Hey guys! So funny thing, my teacher gave us an assignment where we had to pretty much write fanfiction. Basically we had to choose a book and write a final chapter to it in the author's style. It was really fun and I thought I'd post it here! (I got 100 on it btw) Anyways, we got to choose whatever book we wanted and I chose (drum roll please) The Tyrants Tomb! Book 4 in the Trials Of Apollo series! If you haven't read that book yet, drop everything you're doing and go read it RIGHT NOW! Then you can come back and read this! Like my other works, this one will have a fun fact before the story begins. Now, who's ready to read and roll?! sorry about that. I couldn't help myself. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Fun Fact: Matsuo Basho, the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period, invented the poetry form: haikus.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except this idea. Everything else is thanks to the greatest deity of them all, Rick Riordan.

44

Just pick a dang car!

We should have gotten more scones

At least Meg's happy

Finding a ride was much harder than I thought. Well okay, the finding part was easy. Lavinia knows some people (who doesn't she know) who can lend us a car, free of charge. Who needs this many cars I have no idea. There's bound to be at least 50 in this private lot. Yet choosing which one to take is more than a little difficult. But this is all Meg's fault. She won't stop complaining about every single detail. Her complaints varied from "the air is too stale here" to "the seats aren't squishy enough" to finally "this is the wrong aura". I tried to keep my cool, but let me tell it was not easy. Meg was overcomplicating this and I was about to lose it. And we already finished all of the scones so I couldn't even eat my anger away! So far we've looked at 26 different vehicles, none of them right for Meg. I personally couldn't tell the difference. As long as it had decent radio stations I was fine. Cars were always more my brother Ares's forte. He would always drag me to auto-shows around the world and point out the best cars. I could never see what made them so great. Now if they had a built-in-stage where your own personal band could play your favorite tunes, then I'd have been interested. Or if the cars had some sort of auto-pilot or auto-drive setting. If mortals had invented that technology, I could take it and integrate it into my sun chariot! Then I wouldn't have to do any work and could just sit back and relax and listen to my favorite tunes. And let me tell you, after listening to a millennia worth of music, I sure have a lot of favorites.

"Hey, Meg! How about this one?" I spread my arms and gesture to the jeep in question, like Will Smith did when showing off his wife at the red-carpet. Ah, what an amazing man. In fact dear readers, I helped jump-start his career. Your welcome all you Will Smith fans. Meg meanders over and carefully inspects the car. It takes forever, and that's coming from me, a former god. "So...What do you think? Perfect right?" I finally ask.

"Eh...it's too green." She shrugs and starts to walk away.

"Too green? TOO GREEN?! What do you mean it's too green?!" She shrugs again, still facing away from me. "Meg listen to me! We need a ride and we need it now. We've been searching and searching through these cars for the past four hours! The color doesn't matter, we just need to pick one!"

"Color totally matters. It counts for like 75% of the car." You know in cartoons when the characters eye twitches when they're exasperated? If this were a cartoon my eye would have twitched itself off.

"In this case scenario color doesn't matter! The only factor that matters is the vehicle's tendency to go crashing off highways! We already have a streak of two, after all, let's not make it three." That would really suck if we managed to make not one, not two, but three flightless vehicles fly in less than two weeks. If that were to happen I'd have to be renamed the God of bad luck instead of the God of archery. And I bet Meg would be the first to sign off on that change. The same Meg who stubbornly refuses to answer and continues down the rows of cars. She has the most annoying mood swings. One moment we'd be happily fighting monsters back to back and the next she's angsty and closed off. And she's only twelve! How can a twelve-year-old have as many mood swings as Meg does?

"Hmm…this ones not right either. The tires are a weird pattern." I hear Meg mumble.

"Ugh, Meg! We just need a vehicle that can get us to New York as fast as possible so we can fight -" Oh gods. Ohgodsohgodsohgodsohgods. How could I have been so stupid?! Of course Meg wanted to waste as much time as humanly possible and take all the time in the world to get to New York. That's where her evil step-father who emotionally abused her for years is! Where he killed her father right in front of her. Where he constantly threatened to let out the Beast - his even more evil alter ego - if she didn't do exactly as he said. After that kind of pain, it's completely understandable that she would want to run and never stop running, just to get as far away from him as she can. She's only twelve after all! And to deal with all the things she's dealt with, it's hard to go back to where it all started. To who started it all. Especially if that person is someone close to you. When some nameless stranger hurts you, it's easy to hate them and just shrug it off. But when someone you love, someone you trust, decides to hurt you, that's a different story. It's hard to hate them because you grew up being told to love them no matter what. It's hard to just shrug it off because they are no longer just a nameless face in a sea of nameless faces. They are someone who's cared for you and always wanted the best for you. Well, not anymore. Once they've hurt you, you have no obligation to love, listen, or care about them. Do you hear that readers? You have every right to scream, fight and hate them with all that you are. Meg has every right to hate Nero and want to slit his throat. This journey will be in no way easy, but we will get through it together, like we've gotten through every challenge up until now. Silently, I walk up to Meg and wrap my arms around her. At first, she tenses up, but then she relaxes and lets herself feel vulnerable. She sobs and her knees give out, leaving all of her weight in my arms. For a twelve-year-old, she is pretty heavy and I almost drop her. Once we're situated I start stroking her hair and murmuring in a soothing tone.

"A-Apol-lo?" She asks, her breath hitching.

"Yes Meg?" I whisper.

"I…I'm scared, Apollo. Like really really scared and I don't…I don't know what to do." She starts sobbing again and she cries into my shoulder, snot dripping all over my clothes. But whatever, it's fine, I don't mind. Nope I don't mind one bit. All that matters to me right now is that my sister - and yes, I'm calling her my sister - is okay.

"Hey, um, listen. We don't need to go straight to New York, we still need to find more stanzas for the terza rima prophecy."

"The confusing one where the third line rhymes with the first line of the next part thing?"

"Stanza, and yup! That's the one!" Meg ponders it for a few minutes before silently getting into the nearest car - which happens to be a bright purple Ferrari. I stand around and wait for her to come back out with another complaint about some small detail that actually doesn't matter. She pops her head out of the car and gives me a look that screams "what on earth do you think you're doing?"

"Uh, Apollo? What are you waiting for? Let's go!" I smile and hop in on the driver's side. I toss our supplies in the back, buckle up and turn to Meg.

"You ready for another adventure?"

~Fin~