Hola mis amigos. How's it goin? Pretty good over here. Sorry for not updating for a while, but here I am!! Yay!!! Anyways, since I owe you guys, I'll give you a wise piece of advice that my fortune cookie told me:
"Want a delicious meal? Try our new Spicy Beef Chow Mein!"
I did try it, and it was not at all a delicious meal.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of PJO, McDonalds, Scooby Snacks, or really anything else for that matter.
I have recently learned that the Athena girls are… ambitious. They do what they want when they want; and once they set their mind on something, there's no stopping them.
Which explains why I wasn't particularly happy when they told me their plan of having me transporting them all to Missouri, so we could start our country-wide-volcano-trip.
Obviously, they don't understand how much it drains my energy. If I shadow-traveled 3 people, plus myself, across the country, I would easily be out for 2 days. Maybe 3. And they obviously can't go on with the quest when their most valuable member (and most good-looking, by the way) is out cold, drooling on whoever is unfortunate enough to be sitting next to me. Plus, what do they expect to do; leave me in the car while they go exploring dangerous, but totally cool, volcanoes? Uh, no. Not on my watch.
"Nico. Let's be realistic. If we have to drive across the country, it would take us days. Plus, think about all the money we'd be wasting on gas! We could easily loose all of our American money. And I'd like you to try to find a diner that accepts drachmas for hamburgers. But, if we shadow-traveled, we could be there in seconds! Seconds! Then, you could sleep for a while, while we check out some volcanoes. What do you say?"
Annabeth was a pretty good negotiator. Really, she was. One time she convinced a drive-through guy to give her two free hamburger meals, if she came back and paid for it the next day; the next day we were 2 states away, trying to do the same thing to a Taco Bell guy. Once again, it worked.
But, that doesn't mean she convinced me to do this stupid task for her. No way in Hades would I take them across the country. Plus, I was both sleep and food deprived. I was currently living off 5 hours of rest and half of a Weight Watcher's granola bar. Weight Watchers granola bar. Do you see how desperate for food I am? I've become a disgrace to the teenage-boy world.
"No. Absolutely not. No way. As if. Keep dreaming. Never." I responded, "Besides, how do you expect to get around once we get there? Walk from state to state?" It's true. If the car's here, they only way to get around is by using their good ole' legs. Which means someone will have to carry me. So, ha.
Annabeth looked confused. "By using the car, of course. What did you think, we were going to leave it here? You'll have to take it with us. Duh." She looked at me like I had the IQ of Paris Hilton.
"What the *$^& (once again, I'm trying to keep my thoughts PG) are you thinking?! In your mind, am I Superman or something?? Although the similarities are astonishing, I am not in fact Superman. So how the #%! do you expect me to shadow travel 4 people, and a car, across the country?! I get tired when I shadow-travel to breakfast because I'm too lazy to walk, for the god's sake! There's. No. Way." A car. A CAR! She's kidding me.
Annabeth narrowed her eyes. I forgot she had a strict rule about cursing. Oh well.
At this point, both Jill and Percy were gathered around, listening in on the argument. It was pretty boring around here, and we were all desperate for excitement. It just so happened that me and Annabeth were the provided entertainment.
Nobody was talking. We were both too mad. Her grey eyes seemed to get colder when she was angry, and they met my narrowed dark brown ones like two swords clashing. Even though I towered over her, she was still kinda creeping me out. She had slowly crossed her hands over her chest, and shifted her weight to one leg; she looked like she could kill me without thinking twice. And knowing her, I don't doubt it.
After what seemed like hours, but that was probably just because it's hard to stand still, somebody talked.
"Hey, uh, Nico? Sorry to interrupt your little staring contest there with my girlfriend, but didn't you transport you, me, and Mrs. O'Leary to Lu-" seeing the look on Annabeth's face, he rephrased his sentence, "to that lady's house? Like, a couple states away?"
"Yea. And do you remember how tired I was afterwards? And anyways, that was mostly Mrs. O'Leary doing the work. Hellhounds can shadow-travel a lot easier. Plus, she's been doing it for hundreds of years. I've been doing it since I was 10."
Percy was confused. But no worries, it's a common feeling for him. "Uh, then why don't we just get a hellhound? Simple as that."
Simple as that. I officially have the stupidest cousin in the world.
"Yes, Percy. We find a hellhound, capture it, train it against its instincts to obey us, learn to trust it, then we can shadow-travel with it. Simple as that." I said mockingly. He sat back, defeated; and I went back to glaring at Annabeth.
"For once in his life, Nico's right. That's near impossible. And I doubt Mrs. O'Leary is randomly taking a jog around the country and is happening to be taking a break outside in the motel parking lot, so we need Nico to suck it up and stop being such a drama queen." Ouch.
"Technically, I would be a drama king. And last time I checked, being a king isn't a bad thing. Even if I was the king of all drama. See, that doesn't sound too horrible, now doesn't it?" Boy, if looks could kill, I would be a dead man. "And anyways, since I'm a king, I can't be bothered by foolish things like looking at volcanoes. Sorry, but you'll have to find someone else to do it." I shrugged and went to turn away, when she grabbed my arm and dug her fingernails into my skin. I turned back to face her, and met her with a loathing glare.
"You. Will. Do. What. I. Say. Understand?" she asked, pausing after each letter. I could feel blood trickling down my arm where her nails broke the skin, and I'm fairly sure I was about to pee myself. Yes, Annabeth Chase, a 5'4" blondie, was scaring big ole' Nico di Angelo (the great). As hard to believe as it is, you've never seen Annabeth Chase's death glare. I could swear, there were lasers shooting out of them.
After a couple more minutes of sharing our silent hatred, I grabbed my backpack from the couch and walked out of the room. I could faintly hear Annabeth objecting as I left, but I ignored her and kept going. Somebody's footsteps padded behind mine, struggling to catch up with my long strides.
I saw a flash of blonde, and was prepared to tell Annabeth off, when I saw it was instead her younger sister. Once she caught up with me, she tried to casually walk beside me, but in the end had to speed-walk.
She looked up at me. "Hey." I could see she had her backpack slung over her shoulder, too.
I met her gaze. "Hey." We continued walking down the long hallways. As we passed one room, I could hear two people arguing over what seemed like deodorant choices. The best, by the way, is obviously Axe. Just putting it out there.
Jill was the next to talk. "So, where ya headin? Starbucks? Because I could really go for a double chocolate chip frappachino. You?" Despite my suck-ish mood, I had to smile. After a couple of seconds of not answering, she talked again.
"Ya know, it doesn't have to be Starbucks. I could do Dunkin Donuts too. I wouldn't mind having a Coffee Coolatta… Really, anything delicious with caffeine. I'm a pretty easygoing girl." She grinned up at me.
"Honestly, I don't see you getting any frappachino, coolatta, latte, or anything else of the sort in the near future.. But if you want, I'm pretty sure I can get you some old coffee grounds from a restaurant's garbage. Hey, maybe I'll find some leftover toast crust, too." Mmmm… sounds delicious. She started laughing as we reached the ground floor of the hotel.
"Tempting, but I'll have to pass. Maybe next time."
We walked outside, and were met by Percy and Annabeth leaning against the car and talking amongst themselves. I groaned in disappointment, but kept walking nonetheless. When we reached them, Jill asked the question I had been wondering the answer to.
"How'd you guys get here so quick? We didn't even see you on our way out." Annabeth tilted her chin upwards, signaling to look up. After a couple seconds Jill found the answer, for she let out a small "Ohhh…"
Looking up, I saw what she had realized. There was a fire escape, like those on apartments, that was leading from the windows to the side of the parking lot. And, of course, our window was one of the ones connected to the metal stairway. Wow, Nico. Way to be observant.
I saw Annabeth as a big sister, and I'm fairly sure the feeling was mutual. But not that she saw me as an older sister, that she saw me as a little brother. Because the other way would be – okay. You get it.
But as I'm sure everybody already knows, siblings get in fights. Quite frequently, actually. So this dispute wasn't a very uncommon thing in the glorious life of Nico di Angelo.
She turned back to look at me. "So… I've decided we could make a compromise. Is that okay for the king?" she asked, mocking me with the last part. I put on a sarcastic smile, and answered.
"Of course. Well, as long as it's ok with the Wicked Witch of the East." Seeing her eyes narrow was enough praise for my response.
"Charming." She changed her voice so it was as though she was speaking to a small child, "If you do this, I'll give you a… Scooby Snack! Yayyy!" Now it was my turn to narrow my eyes. She began speaking again.
"Alright, seriously. If you do this, I'll buy you… a large French fries from McDonald. Deal?" She knew that I was desperate for fattening foods, but not that desperate.
"No way. That's not enough." I made a hand gesture that very simply said "more".
"Fine. A large French fries and a soda. Now, deal?" I shook my head "no".
"Geez! Somebody's selfish. I'll buy you a large French fries, a soda, a hamburger of your choice, and I'll even buy you an ice cream cone." My eyes lit up with excitement as she mentioned the ice cream cone. I hadn't had one of those since… 1903. And believe me, that's a long time to not have an ice cream cone.
The next thing I knew, I was in the car shadow traveling across the country, with 3 more teenagers in the other seats. I managed to keep my eyes open throughout the journey, but once we arrived, I was out cold.
I woke up to a searing pain in my forehead, and the taste of blood running down my face and into my mouth. I reached my hand up to feel what was going on, and I felt another hand smack mine away.
Because apparently, while the oh-so-great-adventurers were out exploring various volcanoes, somebody had come over to the unconscious and totally defenseless boy and stapled a note to my forehead. What I was feeling was my brave, yet not-so-bright, cousin trying to rip the staple out.
Ah, The Glorious Life of Nico di Angelo.
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