DON'T BLAME ME! (p. jackson) (#2) (ON HOLD)

- one

ROSE WAS GOING INSANE.

The chariot landed on the far end of the skywalk. Pegasi tucked in their wings and cantered nervously across the glass, as if they sensed it was near breaking. Three teenagers stood in the chariot—Rose, Annabeth, and Butch from Iris, a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks.

rose leaped off before the chariot had even finished moving.

"where is he?" she demanded.

"where's who?" the blond boy asked.

she frowned like his answer was unacceptable. then she turned to the other two. "what about hedge? where's coach hedge?"

then she froze. "piper?"

piper was staring back at her in shock. she was a pretty native american girl with color-changing eyes, and the two of them had been friends since rose was ten. their dads had worked together on a movie.

"it was supposed to be a field trip," piper said. "i don't know what happened..."

the other boy cleared his throat. "he got taken by some... tornado things."

"venti," the blond boy said. "storm spirits."

annabeth arched an eyebrow. "you mean anemoi thuellai? that's the greek term. who are you, and what happened?"

he did his best to explain, though he seemed to have a hard time looking rose in the eyes. about halfway through the story, butch appeared next to her. he stood there glaring at them, his arms crossed. he had a tattoo of a rainbow on his biceps.

when jason had finished his story, rose didn't look satisfied. "no, no, no! she told me he would be here. annabeth, she told me if i came here, i'd find the answer!"

"rose," butch grunted. "check it out." he pointed at jason's feet.

he was missing his left shoe. his foot looked like a lump of charcoal.

"the guy with one shoe," butch dude. "he's the answer."

"no, butch," rose insisted. "he can't be. i was tricked."

the skywalk shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently.

"rose," said butch, "we gotta leave. let's get these three to camp and figure it out there. those storm spirits might come back."

she fumed for a moment. "fine." she fixed jason with a resentful look. "we'll settle this later."

she turned on her heel and marched toward the chariot.

piper shook her head. "what's going on? i've never seen her so upset."

"seriously," leo agreed.

"we have to get you out of here," butch said. "i'll explain on the way."

"i'm not going anywhere with her." jason gestured toward rose. "she looks like she wants to kill me."

annabeth thought for a second before speaking. "rose is sweet, really. you gotta cut her some slack. she had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. that was supposed to be the answer to her problem."

"what problem?" piper asked.

"she's been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing three days," butch said. "she's going out of her mind with worry. she hoped he'd be here."

"who?" jason  asked.

"her boyfriend," annabeth said. "this guy named percy jackson."

piper and rose stood in back of the chariot with leo and jason, while butch handled the reins, and annabeth adjusted a bronze navigation device. they rose over the grand canyon and headed east, icy wind ripping straight through rose's jacket. behind them, more storm clouds were gathering.