Somewhere Between

Chapter 13

Percy's POV

We got in the eighteen-wheeler and the animals stared at us.

A zebra, a male albino lion, and some type of antelope. The lion had a bowl of turnips, while the antelope and zebra had a styrofoam plate of hamburger meat in front of them. The weird antelope had a silver balloon attached to its horn and the lion had chewing gum matted into his mane, his ribs showing.

"... humane zoo transport? Are you kidding me?"

As an enviroment worker, Grover hated anything that harmed the enviroment. We usually had one for every quest because they were good at using the enviroment.

They were looking for this lost tree.

Though nobody knew why our boss helped them so much.

Anyway, Grover looked like he would go out and beat the drivers up and I would of helped him, but the trailer started shaking and we had to sit down.

Annabeth cut off the balloon from the antelope's horn and changed the bowls of food with the long pole standing beside the cages.

We sat in silence in the shaking truck, not believing our luck.

Grover rummaged through the contents of the bag, which had a pack of double stuff oreo's, two bottles of water, a phone, two guns and ammunition, a fresh pair of clothes and a towel, and a colonge bottle of mist.

"Your dad obviously doesn't like me."

I realized there was only stuff for me and Grover. I cursed my dad in the back of my mind.

"Maybe Ares took all the stuff." I suggested.

"Girl clothes? For what?"

A sudden thought of Ares trying out women's clothes popped in my mind. I snorted, and Grover raised an eyebrow. I shook my head.

Annabeth gave me the towel to dry myself off. I was almost completely dry anyway, so there wasn't much to dry off. Soon, Grover was asleep, and Annabeth and I were leaning on the truck wall, enjoying the silence to torture ourselves with memories in our head.

"Hey."

I flinched. Annabeth glanced at me.

"... I heard about your dad."

A hard lump rose up inside my throat. I wanted to cry and smile and the same time.

"Ares told you?" I forced out.

She nodded, twisting a curl.

There was some silence.

I bit my lip. "What did he tell you? You know, about my dad."

"... not much."

"I guess that means everything?"

"Well, I know your dad is Posiedon, the brother of Zeus. And that he's... well..."

"Banished. Yeah. I know."

"And... he's done some horrible things to you?"

Make me proud.

"Gods... they're just a really twisted and sick bunch of people. Even if they're family."

She frowned. "My mom's pretty nice."

"That's what you think."

"Well, your dad seems pretty nice too."

I sighed. "He is. He's... I told you, gods are twisted. They don't know that doing stuff like that to you doesn't mean you love them."