and it's sunday again. tomorrow i have an evil science unit test on freaking space and all that crap. my science teacher moved it up a week and only told us a few days ago. -.- then all morning i spent making a review booklet and dying of thirst but being too lazy to go downstairs and pour myself some juice. but that's just my life and you're probably not interested in that.

so anyway, i don't own percy jackson and the olympians made obvious because i actually have to study science and not relax under the sun because i'm damn rich or something.

Green Highlights and Purple Polka Dots

I got great sleep that night.

Yeah right.

I didn't sleep at all last night, which of course had to be expected. I had gone under my blanket anyway hoping for one tiny moment of rest. I even considered banging my head on something hard. But of course that could go wrong in so many ways.

Even though I had focused on getting my mind empty (that was some lame trick I heard years back that would help getting sleep) my mind kept going back to the prophecy. And back. And back. And then to how hungry I was.

But anyway, for some strange reason, I could recount every line of the prophecy. Why? I didn't know? Not an elephant. Maybe it was like that way so the Oracle could keep mocking me. Can't hide your fate. Nyanyanya...

I was supposed to make my selection tomorrow and I had no clue who to bring. Of course Nico and Cailey were obvious candidates, but I wasn't bringing them if there was a possibility one of them was going to die. Also, the first line of the prophecy – Take two others but four the sum. What in Hades was that supposed to mean?

I'll figure this out tomorrow.

Okay. Stop thinking.

Sleep.

Silence.

Shit.

This was from realizing my watch actually read 6:30 in the morning. Whatever sleep I wanted, I wasn't going to get it now.

~0~

"So," Nico said that morning. "When are we leaving?"

"You're not coming," I said adamantly though I wasn't so sure. "You heard the prophecy last night, okay? Someone will die, and that's not going to be you."

"Well, maybe it won't be someone on this quest who dies!" Nico said. "What if we're like, this close to Camp Half-Blood when a mosquito dies from being squashed under someone's foot?"

"Internal death," I repeated back to him.

"It suffers a heart attack?"

"Shut up," I said. "You're not coming and neither is Cailey."

"You've got to bring two," he pointed out. "Pick two others, or something like that. Who else do you have besides us? Are you really going to bunk with Mark for days just because you don't give a damn if he dies?"

"Shut up," I said louder. "I know who I'm taking."

"Liar."

~0~

Chiron looked at me wearily. "I don't have all day Lena, and neither do you. Pick your two people."

"I dunno," I mumbled, avoiding everyone's stares. Everyone comprising of the people who were present when Rachel spewed out her rhymes, the camp counsellors, and some very stubborn people who demanded be taken on the quest. Erm, person. Brenton wasn't there Christmas night, but he'd heard all about it when I complained about my prophecy. I didn't give him any details about the last line. Now he was demanding to be taken along, and I wanted to tell him the last line, but I just couldn't.

"Can we just… not go at all?" I said, but of course that wasn't going to be possible. "Chiron…"

The centaur exhaled very slowly, as if he couldn't believe we were going through this argument again. "Lena, you know –"

"It's easy!" Brenton exclaimed. "Just take me. Why are you guys so worked up about this?"

Chiron raised an eyebrow. He doesn't know?

I chewed on the side of my cheek as an answer. Not exactly. My wrist was raw from snapping the rubber band on it.

Chiron then basically told Clarisse to kick me out of the room. "We have made no decisions with your presence here. Maybe it will benefit us all if we make a decision without you. Clarisse, can you escort her out?"

"What?" I demanded. "I'm the one who's leading this quest. Shouldn't I have a say in this?"

"Your time is up," he said firmly. I stormed out in my boots, and once I was out, I stared at the door without any energy to press my ear to the door and eavesdrop.

I slumped against the wall and yawned, thinking about taking a nap. But then the stupid prophecy came to haunt me again and I got no sleep for the hour I waited.

Finally Annabeth came out and hauled me in.

"Who?" I asked simply, though I figured out just from everyone's expressions. Brenton looked furious and Cailey and Nico looked triumphant. "Why am I not surprised," I sighed and looked around the table. Diana hummed a tune under her breath in the silence (she had been invited to spend Christmas evening with us). Annabeth looked uncomfortable, and Percy just looked tired and confused. Clarisse went back to being disinterested and had a thumb war with Travis Stoll.

"Your quest begins as soon as you pack your supplies," Chiron directed us. "Meet at the front of the Big House and then Argus will bring you to Manhattan."

~0~

"They wouldn't let me go," Brenton said, hammering a piece of hot metal furiously. It cracked under his pressure. "I don't get it."

"It's a suicide mission," I finally explained. "The prophecy said one of us is going to die." It's either going to be me, Nico, or Cailey…

Take two others but four the sum.

"Brenton," I said urgently. "Don't follow us. Okay? Whatever you do… you can't be the fourth one."

"The fourth what?" he asked blankly. "Besides, the Oracle probably just said a load of crap. It's a quest! Of course campers sometimes die. We're demigods! We're the ones who go and say screw you to monsters cause we're the only ones who'll…" The piece of metal shattered into pieces. He stared at it angrily.

"You won't follow us, right?"

"I won't," he said. "If you seriously don't want me around…"

"Right." I left him at the armoury to pack my things. It wasn't the farewell I was hoping to give him. I waved to Travis and Connor but they weren't paying attention, because they were yelling at Diana to step away from the target. Instead, Diana saw me with the bag in my hand and gave a quick nod, like Good luck. I turned around and headed for the Big House, waiting for the others.

Cailey came first. She arrived ten minutes later, Atalanta on her heels, screaming that it wasn't fair that her big sis was going to die. Cailey rolled her eyes but sighed at the same time. "I'm not going to die," she clarified.

"The prophecy –"

"Rachel was… kidding around okay?" She patted the girl's head. "Be a good girl for me. I'll see you in a few days." She knelt on the ground so that her face was at the same level as the shorter girl's and brushed the wrinkles out of her shirt. "I promise."

I waited for a touching exchange of a hug between them and that would've happened if Nico didn't come cursing out of the bushes right then. He stumbled out with broken bits of branches stuck in his curly hair. "Shortcut," he said sheepishly, which made no sense whatsoever. I fixed him with a glare. His mood turned sour. "Well are we going or no?"

After prising Atalanta from Cailey with force that only Hephaestus's kids could've mustered, we walked to the main road and into the van. Cailey shut the door and we sped off.

Nothing really changed outside the window on the highway. It was another few hours before someone spoke.

"Hey, you remember six months ago? Riding to our first quest?" Nico recounted. "Déjà vu."

"Hopefully this time, monsters won't be attacking us every five minutes and we won't have any pissed gods against us," I said.

"Unlikely. The monster part."

"Cailey?" I nudged her. She was really quiet, just like the beginning of our last trip. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," she muttered and quickly turned away to wipe a tear away. "Perfectly fine… But what if –"

"Atalanta will be fine," I reassured her. "If you want, I won't force you to come along with us on this quest."

"I'm fine," she said again.

Argus looked at us in the back row through the mirror and blinked several times – well each of his eyes blinked once. "Gas," he said, and I had to wonder if there was an eye on his tongue. "We'll need to stop at a station." The voice sounded a bit raw and unused.

"No problem," I said. "We're almost at Manhattan, right?"

He nodded and tapped the needle inching towards E for empty. The three of us read the signs that passed by the best we could, despite our dyslexia, looking for a gas station.

"There," I said and pointed. The van drove off the highway and pulled into an empty space before another car. It beeped.

Nico pushed on the door. "I'm buying myself a chocolate bar. Do you guys want anything?" We shook our heads and he left for the convenience store as Argus whistled while filling up the vehicle with gas. I yawned. Before Argus was even done with the gas, Nico opened the door again with no chocolate bar in his hands and a pretty pale face.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "They didn't have any Oh Henry bars?"

"I saw you on TV," he replied to me.

"Should I be flattered?"

Nico's impatience showed. "I saw you on TV, you know, in there. Where all they show are like missing and wanted people."

"Are you serious?" I demanded.

"They've got a picture of you and everything." He shrugged. "It's probably not a big deal –"

"It is!" I screeched. They winced. "I'm wanted. Okay?"

"Dye your hair," Cailey said calmly. "We'll just pick up a tube of dye."

"I am not dyeing my hair," I said firmly. "I won't be a brunette, or a blond. I like my hair just fine."

"Your pick," she said. "Wear your cap with your hair tucked up."

I took it out of my backpack. I should've prepared more for this, but when you have the possibility of dying in the hands of freaky monsters, you don't tend to think about being chased and possibly shot at by the police. "There," I said.

They stared at me, making me uncomfortable. Nico shook his head. "You're still too recognizable."

"I'm not dyeing my hair."

Argus got into the car. "You're on TV," he said to me. "You should do something with the way you look. Maybe dye your hair."

"No!" I shouted. For a moment, I felt bad, and Argus shut up pretty quickly.

"Contacts?" Cailey tried.

"Stick little pieces of plastic in my eye? No thank you." My hands clenched the backpack strap.

"You have to die your hair," Nico said. "It's something that most people notice immediately in a stranger. Sure, they might forget the colour of your eyes in the description but all they'll probably remember is your age and the fact you have dark hair."

"Great," I answered. "There are plenty of thirteen year old girls with black hair and green eyes. Let's just arrest them all!"

"You still might get recognized," he said. "You're dyeing your hair."

"No."

"Brown," Cailey mused. "It won't look too bad."

"No."

"Yellow," Nico suggested.

"You mean blond?" Cailey corrected. "People don't dye hair yellow."

"Blond hair's boring," Nico quickly said. "Hmm… how would she look with green hair?"

I slapped him.

"White? You make a good albino. Just need a pair of sunglasses and –"

Slap.

"Okay! Pink!"

"You'll find me in hell with pink hair!"

"Blue."

Slap.

"Red highlights."

Slap.

"Purple highlights."

Slap.

"Green!"

Slap.

"Purple polka-dots."

Silence.

"What the hell?" I asked simply. Nico and Cailey doubled over laughing, imagining me with purple polka-dots. "It's not going to happen to –"

"She could curl her hair too…"

"Curly polka dots."

"Hmm…"

~0~

I stared at myself in the mirror in a bathroom in a bus terminal. "I cannot believe you talked me into this," I muttered. "Doesn't blue highlights attract more attention –"

"It doesn't fit your description," Cailey explained. "That's fine enough. Of course, it would be better if you dyed your entire head – er, all of your hair."

I ripped open the box and squinted at the instructions. "How many more minutes before our bus comes?"

She looked at her watch. "We've got an hour," she answered and leaned against the wall, waiting for me to finish reading.

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

"You've got a bunch of time to prepare."

Because I couldn't make out half the instructions on the box, I ended up squeezing out the dye on my finger and painting it in messy streaks. If only my mom could see me now. She would've freaked and ranted about the colour, the method I was using, and so on.

Minutes later, the highlights in my hair didn't look anything like the ones carefully applied. I dumped the finished tube in the garbage and washed my hands.

"You could've asked for help," Cailey said. "Holy crap what happened to this section?" She held up a strand of hair. Since she rarely swore, I figured it looked pretty horrific to her.

"I don't have much experience in dyeing my hair," I said dryly and a bit impatiently. "Now what? I soak my head in water?"

"Wait a little longer. It's best if you take a shower but we're short of those right now."

Ten minutes passed. Then I ran the tap and stuck my head under, making a big mess, but I wasn't cleaning it so I didn't care.

"Done?" I asked.

She handed me a wad of paper towels as a substitute for the actual thing. We left the bathroom. Because of the way Cailey had reacted, I expected Nico to go all holy shit on me too, but he just took one look and shrugged.

Boys.

"Here's your tickets," he said, handing them to us. I put it in my pocket and spun my baseball-bat-disguised-sword around.

Fifteen minutes later, we were on the bus.

Fifteen minutes after that, we were driving out of the terminal.

And our quest began.

now i don't have an excuse to actually begin studying for science now that the chapter's up... so please review and maybe my grumpy mood will lift. :P

Until next time! ~^^~