Chapter 6. Esperanza, Atlanta Georgia
"GET DOWN!" a voice yelled at Esperanza. She automatically did as she was told, ducking behind the lemon car that was in front of her. She pressed her back against the door and looked up, seeing the wave of fire rush over her, missing her hair by an inch or two.
She waited for a few seconds after the wave had passed before popping up and looking around.
"What just happened?!" she exclaimed making her way around the lemon slowly. She could hear the creaks and clicks of gears and automatically knew what happened, easily understanding what the machine was saying.
"I don't care if you had to sneeze! You could have killed us!" she heard the voice yell at the machine, "You know Anza can't automatically block fire like I can!"
"Papa, let Festus be. You know I sneeze fire too sometimes," Esperanza told the man as she rounded the corner to see her father yelling at a golden dragon head. The man she'd called papa turned to look at her. His black curly hair was almost the same color as hers only her's was lighter than her father's, but they did share the same warm brown eyes.
"I don't care! He knows to warn us by now! Hades! He was the one who first saw you using your fire powers! Fuega, you're my only child! I have to care for you! And this dam dragon is making that impossible!" her father exclaimed.
"Papa. Cálmate, please," Esperanza pleaded trying to avoid him setting himself on fire. It happened way to often, they had to replace a burned thing every dang week. Esperanza walked over to her father, slowly preparing herself in case he set himself on fire. She wasn't completely fireproof like her father for some reason, she could be she just had to focus or have to be in a life or death situation. She didn't count Festus sneezing as one of them.
"Calm down?! Este dragón estúpida podría haberte matado!" her father explained, before pointing a finger at the machine and yelling at it, "Te podría convertir en chatarra! La única razón por la que no he hecho todavía es porque usted mira Anza en las noches de la fecha!"
"Papa! I can understand you!" Esperanza told her father.
He huffed angrily, "Oh ¿Por qué tuve que enseño español?" he questioned himself.
Esperanza let out a light chuckle at her father's question. He had made sure to teach her spanish when she was younger, wanting her to understand her latino and greek background. Though many times throughout the years she knew her father regretted the spanish part because now she could understand his crazy spanish rants to himself and Festus.
The door to the garage slammed open and both Esperanza's eyes and her father's widened in fear. Her mother was back. Now her mother wasn't a cruel person, she just had peeves, like seeing her daughter covered in machine grease. She saw her father mouth the word, hide, as her mother appeared in the doorway.
"Leo! Anza! What are you doing!?" her mother exclaimed in fear. Her eyes were focused on Esperanza, who was covered in black machine grease and dust from working on the old lemon car that had been brought in earlier that day.
"Umm... fixing a car Mama," Anza responded smiling shyly. She knew her mother hated the fact that she'd taken an interest in mechanics like her father. Sure the family ran a repair shop, her father being the mechanic while her mother was the receptionist, but her mother just always expected her to take interest in other things.
"I can see that Fuega," her mother stated, using the nickname that her parents had given her the first time she had created fire, "Why don't you clean up and go to the front of the store I need to have a few words with your father," her mother suggested. Esperanza nodded knowing not to anger her mother. She grabbed a towel that hung by the door, wiping the grease off before walking into the lobby.
She took a seat behind the counter and looked out into the empty waiting room and sighed heavily leaning back in the swirling chair. The shop was usually like this, it made her wonder how the store managed to stay a float when they weren't raking in money. She sighed and closed her eyes ready to doze off.
Suddenly the chime rang through the shop, always louder than it should, because, well... Esperanza had a habit of falling asleep while manning the shop. She moaned and opened her eyes, looking over the teen who strode through the door. She noticed the black Range rover that was parked and running outside.
"Welcome to the Ogygia Machine Shop, what machine troubles do you need fixed?" She stated, grinning.
"Actually... I need to talk to a dude named Leo Valdez, is his here?" the teen asked. She took note of his sea green eyes, it reminded her of a man in one of the pictures her father had in the shop of him and his old friends.
This set her off. Every time someone asked to see her father they turned out to be a monster or something, so not caring if this guy was a mortal or not she set her hands on fire. The teen's eyes widened.
"Shit, did you just… Um okay. How do I prove I'm not a monster? I'm kind of new to this demigod thing," The teen reported, looking like he was about to freak out. He was watching Esperanza carefully while he pulled a ball point pen out of his pocket and tossed it to her. "Give this to Leo Valdez, he'll recognize it."
She caught the pen easily, putting out one of her hands out. She looked at the teen in front of her and nodded before standing up, making her way to the door of the garage.
"DAD! There's someone here to see you!" she yelled before turning back to the teen and throwing the pen back to him, "Prove it to him yourself." She walked back over to the chair and plopped down in it.
The teen looked weirded out and nodded gulping down some saliva. The chiming of a bell alerted them both. Coming through the doorway was a girl with black hair and piercing blue eyes wearing a black leather jacket. She was chewing a piece of gum also Anza quickly noted before spotting the quiver and bow that was slung over her back.
Before the new girl could even say a word her father walked into the lobby, wiping his hands clean on the towel Esperanza had used to clean her face earlier.
"Fuega, Mija? What is it?" he asked he suddenly froze when he saw the other girl, "Thalia," he stammered.
The black haired girl smiled and nodded in greeting, "Good to see you too Valdez, and back from the dead apparently," the girl remarked.
"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be shooting arrows into the sunset with your girlfriends or something?" her father questioned the girl. Anza knew that the girl had struck a cord. She'd been told the story of how her father died fighting mother earth, sacrificing himself so that he could save the world and see her mother again. She also knew that her father had never gone back to the camp, leaving all his old friends to think he was dead. He always said the reason he never went back was because he didn't want her to grow up in the typical demigod fashion. HA! She'd grown up with a fire breathing dragon that threatened her life practically everyday, that wasn't normal.
"That's not what we do Leo. Anyways we need your help," Thalia replied.
"What the problem? That Range Rover looks good as new, what could be wrong with?" Leo stated, examining the car from behind the counter.
"There's nothing wrong with the dam car Leo! There's a new prophecy and it calls for the children of the 7!" Thalia yelled, slamming her fist on the counter. Leo's smirk fell at this statement. He glanced over at Anza then over at the boy that had come before Thalia.
"No," he reported, "I will not have my daughter dragged into this. Why do you think I never came back?! I can't have her grow up in the world I did. I lost my mother to that world, I'm not losing my daughter to it," he snapped angrily, his hair now smoking, and his fist heating up, the air around it turning wavy from the heat.
Anza noticed this and prepared herself to help put her father's flames out if he really did set himself on fire.
"Leo. Come on... We need you. How about Jason and Piper? How will they react when they find out that you've been alive for the past 20 years?" Thalia asked Anza's father, "And you know prophecies can't be ignored. Leo... she's a part of this, no matter how much you don't want her to be."
Leo let out a heavy sigh, the heat radiating off of him slowly disappearing, "Fine. But on one condition. Festus goes with them."
Next: Zoë Selina Jackson
