WORLDS BEYOND ( pjo )

𝐯𝐢𝐢: beginnings

It had been no longer than five minutes into this little road trip, and Kia already wanted to toss herself a caesar salad out of this goddamn car.

Firstly, Zoë drove like a crazy person. She didn't care about all the potholes they ran directly over, speed bumps they practically flew over, stop signs they ran by—none of it.

Secondly, Thalia and her were bickering like an old married couple. Every moment one would say something even slightly reminiscent of civil, the other would add in some sort of snarky comment. It was like two Alphas scratching each other for dominance, except in this case they looked like pouty infants who needed to shut the hell up.

Rubbing her temples, she glanced at Bianca, who seemed similarly annoyed. She caught her eye and sighed exasperatedly, gesturing with her eyes to the still-bickering duo in front. They stared at each other, trying to hold a straight face before Bianca erupted into laughter while Kia cracked a smile.

Bianca was, in Kia's opinion, a sweetheart. The girl had wavy dark hair swept up in an intricate braid that admittedly made Kia's head hurt, familiar soft brown doe eyes and a beautiful olive skin tone that looked like it'd been dipped in gold. She looked firm and athletic, like she worked out, but that all went out the window as she tripped over her words, apologising a few times short of a million.

Zoë and Thalia huffed and looked away from each other. Kia could sense the tension between the two of them, and to chop it up into little pieces and tossing into the floor-less basket of things Kia simply didn't care about, she'd suggested that they all listen to some songs on the radio.

After picking at the buttons cluelessly, Thalia eventually swatted Kia's hand aside, twisting and turning buttons expertly and stopping on a rock station that was playing some beat by Green Day.

They drove silently most of the way, the heavy music, which Zoë surprisingly didn't protest to, drowning out all of Grover's snoring.

Kia thought she'd be asleep by now, but oddly enough, she didn't feel tired enough to. After the previous night's events, she woke up, not finding herself near the sparkling lake she'd gone to, but in her sleeping bag, undisturbed. She'd knitted her brows, wondering if it was just a dream, but the stain of deja vu when she saw Ethan's unoccupied sleeping bag was enough to convince her otherwise. Letting her thoughts drift off into the wind, stared out her window, watching the blurry landscapes rush by in a flurry. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly when she saw a giant black splotch in the sky.

Leaning in closer, her eyes widened the slightest fraction when she saw it was a pegasus and Kia knew exactly who it was.

Oh yes, she's heard all about this infamous Percy Jackson. The dude who had supposedly woken her up from her shortened sleeping beauty nap. Zoë had been muttering about that 'insolent fool' along the trip, much too loudly for Kia to not notice. She figured maybe Zoë held some grudge against the kid for being—well, a dude. Even if it seemed unreasonable and dumb to Kia, there was some sort of pain in Zoë's eyes that she held herself back from prodding at the topic.

Truthfully, Kia thought it was a perfectly valid reason—to save his girlfriend—to go on this quest; but alas, her vote had been long vetoed, putting aside the fact that she was nothing more than a mindless, sweaty rat while the meeting had taken place. A hint of guilt crawled up her spine—she had just woken up, no personal connection to this quest, and taken the opportunity away from him. She knew that even if she weren't in the prophecy, he probably wouldn't have gone on Zoë's interference, but guilt has a funny way of wiggling down someone's collar.

Bianca had seemed to notice something was wrong. "Is something wrong?"

Thalia's eyes darted to Kia, who had sloppily executed a complete 180 in her facial expression, to raise a suspicious brow.