Chapter 20.
Thalia checks up on us in an hour as promised.
By the time the hour was up, I already felt much better so I had changed into the clothes I found in the backpack which Lacy gave me. I chose a black skater skirt and paired it with a black tank top. I then put a black white and grey flannel over the top which I leave unbuttoned and check to make sure my locket is on. I find a black pair of flat ankle boots which I slip on. I brush the knots out of my wavy hair that has dried and pull a plain, black cap over my head. I strap the knives to my thighs, above the bottom of the skirt, and place Backbiter into my belt that hangs at my hips. Besides my sword, I look normal.
"Katy, you're up!" Liam says.
"You sound surprised." I cross my arms
"See, I told you she'll be fine." Grace mumbles.
"Ok, well, We got on a bus and now we're in the city centre." Liam says.
"What did you get on the bus with?" I ask.
"Er, our feet?" Thalia raises her eyebrow.
"I mean, how did you pay for the tickets?"
"We got lucky found a fiver on the road." Liam shrugs.
"Oh." I sag my shoulders.
"Oh, what?" Liam tilts his chin.
"Well I was hoping that you stole a bus or something. Not that you got lucky and found money on the side of the road, that's boring." I say.
"Stealing buses, what a great idea to get the police on our trail." Thalia sighs. "Buses have CCTV, if you're going to steal a vehicle, take someone's car."
"Any ways, we should get out soon. We're in a car park." Liam says before leaving.
"Lego," Lexi leads.
I pull my backpack on over my shield and follow.
When we get outside the tent, I realise my backpack changes into a large, black handbag that hangs off one shoulder. "What is transformation?" I joke. Liam faces me and backhands me. The blow stings at first but fades quickly.
"Holy Hades, Liam, what was that?" Nico gasps, his hand moving towards his sword.
"Sorry, did I hit you too hard," Liam asks. "You can hit me back."
"Liam, I'm sorry for that. But, I don't want to slap you." I smile sweetly.
"Oh, really." He blushes,
"Come here." I walk gently towards him.
I grab my shield off my back and hit him over the head with it. He falls to the floor gasping his head. "You hit me again and I swear I'll stab you." I smile.
Liam tries to stand. But then staggers and Lexi catches him. "Lesson learned." He rubs his head. Nico throws him a bag of ice. "Where did you get that?" I ask.
"Magic medical bag." He replies.
"You know, when Jason was born, I wouldn't let even a fly go near him. But in the past two days, you three have literally; almost killed Katy, gave Katy a makeover, taken the shirt of Grace's back and now probably gave Liam a concussion." Thalia lists.
We walk down the street, and end up directly in the town centre. People are everywhere, so I seriously hope there aren't any monsters.
"Once, Grace stole my deodorant so I wasted an entire pack just spraying it in her room. She couldn't go in there all day." I smile at the memory.
"I remember that! Then she sprayed bug repellant in your room." Liam laughs.
"Yeah. But I held my breathe for a short thirty seconds and opened a window."
"Will y'a stop laughing at 'is!" Grace huffs. "I'm telling dad when we get home!"
"Then I'll tell dad you tried to drown me!"
"That wasn't my fault!" She yells as she stomps her foot.
A fair few people turn around. We are in a public area, we shouldn't draw more attention to ourselves than we can.
"Is everything alright here?" A male police officer asks, coming towards us. He's wearing the typical uniform, but his radio that is usually attached to the yellow vest is in his hand. "Sorry, my sister is being an idiot again." I improvise and stare at Grace. "Could you please tell us where the train station is, we need to go to Darlington. Grace thinks we need to get on the metro, but she won't listen when I tell her there isn't a metro where we need to go."
"No I don't!" Grace scrunches her eyebrows.
"You were literally just saying that. Katy's right Grace, we need to get a long distance train." Liam argues.
"She never said that!" Grace argues.
"Sorry, it is the main station we need, right?" I ask the officer, ignoring Grace and hope he does too.
"It should be, yeah. Alright, as long as there's not any trouble." He walks away.
"Thank you!" I call.
When the officer is out of earshot, I turn to Grace. "Are you flipping mad!" I hiss.
"What?" She crosses her arms and sticks her foot out.
"Katy was trying to make it seem like we weren't in any real trouble, and there you were almost blowing the whole thing up!" Lexi says.
"Well, it wasn't my fault. She didn't tell me!" She says.
"Oh yeah. Let me just go through the script right in front of him, yeah? Because he'll totally believe that!" I sigh.
"Ok, stop arguing, yeah?" Thalia sighs. "Ok, right now I'm hungry and there isn't anywhere here to get our tent out and I'm not going to try and find one. Let's exchange our dollars, and buy some food."
Thalia, Nico and I find a post office while Grace, Liam and Lexi wait by the fountain. Grace say down without question.
"What's some good places to eat around here?" Nico asks as we wait in line at the post office. "Greggs, Maccy D's, we could get a cheeky Nandos, I remember there's one in the shopping centre. I don't really want any fast food to be honest. ." I say.
Nico looks at me blankly. "The only thing I got out of that was some guy called Mac's D. Please tell me that is not what I think it is,"
"Maccy D's. McDonalds. And Greggs has the best sausage rolls, but a lot of people like the pasties. Do you want a cheeky Nandos, I do!"
"What the Hades is a cheeky Nandos?" Thalia laughs.
"It's called Nandos, but when ya' out with ya' mates and ya' having a good time and ya' really hungry, right. But ya' want to turn it up a notch from fast food, ya' have a cheeky Nandos and have a load of banter and a great time and ya' dare ya' best mate ta' eat the super spicy one right, and ya' laugh as they become a non fire breathing dragon." I smile, exaggerating my accent.
"I'm officially curious. Cheeky Nandos it is." Thalia agrees
"Also, they do bottomless pop and ice cream. Well it's frozen yogurt but it tastes like that one time I tried to make ice cream. Deceit and toilet paper."
After we exchange the dollars, we get £170 back.
"$300 for this?" Thalia murmurs as we go outside,
"the pound is worth more than the dollar, my friend." I say.
"Where's the others?" Nico asks. Lexi, Liam and Grace were meant to stay by the fountain, but the bench where they were is now occupied with a young woman and her baby. I walk up to her.
"Excuse me, hi sorry, but did you see three teenagers, our age, around here. They were supposed to wait there?"
"Sorry, I didn't see anyone. Why, is anything the matter?" She asks.
"Oh, no. They've probably gone to cooplands or something. Thank you though." I walk away, muttering curses under my breathe.
"This is bad." Thalia gulped.