~ ☼ ~

45 minutes out from D.C., and I still hadn't fallen asleep.

I couldn't tell if it was the growl of the engine, or the sound of Alec humming gently beside me, or maybe just the fact that I was in an unfamiliar truck in an unfamiliar part of Virginia with two kids who were just barely familiar to me, but I couldn't get my eyes to stay shut.

I propped myself up from the disheveled position I'd been sitting in, glancing to the backseat to make sure Riley was still sound asleep. When we'd all boarded the truck, Alec had been delighted to find the drachmas Demeter promised us waiting in the cup holder; he'd turned to tell our sister, but she was already too drowsy to form a coherent response. Now, she was laying across the back row, facing the seats, seemingly content with her surroundings (unlike me).

Outside, we were passing over a river, and the moon was high in the sky. Inside, the dusty cloth seats were doing nothing for my sun-burnt, bug-bitten skin, and the cold temperature of the cab was the closest thing I had to aloe vera.

"Can't sleep?" Alec asked softly from beside me. "You seemed exhausted before."

"I thought I was. But I don't know, I just can't fall asleep."

I shifted to look at him. He looked positively dead, even as he alertly scanned the roadways and kept his hands firm on the wheel. From the way his shoulders were slumping, his Camp Half-Blood shirt folding along with them, I could tell he was just as fruitlessly tired as me.

Still, ever helpful, he advised me, "Well, many people suffer from sleep issues after a concussion, especially at night."

I blinked. Concussion?! How did I forget I had a concussion?!

"Shoot," I breathed. "I honestly forgot I had a concussion."

Alec chuckled gently. "I figured. Are you just used to having a near-constant headache, or something?"

"I guess so. I'm always blasting music. I already think I might have mild tinnitus."

With the thought of music, my eyes flickered longingly towards the dashboard radio. The only light it emitted at the moment was the dim time display, reading 11:20 pm.

I frowned. In summers previous, I've always stayed up this late, though I was usually cuddled up in bed, surfing through MySpace and listening to Fall Out Boy as my dog slept peacefully beside me. Life seemed so much more boring then. Little did I know the trouble 2006 would bring me.

Alec noticed my stare, and said, "You can turn it on if you want. Maybe it'll help you sleep."

"What about Riley?"

"She'll be fine. She sleeps through everything-" he looked at Riley for a moment in the rearview mirror - "Mostly. Sometimes she'll wake up with a bad feeling or a prophetic dream or something, in order to stop something bad right before it happens. But music won't wake her."

I reached up and pressed the button to turn on the radio. Muffled static came out first, so I began the long process of flipping through every station as I asked, "Is she actually, really psychic? Or does she just think she is?"

"We don't know. She gets gut feelings about things, but sometimes they're wrong. She doesn't have straight up visions, but there's something there."

He sighed, and seeing that as the end of the conversation, I focused on spinning the dial. I heard static, a car commercial, more static, a car dealership commercial, and then finally some semblance of music.

A Natasha Bedingfield song - too perky. A Johnny Cash song - too country. A Blue Öyster Cult song -

"Wait, go back!" Alec interrupted my analysis.

I landed on the Johnny Cash song - per his request. When I heard the lyrics, I crinkled my nose in true emo disgust.

"You Are My Sunshine? That's so sappy."

Alec feigned offense with a scoff. "I like it. It's sweet, and you can't deny The Man In Black." With that, he began to hum along to the song, somewhat off-key.

"Hmph." Jokingly, I retorted, "You probably just like it because it mentions sunshine, and you have weird light powers or something."

"Hey now, you're the one who hypnotizes people with music. That's weirder, in my opinion."

Side-eyeing him, I resisted the smile pressing at my lips. "Uh-huh, whatever. So I can play a mean violin. You're just like... a mini version of Apollo himself."

Suddenly, the light, joking atmosphere vanished. Alec scowled, his offense genuine this time - and more subtle as he pursed his lips and turned his eyes away from me, with only a "Hm." in reply. Even though Cash kept crooning away on the radio, the car suddenly felt too quiet.

I kept forgetting how much distaste Alec had for our father. It was more subdued at first, but as the quest went on, his frustration was becoming more and more apparent. It was probably because of his mother, some deep-buried trauma that he couldn't let go of.

Maybe I can get some sleep now, I thought to myself, not deigning to deal with Alec's back-and-forth moodiness that night. But as I closed my eyes, tossing and turning, I felt weird. I don't have much experience with close friendships, but I remembered reading an article in TigerBeat that said you should never end a interaction on a bad note. Or, as adults would say, never go to bed angry.

The weird feeling I had got worse, and to my irritation, I realized I wanted to talk to him. If this was a normal car ride, I would just run way from the issue and go to sleep. But Alec had always been an enigma to me - always meaning for the past 4 days - and this could've been my once chance to, y'know, bond with him. That's what friends do, right?

Sighing, I sat back up, and waited for him to say something. He ignored me. So, sighing again, I started: "Hey, I'm sorry for comparing you to Apollo. I know you're not his biggest fan."

"That's one way to put it," he said with a chuckle, and I couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or he'd already forgiven me.

"Like, if it makes you feel better, I'm sure you would never send your kids tumbling through the sky just so you can chase after your immortal rival on a motorcycle."

"Wow. Thanks."

Okay, definitely sarcastic.

The air was tight with awkwardness, and for a moment, I wished Riley would wake up and use her magical calmness and sweet accent to lighten the mood. But, just as Alec had told me, nothing woke her up. Not the radio, not us talking, not the rough road we were driving over. I swear, she could sleep through the sound of a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant!

(Yes, I just referenced a freaking Christmas movie. Like I said, I do nothing but eat pretzels and watch TV.)

"Can I ask why you don't like him?" I asked hesitantly, my voice slowing down on the last few words as I walked on metaphorical thin ice. 

Alec glared at me. "AJ, you were there when we almost died, right?"

There was a certain attitude in his voice, the type that gets me grounded if I use it against my parents. I recoiled just a tad, and my brother must've noticed, because he sighed. "Sorry if I sound snappish. I just- I don't like talking about the gods. Or even thinking about them. It just makes me think of my mom. And how we're all just walking on the edge of death."

"Gods, that's deep." All jokes aside, I added,  "But understandable, I guess. If I went through what you went through, I'd probably be hyper-aware of danger too."

I gave him a sympathetic look. He didn't smile back, but his expression did soften, and he began to drum his fingers against the steering wheel to the beat of You Are My Sunshine. With another sigh, his eyes watching the road warily, he mused, "There's just so much happening, and the godly world is on the brink of war, and... I don't know. When I'm at Camp, I feel so calm and peaceful, but when I leave, everything begins to remind me of my mom again. And I become bitter."

Suddenly, I felt bad for saying yes to this quest. Of course, Alec didn't have to come on if he didn't want to, but when Apollo invited us, the only reason he accepted was to make sure Riley and I didn't die. It's because of me that any of us are here, that I'm in a truck in Virginia listening to Johnny Cash like it's no big deal.

On the radio, the song came to a sweet end, and a DJ with a particularly annoying voice came on with the message, "You're listening to WMZQ, D.C.'s PREMIERE Country Radio Station!"

Impulsively, I pressed the button to turn the radio off, and it was quiet again (or, as quiet as it could be). "Maybe we shouldn't have come on this quest," I said. "Maybe we should just turn back now and go home and pick strawberries all summer."

"You're right that we shouldn't have come, but we're not going home, Runaway." Alec shook his head. "We're going to the Outer Banks and we're gonna finish this. I'm not letting you escape this one. Also if you want to have energy to survive tomorrow, you should probably get some sleep now, seriously."

"Dang it, Sunshine. You're always ruining my fun."

My brother chuckled, and I smiled, feeling better about our strange new friendship. He may be remarkably moody, but I knew that he has a good heart, I tell myself. Even if he has bad taste in music.

After a moment, Alec looked at me, a smile returning to his golden brown eyes. "Look, can we just promise from now on not to talk about our parents in any capacity? I may be bitter, but that doesn't mean I have to be miserable constantly."

"I'd like that," I replied.

And so, I left Alec to his driving. Curling back up into a ball against the seat, I stared out the window at the oaks blurring together like an abstract painting. My skin was still sun-burnt and bug-bitten, and I had no idea if I'd actually get any sleep tonight. But I closed my eyes anyway, hoping that by the morning, we'd be in the Outer Banks, and there'd only be one battle left at the end of everything.

Eventually, I drifted off, my sleep messy and half-wrong. It only got worse when I began to dream...

~ ☼ ~

A/N: WHY IS THIS BOOK TAKING ME 4 YEARS TO FINISH?!

Uh, anyway, if anybody is still reading this... please vote and comment! I'd really appreciate it!