Caffé Latte

Chapter 14 and Epilogue in Oh, For the Love of Coffee!
Due to Natalie’s brilliance, we were now on a Greyhound, headed home with full stomachs, confident that we were far enough east that no one would suspect us. We switched buses a couple of times, buying food here and there. Finally we took a taxi to Half-Blood Hill.

Maria Bell from Apollo saw us first. “Hey! Kassi and everyone are back!” she yelled to the camp. Word spread and soon we were swamped with campers bombarding us with questions. Seth, Rebecca, Natalie, Emma, and I all looked at each other. A tacit agreement was formed to not reveal much about the quest. We skirted around probing questions by using small details to change the direction of the conversation.

Then Chiron came up. “Kassi, Natalie, Seth, Rebecca, Emma, can I talk to you?” He stared walking towards the Big House and we followed, all looking confused and a little nervous. We got inside and he turned to us, looking angry. “I’m very disappointed in you Seth! You left camp without permission. That’s very serious and can’t be over-…..”

“Actually, it’s my fault.” I said, hoping to get him out of trouble. Everyone looked at me confusion on their faces. Only Natalie looked unsurprised. I just hoped the others didn’t give me away. “I asked him to come along but I already had four people and I thought that if I brought too many you would get mad so I asked if he could just sneak out of camp and meet us at the train station.”

“You didn’t need to do that. I would have understood.”

“I know,” I said with by best I was just innocent and scared face, “I guess I was just nervous for the quest and it got into my head, and then with Phobos and all.”

“Phobos?” Chiron asked.

“Yeah…” I said, happy that I had successfully changed the subject. We told him everything about the quest, but then edited it to fit my story. Also, when Natalie was telling about our trip to Othello, she didn’t mention anything about the Hunter, of course, having no recollection of it. I didn’t say anything about it. That was for me only, but Rebecca must have seen something on my face because she looked at me concernedly during that part.

“Well,” he said after we had finished, “that’s a bit worse than we had thought, but you all pulled through and deserve rest. Why don’t you go back to your cabins and unpack.”

A chance to unpack and unwind sounded absolutely wonderful. We left the Big House and made our way towards the cabins. With a “see you later” Rebecca and Emma walked to their cabins while Natalie, Seth and I entered the Athena one. As I unpacked, my thoughts dwelled on the quest. It had turned out great. Starbucks was Phobos free and everything was safe and sound. I knew that all of us would be even better friends. I mean, risking your life with four other people tends to strengthen that. Even Natalie, Seth and I were closer. A newer, stronger, sense of family and companionship was present, and I knew we would always be really close.

Epilogue
It was the last day of school, and the four friends were meeting up to travel to camp together. “Oh my gods!” they squealed as they hugged.

“Let’s go get coffees,” Rebecca joked.

“I already have one,” said Emma seriously, pointing to the cup in her hand. It was Seattle’s Best.

“I can’t believe you’re actually drinking coffee from Seattle, Emma,” said Kassi. “That city brings back bad memories. I get Biggby’s now.” Kassi took a sip of her frozen hot chocolate.

“Hey!” Natalie interrupted. “That’s where I used to live, and I love Seattle! And anyways Biggby’s stands for Big B’s, as in Boreas, the north wind. I thought everyone knew that.” Kassi dropped her cup.

“You guys, Starbucks is totally safe,” Rebecca reasoned. “We rid that place of monsters and gods. It’s run totally by mortals now.”

The three other girls thought about that. Kassi looked troubled. “Boreas means ‘Devourer’ in Greek, shouldn’t we—”

“Uh-uh. No way are we going to make any more trouble for ourselves. We can send someone else.”

“But—”

“No.” Natalie said adamantly.

“Fine,” Kassi grumbled.

Emma cleared her throat. “I have to-”

“No!” Natalie cried.

“Go to the bathroom,” Emma finished.

THE END!!! Be sure to look for the sequel! Back to Chapter 13: Salted Caramel MochaBack to Oh, For the Love of Coffee!