~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

The Room With Water

{Piper}

Piper tried to make the best of the situation.

   Once she and Jason had gotten tired of pacing the deck, listening to Coach Hedge sing "Old MacDonald" (with weapons instead of animals), they decided to have a picnic in the park.

   Hedge grudgingly agreed. "Stay where I can see you."

   "What are we, kids?" Jason asked.

   Hedge snorted. "Kids are baby goats. They're cute, and they have redeeming social value. You are definitely not kids."

   They spread their blanket under a willow tree next to a pond. Piper turned over her cornucopia and spilled out an entire meal—neatly wrapped sandwiches, canned drinks, fresh fruit, and (for some reason) a birthday cake with purple icing and candles already lit.

   She frowned. "Is it someone's birthday?"

   Jason winced. "I wasn't going to say anything."

   "Jason!"

   "There's too much going on," he said. "And honestly... before last month, I didn't even know when my birthday was. Thalia told me the last time she was at camp."

   Piper wondered what that would be like—not even knowing the day you were born. Jason had been given to Lupa the wolf when he was only two years old. He'd never really known his mortal mom. He'd only been reunited with his sister last winter.

   "July First," Piper said. "The Kalends of July."

   "Yeah." Jason smirked. "The Romans would find that auspicious—the first day of the month named for Julius Caesar. Juno's sacred day. Yippee."

   Piper didn't want to push it, or make a celebration if he didn't feel like celebrating. "Sixteen?" she asked.

   He nodded. "Oh, boy. I can get my driver's license."

   Piper laughed. Jason had killed so many monsters and saved the world so many times that the idea of him sweating a driving test seemed ridiculous. She pictured him behind the wheel of some old Lincoln with a STUDENT DRIVER sign on top and a grumpy teacher in the passenger seat with an emergency brake pedal.

   "Well?" she urged. "Blow out the candles."

   Jason did. Piper wondered if he'd made a wish—hopefully that he and Piper and the rest of the eight would survive this quest. She decided not to ask him. She didn't want to jinx that wish, and she definitely didn't want to find out that he'd wished for something different.

   Since they'd left the Pillars of Hercules yesterday evening, Jason had seemed distracted. Piper couldn't blame him. Hercules had been a pretty huge disappointment as a big brother, and the old river god Achelous had said some unflattering things about the sons of Jupiter.

   Piper stared at the cornucopia. She wondered if Achelous was getting used to having no horns at all. She hoped so. Sure, he had tried to kill them, but Piper still felt bad for the old god. She didn't understand how such a lonely, depressed spirit could produce a horn of plenty that shot out pineapples and birthday cakes. Could it be that the cornucopia had drained all the goodness out of him? Maybe now that the horn was gone, Achelous would be able to fill up with some happiness and keep it for himself.

   She also kept thinking about Achelous's advice: If you had made it to Rome, the story of the flood would have served you better. She knew the story he was talking about. She just didn't understand how it would help.

   Jason plucked an extinguished candle from his cake. "I've been thinking."

   That snapped Piper back to the present. Coming from your boyfriend, I've been thinking was kind of a scary line. But then again, she didn't feel like she loved Jason anymore. Maybe it was best if they—