I'm Almost There

VIII I'm Almost There

Victoria Millers

I woke up early today. Wow, early in the morning and I'm already having butterflies. Normally, I’d just wake up and have a bad mood, but this is different. The only thing that’ll get this off my mind. Latte. So I headed down to the café and order a non-fat latte with extra sugar to keep me boosted.

I sat down a table facing the sunrise and sipped every moment that happened to me before all of this.

My dad met Demeter, she bore a girl, I’m the girl, I grew up pretty, and I went to school my first report was-

You know what, that was way before. Hmm, maybe before like before-last-week kind of before not before-fourteen-years-ago before but the one like-Ah, you get it.

I concentrated hard and everything was blurry once and I saw myself from where I started.

It was dark and foggy. We were all tired today. When we found the spot, we set camp and rested for a while. I was with my friends in a tent they were all playing Chess & Checkers while I sat down in a corner reading a sports car magazine I got from Mt. Olympus today. As I turned the page of the magazine, my eyes widened. It was what I’ve been waiting for in my entire immortal life (well I just got here so immortal’s not that much yet)! I couldn’t wait any longer, so I got up and walked to the main tent with Lady Artemis and Thalia. Just as I opened the curtain of our tent, Rhea, the assistant of Thalia, was in front of me.

“I’ve come here to tell you that Lady Artemis has wanted your presence, Torie,” she said.

“Coincidentally, I was going to Lady Artemis for something,” I replied.

She grinned and giggled while saying, “Well I think this is much more than your silly news about the squirrel.”

I glared at her for a while. She knew what happened the other night. If you must know, we were hunting, I wasn’t watching my step, I tripped and I squished a squirrel. Poor squirrel. She stopped giggling when I glared and cleared her throat. She escorted me to the main tent and I saw what I needed to see. It was Lady Artemis and Thalia talking and discussing something I hoped was about what I saw.

Thalia offered me a seat and I took it. Gosh, I was scared for a time. There was a really awkward silence.

“So,” Thalia broke the silence, “Anything to say, Torie?”

I showed her and Lady Artemis the magazine I was holding and turned it to page 15.

“Well, I-I was scanning through the magazine and s-saw this,” I stammered a little.

“Ah, yes. The Grand Prix to be held next week,” Lady Artemis agreed somehow.

Thalia and Lady Artemis exchanged glances and nodded. I was so confused right now.

“What’s all this about? Am I in trouble or something? ‘Cause I am not responsible for what happened to that squirrel,” I raised my hands.

Ohkay, I think I shouldn’t have said that.

“What squirrel?” Thalia asked.

“Nevermind. So what’s this about?”

“We were just talking about this,” Lady Artemis replied.

I moved forward looking interesting because I think I know what she knows she’s gonna say.

Lady Artemis looked at Thalia and then to me, “We decided to enter the contest and-” I squealed and hugged Artemis and Thalia (Sorry, I couldn’t handle it anymore) and repeated, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! I will! I won’t let you down-” I paused for a moment and realized what I just said.

“Oh my gods, I-I-I am s-so s-sorr-ry, Lady Artemis. I-I-I was-” I tried apologizing but I stammered so hard.

“S’okay, Torie. We knew you’d get excited about this,” Thalia said.

“’This’ is about the race, right?”

“Yes. Apparently so,” Lady Artemis replied, “We were planning on letting Thalia race for us, Hunters, but she has lacked experience on driving.”

“Last time I drove, I burned New England,” Thalia mentioned.

“So we can’t join the race anymore?” I asked.

“We want you to join for us,” Thalia said.

My eyes widened.

“Me,” I said.

“Yes, you. Your past experience of driving, and the need for ultimate speed, has made it our advantage and we want you to race for us,” Lady Artemis said.

“But I can’t race. Not without a car. My last car broke down because I drove too fast.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. We got that covered,” Thalia assured me and grinned.

I raised an eyebrow at her. Then, I heard a roar of a car behind the curtain.

“What’s that?” I followed the noise and opened the curtain hiding it.

It was a car, but not just any kind of car.

“Ahhhhh!” I screamed that was sure enough that the squirrel nearby heard and jumped out.

The hunters inside the tents came out and were all behind me by a few paces. I slowly turned around with tears flowing through my cheeks and a very big smile. I ran to Lady Artemis and hugged her.

“Thank you, my lady!” I said gleefully.

I wiped the tears out of my face and asked Thalia excitedly, “So, how do I drive this thing?”

“This is a convertible shiny & reflective silver Ferrari-looking sports car that can blind people (for only a few long seconds-I wished it was longer-) if the light-sunlight or moonlight- hits it. It has road spikes-proof tires, to prevent any mishaps with road spike traps by, I think, the Hermes racers. The hood's symbol is a deer rather than a horse for Lady Artemis. The car shoots silver arrows and other things I’ll tell you later. It also has a built-in upgraded Race Navigating System and some stuff I’ll also tell you later. If going airborne, airplane wings will appear under the front-seat doors and the built-in jet-engine will start up, I just hope Zeus won’t blast you in the air-”

Did she say blast?!

“My father will not blast her, lieutenant,” Artemis interrupted.

Phew! I really thought he would- wait, was that sarcasm?

“Right, continuing. If going waterborne, the whole car will transform into a speedboat with the same features (except for the car part) and with a fog machine equipped we got some from a rock concert. The seats are made out of wolf-skin and cotton while the steering wheel is in the shape of a moon crescent and has Lady Artemis' Greek name engraved to it.” Thalia finished.

I hopped in the car and felt the steering wheel and the gear thing and my racing senses came back to me. I looked at them gave a grin.

“I won’t let you down, my lady,” I promised, “Oooh! What does this thing do?”

“No, no, no, no!” Thalia and Artemis said in unison, but they were too late. When I pressed the green button with a fire icon in it, everything was a blur and I realized that I was going really fast. I looked back and I saw a jet-engine. Oh gods, I looked to my front and I was about to hit a really big tree. I steered left and I missed it –luckily. I steered more left and I was going back to where the camp was. I was so relieved that the jet-engine died down just in time for me to stop. They were all looking at me. My hair was really messed up and my eyes were filled with craziness.

I fixed my hair and said in realization, “Ohh... The green button was a jet-engine... I should probably not touch anything before the race.”

“Great, now you have,” Thalia said and tapped the side mirror that said “2”,”Two more times to do the jet-engine.”

“Oops. Sorry,” I apologized.

Thalia nodded and talked to Lady Artemis inside the tent while I was sitting down inside the cool car. They were taking too long, I was getting worried. After a few more minutes, they went out holding my backpack that looked full. Hmm, that’s strange. I don’t remember having loads of things inside my backpack before. Artemis gave me my backpack and Thalia was riding shotgun.

“Uh, what’s happening?” I asked Thalia.

“I’m escorting you to Camp Jupiter. Not my favorite place in the world, but they’ve got awesome cheeseburgers,” Thalia answered.

"Be safe, Victoria. Don’t talk to boys and shoot them if you have to,” Artemis reminded me.

“Okay. I won’t let all of you down,” I said.

Lady Artemis gave her blessing to me in Greek and I drove off to the highway down to Camp Jupiter.

“Demigod Grand Prix, here we come!” Thalia said.

I shifted the gear pressed on the accelerator and turned on the radio that was playing “One Way or Another” by One Direction. Thalia seemed to singalong with me.

My vision went blurry again and I found myself still sitting in a café and it was the day was already so bright. I checked my watch while I drank my latte and I almost choked.

 |9:55|

I drank the last of my latte, wished for the best and ran to the race.

“I'm almost there,” I told myself.