AN: I'm actually very disappointed in you people. 13 reviews? Compared to the 27 I got for the last chapter? Did I do something wrong? Because if I did, you need to tell me. Please? I'm not going to withhold chapters just because you don't review, but I'd really appreciate it if you did. I didn't write this in my notebook before I typed it, so it might not be very good. I just don't have time to write in my notebook beforehand now. I'd actually intended for the quest to start right away, but I got…carried away.
Dear Man Diary,
You know what? Oh, screw this! The pen I'm writing with is slowly running out of ink and I have to press hard on the paper to even make a mark. It's. So. Damn. Annoying. Would it hurt Wal-Mart to sell pens that actually work? Well, we didn't exactly buy them, but still. I highly doubt Wal-Mart accepts golden drachmas. And we kinda didn't wanna spend any mortal money…
Maybe this is how karma is punishing us for stealing. Well, screw you, karma! Or maybe the world is conspiring against me. I'm pretty dang sure it is. Stupid emo corner is going to be occupied for a while.
I woke up find two faces looming over mine, looking into my eyes in curiosity.
Now, that may not sound so bad (though very creepy), but they were about 1 foot away—practically touching me. Guys don't like their personal space being invaded. So, of course, my natural instinct was to slap whoever was there.
I brought my hand up groggily to deliver what was to be the most pathetic punch ever since I was half-asleep. My hand was basically moving in slow motion. Before my hand could reach them, the two faces pulled back so that my hand connected with thin air and limply fell back to my side. I still couldn't tell who those two people were because my eyes had trouble focusing. Who could blame me? It was 6 o' clock in the freaking morning!
"Go 'way…" I grumbled, my voice muffled by the pillow that I placed over my face so that maybe, by some miracle, I would be allowed to go back to bed.
No such luck.
"OMG, Nico, wake up," a female voice whined. Someone started pulling on my leg in an attempt to drag me off, therefore awakening me (doesn't that sound so much cooler than "so that I would fall on my ass and hopefully wake up"?). My first thought was, There's a girl in my cabin?
"Don't wanna," I mumbled. Whoever was pulling on my leg was dragging me toward the edge of the bed very, very slowly, so I hoped that I would get a few more minutes of sleep before I had to get up.
"Dude, you're heavy," whoever was pulling on my leg grunted. It was a male voice.
"Don't make me slap you," the female voice warned. That was when I realized that it was Samantha and that the person trying to pull me off the bed was Kyle. Damn, I was slow today.
"Why is the world conspiring against me?" I yelled at no one in particular. I clutched my pillow to my chest, but before I could get a tight grip on it, Samantha pulled it away from me.
"You need to get up and ask Chiron about your quest, remember?" she hissed. Was it just me or did she sound like one of those really mean and cranky teachers who liked to torture kids by giving them excessive amounts of homework and projects?
At the mention of the word "quest", I sat up suddenly, accidentally kicking Kyle in the chest. He fell to the floor with an oof. Wimp. "What quest?" I asked dumbly, still extremely sleepy.
There was silence. I could practically hear the sounds of the toilets flushing in the distance…
What? Hearing crickets chirping or the phrase "I could hear a pin drop" are so cliché. And since my cabin was near the bathroom, I really could hear the toilets flushing. Which is quite sad, actually.
"The quest that you were given yesterday?" Samantha crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me. I had a feeling that Kyle would've done the same thing, but he was still pouting because I had kicked him.
"Oh, that quest," I said. I blinked, trying to get myself more awake. "You two know about the quest? Were you eavesdropping?"
"You make it sound like you get offered quests every single day," Samantha said, ignoring my question. Huh. A sentence without OMG or "like".
I scrutinized her, trying to figure out whether she was sick or not. "Are you okay?" I asked her tentatively.
"Why?" she asked, tapping her foot impatiently.
"Because you just said a sentence without sounding girly?" I sounded a lot more unsure than I'd intended to, but that was probably because of the withering look she gave me.
"OMG, like, shut the hell up!" she said sarcastically. She stalked out of my cabin, slamming the door behind her. I noticed that she almost tripped on her heels as she was walking out the door and smirked. As soon as she was gone, I turned to Kyle and gave him a questioning glance.
He shrugged. "She stops talking girly when she's in a really bad mood," he explained.
"What? Did she run out of lip gloss or something?" I retorted.
"Actually, her boyfriend broke up with her."
I raised my eyebrows. "How did you know that?"
Kyle shrugged again. Maybe he did this a lot so his shoulders would get more flexible! I should try it… "I stole her phone and read her texts."
I looked at him incredulously. "How the Hades did you manage that?" Yes, I knew invoking the names of the gods could be bad, but he was my dad, so I didn't think he would blast me into smithereens. Of course, I did forget to give him anything for Father's Day, so you never know…
"She left her purse open one day and I just took it," he said as if it didn't matter one bit. Girls were extremely protective of their purses most of the time. Maybe they kept weapons of mass destruction in there. Managing to look into one's purse was epic.
"And why would she leave her purse near you?" I asked.
"We were preparing to ride pegasi together and she needed to go get her special pink brush." Somehow, this statement made me feel weird, and I didn't even know why. I didn't know what kind of "weird" it was. Weird like "Wow! I just saved a bunch of money with Nationwide! It really is on my side!"? Or weird like "There are ants in my pants!"? Weird like "That potato chip looks a lot like Elvis Presley's face."? Or even, "I just learned how to say 'that's what she said' in Spanish…wait, is it weird that I'm proud of that?"?
Eh…you get the point. "Weird" has many definitions.
"Good job," I praised. "So…why'd he break up with her?" I asked curiously.
"Something about how she…didn't like his stuffed animals." Kyle made a face and started giggling.
"Haha. Haha. That's so stupid," I said halfheartedly. Because deep down, in my soul, I knew that I would also never like a girl who didn't approve of my action figures. But stuffed animals and action figures were totally different. Action figures aren't…stuffed. Huge difference.
"I still have her phone. Wanna see it?" he asked eagerly, pulling something garishly pink out of his pocket. Any guy in its immediate vicinity should be afraid of its presence. "Samantha's phone—"
"Shh," I hushed him loudly. I looked around, paranoid. "She might hear you."
"So?"
"She might get her fellow Justin Bieber fangirls to kill us with their fangirlyness."
Kyle widened his eyes. "That would freaking suck."
We both looked down at her phone, which looked so conspicuous in a room with dark decorations and furniture. "Well, since she's not here right now…" I trailed off, already gravitating toward the phone.
"She'd never found out…" Kyle said uncertainly. He stared at the phone in his hand like it had a disease (maybe phone-itis?). He looked uncertain, so I grabbed the phone out of his hand and turned it on. I sat down and opened her texts.
"Hey, I wanna see!" Kyle scrambled to sit in a position where he could read the screen easily. The first message on the screen was very…um…mean. Yeah, how else would you describe a message that had so many bad words in it that responsible mothers everywhere would chase me down intending to wash my mouth with soap if I said it aloud?
"Wow, harsh," I said, frowning.
"I wonder what she did…"
I found her most recent one to him, which said something along the lines of, "Why, my love? Why?"
Yes, I was exaggerating, but it did sound like it belonged in a crappy teen romance novel. The kind that girls devour when they're PMS-y.
"You suck more than Edward Cullen in a room full of average-looking Mary-Sue girls wearing Bella-scented perfume," was what had caused her to respond like that. This girl must really enjoy getting insulted. That was a pretty creative insult actually. Sounds like something I would think of. What if that guy was secretly me in disguise?
"No. Dude, just…no." Kyle shook his head and took the phone from me.
"Huh?"
"The guy can't be you in disguise. There's probably only one guy in the world who's crazy enough to date someone as temperamental as Samantha."
I cursed under my breath. "Did I say that aloud?"
"Yeah. And if you keep voicing your thoughts, someone's gonna lock you up in a mental asylum soon."
I ignored his comment and grabbed the phone out of his hand. "Can I reply to him?" I asked.
"Well, he's her ex, so maybe you shouldn't," Kyle replied doubtfully.
"Oh, who gives a damn?" I said dismissively. I tapped my chin, thinking for a minute. What? It looks like I'm contemplating something actually necessary to the betterment of the world instead of something totally trivial when I do that. I began typing a message.
"Um…Nico? What are you writing?" Kyle asked, trying to read over my shoulder.
You, sir, are a complete and total douchebag. Your mother will hunt you down with a bar of soap and force you to wash your mouth while singing Justin Bieber songs while little green men eat your face. And they won't be cute little green men either. No, these are the kind that little children have nightmares about. Enjoy! :)
"Do you think I should nix the smiley face? Is it overkill?" I asked worriedly.
But Kyle's expression was still kind of like O-O. I decided that the smiley face was acceptable (because it makes hate messages sound so much better and not retarded at all). I sent the text and anxiously awaited an answer. I started humming the first song that popped into my head.
"Why are you humming Frosty the Snowman?" Kyle asked me suspiciously, probably looking for any signs of insanity. Well, the fact that I'm me may be one of them.
"It's stuck in my head, okay? Don't hate on Frosty!" I said indignantly. The phone suddenly vibrated, indicating a new text. Kyle and I looked at the screen eagerly.
Wanna fuck later? I still haven't gotten the chance to do that.
"Well, someone wants to keep the relationship in bed alive," I commented, holding the phone away from me and cringing.
"That was…blunt… Should we reply?"
I glared at him. "No way. I'm giving this back to Samantha. She can answer him however she wants and sound like a heroine in a teen romance if she wants to."
"How are you going to return it?"
"I'll say I 'found it'."
"But you didn't just find it," Kyle said, confused. Slowly, comprehension dawned on him. "Oooh, I get it! You're gonna lie!"
Seriously, he was even slower than I was, and that's saying something.
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, that's kind of the point. Besides, I have to go talk to Chiron about my prophecy anyway." I shrugged and walked to the door, opening it. Kyle walked out and I followed him, closing the door behind us.
Finding Samantha wasn't hard.
She was sitting in front of the Big House, searching through her bag and muttering under her breath. I hid behind a tree, hoping that she wouldn't see me and notice the phone in my hand. You know, in retrospect, maybe it would've been a good idea to hide it in my pocket so that anyone who saw me wouldn't be able to see it right away. This sucked.
I was too late in hiding, because Samantha had seen me. Luckily, she hadn't seen the phone in my hand, which I hastily stowed behind my back. "Nico, have you seen my phone?" she asked as I approached her.
"Er…no?" I said, trying to look innocent. Not easy when you're wearing a shirt with a skull on it.
"It was, like, in my bag this morning," she said frantically.
"Why do you need it anyway?" I asked, careful not to let her see the phone.
She bit her lip. "My b—boyfriend…" she trailed off, and suddenly, tears started to form in her eyes. WTF? This morning, she was irritated, and now she was crying?
WHY MUST GIRLS BE SO FRICKIN BIPOLAR?
"Are you…okay?" I asked her tentatively. I patted her head awkwardly. Seeing as she didn't push my hand away right away, I suppose that was the right thing to do. Better than just standing there looking like an idiot, at least.
"Men are such bastards," she complained, sniffling. Can we say bipolar again? And man diary, don't you dare actually say "bipolar" again. Because I hate it when people do that.
"Um…whatever you say?" All my answers ended in question marks now, because if you hadn't noticed (and you would have to be blind to not notice), I didn't know how to act around girls. She grabbed the front of my shirt and blew her nose into it. Ew, now it was all snotty.
"He's such a worthless bastard, isn't he?" she said, still crying.
I didn't know if she was expecting an answer or not, so I just said. "Why don't you talk to one of your girlfriends about this?" I crossed my fingers behind my back, fervently hoping that she would heed my advice.
She frowned, twirling a lock of her blonde hair between her fingers. "They never liked him so they wouldn't care. They think I only liked him for his awesome hair."
"Well, did you only like him for his hair?"
She glared at me. "Well…yeah. But that's not the point."
Since she wasn't exactly looking for her phone anymore, when her back was turned to her purse, I dropped her phone into it.
"Oh, isn't that your phone?" I asked her, trying to sound like I was surprised so that she would think that the phone was there all along and that I hadn't just dropped it in.
Psh, why would I do that?
She turned around to look in her purse and looked perplexed when she saw her phone. "It wasn't there before," she mumbled. She picked it up slowly, as if just to see if it was real.
"Well, haha, that's funny! Bye!" I said hurriedly, walking away before she found out that someone who wasn't her had texted her ex back and rightly blame me. I disappeared into the Big House.
"Ah, Nico, there you are," Chiron said as soon as I stepped inside.
"The prophecy," I said immediately, not wanting to beat around the bush. "What can you tell me about it?"
"I've looked over it," Chiron began, "You will follow a bird of fire, of course."
I waited for him to elaborate, but when he didn't, I sighed, accepting the fact that I would have to sound stupid and ask. "And what's that?"
"A phoenix," he explained.
Well, this sparked a tiny bit of comprehension in me. "You mean Dumbledore's pet bird in Harry Potter?"
If there was a desk available, I'm pretty sure Chiron would have just headdesked. "I'm glad the first thing you think of when you hear 'phoenix' is Harry Potter," he said wryly.
"A phoenix has 300 attack points in Mythomagic!" I said excitedly. "Where am I supposed to find a Phoenix anyway?"
"In ancient times, it used to nest and be reborn in the city of Heliopolis. But in modern times, it could really be anywhere," Chiron led me into a room. On the wall of the room was a large painting of a phoenix. It was colorful, and the most dominant colors in its plumage were red and orange. It had a long tail. I ran my fingers along the surface of the painting, outlining its intelligent-looking eyes.
"Now, it has become a symbol for rebirth and has been used in popular culture. And, as you so wisely said, Dumbledore did have a pet phoenix." Chiron smiled a small smile, as if he was amused by me. Well, I was amused by myself too.
"How am I supposed to follow that?" I asked, feeling the weight of the quest settle on my shoulders uncomfortably. I realized the difficulty of this mission, which was only made worse by that fact that I didn't even know what I was looking for.
"It is your quest, Nico. It is not up to me to plan a strategy for you."
"What am I even looking for?" I asked in frustration.
"I suppose you'll find out on your journey. And I have a feeling that it will have something to do with your missing sword. It is just too big of a coincidence that you get a quest and lose your sword at around the same time for it to be a coincidence."
"So I just look in the sky and hope I see a bird that's on fire and follow it?" I asked hopefully. That would make things so much easier. Sure, there was a whole lot of sky in the world, but a bird on fire couldn't be that hard to miss. I'd just have to go around the world and glance up at the sky every few seconds to make sure I didn't miss anything. On second thought, maybe this wouldn't be so easy after all.
Chiron shook his head. "I don't suspect it will be as simple as that, Nico."
I mulled over his comment for a while, but then decided that there was no point in asking him what he meant by it. I kind of doubted he knew himself. "What does the prophecy mean by 'Death, love, and war will unite'?"
"It could mean those three things will come together. Or the three gods. Or, most likely children of the three gods."
I suddenly remembered earlier, when Samantha was crying. Then I looked down at my shirt. The freaking snot was still there. "So does that mean that I have to choose a daughter of Aphrodite to go on my quest?" I asked in a panicked tone. Because the only one I actually talked to was Samantha and she was…unstable. No way was I bringing her on my quest.
"It's your choice, Nico. I'm only saying what I think the prophecy means."
"Then I'm not picking one of them," I said adamantly. Samantha would probably break a fingernail on the quest and be rendered useless for the rest of it or something.
"You need two companions," Chiron pointed out.
"Why can't I just go alone?"' I complained. It would be so much simpler going alone. Then I wouldn't have to put up with getting along with anybody else.
Other People on Quest: Let's play Monopoly or some other board game that will enable all of us to interact and become better friends!
Nico: *goes into corner and is antisocial*
Other People on Quest: You're such a party pooper!
Nico: *more silence*
Other People on Quest: :(
Yeah, that would turn out so well.
Though, I guess, if I had to pick two people…
"Kyle and Becci," I decided. Kyle was a friend, but it was good to have someone else who knew how to fight or else we'd all die.
Chiron looked skeptical. "A son of Ares and a daughter of Athena? Are you sure that's such a good idea?"
"You said it was my choice."
"Go ahead and start packing. You leave in a few minutes."
"We're starting this quest today?" I asked incredulously.
"It's only 10 in the morning, Nico. You have plenty of time. If I were you, I would tell Kyle and Becci to start packing as well."
And so I walked out of the Big House to do just that.
Kyle and Becci were way too happy to go on this quest, and they had finished packing in record time. And I didn't think the reason they wanted to go was to spend quality time with me *insert fake tears here* They wanted the chance to be heroes. Well, they would get their chance, provided they didn't die first. We had started in high spirits, but now…well, we had not-so-high spirits.
"So…any idea where we should go?" Kyle asked.
We were standing in a train station that Argus had just driven us to, looking at the train schedules. Each of us had one bag with us, filled with supplies, clothes, and money. Neither Kyle nor I had said goodbye to Samantha, as I was pretty sure she was still having a mental breakdown somewhere.
"Maybe we should go to D.C. Or wait! Houston! No…" Becci said to herself. Then she saw the name of a city and smiled. "How 'bout Phoenix?" she asked, turning to Kyle and I, who were playing chopsticks. She sighed and glared at us. Slowly, we turned to look at her, stopping our game. AND I WAS WINNING TOO!
"What?" I asked her.
"Phoenix?" she said.
"Yeah...I kind of understand we're supposed to find a phoenix, Rebecca. You don't have to tell us again." Kyle stuck his tongue out at Becci.
"I mean, why don't we go to Phoenix?" she said exasperatedly.
"Arizona? Why would you want to go all the way to Arizona?" I asked her.
She looked at us like we were the two biggest idiots on the planet. Which was definitely not a very nice way to look at us. Someone needs manners lessons.
"Because maybe a phoenix nests in Phoenix," she hissed.
"Ohhh," Kyle and I said simultaneously, feeling extremely stupid indeed.
Becci rolled her eyes and walked off. After she was gone, I asked Kyle, "Do you think she deserted us?"
"Probably not, and you'd be the only one who cares if she was gone anyway." He grinned sadistically then began singing. "Nico and Becci sitting in a tree—"
I looked around, hoping Becci wasn't in hearing range. "Stop that! We're not in elementary school!"
Kyle paid me no heed. "F-U-C-K-I-N-G. First comes—"
What the Tartarus? That makes ne want to say 'What the tartar sauce?' instead, actually. Why did they pick a name that sounded like tartar sauce for the darkest pit of the Underworld anyway? I mean—
Focus, Nico, focus.
I clapped a hand over Kyle's mouth. His obnoxious singing was muffled by my hand. He tried to wriggle out of my grasp, but I wouldn't let him. "Promise me you won't tell her I like her if I let you go," I demanded.
He shook his head, but when he realized his efforts to get my arms off him were futile, he sighed and nodded. I let him go slowly, afraid that he would start again as soon as I let him go. Surprisingly, he didn't. He just pointed an accusing finger at me and said, "Ha! So you admit you like her!"
"No effing duh."
"Dude, why don't you just tell her?" he suggested.
"Are you crazy?"
"That's what my mom asked me when I played with my sister's Barbies." I looked at him weirdly. "I was 6! Don't judge me!"
Of course, that was when Becci returned. She was looking at the tickets in her hand and didn't seem like she had heard any of our conversation. Good.
"The lady said that they don't sell tickets to minors who aren't accompanied by a parent, but I managed to convince her that I'm 18 using the Mist. I only bought tickets to Virginia though. I don't want to waste that much money. We'll see what we can do from there," she explained. But Kyle and I were once again not paying attention to her, and she seemed to have noticed this. "Why the heck are you not listening to me?"
"I found a hobo," Kyle said.
"The one with the red hair and creepy red mustache?" I asked to make sure. That was what I was staring at too. He was wearing an oversized dirty brown overcoat and ragged jeans with dusty boots. He had a shopping cart with him.
"Yeah. He looks like pedophile material," Kyle commented.
Becci waved her hand in front of our faces to get our attention. "Stop staring at the creepy hobo. We have to get on a bus." With those words, she proceeded to grab our arms and drag us toward the bus that we were supposed to get on, away from Mr. Creepy Hobo.
And thus we embarked on our awesometastic quest.
Oh, who am I kidding?
FML
AN: I've had Frosty the Snowman stuck in my head all day. :P I have a plot outline written! Finally! It's not as good or as detailed as I would've liked, but it's not that bad, I don't think.
Please review and I'll try to update sooner?
Review?