a.n. Hello, hello! Guess what? I'm depressed. :'( That's bad. Do you know why I'm depressed? Because I have a very small flow of reviews coming my way. I have self-esteem issues. Reviews might cure my depression. (and yes, I know it's boring at the moment, and that you were planning on some heavy duty monster action on their way to Texas, but they don't have a child of Poseidon, and I do NOT want to spend ten years of them getting lost, because Avery has a terrible sense of direction. So, they are taking a plane.)

"Are you...okay?"

I screamed.

Avery rolled her eyes. "Apparently not." She went back to reading her book. Thank you for the sympathy.

Slowly, I unclenched my hands from sides of my chair. I vaguely remember noticing that my knuckles had turned white from lack of circulation, and they were beginning to regain their original color. I closed my eyes again and took deeps, long breaths for a few moments, ignoring the strange looks I was getting from the other passengers at my little outburst (emphasis of little because my scream is rather low and manly, and thus barely audible).

"Tori...?" asked Josh slowly, since he had asked the first question and gotten my little scream as a reply. "You don't like planes, do you?"

"No."

Oliver laughed a little. "You should have seen her when we were heading to Delaware for some family reunion. I felt like her eyes were going to pop out of her head!"

"No one can even remember that vacation. It was in freakin' Delaware! Delaware is, like, the smallest state ever. And probably most boring," I shot back.

"It was one of the original thirteen colonies," offered Joshua. "Along with Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland."

I stared at him.

He cleared his throat. "Anyway, you seem a little, green...and, you know, not good."

I took another deep breath. "Thank you for that lovely description. Very eloquently put. " I'm pretty sure I turned even more "not good" and Josh put it. Why did he of all people have to witness me at my worst?

"Oh! Good word!" injected Avery suddenly, smiling a little over her book.

"What does "eloquently" even mean?" asked Oliver, struggling not to laugh.

Avery took a deep breath, as though she was going to start on a very long winded description of exactly what "eloquently" meant.

Josh beat her to the punch.

"Eloquently is an adverb which is derived from 'eloquent' which is an adjective that means 'having or exercising the power of fluent, forceful, and appropriate speech,'" he answered all in one breath. I thought back on my Speech & Drama class and wondered if he would be able to that huge one in all one breath. Perhaps this was another one of Athena's children's superpowers: longwinded-ness. Define that one! It's not even a word!

Oliver shook his head good-naturedly. "You are you mother's child, that's for certain."

"Have you ever actually met her?" inquired Avery, now closing her boo after shoving in her bookmark. I guess she thought the conversation was getting interesting.

"Sure," answered a bemused Josh, like he wasn't really thinking. Or maybe like he was thinking too much. Like he was thinking of one of those distant memories that you had to chase to keep it with you. "I'm not a year rounder, o I don't get to go the Mount Olympus, but she has talked to me in various ways."

"How?" I pressed.

Josh shrugged. "In dreams. Through little symbols. I like to ask her questions sometimes, when I'm really confused. More often than not, if she even answers, she sends me a package through Hermes with a little puzzle in it, and I have to figure out the puzzle before I can get an answer."

"That's cool," I said simply.

Josh nodded. "She's a lot more involved with kids like me and Annabeth, a girl from camp that was deeply involved in the war with the Titans, than she is with most of her children."

"And even then she is more involved than at least half of the other gods and goddesses," admitted Oliver sourly, which was strange. I had never seen Oliver "sour" exactly. Sure, I'd seen him a little under the weather. Or when I jumped on top of him to wake him up when I was little. But never really...sour.

The plane the slightest bit of turbulence, and my stomach lurched with it. "Ugh!" I groaned. An old lady who was sitting in front of me flashed me an irritated look. "I hate planes," I whispered to Avery across the aisle out of the corner of my mouth.

She patted my cheek absent mindedly, now, once again, fully engrossed in her book, Kylie asleep in the chair beside her. I was sitting alone with an empty chair next to me, and I imagined taking out the organs that were causing my trouble and pushing them aside in the chair, finally able to sleep peacefully.

And yet, I could not.

"I hate planes!" I shouted, slapping my hands up to cover my face in misery. I am truly a pitiful soul.

Josh waited until the lady with the cart had wheeled her way threw and jumped over into the empty seat next to me, bumping my knees as he passed. I blushed, though my face was covered by my hands.

He tapped my back gently. "Tori," he whispered.

I groaned in response.

And then he started singing. Which is totally cliché. The hot blonde guy singing the poor girl to sleep. That's one cliché I can live with. He had a deep voice that was somehow surprisingly smooth, like thick honey.

Something sweet laced his words. I felt my pain dissolving, my eyes feeling heavy. It was like magic. They forced themselves shut. Halfway...back open...three quarters...halfway...but I wanted to keep on listening.

Josh straightened my shoulders out, so that I wasn't hunched over my knees as though I was going to throw up at any moment any more. His touch was honey laced as well, although for another reason.

Sitting up now, I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder, something I would never, ever, do otherwise. But I was suddenly so overwhelming tired. "Sleep tight," he whispered.

And I slept.

And I dreamt.

It was the worst dream I had ever had. And even worse...I knew it was true.