It was around midnight when we left Mississippi. We started looking for a cheap hotel in Memphis, and the one we decided on kinda had my partner worried. The hotel was in the "bad" part of town, but then again, its Memphis. Its all the bad part of town; I voted to stop in oxford, but no, he said Memphis.
He got to the room and looked around nervously and inspected the sheets. Great, I got a germaphobe. I walked over and flopped on the bed and looked at my phone.
"it smells like smoke in here." he said as he carefully peeled back the sheets.
I shrugged, "I've seen worse."
"its much nicer at camp, unless you really are a son of ares, then its not much better." he looked kinda disgusted. "i think you would fit in really well with them."
I laughed, "they wouldn't be able to handle me, I'm a little wild for them."
"from what I can tell they're the only cabin that you would fit in with."
"everybody up there sounds like a bunch of yuppies."
"trust me their nothing you want to mess with."
I turned on the TV and we just sat there and watched for a while.
"you know, I never got your name." I said in the commercial break.
"Jackson, but you can call me jack."
"alright, Jack, I'm gonna go to bed now." I took off my shirt and jeans and peeled back the sheets.
"where did you get that scar?" he asked as I crawled into the sheets. I acted like I didn't hear him.
"goodnight."
the next morning we got back on the road, he decided it would probably be better not to stop until we got to camp, I didn't complain. I let him sleep for a couple hours. I woke him up in west Virginia, it was around two in the morning and I had stopped to get gas; I had started to doze off and figured it was time for him to drive. I went in and got him a cup of coffee, I had a feeling he would need it.
When I got back out he was trying to climb into the driver's seat, I rolled my eyes and helped him up.
"is it really necessary to have a truck lifted this tall?"
"hell yeah! This thing is a panty-dropper."
he laughed, "if you say so, personally I don't see it."
"where I'm from a jacked up truck is a status symbol, it takes a lot of money to do this."
"i will admit it looks pretty sweet, but I don't see the point"
"your a virgin ain't you."
"i don't see what that has to do with it."
I laughed, "of course you don't, rev the engine." he gave it a little gas, "harder!" He put the pedal to the floor.
He smiled from ear to ear. He was hooked. "i think I understand now!"
I laughed and cranked up the radio. A country boy can survive was playing. I started singing every word and he put it in drive and roared out of the parking lot.
I went to sleep after maybe an hour, when I woke up jack looked tired. Really tired. We were in northern Pennsylvania. He pulled into a McDonald's and got breakfast and some coffee. He practically inhaled his food and guzzled his coffee. I ain't gonna lie, I was pretty damn hungry too.
I'm still not even sure I know why I agreed to come with Jack. He was a complete stranger (not to mention I still wonder if he's even sane). Still, here I am, wherever here is. I had never even been farther north than Tennessee.
Jack was asleep, the radio was off, it had just rained, there was one obvious thing for me to do. I cranked the radio up as loud as it would go, pulled off to the right of the road, and did donuts in the mud. If I told you he freaked out, I'd be depriving you of the funniest thing I have ever seen. He screamed over the blaring radio and started clawing at the window like a dog. Somehow he managed to get the door open and fell out into the mud. He wasn't complaining about how high my truck was jacked up when it slid right over him. He went right between the front and rear tires. Not a scratch on him. I got out of the truck and helped his slippery, muddy ass on his feet. I could hardly stand because I was laughing so hard, I guess I got what I deserved because he tackled me and got me just as muddy as him.
When he finally got off of me we just sat there in the mud and looked at each other. He started laughing, it didn't take long for me to follow. I got up and grabbed a garbage bag out of the bed of the truck, I put the bag on the seat and got in, Jack climbed into the bed.
I drove until I saw a little farm house on the side of the road. I pulled into the driveway so we could hose ourselves off. I walked up to the front porch and knocked on the door. An older man, probably in his fifties, came to the door. The man smiled kindly when he saw me and let out a slight chuckle.
"what ca I do for you?" he asked.
"well, you see, me and my friend there," I pointed to Jack who was still in the bed of my truck, "we got a little muddy. We were wondering if we could use you water hose?" I said in my most charming voice.
The man smiled and told us where it was. He said we should probably wash my truck off too, I agreed. I pulled around back and sprayed Jack off. After he sprayed me off I knocked on the backdoor of the man's house. An old lady came out, probably the man's wife, I asked her for some wash rags for my truck.
She agreed and went back into the house. When she came out she had a bucket of suds and some rags.
I thanked her and got to work on the truck.
I kinda felt bad, it left huge piles of mud in their back yard, but it was worth it. With all the mud gone the bright red of my Chevy glowed in the sun.
when we left we said goodbye, I got in the truck and heard the old lady say "good luck, Hunter!" I turned around and there was nobody there. Even worse the house was run-down and falling apart, it was well-kept and nice when we pulled up.
I don't think I have ever left a driveway that fast in my life, or been on two wheels for that long. I guess that's what I get for stopping though. I reached into the cup holder and grabbed my last cigarette to help me calm down. It helped a little.
I drove until we got to the outskirts of New York City, I let Jack drive the rest of the way. The sun was just coming up, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was huge! Skyscrapers towered above the streets like giant metal trees above an ant. As much as I wanted to go to sleep, I couldn't tear my eyes off the buildings. I ended up falling asleep anyway, I remember dreaming about the city.
When I woke up, we were at a gas station outside the city, I was slightly disappointed that I missed it all. Jack got back in and drove us the rest of the way. He turned off onto a small driveway heading towards a small farm house. He stopped the truck and told me we had to leave it here. We walked up the rest of a big hill towards a big tree with a strange bulge in the trunk.
When we got closer I saw that it was a pine tree, and that it wasn't a bulge on the tree, it was a dragon! A fucking dragon! I stopped dead in my tracks, it was looking at me dead in my eyes. I couldn't move!
"down peleus!" Jack commanded, "he is a friend."
"i don't know, that wasn't a very friendly look!"
"he does that to everybody, you'll learn to love him. I promise!"
"OK, well, I'm gonna stick with dogs"
He laughed, "come on lets go,"
when we topped the hill, the first thing I noticed was that the little farm house was really a four story, baby blue mansion! And that's not all, the valley below was full of Greek buildings, I don't even want to know what was in those woods.
"welcome to Camp Half-Blood!" Jack said enthusiastically.
After I picked my chin up off the ground, I said, "where do I sign up?"
He laughed and led me down the hill to the bottom of the giant house, "we call this the Big house."
(Hey, I wasn't that far off!) at the bottom of the hill there were two old men playing cards. One man looked up at me and smiled, the other grumbled under his breath.
"Hello, Hunter! We were worried you would not show up!"he said. This man was in a wheelchair and had a blanket over his legs. He told me his name was Chiron.
"so do you know who my god parent is?" I asked.
Chiron cringed, "I do not know, my boy. He or she has to claim you, you will know when it happens."
I sighed, I guess I would just have to wait. Then, a pretty girl walked up,and asked Chiron something, to which he said yes.
He turned to me, "this is Anabeth, she will show you around camp."
I'm not gonna lie she was hot. But before I could say anything Jack pulled me aside and told me she was already taken. I'm an honest guy, I'm not gonna mess with another man's girl, that's where I draw the line.
Anabeth showed me around the camp, explaining all the different cabins and that until I was claimed I would stay in the Hermes cabin. I wasn't too exited about that.
"alright, well, just do what your other cabin mates say and you'll do just fine." she smiled and left. I turned around and saw a cabin full of people, every one of them were staring at me.
I walked in and said, " well what are y'all starin' at?" most of them went back to talking to each other. One guy about my age came up to me and introduced himself.
"whats up, my names Ryan. " he shook my hand, "you should probably get cleaned up, dinner's in an hour."
With that Ryan gave me a change of clothes and showed me where the bath house was.