The Camp Half-Blood bus, driven by Argus, dropped them off at the bus station. Argus had been told by Chiron to make sure that they were seen off safely, but Luke could be incredibly charismatic when he wanted to be. With some quick thinking and smooth words, Luke had convinced Argus that they could take it from here. Luke really tapped into his camp counselor persona as he promised that he would keep an eye on Percy and Grover. Maybe it was because of how long Luke had been at camp, or because he had already gone on a quest, but Argus happily handed Luke the money they would need to buy their bus tickets before he got back onto the camp bus and made his way back to Half-Blood Hill.
As soon as Argus was out of sight Luke smirked and slipped the money into his pocket. "Now that the babysitter's gone, it's time to really get this quest started." Luke put an arm over Percy's shoulder and gestured for Grover to follow him. He led them away from the bus station and walked confidently down the street.
"Uh, we're supposed to be taking the bus," Grover pointed out.
"No, we're just supposed to get to Los Angeles." Luke raised an eyebrow at them. "It doesn't really matter how, and trust me, the bus is probably one of the worst options."
"Why?" Percy asked. He had grown up in New York, he was really familiar and comfortable with public transportation. He'd never understood why people didn't like it. It was easy and convenient once you knew what you were doing. Buses may not be the most comfortable, but it wasn't like they had a lot of options.
"Do you have any idea how far away Los Angeles is?" Luke asked. Percy and Grover both shook their heads. "Almost three thousand miles. Taking a bus, it'll take almost three days, and that's assuming that nothing goes wrong. Best case scenario, we have three days to get there, a day to find the master bolt, and three days to get back. That's seven days, which is cutting it a little close when we only have ten days to get the bolt back."
"Monsters always complicate things," Grover looked around somewhat anxiously, like he was expecting a monster to jump out and attack them right then and there. "Best case scenarios never happen for half bloods."
"Especially not half blood children of the big three." Luke said easily. Grover flinched almost violently and bleated nervously. "And even if we don't think about the time, taking public transportation would mean being around people, which means that not only will we be putting civilians in monster danger, but we'll also attract unwanted attention, and that's the last thing we want.
Percy swallowed thickly. He never would have considered these things. "Okay, so no bus. What are we supposed to do?"
"I've got a few ideas," Luke said. "First thing's first though, we have to make sure we have enough snacks. Because I don't know about you, but I'm not about to go on a road trip without some junk food to keep me happy and awake."
"That's what my cans are for," Grover patted his backpack. "But, yeah, some real food would be nice too."
Luke brought them to the nearest convenience store and let them loose. He told them to not worry about cost or nutrition, that he would take care of that stuff. All Percy and Grover needed to think about was what food they enjoyed. Percy wasn't used to this kind of freedom when it came to junk food. He may have regularly gotten candy from his Mom, but that hadn't included the cheap pastries and snacks that everybody at all of Percy's schools were so fond of. He rarely got the chance to have those things, and after the last few weeks he'd had Percy thought he deserved them.
Percy started looking at containers of cookies and cakes. He knew that it was all artificial junk, but after the ridiculously healthy food at Camp Half-Blood he was ready to eat something that was completely bad for him, just because he could. Besides, Percy had been raised by a mom who was obsessed with blue food, which was almost always artificially dyed. He didn't mind stuff that was 'fake' as long as it tasted good.
Percy was just really disappointed when he could barely find anything that was blue. He had never craved blue food so much. He missed his mom so badly that it hurt, and he just wanted this one small thing to normalize everything.
Luke came up behind Percy. "Nothing catching your interest?"
"It all looks fine," Percy said. He winced slightly when he heard the way that his voice cracked. He was furious that his eyes started to feel wet. He thought he'd gotten over crying about this whole thing. Grover looked at Percy in concern, but he didn't say anything.
"So what's the hold-up?" Luke asked. Percy was sure that he had noticed the tears, but he wasn't drawing attention to it. Luke didn't even give him a pitying look, and Percy appreciated it.
"I'm just thinking about my mom," Percy said. He gave a weak, watery laugh. "You know, she was obsessed with food that was blue. It was her way of saying you can't tell me what to do."
Luke looked like he couldn't decide whether to be annoyed or amused. "I have a life goal of finding a halfblood who has a mortal parent who is normal."
"What about Annabeth's dad?" Grover suggested.
"I guess Annabeth didn't tell you about the time she visited her uncle's house as a kid" Luke chuckled. "She said her uncle treated his own home like it was a museum to the old gods or something, and he inherited the house and everything in there. I don't know what's the deal with the Chase family, but I seriously doubt they're normal."
Luke started to grab all kinds of snacks and treats. If it was non-perishable, he seemed interested in taking it. Percy noticed that though Luke grabbed a variety he seemed to focus a lot more on jerky, nuts, and trail mix
"The sugar's for calories, and this stuff is for protein and getting rid of the feeling of hunger," Luke said. "Both are important for keeping our energy up."
"How do you know all this?" Percy barely knew enough about food nutrition to know to avoid the pizza at school unless he wanted to feel sick.
"After living on the streets for five years, you pick up a few things." Luke said. His voice was casual, but there was a dark look in his eyes. "Eating like this all the time doesn't really work, but for just ten days we should be just fine. Especially since we will be stopping for meals, this will just be for when we can't afford to stop." Luke seemed to be thinking of everything. Percy was extremely glad that he had agreed to join them.
Grover grabbed a couple of different cheesy cracker snacks. They definitely weren't enchiladas, but it was the best he could get right now. Percy smiled slightly and grabbed a few bags of chips, things he could just nibble on while they were travelling. The three of them grabbed a few more things before making their way to the counter. The exhausted looking girl at the counter raised an eyebrow at all their goods.
"I think maybe you forgot a few things," She looked straight at Luke.
"Nah, we're set," Luke said as he grabbed a few packs of gum and added them to the pile. "Babysitting gig. Thought we would have a bit of a party while the parents are away." Percy kept himself from staring at Luke in awe. His lie came so easily that Percy almost believed it himself. Luke was incredibly believable. Percy wondered if it had to do with his dad being the god of messengers and thieves, or if it was just who Luke was.
The girl chuckled as she rang them up. "I wish my babysitters did this kind of thing when I was growing up. They all just turned on a movie to keep me quiet."
"That's not my style," Luke ran a hand through his hair and leaned against the counter. "I've always thought that if you're going to be hanging with kids, you need to convince them you're their friend." Luke put a hand on Grover's head and made a motion that most people would probably assume was him playfully ruffling Grover's hat, but Percy noticed the way that Luke subtly adjusted the hat to make sure that his horns, which had started to peek through, were covered.
"I hope you guys have fun," The girl put all of the snacks into some plastic bags.
"Oh, we will," Luke pulled the money that they were supposed to use for the bus out of his pocket and paid for their stuff. As Percy and Grover took the bags Luke slid an additional twenty dollars to the girl. "A tip, just for you." The girl smirked and slipped the bill into her pocket. "Treat yourself to something. Being stuck at a job like this, you definitely deserve it."
Percy didn't think that Luke had necessarily done anything wrong, but he couldn't help but wonder just why he had done that. Between the three of them, they didn't exactly have a whole lot of money to be handing it over to people. As they were walking out the door Percy jumped slightly when he felt Luke's hand slip into his jacket, depositing some things inside. Percy understood what the tip was about. Luke was stealing some things. The money was to make it up to the cashier. Of course, Percy didn't understand why they couldn't just use the twenty dollars to buy these things too.
Back on the streets Luke walked slightly ahead of Percy and Grover. He eyed all the cars they passed, and stopped for a second in front of any parking lot they passed. Percy had a bad feeling that he knew what was on Luke's mind.
"You can't seriously be thinking about stealing a car." Percy hissed. Luke raised an eyebrow at him and smirked slightly.
"Do you want to get to L.A. or not?" Luke asked, and what was Percy supposed to say to that. Yeah, stealing was bad, but getting the master bolt and stopping the gods from going to war had to make up for it...right?
"Just, you know, make sure we don't get caught." Percy said. He caught up to Luke. As much as he didn't really want to steal something, he was a little curious to see how this was going to work.
Luke laughed. "From a certain point of view, I've never been caught," Percy didn't know how much he believed that, but Luke's confidence was reassuring anyways. "There are plenty of tricks to this."
"Aw, man, it's been so long since I've seen you work your magic," Grover grinned and nudged Percy. "Wait until you see it. Luke's got thieving powers, though he hated using them when we were younger."
"I grew out of it," Luke said. "When I was little I wanted nothing to do with it because the powers came from my dad and I didn't want to owe him anything, but now I'm owning it. He may be the god of thieves, but I'm the master of my powers." Luke's gaze fell on a minivan in front of an office building and his eyes lit up. "I think we found our ride."
Luke went over to the car and hovered his hand over the luck without really touching the car. A moment later the car unlocked itself and Luke let himself in. Percy and Grover started to situate themselves in the back seats. Grover seemed ecstatic that he could have the entire back seat to himself while Percy could have the middle row. Percy was used to not having a lot of space when traveling, but he appreciated the extra room too. This way Grover could stretch his goat legs, and maybe since both of them had more room to lounge they wouldn't get nearly as restless as they traveled to the other side of the country.
Percy had seen people hotwire cars before, but Luke seemed to do it in record time. In just a few moments he had the car up and going. Luke tossed his bag onto the seat next to him and glanced over the seat to look back at them. "You guys ready to go?"
"Definitely," Grover said.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Percy swallowed thickly. Let's go." Luke grinned and pulled onto the street. They were on their way, and this whole quest suddenly felt so much more real.
A/N: Hopefully most chapters aren't going to be this short. This was just to set things up and establish things. As you can probably already tell, this story is going to stray quite a bit from the plot of the book. I just don't think it would make a lot of sense for them to take a bus, especially when Luke would not only be able to drive, but be able to get them a vehicle too.