hey its cookiecrumbs here cant say much cuz im in a rush but HALLOWEEN TODAY and imma get my free dose of sugar! :D and nanowrimo starts tomorrow! (sesarch it up on google)

so i dont own pj & o and plz review. :D

Define Quest: Monsters

The first hour was boring. After checking, and re-checking just to make sure, and then checking again just 'cause there was nothing to do for any signs of random monsters who had severe eye problems and thought we were yum-yums, I went to the classic elbow on the seat arm, bottom of my palm squishing up against my right cheek pose. Probably looked like a demented fish with half its eyeball cut out, but whatever. By peeking between the seats, I saw some people spaced out and listening to their Ipods as well as people reading books although the ride was bumpy and made your teeth clack together. I didn't have my Ipod with me – still at home, with a bunch of other stuff I might never see again – and no demigod in their right mind would subject themselves to reading Jane Austen – or even reading. In English I mean. Annabeth and her siblings could take on any book about architecture in Ancient Greek.

Let me tell you, any long bus ride for two friends with ADHD is enough to turn them against each other and put a dagger at their throats. Nico started out okay. But then he took out a piece of gum and started chewing. I caught a whiff of the minty scent and gagged. When my mom attempted to cook for dinner for once, she accidentally bought mint instead of spinach or whatever leafy vegetable it was supposed to be. We ended up having mint flavoured chunks of meat and dough. To this day, two years later, my stomach still turned at the scent.

"Want one?" He offered a stick.

"No," I said and winced as he went cross eyed trying to blow a bubble.

"Hate this gum," he said, looking down at it. "I'm going back to bubble gum next time."

So he sat there blowing bubbles and chewing loudly. After ten minutes, I was pretty sure he was going to stop soon. After thirty, I wondered when the flavour in his damn gum would run out. After an hour, I seriously considered breaking his jaw so he couldn't chew anymore.

The bathroom break saved me from doing any harm.

Nico spit out his gum, much to my relief. A line grew in front of the bathroom outhouse. I waited until Cailey hopped off the bus and we headed to the back of the building where it stunk really bad, but bad enough so that we were the only ones there.

I took out a drachma and Nico opened the cleaning room – it was unlocked. "There's gotta be one somewhere in here," he muttered as we went through the pile of dirty mops and rags. "Here!" he triumphantly held up a spray bottle.

"It's a bit too small," I noted. "But it's all we've got." Nico aimed at an area where the sun was now shining through the rain clouds. "The connection's going to be really bad," I sighed and then shut up because Nico was rolling his eyes at my complaints.

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow… do your stuff," Nico said. Really? I thought but didn't say a word. "Chiron at Camp Half-Blood."

Nico pumped wildly. Chiron's back appeared. "Chiron!" I shouted. He turned around at the sound and saw us. Then he leaned towards the image until his face covered most of the image.

"Nice hair," he noted.

I ignored his comment. "Sorry the connection's really bad, but just need to tell you we're safe and okay, you know, no monsters or anything."

Chiron looked relieved. "That's good. Where are you?" Or at least that's what I thought he said because the spray bottle wasn't the best and his voice was breaking like static.

"On the way to West Point. We're on a washroom break." Then I saw Diana over Chiron's shoulder and waved. She disappeared within seconds with an expression I couldn't quite make out. Were my blue highlights really that bad? "Tell Diana I said hi," I told him.

"Diana?" Chiron asked. "But she's –"

"No more water!" Nico announced. He let the empty spray bottle fall from his fingers and shook out the numbness in his arms.

"What?" I didn't hear Chiron's last few words. But he didn't answer because the connection had been broken. I continued to look at the patch of air where he used to be.

"Let's go back," Cailey suggested. "We told him what we wanted to tell him. Why are we still hanging out behind a stinky bathroom?"

The bus engine groaned. We simultaneously whitened and made a mad dash for the bus.

Thank the gods I was a fast runner. The bus was slowly pulling out when I hammered on the door. The bus driver looked intensely pissed, but I wasn't going anywhere without my stuff on the bus.

"We called everyone out of the bathrooms," he said.

"Well," I replied. "Since it was such a long line, my friends and I decided to go by the forest." His expression told me he'd just received a bit too much information. "Thought you should know," I said cheerfully.

"Get on," he grunted and we went back to our seats.

Anyway, back to my theory about a bus ride and the daggers against best friends' throats.

This time, I made sure to sit next to Cailey. She didn't do anything too annoying. She was almost boring. No offence of course.

But the problem was that she didn't talk at all. When I tried to start up a conversation, she just nodded or stared out blankly. She wasn't here at all. It was like talking to a person you just met. Irritated, I turned to Nico, who was tapping out a rhythm on his leg as he listened to a rock song, the volume so loud I could almost make out the lyrics the singer was shouting angrily.

I checked the time on Cailey's watch and decided next time I was forced to go on a long trip by bus or car or whatever, I'd rent a plane.

Then things got a lot more interesting. Yeah, it isn't your average quest if monsters don't attack you within a few hours.

~0~

Two dracanaes must've been very hungry to be desperate enough to knock down the front door of a bus moving more than 60 mph. The driver was so alarmed, he pressed the brake. Which was a good idea and a bad idea because the dracanaes were thrown off by the sudden drop in speed, but by the time they got their senses back, it was much faster than the driver had as he wondered how the hell a bunch of mutated snake ladies ripped down the door. The dracanae climbed in right when I realized something was seriously wrong.

I pulled the headphones off of Nico's ears. "Dracanae!" I shouted at him.

He rubbed his ears and scowled. "I totally needed that." He took out his sword and the bus tipped precariously to the side as they boarded the bus. Glass shattered from the chaos. They were heavy. I stood up as the bus landed on its right side. The ground dropped under me and my face smashed into the window, right next to a very stunned man. My head spun. When I righted myself, some of the broken window pane shards came with me. Dazed, I pulled the glass shards out, too shocked to feel most of the pain. If I'd been in my normal state, I would've been screaming like a baby.

"I'm bleeding," I realized and pressed my fingertips to my forehead. Shit. The skin of my palm too was sliced. "Cailey? Nico?" Was this already the end of the quest? I groaned and clutched the backpack strap as I searched for my sword with my other hand, finding glass bits instead.

"I'm over here," Cailey said. "I think I'm okay but…"

"You're a mess," Nico corrected.

"Me or…" I found my sword and stood shakily on my feet. Nico and Cailey were at my back. When I saw the dracanae, I went weak at the knees.

"Demigods," they hissed.

I swore something unintelligible and focused on walking without buckling over. An arrow flew from somewhere behind me and nearly hit the target if the dracanae hadn't decided to rip someone's head off just then.

I threw up.

The head dangled from her claws. I wasn't in a mood to fight. I couldn't. Not in the state I was in. Mortals rushed, bumping into walls along the way, confused, and under the influence of Mist.

It was okay if I just left, right? I couldn't fight. Neither could Nico and Cailey. No matter how sarcastic Nico was being, his arm had a huge cut and his eye was swelling up, which was a huge disadvantage.

"We have to run," I said.

"No, I can…"

"No you can't." I grabbed the emergency exit door on the roof and pulled. It opened. I pushed Nico through and searched for Cailey. She was on her side, the bow and arrow in her hands. I dragged her out between the two seats. "Go," I said. She climbed out. I hurried after her and ran for the cover of the trees.

The dracanae realized we'd disappeared and let out a howl. I pulled my sword close, blinking against the blood flowing in front of my eye.

Then the mortals began to scream. It pierced the air – genuine, not the ones you hear at a Halloween house.

I stopped, halfway to safety.

"Run!" Cailey screamed. "They're climbing out." She was right. A dracanae was trying to pull its fat bodies through the exit as it howled for demigods. Mortals continued to scream.

"Everyone else!" I said.

"You'll be killed!"

I listened to her and sprinted the last few yards feeling not very heroic at all. "Is there any way we can stop them?" I asked.

Cailey raise her bow and strung a huger arrow than the others. It could do some serious damage. "They're dying anyway," she told herself. "It's… the fastest way."

"You're going to try and blow the bus up?" I demanded. "Are you serious?"

"They're dying!" Cailey said hysterically, losing her mind for the first time. "The dracanae are just going to keep eating until… and then they'll come after us!"

"There has to be another way," I disagreed. "If we can go and pull them out… or…" I sounded completely pathetic. By now, the screams had stop. Silence was even worse than it.

Nico silently reached over and took the arrow from Cailey's shaking fingers. Then he let go.

The arrow flew up, then down at the bus. I turned away from the explosion, and wiped the blood from my cheek.

~0~

I shouldn't have looked, but I did. The bus had burned down, sending plumes of smoke into the air. After it had rained again and doused the fire, I was able to walk among the wreckage.

The only good news was that the dracanae had turned into sand. I kicked it around in the blackened grass, my stomach heaving over and over again. Then I knelt down to pick up one thing that had escaped burning. A baseball card. I tucked it into my pocket as a souvenir. Then looked up and got that sick feeling of being followed.

"Ready to go?" I asked when I got back.

Cailey and Nico nodded silently, sombre and grave. They'd used enough ambrosia to half heal some of their wounds. I tied a bandana around my head to soak up the blood and refused to look at any of them as we started our hike into the forest.

I should've told them I saw a dark figure while perusing the remains, but I didn't.

Nico lengthened his strides to match mine. Though I'd tried hard to walk as fast as I could, I was probably the shortest one in the group. Unfortunately. "She was crying, you know."

"That's no excuse."

"Just the thing this quest needs. A very angry Lena. Hazard right here."

"Nico," I said, turning to him. "You let go of the arrow. Don't talk to me."

"Yes ma'am."

"I'm serious."

Those were the last words we exchanged before we settled down for the night. Cailey tried making a fire to keep us warm, but the fire was too small and sizzled out within seconds. I hugged my coat to myself, thinking of the warm forges of Hephaestus at Camp Half-Blood.

We lay on the ground, using snow as our pillow and any sweaters or coats we could spare as blankets, and stared into the sky.

I could hear their snores. It had been a busy day. Killed two dracanae and fifty mortals too. I think I'll go sleep now. If I'd been more in control… If I hadn't suggested to run… I was the leader after all.

A twig snapped. But the presence wasn't threatening like a monster's. My hand didn't even so much twitch towards the dagger. Quite some distance away from the others, I dared raising my voice to a bit more than a whisper.

"Brenton Ward, if you're out here listening to me, get your ass back to Camp Half-Blood."

so thats it for this chapter. :P btw, that story about her mom screwing up on dinner happened to me. D:

i would realllly appreciate it if you reviewed. i know lots of ppl read this story so wouldnt it be great if you all told me how you feel about it?

byebye, until next sunday.