Caution: This chapter includes strong Spanish expletives that the young, conservative, or clean-tongued may not want to put through a translator.
"Thanks for driving," Reyna said, sliding into the passenger seat of Annabeth's Geo. The blonde nodded happily, and as soon as Reyna shut the door and buckled her seat belt, they pulled around the student center parking lot and out onto the main road. They would have sped up, tires squealing, but the car wasn't really capable of that. The old thing went from 0 to 60 in about a full minute. Reyna would have been more than happy to drive herself in her Mustang, but she hadn't gotten around to making the appointment for it yet, and she didn't quite trust it for any trip longer than the distance from the apartment to campus and back.
"Is it okay if we pick up Piper, too?" Annabeth asked. Her tone was friendly, but her eyes flicked to Reyna's, careful, evaluating, analyzing. Annabeth had never outright said so, but Reyna suspected she knew about her love for Jason. Honestly, the girl was too smart not to have figured it out; she just had the sense not to make a scene about it. One of the many reasons Reyna liked her.
"Yes," Reyna said evenly, "that's fine. Is she here or at home?"
"Home, but don't worry, it's not far out of the way." Annabeth eased to a stop at a red light. "How were your classes today?"
Reyna looked out the window and sighed, squeezing one hand along her tense right shoulder. "Classes were all right—I just wish we could move on from theory and get to the practical application. And the World Myth paper is my least favorite thing to think about, so I've hardly worked on it since the first few times I joined Jason, Piper, and Leo's work sessions."
"Yeah, it's not as high on my priority list as it should be, either." The light turned green, so Annabeth turned onto the long country road that would lead to the hobbit house, as she affectionately called it. "But we still have, what, a month and a half? We'll be okay. How was work?"
"Still trying to get AU week put together," Reyna grimaced. "Octavian is . . ." She cut herself off, feeling guilty on a number of levels. It wasn't like it was state secrets, but student gov was student gov. Though she trusted Annabeth, she didn't want to badmouth Octavian anywhere it might get back to him or his father. And she ought not to complain about her job at all; it was just that work had been a little lonely without Jason, who had an off-campus football game today and so had left shortly before lunch.
She turned the questions back at the blonde. Annabeth was describing, in equal parts annoyance and fondness, her date with Percy in which the skateboarder had mouthed off to a campus safety officer. "And then the officer said, 'If you're so opposed to it, then you can—' Oh, here we are." They turned into the driveway, and Annabeth honked the horn, which would have been rude had the noise not been a submissive, high-pitched meep meep (a far cry, Reyna thought, from Annabeth's take-charge personality). A few seconds later, Piper burst through the front door, hopping to pull on her second boot, her thin braids swinging every which way, and fell into the backseat.
"Hey, babe," she said to Annabeth, kneeing the back of the driver's seat as she finished zipping up her boot. "Hi, Reyna."
"Good afternoon," Reyna replied, sitting up a little straighter. She knew she needed to make a better effort to get along with Jason's girlfriend; this trip would be a good chance to try. "How are you?"
"I'm fine. How are you?"
"Fine, thanks."
Reyna could all but touch the stiffness of the trivial exchange. Annabeth shifted in her seat and turned the volume dial so that Fall Out Boy pumped out of the speakers. "How much do you guys have to get?" the blonde asked—a nice neutral.
Reyna pulled an index card out of her purse pocket, unfolded it, and scanned the neat cursive list. "Milk, bread, clementines, shampoo, trash bags, paper towels, peanut butter. Cereal if any's on sale. Nothing out of the ordinary."
Piper put her feet up on the center console; Reyna couldn't decide whether she envied or resented the other girl's level of comfort. She herself wouldn't dare to put her feet up anywhere if there were other people around, even at home in the apartment. The expectations were everywhere, and nowhere was really safe. Hence the locks on her bedroom door.
"I'm gonna look at the vegetables section and see if anything looks edible," Piper was saying, squinting at the fuzzy gray ceiling to remember her own list. "And I have a coupon for curry powder, so I'm pro'lly gonna get that too."
"Oh, did your paycheck come in?" Annabeth asked offhandedly.
"Um—yeah," Piper hastened to stay, her gaze going out the window. Reyna, reminded of the time she'd seen her rifling through a guy's wallet at work, shifted in her seat to appraise the Cherokee girl. There was something she was hiding; Reyna just hadn't figured out what yet.
Like many things, Reyna decided an hour later, Walmart trips are best done alone. Not that she begrudged the other girls their fun—but Annabeth and Piper, more like sisters than roommates, had attached at the hip upon leaving the car and were now teasing and joking with each other through each aisle, which both slowed them down and left Reyna to trail behind them as the dreaded third wheel. Amazing how she managed to find that role in so many situations.
But the real problem was their speed, or their lack of it. The cart did fill up, but slowly, and Reyna knew for a fact she could have been out of there in 15 minutes if she had gone alone. Maybe 20 had she gone only with Annabeth.
You signed up for this, and socializing is a good thing, she reminded herself, and she put a box of white drawstring trash bags in her third of the cart. "Is that everything now?" she called ahead to the roommates bickering over Cap'n Crunch versus Raisin Bran.
They sighed in unison. "Yes," Annabeth said with a pointed look at her roommate, who grinned cheekily and dropped her box of Cap'n Crunch into the cart. "No!"
"Fine, fine," Piper gave in, and she picked it up and set it back on the shelf; "but you owe me." Annabeth was replying with equal snark when Piper's phone buzzed. She pulled it out, tapped in the password, and then scanned whatever had appeared on the screen, the white glow barely reflecting on her due to the bright fluorescent store lights.
"Leo's here!" she said in surprise.
"Really?" Annabeth and Reyna said, in unison but in very different tones.
Piper began to tap out a reply. "Yeah, he said he's at Walmart, wants to know if I need anything." (Strangely thoughtful, Reyna thought but didn't say.) "I'm asking where he is so we can meet—say hi and make sure we aren't doubling up groceries."
"Okay." Annabeth set her box of Raisin Bran in the cart. "Where should we wait for him?"
"Do you mind if I go ahead and check out?" Reyna asked. "I hate to waste time, and I know for sure I have everything on my list." They said that was fine, so she piled her groceries into her arms, slung her purse over her shoulder, and made her way up to the front of the store, glancing furtively down aisles and across counters to make sure she didn't recognize, ahem, Anyone.
Luckily, all faces looked unfamiliar, so she quickly set her items in neat rows beside the corner self-checkout and pressed "Begin" on the screen. The irritating female voice instructed her to "scan the items and then place them in the bagging area," so she hefted up the first gallon of milk, tilted it onto its side, and at the beep of the scanner set it into the plastic bag hanging half-open.
Trying to tune out the annoying automated speech, she went on to the second gallon of milk and then the clementines—at which point she realized that not only had the self-checkout not registered the second gallon, but it was now rejecting the clementines.
"Place your items in the bagging area," said the sweet checkout.
Reyna flicked both gallons as if to make sure she wasn't hallucinating them. "I did," she commanded in an undertone.
"Place the items in the bagging area."
Gritting her teeth, she set down the clementines.
"Remove the items from the bagging area," said the checkout.
"You damn—!" she hissed, picking it back up and setting it aside. A mother with two toddlers glanced her way suspiciously, and though anger gripped Reyna's stomach she didn't want to corrupt children. So, spitting the words out between her lips like seeds: "Carajo, estupido jueputa. No seas pendejo."
"Remove the items from the bagging area."
There was now nothing in the bagging area besides the milk that was accepted. Carefully Reyna tried again, this time scanning the loaf of wheat bread. "Come on, capullo. Dame la puta comida."
"Remove the items from the bagging area."
"¡Malnacido!" she burst out, her voice raising to a normal speaking pitch. "¡Chinga tu madre!"
"¿Quién te cabrea?" asked a male voice that was definitely not the checkout machine.
Reyna spun on her heel, her braid hitting her hard in the spine when she stopped at the sight of Leo Valdez looking much too pleased to have found her in such a situation.
Leo received a text from Piper: in the cereal aisle w/ AB + reyna, come here. She was here? He knew he should have texted her before he left; she might have liked a ride. Annabeth's Geo was shit—unless they were driving Katoptris, in which case he would have liked a ride. Who didn't love to bask in the glorious fruits of their labors? Plus, driving required a lot of attention, even with a car as awesome as Festus.
Anyway, if Piper was here, he needed to see her (it was a Best Friend Duty), so he set his beautiful new tire jack in his cart and began to bounce down the main stretch, the cart wheels rattling on the tile floor. "Doo doo de doo," he sang to himself under his breath, offkey but pleased. "'Miga, 'miga, major amiga…"
Then, as if someone were answering him, he heard faint Spanish coming from the self-checkout section. His head perked up, and he leaned over the cart handle to hear better. Apollo U and the surrounding towns were basically all a bunch of white people, so if he could talk with someone en su lengua materna, in his native language, especially outside of Spanish club, he would for sure take the chance.
Leo let his cart slide to a stop and trotted toward the self-checkouts. There were two white girls at one machine and a white guy at another, but between them he caught sight of a familiar braid on a girl with a Latino complexion close to his own.
Reyna went to Walmart?
And since in Spanish club she only ever did homework, he had assumed she just needed a language credit and didn't know it well herself—but oh, how she knew it. She was letting loose some flaming profanities that even Leo himself didn't use.
Mildly impressed, he debated whether or not to call her out on it. Clearly she was banking on no one understanding her. It might embarrass her. But, he wondered, does Reyna even get embarrassed? She was untouchable, a goddess, a queen (as her name so aptly pointed out)—impossible for any normal, mortal college student, except that she was exactly that.
Reyna called the self-checkout some more unprintable names, and Leo grinned. "Who's pissing you off?" he teased her, meeting her in Spanish.
She whirled around, irritation burning hot in her eyes. He wasn't entirely sure if it was aimed at him or the machine. With anyone else, this would be the time for him to bow out, but this was Reyna. Teasing couldn't hurt a goddess.
"I don't think that particular model has a mother," he pointed out in Spanish, "but if it did, I'm sure it would be appropriately wounded. If it had, you know, feelings."
"I thought you were meeting Piper and Annabeth," Reyna said flatly. She had returned (pointedly) to profanity-free English.
Of course, that didn't mean he had to. "Puedo arreglarlo," he offered. (I can fix it.) "Prueba esto." (Try this.) She stared at him, looking like she would rather go through junior high again than do anything he recommended.
"En serio, pruebalo. Solo quiero ayudarte." (Seriously, try it. I only want to help you.)
Her eyes darkened even more, if that was possible. "We are not on tu terms," she warned him, just as Annabeth appeared at Leo's side with her car keys in her hand. Looked like they did drive the Geo, then. Que pena, what a shame.
Annabeth was one of the few people who didn't cower at the wrath of Reyna, but she did know enough not to antagonize her further (unlike me, Leo thought happily). "I came to give you the keys, if you wanted to take your groceries to the car," the scary-smart blonde said to Reyna as she took in the mix of anger, unscanned groceries, and annoying automated instructions. "What's the holdup?"
Leo tried to make an unbelievably witty crack about his attractiveness, but Reyna spoke over him. "The machine is giving me trouble."
"Ah." Annabeth made a small shooing gesture at Leo. "Go find Piper. I'll help Reyna get this sorted."
"But—" he protested.
She glared.
"Okay," he squeaked, his voice cracking in an unmanly way, and as he backed away, he heard Annabeth telling Reyna to do exactly what he'd been trying to get her to do. Rude, he thought. But he knew not to cross esa loca, that crazy one, so he took his cart by the front and dragged it along behind him as he headed for Aisle 3, which, according to the signs, was the land of boxed snacks and cereal. He turned there and found Piper defacing the side of a box of Cap'n Crunch.
"Whatcha doin'?" he teased her.
She paused, glanced up, and then went back to work when she saw it was only him. "Defying my roommate. Hey, can you check security for me?"
She was the best at picking up everything and talking herself out of trouble, but no one beat him at the electronics of security systems. He glanced around and found the single security camera on this side of the food section. Extrapolating quickly from its angle and rate of rotation, he said, "You're good, but they can see your elbow every 10 seconds. Might want to stand a few inches closer to the shelf."
"Thanks." She shifted out of the camera's view. At least someone appreciated his skills.
"Why Cap'n Crunch?"
"Why Raisin Bran?" she retorted, and then she stuck her Sharpie and her X-acto knife back in her hoodie pocket. "There. Unrecognizable barcode. Put this in your cart." She held out the cereal box.
"Oh, sure, throw me under the bus," he complained, but he took it.
"You'll be fine, Whiny. Just keep the barcode covered at all times, and pass the box off as paid-for ASAP. You're welcome for the free lesson. Now, what are you buying?" Piper peered into Leo's cart, wiggling her fingers in the air as she took inventory for any duplicates.
He shrugged. "Work stuff and burrito stuff. Nothing you'd be interested in."
"Que surprisa."
He was pretty sure she meant que sorpresa, "what a surprise," but she was trying (and besides, her specialty was French), so he only blinked really hard and moved on. There were less sensitive topics he could tease her about. "Are we doing dinner soon?"
She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her different calendar views. "Tomorrow morning we have that World Myth study session in the library, and then Annabeth and I have a roommate date in the afternoon. But Sunday night I'm free, you wanna come over?" Looking up at him, she hesitated, "Or, I mean, I could co—"
"Sure, I'll come by," he interrupted, quick as a good brake response. Brake that particular train of thought. Piper was definitely his best friend—had been all through high school at that stupid Wilderness Academy, "where the kids are the animals," as they liked to say—but he had managed so far to keep her 100 percent away from his Sleeping Place, and he planned to keep it that way. Sharing the Sleeping Place would . . . Well, it wouldn't be good for his image.
"Okay," Piper said, "we'll do tomorrow night. I'll spring for the pizza."
"Sounds like a plan."
She looked disappointed, but this wasn't something he could help. Sorry, beauty queen. He didn't make a lot of good life decisions, but she had to trust him that this was one of them.
Midmorning rain smattering against the windows, the library was empty, silent, and peaceful for a Saturday. With one exception: Quiet Study Room #3 on the lower level, which was at the moment neither particularly quiet nor particularly studious.
The lit review was giving them trouble—them meaning Leo—and Reyna was in no mood to deal with it, thanks to cold, wet weather and a headache like a train wreck. Blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes, she flipped an encyclopedia open with a resounding smack. "I'm telling you, it's right here! No one ever found their way out of the Labyrinth alive."
"I could have done it. It'd only take me a minotaur two," Leo grinned, twirling his mechanical pencil between his fingers. He hadn't even opened his laptop, and she was about to tear her hair out.
"Jason," she said through gritted teeth.
Her roommate looked up in surprise, his arm slung around Piper's shoulders as they pretended to read chapter four together. "Hmm? Sorry, what?"
"Kindly explain to your girlfriend's platonic life mate," she gritted out, "why it might be a good idea to read the lit he's supposed to be reviewing."
"Come on, Leo," Jason sighed, but the threat was benign and barely implied, and Leo's impish grin only widened, deepening the dimples in both his cheeks. Piper and Jason snuggled back into each other. Reyna scowled across the table and pointedly pulled the encyclopedia into her lap.
Maybe five minutes passed in only the sounds of rain and flipping pages. Leo even pulled out an illustrated copy of Motifs in Mythology and, surprise of all surprises, actually opened it. The pinching headache at the base of Reyna's skull began to dissipate, and then . . .
"This is boring—I'd rather read something else."
"Fine," she said. "Find another article or book or something."
"Has anyone written your biography? 'Cause if you were words on a page, you'd be fine print!" Leo declared, slamming his barely-opened book shut and sliding it away from himself.
The pressure clenching in on every side of her head felt like it was going to explode. Clenching her jaw against many (suitable) insults, Reyna bookmarked her page and reached for her purse. "I just remembered, I need to wash the dogs before cross-country practice," she said, her voice tight. "You guys have fun."
"Reyna—" Jason started, but she swept out the door before he could finish whatever best-friends plea might tempt her to stay. Careful not to slam the door on the way out, she nodded at the librarian and glided out into the rain, cringing as it slapped her wet in the face. Her jeans clung to the fronts of her thighs, and her shirt to her chest, as the fabric soaked slowly through.
Too cold. Too cold, she repeated to herself unhappily, which probably didn't help. She skipped over a few puddles and across the potholes in the crosswalk and stopped alongside her 'Stang, which she had driven to the library on little more than prayers. She slipped the key into the door, pulled it open just as far as necessary, and dropped into the seat, tugging the door shut to shield her against the rain.
While she appreciated not having cold rain in the face anymore, the slight reprieve didn't alleviate her concern over her car's fidelity. Please please, she prayed, hoping against hope that this prayer would be answered just like the one Monday morning.
She twisted the key in the ignition once, twice. Rrrrpptthhh, gargled the engine. She wasn't sure what that sound meant, but she knew it wasn't what she wanted to hear.
Reyna leaned back against her seat and sighed, glaring up at the ceiling.
Jason pressed the heels of his hands to his temples, an uncanny image of Reyna. "Leo, man, you've really got to lay off."
"My ability to annoy is an integral part of my personality," Leo protested, flicking his lighter on and off and ignoring the guilty twist in his gut. "You might as well ask me to stop being breathtakingly handsome."
Piper rolled her eyes. "Quit."
"Not you too, beauty queen!" he complained. "Ganging up on me."
"Okay, you know I love you," she said, pointing at him with her pen. "But even you have to admit, you get even more obnoxious around Reyna."
"I really want her to like you," Jason said, "but you're making it really hard."
"Me? But she—"
The blond gave him the stink eye. "Not her. It's on you."
Leo's jaw dropped. "Rude." So yeah, maybe he did like to get on Reyna's case a little. But she always reacted to it, even if just in angry silence, and besides, it wasn't like anything was going to come out of it. The president was lightyears out of his league, even more so than normal girls. Sure, he'd stopped flirting with the others, but flirting with her was like flirting with a goddess—more for the fun of the attempt than anything else.
And then the study room door opened, and in stepped Reyna herself—and Leo almost fell off his chair. Because the goddess queen president was dripping rainwater, her dark hair soaked almost black, her blouse and jeans clinging to her curves. The rain created a sheen on her tan skin, and little droplets clung to her eyelashes. She swiped her hands over her damp arms, her lips trembling a little at the chill of air conditioning.
Leo hadn't even realized she could look like that.
Shit, he thought.
"My car won't start," she said, her words directed at Jason, "and it's pouring. Give me a ride home."
"I walked from a team meeting," he said with a guilty wince.
"I bummed a ride from Leo," Piper apologized. She sounded regretful, like she knew Reyna would probably rather walk than drive with Leo, but Leo realized the regret was uncalled for. He couldn't be such an ass anymore, not after this, not if he had to treat her with the same respect as Hazel and Callie and the other girls.
Because Reyna wasn't a goddess. She was a girl. A human who got soaked in the rain and had car trouble and swore at faulty self-checkouts and didn't like to be touched. How had he missed this? And without his realizing it, his grip on the lighter loosened, and a little smoke began to drift up from the underside of the table.
She was actually human, potentially in Leo's league, and somehow that made her even further out of his league than he'd realized before.
"Piper," he forced out, feeling his body temperature rising as he averted his eyes and made an unimaginable offer: "you want to borrow Festus?"