Jay Evermist and the Olympians
Book One: The Battle Begins
Chapter 12: On the Road Again
(This is 12 right? Heck, if I can keep track. Sorry for not updating last week but this one is a little bit longer. So, forgiven? Yeah, I've just had a small case of writers block which comes with it's own symptoms. *Cough* Laziness *Cough* But I am on a roll now!)
Jacob was a good driver. How he learned how to drive is beyond me but I trusted him enough. I sat in the back of the van while Miki occupied the passenger seat. Argus had dropped us off at a van rental down the street after he took us out of camp. We still had no idea where we were going but we figured we would just go west and hope we find out.
Miki had fallen asleep after the first hour of driving and I had stayed quiet in the back, hoping not to distract Jacob from his work. Eventually my curiousity took over me. "So do you know if we are going to stop for lunch?" It was well past noon and I could faintly hear Jacob's stomach growling.
"Uh," He switched lanes and cruised through the slow lane. "Yeah, there should be a Sonic about three miles up on the left exit, I could go there if you like." I had never been to a Sonic but it sounded good.
"Yeah that's fine. I guess Miki will be fine with it too." I glanced over to her unconcious, sleeping body.
I wanted to ask more questions, but I could feel the tension building around us. "Do you know where we are right now?"
"Um," He checked the dashboard. "According to this GPS, we are in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. We should make it in about four days if we drive through some of the night and make like no stops."
I sat back on my seat and groaned. "Do you want to switch drivers through the night so you can sleep?" I didn't want him to be miserable.
"Sure, we'll do that when it comes to it." I caught his smile through the rear view mirror and felt boredom sweep over me. I glared out the window wondering where all these other cars were going and if they had a life or death situation. Before I knew it we were stopped in a parking lot.
"I ordered you a chili cheese Coney dog." Jacob turned while handing me a paper bag and a water bottle. Miki was awake now, contently eater her tater tots while yawning between bites. I thanked Jacob and pulled the bag open to inspect the hotdog. I hoped it tasted better then it sounded.
After Jacob had finished he continued on as I finished the last bites if the delectable hotdog. "So are we really going to be in this car for the next couple days?" Miki asked to Jacob.
"Well," Jacob fixed the rear-view mirror. "If you really want to, there's an airport a couple miles down. If we get there by seven or eight, we can probably catch the plane to Hollywood."
Miki made a squeal in the passenger seat. "Really? We're going to Hollywood?"
"In and out. Los Angeles is where we're headed." Jacob said quietly while I hoped my ear would go back to hearing normal sounds and not squeals.
"So what time is it?" I asked while crumpiling the paper bag up.
"Um." Miki checked the clock on the camp's GPS. "Well it says that it's 10:00 am, but that can't be right. That's like, right after we left camp." She turned to Jacob who burrowed his brow.
"It's probably just a glitch. Jay," He asked. "Does your watch still work?"
"No, it burned out this morning."
"Well, that's just great." He sighed. "Let's just get to the airport as soon as possible."
I gazed out the window as the big cities grew larger and taller, until we finally approached the looming airport. It probably wasn't the biggest airport, but it was the biggest I had ever seen. Which also made it the first.
We jumped out of the car, making a mental note to pick it up when we were done, and headed towards te front doors. It must have looked odd. Three kids, walking into a airport with little to no bags, no tags, not even any tickets. Luckily no one questioned us. Not even when Jacob used a stolen credit card to buy the one way tickets to Hollywood. A lot of things suprised me about him, and this was just one of them. He seemed more in charge when we started out, but also hesitant, almost like he didn't want to be the one giving orders.
"Okay," The woman behind the counter gave the card back to Jacob. She wore a white shirt and blue vest with a button that read 'Hi My Name Is Sherri' scribbled across. "It departs in an hour, from 2A." She pointed to the signs above us and the moving walkways leading to the waiting area. "You'll have to go through security first hon. Are your parents here?"
"No, they're waiting for us." Miki said smiling. "So if we could go now, that'd be great." Miki grabbed the tickets and lead us to the long line to the metal scanners. "So we all know what to do right?" I shook my head agreeing. "'K, we just put our bags down, naturally, and hope for the gods sake they don't find anything okay?"
Me and Jacob shared scared looks but it must have escaped Miki, because she only moved on along the line as we trudged slowly behind. The line actaully did go a lot quicker than I had hoped. I really didn't want to risk them finding any swords or daggers and arresting us. We all put down our bags, shoes, etc. onto the converbelt and slowly walked through the metal detector. I let go of a breath I didn't know I had been holding as I walked through with no problem. Me and Jaocb turned to watch Miki go through as we recollected our stuff.
The bell ringing was the biggest shock to me. Miki's eyes grew as large as saucers as she gulped and turned to large brick wall of a man now glaring at her neck. "You gonna take off that necklace missy." Miki fidled with it while contemplating probably whether to run now or not. I gave her a reasurring look and told her to just put it in the bucket.
She did so and walked to the other side to grab it back. I found it was weird she cared so much over one little necklace, but knowing her, she probably did the same for her sweaters too. She took deep breaths as Jacob patted her back, kindly. I noticed a twing of blush in her cheeks but didn't think twice about it, at the time.
After wondering around for a while we found our section and waited for what seemed like hours. The woman, wearing the same vest but this time 'Stacey', called on the intercom to tell passengers to line up for the plane. Jaocb pulled us to the front of the line. "Front line always gets the best seats." He grinned.
"So, you've been on a plane before?" I asked with absentmindedly playing with my duffle's zipper.
"Yeah, I used to live out here in California. I would fly from California to Las Vegas every summer." He lowered his tone. "To visit my mom."
I felt a sudden erge to hug him, only so that he knew someone cared. The lady collecting tickets, however, interupted our little bonding moment. "Tickets please."
Miki handed her the tickets and the lady eyed us questioningly. "Hold on." We were so close, we made it this far and now it was the end. "Where are your parents?"
Miki didn't answer this time and Jacob desperatly looked to me. "Well, you know, we're flying out to see them." I shrugged my shoulders and let out a sigh of relief when the lady nodded her head. What ever I had said was right. I had sort of blanked out and was unaware of what I had really said. "Thanks." I nodded.
We stepped into the hallway that lead the airport to the airplane and nudged Miki. "What?" She asked while rubbing her arm.
"Where's our seats?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Follow me." Jacob said, stepping out from between us and leading us towards the front of the plane. He stopped in first class and I almost ran into him. Miki and I widened our eyes in realization.
"No way!" I exclaimed. "You got us in here?"
"Yeah," He smiled. "I guess I did."
"We can always count on you can't we." Miki joked. She struggled with fitting her bags in the top compartment, but it fit. We had decided to keep our bags as carry on, since we couldn't risk anything. She sat in the window seat, gazing dreamily out on the asphalt.
Jacob then sat in the seat next to her, while I stood in the isle awkwardly. "Um, where am I going to sit." The seats were larger than most and there were only two on either side on the isle. "Do you expect me to sit next to some stranger?"
"No." Jacob shook his head. "You're sitting behind us, no one's scheduled to sit there." I shrugged and put my duffle on the empty seat that no one would sit in. The seats were amazingly comfortable. They were leather and had little cup holders in the arm rests. There was even headphones coming out of the head rest. Needless to say, this was going to be a nice flight.
After the routine safety whatever (I really didn't pay attention) the flight attendents began to walk down the isles giving out snacks and drinks. I smiled and grabbed a at the table. The woman however, shooed me away.
"We have chips, sandwiches, salads, anything you like. Would you like a menu."
"Menu?" I asked with my mouth open. "I'll be fine with some Sprite and Doritos." I smiled and was handed the snacks as I leaned forward and saw what Jacob and Miki had. Miki was sipping on her ginger ale while Jacob appeared to be passed out, listening to the music from the headphones.
'Hello passengers this is your captain speaking.' I stuffed my chips into my bag for later while I placed my bottle on the empty seat. 'We want to thank you again for choosing Around The Clock Airways for all your flying destinations. It will be a six hour flight to Hollywood, California. If you decide to fly back or to any of our many other destinations, look us up at '. He finally stopped talking and thought about catching some Z's while listening to some music.
I put in the headphones and looked at a pamphlet of songs from the pocket of my chair. I found the song I was looking for and instintly became more happy. I closed my eyes and listened to AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck'. It reminded of how my dad used to crank 80's music and how I would sit in the passenger seat and tap my small legs to the beat. I took in the nostalgia and thought, 'maybe this trip wouldn't be a complete waste.' I fell alseep with a smile on my face.
The seatbelt light, glaring at my closed eyes, woke me from my sleep. We had been flying four and some hours and only had a couple hundred miles to go. I stretched my arms and took out my earphones relunctantly as 'Spirit in the Sky' played.
I yawned and found Jacob and Miki asleep in their seats. It was kind of cute, their heads were leaning against each other, whether on purpose or not, it was cute. Sighing, I looked out the window and took in the beatiful scene. We were flying over the country at almost midnight and the stars were just beatiful. Man, Zeus was good.
My seat was the last one before the curtain between First Class and Coach seating, so there was a bathroom right there. I could walk a couple extra yards to get to the fancy smancy bathroom but I decided to test my luck with the generic toilet. I got up and shuffled to the lavatory.
The first thing I noticed was how cramped Coach seating was, and how fourtunate I was to be sitting in First Class. There was people more than five times my age sitting inbetween brats while I sat with an empty seat. I knocked on the door and it was met by a strong gruff.
"I'll be out in a sec." The voice replied. Something about the voice didn't set right with me and made my skin tingle. Not a second later, a tall thin man walked out and turned his head to me. It was hard to tell what he looked like through his large coat, hat, and glasses. I barely made out his eyes behind his foggy glasses but his eyes. They were so blue, an unnatural shade of blue. Like someone had electricuted them. I gasped as he trudged past and I saw him walk into the First Class section. How had I never seen him? I tried to forget about it while I walked into the small, dimlit bathroom.
Another thing I noticed was the mirror. It was unusually smudged. I had seen public restrooms and let me just say, they are not the greatest or the cleanest. But this, it was weird almost like a symbol smudged by a hand. Everything was really starting to freak me out so I decided to just finish up and get out of there.
Everything was normal at my seat, Miki and Jacob were still asleep, though their heads were now facing different directions, the waitress' were collecting trash, and it was all generally quiet. I saw, however that the man I had seen in the bathroom was sitting on the opposite isle next to Jacob and Miki's row. I prayed he was okay, he just seemed mysterious. Not technically bad, just unknown. Why was even getting worked up over this? He would get out of our life once we landed.
But sometimes, time doesn't work the way you want it to.