Jason was starting to think getting his driver's license was a mistake. He and his friends had saved the world before—some of them multiple times; but nothing made it more glaringly obvious how chaotic they were than packing them all into the back of his Held-Together-By-Ductape 1998 Toyota Corolla.
"Leo, please put on your seatbelt," he pleaded.
Leo responded with an exaggerated groan. "We're packed in like sardines back here!" He gestured wildly, almost hitting Frank in the face. "I think I'm sitting on it anyway."
Piper snorted from the passenger seat. "Told you we should have put him in the trunk."
"Oh, because we'd never hear the end of that, Pipes. Great idea." He rolled his eyes. "Besides, you really want Hedge up here waving his bat?"
Piper shuddered. "You're right. I think he's eating all the cans you were supposed to recycle last week."
A glance in the rearview mirror and Jason got a glimpse of Hazel fanning her face, head leaning out the window.
"Everything good back there, Haze?"
She shook her head. Frank took one look at her and his face paled, Big-Brother mode officially activated at the sight of her.
"Motion sickness," he said, rifling through his emergency fanny pack for tylenol. "She's going to puke, do you have any—"
There was retching from the back and Jason didn't even need to look to know she'd sent the contents of her breakfast out the window and onto the blacktop of the highway.
Leo held her hair back and Frank leaned across his lap to hold her hand. Leo sighed, pinching his nose shut with his free hand.
"Trunk's soundn' kinda nice, not gonna lie."
***
Percy was infinitely thankful that his mother's van had a sunroof because Tyson just had a growth spurt.
"I could have walked," Tyson said, obviously shifting and fidgeting in the passenger seat to try and make himself smaller. "Could have shadowed there with Mrs. O'leary."
"It's January, bro, fat chance.
He was also thankful there were three rows of seating—because he had seven other campers (and a hunter) in the back. Not to mention the hellhound loping after them.
"This better be the best birthday party Nico has ever had or I'm going to lose my marbles," he said.
Will Solace rolled his eyes from the front row, Percy could feel it. He liked Nico's boyfriend but the kid had an attitude the size of a hellhound's rear end.
"I'm pretty sure this is the only birthday party Nico has ever had," he corrected.
Clovis from the Hypnos cabin and his brother Austin were both sound asleep and drooling on him, but he did have a point.
Further back his sister Kayla was trading archery techniques with Thalia, Rachel quipping in with her ideas for painting Thalia's quiver every once in a while. Something about the Hunter standard equipment being far too boring. (Percy was pretty sure she was just flirting.)
Grover and Annabeth were strewn across each other in the very back row, playing a complicated game of rock-paper-scissors Annabeth had created.
"Hydra beats Chimera!" She shouted. "I win!"
Grover huffed. "Hydra beats everything—it's rigged!"
"Not true! Riptide beats Hydra, Hydra beats Chimera, Chimera stings drakon, Drakon poisons hellhound, and hellhound beats Hydra. Sphinx beats everything."
"Yeah, it bores them to death!"
Percy flicked on the turn signal and took a right. He definitely should have separated those two. The younger campers were well behaved enough but Grover and Annabeth cooped up for multiple hours in a backseat was a recipe for disaster he'd been stupid enough to let simmer. He wondered wistfully how Reyna was doing with getting Nico to their destination. She had the biggest challenge, after all, getting Nico there without letting him catch onto the surprise.
***
Reyna only took her eyes off the road for a second to spy on the newly fifteen-year-old sitting next to her.
"What are you doing?"
"Pokemon Go."
Complete gibberish. She kept driving.
***
"How much vomit can that little body even hold?" Jason asked. He'd offered to stop the car a couple of times but she glared at him. It wasn't a Lupa-certified stare, but it was unsettling enough even if she was still washed out with nausea.
"Just. Drive."
Jason didn't need to be told twice.
***
"Uhhh, Percy?" Annabeth shouted from the back even though he could hear her perfectly fine.
"Hmm?"
"Sorry to break this to you but we've passed that olive tree five times already."
She didn't sound sorry. In fact, she and Grover looked like they were about to bust out into a fit of laughter.
His grip tightened on the steering wheel. They were right—that was the tree that had a knot that looked like Danny DeVito's face. The one he'd pointed out an hour ago.
"And you didn't tell me this until now?" he asked calmly. "None of you? You talk to plants, you're horny for olives." He looked pointedly at Thalia, "and you live in the woods."
Thalia's face turned red. "I don't backseat drive."
Sure, more like she was too focused on the pretty girl sitting next to her to notice where they were at all, he thought.
"Hey, hey, hey," Annabeth interjected "Don't blame this on us. You're driving. Pick a direction."
"A direction?"
"A direction!"
Grover snorted. "Yeah man, whatever you decide."
Will solace groaned, letting his head fall dramatically against his headrest. "We're lost in the woods!"
His shout woke up the other two boys.
"Lost?" Austin asked. Clovis blinked rapidly.
"Yeah," Kayla's voice wavered. "Weren't we supposed to be following Jason?"
Percy huffed. "Like I'd trust him to lead us there. He'd take the longest route with zero shortcuts."
Annabeth barked a laugh. "Did you just get us lost over trying to race Jason to your mom's house?"
"Well it sounds stupid when you say it like that," Percy mumbled.
Tyson rolled his eye. Apparently his growth spurt had come with teenage angst. "Because it is stupid! Just Drive."
***
Piper licked the cheeto dust off her fingers. "Hey," she said. "Weren't the others supposed to be behind us?"
