rozzie grinned.
Cass didn't feel like grinning. "Excuse me?"
"I'm a psychic," Ari repeated. "An awesome person with copious amounts of sensitivity to the future. I also make really excellent music playlists."
Lex hurried to agree. "Her musical taste is almost as good as my own."
Karson looked at Rozzie, whom she already harbored a strong dislike for. "A psychic."
"Yep."
"And I'm the queen of England."
Lex gasped in the corner and went into a low bow that looked like it hurt. "Your Majesty."
Jordan thumped her on the head. After dodging Lex's return hit, she looked at Cass, her head on her friend's head to keep her from further attacking. "It's true."
"True!" said Lex, straightening suddenly and kicking Jordan in the shin. "I win," she said flatly.
Rubbing her shin, Jordan had to agree. For now.
The proclaimed psychic sighed. "You'd think in a world with gods and monsters and even an Oracle, you'd be a little more receptive to the 'impossible,'" she said, using finger quotes. "You're the daughter of a god, after all."
Warily, Cass opened her mouth to say something in her defense, but Ari just held up a finger for her to be quiet. That seemed to be happening to Cass a lot lately. "Poseidon, specifically."
She didn't notice Cass's frown, because that was new information to her. Or, at least, new since she woke up with that cat in the alley.
"Your mom lives in Massachusetts, no?" she continued. "Or she did. She died a while ago, didn't she." It wasn't a question. Her voice was casual. She saw no need to beat around the bush if Cass herself no longer cared about her own mothers' death. "Also, you detest cabbage but you like Brussels sprouts, which is weird. And you like watching football on the television, but you can't stand watching baseball. And, last but not least, you love..." she paused in the middle of her rant, as if something suddenly occurred to her. "A boy," she finished unimpressively. "You met him at a fast food place and said something about him being gay."
Nathan snorted again, and Nico allowed himself a little smile.
"Uh..." was all Cass could manage, and Ari made a flippant gesture.
"Is that enough proof for you?" she asked.
"No," said her victim at length. "Considering I have no idea if any of those things are true or not."
"Oh, right." Ari blinked. "The amnesia."
Rozzie stopped her before she could freak out the poor girl anymore. "That's what we need help with," she said hurriedly. "We need to know more about why she can't remember anything."
The tall girl looked from Rozzie to Cass. "Hmm..." she blinked. "That's tough." She squinted, leaning closer to Cass. Putting her hand on the other girls shoulder. Getting altogether too close. "It's all blocked off." Then she knocked on the girl's forehead. "Nothing getting through there."
"You're popping my bubble," murmured Cass, but the girl ignored her.
Ari was uncomfortably close, and her big eyes were peering into her soul. Blue. Green. Blue. Green. And back again. Cass shivered. The brunette was silent for a while, her eyes flicking around Cass's face like she was reading something, like the pages of a book. Maybe she was. "Someone took them," she said finally.
"Well, I got that much," Cass snapped. This was pointless. If she could rip herself away from the crazy girl's touch without slamming her hand in to the bathroom stall behind her, she would. She considered doing it even with the stall, but decided it would be useless and only make her look like an idiot and give her a headache.
She was getting enough of those without banging her head into things.
The psychic wasn't bothered. "No, that's not right..." she said slowly. She frowned. "You offered them."
Thinking back to her conversation with Nathan's mom, she realized that was more along the lines of what she'd been told. "As a price," she remembered. "But what did I get in return?"
"What do you think you got?"
Cass frowned. "I don't know. I don't have anything." And it was kind of true. Not to mention pathetic. She wondered if she had anything before. Nathan probably knew. Not that he would feel the need to tell her, what with him hating her and all. He probably found her lack of memories hilarious. Like Ella did.
Ari looked at her closer. Any closer than they were already, and they would be touching noses. "It's fuzzy. Someone's hiding it from me." Then she looked over at Rozzie. "This might be more your area than mine."
Her friend blinked. "Huh?"
"This had your little dealmaker written all over it."
Rozzie paled. "Oh."
"Who?" asked Nathan.
Cass jumped. It was the first thing he'd said since they'd gotten in there.
But Rozzie just waved her hand in dismissal. "Tell you later," she said snippily. Nico looked over at her, worried, and whispered something in her ear.
In response, she just tensed up considerably and refused to look at him. Whatever question he'd asked, he took that as an answer in the affirmative. His face grew dark.
"Fine," snapped Cass. "But what did I get in return?" To be honest, that wasn't one of the questions that she had really considered after her little chat with a goddess. But now that it'd been brought to her attention, it burned in her mind like a fire.
Like, for real. Her head started to pound.
"Excuse me," said Ari politely before grabbing Cass's face and squishing her cheeks together. She twisted her victims face this way and that, like maybe her ear held all the answers she desired.
Then she sat back. "All I can get is that you offered them willing for the chance at changing...something..." Ari seemed irritated at her lack of detail. "Like, to change the future."
"I wanted to change the future?"
"Hopefully you still do," said Ari reasonably. "Or else it would have been kind of pointless."
Cass could give her that.
Nathan opened his mouth to ask Rozzie more about this dealmaker, but Ari started talking before he got a chance. "Nico?"
"Hmmm?" he asked, distracted.
"You and Rozzie need to get going on whatever it is you're doing. Your window of opportunity won't last must longer."
Rozzie and Nico looked at each other, and then slowly turned to look at Karson, a little guiltily.
Karson, who had been shooting them evil looks and thus being studiously ignored, seemed surprised when they turned towards her. "What?" she demanded.
"Well..." Rozzie said, and for a moment Cass thought she was actually going to explain something, which would have been a rare thing indeed.
But once again, Ari got there first. "And Rozzie...?"
The shorter girl looked at her.
Ari's face was sad. "You won't last much longer."
Rozzie paled. "But..."
The look that Ari gave her was final. "If you don't do something, this will end."
Obviously, Cass had no idea what was going on. When did she ever? But at least in this case no one else did either.
Nathan broke the silence. "Got any words of wisdom for me?" he asked with a grin.
"Yeah," said Lex with a grin of her own. She'd ducked into a stall to change into something less ridiculous, so her color guard uniform had been replaced by jeans, Chuck's, and a t-shirt for some band Cass had never heard of. "Don't use the vending machine on this floor. The chewy Sweetarts always get stuck."
Jordan rolled her eyes. "Why aren't you ever serious? You're like, anti-serious."
"My idiocy is one of my many charms."
Ignoring her friends in their corner, Ari looked at Nathan. "Words of wisdom?"
"Sure."
"You should get your sword ready."
The ground rumbled.
Ella and Lex both said, "Yes!" like that was their cue to be awesome. Lex reached under the sink and brought out two things: a shining hand held battle-axe and a long wooden staff. "This is my favorite part," she confided in Jordan.
The blonde was buckling a sword and its scabbard to her hip. "Come on, Lumberjack." Jordan but her arm around Lex's shoulders and dragged her out into the hallway.
"I am not a lumberjack!" she wailed, waving her weapon in the air and slinging the staff onto her back. "It's a battle-axe! You don't chop trees with a battle-axe."
"Should we follow?" asked Karson uncertainly. "I mean...are they even demigods?"
"They can take care of themselves," said Ari reaching into the bag she'd brought in with her. Something wailed outside, but was abruptly cut off.
Cass assumed it had been Lex, because she promptly screamed, "TWO POINTS!"
"Maybe we should..." she started, but Ari seemed to have a thing for interrupting unimportantly things.
Because she brought out a crossbow suddenly, loaded a bolt, slung her bag over her shoulder, and left without a word.
Leaving Nico, Rozzie, Karson, and Cass to feel like idiots sitting in a girl's bathroom for no reason.
Ella and Nathan were unfazed. "Well, don't just sit there," said Ella, hopping up from her seat. Shadows seemed to reach for her as she walked out of the room. She looked over her shoulder. "If I kill whatever it is in a really awesome way, will you buy that hotdog?" she asked her brother.
He stood and dusted off his pants. "Only if you beat me to it."
She considered. "Challenge accepted." And they both left.
"Are they always like this?" demanded Cass angrily.
Karson thoughts for a moment. "More or less."
"But usually they compete over tacos," added Nico. "The hotdog is a nice change."
And with that, it was unanimously decided that the Grace siblings were crazy and they all followed after them off into battle.
TELL ME HOW I AWESOME I AM!
Quick! I'm dying from low self-esteem!
Plus, reviewing is just a super nice thing to do. ;)
