7 | good-bye sunshine, hello certain death!

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IF YOU HAD WARNED Maya that Percy Jackson would soon be in her cabin, drinking her specially set aside vintage Cherry Cola, and pressing an icepack to his head, she probably would've called you a liar and then promptly fainted on the spot

Ups! Tento obrázek porušuje naše pokyny k obsahu. Před publikováním ho, prosím, buď odstraň, nebo nahraď jiným.




IF YOU HAD WARNED Maya that Percy Jackson would soon be in her cabin, drinking her specially set aside vintage Cherry Cola, and pressing an icepack to his head, she probably would've called you a liar and then promptly fainted on the spot. Call her dramatic but Anne and Marie had already spent an eternity doing that so she was used to it by now.

And even if you did, she was a little too distracted with a certain son of the sea god to care.

Percy sat across from her on the bar counter, still looking around in awe at the underground bunker, not noticing that Maya was practically burning a hole into his forehead with how intensely she was staring at him. She definitely should have looked away (she was blinking as few times as Elmo in Sesame Street) but she dared you to do the same when your crush from the past few años was sitting less than two feet away!

Holy Hades, she really needed to get a part-time job. This 'using-all-her-free-time-to-obsess-over-Percy-Jackson' thing was not working out for her.

"This place is so cool." Percy grinned and turned to her, causing Maya to jump in surprise and act like she totally hadn't already been looking at him. It was the fourth time he'd said that since they came in, and he seemed so excited that it made Maya feel a funny, warm feeling in her chest. Or, you know, she had gastritis and was just gaslighting herself as usual. (It had already happened before when she mistook a fever for just being delirious after helping Anne, Marie, and Aiden down three extra-large pizzas en una hora to challenge the Hephaestus kids' record. It hadn't been worth it, though; they'd lost when Jamie (a kid who spent more time in the forges lifting pure iron than sleeping) ate the same amount in just thirty minutes. Maya was starting to think that she had missed out on the good side of the gene pool. Why couldn't her stomach hold that much?! Soda drinking would be so much easier!)

"Impressive, right?" she said, swirling around the Pepsi in her glass bottle and trying not to hyperventilate. It wasn't working. "This is my favorite spot in camp."

"I just can't believe it exists," Percy responded, half-focused on all the arcade games and soda displays around the room. He stared at Maya, still flabbergasted. "How does no one else know about this?"

Maya snorted. Luckily, soda did not come out of her nariz this time. "Because my dad can't share anything to save his life. He made this place a long time ago and has been hiding it from Chiron ever since."

Percy laughed, setting down his ice pack. "Sounds like Mr. D."

Maya nodded along, about to take another swig from her Pepsi before she realized it was empty. Damn her and her ability to drink as much as a failed businessman! The girl got up to get another one from the back, and when she felt Percy's eyes on her, she decided to be a teensy bit more dramatic than usual. The girl flipped the bottleneck soda in the air before catching the neck and then slamming the butt into the bar counter, grinning as the cap flew off with a bang. She poured the fizzy drink out bartender-style, making sure nothing was overflowing, before she sat down back across a wide-eyed Percy.

Mohlo by se ti líbit

          

She smiled down at the counter. "Sorry, that's the fastest way to open it."

Percy was still blinking at her as if his brain wasn't keeping up with what he was seeing. "Uh, right. Of course... the fastest way." He looked down at his glass before he looked up with a bashful expression on his face. "I know this might sound stupid, but... can you change the colors of drinks?"

"Change the color...?" Maya contemplated this nervously. She didn't really excel at drinkology like her brothers, but Percy looked so hopeful that she set the feeling aside. "I guess so. If I knew what color."

Percy's face lit up. "Could you try blue?"

"Ok, I'll try."

The girl squinted her eyes and concentrated on Percy's glass, fiddling her hands nervously. She didn't know what to attempt, so she tried doing what her dad did (as unreliable as the old man usually was). Whenever he wanted to replace his drink, he just snapped his fingers, so Maya did the same, imagining the brightest azul she could think of. There was a sudden pop! and instead of the ginger-like color of cherry coke, the drink had turned a bright shade of cobalt blue. Percy was ecstatic.

"Holy Poseidon!" he exclaimed, looking down at the glass like it had just solved cancer. "That's awesome."

"Dionysus kid perk, I guess," Maya said, fiddling with a straw and trying not to blush. Act normal! She had to act normal! "My brothers can do a lot more with drinks, though, since that's what they specialize in. They can change the flavors, brand, amount of ice, all that stuff. I can't really do much."

"It's still amazing," Percy said, taking a sip of his now blue coke. His face went slightly serious, and he swallowed before looking back at her. "Hey, look... I'm sorry about what happened with Annabeth today in the sword arena. I shouldn't have pushed so hard for you to come if you were uncomfortable with it."

Maya's happy face fell. This was probably the last thing she wanted to talk about after she had thrown a full-on tantrum to the whole sword arena like one of those girls on My Super Sweet 16 who had gotten a Mercedes for their birthday when they'd asked for a Ferrari. (Speaking of, if they didn't want it, she did! Did they know how many sodas one could get by selling a car?!)

"Um, it's ok. It's not your fault, well, maybe a little bit, but not that much... And Annabeth and I are fine, well, ok, honestly, we're not... but that can be worked out with like 2000 hours of therapy and stress balls! At least... I think so... but that's not even the point! What I'm trying to say... the quest isn't... there's no need to worry about..."

Oh gods, she was rambling. She was rambling too damn much and she couldn't stop. It was like that time the Stolls had hot-wired a car during a field trip to the MET and it went hurtling down the street into New York traffic. Why couldn't her mouth just work correctly?!

But Percy wasn't looking at her as if he found her confusing. Instead, he was slightly smiling, more like he found her... endearing. Uh oh, this was not good for Maya's psyche. It would take her at least un mes to get over this conversation alone.

"So, you're ok with coming on the quest? Because I don't want to pressure you into going."

Maya glanced up at him, opening her mouth before closing it again. She hadn't wanted to go on the quest, not at all. It hadn't just been about her dying (which was still a big possibility) but also about her feeling inadequate. Annabeth and Percy knew what they were doing—they'd already been on three quests together and clearly had an established dynamic. How would Maya fit into that when she was inexperienced, a Hermione-level worry-wart, and couldn't even control her powers 50% of the time?

Beverage, Anyone? | Percy JacksonKde žijí příběhy. Začni objevovat