reflection ● jason grace

Clara crushes their vibe

"Is that a good idea?" Clara asked as they packed up their supplies. "Because I don't think that's a good idea."

Daria watched as Nathan perused the instruments. Her sleep had been restless; not because of weird demigod dreams, but because she was thinking of Daphne and what she had said. They would run into Atticus again one day, Daria was sure of it.

"I thought electric guitars were heavy," Jason said, tying his shoelaces.

"They are," Daria agreed. "There's a shop full of weapons. Why don't you pick a flute or something?"

Oh yeah, another thing. Apparently, the crazy nymph lady owned a music shop full of dangerous weapons. Maybe she thought she could kill them with a metal triangle, Daria didn't want to die, but she had to admit that it'd be pretty cool.

"It's actually pretty light," Nathan picked it up with one hand and messed with the tuning, turning it back into a staff. Sometimes, Daria forgot that Nathan had been training nearly as long as she had. "Plus, I could always carry it in staff form." He winked at Clara. "Are you swooning yet?"

"No."

"You don't even know how to use a staff," Daria commented. She rolled up her blanket and secured it to her backpack. It was about 7 in the morning. They needed to get a move on.

"Jack of all trades." Nathan twirled it in his hand like a drumstick. "Master of none."

"Whatever dude." Jason shrugged. "Let's go find some breakfast."

Clara led them to a food place called McDonald's. It had a bright yellow and red roof and smelled like potatoes. Most importantly, it had a playground inside the building. Now that was cool.

"Food's not very expensive," Clara told them. "But we should save our money anyway."

Jason raised his eyebrows. "This is coming from the girl who-"

She held up a hand, too used to Jason's annoying commentary. "Save it."

Jason looked affronted. He wasn't very used to people interrupting him. Daria supposed it came with being the high and mighty son of Jupiter.

Nathan and Daria looked at each other, shrugged, and followed Clara to the register.

"Four breakfast sandwiches please," she said politely. If the worker thought it was strange that a couple of kids were alone without supervision, he didn't show it. Maybe he didn't get paid enough to care.

"And an orange juice," Nathan said over Clara's shoulder as he read the menu.

Clara sighed. "Make that four orange juices."

"This is weird," Jason finally appeared next to Daria, looking out at the world in a sort of amazement. "We haven't been to the real world since we were toddlers."

"What about the last quest?"

"We were in the forest the entire time," he reminded her in a soft voice. Leila always said Jason talked to her differently than he did other people. She could sort of see what the praetor was talking about. Of course, that didn't mean she liked Jason or anything. That was gross.

"Let's find somewhere to sit," Clara announced with a tray of food in hand.

"Okay," Daria sipped on her juice. "It's an early morning. We could try and actually take a bus this time."

Nathan looked up from his staff guitar. Daria wondered what the mortals saw. "Bus station about two miles from here," he said without looking up. "Shorter if we take a shortcut through the forest."