𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟕: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐘 𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋

"Bianca..."

ARES WAS WAITING FOR THEM IN THE PARKING LOT OF THE DINNER.

"Well, well," Ares said, "You didn't get yourself killed."

"You know it was a trap," Percy snapped.

Ares smirked. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple stupid kids. You looked good on TV."

   Percy growled and shoved the shield in Ares' arms making Eris pale, "You're a jerk."

Eris cowered behind Annabeth, fearing Ares' response. If Ares was anything like Clarisse when angered she wouldn't be surprised if he lashed out and killed them all because of Percy's lack of respect. Grover placed a comforting hand on her shoulder much to her surprise. But to her surprise Ares didn't give the response she expected.

Ares grabbed the shield, spun it in the air like pizza dough and it formed into a bulletproof vest. He slugged it across his back. "See that truck over there," he pointed to a parked truck across the street. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

The truck had a sign on its back that said: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT, WARNING: LIVE ANIMALS.

   Eric covered her face with her hands. They had just gotten decently clean with the soap they found at the souvenir store and now they were going to be in a truck full over animals that probably smelled like animal shit for Gods know how long. She could smell the animal poop already.

   "You're kidding," Percy said.

   Ares snapped his fingers and the back doors of the truck unlocked. "Free ride, west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job." He took a blue backpack off his motorcycle handlebars and tossed it to Percy.

   Percy scowled after he looked inside the backpack, "I don't want your shitty-"

   "Th-Thank you, sir," Eris said meekly, stepping in front of Percy, "We really...appreciate it." Ares sent her a harsh glare and she flinched.

He looked so much like Clarisse it was frightening. He smelled like her too.

   Percy moved to protectively stand in front of her, "You owe me one more thing," he said, "You promised me information about my mother."

"You sure you can handle the news?" Ares asked, starting his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

Percy's jaw dropped, "What do you mean?"

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."

"Kept? Why?"

"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."

Percy frowned, "Nobody's controlling me."

Ares laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."

Percy clenched his fist, "You're pretty smug, lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."

Eris' eyes widened, "Pe-Percy you-"

Ares' fiery gaze turned to her and Eris fell silent with a small whimper. "Shut it, wimp," he snarled at Eris before to Percy. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight watch your back." He roared his Harley road off down the street.

"That was not smart, Percy," Annabeth said.

"I don't care," Percy replied.

"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially a God like that."

"Hey, guys," Grover said, "I hate to interrupt but..." He pointed to the dinner. At the register the last two costumers were paying their bill, two men in identical overalls. On the back of their overalls it read: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL

   "If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."

  They ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the door behind them. The minute the door closed Eris gagged at the harsh smell that filled her nose. It was hard to resist throwing up right then and there.

   Percy uncapped Riptide to bring light into the truck, it casted a bronze light over the dark trunk and Eris was met with a horrifying sight.

In front of her sat three dirty sad looking zoo animals in the most filthy cage she'd ever seen. In the cage sat a Zebra, a albino lion, and a antelope. Her eyes teared up at the sight of the Zebra's matted mane while the antelope had a old birthday party ballon tied to its horns. The lion looked fine but it kept pacing back and forth in its cage that was far too small and breathing too harshly from the hot air. The lion had flies buzzing around and his ribs were showing.

Eris covered her mouth, "Oh, my gods," she whispered, her eyes filling up with tears.

"This is kindness?" Grover yelled, "Humane Zoo Transport?" He looked so angry Eris wouldn't have been surprised if he stormed out of the truck to beat the crap out of the two drivers but just then the Truck's engine roared into life and the truck began to shaking forcing them to sit down.

They huddled into a corner on mildewed feed stacks. As Grover went up and started to talk to the animals Eris curled up into a ball and tucked her head between her knees.

   "This is terrible," Annabeth said, gesturing to the animals, "I say we should just break them out and free them now."

   "Yeah but it wouldn't do any good until the truck stops moving," Percy replied. He looked over at Eris and frowned, "Sweets, what's wrong?"

   Eris sniffed and wiped her cheeks, "Nothing," she whispered.

    Annabeth placed a hand on her shoulder, "Eris, was it something that Ares said? Because if it is-"

   She shook her head, "No. No it's...not," she sniffed and gestured to the animals, "this. This isn't right. I...they're being tortured I mean look at him," she pointed to the starving lion, "they're starving him...they're gonna die in here," she wiped some more off her cheeks, "I just don't like seeing people like this. I-I don't like seeing hurt people."

   Everything about the way the animals were treated reminded her of foster care.  She hated foster care. Some kids in the foster care system got lucky and had nice or decent foster parents but every foster parent Eris and Willow stayed with growing up weren't nice or even decent.

   The Zebra with its matted hair reminded her of her first set of foster parents who didn't know how to care for black textured hair so they just left it to rot and eventually they had to shave her head because of how matted her hair had gotten, they were the reason she got dreadlocks. The starving lion reminded her of her second set of foster parents who would limit the amount of food they could eat each day; that experience was the reason she was still so skinny.  The antelope reminded her of her final set of foster parents who had children who would repeatedly pick on her as a child and the parents did nothing to stop them.  There was one set of foster parents she had who just plain racist.

   This wasn't right. It was just so...inhumane to treat people or anything that way.

   It left a sick feeling in her stomach.

   Annabeth frowned, "Oh..Eris-"

   Eris shook her head and stood. She walked over to Grover who was trying to talk to the antelope. "Do you think..." her lips formed into a line, "c-can you ask it if I can cut the ballon out of its horn? Please."

   Grover nodded and he went back and forth with the antelope for a while. He turned to her, "He said he'd like that but...just be careful," he said, frowning, "these animals...they're really scared."

   Eris swallowed thickly and took out her dagger. The antelope eyed it before taking a couple steps back and Eris shakily raised her hands in surrender. The antelope sniffed the air before taking a couple steps toward and lowering its head so Eris could reach his horns. She tried to steady her shaky hands as she pulled the ballon string. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and cut it before throwing it too the ground.

She shakily pet it's head, "it's okay," she cooed softly, "It's alright."

She thought about trying to get the gum out of the zebra's mane but decided against doing until the truck stopped. They told Grover to promise them they would help them in the morning.

Grover curled up on a turnip sack and Annabeth sat next to Eris as she opened up the pack of Oreos and started nibbling on them. Eris pulled out a napkin and pen she took from the restaurant and started sketching.

"Hey," Annabeth said quietly, holding out the Oreos, "Want some?"

Eris shook her head, "Uh, no thank you," she said meekly, "I only like the chocolate ones."

"Oh," Annabeth said, "I'm sorry about freaking out back at the water park, guys."

"That's okay," Percy said.

"I-It's alright," Eris said, "I freak out all the time."

"It's just," Annabeth shuddered, "Spiders."

"Because of the Arachne story," Percy guessed, "she got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?"

Annabeth nodded, "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'd find me. I hate the creepy little things. Anyway, I owe you two."

Eris shook her head, "No. No, it's okay," she said softly, "You guys have saved me more times than I can count. If anything I owe you."

Percy nodded, "Eris is right. We're a team, remember?" He said, "Besides Grover did the fancy flying."

"I was pretty amazing, wasn't I," Grover mumbled half asleep.

They laughed.

Annabeth pulled apart her cookie and handed Percy half, "In the Iris Message...did Luke really say nothing?"

Eris squirmed, feeling uncomfortable like always. Everything about Luke made her uncomfortable. There was always something off about him. Everything about him just seemed fake.

   Percy hummed as he munched on his Oreo, "Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree."

  Grover let out a mournful bray, "I should've told you the truth from the beginning," his voice trembled, "If you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want to bring me along."

"You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus."

        Grover nodded glumly.

"And the other two half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp..." Percy looked at Annabeth. "That was you and Luke, wasn't it?"

She put down her Oreo, uneaten and Eris grabbed her hand and quickly gave it a comforting squeeze. "Like you said, Percy, a seven-year-old half-blood wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me with them. They were...amazing monster-fighters, even without training. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us."

"I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp," Grover said, sniffling. "Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn't just leave Luke and Annabeth by themselves. I thought...I thought I could lead all three of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I'd just been a little quicker..."

"Grover," Eris said hesitantly, a bit scared he would snap at her, "I'm sure Thalia wouldn't blame you."

    Eris had never heard much about Thalia. No one excerpt Luke and Annabeth personally knew her. Judging by the way she heard Zeus acted Eris hoped that if Thalia was alive she was nothing like her father.

   A part of Eris couldn't help but wondered why Hades would be after Zeus children. She knew that none of the Big Three brothers got along especially with Hades but did they really hate each other so much they'd try to kill their own brother's children? It was inhumanity.

"She sacrificed herself to save us," he said miserably. "Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so."

"Because you wouldn't leave two other half-bloods behind?" Percy said. "That's not fair."

"Percy's right," Annabeth said. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Grover. Neither would Luke. We don't care what the council says."

Grover kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia and Percy."

"You're not lame," Annabeth insisted. "You've got more courage than any satyr I've ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy is really glad you're here right now."

Annabeth kicked Percy in the shin.

"Yeah," Percy said, scowling at Annabeth. "It's not luck that you found Thalia and me, Grover. You've got the biggest heart of any satyr ever. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the one who finds Pan."

   Percy paused probably waiting for Grover to reply but the sound he heard was of Grover now snoring.

   "How does he do that?" Percy asked, a bit impressed.

   "That...that was nice of you to say, Percy," Eris said softly, "I-I'm sure he really appreciates it."

  Annabeth nodded, "Yeah, it was a really nice thing you told him."

   "I meant it," Percy said.

They rode in silence for a while with Eris cuddled up in a corner with her arms wrapped around herself.

She was still worried about Willow. This was the longest they had gone without talking. Even if Willow was busy doing something with her ghost friends she would still popped by to say hi. She never left Eris alone this long, she knew Eris didn't have friends to talk to.

A part of her was worried that instead of Willow's visits stopping that in reality Willow's ghost had never existed to begin with and that Eris was finally sane. It was a scary thought.

Who wanted to live everyday wondering if they were actually insane?

Annabeth rubbed her necklace like she was thinking deep, strategic thoughts.

    "That pine-tree bead," Percy said suddenly and Eris fell out of her train of thought. "Is that from your first year?"

     "Yeah," Annabeth said. "Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress—now that was a weird summer...."

    "And the college ring is your father's?"

    Eris winced. It was like Percy didn't have a filter. He didn't think before he spoke. Annabeth was a defensive person, she didn't like being wrong or challenged. Eris was sure it something her being a child of Athena.

    Annabeth's gaze turned sharp, "That's none of your—" she stopped herself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

    Percy frowned, "You don't have to tell me."

      "No...it's okay." She took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her....That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."

     "That doesn't sound so bad."

     "Yeah, well...the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood."

    "You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?"

    Annabeth avoided Percy's eyes and instead looked at Eris who gave her a comforting look, "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."

    "You shouldn't give up," Percy told her. "You should write him a letter or something."

    "P-Percy, you shouldn't—" Eris started to say before stopping. They were barely friends, she didn't think she had a right to tell him when he was wrong.

    "Thanks for the advice," she said coldly and Eris flinched, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with."

    Percy stopped talking for a while probably understand that he pissed off Annabeth.

   "So if the gods fight," Percy said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"

    Annabeth put her head against the backpack Ares had given them and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you."

    Percy frowned, "Why?"

    Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"

   Percy smiled a bit, "What about you, Sweets?"

   Eris flinched, "H-Huh?" Eris wasn't good at making decisions. A majority of the time she just let someone else pick for her mainly because she hated it when people asked her questions. It put a lot of stress on especially when she didn't want to give answer.

   "If there was a war whose side would you be joining?"

   "Oh, uh..." Eris scratched the back of her head, "Well, I'm not much of a fighter. I'd probably be the first one dead i-if I went into war. I wouldn't fight...I'd probably runway to Mexico or something or..." she paused to think, "maybe I'd stay and fight with you guys. I-I mean," she rubbed her arm, "I'd most likely die but I've never had friends before and you guys are my first friends s-so if I died I'd rather it be with you guys and It's not like I have anyone waiting for me," she froze and blush arose on her cheeks, "S-sorry! I-I shouldn't have assumed we were friends I understand if you don't—"

"Of course we're friends," Annabeth said, rolling her eyes like it was obvious.

Percy nodded eagerly, "Yeah, we're friends all of us."

Eris looked down, "Sorry, I've just never had friends before."

Percy's eyes softened, "Well, guess what, you have friends now."

   PERCY JACKSON AWOKE WITH A START.

    Standing above him was Grover who was shaking his shoulder. "The truck's stopped," he said. "We think they're coming to check on the animals."

     "Hide!" Annabeth hissed.

    She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Grover and Percy had to dive behind feed sacks and hope we looked like turnips.

    "Where is Eris?" Percy hissed quietly, frantically looking around.

   Grover pointed to a corner where the animal food was kept and behind the large sacks of food was Eris who was shivering in fear as she curled up in a tiny ball.

    "Grover, she's terrified," Percy said quietly but Grover only shushed him.

    The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.

    "Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.

    "You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.

    The lion roared in indignation.

   "Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.

   Next to Percy , under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous.

     The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"

   The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at Percy.

There was no sound, but as clear as day, He heard it say: Free me, lord.

   Please.

    Percy's eyes widened in shock.

   There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer and out of the corner of his eye he saw Eris flinched.

    The trucker inside with them yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"

   A voice outside—who must have belonged to Eddie—shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"

    "What are you banging for?"

     Knock, knock, knock.

    Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"

      Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.

     A second later, Annabeth appeared next to Percy. Percy assumed she was The Who made the distraction. She said, "This transport business can't be legal."

    Not even a second later Eris quickly left her place behind the sacks of food and moved to hide next to them, "This isn't right. This just...abuse."

     "No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"

    "We've got to free them!" Grover said. They all turned to Percy, waiting for his lead.

     Eris bit her lip as she heard Eddie and Maurice still yelling outside, hoping they never came back.

    Out of no where Percy grabbed his sword and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.

   The zebra burst out and surprisingly bowed to Percy. Eris didn't even know it was physically possible for Zebras to bow.

   Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing.

    Right as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, Eris watched with wide eyes as the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. They rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs.  The zebra was now running wild in Las Vegas.

    Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"

    "Now would be a good time to leave," Annabeth said.

    "The other animals first," Grover said.

    Percy cut the locks with my sword. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra.

"Good luck," Percy told the animals. The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets but before the antelope left it surprisingly nuzzled its face into Eris' shoulder as if saying 'Thank you'.

    She could hear tourists screaming. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos.

    "Um...are they gonna be alright?" Eris asked uneasily, "I don't want anything to happen to them. We sent them out there without any food or water w-what if—"

   "Don't worry," Grover said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."

    "Huh?" Percy asked.

     "Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," Grover said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."

     "Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" Percy asked.

    "It only works on wild animals."

   "So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth joked and Eris looked away as she hide a small laugh.

        Hey!" Percy protested.

"Kidding," Annabeth said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."

They stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was a hundred and ten degrees, easy, and they probably looked crazy and smelled like animal shit but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay them any attention.

They passed the Monte Carlo and the MGM. They passed pyramids, a pirate ship, and the Statue of Liberty.

Eris didn't know where they were going but she just hoped that where they went had a shower. They were starting to smell musty again. And food, she was hungry.

They must have taken a wrong turn, because they found themselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air-conditioning that smelled like flowers that Eris didn't know the name of.

The doorman smiled at them. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"

Eris automatically took a step to stand behind Annabeth. At this point she couldn't trust anything she saw. Anyone could secretly be a monster and she wasn't interested in being throw off a building like last time.

Inside, when they took one look around, Grover said, "Whoa."

The whole lobby was a giant game room. There was an indoor waterslide snaking around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors.

There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee- jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games, each one the size of a widescreen TV. There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine.

"Hey!" a bellhop said, coming out of thin air and Eris took a step back. He wore a white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts, and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."

Percy stammered, "Um, but..."

"No, no," he said, laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, room 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."

He handed them all each a green plastic credit card.

Eris eyed the card uneasily. She hoped this wasn't some sick joke. She wasn't interested in stealing or going to jail.

Percy took the card and said, "How much is on here?"

His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"

He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."

Annabeth tugged Eris along as they took the elevator upstairs and checked out their room. It was a suite with four separate bedrooms and a bar stocked with candy, sodas, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy towels and water beds with feather pillows. A big-screen television with satellite and high-speed Internet. The balcony had its own hot tub, and sure enough, there was a skeet-shooting machine and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons right out over the Las Vegas skyline and plug them with your gun.

Eris' mouth fell open, "Oh my.." she whispered.

Eris had never been to a place so night but then again the only places she had ever been were Camp Half-blood and her foster homes.

The place even smelled rich.

"Oh, goodness," Annabeth said. "This place is..."

"Sweet," Grover said. "Absolutely sweet."

Eris walked through her room looking at the satin bed sheets there were shockingly her favorite color: forest green. In the closet she found a green spaghetti strap tank top, shorts with a black jacket. There were even a fresh pair of white shiny shoes on the floor. When she looked at the tags she raised a brow when she realized they all her size.

As she walked into her bathroom and looked in the shower her eyes widened when she didn't find normal cheap hotel shampoo that wasn't made for her textured hair instead it was stocked with brand specifically made for natural hair like Shea Moisture or Carol's daughter. Camp Half-Blood didn't even offer natural hair options this good, Eris usually had to beg one of the Hermès kids to bring back some shampoo and conditioner made for natural hair then sometimes she was even able to beg one of the Aphrodite girls to re-twist her dreadlocks whenever her roots had grown out since Willow wasn't around to do anymore.

They even had edge control!

    It was like this room was specifically made for her.

She happily took her first shower in days and when she came out of her bedroom in her new clothes,  sweet smelling hair and freshly laid baby hairs she found Grover munching on a bag of potato chips while Annabeth was happily watching an episode of the National Geographic Channel.

   Grover glanced at her, "Oh, hey, Eris," he said and she wrinkled her nose when he kept chewing with his mouth open. He sniffed the air, "You smell good."

   "Thanks," she muttered, sitting down next to Annabeth.

   "All those channels," Percy's voice came from the doorway, "and you turn on National Geographic. Are you insane?"

"It's interesting," Annabeth replied shortly, leaning against Eris who to Percy's surprise allowed it.

"I feel good," Grover said, "I love this place."

Eris rubbed her arm as she looked around, "it is nice," she said quietly, "but w-we shouldn't stay too long. Monsters will be coming soon," she said meekly.

"Relax, Eris," Percy said, "we'll be fine."

She had a feeling it would not be fine.

"So what now?" Annabeth asked, "Sleep?"

Percy and Grover looked at each other and grinned. They held up their green cards.

"Play time," Percy said.

"I don't feel so good about this," Eris muttered.

SOME TIME LATER ERIS FOUND HERSELF WALKING THROUGH THE CASINO ALONE.

    Annabeth was off playing trivia games,  Grover was playing hunter games and Percy was off doing gods knows what with gods knows who, leaving Eris all alone.

   Eris thought it was a bad idea to separate. If a monster attacked they were all screwed if they weren't together.

   She just wished she was confident enough to tell them that.

  As she walked around awkwardly she felt a someone tap her shoulder making her flinched.

   "Um, excuse me?"

   She turned around and saw a girl who looked her age. She had olive skin and long silky black hair with narrow eyes and a straight nose. She wore old looking clothes that looked like they came out of a vintage movie from the 1930s. On top her head was a floppy green hair. Eris thought she was pretty.

    "Sorry for scaring you," the girl said, she didn't look Eris in the eye but to be honest Eris wouldn't look anyone in the eye either. "I'm Bianca Di'Angelo," she held out her hand.

   Eris hesitantly shook it, "I...I'm Eris Lewis," she said meekly, suddenly finding her new shoes interesting. "Um, did I do something to you or something because if I did I'm sorr—"

   "Oh, no. Not at all. It's just," Bianca sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "I'm looking for my little brother, Nico. He's about this tall," she held out her hand to estimate his height, "really cute, and really hyper. He has tan skin and black hair. Have you seen him at all? He wondered off somewhere, again."

Eris wrapped her arms around herself, "Sorry, I haven't seen a little boy," she told her, "but ,um, I can help you find him. I-I mean if you want?"

   Bianca's brown eyes shines with hope, "Really?"

    "Sure, I'm not doing anything so.." she trailed off.

   Bianca smiled and for some reason the smile looked familiar to Eris, "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Eris yelped as Bianca grabbed her wrist and yanked her along. They searched the casino for at least 10 minutes looking for a little boy with dark black hair until finally they came across a Dance Dance Revolution game machine that happened to be currently occupied by a boy who was described exactly like Bianca had said.

"Nico!" Bianca yelled and the boy froze and stopped dancing.

Nico smiled, "Bianca! Look," he pointed to the screen, "I'm gonna beat my high score."

"I don't care about the game," Bianca said, grabbing his face and examining him like a mother would do to their child, "Don't wonder off like that. I thought someone had taken you!"

Nico flushed, "Sorry," he replied and Bianca rolled her eyes before ruffling his hair.

Eris looked away. She felt like she was intruding on a personal moment. A moment that shouldn't involve her. "Um...I'm just gonna...go."

"Wait! Don't leave," Bianca said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "you...you should hang out with us. I've never hung out with a girl my age before. I mean if you don't want to it's fine—"

"I-I do!" Eris sputtered quickly, "I do want to hang out with you."

Bianca sighed in relief, "Great."

Nico held out his hand with a bright smile, "I'm Nico!" He said cheerfully, he tilted his head to the side and reminded Eris of a puppy. His smile seemed familiar to her too. Like she had seen certain parts of his and Bianca's face before.

He had dark olive skin with bright looking brown eyes and long eyelashes and if you looked close enough you could see little freckles on his nose.

Eris hesitantly shook his hand, she wasn't good with kids or people in general. "I'm Eris."

Nico's smile widened, "Well, Eris, how do you feel about Dance Dance Revolution?"

     PERCY, ANNABETH AND GROVER WALKED THOUGH THE CROWD OF PEOPLE SEARCHING FOR ERIS.

"She couldn't have gone that far," Annabeth said, dragging Grover behind her with the help of Percy.

Suddenly Percy heard loud cheering and the song Since You've Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson blasting through the air. His eyes scanned over the crowd when he finally found the source.

In the middle of the crowd was a Dance Dance Revolution machine and playing the machine with surprisingly impressive dance moves was Eris and on the machine next to her was a little boy with olive skin who looked like he was struggling to keep up with her. Eris was grinning for the first time Percy had ever seen as she did every single dance move perfectly until the song finally came to a stopped and everyone cheered.

"Eris!" Annabeth yelled and Eris stopped talking to the little boy and turned to them, "We need to leave! Now!"

    The little boy frowned, "What? Eris you can't leave yet," he whined before turning to another girl who had the same matching olive features, "Bianca tell her to stay."

   "I-it's okay, Nico," Eris said, rubbing her arm, "I really do need to go. I...I guess I'll see you around later."

   "But—"

    "Nico, she needs to leave," the girl who Percy assumed was Bianca said firmly.

    "What? Eris, please stay!"
  
    Eris frowned, "I-I really can't, I'm sorry," she said softly, "But we can meet again...maybe when summer's over."

    Nico sighed dramatically, "Fine," he drawled out the word. Suddenly he rushed forward and buried himself into Eris' arms making her yelp in surprise, "Bye, I'll miss you."

    Eris turned bright red.

   Bianca gave Eris a quick side hug, "Take care of yourself, okay?"

   Eris blinked, "I...I'll do my best," she said as Nico finally let her go, "B-Bye."

   Bianca and Nico waved her goodbye with disappointed frowns as Eris walked over to their group.

   "What happened?" She asked meekly, "did a monster attack? And why are you dragging Grover," she glanced at Grover who was being forcefully being pulled out of the Casino by Annabeth.

   "This place is cursed," Annabeth said quickly as they made their way to the front desk, "it makes time for by faster. We've probably been stuck in here for days and never noticed."

    "Oh," Eris said quietly, glancing back at Nico and Bianca who were sadly watching her go. A part of her wanted to stay in the hotel with Nico and Bianca. They had been so kind to her but it wasn't reasonable to stay with someone you barely knew.

   But still...the aching feeling wouldn't leave her gut that some of their facial features like their nose and mouths looked so familiar.

   The Lotus Bellhop came up to them, "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"

   "We're leaving," Percy told him quickly.

     The bellhop frowned, "Such a shame. We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum card members."

  He held out the cards and Eris forced herself to look away.

  Grover reached for a card but Annabeth yanked back his arm and said, "No, thanks."

    As they walked to the door Eris couldn't help the sickly feeling in her stomach that was telling her to stay here with Bianca and Nico, that one more day of handing out with them wouldn't hurt. They were the first strangers to ever be nice to her but when the door opened and they finally walked out of the hotel Eris felt like she was being smacked in the face.

   It still felt like the same day but the weather had completely changed. It had gone from sunny to dark and stormy with lightning.

   They had been in the Lotus Casino for five days.

Thank you for reading. Please comment they help me stay encouraged to update more often.

I kind of like writing Eris because she's so different from the usually characters I write like Eris is actually kinda sensitive as can cry at the drop of a hate unlike my other characters who are usually more confident.

Do you have any questions?