Penny Ranger and the Lightning Thief

Chapter XXIV: We Infiltrate the Abandoned Water Park

If any boyfriend of mine brought me to where Ares brought his girlfriend, I would not be impressed. It was a completely rundown water park that clearly had seen better days. The gate was locked and the fence outlining it was topped by barbed wire. Inside I could see litter scattered around everywhere and graffiti painted on numerous walls. The sign in front probably once said WATERLAND, but now only said WAT R A D. The setting sun only made the place look creepier, casting long shadows.

"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date, I'd hate to see what she looks like." Percy commented.

I would have agreed, if I hadn't been looking at him fearfully expecting him to turn into toad. Unless I had read the stories wrong, Ares's girlfriend was not someone you wanted to cross. After all, she was responsible for one of the bloodiest wars in history.

"Percy, be more respectful." Annabeth warned.

"Why? I thought you hated Ares."

"Well, he's still an almighty god. And his girlfriend can be really temperamental." I agreed.

"You don't want to insult her looks." Grover added.

"Who is she? Echidna?"

I took the fact that Percy was still the same fish-brained idiot and hadn't been turned into some repulsive life form an indicator that either the goddess wasn't listening, or she had better things to do than to curse a twelve year old boy, no matter how dumb he was.

"No. Aphrodite, goddess of love." Grover answered with a dreamy sigh.

Percy frowned, confused.

"I thought she was married to somebody. Hephaestus." he pointed out.

"What's your point?" Grover replied.

"Back on track, people. How are we going to get in?" I asked.

Grover had a pretty good solution.

"Maia" he yelled.

The wings sprouted from his shoes and he took off. He flew over the gate, adding a somersault for extra flair, and brushing himself off at the end like it was nothing.

"You guys coming?" he asked.

Of course, the rest of us who didn't have flying shoes had to do things the old fashioned way: climbing over. We held down the barbed wire for each other as we crossed the top and easily got inside the water park.

It progressively darker as we walked, the only sound the eerie blowing of the wind. As we looked for the Tunnel of Love, we found a lot of other rides. There was "Ankle Biter Island", "Head Over Wedgie", "Dude, Where's My Swimsuit". None of them had water obviously.

At one point we found a souvenir shop. Surprisingly, it wasn't in too bad shape.

"Clothes. Fresh clothes." Annabeth said, her eyes fixed on the clothes racks.

"Yeah, but you can't just..."

"Watch me." Annabeth interrupted, grabbing several pieces of clothing and disappearing into the changing rooms.

When she came back, she looked absolutely ridiculous. Her Waterland shirt combined with the flower-print shorts made her look terrible. The final touch was the Waterland backpack she brought along as well.

We sniggered amongst ourselves, probably the only time we would manage to do that without suffering physical harm. But then we began to notice how clean she was. My clothes were ripped, lightly scorched from the Chimera and they did not give off a flattering odor at all. In comparison, Annabeth might look ridiculous in the Waterland merchandise, but she was wearing clean clothes. Grover, Percy and I shared a look, collectively calculating whether or not fresh clothes were worth looking as ridiculous as Annabeth.