Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Twenty-Eight

How to describe our travels from then on?

Well, we hitchhiked to a town called Rahway, which turned out to be only ten miles from Edison. Then we ran into a bunch of dracaenae, and we had to hightail it to the bus station, figuring we'd just have to take our chances there, and managed to get all the way to Latourette Park on Staten Island.

That's when we figured out we'd gone too far South and walked three miles North to Manor Heights before jumping on another bus headed for Brooklyn. By then it was dark, and we had to find dinner and somewhere to stay for the night.

"Burger King is the right-hand-man to McDonalds," Thalia declared as she ate her third Whopper of the hour. I had no idea where she put all that food. I'd gotten full on just a Whopper and fries and was hydrating myself with a large Dr. Pepper.

Grover satisfied his hunger by eating our paper wrappers. He dunked them in ketchup before wadding them up and cramming them whole into his mouth.

Annabeth had gotten bored of eating and was playing parkour on the indoor playground.

"So," I said, after a long sip of soda, "What's the plan for the night? Where are we going to sleep?"

"Oh that's right," Thalia said, her mouth full of Whopper. "You don't know the drill yet. We're going to sleep here."

"Here?" I repeated.

Luke lowered his voice. "After closing time, we'll come back and sleep in the playground. Annabeth's not really playing. She's scouting out for us. Thalia and I can't do it because the employees would totally bust us. We're too old to be climbing around in there."

"Smart," I said. "How are you planning to get back in?"

Luke got out a pair of sunglasses and grinned at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "I see. And you're going to do what with those?"

"Pick the lock," Luke said. "It's less risky than using lock picks. That way, if you're caught, you're just a guy with broken sunglasses. I got the idea from Burn Notice."

I didn't know what Burn Notice was, but I decided not to say anything. It was just best to let Luke do his thing.

After sleeping at Burger King and sneaking out before the first employees arrived, we started heading towards Long Island. I knew it was almost a three-hour drive from Brooklyn to Montauk, and about one hundred and sixteen miles, so we had to get going. We tried to average twenty miles a day, hitchhiking, bus riding, whatever we could do, to get as far as we could. We kept running into monsters — either on the buses or disguised as people giving us rides — but that was to be expected, given that we were demigods.

Whenever we got tired or it started getting dark outside, we'd find a McDonald's or something with a playground. If we were lucky, and the employees weren't really monsters in disguise, we'd sneak in after closing hours and sleep there for the night.

Soon it became a routine. The longer we stayed on the road, the more I grew used to it. Thalia, Luke, Annabeth, and Grover started to feel more and more like family. In fact, if you counted out the daily monster attacks, it was almost like we were on a nice, long, road trip. I was grateful for the company, even when we got lost or attacked. This was the best way to start the summer.

I'd somehow forgotten about Hogwarts and Sirius until the owls started finding me. At first, we thought the birds were a sign from Athena. Then we noticed the letters and small packages they carried. I'm sure the owls were confused when they saw five tired, dirty kids chasing them around, calling out, "Athena!"

"So, wizards use owls to carry messages?" Thalia said. "Cool!"

"Can we keep one?" Annabeth begged.