JAWBREAKER

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣

Warren was pretty miserable that night.

They camped out in the woods, about a hundred yards from the main road. It was a marshy clearing littered with old fast food wrappers and flatted beer cans; teenagers had obviously been using it as a party spot.

The group had taken some blankets and food from Aunty Em's, but they had to sleep in their wet clothes. Lighting a fire was way too risky. They decided to sleep in shifts, and Percy offered to take first watch. Annabeth was out like a light.

Usually Warren had no trouble falling asleep. Back in her cabin she was unconscious as soon as her head hit the pillow. Especially after such a long, stressful day, and barely any sleep the night before, she had expected to nod off in seconds. But there she laid, wide awake, curled up on top of her army jacket. Her back was to the others in an attempt to block out distractions.

"Go ahead and sleep," she heard Percy call up to Grover, who was reclining on a tree bough. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."

Grover seemed to be just as awake as her, though. He talked to Percy about his lifelong dream of searching for Pan, and honestly it bored Warren to death. She was finally about to nod off when she heard him speak her name.

"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" Percy asked Grover. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Warren was saying—"

"Oh, I forgot. Warren always has an opinion."

"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She might be rough on the outside, but she's a good person. You know that."

"Yeah, I guess," he sighed.

"She hurts people before they get the chance to hurt her," the satyr said. "It makes me sad."

"Me too."

Warren couldn't describe the feeling she got in her stomach as they talked about her, but she hated it. She felt weak and vulnerable and exposed. Even though she wanted to yell at them, say that they didn't know what they were talking about, she kept her mouth shut and continued listening.

"But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Warren and Annabeth agreed that there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."

"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took."

"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy...why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."

"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."

Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"