Chapter Χ
I Make Friends with a Superstar
Disclaimer: I'm just putting an * from now on, cause it's driving me insane.
Happy birthday, whose birthday you ask? Someone's, if it's yours, here's my present. 'Internet Flat Screen', there you go. For those who didn't notice, I changed the name, due to a review. The name will make sense soon, right now it's just confusing.
Rain is a Good Thing
Luke Bryan
My daddy spent his life lookin' up at the sky Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey Ain't nothin' like a kiss out back in the barn Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey Farmer Johnson does a little dance Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey
He'd cuss, kick the dust, sayin' son it's way too dry
It clouds up in the city, the weather man complains
But where I come from, rain is a good thing
Whiskey makes my baby feel a little frisky
Back roads are boggin' up, my buddies pile up in my truck
We hunt our honeys down, we take 'em into town
Start washin' all our worries down the drain
Rain is a good thing
Wringin' out our soakin' clothes, ridin' out a thunderstorm
When tin roof gets to talkin'; that's the best love we made
Yea where I come from, rain is a good thing
Whiskey makes my baby feel a little frisky
Back roads are boggin' up, my buddies pile up in my truck
We hunt our honeys down, we take 'em into town
Start washin' all our worries down the drain
Rain is a good thing
Creeks on the rise, roll up your pants
Country girls, they wanna cuddle
Kids out playin' in a big mud puddle
Whiskey makes my baby feel a little frisky
Back roads are boggin' up, my buddies pile up in my truck
We hunt our honeys down, we take 'em into town
Start washin' all our worries down the drain
Rain is a good thing
We got through the rest of Olympus and the trip from The Empire State Building to my mom's apartment without any other threats. We managed to talk normally the whole way there; another part of Chaos's training, I finally stopped stressing about things that can wait. Don't get me wrong, I'm worried about Grover, but the Night-Mares sent me that note, they'll wait for me.
When we got to my mom's apartment, I unlocked the door with the spare key hidden in a hole in the wall. That hole was the result of a little, uh, accident I had with a javelin (I swear, you'd think I'd been cursed by the god of javelins as well). I walked approximately three feet inside the doorway before being smothered by my mom, which was her usual method of greeting.
"Percy," she exclaimed, grinning, "what happened this time, where did you go, tell me everything." She said all this without breathing in. "And who's this?" she asked, spotting Artemis.
"Mom," I said, like I always did when I came home, "calm down, breathe; let's go into the living room."
She nodded; we walked into the living room, which she had completely emptied of all breakable-by-javelin material. To my surprise, Paul was there, watching some background show about Tim McGraw on GAC.
"Paul," I said happily, "what are you doing here?"
"Hey Percy," he said, smiling, "me and Sally were just about to head out, we've got some Christmas shopping to do, apparently for more than just you." He was looking at Artemis.
Answering before he could ask the inevitable question, I said, "Mom, Paul, this is Artemis, my…" I gave her a questioning look.
"…girlfriend, more or less." She finished, flashing them a charming smile.
Paul accepted it without question, but my mom was used to this world, so she caught the possibility, "Artemis, like the goddess of the moon?" She asked suspiciously.
"Very much like that, yes."
"Oh." My mom didn't really seem surprised; I think she was expecting it somehow. Paul started getting a bit confused though.
"You aren't really…" he trailed off.
"Yes, sir, I am."
"Please, don't call me 'sir', if anything, I should be calling you 'ma'am'."
"Don't, it drives me insane."
"Good, it's awkward." Artemis chuckled, I could tell she liked them, and they her (which was pretty much impossible not to).
"So," my mom said, "what happened with Annabeth?"
I knew she would bring that up, "She left me for Apollo, god of the sun, healing, and really bad haikus."
Everyone laughed, which was my intention, to avoid going into detail.
So we covered all that had happened while we were gone, from the hellhound to the note I got.
Afterwards they both urged me to get going. "It doesn't seem reasonable for you to be waiting around with us while Grover's in danger."
I knew if I argued they would just push me out the window and assume I would be okay. So I just went ahead and walked out with Artemis. She held me back before we got in the elevator.
"Percy, there's a meeting on Olympus, I'm needed, you'll have to go to San Francisco by yourself. I talked to my father, he agreed you can fly there, the plane's already arranged. Here's the ticket." She handed me a plane ticket, it left at six; it was first class.
"You didn't have to do that, I can find my way easily enough."
"It wasn't any trouble, when you're a god you can arrange this kind of stuff pretty easily."
"Fair point." I was actually really grateful, and arguing about the fact she was too nice to me really didn't have a point. I kissed her goodbye and she flashed out. I caught a cab and headed to the airport.
Once I was at the airport, I had the usual rush of the security line and odd looks as I insisted on keeping my pen and that I didn't have any bags but one which was full of normal supplies for me. I told them the nectar was apple juice and the ambrosia was brownies, snacks for the road.
When I got on the plane, I immediately moved to my seat, I got the window seat, so I could enjoy my first flight in a plane where I wasn't likely to be blasted out of the sky. I dozed for the half-hour until take-off; the person sitting next to me didn't arrive until we were five minutes from the time the gates closed. He arrived with a small band of paparazzi, and sat down next to me as if it was perfectly normal.
I stared, "You're kidding me, right?"
He laughed, "Nope, I always do this; otherwise there would be more of them." He waved his hands toward the paparazzi.
"But, dude, you're Tim McGraw."
"Good to know, I thought I might have been Reba there for a second, I was worried."
I laughed, and not because he was famous, but because he was funny. I had this image in my head of stars not being able to crack jokes, it was good to know at least one country superstar had a sense of humor.
"At least you aren't fainting, that's what happened last time."
"Poor girl."
"It was a guy."
"You sure about that?"
He grinned at me, "Nice, I was starting to think no one would ever crack jokes around me again."
"I've been around famous people before." No need to mention they were gods.
"Really, who?"
"You wouldn't believe me." He accepted that.
"So what's your name, kid?"
"Percy Jackson."
I had a pretty awesome flight to say the least, we talked, joked, gave each other ideas for practical jokes (one of his friends put frozen eels in someone's bed; I had to remember that one). It was a great time, and the paparazzi really weren't all that bad, some of them contributed an idea every now and then.
When the plane landed at San Francisco International, we both got off side by side on one of the stairways, to a large band of people, mostly people anyway. But these guys didn't want autographs, they were out for blood.
We had flown right into an ambush of Scythian Dracaena.
They howled and jumped at me; I shoved Tim out of the way and pulled out Riptide. I slashed through a good half-dozen of them. There were another twenty left, I slashed and hacked through the remainder. When I was done, I walked calmly back over to Tim.
"I don't know what the hell happened there, but I owe you one. Anytime you need a favor, call me." He wrote down a number with his autograph pen (which he had told me doubled as an extremely powerful laser light, for overenthusiastic fans).
"Thanks, man, I'll see you around."
"I hope so."
So, there we go, Percy made friends with Tim McGraw, how awesome is that. Review, I'll get up a new chapter soon.