Splitting a Soul~Chapter 3

The ride into the city went relatively well. As always traffic into the city was a complete mess, but thankfully we managed to catch our train out with about ten minutes to spare. The train ride itself went surprisingly smoothly. Kimi and I managed to grab something to eat in the dining car before moving on to the passenger cars. Kimi instantly jumped into the first available window seat and looked around the boarding platform. As much as she tried to hide it, I could tell she was pretty excited as this was the first time she had ever been on a train. Sometimes she could be so childish, but it was cute. I took my backpack off and placed it under the seat before lifting our small suitcases into the overhead compartment above our seats. After we settled into our seats and the train started moving, we talked for a little while before Kimi eventually fell asleep. I wondered if she had managed to get any sleep at all the night before or if the motion of the train had done her in. The train ride only lasted a few hours before we pulled into the train station in Albany.

“Come on Kimi, time to wake up,” I said as I shook her. She lifted her head off my shoulder and then began frantically running her fingers threw her hair, checking for any kind of knots in it. “Don’t worry, you look fine. I’ll get the bags.” “Ok, good idea,” she said as she pulled her small backpack out from under her seat and out it on as she got up. I was currently trying to pull our suitcases from the overhead compartment while other travelers were pushing past me or trying to pull their own things out. One guy almost pushed me over while walking down the aisle. I shot him an annoyed look, but he shot a look right back at me that seemed to say “How dare you stand in the lane while I am present.”

I finally managed to dislodge our bags and almost brought down the entire compartment with them. Guess I didn’t know my own strength. Training at Camp Half-Blood or just staying year round had one major drawback; you started to lose touch with the real world out there. People don’t build trains with the thought of monster attacks in mind or even demigods for that matter and when at camp, demigods don’t always think about how easily modern technology can be broken.

“Ready to go?” I asked Kimi and she gave me a nod. We rolled our bags off the train and found our way into the train station. It was a pretty small train station, having nothing on the train station in New York City, but it didn’t need to be anything fancy. I walked over to a vending machine and grabbed a soda for me and Kimi. It had been months since I had a real Sprite, which was my favorite soda. Sure I could ask the magic cups at camp for some, but it was always…healthy.

“Can I get a hot chocolate instead?” Kimi asked. I handed her two dollars and she placed it in the machine next to me. It spit out a cup and the hot liquid poured into it. When it finally finished, Kimi took the cup out and steam could be clearly seen pouring from the top. This didn’t stop Kimi for a second and she almost drank the entire cup in one gulp. “That really hit the spot.”

We walked outside, but I didn’t see my mom’s car anywhere. I wondered if she had gotten a new one or if she was parked in some kind of hidden parking lot. Another likely scenario was that she got lost; she did that a lot. She always managed to get to where she was going however, it just took her longer sometimes.

*BANG!*

Kimi and I both seemed to duck at the same time. Loud sounds at cap normally meant the Ares cabin was trying out a new cannon or one of the machines over at the Hephaestus cabin escaped. Even the Hecate cabin caused an explosion once that caused everyone at camp to talk backwards; it was totally emal.

When I turned my head to locate the source of the noise, I saw an old rusted car pull into the lot…if it could be described as a car at all. The thing looked like it might have been blue at some point, but there was mud all over the sides. The paint on the roof seemed to have peeled off or something years ago. There was also a big cloud of smoke coming from the exhaust pipe and every time the driver hit the gas, it would make this horrible rattling sound.

“Is that your mom?” Kimi asked, pointing to the car.

“My mom would never be caught dead in something like that. Why would you even ask that?” I asked her, but she pointed over to the car.

“Because someone is waving at us,” she said, and she was right. Whoever was driving that screaming metal death trap was waving right at us. I was hoping that maybe there was someone behind us or next to us, or maybe just in the general vicinity to us…but there wasn’t. Everyone else was smart enough to stay inside the station to hide from the cold or had already walked to their cars. The car pulled up to the pick-up area and let out another loud *BANG* as the driver put it in park.

“Yo man, what’s up?!” came a familiar voice. The driver door opened with a loud creek and a guy about my age stood up on the curb. “It has been ages!” The guy ran over a draped his arm on my shoulder and gave me a quick shake. He was almost a head taller than me, with short black hair that looked to be turning white in places. He had blue eyes like mine, but his were so light that it sometimes freaked me out when I looked at them. Another thing that freaked me out was his clothes. It must have been close to freezing outside and he had on a hoodie and a pair of jeans with a hole in the left knee.

“Good to see you again,” I said as I pushed his arm off my shoulder and gave him a quick jab in the shoulder.

“Oh come on, is that all you have to say after being gone for almost a year Ashy-boy?” he said, acting offended by my comment.

“I haven’t even been gone six months yet! Don’t take everything so dramatically,” I replied, rolling my eyes at his obviously fake hurt expression. “And you know I hate it when you call me Ashy-boy.”

“Of course I know, that is why I do it,” he said, as if I should have known that already…which in a way I did.

“Um…Excuse me…” Kimi said quietly from behind me. I turned to look at her and I could tell she was confused by our conversation, or maybe just by the strange guy that had latched himself onto me.

“No, excuse me,” the guy said as he made an exaggerated bow in front of Kimi. “How rude of me to not introduce myself in front of a lady. My name is Jackson Phrostily.”

“Jackson Phrostily?” Kimi asked.

“Yup, that’s right,” he replied.

“Your name is Jackson…Phrostily?” Kimi asked again, saying his name slower this time.

“Yes? What about it?” Jackson asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“So your name is…” Kimi started. “Jack…”

“Kimi, wait!” I tried to say, but the last word was already leaving her lips.

“…Frost?”

“Why is that always the first thing people think of?!” Jackson yelled, apparently turning into a completely different person. He started walking back and forth as he fumed. “Seriously, what is it? Is it the bright blue eyes? Maybe the fact that my hair is already turning white, because I can’t help that. It has been turning white from the time I was thirteen.”

“Maybe it is the fact you never get cold,” I said aloud without thinking, which was not a good move.

“I don’t want to hear that from you Mr. I-want-to-go-inside-every-time-a-cool-breeze-appears. It isn’t even that cold out; it is at least 33 degrees out, one whole degree above freezing,” he said, as if that one degree made all the difference. He was right about one thing; I wasn’t that big on the cold.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Kimi said, looking a bit mournful over her poor choice of words.

“It’s cool,” Jack said, the smile returning to his face and all the anger just floating away, as if taken away by the wind.

“That was fast,” I commented.

“Life’s too short to spend angry,” Jack said back. “I like to spend it going wherever the wind takes me.”

“Or wherever that hunk of metal takes you,” I said, pointing to his car. “What are you even doing here anyway?”

“Your mom didn’t tell you?” he asked and I shook my head. “Oh, well she told me you were rolling into town a few days ago. However, she had to run to the store because someone finished off something she needed for Thanksgiving dinner. So I volunteered to pick you up.”

“By any chance did she need to go pick up more stuffing?” I asked him with a stern gaze.

“Of course not,” he said, but I kept my gaze firm. His smile seemed to falter as I kept up my look. “I couldn’t help it, it smelled so good!”

“How much did you eat?!” Kimi asked, shocked by his confession.

“Well, there are about fifteen people over at your house right now so…enough to feed about twenty people,” he said, having his hand on his chin the entire time, as if deep in thought. This only seemed to shock Kimi more.

“But you’re so…” she said, but stopped as if trying to find the right word.

“Skinny? Ya, he’s always been like that,” I told her. “The guy can scarf down cheeseburgers like they’re Skittles. I swear one day he’s going to be about the size of a cow if he keeps eating like he does.”

“We both know that is never going to happen. Now hurry up and get in the car, I don’t want to miss Thanksgiving dinner,” Jack said as he ran back for the car. He turned the key and the car made a terrible choking noise, but started nonetheless.

“There is no way I’m getting in that thing,” I commented, but Kimi grabbed my hand and pulled me to the car.

“You constantly fight Elementals and Big Three demigods, but you’re scared of a rusty old car?” Kimi asked quietly.

“It isn’t the car, but the driver that scares me,” I commented, but I was forced in the passenger seat anyway and Kimi jumped in back.

“Alright everyone, buckle up,” Jack said and we headed off to my house.

On the drive, I introduced Jack to Kimi and told him that she was my cousin from my Great-Aunt Missy’s side of the family, as I didn’t want him asking too many questions. Every time he would ask about where I had been, I would change the subject or say that it was a type of boarding school. After awhile he stopped asking and we told Kimi how we met. We had known each other from the time we were in 2nd grade and had pretty much always gone to the same school. We stayed close right up until I mysteriously vanished last summer, something Jack constantly brought up. As punishment, I had to play a hundred matched with him in Super Smash Brothers and I had to use every character at least once. Before long we arrived outside my house and we piled out of the car. I pulled our bags from the trunk and as I did, I noticed a small rusted hole in the bottom. I could only imagine my bag falling through that hole and all my clothes scattered on Route 87.

“We’re here,” I told Kimi and we walked up to the front door. It felt weird, not having been here for so long and I almost rang the doorbell. Turns out I didn’t have to because a second later the door swung open and I found myself in the ironclad embrace of my mom’s arms.

“Welcome home Ash,” she said and before I could even reply, she grabbed Kimi’s hand and brought us both inside, with Jack happily following behind us.