I finally read the Son of Sobek last night, it was so good and it gave me hope for House of Hades.

I peeked a through my fingers, but averted my eyes away from where the head was. Both Percy and Grover had their eyes tightly closed.

"Oh yuck," said Grover. "Mega-yuck."

I carefully picked up her black veil and walked forwards with my eyes trained on the sky. "Don't move," I said. This was not a job for those faint of heart. I am not one to get queasy, but even though I still felt my stomach lurch. Very slowly I wrapped the head in the veil. I felt some of the green ooze drip onto my hands.

"Are you okay?" I asked Percy even though he was evidently not; he wore an expression similar to that of a startled animal. I could feel my voice shaking and tried to get it under control.

"Yeah, why didn't . . . the head evaporate?"

"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war, same as your Minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you," I explained. I silently recalled how after the original Perseus killed Medusa the first time; he presented the head to my mother to mount on her shield. I felt a pang in my chest as I remembered Thalia's replica shield. It was terrifying, but I always felt safe behind it next to Thalia and Luke.

I heard Grover moan as he peeled himself of the front of the bear. He had a giant welt on his forehead and his winged shoes were flying around above them.

"The Red Baron," said Percy. "Good job, man."

Grover grinned bashfully. "That really was not fun, though. Well the hitting-her-with-a-stick-part that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."

The three of went back into the warehouse to find something a little better to store the head in. Several plastic grocery bags later we plopped ourselves down where we had eaten earlier and placed the double-bagged Medusa in front of us.

After a long gap of silence Percy decided it would be a good time to say, "So do we have Athena to thank for this monster?"

I shot him an irritated glare. "Your dad actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."

Percy's face burned red. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."

I sat up, in a cheesy imitation of Percy I said, "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"

"Forget it," he said. "You're impossible."

"You're insufferable," I said, defending myself.

"You're-"

"Hey!" yelled Grover. "You two are giving me a migraine and satyrs don't even get migraines."

We all looked down at the head of Medusa.

Percy stood up, "I'll be back."

"Percy, what are you-," I called after him but he was already to far away.

I sunk back into my seat and put my head on my hands. I was ready to collapse from exhaustion. All around me were reminders of Medusa's ruthlessness. Percy was amazingly powerful. He took out Medusa after only a few weeks of training. He lived up to his title as Child of the Big Three.

This moment of quiet allowed me to think about what happened on the bus. The Furies had yelled where is it, rather than where is he, like they were looking for a thing. The only thing that actually made sense was that they think we have the bolt. Which kind of puts a kink in our plan considering we are going to LA to retrieve the bolt from Hades.

I also took the opportunity to grab some provisions from the snack bar. I stuffed a bag with chips and other snacks.

Percy came back a few minutes later with a cardboard box. He placed Medusa's head in it and wrote out the address of the gods on the packing slip and slapped in onto the box.

"They're not going to like that," warned Grover. "They're going to think you're impertinent."

He poured some golden drachmas into the pouch and it disappeared with a pop!

"I am impertinent," he said.

He looked at me with an expression daring me to challenge him.

This seemed like normal behavior for Percy, so I just sighed and muttered, "Come on, we need a new plan."

After we put enough space between the warehouse, and us we decided to camp out on the soggy ground. Around us the ground was littered with soggy wrappers and cans.

I didn't have very high standards so I just through some blankets on the ground and curled up.

Dreams found me quickly.

I was lying in the clearing but I couldn't move anything besides my head, when I looked around I saw hundreds of spiders scuttling towards me. I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest. I was still immobile and spiders had now made their way on top of me. I opened my eyes Percy was leaning over me whispering, "Annabeth, Annabeth, wake up." At first I thought I was in another dream when I saw the trees above me, but the haze of sleep lifted and my eyes were clear.

"You were thrashing around," Percy said. (A/N: And yes I know this isn't in the book but his watch wasn't, so maybe Uncle Rick decided it wasn't important enough to include it, so I'm just going to add it in.)

Percy's eyes were bloodshot. "Okay, its my turn to take watch," I said. He looked hesitant, but then silently agreed and flopped down on the pile of blankets. I wondered how long Percy had put off waking me.

I sat down and leaned my back against a tree with my cap on and listened. I took in a breath and let it finally sink in that I was on a quest at last. I had been waiting for one as long as I had been learning how to fight. Now were nearly supply less and had no traveling options but it was a quest.

My ears were straining to hear any cracking of branches but I was pleased not to hear any, only the soft breathing of Grover and the occasional earth-shattering snore from Percy.

I watched the sun rise with brilliant hues of pink, blue, purple, yellow, and orange and remembered that it was Apollo pulling his chariot across the sky. Even when I was little I loved reading about all the "myths" and now I'm a part of the stories.

When I saw Grover stirring I got up and got myself a bag of Fritos. I heard Grover mutter something about going exploring and I just silently nodded.

When Grover returned he had a startlingly pink poodle in tow. I looked at him quizzically.

"This is Gladiola, don't ask," he said settling himself upon a blanket with the poodle on his lap. "I'll explain it all when Percy wakes up."

"Hi," I said to the poodle. I've learned to take Grover's relationship with animals seriously.

I shrugged and walked over to Percy and shook him awake. He groggily opened his eyes.

"Well," I said. "The zombie lives."

"How long was I asleep?" he said.

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast," I said tossing him a bag of corn chips. "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend," I said.

They went through the formalities and Percy looked over at me when they were introduced to see if he was serious, and I kept a straight face.

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," said Percy. "Forget it."

"Percy," I growled. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

"Hello, poodle," said Percy begrudgingly.

Grover went on to explain that when they met each other in the woods they'd started talking and Grover learned that Gladiola had run away from a local rich family, who are offering a $200 reward to anyone who returns him. Gladiola didn't want to go back but would to help Grover.

"Gladiola's a boy?" I thought. "That poor dog."

"How does Gladiola know about the reward," Percy asked.

"He reads the signs," said Grover as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Duh."

"Of course," said Percy. "Silly me."

"So we turn in Gladiola, get the money and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple," I said. Even if I wasn't sure that was the right place it was a plant to start with and probably our best shot.

"Not another bus," said Percy.

"No," I agreed.

I pointed downhill toward the train tracks. "There's an Amtrack station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the west bound train leaves at noon."

Review my lovelies. It's right down there, down and to the right.