Disclaimer: I own nothing you may recognize...

Hello! Happy Ascension Day! This chapter is a little longer than usual! *readers start cheering*

I'd like to mention the following people. Some of this chapter they had helped contribute. Drum roll, please.

AnnabethChaserocks

ReadrOfBooks

Sea Chick (sort of)

BookWorm77071

MuseGirltheauthor

I think that's everyone. Thanks so much! You guys rock!

Nico POV

After what seemed to be hours of walking, we finally reached the food court. Funny name, food court. It's like eating had suddenly become of sport!

The mall had just added a new self-serve soft-serve ice cream machine. Wow, that was a mouthful. Anyways, this machine looked terribly difficult, what with all its buttons and knobs and levers and pulleys. I was about to have a heart attack!

There wasn't much of a line, which was good otherwise my ADHD would have gotten the better of me, so we grabbed a waffle cone and started analyzing the machine.

Annabeth turned to me. "Do you get how to work this?" She asked.

"Uh, probably not," I said. Recently, I had started to realize that I don't know how to work a lot of things that seem to be the everyday life of an American. Go figure.

"OK. So to work this thing, you first select your ice cream flavor." She told me.

"Do they have bacon flavored?" I asked, not bothering to read the signs.

Percy gagged. "No, of course not. Chocolate or vanilla, take your pick."

"Well, that's boring. I'll have chocolate."

Annabeth pointed to the lever with the brown handle. "Just pull that and the ice cream will come out."

"OK," I pulled the lever down hard. Ice cream shot out of the machine, falling to the floor.

"And put your cone underneath!" Annabeth shrieked, yanking my arm under the spout.

"Oops," I said. Stupid, stupid Nico.

Percy and Annabeth each filled their cones and we continued to the next station.

"Now we put on some sauce." Percy explained.

"Why would you put tomato sauce on ice cream?" I asked, confused.

He frowned. "Did I say tomato sauce? No. Caramel or chocolate?"

"Mm, caramel." I answered.

Percy pointed to the button labelled caramel. "Now, place your cone under the spout this time. Then press the button." He said carefully.

I nodded and placed my cone underneath the spout. I pressed the button and the caramel drizzled onto my ice cream. Yum.

"Lastly, sprinkles." Annabeth said. "Pull the lever and sprinkles will come out."

Easy enough. I pressed the button. A rainbow array of sprinkles started raining on my ice cream...and it wouldn't stop.

I let go of the button, but the sprinkles kept coming out. Now you couldn't even see my ice cream. They were started to make a huge mess on the floor as well.

"Nico, stop the machine!" Annabeth yelled.

"I can't!" I said. "It won't stop!"

The sprinkles just kept coming. This would be a terrible death; drowning in sprinkles.

We used multiple cups and cones to save the sprinkles, but we were running out. Fortunately, a mall employee came to out help.

She was a big woman with an angry scowl on her face. I guess she didn't really trust teenagers around this machine and I understood that. We weren't being very careful.

"What are you doing?" She huffed. "Why are there sprinkles everywhere?"

"What do you think?" Percy burst out. "The stupid button is broken!"

The lady realized we were right. She sighed and rolled up her sleeves. Then, with one loud, "Hiya!", this crazy lady punched the machine with all her might.

The machine shuddered and the sprinkles stopped flooding the mall. Hallelujah!

"Right," the woman said, giving her arm a shake. "Now leave this machine alone. Go on, get out!" She said, forcing us out of the food court.

"Well, that was a fail," Annabeth commented.

"We didn't have to pay for the ice cream," Percy grinned. He took a big, sloppy lick of his ice cream.

"Now what do we do?" I asked, after we ate our ice cream.

"Let's check out the stores on the second floor," Annabeth decided.

I looked up at the floor above us and sighed. "We're going to have to climb a lot of stairs."

Percy stared at me. "We just take the escalators. Who uses stairs in a mall?"

I blushed. "Oh yeah, silly me." What are escalators?

I found out pretty quickly. These scary things are like moving stairs. Watching the people around us, I realized that you just had to step onto the small platform at the bottom and stand there as the magical stairs lift you up. Easy as pie.

Apparently not, though. The moment I stepped on the black panel, the movement sent me lurching forward, headfirst.

The loud Thump! Caused heads to turn. I got up, red from embarrassment, and casually placed my hand on the railing and waited for the second floor, resisting the urge to smack Percy who was laughing his head off.

When we got to the top, we started to head towards the stores. Then something caught my eye. I ran to see it.

There it was. The Disney store! I had never seen one of these before! My dreams had finally come true!

I stood there for a few minutes, mouth gaping wide at all of the magical things that were displayed in the window.

"Nico? What are you doing?" Percy asked, slightly annoyed.

"Look, Percy! They have Mickey Mouse in here! Can we please go in? Please?" I asked with my biggest puppy eyes.

"Nico, that store is for babies." Percy said. "Come on. I want to go to Hot Topic. They're having a sale!"

"No, it's not a baby store." I insisted. "Pretty please? Oh, please, Percy? Please!"

I'll admit it, I was starting to make a scene. The people around us started cooing at me, like I was a little 5 year old. "Oh, let the little boy go inside," they all were saying.

"Oh, fine. Come one, Percy." Annabeth snapped.

I ran inside with a delightful cheer. Oh, the wonders of this magical store! There was a whole wall dedicated to Mickey Mouse! I could spend all day here!

I accidentally knocked over a Little Mermaid doll. I picked it up and smiled. "Hey, Percy! Isn't this the mermaid you have a crush on?" I said, snickering.

Annabeth smiled. "So cute, Percy! Do you want to be part of her world? Are you going to kiss the girl? Under the sea?" She burst into laughter.

Percy turned beet red. "Shut up, Nico. You know she's fake." He didn't look like he was telling the truth.

I laughed and waved the doll in his face. He snatched it away from me and through it back on the shelf.

"Let's go. Now!" He said sharply.

"Fine, Mr. Grumpy-pants." I muttered and we left the store.

After shopping for a few more hours, it was time to go home. Finally!

As we were walking, I stopped. "I am not going on that escalator again!" I said stubbornly.

Percy and Annabeth were tired. They didn't feel like arguing with me. "Fine," they said. "We'll just take the elevator."

Escalator. Elevator. They sounded like they had something in common. Oh, no.

The elevator was a little room that everyone crowded in. Annabeth said that it moved on a pulley-like thing so it could go up and down. Kind of like a dumb-waiter.

While we were in the room, I noticed a red button with a bell symbol on it. Room service? I pushed it.

Suddenly, a loud bell sound started ringing. It was an alarm. An invisible voice started talking. Remain calm. People are coming to help.

"Come on, Nico!" Percy wailed. "What now?"

"Oops," I said.

Percy and Annabeth had a lot of explaining to do to the fire department that day.

We are now banned from ever going to the mall. Oops.

Like I said...longer chapter. I expect more/longer reviews! Haha, just joking. But I do seriously love getting reviews! It means so much to me! You, the readers, mean so much to me! (Sappy, I know...)

Let's get 200 reviews! Woo!