Hey guys, here's another update. I'm sorry for the wait. School has been absolutely insane - sometimes I think I'm crazy for trying to get into medical school one day... But I managed to finish this up for you tonight and I wanted to get it posted. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it but it involves a subject a lot of you have been requesting recently and something I plan to build more on later, so hopefully you enjoy it. I won't make any promises as to when I'll have another chapter ready but believe me when I tell you I will do my best, I promise!
"Okay, now slowly stop. Carefully—there you go. That was good," I said from the passenger seat of my car, "Now do it again."
Cautiously, Logan hit the gas and sped up before slowing to a stop once more. His smoothest attempt yet. "That was really good," I complimented. He smiled.
Honestly, the fact that I was teaching my firstborn son how to drive was still a bit surreal, even after multiple lessons. At fifteen, Logan had been looking forward to learning for easily a year now—he'd already been through the manual from the DMV twice—and over the past few weeks, I'd brought him to the deserted farm roads leading to camp a few times and showed him some of the basics. He was a quick study. He had a few more months still before he could get his learner's permit, but I saw no reason why he couldn't learn early. If he could be trusted to handle deadly weapons on a regular basis, I was pretty sure he could manage an automatic transmission.
"Can I try parking now?" I'd made him learn controlled stopping before he attempted to park anything, and I was satisfied with his progress.
"Sure," I answered, "Check for cars before you pull onto the road up here." He followed the packed dirt carefully, taking it slow, toward the beach and the Long Island Sound ahead. There was a sandy parking lot up here—our destination now. I rarely saw anyone down this far. We were only a few miles from Camp Half-Blood's borders and frankly, in the middle of nowhere. I thought it was pretty perfect.
Plus, I figured, if he could handle driving on these roads, he should have no problem with the flat, even surfaces of maintained areas.
Logan practiced pulling in and out of several different spots, but he struggled to line up properly between the lines. "How am I supposed to know if I'm in the spot or not?" he asked, growing frustrated after his fourth failed attempt. In all fairness, this was only his third lesson. He was doing pretty great.
"Eventually you just sort of get a feel for it and don't have to think so much," I told him not for the first time, "For now, when you pull in, try to line yourself up the same way you would with the lines on the road. That way you can be more centered in the spot."
"Chariots are easier to maneuver than this," he grumbled, backing up and moving in for yet another attempt.
I snorted. "You know the Pegasi do most of the work for you. That was better though. You're getting there."
"This seems like it shouldn't be this hard."
"Rome wasn't built in a day, Logan," I said calmly. It was true, though New Rome could easily be reconstructed in that time. "You're doing fine." He didn't say anything, only shifted into reverse again and backed up. "Hey, that time was really good," I said when he pulled in yet again. "Try that again."
Several tries later, Logan's parking was acceptable and fairly consistent. "Thank gods," he groaned quietly when I informed him of such. I smirked. His reaction to mastering something too slowly reminded me so much of his mother it was honestly scary.
"What do you think?" I asked now, "Try something else or call it quits for the day?"
He shrugged, but then looked at me and asked, "Can I just drive on the road for a while until we reach the crowded areas?"
"If you feel comfortable," I told him reasonably. I trusted him to make that assessment. He nodded that he did. I shrugged. "Okay."
"Take it slow," I told him as he pulled out onto the uneven road once more. "There shouldn't be anyone around for at least two or three miles but check your mirrors still. You never know."
"I know, Dad," he replied long-sufferingly.
I smirked. I didn't consider myself particularly overprotective. I mean, I gifted my kids with deadly weapons and let them walk around in public where they could literally be attacked by vicious monsters at any moment, but I don't think it's possible to teach your child how to drive and not feel just a little anxious about the prospect of not having any control if something goes wrong. But I trusted my son to be careful and I'd been in far more dangerous situations. It was just fun to annoy him.
Logan was pretty quiet as he drove, his concentration focused straight ahead. I appreciated that. But he did speak up at one point after looking both ways three times and making a right turn onto another empty road. "So Grandpa Paul taught you how to drive and then let you use his car before you got your permit?"
"Not on any main roads," I clarified, "But yeah."
He considered this and then asked, "Can I do that?"
I breathed a laugh. "We'll see. Let's get you fully capable first, then we'll talk."
He smiled, his eyes forward. "Okay."
He drove for another three minutes or so before another car appeared from the opposite direction and he got a little spooked. Rather than continue past, he simply pulled over to the shoulder and shifted into park. "I'm done," he announced.
"You can drive past this car, Logan. He'll stay on his side of the road." Probably. "You just have to stay on yours."
He shook his head. "I'm worried I'll drift over the line or something. Maybe next time."
"Alright," I said easily. I appreciated that he knew his limits. I unbuckled my seatbelt and pushed open the door. He did the same on the driver's side.
When I was behind the wheel once more, I pulled back onto the road and headed for home, driving considerably faster than he'd been—but again, I appreciated his conscientiousness. Car repairs were expensive.
I noticed his eyes on me as I navigated us back toward the main roads, observing how I moved. It wasn't something I normally paid much attention to; to what exactly I did behind the wheel. It had been second nature for so long.
It took another five minutes or so to reach a road with an actual traffic light and another five before I saw more than one other car at a time. It was then Logan finally spoke up.
"Dad, can I ask you something?" he inquired, sounding suddenly anxious. I wondered if he'd been steeling himself for this, whatever it was, more than watching how I handled the car before.
His tone had me interested, if not slightly nervous myself. "Sure. What's up?"
"So, um…" he said, taking a deep breath. "If I… um…" He trailed off again.
I glanced sideways at him in between watching the road. "What is it, Logan?"
He seemed to suddenly find the pattern of his jeans very interesting. "It's just… If I wanted to…to ask a girl out… how would I… do that?" He peaked out from the corner of his eye then as if to gauge my reaction.
"Well," I said, stopping at a red light and looking at him, "I guess that depends. Got your eye on anyone?"
"Kinda, yeah," he said awkwardly, "She's in my biology class… Her name's Jasmine."
I fought a smile. "Is she cute?"
"Yeah, she's… really cute," he answered awkwardly, his cheeks turning a brilliant red. "It's just, she's really smart and kinda quiet and I haven't really talked to her much until this year. But we did a project together and she's really cool and we sorta became friends and… yeah."
I was smiling outright now. "Well, I'll be honest with you, bud," I said, "I never really dated anyone before your mom—she'll tell you otherwise but Rachel and I were always just friends." Excluding the part where she'd kissed me on the beach, but that wasn't my fault. "And we were kind of different because we survived a war together and she kissed me before we ever actually went out so I never had to actually ask her like that." We'd had the DTR conversation, but even that had been somewhat of a no brainer. I'd said something stupid. Annabeth had laughed at me and then kissed me, and that had been that. I maybe should have planned better for this conversation. I should have known it would come sometime.
"So you can't help me?" Logan asked, sounding disappointed and slightly anxious.
"Well, I can tell you your heart will probably race and you'll probably stumble over your words, but if you really like her, you've got to just do it." I should know. I'd endured a lot of grief at fifteen because I was a wuss who couldn't voice my feelings to save my life.
He considered this. "What do I say?"
"Well," I said, "I guess you tell her what you just told me. That you think she's smart and pretty and you like her."
"But how?"
"Ask her to do something with you," I reasoned. "Start small—maybe see a movie or something. Don't get upset if she says no and don't assume she's automatically your girlfriend if she says yes." Annabeth had taught me that particular lesson the hard way. "Be respectful and don't do anything you wouldn't normally."
"Okay," he answered, nodding, "But… she's mortal. Where can I take her that's… safe? I mean, should I even bother?" Honestly that was a good point.
"Well," I started, "there's never a guarantee that your date won't be ruined by a monster. That's happened to me a lot. But that isn't going to change so you have to just learn to work around it and pray the Mist works to your advantage if something does go wrong."
There was a pause before he spoke again, wary. "Can you teach me how to manipulate the Mist then?"
I laughed. "How about you just try something safe first? Away from electronics."
"Like what?"
Heck if I knew. This was one of the few things I hadn't had to worry about as a kid. "Mini golf?" I suggested. Our family had had pretty good luck with that.
He thought about it. "That might work," he admitted, and then added, "What if something does happen, though? I mean, I can't tell her."
"There are exceptions," I told him, "If something happens and there's no way around it. But try and make it through at least one date first before you have to, okay?"
He smiled. "Okay."
"What did you tell him?" Annabeth asked, lying beside me in bed that night.
"I told him to go for it. What was I supposed to say?"
"Well she's fully mortal and they're young. That could get complicated really quick."
"Logan's mature. I trust him."
"It's not that I don't trust him. It's just hard when feelings are involved like that… I mean, look what we went through at fifteen."
"I don't think their situation is as complicated as that was," I answered, "And for the record, I don't think I actually did anything wrong back then—"
She smacked my chest, effectively silencing me. "I just don't want him to get in over his head," she worried. "I mean I know we've got to let him try. I'm not saying we shouldn't. It's just… she's mortal."
"I know. But he's only a legacy. He doesn't have nearly as many run-ins with monsters as we did. He might be okay. Plus, its not like we can really tell him he can't date a girl right now when you kissed me in a volcano before we even turned fifteen."
"It's not my fault if you were too slow to make a move and too quick to put yourself in ridiculously dangerous situations," she replied innocently.
"I wasn't the only one," I protested lightly, "I seem to remember you putting yourself between me and a knife a year later."
"Would you have preferred I let Ethan Nakamura kill you?" she countered sweetly.
"Regardless," I said, pointedly ignoring her comment, "I think if Logan likes this girl, we should at least let him try. He can handle himself if he needs to."
"I know," she sighed. "I can't believe we're at this point already."
It took him a while to build up the nerve, I guess. Logan didn't bring Jasmine up again, to me or anyone else that I knew of, the rest of the weekend or in the days following. I wondered if he'd changed his mind. But we didn't ask him about it. He was young. He'd have plenty of time to figure things out.
There was just under a month of school left when I picked him up one afternoon and was surprised by the huge smile on his face as he got in the passenger seat. "Hey," I said with interest, eyeing him before I was forced to move along in the line of traffic. "What's up with you?"
"I did it," he replied, "I asked Jasmine out."
"You did?" I responded, surprised. I'd honestly almost forgotten about our conversation about her.
"Yeah," he grinned, "She said yes!"
"That's great! Where are you taking her?"
"Well," he said, "I was kind of hoping to maybe do something this weekend. Do you know if we have plans?"
"Nothing I'm aware of but you know I'm not in charge of anything."
He smiled in response. "I'll ask Mom," he decided.
"Good idea."
He spent the next few minutes explaining how it happened. He'd caught her on the way out of biology class and had stumbled through explaining that he really liked her and wanted to go out with her sometime. "I honestly don't even remember what I said," he stated plainly. I laughed at that. She'd accepted though and all was well in the world for them.
And honestly, for a normal fifteen year old, having the girl you like agree to go on a date with you was probably about as great as things could get. I couldn't personally relate to that level of normalcy but I was thrilled Logan could. And I was proud of him. He'd sucked it up and faced a situation I know he'd been nervous about, which was something I'd definitely not been able to say at his age. And so far it seemed to have worked out in his favor.
Not that any relationship he had at fifteen would likely last. I mean, you never knew. Annabeth and I had but I wasn't sure our situation really counted. But even if it didn't, I supposed it was probably good for him to explore these things. It was what teenagers were supposed to do, and if he was determined, who was I to stop him? That being said, some ground rules would need to be established. I didn't want to get into the specifics of all that now, and not without Annabeth's input, but…
"I'm happy for you, bud," I told him cautiously as I waited for a break in the oncoming traffic to turn into our neighborhood, "But I want you to remember something. You're fifteen, okay? Don't rush into anything. Take it slow. Get to know her."
"Yeah, I know," he answered, "It's just a date. She's not even my girlfriend or anything yet. I haven't even held her hand."
"That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong. But I was fifteen once and I don't know if you know this but relationships can be confusing and you can get really hurt if you aren't careful. You have your mom's genes. Try to use them."
He turned questioning eyes on me. "What, exactly, are you telling me?"
"I'm telling you to take it slow," I summarized simply, pulling into the driveway. "And to please not, under any circumstances, do anything that results in your mother and I having to have an uncomfortable conversation with you about hormones and smart choices."
And there you have it. I'm sorry if the writing quality seemed below my usual standard. I feel like it was for this chapter but I couldn't figure out how to fix it or what specifically I didn't like. So maybe it's just me.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts and I will see you again soon!
