WORLDS BEYOND ( pjo )

𝐱𝐯𝐢. r. e. d.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare was the weirdest person Kia had ever met.

It was also unfortunate that she was the coolest, too.

When Kia had first met Rachel, she had helped them escape skeleton warriors who were trying to kill her and her best friend, so that immediately put her in Kia's good books.

The second time she met her, Rachel Dare was covered in some sort of full-body gold paint—her arms, legs, clothes, face—even her hair. She was standing beside five other kids, all painted in various metallic colours the same as her (Kia was glad to have met the gold of the group), frozen in different poses while people trickled by, the occasional dollar or two dropping into the bucket hat in front of them.

A sign at the bottom of Rachel's feet read, URBAN ART FOR KIDS. DONATIONS APPRECIATED.

Annabeth, Percy and Kia stood in front of them, staring at them for about five minutes, but none of them moved. Kia took time to appreciate the art, to be honest. It was pretty cool, in an urban, mix between modern and old-fashioned kind of way. She really liked how everything other than their eyes were painted entirely of one colour—it seemed to make their eyes pop in their various colours: Rachel's green, and then blue and brown and grey.

"Maybe if we push her over," Annabeth suggested.

Kia promptly stomped on her foot.

Much to Kia's bewilderment, another kid in complete silver came up from the hotel taxi stand nearby and stood next to Rachel, striking a pose as if he were lecturing Copper and Bronze. Rachel unfroze, and stepped of the tarp, greeting the three of them with a bright, contagious grin.

"Hey, Percy—Kia-Gotta-Go! Been a while since I last saw you. Good timing! Let's get some coffee."

The cafe they went to was... rowdy, to say the least. People were bumbling around, coffees and milkshakes being doled out with no respect to the amount of caffeine in some of the drinks, the cafe buzzing with life. With the chaotic atmosphere, nobody blinked an eye at the girl covered in gold paint.

Rachel had her order at the ready. She got an Espresso Extreme, which sounded like it had way too much caffeine for a fourteen year-old, while Annabeth and Percy got fruit smoothies like the boring, sporty losers they were. Kia got a hot chocolate.

"This is the best hot chocolate I've ever had!" Kia exclaimed, a soon as she took a sip. She asked Rachel, "Do you come here often?"

"Not really, but a lot of friends have told me about this place, so I figured why not try it out today." She smiled at Kia. "I see your kidnapper's still holding you hostage."

Kia returned the smile. "Here against my will."

Both of them ignored Percy's undignified strangled sound of offence.

Rachel turned to Annabeth, and that was the first thing that went wrong. "So, it's Annabelle, right?"

"Annabeth," Annabeth corrected irritably, ignoring Rachel's sheepish expression. "Do you always dress in gold?"

"Not usually," Rachel said. "We're raising money for our group. We do volunteer art projects for elementary kids 'cause they're cutting art from the schools, you know? We do this once a month, take in about five hundred dollars on a good weekend. But I'm guessing you don't want to talk about that. You're a half-blood, too?"

"Shhh!" Annabeth hushed, looking around anxiously. "Just announce it to the world, how about?"

"Okay." Rachel stood up on her chair and said out very loudly, "Hey, everybody! These two aren't human! They're half Greek god!"