Woo! 11 pages! This chapter's kinda rushed, but I had to finish it so I could study for my social studies test tomorrow, so here it is. Tada!
By the way, whatyouwishyouknewbutdont, people said "bacon" in here 5 times. Your welcome, haha(:
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Believe me.
Determined to find whoever the voice belonged to, I searched the whole train.
Twice.
And yet, the only other passengers on the train were those sleeping in their seats, watching a movie on their obnoxiously bright portable DVD players, or furiously typing away on their computers.
No strange women wondering around, telling people to wake up or asking them stupid questions about plants (although, that part was a bit helpful…)
By the time I made it back to my seat, the sun had begun to rise. Normally I wouldn't mind (one of my greatest talents is the ability to fall asleep in any environment), but I seemed to have forgotten the small detail that all children of Apollo tend to wake up at sunrise – including the one I brought on this quest with me.
When I first got back, she was still sound asleep. Trying my best to stay quiet, I slowly sat down and put my head back, checking on her every few seconds to assure she was still sleeping. Finally, I was in a comfortable position, and the sun was fully up.
Yay.
Closing my eyes, I looked forward to some sleep. But as we all know by now, there's some mystical force that's trying to keeping me from actually getting some rest. Not a minute had passed before I heard movement beside me. To my horror, I saw Hailey started to stir in her seat. Before I could think of something that would get her from waking up, she sat up, stretched her arms, and smiled when she saw me.
"Oh good! You're awake! I was worried I was going to have to sit here for hours and wait for you guys! Phew, that's a relief. Good to know you're an early riser. I mean, up before a child of Apollo? That's pretty impressive."
"Uh, I was actually just about to go back to sleep. So…" I said, hoping she would let me.
The smile was quickly replaced with a frown. "Oh! Yeah, I get it. Not all of us are early birds…. That's alright. I'll just wait for Riley to wake up… I mean, I'm used to being the only person awake for hours. It's totally cool."
Good to know she understands.
I put my head back and started trying to go to sleep, relieved that I would actually get some.
"You know, Jill's an early riser."
I opened my eyes. "Okay?"
"Well, sometimes."
"…"
"This one time, she slept until 11 o'clock. Eleven!" she exclaimed, as if she had just said her grandma had robbed a grocery store. "Can you believe that?"
"Uh... yes?"
"That's like… five hours of perfectly good time wasted! Just, wasted! Gone!" by now, she had turned her body so she was facing me.
"Oh my gosh, five hours?" I said sarcastically. She obviously didn't pick up on it.
"Yes! A whole morning!" She reached into her backpack, pulling out food. "Hey, you want a granola bar?"
"No thanks."
"Eh, your loss." She opened hers and shoved half of it in her mouth, striking a resemblance to a chipmunk with acorns stored in their cheeks.
"You know, it's hard staying in touch with her. We live so far apart that I never get to see her!"
Remembering Jill lived in New York, I wondered where Hailey was from.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"California, duh. It's like, the sunniest place in America." She took another bite of her granola bar, and I took advantage of the time it took her to chew by trying to fall asleep. But unfortunately, she was quicker than I was.
"It's really cool seeing her over the summer, but I feel like we never talk! You know?"
"Oh, definitely."
"And then when we're together, we spend like 2 weeks filling each other in on everything that we missed! Like, what a waste of time!"
"Mhm, of course."
"Oh, but it's the absolute worst when camp's over. She doesn't really cry, but I know once she gets home she sobs for hours in her room. I just know! Call it best friend intuition."
"I'm sure she does."
"Totally." She took another large bite of her granola bar. "And when we find her, she's totally gonna owe me. I'm gonna force her to be my personal slave for a week, and she won't be able to do anything about it! So, ha!"
"Yeah, sure."
"Like this one time, I had this really good idea to climb up a tree during Capture the Flag and when someone came by, I would jump down and attack them! But once I got up there, I realized that if I jumped down, I would most likely break my own neck and completely miss the enemy! So, I clung onto a tree branch for like, twenty minutes until Jill had the common sense to come over and see if I had killed myself yet. So I was all excited that she was gonna help me, and then out of nowhere she told me she would only help if I cleaned off her bed and study area for two weeks. Two weeks! Can you believe that?"
"That's really… cruel?"
"Yes! It was! But I was helpless, so I was forced to do so. I have never seen so many mathematical equations in my life. I mean, who does homework over the summer? Jill. That's who."
"Oh, I'm sorry…"
"That's alright. No use living in the past." I found this incredibly ironic, considering all she had talked about for the past 2 days was old memories.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, you wanted to go back to sleep and here I am rambling. Go ahead, go to sleep. I'll wait for Riley to wake up."
Finally.
But unfortunately, she wasn't done with me yet.
"Pssttt… Nico? Are you sleeping?"she whispered a few minutes later.
"No."
"Do you want breakfast?"
"No."
"Are you sure? I'm gonna go get some breakfast…."
"I thought you already had breakfast?"
"That? Gosh no! That was just a granola bar, stupid. I need some real breakfast."
"Okay, you can leave now." I told her, being pretty rude but not caring.
"Psst… Riley? Wake up!" I heard her whisper.
He made some weird mumbling noises.
"I'm sorry, what was that Riley?"
He repeated it, slightly louder this time.
"I still didn't hear you."
"Go. Away." This time he was loud and clear.
"Fine, no bacon for you!" she shouted, sounding personally offended.
He sat up. "Bacon?"
"Yes, bacon."
"Can you bring me some?" he sounded quite excited.
"No."
"Why not?" he whined, resembling a small child.
"Because you were mean to me, and I don't give bacon to mean people." She said, also sounding like a little kid.
"I'm really sorry, Hailey. I was just grouchy and tired. Please get me some bacon."
She sighed, considering this. "Fine, but only because you said 'please'."
With that, she stood up and skipped off to who knows where.
A few minutes later, she came back crunching on some extra crispy bacon. "Here ya go, Riley." She threw a couple of pieces at him, and he happily scooped them up and took a big bite out of one of them.
She turned to me, "Oh, and I knew you would secretly be upset if I didn't get you any, so I did." Handing me a few pieces, she went to sit back down but stopped suddenly.
"Huh? What's this?"
"What?" asked Riley.
"It's a book. Some little kid must have dropped it here."
My eyes widened. "Oh, that's mine."
"…Uh, I know you must be a little behind in school, and dyslexia makes reading hard, but really? 'Ducky's Adventures! and Other Stories'? I had this when I was just learning to read…"
"No, uh…" I wondered what to say. Hearing voices in your head telling you to do things isn't exactly normal. "Some lady gave it to me. She said to read it to, uh, lighten my day?"
Hailey didn't look convinced, but she didn't protest. "Okay then." She tossed me the book. "Did you, uh, start it yet?"
"Nope."
"Well, I suggest the one about the magical flower." Piped in Riley through a mouthful of bacon.
"The magical flower? Isn't that a bit… girly?" asked Hailey.
"There is nothing girly about flowers! They're dirty, and bugs crawl in them… and, and," Hailey and I stared at him. "Flowers are manly!"
"Of course they are, Riley."
"Shut up. Well, the story's still good. It's about a magical flower," I snickered, "Shut up already! Anyway, a little girl finds the magical flower," I laugh again, "Fine! You read it yourself!"
"Hm, I think I will."
Opening the book, I saw colorful illustrations probably took up about 90% of the book, which relieved me. Even if it was meant for five year olds, reading was reading. I flipped through the pages until I came across a picture of a purple glowing flower. I stared at the title, watching the letters come together in my head, until I saw I read:
The Magical Flower
Praising the author for their creative title, I flipped to the next page where the story began.
I bet it took me longer to read the short tale than it would a four year old learning to read, but I didn't care. The story was boring and totally girly despite what Riley had said, and I couldn't understand what the point of it was.
There one was a little girl who loved nature. Her name was Emily, and Emily lived in a magical land with fairies, unicorns, and many other mystical creatures that became the little girl's friends! One day, Emily was walking through her garden when she came across a beautiful flower. The flower was so pretty, it seemed to glow and lit up the whole garden! The little girl decided she would pick the flower and give it to her mother, who was feeling sick. Her mother smiled when she saw the flower, and Emily put it in a vase next to her mother's bed. Her mother smelled the flower's beautiful scent, and suddenly she sat up and smiled. Her pale face turned back to its normal color, her green eyes looked brighter, and she looked much happier.
"What happened, mother?" asked Emily. Her mother smiled, and picked up the flower.
"It's the flower! The flower healed me! Oh, thank you so much Emily."
Emily smiled now, and went back outside to the garden. The flower was magic! It healed her mother! She looked where she found the flower, but there were no others like it! But Emily didn't mind. The flower had helped her, and she didn't need it anymore. But from that day on, her favorite flower was always the magical healing flower that had helped her mother.
The end.
I closed the book and stared at Riley. "What?" he asked. By now he was long done with his bacon, and was licking the excess grease off of his fingers.
"That story was horrible. What were you talking about?"
"I don't know… I think stories about death and murderous spirits are lame and overdone, but I'm sure you would think otherwise!"
"That stuff's actually interesting, but a magical flower? Really?"
"That's interesting too! I mean, what if we found a magical flower that could heal all of those campers? What then? Well, for one thing, you would owe me an apology. And you would have to kiss my feet and admit Demeter is ten times better than Hades will ever be."
"Well I hope you have fun with your little fantasy, because magical flowers don't exist."
"That's not entirely true! There are tons of stories about flowers in Greek mythology… Like, Adonis, and Narcissus, and Crocus! In fact, Adonis has healing properties just like the flower in the story."
"It magically heals people?"
"Well, not regular people. But if it was enchanted by someone like, oh, I don't know, a son of Demeter? And maybe, if a daughter of Apollo happened to help, it would be able to heal numerous illnesses. So, ha! I bet you can't magically heal people."
"Wait, say that again." said Hailey, suddenly very alert.
"I say, Nico can't magically heal people."
"No you idiot, before that."
"A son of Demeter and a daughter of Apollo could enchant a flower to heal numerous illnesses?"
Hailey and I stared at him.
"What? It's not like we know someone who's in need of some magical healing…"
Hailey smacked his head.
"You are so stupid."
"What? I don't get-" he was interrupted by a lady in a very unfashionable sundress and two of the security officers coming over to us.
"Officer! That's them! Those are the kids who stole my bag!" the lady shouted, pointing at us.
"What? We didn't steal anything!" I said.
"Of course you didn't." replied one of the officers. The other grabbed me and Riley by the elbows and pulled us out of our seats.
"Hey! Let go of them! You have some kind of misunderstanding!"
"Don't worry, we're not forgetting about you, sweetheart." He grabbed Hailey's wrist.
I was about to try out some of my killer moves on the officers, but before I could try anything they pulled us into the aisle way and led us to a small room in the back of the train.
"What are you gonna do with us?" asked Riley nervously.
"Well, we're gonna kick you off the train at the next stop where some nice police officers will kindly escort you to the station." explained the officer.
"What? We need to get to Michigan!" cried out Hailey.
"Maybe you should of thought of that before stealing this nice lady's purse!"
"We didn't steal-" she started.
"Don't waste your time. Who are we gonna trust? A respectable, mature lady or a group of teenagers?"
"Uh, the totally reliable, innocent, and responsible group of young adults?" suggested Hailey.
"Nice try, sweetie."
The officer turned to the lady. "Alright, thank you for helping us, ma'am. You don't have to stay any longer."
"Oh, that's alright. I just want to say a quick few words to these children. Maybe if they hear what kind of panic I went through, they will think next time before they grab an innocent old woman's bag. I'll only be a minute." She smiled at the officer, and he nodded and left the room.
The woman turned to us and smiled sadly. "Oh, it's such a shame that you children won't be able to get to Michigan…" She sighed, "If only you hadn't stolen my purse…"
"But ma'am, we didn't steal your purse!" shouted Riley.
She turned and smiled at him. "I know." She said pleasantly, and walked out of the room. We all watched her leave, dumbstruck, when she suddenly peaked her head back in. "Oh, and I hope you find the cure before all your silly little friends take a long trip to the Underworld. Bye-bye now, sweeties."
Hailey stepped after her, but before she could reach the door an officer had slid into the room and was escorting her back to her seat.
"Oh my gosh!" she yelled when she was sitting down next to us.
"No talking." Reprimanded the officer.
"Fine."
"I said, no talking."
"And I sai-"
"No talking!"
"Okay!"
"If you talk one more time, I will throw you out of this window!"
"No you won't. That's murder."
"So what? You're criminals!"
"We're children!"
"You're children criminals!"
"That was a really good comeback, I have to say." The officer, red-faced, marched over to Hailey and raised his hand as if he was about to smack her.
"You can't touch me." She said.
"And why is that?"
"Because if you lay a hand on me, that's child abuse and you will spend the next twenty years in prison, lose your job, and-" she glanced at his hand, "you'll never get married."
He glanced side to side and nervously lowered his hand.
"Ha! I could say it was self defense." He exclaimed, clearly pleased with himself.
"Oh? You're going to say a vicious 5'4" 15 year old girl attacked you, and you couldn't even hold her back? You had to hit her? That, my friend, would be pathetic."
He made a sound that resembled a growl, and then angrily stalked back to his original position at the door, glaring at her all the while.
But her moment of victory was short lived when the train stopped, and the oh-so-compassionate officer dragged us out of our nice comfy room and kicked us off of the train (not literally, but still).
There, two police officers were waiting for us with their fancy-smancy cop car. They strutted over to us, looking superior and arrogant.
"So, you bubs the little troublemakers? You think you so big and tough, you can steal a bag? Huh? Huh?" said one. Little donut crumbs were dotted in his mustache, which looked more like a hairy rat living on his upper lip.
"No sir, not at all." answered Riley.
Hailey was looking down. "And what about you, little girl? You think these boys here make you cool? Look at me when I'm talking to you!" shouted the other cop.
She looked up, and to my horror tears were running down her face.
"I-I-I'm just so scared!" The officers glanced at each other. The pathetic conceited look on their face had disappeared, and they looked horrified.
"Don't uh, cry, honey! It'll all be okay!"
She broke into sobs. "I don't know what to do!" One of the officers awkwardly patted her back.
"Hey, what's wrong with you two? Don't you see she's distressed! Go get her some tissues and something to drink!" shouted Riley. I glanced at him, wondering what he was up to. At this, Hailey burst into another round of sobs. The officers looked at each other, made some awkward movements to leave, and then both ran off to the train station to get some tissues.
Right before they reached the station, one of them turned around and shouted out "Go wait in the car!"
"Okay!" I shouted.
I stared at Hailey. "Uh… are you okay?"
She looked up. "Of course." All evidence she was crying had been erased. Her wet, puffy eyes were gone, and her cheeks were totally dry. "Let's get out of here before those stupid cops get back." She looked at me. "Would you like to do the honors? Well, actually you have to, considering you're the only one here who can shadow travel."
I sighed. "Alright, but you're not gonna like it…"
Grabbing both of their arms, we made a mad dash for the shadow of a large tree, leaving behind the hot summer day and entering the world of cold darkness and Hailey's screaming.
Lovely.
