Chapter 16

Recap: She replied in a low voice, "How?"

"For one your ears turned red, and obvious give away. And… for some reason… you blushed." I said hesitantly.

"Really?" She said with a surprise/upset face.

"Yeah…" I replied, looking out towards the land, which was nearing since we were closer to New York City.

I looked out of the corner of my eye at her, and saw her blushing… again.

I laid back and stared at the clouds in the sky. Julie followed my lead, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Percy either holding Annabeth, or kissing her. I'm gonna go with option one, 'cause her head was down…

I don't know, but whatever.

Slowly I started to nod off.

"Derek. Derek… Screw this."

Splash

"Gods that's cold!" I yelled, jerking up, wiping the water from my face.

"You finally up sleepy head?" Julie asked, her hands and forearms soaked in water, crossed over her chest.

I gave her my best I'll-get-you-later glare.

I stood up, and stretched my arms behind my back.

I slung the backpack Percy and Annabeth had brought with when they came for us across my back.

"All right… So where we going to first?" I asked as we started down a street.

"The Empire State Building." Percy said with a serious tone, looking towards the sky.

"OK. So what's there?"

"Olympus." Annabeth said, as Percy started to walk ahead of everyone.

"I thought Olympus was on a mountain, in you know, Italy."

Julie caught up with me and walked beside me, saying, "The Olympians follow the heart of the west. Chiron says that 'Western Civilization' is actually a living force that's burned bright for thousands of years or whatever. And the gods are part of it, like tied to it, so wherever the flame is brightest, that's where they are. So right now they're in America, well technically on the Empire State Building."

"Ooookay…." I said, trying to soak it all in. Believe me when I say that I'm almost at my "overly-stuffed" point. I started to rub my head a bit.

We walked down the bustling streets, and once we reached Main Street, I grabbed Julie's hand, for

1) not wanting to lose her in the crowd

2) because I really wanted to

We reached the building and walked in. Percy went up to the guard at the front desk, said something along the lines of "Zeus…. Six hundredth floor…" At first the guard looked a bit dazed, but he snapped out of it and gave Percy a key card and some instructions, and he went back to work.

Percy walked back over and led us to an empty elevator, making sure no one was with us, pushed in the card, and we went so fast, that as soon as I tried to jump (like I always do, it's just so fun, you know?) I was on my butt.

I just stayed like that until (about five seconds later) we jerked to a stop. I jumped a few feet (up to the bar) because of the abrupt stop, and (again) landed on my butt.

Everybody else doubled over laughing when they heard me land on the ground. It was a really loud thud or a thump, I don't know.

Percy and Annabeth, both still laughing and my butt still hurting, led us up a steep hill (with a lot of stairs).

Satyrs and nymphs came out to look at us, some had enough guts as to ask what we were doing, and others just shrugged us of as if we were just some bugs that keep coming back.

We finally reached where the gods usually met at, when we noticed that no one was here.

"Oh gods." I cursed under my breath.

"Now how are supposed to get our godly intervention?" I complained.

"Did Somebody Say GODLY?" A deep voice asked, and then there was a sudden clap of thunder and a poof of deep gray smoke.

When the smoke finally cleared, we were able to clearly see Zeus sitting on his throne.

"My dad did say that he's always had a flair for dramatic exits…. and apparently entrances too." Percy said in a barely audible whisper to Annabeth.

"Perseus Jackson, why have you and your friends come here?"

Percy started to explain, during which all of the other gods appeared on their thrones, which apparently were organized the same way as the cabins.

My mom even appeared, though she stood in the back of the room listening.

I decided to end the chapter here, 'cause otherwise it would be WAY to long, at least for my standards.

Make sure that you review, you know, click the big green button and type something like, "Hey I liked it" or, "keep on going," or something like that, but I REALLY do not like flames. Nor am I a super sappy sort of person.