Indigo Eyes

Chapter 93

Neither Cressida nor his mother would tell Percy what was spoken between the two of them and he was about to break into an anxious sweat as they made their way to Times Square. Cressida had seen it before a couple of times, but it still took her breath away.

They found Rachel in front of the Marriott Marquis, and she was painted completely gold, face, hair clothes, everything. She was standing like a statue with five other kids all painted metallic – copper, bronze, silver. They were frozen in different poses while tourists hustled past or stopped to stare. Some passers-by threw money at the tarp on the sidewalk. The sign at Rachel's feet said, urban art for kids, donations appreciated.

Cressida was already fidgeting with her bracelet as they watched Rachel for like five minutes. With their ADHD, they'd never be able to do that.

"Maybe if we push her over," Annabeth suggested, and Cressida covered a laugh with a cough.

After another few minutes, a kid in silver walked up from the hotel taxi stand, where he'd been taking a break. He took a pose like he was lecturing the crowd, right next to Rachel. Rachel unfroze and stepped off the tarp.

"Hey, Percy." She grinned. "Good timing! Let's get some coffee."

She led them to a place called Java Moose on West 43rd Street.

"What's Java?" Cressida asked as she decrypted the sign.

"It's just another name for coffee," Rachel shrugged as she walked inside and they followed. Rachel ordered an Espresso Extreme, something that reminded them of Grover. Percy then ordered fruit smoothies for all of them. They were wired enough with their ADHD, they didn't need coffee on top of it.

"So," Rachel said as they sat down, no one even looking twice at Rachel in her golden outfit. "It's Cassandra and Annabelle, right?"

"Cressida."

"Annabeth," both girls corrected. "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 said, looking around. "Just announce it to the world, how about?"

"Okay." Rachel stood up and said, really loud, "Hey, everybody! These two aren't human! They're half Greek god!"

"And you say I'm crazy," Cressida remarked to Percy who sat across from her, Rachel next to him and Annabeth next to Cressida.

"Can Crazy Girl be a new nickname for you?"

"I will feed you to my father's leopards."

"It's sticking then," Percy grinned and she kicked him under the table as she rolled her eyes.

"They don't seem to care," Rachel said as she sat down, not a single person looking over at her outburst.

"That's not funny," Annabeth said. "This isn't a joke, mortal girl."

"Hold it, you two," Percy said. "Just calm down."

"Famous last words," Cressida remarked as she sipped her smoothie.

"I'm calm," Rachel insisted. "Every time I'm around you, some monster attacks us. What's to be nervous about?"

"Look," Percy said, "I'm sorry about the band room. I hope they didn't kick you out or anything."

"Nah. They asked me a lot of questions about you. I played dumb."

"Was it hard?" Annabeth asked.

"Okay, stop!" Percy intervened. "Care to help?" he asked Cressida who was stirring her smoothie with her straw, letting the mixture drip back into the glass.