Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter twenty-eight. ☄︎. *. ⋆
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I MUST HAVE PASSED OUT, because the next thing I knew was Annabeth shaking my shoulder and telling me we had found land. I didn't even know we were looking for land.
I glanced around. Percy and Annabeth and I were in the middle of the sea. At the bottom of our boat were a few of the bags Hermes had given us and my bow. My stomach sank as I realized Tyson wasn't on the lifeboat with us.
With a great deal of effort and a stinging pain in my side, I sat up. Sure enough, there was a line of blue and brown in the distance. As we grew closer toward it, I could make out an island with a beautiful green mountain in the middle of it. White buildings, like you would find in Ancient Greece, littered the side of the mountain. At the shore was a beach dotted with palm trees and a harbor assorted with various types of boats. I had to do a double-take at the pirate ship rocking in the port.
If it weren't for the perky lady with the clipboard, I would have thought we'd already found Polyphemus's island.
The woman was dressed like a tropical flight attendant, with a blue business suit, perfect makeup, and dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. She shook Annabeth's and my hands as we got off our rowboat, but didn't offer to shake Percy's. If he found that weird, he didn't show it.
"Welcome!" the lady told us. "Is this your first time with us?"
I opened and closed my mouth. "Um.."
"First.. time.. at.. spa.." the lady said aloud as she wrote on her clipboard. "Let's see."
She looked us up and down critically. I crossed my arms over my injured torso. The woman smiled at me. "Yes. Alright, an herbal wrap to start for the two young women here. And, of course, a complete makeover for the young man."
"A what?" Percy asked, but the woman was too busy taking notes to answer him. He gave me a confused look. I frowned and shrugged my shoulders, though dropped them and smiled when the lady looked up from her clipboard.
"Right!" she said with a dazzling grin. "Well, I'm sure CC will want to speak with all of you personally before the luau. Follow me, please."
Okay, you gotta understand. I've been in monster traps before. We were almost trapped for eternity in the Lotus Casino last summer. Medusa fed us cheeseburgers and fries. I'm no stranger to the fake hospitality that monsters usually show me before they try to kill me, alright? But this lady was just too glamorous, man. She had no hair out of place; not a smudge of lipstick on her chin. So when the perfect lady with the perfect smile told me to 'follow me, please,' I followed her.
