Chapter Eleven: Secret Traps in the Love Ride.
— There's an art to life's distraction, to somehow escape the burning wait !
The sun was sinking slowly behind the mountains by the time the quartet found the water park.
Judging from the sign, the place had once been called WATERLAND, but then, some of the letters were smashed out. The sign now read WAT R A D. The group wondered how long ago the water park stopped running. The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire, clearly no mischievous teenagers were meant to use the place to hang out. Inside, there were huge dry waterslides, tubes, and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. It had been too long since the last use of any of the equipment that remained there. With night approaching so rapidly, the entire place looked sad and creepy. An abandoned water park was definitely an interesting place to take a woman on a date, Percy Jackson thought.
Two gods having a romantic evening at such a place repulsed him. They were supposed to be elegant and divine, not settling for less.
"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date, I'd hate to see what she looks like." Percy quipped, staring up at the barbed wire gate.
The three that had been a part of the Greek Pantheon longer snapped their heads to look over at him in complete disbelief. "Percy," Annabeth warned him. "Be more respectful."
"Why?" He furrowed his eyebrows. "I thought you hated Ares."
She sent Colette a fleeting sideways glance when she saw the blonde's expectant raised eyebrow at that. "I don't hate him, it's ... it's a strong dislike. Besides, he's still a god. And his girlfriend can be very temperamental."
"You don't want to insult her looks," the satyr piped up in warning.
Colette seemed to notice the smug look on Percy's face. She stared at him — his expression — and tilted her head, warning him silently to watch the next words that left his mouth. He didn't understand why they were so scared and cautious. "Who's she? Echidna?" The corner of his mouth twitched up at his own joke.
"No," the trio immediately denied, shaking their heads. "Aphrodite, goddess of love." Grover finished with a dreamy sigh.
"I thought she was married to somebody ... uh, Hephaestus."
Annabeth raised both of her eyebrows. "What's your point?"
"Oh." Percy flushed pink from his ears down, growing even more sheepish when the daughter of the sun smirked in amusement at his reaction. He felt the urge to change the subject entirely. "So, how do we get in?"
"Maia!" Grover suddenly shouted and his shoes sprouted wings. He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side of the barbed wire. He dusted off his jeans, pretending like he'd plan the whole thing. "You guys coming?"
Colette narrowed her eyes at the cocky smirk on his face. "Don't be smug, Groves, arrogance doesn't suit you." Percy could see the way her eyes were glistening with fondness, she enjoyed teasing the satyr, mainly because he was so easily flustered by her accented words. He didn't blame his best friend, he would be too.
