A/N: Okay, so, this chapter is a bit longer than a normal chapter I write. It's kind of a make-up for not posting in fooorrrreeeevvveeeerrrr.

Chapter 6: Wal-Mart

A few hours later I heard a yawn. I looked over everyone else, until I saw who had woken up. Can you guess who it was, with my luck? If you guessed Nico, you were absolutely right.

"Where are we?" he yawned again.

I looked out the window and said, "Houston. Houston, TX."

"How do you know?" he asked me sitting up in his seat.

"I saw a sign that said we were entering Houston city limits, 'kay?"

"Fine."

•

A few minutes later we came to a stop in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

By this point everyone else had woken up.

"From here, we're on our own, aren't we?" Percy said looking towards Argus.

Argus looked back and nodded.

I sighed and said, "Okay, out."

Percy and Annabeth filed out, next was Demi. Nico was supposed to get out, but he just sat there watching me, like he was waiting for me to get out or something.

"Nico, I can't get out, unless you do, so go," I told him.

"Oh, right," he said, opening his door and getting out.

I climbed over the seat and got out.

"Okay," Annabeth said, walking around the back of the truck, carrying her bag, Percy and Demi behind her, with their bags as well, "You two need to get your bags."

I hadn't even noticed that Nico was standing next to me.

I shrugged and walked to the opened trunk, Nico following me. We both grabbed our bags and shut the back doors. I heard someone shut the side doors and then I heard Percy ask, "So, what are we doing first?"

"Um," I said, "Lets go inside, I need to get something."

"What do you need to-" Annabeth asked, before I cut her off.

"Just come on." With that I started towards the building. When we got inside, I went up to a worker and asked, "Do you, by chance, know if Donna Brown is working today?"

"Actually, she is, she should be working at register three," the woman told me. I thanked her and headed towards the registers.

"Who's Donna Brown?" Demi asked, walking next to me.

"My older sister," I told her simply, "She works here."

"I see. But why do we need to see her?"

"Simple," I said, "she can do something with these bags while we're here."

"That's good."

"Mmhmm," I said as we reached the third register, which by chance only had one person in line, and Donna was already checking them out.

We all stood there waiting for her to finish checking out. When she finally did, I was standing in front of Donna and said, "Hey, sis."

"Hi, um," she looked interested as she spoke, "Why are you in Texas?"

"Visiting," I told her.

"Who are these people with you?" she mumbled, probably hoping the others hadn't heard her.

"We're friends of Hallie's," Nico said, and Donna flinched, like she expected him to punch her.

"I-I see," Donna said then looked at me, "So, why are you at my register?"

"We need you to stash our bags while we're here."

"I see," she said, "Give 'em." She walked out from behind her counter and took my bag and Nico's, she put them behind the counter then took Demi's and Annabeth's, she put their's behind the counter as well and then took Percy's and put his behind as well.

"Thanks," I told her, "We'll be back in a few minutes, okay?" I asked.

"Kay."

After that, I led everyone else to the front of the store again.

"Okay," I said, "Everyone, go do something, then meet me back here in fifteen minutes," then I quickly added on, "Except Nico. You're going to help me find some things, everyone else, shoo." Everyone but Nico and I walked off.

"So," Nico mumbled, "What do we need to find?"

"Lets start with a phone book," I said, "I think I know where those are." I walked off towards where I remembered the phone books were, the last time I was at this Wal-Mart, Nico followed close behind me, and we passed my sister's register, where I caught a quick glance of her face, she looked quite confused. I shrugged it off and kept walking.

I found the correct isle and told Nico, "Look for a Yellow Pages."

We looked through the isle for about five minutes, until Nico said, "Found one."

I looked at him, he was on the other side of the isle. He was right, he was holding a Yellow Pages.

•

About ten minutes later we decided that the others were probably heading back and we did the same. When we reached the doors what I saw didn't surprise me all that much. Demi was holding multiple accessories, and Percy and Annabeth were 'subtly' flirting.

I rolled my eyes as Nico and I reached them.

"Come on," I told them, "I gotta' check out."

We all walked to my sister's register again.

"Back are ya'?" she asked.

"Mmhmm," I ordered, "Now give us our bags." She gave us all our bags and I started looking through mine. I was looking for my wallet that I had stuffed in there. When I found it, my sister had finished scanning my items and the total came out to $16.35, I pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to Donna.

She put everything into the plastic bags then gave me my change and put my receipt in one of the bags.

After telling Donna bye we all exited the building (don't worry, I made Demi put everything down first).

"Okay, we're not leaving Wal-Mart quite yet," I told everyone, "I need to use the pay phone." I had my cell phone, but Annabeth had told me not to use it unless I absolutely had to. So I took out the phone book and flipped to the 'B' section. I read through the names until I saw the words Belle, Harley.

"Here it is," I said putting my finger on the name. I picked up the phone then inserted two quarters. I typed in the number listed with the name and got her answering message which said, "Hey, this is Harley's phone, I'm not able to answer right now, I'm probably begging my parents for the money to buy stuff for a Case Closed cosplay (A/N: I HAD to fit CC in here somehow), so leave a message after the beep and I'll get back to you."

The phone beeped and I said, "Hey Harley, It's Hallie. Uh, I'm gonna' drop by your house for a while to… catch-up, okay, bye." I hung up the phone and looked at everyone else.

"Uh. Who were you calling?" Percy asked.

"Harley," I said simply.

"Harley… Harley Belle?" he asked, in disbelief.

"Yes, Harley Belle. Who'd ya' think I meant? Harley Davidson Motorcycles?"

"Wait a minute. So you're telling us you know Harley Belle?" Demi asked, just as disbelieving as Percy.

"Yeah," I said, "I knew her a while back. Now come on. We have some walking to do."

•

About an hour later, I had managed to lead us all to Harley's house. I looked and saw that the only car in the driveway was a blue Cadillac CTS. In other words, Harley and her mother were the only ones home.

We all went up to the door and I knocked.

Within the minute the door opened up and Mrs. Belle was greeting us and getting all inside.