undoing [percy jackson]

viii. the gang goes hog-wild

ANDROMEDA

Cloudcroft, New Mexico was adorable.

It was just this cute little ski town in the mountains buried under a layer of snow with nothing to offer them but cabins, tourist shops, cafes, and a grocery store. Oh, and a school, but it was winter break, so that was especially useless.

On the walk from the train tracks to the middle of town, Cass told Andi all about her dreams last night. Andi wasn't sure what to make of the one about Annabeth. Who the fuck was Jill? Neither she nor Cass had any memory of a Jill in the books. It could be that she was no one at all, or it could be that she was a major player in this version of events. As of right now, it was impossible to know.

But maybe...maybe she was like them. Maybe she was new to this universe, just surviving on scraps of information about her old life. Maybe she was a fangirl-turned-warrior, another nerd handed a deadly weapon. Or maybe this universe was and had always been her home. Did it even matter if she was with the Titan Army?

Andi was yanked from her thoughts by Thalia complaining.

"Great," Thalia said, eyeing their surroundings with distaste. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."

"There's a coffee shop!" Grover pointed out.

"Yes," Zoë agreed eagerly. "Coffee is good."

"And pastries," Grover sighed, practically swooning. "And wax paper."

Cass's eyes lit up. "Do you think they have muffins? And tea?"

Thalia let out a deep sigh. "Fine. How about you three get us some food. Percy, Bianca, Andi, and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

They agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. As the group separated, Cass turned to Andi.

"You want your usual?" she asked, raising her eyebrows while backing up.

"And a chocolate chip muffin if they have any," Andi replied. Cass flashed her a thumbs up, then turned around and picked up the pace to catch up with Grover and Zoë.

"What's your usual?" Bianca inquired, falling into step with Andi as they headed to the grocery store.

"Oh, it's just black coffee," Andi told her.

Bianca's jaw dropped. "Black coffee?"

Thalia smirked. "I would've pegged you as a sugar and cream with a dash of coffee girl."

"What can I say?" Andi asked with a shrug. "I'm a simple girl."

Percy held open the door to the grocery store for the girls. Andi and Bianca hung towards the back while Thalia and Percy approached the sole clerk and asked him some questions. Andi stared at the display of rubber rats, unsure of why that was even a thing in the first place. What the fuck was the point of a rubber rat? What would you even use it for? Pranks?

"You could call for a taxi from Alamogordo," the clerk suggested. "That's down at the bottom of the mountains, but it would take at least an hour to get here. Cost several hundred dollars."

Unfortunately, Andi left her several hundred dollars in her other pair of pants, so that wasn't a viable option. Percy bought a rubber rat out of pity, and then they left.

"Wonderful," Thalia grumbled. "I'm going to walk down the street, see if anybody in the other shops has a suggestion."

Percy frowned. "But the clerk said—"

"I know," she cut in. "I'm checking anyway."

She took off without another word. Andi considered following after her, but the idea of being alone with a frustrated daughter of Zeus sounded less and less appealing by the second. Instead, she took a seat on the steps of the store's porch and buried her face in her hands. She hadn't gotten much sleep last night. She'd had a bad nightmare about an old foster home and woken up in a cold sweat. After that, she couldn't fall asleep for longer than a few minutes at a time. She'd gotten maybe three hours overall. She hoped that was enough to keep her going. The coffee would definitely help.