Me and Nick helped get the car upright, mostly Nick though, he is a lot stronger than he looks, but he also used ice so that might help. But I just cringed in my head when I saw it, there was a big dent in the passenger's side of the car and dents in the roof, they were big and looked unfixable, and the inside of the car was full of napkins that fell out of the glove compartment. Now, I'm just 14 and I don't know a thing about cars, but it hurt to look at. But Piper looked fine, like nothing was wrong.
"Guess Leo will have to visit." She said calmly. I stared at her with wide eyes. "But, your car." I told her. But Piper just shrugged. "It's fine." She told me. But something bout her voice, it was different. Then I looked at the car, yeah it might look like crap, but it still runs, so it's absolutely fine, nothing is wrong with it. "You're right, it looks fine." I said. Piper just smiled. I then shook my head, I don't know what just happened, but Nick and Bethany were looking at me like I was nuts. They were giving me a face that said: What are you ding? I just looked at them ad shrugged my shoulders.
We then got in the car, but the back was messy, so me and Bethany sat in the middle row and let Nick sit in the front. But I was confused, why did I all the sudden think that the car was fine, it was bothering me a lot. But then my thoughts were interrupted. "The AC is down, could you fix that by any chance?" Piper asked Nick with a laugh. But Nick was sinking in his chair, he has really bad car sickness.
"He's not good with cars, give him a minute." Bethany said leaning forward. "Oh, okay I see what it is, never mind then buddy." She said patting his shoulders and laughing. He just nodded his head slowly. I felt bad for him, but it was pretty funny.
But after ten minutes of driving we arrived to a neighborhood, it was called Riverside. There were a lot of houses, ranging from all sizes, some were big and new, other were small and old. But she then pulled up to one of the big ones. It was a tan color and had a red roof, the grass was really green and there was a basketball goal in the driveway. But there were two people in the front yard, a man and a little girl. The little girl had tan skin with light brown hair, she looked part Indian, but not entirely. She had a small nose and blue eyes. She was wearing jeans and a pink shirt with a purple heart on it, it looked like she was seven to eight. But then the man next to her was another story. He was really tall and muscular, he had short blond hair and a matching beard, and he had sky blue eyes that were covered by a pair of golden glasses, it didn't match his built appearance but I sure wasn't going to judge. He was wearing a purple tank top that said SPQR and black athletic shorts, he looked like a surfer and a lumberjack morphed into one person. I'm assuming he was the little girls daughter, and maybe Piper's husband. But there were throwing a softball around, it looked like fun, wish dad did that with me.
But Piper just smiled and waved and pulled into the driveway. She then opened the garage and pulled into it the garage, but then I saw his car, and he became my idol instantly. He had a yellow charger with racing stripes, it looked awesome, chargers were my favorite car. "Welcome to my home." Piper said with a smile as she opened the door. I got out of the car, and was in awe by the garage.
It had a small wood workshop and tools lining the walls, and there was a picture on it. Two men, one was the guy outside, I'm assuming her husband.. His beard wasn't as big though, but next to him was a skinny guy. He had curly dark brown hair and a chin goatee, he was also wearing a simple white cotton three button shirt that had stains on it, he also had welding goggles strapped to his forehead. They two were building something and the frame read: Learning something new everyday. I then looked away from the workshop and to the other side, there was three bikes lining the walls, a black one, a yellow one, and a kid sized pink bike. And everything else seemed nice.
"Hey Pipes." I heard a deep voice say. I turned and saw the guy walking up to us. And the little girl was behind him. But he walked up and kissed Piper. "Ew!" The little girl said. But then Jason's eyes drifted to the car and then they went wide. He then let go and looked at it. "The car!" he said loudly. Piper then pulled him by his collar to her. "We'll call Leo, it's fine." She told him. Jason just nodded, they were probably going to talk about that later. But then he turned towards us.
"Hi, I'm Jason, I don't know what happened in the car, but I hope it didn't ruin your Georgia experience." Jason said with a weak smile. "Yes, this is my husband Jason." Piper said. I'm the only one going to say it, but this was officially awkward, I just wanted to sleep, and this lumbering 6'2 man was talking to us. But then I heard a cough from behind Jason. He moved and I saw the little girl. "Oh, and this is my daughter." Piper said. "Thalia Piper Grace, nice to meet you." She said in a high pitched voice. She was cute, but she was clearly spoiled, but not a brat, but clearly spoiled.
"How bout we go inside, Jason will bring your bags in." Piper said. Jason looked confused. "I will?" He asked Piper. Piper then shot him a look. "Yes you will." She said sternly. He then rolled his eyes and went to get our stuff, but Nick had his walking stick close to him, I still don't know why he likes that thing so much, but something for everybody.
We walked in through the garage to the kitchen, and it was super nice on the inside. The smell was vanilla and the floor was polished wood. The kitchen had black granite tops and it was also on top of the the appliances, I was in awe by everything.
I stepped in and a roomba hit my foot, but then turned and went somewhere else. But then over the breakfast bar I saw the living room. It was two couches connected and it was black leather, and next to the was a matching chair, and there was a huge TV, and right next to that was the stairs that went upstairs, I was in love. "You have a very nice house." Bethany said looking around. "Yeah, my dad donated half of his money from his latest movie to us." Piper said with a smile. "Who's your dad?" I asked her. "He's an actor, but don't ask anything else about him." Piper said, there was something about her voice, so I decided to back off. "Okay, so I know it's getting late, we have to extra rooms in the basement, Bethany will be staying in one and Nick and Johnny will stay in the other." Piper told us. "Sweet." I said. I was actually pretty happy, the bed is most likely better then my bed back at camp half-blood.
"So, Jason will get your bags down there soon, but you guys can chill in the big room downstairs or just go to sleep, but I need to do some paperwork for my job, so you guys just chill." Piper said. She then turned and walked up the stairs. I then turned and faced Bethany and Johnny. "So ,I'm going to look around, I don't care what you guys do but I'll be up here for a bit." I told them. "I'm chilling downstairs, see you." Nick said. "I'm to tired to look around, I'm there with you Jack." Bethany said. Her and Nick then walked to the basement door, leaving me in the kitchen.
But I then drifted to the living room, I was dying to look in there. But there was nothing that I didn't see earlier, except for a shelf full of pictures. One picture was of Piper and Jason. It was clear that it was their wedding picture, Piper was wearing a pretty white dress and was holding onto the arm of Jason, who was wearing a very nice suit. Piper had a huge smile on her face, like a kid at Christmas, and Jason was smiling, but he doesn't look like the smiling type so he had a slight smile, but it was the nonetheless. His face was also clean, no beard, I then noticed he had a small scar on his lip, fun fact of the day.
Then the next one way clearly the groomsmen and bridesmaid. They were wearing matching shirts and vests, and the ladies had on black dresses. I recognize some of the groomsmen, I saw Percy, Frank, and some other guys who must have been from camp Jupiter. One guy had a cup of some kind of red liquid.(I'm going to pray to the gods that it's kool-aid.) Another guy had black hair and was skinny and pale, but I think I recognized him, It's Nico, who used to stay at Half-blood. But then I saw the best man, it was that skinny guy again, he had a childlike smirk on his face, like I had a lot of the time. And on the Bridesmaid side I saw Hazel and Annabeth, Percy's wife. But that was all the ones I knew, not gonna lie, it made feel stupid that I didn't know anyone in the pictures except for like five people, but I digress.
I then drifted to the next picture, it was one of Piper and Jason, but I could tell that Piper was pregnant at the time, but her and Jason were still smiling. There wasn't anything else to important about the picture, so I went to the next one.
The next few pictures were of Thalia, when she was born, her first bike, and her first day at school. I smiled, I've always wondered what it would be like to have pictures of yourself put on walls by your parents, but I wouldn't know, Mom never liked having pictures of me on her wall or on her shelves, and I barely seen Dad.
"Hey mister." It scared the crap out of my, I was lost in thought and here comes Thalia, sneaking up behind me, or just normal walking and I didn't see her. "Ugh, hey Thalia Piper Grace." I said with a laugh. She smiled. "You're funny, but can you do me a favor?" She asked me. "I guess." I told her. She then pointed to the top of a very large fridge. I didn't know what she was talking about at first, but I turned and then I saw it. An iPad, sitting at the top, I assumed it was hers. But then I connected the dots in my head. "I don't know about that, your dad probably put it there for a good reason." I told her backing up. "Dad took it away because I got in trouble at school, but I didn't get in trouble at all this week, so I deserve it." She told me.
Then I thought about it, if Jason took it away because she got in trouble that's fine, but if she was good this week, then she should have it back. I then looked back up at it. "Yeah, I'll get it for you." I told her. Then I got on top of the counter and stood up, I wobbled a bit, but then I regained my balance, I then reached up and tried to grab the iPad. It was in the reach of my hand, almost got it.
"What are you doing?" I heard someone say behind me. I turned and saw Jason standing there, with three backpacks in his arms. "I umm, well I was getting Thalia her iPad..." I told him. I then realized that I was climbing on their counter tops, what was I doing? But then Jason turned to Thalia. "Did you do this?" He asked her. Thalia looked down, then slowly nodded her head. "You can't do that, now go to your room." Jason told her. She then walked away, leaving me very confused.
I then climbed down and stood in front of Jason. "Okay, I'm sorry but I am so incredibly confused, Piper did something like that to me today." I told him. He looked at me, not in a mean way, but an apologetic look. "It's called charmspeak. Piper has it and Thalia has it, it means that you can convince people to do anything, it's hard to resist, but I'm immune to it, if you're around them for long enough it loses the effect on you." Jason told me. "That explains everything." I told him. "Yeah, you're good, why don't you go downstairs, that's where bethany and Nick are. I need to talk with Thalia and then I'll bring your bags down. " He told me. But it sounded more like a demand, so I didn't argue and walked to the steps to the basement.
I walked to the door and opened it, the air must have been on because it felt like I got hit in the face with a gust of wind, but it was just the air conditioning. The steps were made of carpet, so I took off my shoes and socks and walked down the steps, the carpet felt nice on my feet. I walked down the stairs and saw it was like another living room, but with white fur couches. But Nick and Bethany looked like they were having fun. There was a TV and it had a Nintendo Switch, and Nick and Bethany were playing Mario-Kart 8. "And that's another win for Apollo." Bethany said. Nick just rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry that I've never played a video game." Nick said leaning back, but it looked like he was having fun.
"Hey guys." I said walking to them. "Oh, hey Johnny." Bethany said. "We've been waiting for you, what took so long?" Nick asked me. I was to embarrassed to say, so I just shrugged my shoulders. "Alright, well we need a game plan, because we're all still clueless." Nick told me. I then walked over and sat on the white fur couch it was super comfortable. I then leaned forward on my knees. "Well, none of us know what we're dealing with exactly, so how are we supposed to have a game plan?" I asked them. "I don't know, I don't know if you guys remember, but I'm new to this whole demigod thing, so I have no idea, I figured there would be something." Nick said.
But then I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, then I saw Jason walk down the steps with our bags. "Hey guys, the bedrooms are behind you guys, this one is for Bethany." Jason said putting a bag in one room. "And this is for you two." Jason said as he dropped off the other two bags. "Thanks." I told him. "Yeah man, but I'm going to bed, we'll wake you up tomorrow, have a good night." He said as he walked upstairs.
We all just kind of sat there, not sure what to do. Then Bethany stood up. "Well, game plan or not I'm tired after the 17 hour trip, so I'm going to bed, and you two should do the same thing." Bethany told us. Then without saying anything else, she walked over and picked up her bag, then walked in her room.
"Harsh." I said. Nick shrugged his shoulders. "She's right though, we should hit the hay." He said standing up and walking to the room. "Who says hit the hay anymore." I muttered under my breath. But I followed him and got my bag, then we both walked into the room.
It was a pretty nice room, but there wasn't much in it. Just two beds and an end table in between. The end table had a lamp that was turned on and an alarm clock, or just a clock. I was gonna change, but Nick just took his shoes off and got in. "You're not going to change?" I asked him. "Why would I?" He asked me. I forgot, he was homeless. But I was still changing. I took off my shirt, but I heard Nick gasp. "What happened?" He asked me.
I knew what he was talking about, my back was not pretty, it was covered with bruises and cuts from David, he's been beating on me for the past three years, so I have some scars. "It's just some scars." I told him as I got in my beds, but I wanted to end the conversation, I practically sank into the bed. "That looks bad, is that David?" He asked me. I like Nick, I do, if not for him I wouldn't be on this quest, but I didn't want to talk about it. "It's nothing Nick." I said sternly. I looked over at Nick, but he was just laying on his back looking up. "Look, if you don't stand up for yourself, it's not going to stop." He told me. "What about those two guys that Frank took care of, you just hid from them!" I told him loudly. Nick then sat up. "That's different Johnny, living on the streets you don't want to start something, especially for me, because if the cops found me they would bring me back to the orphanage!" He yelled at me.
There was a silence, and Nick was biting his tongue, I could tell. "Nick...you were an...orphan?" I asked him. "I'm tired and I'm going to bed, goodnight." He then reached over and turned off the lamp, leaving me confused as to what just happened, but tomorrow I'll act like it didn't happen.
