Heads Up!: ...not sure I have any CWs this time, actually, but there are spoilers for Redacted in this chapter.

While the others looked at maps only one of them knew how to read, Diego followed his mom upstairs to her office. "Do I really have that much mail?" he asked.

"Of course – you did so well on your ACT! Most of it's junk from colleges that want you to apply, but –"

"Hold up. I don't know whose results they mixed mine up with, but there's gotta be a mistake. I only got a thirty-two."

"That's a great score!"

"It is?"

She reached up and put a hand on his shoulder. "Did someone tell you it wasn't?"

"No… but usually that's a failing grade."

"Out of a hundred, yes. Out of thirty-six, not so much."

"…the top score's only… oh my gods, and Jess re-took a thirty-four?"

"Was she acting like she did bad?"

Not really, but she did worse than Simon and she hadn't really been happy to learn that. "I'm such an idiot!"

"No you're not; you're a smart boy and I'm very proud of you. But…"

"…I have the common sense of a brick," he finished for her.

"Only sometimes!" She was giving him a lot more credit than he deserved there. "You just need to start asking more follow-up questions."

He refrained from mentioning that the reason he didn't tend to do that was because he'd gotten so used to never getting them answered when he'd lived at home. It really wasn't his mom's fault – there was a lot she hadn't been allowed to talk about – but it was kind of hard to un-learn.

"Yeah, probably. Wow, you weren't kidding, this is the most letters I've ever seen in one place!"

"Mhm. You might wanna open all of them to make sure there's nothing you need in there. I don't know which schools you actually applied to."

"Oh, it's too early for anything from…"

Georgetown. He took about a minute to make sure he'd read that right. "You were saying?"

"It might just be an acknowledgment or something. Like, saying they got my application."

"Open it and find out!"

"What if it's a rejection letter?"

"Then you try again next year, or go somewhere else and transfer in later. You did apply to other schools, didn't you?"

He nodded, but put the letter in his pocket. "I'll worry about that stuff if I get back to Camp, Mamá."

"You mean when you get back."

"Oh hey, one of these is from Chiron! I don't know why he'd send something here when he could've just given it to me at dinner or something, but I'd better check it out."

"Yeah, you should. That reminds me, he wrote me a while back about an issue with you breaking curfew…"

"It was one time, months ago, nothing happened, please tell me he didn't –"

"Oh, he did. And I'm not the only one who got a letter about it."

Fuck. "I… don't think I have to worry about monsters anymore. Jess's dad's gonna kill me. He's not gonna care if it was her idea, or that… wait, how many details did you get?"

"Less than you were about to give me. What, you got caught with your shirt off?"

"…well, she fell in the creek, and it's not good to keep wet clothes on at night so yeah, I gave her my shirt. And we were heading back to our cabins anyways, it started raining!"

Aaand his mom was laughing at him. "Really?"

"I told her most of our rain comes at night! But the harpies check all the buildings, and she said it'd be fine by the trees, and oh my gods I'm making it sound worse. She didn't wanna sleep alone 'cause of stuff I won't go into and Brenna was away from Camp and all her other friends were guys, so…"

"Okay, okay! You know, even if something did happen, as long as you both –"

"The Camp store doesn't sell condoms. You have to ask Chiron or get stuff smuggled in. I can wait until we move out if she can."

"And since everyone… yeah, I see how that'd work. Embarrassment is a pretty powerful deterrent for teenagers. So what's that say?"

How did she think he could try and read something during that conversation? "Uh… I think it's a report card? No, wait; a transcript. But why would… oh my gods, midterms, of course! I took mine on Saturday with a few other people in my class since we were all gonna miss them for mission stuff otherwise. I guess I passed, then. Nice!"

"Mijo, that says 'Final Transcript' at the top."

"Well yeah, it was… oh my gods, I could graduate?!"

"Looks like it! Congratulations!"

He barely even noticed when she kissed his forehead and went for a hug. Like, he did hug her back, but all he could think about was… did he even want to graduate early? It was probably the way to go if he wanted to start earning money for college, and if he had enough credits then Jess for sure did, but…

There was a note with the transcript that laid out a few options. He could be done with classes and stay at Camp to train and help out with other stuff – and since the war ended he'd really been slacking on keeping the armory organized properly, but if people would just put things where they belonged that wouldn't be an issue.

If he wanted, he could keep doing school stuff with the rest of the class and take some AP tests… but he really didn't think he'd do well enough on any of those to get college credits and they cost money he didn't have. Sure, his mom would probably pay for those, but she shouldn't have to.

Which left just… leaving. It wasn't like he'd have nowhere to go. But he was a year-rounder in the first place because it was safer for his family if he stayed away. Not to mention all the people he'd be leaving behind if he did that.

Clarisse would be fine; all of his siblings would. They'd just be happy he wasn't dead and it wasn't like he was planning on never coming back. College students showed up during breaks all the time. Chris would be upset at first, but he'd get it. Jess would probably go with him, and Brenna definitely would.

Gods, he felt bad for saying he hadn't wanted her to come on the mission… he should've known she'd take that badly. Granted, she wasn't supposed to find out, but still. He just wanted her to be safe. And if she wasn't gonna stay at Camp, the next safest place for her was with him. At least, most of the time.

And then there was Kieran. He'd be really upset, because he did care if he finished high school and he still had two and a half years to go. Public school hadn't been kind to him and he'd had a lot of catching up to do during his first year of high school classes at Camp. Which Diego knew because he'd helped with a lot of English and history homework.

No, the first option was definitely the best one. There were plenty of scholarships he could write essays for and that might be less painful than going through recovered weapons and armor to see if anything could be repaired or reused. Which really was something he should be leaving to the Hephaestus Cabin anyways since none of them had to deal with knowing exactly what happened to the last people to use those.

"Diego? Did you want to go tell your friends?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea right now."

"Why not?"

"Ellos no le gustaría."

His mom sighed and sat down in her office chair in the least professional way possible. "Pero es Universidad, no guerra. ¡Deben estar felices para ti!"

"Sí, pero aún es peligroso y dos de ellos tienen problemas con el abandono. Necesito tener cuidado. Si no uso las palabras correctas…"

"Sería difícil por ellos. Entendido."

"Gracias, Mamá. Pero si quieres, podemos celebrarlo un poquito…"

She laughed. "Haré galletas más tarde."

"Snickerdoodles?"

"Por supuesto los quieres a éstas." [1]

"It's been so long…"

"Because last time you made a mess in my oven!"

Because it took forever to roll all the dough into balls and then roll those in cinnamon sugar so he'd thought it'd go faster if he just made the cookies bigger. "In my defense, I was twelve. Besides, I didn't know the dough would spread like that! Tortillas don't!"

"¡Son masas diferentes! ¿Y cómo tienes la paciencia para hacer tortillas de harina por mano pero no puedes manage two steps for cookies you don't even have to roll out first?" [2]

"I have to wait longer for the cookies to finish."

"True. Okay, I'll make snickerdoodles as long as you stay out of the kitchen."

"Deal."

"All of you."

"What if one of the others wants to help?"

She gave him a look. "I'm not making it easier for Brenna to sneak you cookie dough."

"I wouldn't ask her to do that!"

"Only because you know you wouldn't have to."

"Route-planning isn't really a four-person job, though…"

"Oh! I forgot to give them the scrapbook from that trip! There'd definitely be city names in there."

And there'd be pictures Diego would rather not let them see, because he was so tired of the comments. Stuff like "Look how cute you were!" wasn't the issue, it was the follow-ups. Because those usually came with pity. The kind where it felt like people thought having scars on his face was the worst thing that'd ever happened to him.

Like, was it great? Not really, but it was sure better than being dead, which was apparently a difficult concept for some people to grasp.

But his friends probably wouldn't be weird about it. Brenna had seen plenty of pictures of him as a kid against his will and she'd just teased him about outfits or not being the tallest one in every photo. Going off of previous conversations, Arianna would be more likely to comment on photos from the next year when he did have scars because she was still getting used to how monsters worked. As for Kieran… well, he wouldn't say anything out loud, so that would be okay.

"Yeah. I think one of them was like a person's name? Jackalope capital of the world or something?"

"That sounds like a good place to start. I wish I'd been able to come with…"

"Me too, but wars aren't exactly conducive to getting vacation time."

"And how would you…? …oh. You're right; they aren't, are they."

Oh gods, she was tearing up, what was he supposed to do? She'd cried in front of him like, twice, ever! "Ah, it's okay, really! The world's still here, right? We'll go see all sorts of stuff when you retire."

"Thank you for reminding me that I'm old and that the war you were a child soldier in had much higher stakes than anything I'll ever do at the same time. You are definitely your father's son."

"Oh, good. Someone else doesn't think so."

"Well, 'someone else' can go to Tartarus. She doesn't know anything." His mom paused and took a deep breath. "She didn't… she didn't do anything to you, did she?"

"Aside from making most of us contemplate deicide, no. We just talked."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Really?"

"Really. I just… you know. Sometimes words hurt. I'm okay now."

"No, you're not. Tell me what's wrong."

"She owed you a favor. Now she doesn't – so how do I know… she could… and Alicita! And I broke the tie, so whatever happens now is my – m-m-my –"

Damn it! "Sshhh, Nenito, I know what you mean. Do you regret your choice?"

He shook his head; now that he'd had more time to think about it, the only better option would've been never going at all. The first contract, the one Kieran hadn't bothered to read, just said Enyo wouldn't kill them unless they laid a hand on her. And absolutely nothing to clarify who she was talking about. If he'd refused her, especially right after pointing that out, there was no way she'd've just let them all leave.

"Then you did the best you could. And you don't have to worry about me or Alicia, okay? We'll be fine. Your friends are the ones who need you right now."

"Okay." He'd mostly pulled himself together; he could go back downstairs whenever. It was probably obvious that he'd been crying, but that didn't really matter.

"That said… would you and Brenna walk Alicia home from the bus stop today?"

Huh? "Sure, but what if she doesn't wanna go with? It's still cold out."

"She'll want to. I need to use the internet."

"Oh my gods, that's it! I know how we can find a jackalope!"

"No!"

"But it'd save us a lot of time and driving…"

He knew why his mom wasn't happy about his idea – he'd summoned a lot of monsters accidentally (once on purpose) by looking them up online. So why not use that to his advantage for once (twice)? "And if there's no jackalopes nearby? What's gonna show up instead?"

"Nothing?"

She glared at him. "Or something worse. Maybe many somethings worse. Don't even suggest that to the others."

"…fine. But what are you gonna use the internet for?"

"Hopefully, finding the fastest route to wherever you need to go."

"Wait, that's a thing? What are they messing around with maps for, then?"

"It's always important to know where you are. Besides, what if your plans change later? MapQuest is a good tool, but it's not perfect. And I don't trust a GPS not to draw monsters to you."

The hell was a GPS? "All right. It's not like we can really get lost anyways, Brenna always gets where she needs to be."

"Eventually, right?"

"Yeah. C'mon, let's see if the others have any ideas yet!"

Wow did it feel different downstairs. The tension was probably too thick to cut with a knife. Maybe leaving the others to their own devices hadn't been the best idea. "Oh thank the gods, please tell me there's anything else we can do right now," Brenna complained once they came into view.

"Well, you know how math works…" Kieran muttered under his breath. "You could help with that…"

"No, that's okay, I'm pretty much done," Arianna said. Her eyes said, "I'm going to kill you for leaving me alone with these two," and Diego couldn't really blame her if they'd been like that the whole time.

"I'll be in the kitchen," his mom informed them. "The scrapbooks are on the bottom shelf."

And he couldn't blame her for wanting to get the hell out of that room. "Okay, what do we have so far?" he asked.

"I think I know which interstate's gonna be faster," Arianna replied. "And that's about it."

"Hey, that's something. We'll have a city name to go off of soon."

"How embarrassing is this gonna be for you on a scale of 'family pictures' to 'Lion King'?" Brenna wondered.

"I mean, they are family pictures, but I'll say 'first day at Camp'."

Kieran sighed. "Wanna try that again for the rest of us?"

"I… actually missed most of his first day, so I'm not sure either," she admitted. "But Maya pointed out the scrapbooks, so I'm assuming we're gonna look at one. Or Diego's gonna, at least."

"Yeah, you got it," Diego said. "And while we're doing that, I think we need to debrief." He looked Kieran in the eyes for all of two seconds before Kieran dropped his gaze.

"You're right."

"What does that mean?" Arianna asked.

No one else spoke up in the next ten seconds, so Diego answered her. "Basically, we go over what happened earlier and say like, what went well –"

"That won't take long," Kieran interrupted. It was kinda muffled because he had his head down and he looked not unlike a turtle withdrawing into its shell. "I messed up big time."

"Yeah, but it's not like we died or anything," Brenna responded. "And I let her get to me too, it wasn't just you."

"That's great guys, we'll get back to that, but can I finish?" Diego didn't wait for a reply before continuing. "We go over what happened, what went well, what went poorly, and how we can improve for next time."

"Oh, gotcha. Well, what happened was we argued, got real distracted, and said we'd do an errand that's prolly gonna take us halfway across the country," Arianna summarized. "I really wanna know what you guys think went 'well' there."

Honestly, just what Brenna said: they hadn't died. "I mean, you didn't start anything?" Kieran tried.

Her face went red. "Y- I… I guess? But I didn't really stop anything either."

"You did, actually. It didn't last, but neither did anything I tried," Diego said. "And you definitely got less mad than I did."

"Sure didn't feel like it," she replied. "If she'd said that kind of stuff about my dad I woulda slapped her for sure."

"Hm… I wonder why she didn't, then? It really seemed like she wanted us to try fighting," Brenna commented.

"I dunno, I guess since I'm apparently not worth killing or whatever?"

Diego knew he had to say something before one of the others told her she totally was, which might sound comforting to them, but probably wouldn't help her. "Gods, I wish that was me. I'm gonna have to hope Mamá was wrong about whether I could win that fight."

"I mean, out of the four of us you've got the best shot," Kieran responded. "I guess… at the end when we were talking about terms, that went well?"

"As well as it could've, yeah," Brenna agreed. "So, uh… pretty sure we all know what went wrong, huh."

"I'll say. Since when do you care what people say about you?"

"That's not what set me off and you know it. Well, maybe partly, but it took her a while to get to anything I haven't heard a thousand times."

"Who's been saying you don't fight your own battles?" Diego asked.

Brenna looked at him incredulously. "Uh, like, half the people at Camp? Which is dumb 'cause as far as they know the only person I fight is Drew and unlike her I don't outsource my pranks."

Huh. No one ever said that in front of him. Unlike certain siblings of his he hadn't sent anyone to the infirmary for words, but it unfortunately wasn't surprising that people might think he would. "If anything you let your mouth do the fighting while you try to get away."

"It's gotten me this far, right? But enough about that; I know I fucked up but we all know damned well I wasn't the only one."

"Yeah, and I already said I messed up," Kieran pointed out. "I should've looked at the thing first before I signed it, yeah, but like I said while we were there, I didn't want you to decide stuff for me 'cause I was taking too long or whatever."

"I get that, dude, but I wouldn't've. We weren't gonna die from standing there an extra few seconds. And you were right – it's not like I was gonna read it."

"Okay, so how am I supposed to know when you'll actually let me do my job?"

Arianna sighed. "Kieran, En – uh, she's not here anymore. Being mean about this isn't gonna help anyone. I've been telling you guys that for like… how long were you gone, Diego?"

"I wasn't keeping track. I was wondering, though… if this has been an issue the whole time, we had a lot of hours in the car yesterday. Why didn't either of you mention it then?"

"I didn't find out it was an issue 'til earlier today," Brenna replied. "Like, I know we said I should step back at the hospital, but I honestly didn't think anyone cared."

"Did you notice on your own, at least?" Kieran asked. "And… did anything really change?"

"I did." Technically not a lie. She'd brought it up, but she'd been planning to wait and see if he said anything about it before even trying to stop. "And honestly? I'm not sure. You did that thing where you zone out for a while yesterday so I spoke up then, but I think if that conversation hadn't happened I might've stayed home earlier."

Aww, she'd said "home" in front of other people! Diego tried very hard to pretend he hadn't noticed. If he embarrassed her about it she probably wouldn't do it again.

"Well… I'm not sure we would've been any better off if you had, so I guess… yeah. From now on, can you just like, wait for me to ask for help first? I'll do it," Kieran said.

"I know you will. I've just… had some bad experiences. With waiting too long, I mean. And I know we've got Time Doesn't Exist Disease, so figuring out how long is 'too long' is hard, but if it matters this much to you, I'll wait for your call."

"So you only care 'cause I care?"

"Uh, more like 'cause I care about you, but yeah."

It was even harder to pretend he hadn't noticed she'd said she cared about someone outside a one-on-one conversation, but Diego thought he did an okay job since she didn't tell him to shut up. Kieran was staring at her like he was trying to figure out if she was an impostor, but he still nodded and said, "Well, uh, I do too. Care about you, I mean. Sorry I haven't been acting like it."

"Dude, apology so accepted. Sorry I'm still a bitch who can't communicate." Ah. She couldn't do too many feelings at once, but holy shit, they'd both actually talked things out! In front of people!

"You still do it better than me." That was debatable. "Friends?"

"Was there a doubt?"

They shook on it, and holy fucking shit Diego was so proud of them. He figured they'd get everything sorted out eventually, but he'd thought it'd take at least another day. "Glad that's settled," Arianna said in a tone that implied she thought it should've been long before then. "So what're we gonna do to make next time better?"

"Oh, no idea," Kieran responded. "Anyone have thoughts on that?"

"Well, we all know what to expect now so it can't go much worse, right?" Diego put in. "I think getting the jackalope's gonna be harder than handing it over."

"That depends on how soon she leaves after," Brenna pointed out. "But honestly, like, we kinda don't know what to expect. Does she really seem like the type to do the same kind of thing twice?"

"She kinda can't," Arianna said. "I'm starting to wonder… that thing she said about never seeing each other again…"

Yeah. Ominous as fuck. "Like, she said she wasn't gonna lie to us, but I don't trust her at all. It's probably safer to just assume this's gonna be dangerous and leave it at that," Brenna replied.

"'Cause just thinking about all the 'what-ifs' could drive us insane?" Kieran guessed. "I could see that."

"Pretty much. Hey, Diego, didn't you –"

"Ah, shoot, I forgot! Promise not to laugh and you guys can look too."

"You know I can't do that," Brenna chided as the other two actually did sincerely promise they wouldn't.

Somehow they'd managed to kill enough time in Wyoming that it had a whole scrapbook to itself. "This shouldn't take long, Tía Carmen's really organized so I'm sure the town name's somewhere near the… beginning… oh gods, really?"

"Oh hey, it's Douglas. That was easy," Arianna commented. "By the way, nice shirt."

"It's got like, a bird and a U on it?" Kieran guessed. "So why…"

"Chick magnet!" Brenna exclaimed. "Oh my gods, I just now got that! Dude, your uncle wasn't wrong, really –"

"I will throw you in a snowbank," Diego threatened.

She made a show of looking out the window. "What, gonna carry me back to Maine? Nothin' but grass out there now."

"All right, the river, then. That's pretty close by."

"Okay, but you're gonna have to take me to the ER again."

"…maybe let's not do that. We still gotta pick up Alicia from the bus."

"'We' as in…?" Kieran wondered.

By the time they were done having to deal with Enyo they were all gonna be pedantic as fuck, huh. "Me and Brenna, but if you guys wanna come with you're more than welcome to. Mamá needs to use this thing called 'MapQuest' and we kinda have a bad track record with monsters and the internet…"

"Wait, the internet attracts monsters?" Arianna asked. "Since when?"

"Okay, I know that was in the orientation video, and I've never seen it," Brenna responded.

"Guess I missed that part. I wonder if that's why Dad doesn't wanna get it at home…"

"Could be. But yeah, it'd be a good idea not to be around for that."

Kieran nodded. "Agreed. So when we get to Douglas…"

"No way."

"You don't know what I was gonna say!"

"Wanna bet?"

"All right, what was it?"

Brenna paused for dramatic effect and then, in a passable imitation of how he talked, said, "We could, uh, use that to find a jackalope 'cause y'all literally attract monsters like nobody's business."

"…okay, yeah, that was pretty close," he admitted.

"There's no way we've got enough nectar and ambrosia to risk that. Have you ever seen me in a crop top?"

"No?"

"There's a reason for that. Here's what happened last time we tried to find a monster on purpose."

Diego watched the others' expressions; he didn't need to see the scar, he'd had his hand over the wound that left it for at least ten minutes. He was well aware of what it looked like. Kieran, on the other hand, was wincing like it was being carved into his side. Arianna seemed relatively indifferent – which made sense, she'd almost certainly seen it already.

"Okay, point made," Kieran said, actively turning away. "And you reminded me about something important – did any of us even bring nectar or ambrosia?"

"I haven't touched my duffel bag in three years," Brenna admitted. Yeah, that much was obvious, she'd been dressing like she'd raided a Hot Topic instead of the Hollister Diego knew she'd raided somewhat recently. How Chiron bought the "war-related clothing damage" excuse was beyond him, she'd sustained zero injuries in Manhattan. "And I know I'm out. I wasn't really thinking about packing 'well' or 'at all' 'cause I was kinda in a hurry."

"I might have some? Sherman and Miranda helped me get essentials and I can't see them not remembering that…" Arianna responded.

"I've lived with Sherman for three years," Diego stated. "The guy thinks he can heal from anything with a spare t-shirt, a couple sticks, and a belt. But Miranda probably packed you some. It kinda looks like a lemon bar?"

"Oh! Okay, yeah, I've got three squares then."

Which was probably three more than he'd packed. "I gotta run upstairs and check my bag – I can't remember if I brought any."

"You packed gloves, a machete, and a prism and not nectar?" Brenna called after him. Ugh, yeah, he'd needed nectar way more often than he'd needed a fucking prism, but supplies were limited! He'd just kinda assumed they weren't supposed to take any… on a mission… when Camp had trained medics and they barely knew basic first aid… okay, yeah, that'd been dumb.

Diego didn't even bother going all the way upstairs, he turned around halfway and came back. "I freaking knew I forgot something."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to try super hard not to need any? I have one square," Kieran said. "So that brings us up to four. Okay. I maybe should've asked Percy how much people usually bring for stuff like this."

"I'm honestly not sure if he'd know," Brenna commented. "Like, none of you guys were there, but Scott totally got him with a sword during Capture the Flag when Percy got claimed and, like, the creek fucking healed it 'cause water can just do that for him I guess?"

"Oh, I remember hearing about that!" Diego interjected. "I'm all for not making people bleed on purpose, but Scott lost his dessert privileges for a year and he didn't even send anyone to the infirmary."

"I mean, Clarisse was pissed and your brothers were being assholes, like, all summer, I'm sure that's not the only thing he did."

"If you'd bunked with him…"

"I did, for like a month before he got claimed. Why the fuck did you let him sleep above you? Was your cabin just that full or do you have a death wish?"

Kieran had been attempting to give Arianna context for all the people and events they'd mentioned, but stopped to exclaim, "Oh crap, what if Percy thinks water heals me?!"

Thank the gods, a change of subject. Staying on that topic long enough for her to start asking what'd happened to Scott would've been a mistake. It really, really didn't seem like a good time to get caught up in anything war-related, and Diego had hours' worth of pent-up opinions on that situation in particular.

"I'm guessing that means it doesn't?" Arianna responded.

"Mhm. That'd explain so much. I could've… uh… hey, how much time do we have until –"

"Five minutes," Diego answered before Kieran even finished asking his question. "So grab shoes, coats, and sidearms."

"That was almost normal," Brenna commented. "Tan cerca." [3]

Kieran smiled. "You're literally from, like, the worst city, and you're saying it's weird to carry weapons?"

"Okay, since when is it the worst? New Jersey is right there."

"Not really a city," Arianna pointed out as she put her shoes on. "How far're we going?"

"Down the block," Diego answered. "So we probably won't need coats, but –"

"Oh my gods, I'm a wuss, I get it!" Brenna interjected, not actually sounding upset. "Actually hang on, I take that back. You're just insane. What, did you get frozen by a Hyperborean – blue ice giant dudes, Arianna – and now everything's warm in comparison?"

" – but if we don't wear them Alicita's gonna think she can get away with that too," he finished. "And no, that was Clarisse, I think."

She looked up towards the ceiling. "Of course it was. Shall we?"

They barely beat the bus, and Alicia was elated to see that they were all still there. Despite the fact that she could clearly walk on her own judging by all the bouncing up and down she was doing, Diego gave her a piggyback ride back to their house anyways. Gods knew when he'd get another chance.

"Excellent timing, mijos," their mom greeted as they walked in the door. "I have a print-out of the directions to Douglas and the cookies are almost done."

"We get cookies?" Alicia exclaimed. "Why can't you come home every day?"

"Oh, that's not why. We just had a rough morning, but things are better now," he explained. "Did you learn anything fun at school?"

Apparently, she had; she launched into a story about a science project her teacher showed them and her day had definitely been better than theirs. Not that the bar was very high.

Brenna predictably ditched out of comparing the MapQuest directions to the actual map because Alicia demanded that someone play Barbies with her. Diego joined them after confirming that he wasn't needed for map stuff. They easily killed the two hours before dinner, most of which ended up being dedicated to teaching everyone the complex rules of Barbie society. Even Kieran got kind of invested.

After dinner, and more importantly, cookies, they ended up watching Dinosaur while Alicia tried and failed to braid Brenna's hair. She had far more success when Brenna helped her get Arianna's hair into three braids, which they then proceeded to braid together. "I'm never taking this out, guys."

"Because we did so good or 'cause you don't know how to?" Brenna asked.

"A little of both. Wait, why are the lemurs migrating?"

"Don't worry about it," Diego advised. "I'm ninety percent sure this movie was just made to help kids sleep."

"Honestly? I kinda dig it," Kieran said. "I like the colors."

"…most of the colors are brown," Alicia pointed out. "Can we braid my hair next?"

"I'll get your comb and mousse," Diego volunteered, because he actually knew where to find hair stuff. "You want box braids like Mamá?"

Alicia nodded. "If we got time."

"Well, I'm fast and I've done this before," Brenna responded. "So if Mamá wants to help, we can finish before bedtime."

"Of course I'll help! You know how to section properly?"

"Mhm. I used to do stuff with Rory's hair all the time."

"Oh! How is he, by the way?"

Brenna looked like she was trying to smile and hold back tears at the same time when she answered, "Growing stronger every day. Brooke says by summer he'll be ready to step outside his tree. Her tree? I mean, he is the tree… gods, reincarnation is confusing."

"It is. I can't pretend I understand how it works."

"How does it work?" Alicia wondered. "I know Tío turned into a tree, that part makes sense, but is he gonna be a tree lady?"

"I have no idea what we're talking about," Arianna commented.

"Oh, right, your protector's not a satyr… here's the short version: when satyrs die, they turn into plants, and if they were really good they get to be trees. The confusing part is, those trees get their own dryads who're whole new people who'll maybe recognize people the satyr knew well. Because they pick up feelings from their trees or whatever," Brenna explained. "Alicita, if you can't sit still, we're stopping."

She immediately stopped rocking back and forth. "So he is a tree but the lady's not him but she is. Got it!"

"That… isn't wrong. I hate that it's not wrong."

The conversation died for a bit, leaving Dinosaur as the most interesting thing for Diego to focus on. Really, he should've expected that he'd fall asleep.

The dream was new, though. He barely ever got demigod dreams, and when he did they were usually about the distant past. Nothing that could be considered "helpful" or "relevant to the current situation".

Though considering he was being contacted by his new least favorite relative, this dream probably wouldn't be either.

"Find anything yet? Or were you too busy crying to Mommy?"

Oh, this was gonna be just as fun as it was the first time. Maybe even worse – there was no one else around for her to target.

They were in the same conference room they'd met in earlier that day, and Enyo had chosen not to steal someone else's appearance this time. The literal fire eyes seemed to be a constant, like his dad's were, but she'd swapped the suit for a bloodstained chiton and that was definitely a better thing to focus on than the rest of her face or the spear she was holding, which seemed to be covered in gore.

"Does it count as 'laying a hand on you' if it's a dream? Asking for a friend," Diego retorted.

"You wanna go? Great. I'll be fine and you'll scare the shit out of everyone when you wake up with… hm, actually, I don't think you would wake up without a heart."

"Did you actually need anything or are you just here to be a bitch?"

"I know a lot of my nephews are slow, but wow. I'll spell it out for you: I want a progress report."

There had to be a way around that contract. It'd been less than twelve hours, what the hell did she think they were gonna accomplish? "You never gave us a deadline and we've all got ADHD. It's a miracle we figured out where to go tomorrow."

"Why not tonight?"

"You want us to die in a car crash before you get what you – oh."

She was sneering like that was absolutely what she wanted. "No, no, you're right, I don't want it to be that quick and painless. And how's this for motivation to get a move on: I'll be checking in on you every time you fall asleep until you bring me that jackalope."

"Great. I'll see you again in a couple hours, then, 'cause I'm not making Brenna or Kieran drive at night."

"What, you don't know how to drive?"

"I can drive a chariot."

"And yet my brother didn't trust you to drive his. That's gotta sting. He let one of his girls do that instead. Although –"

"Clarisse turned fifteen at Camp. I didn't."

Enyo shrugged. "If he really loved you, he would've let you do it anyways."

"Oh, what, he was supposed to just go 'Happy birthday, son, we haven't met but I'm Ares and I think you should decide who's gonna go to war today?' Like that's something any kid is even remotely qualified for?"

"Well he definitely could've left out the 'son'; I don't know why he decided to claim you. He could've at least waited for you to do something worthwhile first. Not that you ever have. Your mom must be really good at blowjobs."

He kicked Enyo in the chest, sending her stumbling backwards until she fell on her ass. "Don't you ever talk about my mom that way again!"

"I'll say whatever I want about whoever I want. Whenever I want. Next time it'll be at your funeral."

"Go ahead! Fucking kill me! If Dad doesn't care, nothing for you to worry about!"

"Hm. Not yet. It's not as fun if you want it. You do realize –"

"I can't physically attack you if I'm not physically here. Didn't use my hands. Your move, bitch!"

"Well, well, well, look who's learning," she responded, standing up and dusting herself off. "I almost respect that. Almost. Not so much that you're not gonna pay for it down the line, mind you. I'll be taking my leave for now, but I'll be back every time you fall asleep~!"

Footnotes:

[1] - Okay, all the Spanish text in order:

"They wouldn't like that."

"But it's college, not war. They should be happy for you!"

"Yeah, but it's still dangerous and two of them have abandonment issues. I need to be careful. If I don't use the right words..."

"It'll be hard for them. Understood."

"Thanks, Mom. But if you want, we can celebrate a little..."

"I'll make cookies later."

"Of course you want those."

[2] - "They're different doughs! And how do you have the patience to make tortillas by hand but you can't manage two steps for cookies you don't even have to roll out first?"

[3] - "So close."

Author's Note: Well, I finally finished this chapter. I'm glad I didn't make a promise I couldn't keep about update schedules last time because holy shit you guys have I had a time. Fortunately, I know how the next chapters go! Unfortunately, I'm busy as hell. So we'll see when they show up here. Thanks y'all for reading!