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/ᴬʳᵉˢ ᵖˡᵃʸˢ ᶜᵘᵖⁱᵈ/
𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯
"𝙶𝚘 𝚘𝚗 𝚙𝚞𝚗𝚔, 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕"
If there was something Melanie loved, aside from books and her peace, it was food. It was June 14, seven days before the solstice, and their train rolled into Denver. Melanie could die of hunger. Sure, she had Coke cans and could grow grapes. However, all of this was not tolerable in the long run without a proper meal and the four travelers had to stop eating them at a certain point before they got such a heavy stomach from the grapes that they could fall asleep at any second. Admittedly, the grapes and the cans of Coke that Melanie had in her hand out of the blue had brought them a long way and satiated their hunger for as long as possible, but slowly that was no longer enough. They all needed something to eat, after all the last meal was somewhere in Kansas. Melanies stomach growled uncontrollably and felt like the emptiness of Tartarus. They also hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and Percy was sure that was obvious.
"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about it your talk with the river spirit."
"We can't use phones, right?"
"I'm not talking about phones."
They wandered through downtown for about half an hour, although Percy wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, no comparison to St. Louis. The rocks everywhere only made things worse and Melanie soon couldn't stand seeing the rocks anymore as she struggled to hold herself upright.
Finally they found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. It wasn't much, but it should be enough for what they wanted to do.
They shuffled to the stall farthest from the street, keeping their eyes open for patrol cars. They were three teenagers hanging out at a car wash without a car; Any cop worth his donuts would figure we were up to no good. Just the thought of doughnuts only made Melanie's stomach growl even more.
"What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked, as Grover took out the spray gun. "We make a call," Melanie replies as she flops down on the floor.
"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth? Melanie?"
"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."
"And if I had anything, everything would have been lost in my free fall with Percy."
Percy fished out his last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left him two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place.
"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."
