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chapter twelve. ☄︎. *. ⋆
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AS UNLUCKY AS VISITS to amusement parks may get, I like to think that our field trip to Waterland takes the cake. We had managed to be bested by Hephaestus's inventions, ruin our new clothes that were courtesy of the rundown waterpark, get trapped in a deadly Tunnel of Love, and, to top it all off, the entirety of Olympus had watched me and Percy Splash-Mountain our way out of it. I was sure we were the laughingstock of Olympus, but for someone who has spent their entire life getting laughed out of schools, I didn't really care about my reputation among the gods being tarnished. I was just glad I hadn't been killed by a bunch of baby cupids.
Percy was furious. I'd never seen him angrier, and that's saying a lot. The moment we arrived back at the diner and saw Ares, Percy was shoving his shield at him and saying, "You're a jerk." I was sure he wanted to say something much worse, but Ares was still a god that could easily turn Percy into, like, a cockroach or a guinea pig or something.
Ares took the shield from Percy, spun it in the air like pizza dough, and it transformed into a bulletproof vest. He slung it over his shoulders. "You looked good on TV," he noted, smirking.
"Tell Aphrodite she would've looked better," I replied, then winced as Annabeth jabbed me with her elbow.
"Such a flirt, just like your papa, eh?" Ares said. For once, he didn't seem angry. He nodded to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."
We all looked over to the truck we'd be spending the night on. Our first red flag should've been the name; across the back of the truck, reverse-printed white on black (a good combo for dyslexia), it read, KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE ANIMALS.
I frowned at it. Percy said exactly what I was thinking: "You're joking."
Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck came unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for completing the job." He tossed a blue backpack at Percy.
And, like the idiot he is, Percy said, "I don't want your stupid—"
"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover rescued, giving Percy a warning look. "Thanks a lot."
As Percy gritted his teeth and stood in silent anger, I looked back to the diner. The waitress from before was standing outside, watching our exchange. She looked afraid, like she was worried Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out and said something super quick to him. He nodded slowly, then held up a tiny disposable camera and took our picture. I smiled and held up a thumbs up.
