Chapter 20

Food court drama

Sapphire Banks

After Alcatraz we were all a little shaken up. I mean Leo had almost just died. It was scary! When we finally got out of the underground cave thingi, it was about 5:00. We left on another ferry and went to a nearby mall to discuss what to do in the food court.

"My dad used to take me here on the weekends sometimes," Annabeth said. "He wanted to buy me clothes, but all I ever wanted was books."

"Classic wise girl. I'm starving!" Percy said.

"Classic seaweed brain. Snow, will you go get him something to eat?"

"Sure. What do you want Percy?" Snow asked him.

"Pizza."

"Of course you do."

They walked off to a nearby Pizza Hut vendor.

"Nico, you okay?" I asked him.

"Hmm, oh, yeah I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

"Yes I am."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am."

"No, you're not!"

"Yes I am!"

"Tell me what's wrong, Nico."

"Fine. But alone, okay?"

"Alright." He led my arm over to a desolate corner of the food court.

"So I've kind of been thinking over what Pheme said, about Children of Hades."

"And..." I prompted.

"Well, what if I don't prove myself on this quest? What if I end up like all the others, and get forgotten and avoided by everyone?"

"You won't, Nico. You're awesome. And anyone who isn't capable of seeing that isn't worthy of your attention."

"Well, thanks, but first of all, that sounds like a cheesy greeting card. And second, I don't want to be forgotten. I want to be remembered, not discarded like an old sock. But what if I'm not good enough to finish the quest?"

"You are Nico. But ask Snow, comforting is clearly not my area of expertise. I had to copy my first line from that pink card someone littered on the floor."

"I knew it!"

"I'll go get her." I walked away. Snow was at the table sipping on one of the smoothies they got.

"What's this."

"Oh, I got smoothies for everyone. I got you raspberry delight. It's right there." She pointed.

"Thank you dear lady."

"Listen, is Nico okay?"

"That's precisely why I am here. I need you to go talk to him because I utterly suck at the confortation of humans without garbage to copy off off."

"Oh, okay. I'll go talk to him. I'll bring him his smoothie too."

"What kind is it?"

"Blackberry bash. That's his favorite fruit."

"I did not know this."

"Well, now you do. I'll go talk to him now."

She got up and walked over to him. I couldn't hear them, but I watched them. She put her hand on his shoulder and he pulled her close. They seemed to be talking... Whoa Sapphire, don't be a stalker.

I turned my attention back to the table.

"-not fair! How come Percy gets pizza AND a smoothie, while the rest of us waller in poverty with only a smoothie!" Leo complained.

"Tell you what, Leo, Percy doesn't get to keep his smoothie. You can have it."

"Hey! Annabeth, how could you?" Percy asked in outrage.

"This will go toward my goal of keeping you from going on the biggest losers."

" Is that show even still on?"

"Yes, Seaweed Brain. My stepmom watches it all the time."

"Huh. Didn't know that... BUT back to the problem at hand, how could you betray me like this? Why? Why? I thought you loved me! I though you cared! But you just took away my happiness for your own gain!" He pretended to sob.

"Percy, it is not for my own gain. I just don't want you to get fat."

"You just don't want to be seen with me once I'm fat. Your love is not unconditional!"

"Yes it is, Percy. I would still stay with you when you were fat, though I would be incredibly ashamed, and my Mother would be able to say I-told-you-so."

"So now it's your mother that's keeping us apart? Where does it end Annabeth, where does it end?"

"Percy, stop being dramatic, you can have your smoothie back." She took it from him mid-sip, and gave it back to Percy.

"Hey!"

"Ha! I knew that would work. Love ya Babe!"

Annabeth put her head in her hands.

"We're back bitches!" Nico said.

"You missed a hilarious conversation between Percy and Annabeth." I told him.

"That's great. Where are Caspia and Blade?"

"Making out by Taco Bell." Topaz said.

"WHAT? I am going to put a stop to this treachery right now!" Percy stormed over to them, wind swirling around him. We all followed.

"CASPIA MARRIANNE KELLY, WHAT IN POSEIDON'S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

"Um, we were just-"

"Just loosing my trust completely! I leave you alone for FIVE MINUTES, thinking you were responsible enough to talk to the opposite sex without rubbing your lips all over them, but NOOOOOO! You had to prove yourself to be a complete FLOOZY, and swap saliva with this young man. You are GUH-ROUNDED, missy. And as for you BUSTER, if I ever catch you near my sister again, you will end up AT THE BOTTOM OF A FOUNTAIN! Am I clear, you STINKIN YOUNGINS!"

"Seaweed Brain, calm down."

"Don't you tell me to CALM DOWN Annabeth! Our little girl thinks she's SOOOO grown up! But it's a short leap from this to going to a WHITE VAN willingly."

"Athena, help me." Annabeth said, rubbing her face.

"So you agree? We need to take serious action!"

"Percy, if you won't stop for me, stop for all these mortals. You are about to start a hurricane."

He looked down at the wind swirling around him, gathering water from the fountain.

"Yes, alright. I love you Annabeth. You're all that has kept me young in all these years of raising kids."

"I've only known you for two weeks!" Caspia exclaimed.

"Don't push him. He's calm now." Snow whispered.

"But, I've still got my eye on you BUCKO. Stay away from my sister if you don't want to drown." He stalked off, with Annabeth following.

"What WAS that?" Caspia asked.

"Percy when he's angry. Try to avoid it from now on." Snow said.

"Alright. Let's go sit back down." Caspia said, still miffed slightly.

We walked back to the table.

"Okay, it's about dinner time, what do you guys want to do?" Topaz asked.

"I dunno...what's around here?" Blade asked, nearly having recovered from Percy.

"Why don't we go outside and see? Is everyone done with smoothies?" Caspia asked.

A bunch of muttering of yes.

We threw away the empty Jamba Juice cups and went out the front entrance.

"So are we going to walk or take a taxi?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "We won't all fit into a taxi Seawed Brain."

"I thought we could do groups." He explained.

"No, we shouldn't split up. We can walk or take the bus, but we'd need to know where we wanted to go if we took the bus, so that's not good for looking around."

"We could rent a van." Snow suggested.

"Good idea. Who's going to drive?" Annabeth asked.

Everyone took a sudden interest in their feet.

"Well we should probably rule out everyone who's 15 because they only have a learners permit. Let's see, that's Caspia, Blade, Sapphire, me, maybe Leo..." Nico said.

"I'm 16 broh!"

"Do you have a license?"

"Well, no."

"Then why does it matter?"

"Because I don't want to be a little kid!"

"Hey!" All 3 said at once.

"Who here has a license?"

"Not me." Nico said.

"I'll drive, since no one else will." Annabeth said.

"Okay, where's a dealership? Wait, do you call it a dealership for rentals?" Percy asked.

"Yeah, and there's one two blocks away." Topaz said.

"Cool, lets go." Percy said. It took about 15 minutes to get there, and we rented a black van that looked like we were using it to rob a bank.

The interior was filled with black leather seats arranged in a circle in the back and just 2 side by side in the front. Percy sat shotgun with Annabeth.

She went through the safe drivers checklist, out loud, and Percy tapped his fingers loudly on the dashboard. "Okay, done."

"Finally. You know no one keeps doing the safe drivers checklist after they take the test, right?" Percy snorted.

"Better safe than sorry." She said.

"You sound like your Mother."

"Is that good or bad?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Bad, obviously. Jeez Annabeth get with the program."

"I will not throttle him. I will not throttle him." Annabeth muttered under her breath.

"Okay, let's go." She said once she was calmed down.

We drove for a while until I saw something.

"Ooooh, oooooh let's go to Soup Plantation!" Sapphire squealed.

"No, I want burgers." Percy whined.

"Why don't we go to a Steakhouse? Hey, there's Outback." Blade suggested.

Annabeth pulled in, muttering about the parking rules.

"Okay, let's get out." She told us.

We walked into the dimly lit restaurant.

"It looks so much better dark." Snow said.

"God, I love you." He said and kissed her.

"Hey, get your Floozy lips off my brother!" I screamed.

"Is that really what I sounded like?"

"No Percy. Much, much worse." Annabeth told him calmly.

A dark haired scruffy waiter appeared behind the podium. " Hello, my name is Tim. MayI help you?" He spoke with a southern-ish accent.

"Yeah we want to order a bunch of apes and zebras from Amazon, thanks. That's why we came to a restaurant." Leo said.

"The sarcasm is noted. A table for how many?"

"Let's see there's nine people here talking to you, how many people should the table seat? Hmmm, that's hard. We'd better call a Philosopher." Leo said.

"Yes, alright. Table for nine. Will that be a booth or chairs?"

"Well, let's see-"

"Leo, be nice to the waiter." I told Leo.

"Okay, babe. Yeah, that's right haters, I'm dating her! Shazam!"

"A booth, please." Snow said.

"You're just in luck. There's one big one left."

He led us off to a corner with a big wraparound booth. We piled in from the left Blade, Caspia, Percy, Annabeth, Topaz, Snow, Nico, me, Leo.

"Let me go get your menus."

"Yeah, who's stopping ya, buddy?" He said as he walked away.

"Leo, you really should be nicer to restaurant workers . They don't get paid very much." Annabeth told him.

"Ah, but they can't say anything back, making them the perfect targets."

"Leo, you are a disturbed person."

"So true."

"Here you are." He put a menu in front of each of us. "Might I interest you in something to drink?"

"Well, let's see, we're all human and humans need water to survive, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say yes."

"WHAT would you like to drink you filthy son of h-" He stopped himself. "I'm sorry. I have spoken out of turn. What would you lovely folks like to drink?"

"How old do you think I am?" Percy asked.

"Erm, I don't know, maybe sixteen."

"Are you sure I'm not 22, Snow, tell him how 22 I am."

"I'm sorry sir, you can't have alcohol. We have Coca-Cola. That seems to be popular with your generation."

"Do you have blue food coloring?"

"No, why?"

"Oh, I wanted blue Coke. But if you don't have that then just regular old Coke."

"Kill my happiness." He muttered.

He looked at Blade. "Lemonade, please."

"Oh, Caspia, he's so manly." He nearly fell over himself laughing.

"The young lady next to him," He asked, ignoring Leo.

"Mountain Dew, please."

"Yeah, the last thing we need is her all hyped up on sugar this late in the night."

"Shut up Leo." Percy and Blade said at the same time.

He looked at Annabeth. "Tea with lemon."

"The blonde next to her."

"A glass of wine, please." Her voice was sweet and he didn't question how old she was.

"The twin?"

"I'd like the same please." Again, he didn't question.

"Diet Coke." Nico said.

"Oh, you're watching your weight di Angelo?"

"Shut up Leo." Snow said.

"The girl with the black hair."

"Rasberry tea."

"And...you."

"Why don't you try and guess?"

"Water, it is." He walked away. "Hey, wait, bro, come on!"

"You deserved that Leo." I admitted.

"No one deserves JUST water."

"So where are we going to sleep tonight?" Annabeth asked.

"Depends on what we need to do tomorrow." I said.

"I think maybe we should visit Mount Tam." Caspia said.

"That...doesn't sound safe. Even if he's not loose, Atlas is still holding the sky there." Topaz said.

"As much as I hate to admit it, that's probably our best bet. Atlas probably knows something about the staff. We need to make him talk. If one of us offers to hold the sky, he may tell something." Snow said.

"But we'd be letting him loose! Imagine what he would do!" Annabeth all but yelled.

"But there's really no other way to get information." Nico said.

"But-"

"Drinks." The waiter said and passed them out.

"Are you ready to order?"

Leo was about to say something, but I glared at him and he stopped.

"I'll have an 8 oz rare steak." Snow said.

"No, remember what Daddy said."

She rolled her eyes in her head. "Fine, medium rare. Hope you're happy Dad, you just took away like, half the blood."

"I finally get your relationship." Leo said.

"I'll have the same." Nico said with a glare.

The rest of us told him what we wanted and he walked away.

"So, back to the problem at hand-wait, is Snow asleep?"

Snow, who had already had her head on Nico's shoulder, was out cold.

"I guess she was tired." Topaz said and took another sip of wine. About 5 seconds later, she passed out, too.

"Okay, it's defiantly something in the drinks. How much has everyone else had?" Annabeth asked.

"I've drinken about half already." Percy admitted. "But that's with ice."

"So he's next." Caspia said worriedly.

"I haven't touched mine yet." Annabeth said.

"Me neither." I said.

"I haven't either. Leo kind of ruined lemonade for me." Blade said with a glare.

"I had a little." Caspia admitted.

"I've drinken a good bit." Nico said.

"I didn't drink any, I thought he really would poison me." Leo said.

"Hang on. It may have been poison, not sleeping draught but it affected them less because they're immortal." Annabeth said.

"Way to put our nerves at ease, wise girl!"

"Sorry. We need to go to the kitchen and see who did this. Blade guard them."

I was surprised she wanted me to come with her instead of the war machine.

When we got close to the sliding doors, there was a horrific smell. We went into the kitchen where we found the rotting corpses of all the workers. This thing, was feeding off their flesh while the waiter cooked steak on the grill humming cheerfully. I almost threw up it was so gross. Annabeth looked ready to gag, but she was holding it in. He turned his head and it disgusted me even more than the corpses.

He had weathered tannish-grey skin, a frail thin body, startling yellow eyes and a long dirty grey tongue inside an extremely haggard face.

I'll admit it. I screamed. Loudly. I kept screaming until Annabeth put her hand over my mouth and told me to shut up while she was thinking.

"Tim, what's going on here."

He looked up. "Oh, hello. You two are some of the polite ones. It's so refreshing when people are kind to those serving them."

"Yes, but what is going on here, Tim?"

"Hmmm? Oh, you mean Eurynomus? Oh, he's just having a snack. All of the other workers were terribly rude anyway. Serves them right I think."

"But Tim-"

"Tim? Oh, no, that's just a formality. It's Xenia. I am the God of Hospitality and manners, particularly with travelers of long distance."

"Well, you sound like a nice guy. Why are you working for that, that THING."

"I told you his name is Eurynomus. It's very rude not to call someone by their name once you know it. But you are pardoned, as this is your first time not acting out of politeness that I've seen."

"Right. So what does he want? Why did you put our friends to sleep? They were all polite to you, well, except Leo."

"Was Leo the imply son of Haphaestus who had too much sarcasm?"

"Yes?"

"Are you asking or telling?"

"I'm telling."

"Good. Well your friend Leo will have to be killed and eaten by Eurynomus here, I'm afraid."

"What? But all he did was make some sarcastic comments! He was just being Leo!"

"Impoliteness should not go unpunished or it will continue. That is why he is destined for that fate."

"But why did you put sleeping draught in our drinks?"

"These are desperate times. People are swayed easily. The Olympians never accepted me; never gave me a seat on their hall. Even after I said please. So rude! The lord of the sky himself never uses his manners either, always just expects everything to be handed to him without any thanks or recognition whatsoever!"

"The Titan Kronos came to me in a recent dream, made me an offer I couldn't refuse. You see Eurynomus here has never been respected by the lord of the dead. He was offered the role of Ruler of the Underworld when the Titans take over. He said when that happens, we could get rid of all the impolite mortals on this earth and put them in punishment. It was too sweet to refuse! I accepted. He said all I had to do was bring him those two pretty blonde girls who are asleep now."

"But they were polite to you. Why would you want anything to happen to them?"

"Have ever heard he saying 'the needs of the many outweigh the few'? Their lives are less important than the purification of the entire world. Can you imagine a world full of only nice people? Oh, it would be magnificent. Besides, he said they were in love."

"That's not the way I heard it."

"How did you hear it then, dear?"

"I heard he forced himself on her and she told us the other night crying."

"My dear, you simply do not understand what things were like in the Ancient World. It was extremely common for that to happen when a man fell in love, and it was not much less common for her to end up loving him in return eventually. You'd have to be a stubborn woman with extremely high standards not to."

"But that's terrible!"

"It's the way things were. I'm sorry if it doesn't fit your modern point of view, but it's the way things were then and everyone was happy with it. Now don't try my patience. You starting to sound very rude."

"I'm very sorry, Xenia. I don't mean to sound impolite."

"It's quite all right dear. You just weren't raised at the right standard."

"Can we come back to you in a minute?"

"Yes, but say in a moment, it sounds incredibly rude to promise to be back at a time you know you won't be, just to make the other person think you won't be gone long."

"Right. Come on Sapphire." She pulled on me, and had to drag me away because I was still frozen in horror about the demon on the floor.

I noticed for the first time that we were the only people in the restaurant. It wasn't just because it was a Tuesday, I think they did some kind of magic-y thing to keep other people away.

"Okay, I have bad news. Very bad news. Hey not all of you are asleep, that's good."

"But you know what's not good? The fact that whatever is in there is bad enough to paralyze the daughter of death." Percy said worriedly.

"She's the daughter of the Underworld, which actually would have been a better point." Nico retorted.

"So what was it? I want to see!" He said excitedly

I realized I could move. "Trust me Nico you don't. It was horrible. That-that thing was feasting on-" I collapsed.

"It's official. I'm interested. What is it?"

"I'm pretty sure you would think it was cool, but you don't want to go in there. The monster, well demon, Eurynomus, doesn't like your Father."

"He didn't attack Sapphire did he? And I think I know this demon. My dad doesn't like him much."

"Yeah, the God of politeness said-"

"God of politeness?"

"Yeah. Not a metaphor. He's literally the god of manners. He said 'when' the Titans take over he will become the king of the Underworld."

"Yeah, I spoke to him once. He was very power hungry, and he didn't like many people."

"How did you talk to him?" Annabeth asked.

He stared at his feet. "I uh, I speak demon."

"That's good! That might be able to help us. Come on!" She yelled.

"No! I can't leave her!"

"Please, Nico, this is the only way to save them."

"Fine. I'll go."