Sunshine Kids (Apollo Cabin Oneshots)

McDonald's, Please

This was one of the many, many reasons Kayla would never trust Austin to pick a restaurant ever again. She had only gone along because Nico and Will had vouched that it wasn't a bad restaurant at all, and she'd probably like it.
She hadn't liked it.
She'd been hesitant when they arrived- the Indian food sign lurking above her, almost as if it was daring her to come in and risk spicy food. She shuddered involuntarily as they crossed the door inside and sat down.
Will told medical horror stories while they sipped their drinks and Kayla glanced nervously at the menu from time to time, hoping they would have a kids-friendly section with tasteless chicken nuggets or something. They usually did. Eventually, he ran out of stories (and that hour had never seemed longer to Kayla) and Nico handed the menus out to everyone.
She looked for the kids' menu for longer than she should have, but there wasn't one. No spice-less mac'n'cheese for her to eat while her brothers got the spiciest thing on the menu. Honestly, she found it unfair. It was supposed to be an Apollo kid thing, from what she'd heard around camp- they could eat the spiciest foods with no problem. And then there was her- who could barely handle black pepper.
Unfair.

"Is anything on this menu not coated in spice?" She mumbled, staring at all the options with the little pepper signs that indicated how spicy it was.
"We're at an Indian restaurant, sis," Austin laughed. "What you're asking for is McDonald's and Nico goes there too often already."
"McDonald's sounds good," Kayla tried weakly.
Will ruffled her hair. "Give it a chance. Maybe you do like spicy food."
Kayla mumbled something along the lines of you have not seen me with spicy food before and hunkered down in her seat to keep staring at the menu.
"We're ready," Nico said after a moment and Kayla didn't try to protest that no, she was not, she didn't like spicy food!
Austin ordered something that the waiter was legally required to ask if he was sure he could handle it. Of course he said he could. Will ordered another dish Kayla remembered having four little peppers beside its name. He said he was going to split it with Nico.
She ordered plain naan bread.
Both her brothers gave her strange looks that she ignored because there was no way she was going anywhere near that spicy stuff.
They tried to convince her to eat some of their food throughout the meal but she refused to taste any of it, nibbling on her naan and wishing she couldn't smell the spice radiating off those plates. It was almost as bad as tasting it.
Nico started asking her about her current Olympic projections and Kayla got distracted- and failed to notice Austin sneak a bit of Will's food into her naan. She noticed it when she took a bite and in that moment, Will and Austin knew they had made a huge mistake.
It was like watching a puppy get kicked in slow motion except worse, and oh gods- she was crying.
"I can't say I'm a fan of this place," Nico said quickly, noticing Austin and Will weren't responding to the crisis- they were just sitting there, trying to process the turn of events. He stood up and helped Kayla up. She grabbed his arm, still teary and clearly trying not to cry more.
"I'll leave you two to finish. Kayls and I are heading to McDonald's." As soon as they were out of the restaurant, he shadow-traveled the two of them to the nearest one.
Two orders of burgers and fries later (and a Happy Meal), Nico had calmed Kayla down and was listening to her talk about the archery world championships coming up.
"Thanks, Nico."
"No problem, kiddo."