We are challenged

Grover could run. He'd lost his shoes, so it was a bunch of clopping, but he sprinted like Usain Bolt. My mom reached into the back and snagged Percy's hoodie on me. "Get it off!" she shouted. I shook. My mom had never shouted at me like that before. I slipped out of the hoodie as if it wasn't a zip-down, and my mom jumped out of the front seat just in time for Grover to dive in. On the other side, Paul was jumping out and slamming the door.

My mom didn't say goodbye. She just ran for the exit – to the left of our car. Percy's hoodie trailed behind her. The monsters immediately changed course. They followed her, and so heard something yell, "It's Percy Jackson! I'd know him anywhere!"

I couldn't get a good look at the monsters, but they sounded female. A little older than me. Paul had said they'd blended in as cheerleaders.

"Where were you?" Annabeth demanded in a shout.

"I didn't go anywhere!" Grover shouted back. He tried to slam the driver side door shut, but it wouldn't latch. "Annabeth, find a bungee cord! Percy, take the passenger seat!"

"Why does he get the front?" Annabeth complained.

"Because he has the sword, you have a knife. And I need you to think of how to get to D.C. the fastest! Let's go!"

Grover turned the key in the ignition and stomped the break. He moved the car out of gear and then it was pedal-to-the-metal. I hear tires squeal. We burst into motion. I was in the unfortunate position of being halfway over the seat, and I was thrown back into a box of strawberries. They weren't rotten, but they had been sitting for over a day in the hot car, and they gave way under my weight immediately. They were juicy and overripe and immediately sunk in.

"Nuts!" I said. My Camp Half-Blood shirt looked bloodstained. As if I'd taken a knife in the small of my back. My shorts… well… I don't mean to make light of this at all… but I looked like I'd forgotten I was due for a period. As a young, preadolescent guy, I don't think about periods often. But my mom had broken it down for me. They're a massive inconvenience, they are not grounds for joking about, and I should always be sympathetic and helpful because it's not girl's faults evolution hadn't worked out in their favor.

"Gross," Annabeth said, which was super helpful and encouraging. I didn't reply. I just got up and scrambled over the seat as fast as I could. I'd for sure leave stains, but oh well. I rolled down the window and got my first look at the monsters. They were humanoid, but only by shape. Instead of legs, they had one donkey leg and one prosthetic bronze leg. They had wings. Their eyes were red. And instead of hair, their heads were on fire.

The monsters were chasing my mom and Paul, who held the sweater between them. From the back, Paul sort of looked like older me. I guess that's why the donkey ladies were still intently chasing them.

They were on our right side. I leaned out of the window and switched my sword to my non-dominant hand. Then I stretched out. My arm tingled after we passed over the donkey ladies. The heat of their hair seared my arm hairs. "Mom!" I shouted as we gained. "Pass me the hoodie!"

My mom took it and held it out. I snatched it from her grasp and the two of them slowed. I turned and made eye contact with the monsters, who screamed in outrage. "Percy Jackson is in the car!" "Pursue the car!"

They ran right past my mom and Paul, who caught their breaths, and then hurried back towards short-term parking. I watched until they were out of sight.

Annabeth seized me by my stained shirttail and yanked me back right before I was crushed. Grover had run too close to the wall. Our rear-view mirror was tragically lost in a clatter of plastic and glass.

"You could have killed them!" Grover shouted. "You had the shot – you could have used your sword!"

"I wasn't thinking!" I argued. "I've never killed anything except the Minotaur! It's not exactly second nature!"

Grover shouted, "Gah!" and we zoomed out if the parking garage. I was holding the handle on the car for dear life. Annabeth, in the back, was just trying to hold onto the headrests. I didn't envy her.

We had to slow down to show our parking validation. I stuck my head out the window to watch the garage for donkey ladies and fire. I heard something as the machine dinged for Grover to proceed, but we blazed away before I could see anything. Once we were on a highway, I rolled up my window.

Annabeth had found a bungee cord tying boxes shut in the back. She had wound it around the car through hers and Grover's windows several times to hold the door shut. So we had a nice breeze, to say the least. At least it wasn't cold.

I looked around to assess the damages. My outfit – I tied the jacket around my waist to hide the worst of it – and the box of strawberries. No harm to the car other than what my mom had inflicted. Annabeth was fine and the polias was intact. However, Annabeth was peering over the seat cautiously. I scrunched my nose at her, wondering what she was doing, and she put a finger to her lips. Okay then…

"How far to D.C? I asked."

"An hour," Grover replied. "Settle in, but stay alert."

I buckled my seat belt and rested my sword against the seat. I was hungry again. I wished we had been able to get some pasta from my mom.

We drive for around a half hour before anything interesting happened. It wasn't anything supernatural interesting either. I was dozing to sleep, Grover was speeding and slowing in between police car checks, and Annabeth confused glancing over the seat every so often, biting her lip. I could hear her moving things a bit as well. Maybe to better hide the polias. I didn't ask.

Then, I heard a chime. I'd never heard anything like it before. It sounded mechanical, breezy, and a little musical. Grover jumped and put his hand to his right pocket. He withdrew his phone out of it. It was on, and the password was his face. It unlocked as he held it up.

Then Annabeth's arm nearly skinned my nose as she reached out and snatched it.

"Hey!" Grover shouted. "What are you – give me back my phone!"

Annabeth leaped away. She'd created a walkway through all the boxes that allowed her to getaway before Grover could snatch her. He tried and almost ran off the road. "Grover!" I shouted, and we received several honks. Grover immediately pulled over.

"Why are you calling Piper?" Annabeth demanded. "Every time you've ditched us, you've been calling Piper McClean!"

"Annabeth Chase, you give me that phone now!" Grover shouted. He braked, parked, and started to crawl into the back.

"You're putting us all in danger!" Annabeth shouted back. "It's not even turned off! You're the reason the empousai attacked us!"

"I left you with your mom!" Grover shouted. "You're fine. Now give me back my phone!"

"What's so important that you're talking with Piper?" Annabeth asked. Grover finally wiggled back into a box of strawberries and advanced on her. He snatched the phone out of her hands and shut it off.

Annabeth crossed her arms and waited.

Finally, Grover breathed. "Alright, I was talking to Piper. About this quest. I'm sorry. I know it puts you into danger. You're both already very powerful demigods. I don't know for sure if me being on the phone drew the empousai, because I did try and get away from you, but I'm sorry if it did."

"Why do you have the phone, Grover?" Annabeth asked. "Why does Piper have a phone?"

"Piper can talk the monsters away," Grover explained. "She hasn't fought one since she became a legend. She just tells them to leave her alone." He sat down on a covered box of strawberries. I could tell he was still mad at Annabeth because of how he was breathing, but he handled it pretty well. I guess he knew what he'd been doing and how he was acting wasn't cool. "I just don't care anymore, okay? I don't care if the monsters attack me. I want them to attack me! Let them come."

Grover shoved the phone deep into his pocket and then shimmied back over the seat into the front. "Everything stopped mattering when the Gods banished Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase," he said. "You will never understand how unfair that was. As far as I'm concerted, wringing monster necks is the next best thing to wringing… the big guys' necks."

"So, you are trying to become a legend?" Annabeth demanded.

Grover buckled his seat belt and looked over his shoulder at her. "So what?" he asked.

"You want to be a legend so you can convince the Gods to let Annabeth and Percy go?" I asked. On the surface, it seemed like a straightforward plan.

"It's taking longer than I thought," Grover muttered.

"Grover," Annabeth said, "Do Percy and Annabeth know about this?"

Grover didn't answer. He looked into his mirror to move back into traffic.

"You're just picking a fight with people because you're angry at someone else! You're acting like the Gods!" Annabeth said, stamping her foot.

As quickly as we'd begun moving, we stopped again. Grover whirled on Annabeth. "DON'T YOU DARE COMPARE ME TO THEM!" He bellowed.

I decided I'd had enough. Something inside me broke. "DON'T SPEAK TO HER LIKE THAT!" I snapped at the top of my voice.

A bang made us all jump. The paper bag that Percy had given us was suddenly stained and sopping. I hadn't been keeping track of it during the monster attack, but I now discovered it had been dumped underneath the van radio when Grover had dove in. Apparently, there had been a single coke can left, and it had spontaneously blown up.

I'd never yelled so loud in my life. Silence stretched between us in the car. Grover slowly turned back to the wheel, as if he was made of stone. He put the car back into drive and pulled away from the edge of the highway. In seconds, we were thrumming down the highway.

I glanced in the back to see if I'd scared Annabeth. She was still standing where she'd been and seemed kinda surprised. Or impressed. I couldn't puzzle it out and didn't want her to think I was thinking anything weird. I looked back at the road ahead and leaned my head against the window. My throat ached.

Outside, the sunny sky had vanished. Dark clouds were brewing overhead. I watched the clouds roll and simmered, refusing to look at either of my quest mates. No one said anything for about twenty minutes. Then we passed a sign directing us to D.C. A raindrop thudded against the window.

I started thinking about what was next. Grover had anticipated needing to steal the yarn from the museum because he suspected Zeus and the other Gods would revoke our permission to take it. I wondered if he had yet.

"Reckon these clouds are from Zeus?" I asked. My voice croaked.

No one responded to me. I wondered if my voice was so bad that they hadn't heard or understood me. I finally glanced around.

Grover was staring a little, squinting.

"What?" I asked.

"I just forgot," Grover said. "You don't know how powerful you are."

I almost rolled my eyes. It sounded just like something an adult says to you when you're upset. I looked back out the window, determined to not ask Grover what he'd meant. He ended up finishing his thought anyway.

"There's no lightning, Percy. Those clouds aren't from Zeus. You're the one starting this storm."

3/8's chapter will be called "Clippity, Cloppity, we run from the Shopliftee."