orenda [leo valdez]

lxxxvi. Don't Trust the Cheerleaders

❝we made it.❞

an. hey guys! this chapter is going to contain new characters, but i won't be continuing the quest or their storyline. i just wanted a way to show them in a different way, and this way they're not the main characters. i thought about deleting it because i didn't want it being too confusing, but i spent a long time writing it, and i figured some might enjoy it. oliver and taylor's story will not be continued.

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Taylor Tanaka was not having a good day.

First, Winston Stoll had stolen her lunch. Stupid Hermes boys. Next, she found out she was being sent on a deadly quest. Then, as if that wasn't enough for her already, she found out it would be alongside none other then Oliver Yang.

A perfect day to spend her fourteenth birthday.

It had started off good enough, she had gotten a cupcake from Felicity Zhang. Well, not from her directly, Felicity had a huge job as praetor of Camp Jupiter. But she had sent a satyr with a cupcake, along with a handwritten note from her.

Taylor had met Felicity after a training camp at Camp Jupiter two years ago, and the girls stayed close, even when Taylor had to go all the way back home on the other side of the country. Felicity was the sweetest person in the world, which made sense, since her grandparents, Frank and Hazel Zhang, were two of the greatest heroes in modern demigod history.

Taylor was the daughter of Terrance Tanaka and Psyche. That might be a little confusing. Drew Tanaka and a Roman demigod, a guy named Garrett Young had a boy named Terrance. He took his mother's last name, thus creating Terrance Tanaka. He fell in love with a goddess named Psyche, the minor goddess of compassion, and had Taylor. It was a weird match to Taylor, her grandmother, Drew, the daughter of Aphrodite, and Psyche, a poor goddess that Aphrodite had tortured, but that's what love did to people.

Unfortunately for Taylor, her father died after a cyclops attack on Camp Jupiter. With no longer choice, she was sent to live with her grandparents. Her grandmother's rudeness and twisted stories always proved to provoke the young girl. But luckily for Drew Tanaka, Taylor had also gained her mother's compassion. Drew Tanaka was a harsh and unkind woman, so Taylor was relieved when she had finally been sent to Camp Half Blood.

The idea of going on a quest was scary and unfamiliar to Taylor. And going with Oliver Yang? That was a nightmare. The kid had two demigod parents, so he really only had a quarter god in him, but he certainly used it to all of the extent. Sherman Yang and Miranda Gardiner were his grandparents, both strong demigods that had survived the Second Giant War, so he was treated like a king. He got whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. He was a jerk, and he thought that the world revolved around him. He had been the one to dunk Taylor in a toilet when she had first arrived.