Author's Note: Wow…finally finished this chapter. I struggled through it, pulling words out of my mind. Seriously, I feel like this chapter was fighting against me. And then…the writer's block suddenly went away. It was a great feeling. So I apologize greatly for the huge time lapse; here's a prize for your patience.

Not much action in this chapter, I'm afraid. But I did take a bit of Heroes of Olympus info to write this. You'll see.

Ooo I saw Skyfall. Loved it! And now for Les Miserables! I've seen every version of that story. Except reading it.

So…um…I don't think I'm forgetting anything. Oh, yes I am. MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you guys got everything you wanted and more! Enjoy the remaining, what, 10 days? Yeah!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PJO OR HOO OR ANY OF THAT GOOD STUFF.

Enjoy!

Chapter 11: I Drink Grover's Gatorade

In my dream, I saw the two girls again. They were sitting in a dense forest, and I could only barely make out their silhouettes in the darkness, but I was sure it was they. The older one was made of mist like before, and the smaller girl was wrapped in another blanket. She seemed to be shivering in the cold.

"I thought for sure Medusa would've killed him," she muttered.

The misty one glared. "I thought you were going to kill him," she growled. "In your own words, 'he'd be dead before he knew what was wrong with him.'"

The girl in the blanket lowered her head, as if in shame. "I thought he would be, my lady," she protested.

Misty girl scoffed. "Well, now he's on his way to destroy your family. Our family. And what are you going to do about it?"

The other girl fumed for a few seconds. "I had a plan, my lady. It would've been over on the bus, but she made them get off. Almost like she…sensed me. And then, Medusa, and…" She trailed off in frustration.

The misty girl narrowed her eyes. "I want you to get rid of him. Before he reaches his destination. Understood? Obviously Price's curse isn't working fast enough."

"My lady," the other girl said, "the curse of Achilles makes it difficult."

"Then find a way to break through it." Suddenly the mist girl looked around like she heard something…or someone. Then she stared right at me. "So, we've got an eavesdropper," she mused. "You know what the punishment for eavesdropping is, don't you, little demigod?"

"Someone's coming, my lady!" the girl in the blanket hissed.

"You take care of them," the mist woman replied. "And I'll take care of this one." She smiled cruelly and stretched out her hand, almost like she was beckoning me.

Suddenly, it was like my chest was imploding. I couldn't breathe, and the pain jolted me awake. I was still lying in Annabeth's lap, and she was still fast asleep, but I was in so much pain I felt like screaming. I couldn't catch my breath, and it took every ounce of my willpower to haul myself to my feet.

I covered my mouth, feeling the urge to cough my lungs out. As soon as I was outside of the tent, I dissolved into the worst coughing fit yet. I was wheezing for air, doubled over in pain that radiated from my lungs and my heart to the tips of my fingers. But the worst part was when my vision blended everything together, my ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton, a cold sweat broke out on my forehead…and suddenly I was hit with a wave of debilitating nausea.

I clamped a hand over my mouth and managed to make it to the edge of the forest before I threw up. Needless to say, it wasn't fun. At all. I found myself hugging my stomach, my eyes shut with pain. I collapsed to my knees, feeling another wave of nausea roll over me. I tried to keep down the rising bile in my throat, without success.

When I finally opened my eyes, my vision was still blurred, but I could see a figure coming toward me—a girl. I was worried that it might have been one of the girls from my dream, and I did not have the strength to run or fight.

"Percy?" the girl called as she approached. It was Jessica.

I looked up, and I wanted to answer, but I was afraid if I opened my mouth, I'd throw up again.

As she got closer, she seemed to notice my awful state, and her eyes went wide with panic as she ran to my side. "Oh, mes dieux," she whispered. "Percy…you're throwing up?"

I took a deep breath, for once appreciating the cold air. "I'm fine," I croaked. It was a terrible lie.

Jessica frowned. "Is that like, an automatic thing? Whenever we can see that you're obviously not okay, you say you are, and we're supposed to believe you?"

I glared at her. The last thing in the world I needed was a lecture from my little sister. But she was just frustrated. And she was right. I sighed. "I guess it is an automatic thing," I admitted. "I hate when people are worried about me. I guess…I'm just used to making things seem less serious than they really are, because of my mom. I hate worrying her." I scoffed. "Not that she believes me, either," I added.

Jessica helped me to my feet. I leaned heavily on her as we walked back to the tent. "We should tell the others," she murmured.

I shook my head. "No."

"What do you mean, 'no'?" she asked, her eyes wide. "This is serious, dude. I don't care that you don't want to worry everyone else. It's a little too late for that, anyway. They're already worried about you."

I rolled my eyes, but I didn't answer. My legs felt like Jell-O, and my stomach was still twisted in painful knots. I sat down in the snow with my back resting against the tent, closing my eyes to keep everything from spinning.

"What's it like?"

I frowned. "What's what like?"

Jessica took a few seconds to answer. "This…curse, or whatever. What does it feel like?"

I thought about it. "Have you ever had pneumonia?" I asked her.

"Never," she answered.

I remembered my mom telling me about how I was hospitalized with pneumonia when I was four. All I remembered from the experience were the needles and the horrible cough; everything else was a feverish blur to me. "It's like having pneumonia, times ten-and-a-half," I explained. "The dizziness, the cough, the burning in your lungs…it's similar, but this is…" I shook my head. "This is so much worse."

I opened my eyes, and Jessica was looking at me with an expression between pity and worry. "Maybe we should wake up the others anyway," she suggested. "I mean, we should get going if this curse is getting so bad that you're throwing up."

I shook my head. "I don't think that was part of the curse. Remember those girls from my dream?"

She nodded warily. "What about them?"

I told her about my dream, how those girls were so upset to see me still alive, and the misty girl's punishment for my eavesdropping. "She just…I don't even know," I admitted. "All of a sudden there was this horrible pain and coughing, like she was making me worse, or manipulating the illness."

"So…why did you puke?" Jessica asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. The pain was just that nauseating, I guess." Even thinking about it made me feel like getting sick again, so I changed the subject. "So…you said you were French, right? Are you like, from France, or what?"

She laughed quietly. "My mom is," she answered. "She's from Lyon, in southern France. She came here for college. The year after graduation, she and a bunch of friends took a trip to New Orleans fro Mardi Gras. She met my…our…dad there. And so…here I am."

I nodded. "My mom met my dad at Montauk, up in Long Island." I frowned. "She was pretty young actually. It was for a summer…" I trailed off, surprised at myself for telling Jessica something so personal. I looked down awkwardly at my hands in my lap. "Anyway," I told her, "What were you doing in the forest?"

Jessica took on this strange expression, like she was seriously freaked out about something and was trying not to lose her cool. "I was keeping watch, and I thought I saw something in the forest, so I went to check it out," she explained.

I frowned. "Something like what you saw on the bus?" I asked.

Jessica stared at the darkness of the forest ahead of her. She seemed to grow paler in the moonlight. "I…I guess so," she murmured. "I had this strange feeling on the bus, and just now when I was keeping watch."

"Did you find anything?" I asked her.

Her eyebrows furrowed. She pursed her lips. But she shook her head.

"You're lying," I said to her.

She glared at me. "No, I'm not," she countered.

I thought about the girls in the forest, and how the one with the blanket seemed to notice something or someone coming. "What did you find?" I asked my sister again.

"Nothing," she said defensively. "Seriously. I just came back to find you puking. And about that, are you sure you want to keep this a secret from everyone? You're going to get worse in front of them anyway, you know."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm going to be fine, okay? We're going to stop this stupid curse, and I can't do that with everyone telling me to rest or take a break. I have to get to Alaska. I can do it."

My sister looked at me like she wanted to argue but was debating whether it would be worth it or not. Finally she sighed. "Fine. Then you better go back to bed. I'll wake up Nico for the next watch."

You know how when you have a cold or the flu, you wake up with your mouth dry and your throat stinging, and everything just aches? That's how I felt the next morning, but ten times worse.

Annabeth shook my shoulder gently. "Hey, Seaweed Brain," she murmured. "Wake up."

I sat up and immediately felt nauseous. But I painfully hauled myself to my feet. The vertigo and nausea overwhelmed me, and I fell into my girlfriend's arms. Even breathing was painful.

"Percy!" Annabeth's voice was panicky. "Percy, are you okay?"

I couldn't answer verbally—that's how out of breath I felt. So I shook my head feebly. Don't black out, Percy, I told myself. Do not black out.

"Oh, gods," Annabeth muttered. "Percy, come on, stay with me."

Black spots were rapidly filling my vision. But I managed to stay conscious, though I could feel my arms shaking as I tried to pull myself back to my feet. "I'm okay," I muttered, mostly to myself. "I'm okay."

Annabeth gently set me down on the floor and held my hand. "Percy, your hands are freezing," she said.

I felt so dizzy that I could barely focus on her face. "Maybe yours are just really warm," I murmured. That's how they felt, anyway. I closed my eyes; everything was spinning too fast. As soon as I did, I felt like I was sinking into darkness. But I still managed to stay conscious.

I felt a warm hand on my forehead. Annabeth muttered, "This isn't good." Then she called for Thalia.

"We need to get moving," Thalia decided. "Like, now."

"We can't do anything with him like this," Nico muttered.

I heard a finger-snap, like a light bulb had gone off in someone's head. I opened my eyes and saw Grover standing over me. "I got it!" he exclaimed. "Nico, do you still have that bottle of Gatorade?"

I frowned. "Gatorade?" I croaked.

Nico rolled his eyes. He was standing by the entrance of the tent. "Grover and I checked out the CVS early this morning, and Grover got this idea. A bad idea."

Grover looked offended. "It's a great idea," he corrected. He glanced at me. "It'll make you feel a little better, dude."

"Or make him throw up," Nico muttered.

I did not want to throw up anymore, so I was understandably reluctant to try whatever Grover was planning. But he had been my best friend since sixth grade at Yancy Academy. He always meant well. And Gatorade couldn't be that gross, could it? I sighed. "What's your idea, G-man?"

I was wary when Grover came back. He seemed to be holding a bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade, but it was slightly darker than it should have been. I raised an eyebrow. "Um…" I started, pointing to the bottle of strange liquid, "What's in that?"

Grover looked down at it. "Just some herbs, a little bit of mint for your throat. If I did it right, you'll feel better after this."

I didn't like the sound of that if. "And if you didn't do it right?"

Nico scoffed. "Let's just say…you'll feel worse after this," he muttered.

Grover pouted. "Aw, come on, Nico," he complained. "Does medicine taste good? But does it make you feel better?"

Thalia smirked. "Ambrosia does the job, too, while still tasting good," she pointed out.

That was a good point. "Then can I try some ambrosia first?" I asked.

Annabeth looked a little pained. "I wouldn't, at this point," she told me.

"Why not?"

"It'll spike your fever and make you sick to your stomach," she said. "And besides, even ambrosia won't stop the ice forming inside of you."

Jessica finally spoke up. "I'd go for the Gatorade, dude," she said. "You don't want to get sick again."

Annabeth frowned. "What do you mean, again?" She looked at me.

I gave my sister a hard look. "Nothing," I said.

There was no way Annabeth believed me, but she dropped it. Instead she said, "I agree with Jessica. You should go with the Gatorade. And it really does help," she promised. "It's satyr magic."

Grover nodded. "Coach Hedge taught me. He's usually pretty good at it."

I didn't know Coach Hedge very well; I'd only met him, like, once. But he was definitely the opposite of any satyr I'd ever met, with his loud voice and coach's whistle. And obsession with killing monsters. So I wasn't sure if Grover's mentioning Hedge should've helped or hurt.

Nico shook his head. "If you want to poison yourself, be my guest," he said.

Grover opened his mouth to snap back, but Thalia put a hand on his shoulder and took the bottle from him to hand it to me. "Just drink the Gatorade, Seaweed Brain," she sighed.

I took the bottle from Grover and stared at it. I'll be honest—I wasn't jumping up and down to drink that liquid. But I managed to force it down. Let's just say…if you mixed lemon-lime Gatorade, grass, mint leaves, and gym socks together, you'd get a taste similar to what I drank. I tried not to gag as I swallowed the last of it, handing the empty bottle back to Grover.

I guess he could tell by my expression that it hadn't been an enjoyable experience. "Okay, so it's not nectar," he muttered. "But how do you feel?"

Honestly, I did feel the tiniest bit stronger—not as faint or dizzy as before, though my chest and throat felt numb, and I could feel how hard it was to breathe. At least I wasn't ready to drop face-first. "Ignoring the aftertaste," I started, "I actually feel a little better." I smiled. "Thanks, man."

Grover grinned. "Told you."

Nico glanced at the empty bottle, then at me. "I still can't believe you actually drank that," he muttered, shaking his head. Jessica smirked.

Thalia shrugged. "Good thing he did," she said. "Because we need to get going." She glanced over in the direction of the gas station. "I hate stealing…but desperate times call for desperate measures. Let's go find a car someone won't miss."

Annabeth lowered her gaze, and then she glanced at me. She took one of my freezing-cold hands in hers and squeezed it tight. It still managed to send butterflies fluttering in my stomach. She seemed to be thinking so many things at once, there was no way I could even try to read her thoughts through her stormy gray eyes. Finally she sighed. "I'll drive," she offered.

Please, please, please tell me what you think of this. I had fun writing it. I don't know…I kind of like writing about Jessica. She's loosely based off of my sister and me. Even though we look nothing like her.

Currently listening to "Radioactive," by Imagine Dragons. Alexandra Daddario has a laser-shooting pink teddy bear in the music video.

Review, please! They're so very helpful!

Thanks!

~Mandi2341