"What do you mean you didn't bring a camp van?" Percy asks, incredulously, watching Frank pluck a horse hair from his shirt sleeve.

"Well, we thought you guys had it covered! Besides, it was just us, and I figured it would've been easier to just use Frank," Hazel points out, and Percy hates how logical it is.

"Gee, thanks," Frank grumbles.

"That's not what I meant," Hazel blushes, "I just - oh, you know what I meant,"

"Well, what are we supposed to do now?" Piper asks, sitting criss-cross on the ground. Nobody answers, but they all sit next to her, thinking.

Jason puts his head in his hands and hums, "We could always take the pegasus,"

Annabeth snorts, "Yeah, right. Chiron already didn't like the idea of us leaving; there's no way he would let us take the horses, too,"

Percy groans, laying back and tucking his hands under his head, he squints up at the sky, ". . . We could take the Argo," He offers, but, to be honest, doesn't really want to.

It'd been a while since any of them had been on it - months, seeing as they never needed after they managed to defeat it. The last time it had been used was when Leo came back from Ogygia, Calypso in tow, with Festus. He had reattached the figure head, and that had been that. He was more worried of the bad memories that would be brought up if they ended up taking it, and, based on the others' hesitation, they were, too.

"Hmmm. We could rent a car," Annabeth muses, "Though I'm not sure how willing they'd be to let a bunch of teenagers use it,"

The others exchange glances before Percy shrugs, "It's worth a try,"

. .

They managed to find a car rental place through the help of some Hephaestus kids, and, with a lot of bribery and convincing, Leo got Nyssa to build them a wifi-free GPS app. It wasn't anything special - a small, black box that resembled a pacer and was small enough to fit in a pocket, but big enough to stick on the windshield and still be able to properly see it.

Piper went with Frank and Hazel as Frank, Jason, Percy, and Annabeth got packed and ready. It took a lot of persuading on the demigods' part to let Rick - the rental place owner - let them use a car. Not only because they were not only irresponsible looking teenagers but also because they had no idea what they were doing or where they were going.

The only thing they had in mind was that they wanted to do this, no matter what it took. So, Piper used her charm speak and coaxed Rick into letting them use a white SUV, and Hazel, though reluctantly, matched his handwriting and forged a note so that, when the charm speak wore off, he wouldn't be too worried.

They loaded into the car, with nothing except some spare clothes, hygiene products, and a couple of hundred dollars they stole from Travis and Connor.

"We still don't know where we're going," Annabeth says, getting settled into the back.

"Sure we do," Percy grins from the driver's seat.

"Oh, yeah, and where's that?" Frank asks, handing the map he found in the dashboard to Annabeth, who takes out a marker.

"Vermont. Duh,"

"V - Percy, that's six hours away," Jason frowns, rolling down the window.

Percy puts the key in the ignition, and turns it, starting the car, "I told you. Every single state."

"Well, shouldn't we plan it out on the map first?" Hazel asks, nervously.

He grins at her in the rearview mirror, "Nope,"

Annabeth rights something down on the map, sighing, and Piper leans over her shoulder, reads it, and laughs, giving her a fist bump as Percy backs out and they head toward Vermont.

. .

Destination: Vermont

Tourist Attractions: Scenic Drives, Mountain Biking, Parks

Arrival Time: Six Hours

(This was Percy's idea - I swear to Gods, he's a dumbass, and he's not picking the next destination)

can you insert images in ffnet? there was a whole other thing i had for this chapter but. . . i dunno, i can't figure it out (if you can).

chapter title cred. to david bowie's we could be heroes