Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I own no works credited to that name. Nor do I own any works credited to the name of Cassandra Clare, for I am not her, either. I'm simply me, and I only own works credited to my own name(s). {Currently Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name before that that I forget.}

~Mikayla's POV~

The gardens of Olympus were beautiful at this time of year. All the colors were just bursting with vibrancy, the reds and blues and yellows and purples so vivid they looked as though they'd come from some fever dream. I was glad my mother had given me the day off of serving her, it was nice and a walk in the park was just what I needed after a stressful week.

I was a minor goddess, serving my mother for eternity after she had offered me the position after I had retrieved her favorite helmet from a spider monster den two years ago. I'd actually been the only one even remotely willing to go, seeing as all the rest of my siblings were quite afraid of spiders. I wasn't afraid of them, just saw them like any other insect. That didn't include those spider monsters that had tried to kill me, though. They could all go burn.

The hardest part of that quest hadn't even been the den or retrieving the helmet. It had been all the driving. The den was way up in Minnesota, and I'd traveled up through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and up to the northernmost part of Minnesota. I'd actually gotten into a car crash in Ohio, in some small town. There had been a deer in the road, and I'd swerved to avoid it, but then my brakes stopped working. I crashed in the forest, after my car flipped. I'd apparently passed out, because I next woke in the hospital.

Doctors told me that my car had crashed, and that two young boys on their way home from the local middle and elementary school had pulled me out of the vehicle shortly before it exploded. They had gotten me to the road and flagged down a passing vehicle to call an ambulance. Apparently the boys never gave anyone their names, because the doctors didn't know anything about them other than where they'd been headed home from.

After the doctors let me go, I skipped town. I found a car dealership and paid for the cheapest car I could find, all in drachmae. The guy behind the counter's eyes had widened, but he took the bag and let me on my way. There had been zero hindrances after that.

When I'd returned home with my mother's helmet, she rewarded me with becoming a minor goddess and serving her for eternity, as well as allowing me one question. This was actually a common reward or gift from our mother, being allowed the answer of any one question, as we were children of Athena, and so were naturally quite curious and usually had many questions.

I asked her the only question I had.

Who saved me from that car crash?

She showed me the answer. Like a video screen, her shield played it.

I was surprised to find that the two boys, or at least one of them, were demigods. The one boy must've been very powerful to be so young and able to manipulate the car like that. The video ended when they left for home, and my mother informed me that their names were Hayden Blaire and Bailey Tucker.

I watched over the boys from time to time, to repay them for saving my life. If they hadn't investigated those swerve marks, or pulled me out of that car, I'd have died either when the car collapsed on me or when it exploded. And I did small things for them, when I could. Little things like getting Hayden's bully's father a promotion elsewhere so that they'd move, and sending a sudden influx of funding into the school's band program so that Bailey could continue to play percussion, rather than letting the program be shut down.

I was startled out of my thoughts when someone ran into me. They nearly knocked me over, but caught me at the last second. I looked up, a frown already on my face, to see a boy smiling sheepishly. "Sorry about that." He apologized.

"It's fine." I sighed, brushing myself off.

He stuck his hand out. "I'm Sage." He introduced himself.

I shook his hand. "I'm Mikayla." I greeted.

"Sage!" A voice called. I looked over to where a girl was approaching, three boys trailing behind her. "Oh, hello."

I gave a small wave. Sage smiled at the girl and the boys, before turning to me to introduce them. "These are my cousins." He explained. "Well, technically, I'm cousins with their parents, but whatever. That's Whit, that's Brady, that's-"

"Bailey Tucker and Hayden Blaire." I finished for him. "I know."

"You know who we are?" Hayden asked, brow furrowed. The rest of them looked equally confused.

"Of course I do." I told him. "I'm Mikayla Leanne. You saved my life."

Both of their jaws dropped. They must've heard my name in the news or something, because they both seemed to recognize me in the same moment.

"Weren't you that girl in the news that crashed her car?" Whit asked curiously.

"Yeah." I said, nodding.

"They didn't tell anyone their names." Brady said suspiciously.

"My mother allowed me one question when I retrieved her helmet, along with which she made me a minor goddess to serve her for eternity." I explained. "I asked her who the boys who saved my life were."

"So, uh, what exactly is going on?" Sage asked. He still looked a little lost, so I guessed no one had ever told him about what had happened.

"I was on a quest for my mother when my car crashed." I told him quietly. "Your cousins pulled me from the wreck, flagged down a driver to call an ambulance. Were it not for them, I'd have died."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing of this?" Sage asked, looking at his cousins.

"Remember when Jay called the farm, all frantic and worried, because he couldn't find them anywhere? When he thought maybe they somehow got themselves to the farm, but then they weren't there?" Whit asked Sage. His eyes lit up with recognition, and he nodded. "That was when."

"Well, it was nice meeting you all." I said, nodding my head at each of them. I turned to continue my walk through the gardens.

As I walked away, I could hear them all arguing, voices low, and though I couldn't make out what they were saying, it was mostly Whit arguing with Sage while Hayden, Brady, and Bailey occasionally interjected. I'd gotten about a hundred feet away before there were footsteps quickly approaching me. They slowed as they reached me, and then, "Mikayla."

I turned around to face Sage. "Yes?" I asked.

"Okay." He paused for a moment. "I don't really know anyone up here, and you're not too too much older than me, in terms of how long you've been up here, and you stopped around the same age as me. Would you want to hang out some time? It would be nice to have some friends."

"Today's my day off." I offered. He smiled wide.

"Does lunch sound good?" He asked.

"Sounds wonderful." I said. "Do you have anywhere specific in mind?"

"I know the perfedct place for a day like this." Sage said, holding out a hand. I took it. "Now, let's see if I can figure this out." He muttered to himself.

Then, Olympus disappeared around us.

It took him a couple tries, but he finally got us to the diner he was aiming for. I understood the struggle. I'd had problems, too, fiuring out the powers of a minor goddess when I became one. He must have had even more troubles, being so much more than a minor god. Everyone knew who he was, the new embodiment of Tartarus.

"We're here!" He called happily, looking up at the diner, a cute little place called Mary Jo Ellen's.

He held the door for me when we went in, and we were seated at a booth beside a window. I realized we'd never let go of each other's hands, and retracted my hand slowly. He just handed me a menu from the holder at the end of the table, not taking one for himself. I flipped through the pages slowly, ordering a lemonade when they asked for our drink orders.

A waitress was with us soon, and she smiled when she got to the table. "Sage, nice to see you round here again! We haven't seen you in ages. Don't think that you can just never visit now you're all high and mighty. And who's the pretty girl?" She asked. We both blushed, and she laughed.

"Lara, this is Mikayla, a friend." Sage introduced us. "Mikayla, this is Lara, she's a daughter of Demeter."

"Nice to meet you." I said.

"You too, sweetheart." She said. "Now, what can I get you guys for lunch?"

"I'll just have the usual." Sage said. Lara wrote something down and looked at me. I ordered a sandwich and fries.

"Alright, your orders will be out soon, you guys just missed the afternoon rush." She told us, before turning and heading for her next table.

"Usual?" I asked Sage curiously.

"Yeah, they know us here. Me and my cousins come here alot, when they come to the farm, which is basically twenty four seven." Sage said. He paused for a moment, thinking. "Now I think about it, I've been to Spruce Creek like three times in my entire life. They always come to the farm, rather than us go down there."

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