Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Six

Wingin' It

"This means a quest must be given immediately."

Everyone was stunned into silence. No one knew what to say. A quest had never been given out like this – it just didn't happen that way. Someone would say they wanted it and would go to the Big House attic to consult the Oracle. But we already had a Prophecy without consulting the Oracle. And you could tell that no one, not even myself, knew how to react to this.

"I will lead it," a calm voice broke the silence. Everyone's head whipped around to look at Andee. She looked completely relaxed at first glance, but if you looked closer, you could see a fierce determination in her eyes that was unlike anything I had seen before. And once I had seen that look, I knew that no one was going to get in her way.

"What?" This caused outrage among all the counsellors. Everyone wanted this quest now that they knew it was up for grabs so they were coming up with every reason possible to get it for themselves. But even with the chaos that ensued from everyone's bickering, Andee remained perfectly calm.

"Listen!" she demanded, her voice raising a few levels above everyone else's, making everyone else quiet down. "I have been receiving these Prophecies since I was a little girl, probably since I was born if I could remember that far back, but every single time, once I am awake, I see things about the Prophecy in the sky. Including who the Prophecy is meant for. This is my mission."

"You mean 'quest'," Katie corrected.

"No, I definitely mean mission – it makes me feel like an international super spy," she replied goofily, wiggling her eyebrows. "Besides, the Prophecy said 'The daughter of light shall find the trail, and last time I checked, I'm the only daughter of Apollo, the god of the sun and light. So, my mission."

"I agree," Chiron said, and a few people groaned their protest but didn't say anything more on the subject. "So the next issue we must address is your quest companions. The Prophecy states that four of you will go, so Andee, who would you like to bring as your three companions or did you see who was supposed to go with you?"

"I saw Annabeth, Grover and Percy."

"Percy?" Lee asked, giving her a look. Hell, even I was giving her that look. I had hoped she liked me a bit, but I really thought she would get one of her brothers to go with her. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"It doesn't matter what you think – I saw exactly who was coming on the quest with me post-Prophecy. That is who will come with me, case closed," Andee said definitively.

Chiron nodded, accepting this. "I suggest you four pack any necessary equipment and get to sleep as soon as possible – you'll be leaving quite early tomorrow morning."

Everyone went their own ways, probably to go spread the news of what just happened. Most of it would probably be of how Andee just dominated the meeting, despite being new to camp and originally not wanting to be here. That was bigger news than anything else that had happened at the meeting.

The next morning, everyone was pretty ready to go. Grover had met me at my cabin and was reminding me to go pack certain things because my attention tended to waver with tedious tasks like packing.

As we were walking out of my cabin, we could hear Annabeth and Andee arguing as they walked out of the Zeus cabin.

"…do not need that many dresses!" Annabeth exclaimed. "It's just not practical!"

"I wear dresses as much as other people wear pants. I like dresses and all the ones I packed are casual," Andee argued.

"You have a gold, glittery dress in there," Annabeth pointed out.

"Like I said, casual," Andee said with a devious grin. "Come on, Annie! The occasion may arise where we need to blend in, and when that time comes, I will be the one who is prepared. And I will laugh in your face."

"Whatever, weirdo," Annabeth scoffed, as both girls joined up with us. Andee had her bag slung over her shoulders and was wearing a simple pair of denim shorts and a t-shirt, much like Annabeth was.

"So are we all ready?" Andee asked cheerfully, as if the fate of the world didn't depend on the four of us.

"Uh…yeah. But I actually wanted to talk to you about something," I said to Andee, giving Annabeth and Grover a look to ask for privacy.

"How about Grover and I go meet up with Chiron and let him know that you guys are on your way?" Annabeth suggested in an overly cheery voice before pulling Grover along with her.

"What did you want to talk about?" Andee asked, walking alongside me.

"I wanted to know why you picked me to go on this quest with you," I said slowly, not wanting to sound rude about it. I was gratefully that she chose me, but I was still a little confused about it.

"For the exact reason I told everyone else – I saw your face in my post-Prophecy vision," Andee said. "And thank the gods for that, because I don't think I'd be able to stand being around even one of my brothers for that long. They are way too protective."

"I've noticed," I said and her grin grew before she bumped me with her hip. I bumped her back, making her laugh as she stumbled off to the side. We made it up to Thalia's Pine where the Golden Fleece glittered in its branches, and Peleus the dragon was wrapped around its base taking a nap. Chiron, Argus, Grover and Annabeth were all waiting for us. Lee was in the group too.

"Glad you finally joined us," Chiron said, which made me smile a little. "So Andee, I take it that your plan is the same as you told me last night?" She nodded. "Okay Argus, you know what to do."

Argus went down to the van to get it started and ready to go to whatever destination Andee had come up with. Lee gave Andee a hug goodbye, talking to her in a low voice. She kept nodded and saying something under her breath, and he gave her another tight hug before she joined the rest of us, squeezing into the middle seat with Annabeth while Grover and I spread out in the back seats.

I watched over the seats as the girls played some weird card game. They were shuffling the cards a certain number of times and dealing them out in a very specific way. And having had to live with Gabe for as long as I did, I knew pretty much every card game in existence.

"What are you guys playing?" Grover asked, having noticed this as well.

"It's not a game," Andee said, placing a few cards down for Annabeth to look at. "They're tarot cards – it's a vague way of seeing what's going to happen in the near future."

"It doesn't necessarily work," Annabeth added.

"It works when I do it," Andee said.

"Can you show me?" I asked. She nodded and signaled for Annabeth to move, and after a weird game of "Van Musical Chairs", I sat down beside her. Andee gathered the cards up and shuffled them, using a few fancy tricks here and there.

"Do you play cards a lot or something?" I asked, having seen Gabe and some of his friends use similar techniques (just not done as well).

"Just strip poker on Fridays," she commented off-handedly. I gaped at her, unable to believe what she'd just said. And of course I started imagining it and my cheeks started heating up. She glanced upwards and smiled when she saw my reaction. "I'm kidding."

"I knew that," I said, my face feeling even hotter as she smiled slyly, like she knew something I didn't. Which, now that I think of it, she probably knew a lot of things I didn't.

She held out about twenty cards toward me. "Pick out one of these cards. It'll be your significator."

"And in normal people speak, that means…?" I asked as I picked one. I couldn't read what it said – all the letters were jumbled up.

"Your significator is supposed to represent you as a person," she explained, taking the card from my hand. "The Knight of Cups."

"That figures," Annabeth remarked.

"What does that mean?"

"It's supposed to signify water behaving like fire, kind of like a river," Andee said, placing the card down in front of her.

"It's a person that's a passionate romantic, full of charm and beauty, but prone to extremes. It's also supposed to represent an eager and intense person that is very forward with their emotions and tender in their support for others," Annabeth added in from the back seat.

"For someone who thinks it 'doesn't necessarily work', you have sure paid attention over the years," Andee said.

"Knowledge is power," Annabeth said.

"So what was your question?" Andee asked, the two girls grinning impishly at each other.

"I don't know," I shrugged, although I really did know. I wanted to ask if she liked me, but that seemed a little unimportant considering what we were doing. And because she was sitting right there. "Will I do well on this quest?"

"I dunno," I shrugged, although I really did know. I wanted to ask if she liked me, or loved me for that matter. But I couldn't do that with her sitting right that. "Will I do well on this quest?"

"That's not a good question. You need to reword it so that it's more open-ended and can give you more possibilities. Kind of."

"Okay," I said, taking a few moments to think. "What do I need to know for us to be successful on this quest?"

She took out three cards and spread them along the seat. "The left one represents an important element of the past, the middle represents a deciding element of the present, and the right card represents a critical element of the future, got it?" she asked and I nodded. She flipped the cards over and I noticed that the middle and the right one were flipped upside down.

"Don't you need to flip those two right side up?" I asked.

"Nope. When the cards are upside down, the card takes on an entirely different meaning," she said, studying the cards. "Very interesting...the Six of Wands, the Page of Swords reversed, and the Four of Cups reversed."

"So what does that mean?"

"Well, to start, the Six of Wands generally reflects victory, but to be a little more detailed it's a sense of honor at the solution of an important conflict – triumph after a struggle, jubilation at hearing good news or the realization of hopes and desires. Does that mean anything to you?" she asked, cocking her head to the side slightly.

"Yeah, our past few quests," I said and both Annabeth and Grover nodded, apparently more invested in what we were doing now. We had brought the Master Bolt back to Olympus, saved Grover and brought the Golden Fleece to camp to strengthen its weakening borders, and saved Annabeth and Artemis from Atlas.

"Good. So the Page of Swords, when reversed, means the approach of an unexpected challenge and a person filled with a destructive appetite for all matters of the mind and logic. They'll use clever argument and eloquent speech to mask the truth. But you'll find out who it is and how greatly they've been deceiving you."

Annabeth had busied herself with cleaning her dagger before I took a breath and said, "Luke."

"Possibly. Sometimes things aren't what they seem because the future, both near and far, are always changing," Andee said. "So for your future, you got the Four of Cups reversed. It represents new and unusual relationships, or the reawakening of your path to life or love."

Had to be my new relationship – or I guess friendship is more appropriate – with her. I don't really know what was going on with us. Sometimes she was super sweet and inviting and other times she was distant and pushed me away.

Grover gave me a look and I gave him one back and a few minutes passed of us silently arguing, mostly me trying to get across the point of him not saying anything.

"Ooookay, well this is weird now so I'm just going to put those away," Andee said, tucking the cards into a small velvet bag and into her shoulder bag.

"So what is the plan once we get wherever we're getting?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know – I haven't thought of one yet," Andee said casually, leaning against the car door and we all looked at her like she was crazy. "What?"

"You don't have a plan?" Annabeth demanded, and I could literally see her getting angrier as each second passed.

"Nope."

This should be interesting.

To sum up what happened, Annabeth started screaming at Andee asking why she would even take on a quest like this if she didn't have a plan. Andee was very calm about it, but every once in a while you would see her eyes flare up. It was kind of like what you'd see on a god, but to a much lesser extent. Which was still kind of scary. So Grover and I made the wise choice to stay out of it.

"Annie, I had a very vivid dream about the shore last night. And you know what half-blood dreams are like. And that's not to mention all the other signs I've seen pointing me to the shore, so that's where we'll go. Then we can just take it from there, alright?" Andee asked calmly.

"What about somewhere to stay? Are we just going to camp in the middle of an alley in New York?"

"I have my emergency card," Andee said, pulling a bank card out of her back pocket. "Dad and Val gave me this to use in case of an emergency, and I would definitely classify a quest as an emergency. So, we'll find a low-key hotel and stay there for the night, okay? Geez, you'd think I was leading you straight to the Underworld by the way you're freaking out."

So we had about a fifty, fifty chance of doom.