"Are we there yet?" I yelled up to Argus in the driver's seat. I waited for an answer but received none from the many eyed man (thing?). Kit-Kat poked my side. "Candy we haven't even been away from camp for five minutes," she whispered softly in my ear.

"I know," I retorted. "It's just taking forever." I crossed my arms and slumped down in my seat, blowing a strand of frizzy rain drenched hair off my face. Grov, Annabeth and Percy were crammed in the first row of seating behind Argus. Kit-Kat and I had claimed the way back seat, so the second row separated us from our companions. I had a pretty good view of Percy from my position- well a good view of the back of his head at least. Annabeth was sitting near the window on the left side. She was scooted as far away from everyone else as possible and was glaring out of her window huffily, taking her anger out on the storm drenched plants whizzing by.

I could already see this was going to be a long, terrible ride. What with the hostility radiating off of Annabeth and the lack of chatter occurring, it was sure to be a bore. This thought provoked me to sit up and ask, "Are we there yet?"

"No!" came Annabeth's sharp reply. I rolled my eyes furiously. The air conditioning in the van was broken and the humidity from outside was slowly leaking into the car. Annabeth's added heat waves of anger were not helping out predicament. Good thing she wasn't a daughter of Apollo or she would have blown our vehicle into smithereens by now!

I fidgeted in my seat a little, my ADD kicking in. I tapped my fingers lightly against my arm in agitation, then got bored and stared up at the grey ceiling. When I tired of that I began fiddling with the straps the backpack placed in my lap while humming 'Go the Distance' from the Disney movie Hercules. A few moments after I started I was shaking with suppressed giggles at the irony of the song choice (you know, Hercules was a demigod too and he sang that song while going off on his adventure). I felt a tap me on the shoulder and I turned to see Kit-Kat shaking her head quietly at me. She gestured towards Annabeth who was visibly shaking at the noises I was making. I bet if given the chance, she would have torn my spleen out through my nose. I nodded and, favoring my life over my amusement, attempted to settle down.

When our beat up van reached the highway to Long Island Percy spoke up. "So far so good," he murmured his voice tense. "Ten miles and not a single monster."

"Except Argus," I muttered under my breath. Kit-Kat smirked, Annabeth quaked with suppressed homicidal urgings and an eye on the back of Argus' neck glared.

"It's bad luck to say that seaweed brain." She spat through gritted teeth. The anger consuming her right now was greater by far then any rage I had seen her in before, and it was all because of me. I smiled at the thought.

Percy continued, unabashed by her vicious tone. "Remind me again why you hate me so much." I snorted in the back seat.

The look I got from Little Miss Blondie was traumatizing at the least. She turned back to Percy. "I don't hate you," she said stiffly.

"Could've fooled me," Percy replied.

"Me too." I added.

Annabeth turned hotly around and practically strangled me with invisible eye beams of hatred. "I didn't ask you Candy."

I rolled my eyes and slumped in my seat…completely and utterly bored and DYING to get out of the car. This closed up joint was steaming and the drama was more intense then any awful soap opera I'd ever seen. Now I am a fan of drama, a huge fan even because I know I'm destined to be on Broadway (just kidding), but this was too much. I straightened up a little and looked to the front.

"Are we there yet?"

Amazingly short, no? I know it is, and I'm terribly sorry and I have no excuse this time except I was lazy and forgot all about writing and whipped this together quick as can be for all of you. And the last chapter was short and kind of pointless too except there was a little foreshadow cool thing in there with the mind reading of Percy, if you picked up on that. I won't tell you straight out, but it's gonna come back in! Sorry about me being lazy, honestly. **bends knee** PLEASE FORGIVE ME! Haha.

~Ruby Thorn