We Check In To C.C.'s Spa and Resort

We Check In To C.C.'s Spa and Resort is the ninetieth chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on June 4th, 2019.
==Chapter==
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Chapter
 Annabeth's POV
I am so glad Toothless didn’t fall unconscious with Jasmine and Percy. It would’ve been really hard for me and Will to lift his heavy body out of the water, and Jasmine would’ve been pissed if we left him down there.
After I had opened the, now empty, thermos all the way, it blew the lifeboat me and Will were in away from Clarisse’s, and she was no longer in sight.
Toothless had launched himself out of the water twenty feet away from us with Jasmine in his paws. Once he noticed us waving and calling to get his attention, he flew toward us and laid Jasmine gently on the lifeboat between me and Will. I had him go scouting for Percy, and he happened to find him a couple minutes later, with his knapsack, bitten in half by Scylla’s teeth, and brought him back to the lifeboat.
Will checked on the both of them to make sure they still had a pulse and whatnot. While he was doing that, I inventoried what we had left from the wreckage: a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia, a couple of sailors’ shirts, and a bottle of Dr Pepper.
Since Toothless was in full-size form, and Jasmine was still unconscious, she couldn’t use her powers at the moment to turn him to his baby size so he wouldn’t put so much weight on the lifeboat, possibly capsizing it. He seemed to realize that himself, as he didn’t even attempt to land on it. Instead, he landed in the water, placed his front paws on one end of the lifeboat, and pushed us along into the Sea of Monsters.
It wasn’t long before Jasmine woke up. She wasn’t happy that her hair was wet, but she didn’t mind her whole body and clothes being wet since they kept her cool in the ocean heat. Cooler than Will and I were, anyway. Toothless swam over to the spot where she and Will were sitting together and licked her face. She grabbed out her phone and put her earbuds in to listen to her music, then she used her powers to turn Toothless into a baby and he rested on her lap.
So much for our pusher.
It was slightly windy, and we needed a way to navigate on the water since we no longer had a motor or engine. I decided to stitch the gray uniform fabric to make a sail.
I was tacking into the wind when Percy woke up, trying to sit up next to me, but he clutched his head like he was dizzy.
“Rest,” I told him. “You’re going to need it.”
“Tyson . . . ?”
I shook my head. “Percy, I’m really sorry.”
We were silent while the waves tossed up and down.
“He may have survived,” I said halfheartedly. “I mean, fire can’t kill him.”
He nodded, but he didn’t seem hopeful about it. I wasn’t sure if he could’ve lived through that explosion or not.
Jasmine sighed. “Most people don’t realize the things they have until the moment the lose them.”
“Jasmine,” Will and I both scolded.
“What? It’s true. Ever since Tyson was claimed as his brother, he’s treated him like shit, denying that he is his brother at all. Then we go on this quest, Tyson goes down into the boiling hot room to try and fix the ship, he tries to stop him for some reason, then he possibly gets killed in the process, and he has the nerve to act like he cared about him? Shame on you.”
“Jasmine—”
“No, she’s right,” Percy said. “Tyson gave his life for us, and all I could think about were the times I’d felt embarrassed by him and had denied that the two of us were related.”
Even Jasmine seemed to feel bad about what she said. She moved over beside Percy and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head against his in the comforting way that she does.
Waves lapped at the boat. I showed Percy and Jasmine some of the things I’d salvaged from the wreckage. Percy still had Hermes’s bottle of multivitamins, and of course, he had Riptide. The ballpoint pen always appeared back in his pocket no matter where he lost it.
We sailed for hours. Now that we were in the Sea of Monsters, the water glittered a more brilliant green, like Hydra acid. The wind smelled fresh and salty, but it carried a strange metallic scent, too—as if a thunderstorm were coming. Or something even more dangerous. I wasn’t sure where we were, but Percy’s bearings at sea, he knew which direction we needed to go. We were exactly one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by northwest of our destination. But with nothing but the ocean in either direction, that didn’t make me feel any less lost.
No matter which way we turned, the sun seemed to shine straight into our eyes. Toothless offered to be full grown and spread his wings over us as some kind of shade, but Jasmine didn’t want him doing that. She was considering making some kind of tent out of the rest of the sailors’ shirts we had, but it was probably going to block the sail from catching any wind, so she quickly shot down that idea. Instead, we shaded ourselves with the sail as best we could and took turns sipping from the Dr Pepper. And we talked about Percy’s latest dream of Grover.
Jasmine used her powers to take the dream from Percy’s mind and project it for all of us to watch without Percy needing to explain it:
----
Grover was sitting at his loom, desperately unraveling his wedding train, when the boulder door rolled aside and the Cyclops bellowed, “Aha!”
Grover yelped. “Dear! I didn’t—you were so quiet!”
“Unraveling!” Polyphemus roared. “So that’s the problem!”
“Oh, no. I—I wasn’t—”
“Come!” Polyphemus grabbed Grover around the waist and half carried, half dragged him through the tunnels of the cave. Grover struggled to keep his high heels on his hooves. His veil kept tilting on his head, threatening to come off.
The Cyclops pulled him into a warehouse-size cavern decorated with sheep junk. There was a wool-covered La-Z-Boy recliner and a wool-covered television set, crude bookshelves loaded with sheep collectibles—coffee mugs shaped like sheep faces, plaster figurines of sheep, sheep board games, and picture books and action figures. The floor was littered with piles of sheep bones, and other bones that didn’t look exactly like sheep—the bones of satyrs who’d come to the island looking for Pan.
Polyphemus set Grover down only long enough to move another huge boulder. Daylight streamed into the cave, and Grover whimpered with longing. Fresh air!
The Cyclops dragged him outside to a hilltop overlooking the most beautiful island I’d ever seen.
It was shaped kind of like a saddle cut in half by an ax. There were lush green hills on either side and a wide valley in the middle, split by a deep chasm that was spanned by a rope bridge. Beautiful streams rolled to the edge of the canyon and dropped off in rainbow-colored waterfalls. Parrots fluttered in the trees. Pink and purple flowers bloomed on the bushes. Hundreds of sheep grazed in the meadows, their wool glinting strangely like copper and silver coins.
And at the center of the island, right next to the rope bridge, was an enormous twisted oak tree with something glittering in its lowest bough.
The Golden Fleece.
Grover whimpered.
“Yes,” Polyphemus said proudly. “See over there? Fleece is the prize of my collection! Stole it from heroes long ago, and ever since—free food! Satyrs good eating! And now—”
Polyphemus scooped up a wicked set of bronze shears.
Grover yelped, but Polyphemus just picked up the nearest sheep like it was a stuffed animal and shaved off its wool. He handed a fluffy mass of it to Grover.
“Put that on the spinning wheel!” he said proudly. “Magic. Cannot be unraveled.”
“Oh . . . well . . .”
“Poor Honeypie!” Polyphemus grinned. “Bad weaver. Ha-ha! Not to worry. That thread will solve problem. Finish wedding train by tomorrow!”
“Isn’t that . . . thoughtful of you!”
“Hehe.”
“But—but, dear,” Grover gulped, “what if someone were to rescue—I mean attack this island?” Grover looked straight at Percy, and I knew he was asking for his benefit. “What would keep them from marching right up here to your cave?”
“Wifey scared! So cute! Not to worry! Polyphemus has state-of-the-art security system. Have to get through my pets.”
“Pets?”
Grover looked across the island, but there was nothing to see except sheep grazing peacefully in the meadows.
“And then,” Polyphemus growled, “they would have to get through me!”
He pounded his fist against the nearest rock, which cracked and split in half. “Now, come!” he shouted. “Back to the cave.”
Grover looked about ready to cry—so close to freedom, but so hopelessly far. Tears welled in his eyes as the boulder door rolled shut, sealing him once again in the stinky torchlit darkness of the Cyclops’s cave.
----
By my estimate, we had less than twenty-four hours to find Grover, assuming Percy’s dream was accurate, and assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus didn’t change his mind and try to marry Grover earlier.
“Yeah,” Percy said bitterly. “You can never trust a Cyclops.”
“Yep,” Jasmine agreed, just to rub it in.
I stared across the water. “I’m sorry, Percy. I was wrong about Tyson, okay? I wish I could tell him that.”
I didn’t dare look at him, or even Jasmine, though I did sneak a glance at them through the corner of my eye. They didn’t seem mad at me, at least not anymore now that I’ve admitted being wrong about Tyson, especially Jasmine. She looked at me with comfort, because she knew I feel bad about it. She’s the first person I didn’t care about being wrong to. No matter how hard I try not be, she manages to win every time without even trying.
But it didn’t really matter. I was still mad at myself. I let Tyson in camp to save Percy, then he went down into that boiler room to fix the ship so we could get through Charybdis and possibly died doing so. He was nothing but nice to me, even a little creepy at times when he wanted to touch my hair and hold my hand, and I was mean to him but he still saved me and my friends. I will always be grateful for that.
“Annabeth, Jasmine, what’s Chiron’s prophecy?” Percy asked.
Jasmine looked at me to explain. Of course, she did. She was the only one who didn’t care too much about telling him or anyone for that matter. But she always left me to explain.
I pursed my lips. “Percy, I shouldn’t—”
“I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn’t tell me. But you two didn’t promise, did you?”
“Of course not,” Jasmine said.
“Knowledge isn’t always good for you,” I said.
“Your mom is the wisdom goddess!” Percy reminded me.
Jasmine laughed.
“He’s got a point,” Will said.
“I know!” I said. “But every time heroes learn the future, they try to change it, and it never works.”
“Well, she’s right there,” Jasmine agreed.
“The gods are worried about something I’ll do when I get older,” Percy guessed. “Something when I turn sixteen.”
I twisted my Yankees cap in my hands. “Percy, we don’t know the full prophecy, but it warns about a half-blood child of the Big Three—the next one who lives to the age of sixteen. That’s the real reason Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades swore a pact after World War II not to have any more kids. The next child of the Big Three who reaches sixteen will be a dangerous weapon.”
“Why?”
“Because that hero will decide the fate of Olympus. He or she will make a decision that either saves the Age of the Gods, or destroys it.”
He let that sink in. He seemed to be turning pale a little bit. “That’s why Kronos didn’t kill me last summer.”
I nodded. “You could be very useful to him. If he can get you on his side, the gods will be in serious trouble.”
“But if it’s me in the prophecy—”
“We’ll know that if you survive three more years. That can be a long time for a half-blood. When Chiron first learned about Thalia, he assumed she was the one in the prophecy. That’s why he was so desperate to get her safely to camp. Then she went down fighting and got turned into a pine tree and none of us knew what to think. Until you came along.”
On our port side, a spiky green dorsal fin about fifteen feet long curled out of the water and disappeared.
“This kid in the prophecy . . . he or she couldn’t be like, a Cyclops?” Percy asked. “The Big Three have lots of monster children.”
I shook my head. “The Oracle said ‘half-blood.’ That always means half-human, half-god. There’s really nobody alive who it could be, except you.”
“Then why do the gods even let me live? It would be safer to kill me.”
“You’re right.”
“Yeah, it would be,” Jasmine agreed.
“Thanks a lot,” Percy said.
Jasmine smirked.
“Percy, I don’t know,” I said. “I guess some of the gods would like to kill you, but they’re probably afraid of offending Poseidon. Other gods . . . maybe they’re still watching you, trying to decide what kind of hero you’re going to be. You could be a weapon for their survival, after all. The real question is . . . what will you do in three years? What decision will you make?”
“Did the prophecy give any hints?”
Jasmine and I both hesitated.
I might’ve told him more, but just then a seagull swooped down out of nowhere and landed on our makeshift mast. I was startled as the bird dropped a small cluster of leaves into my lap.
“What the hell?” Jasmine exclaimed. “Are we on Noah’s Ark or something?”
“I think so,” Will said.”
“Land,” I said. “There’s land nearby!”
“Yep,” Jasmine agreed.
I sat up. Sure enough, there was a line of blue and brown in the distance. Another minute and I could make out an island with a small mountain in the center, a dazzling white collection of buildings, a beach dotted with palm trees, and a harbor filled with a strange assortment of boats.
The current was pulling our rowboat toward what looked like a tropical paradise.
----
“Welcome!” said the lady with the clipboard.
She looked like a flight attendant—blue business suit, perfect makeup, hair pulled back in a ponytail. She shook our hands as we stepped onto the dock. With the dazzling smile she gave us, you would’ve thought we’d just gotten off the Princess Andromeda rather than a banged-up rowboat.
Then again, our rowboat wasn’t the weirdest ship in port. Along with a bunch of pleasure yachts, there was a U.S Navy submarine, several dugout canoes, and an old-fashioned three-masted sailing ship. There was a helipad with a “Channel Five Fort Lauderdale” helicopter on it, and a short runway with a Learjet and a propeller plane that looked like a World War II fighter. Maybe they were replicas for tourists to look at our something.
“Is this your first time with us?” the clipboard lady inquired.
Jasmine, Percy, Will, and I exchanged looks.
“Umm . . .” I said.
“First—time—at—spa,” the lady said as she wrote on her clipboard. “Let’s see . . .”
She looked us up and down critically. “Mmm. An herbal wrap to start for the young ladies. And of course, a complete makeover for the young gentlemen.”
“A what?” Percy and Will asked.
She was too busy jotting down notes to answer.
“Right!” She said with a breezy smile. “Well, I’m sure C.C. will want to speak with you personally before the luau. Come, please.”
Now here’s the thing. Jasmine, Percy, Toothless and I were used to traps, and usually those traps looked good at first. So I expected the clipboard lady to turn into a snake or a demon, or something, any minute. But on the other hand, we’d been floating in a rowboat for most of the day. I was hot, tired, and hungry.
“I guess it couldn’t hurt,” I muttered.
“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Jasmine whispered.
She was probably right. Of course it could, but we followed the lady anyway.
The place was amazing. There was white marble and blue everywhere I looked. Terraces climbed up the side of the mountain, with swimming pools on every level, connected by waterslides and waterfalls and underwater tubes you could swim through. Fountains sprayed water into the air, forming impossible shapes, like flying eagles and galloping horses.
I took a glance at Percy and noticed he seemed a little distraught. 
“You okay?” I asked him. “You look pale.”
“I’m okay,” he replied, though he didn’t sound like it. “Just . . . let’s keep walking.”
But Jasmine decided to stop for a second and give him a hug, which he was surprised by. When she pulled away, she gave him her best comforting smile. He seemed to understand why and returned it. We continued on.
We passed all kinds of tame animals. A sea turtle napped in a stack of beach towels. A leopard stretched out asleep on the diving board. Jasmine, as usual, could not resist going up to every animal we passed and petting them, who returned her affection, of course. The resort guests—only young women, as far as I could see—lounged in deck chairs, drinking fruit smoothies or reading magazines while herbal gunk dried on their faces and manicurists in white uniforms did their nails.
As we headed up a staircase toward what looked like the main building, I heard a woman singing. Her voice drifted through the air like a lullaby. Her words were in some other language than Ancient Greek, but just as old—Minoan, maybe, or something like that. I could understand what she sang about—moonlight in the olive groves, the colors of the sunrise. And magic. Something about magic. Her voice seemed to lift me off the steps and carry me toward her.
We came into a big room where the whole front wall was windows. The back wall was covered in mirrors, so the room seemed to go on forever. There was a bunch of expensive-looking white furniture, and on a table in one corner was a large wire pet cage. The cage seemed out of place, but I didn’t think about it too much, because just then I saw the lady who’d been singing . . . and wow.
She sat at a loom the size of a big screen TV, her hands weaving colored thread back and forth with amazing skill. The tapestry shimmered like it was three dimensional—a waterfall scene so real I could see the water moving and clouds drifting across a fabric sky.
I caught my breath. “It’s beautiful.”
The woman turned. She was even prettier than her fabric. Her long dark hair was braided with threads of gold. She had piercing green eyes and she wore a silky black dress with shapes that seemed to move in the fabric: animal shadows, black upon black, like deer running through a forest at night.
“You appreciate weaving, my dear?” the woman asked.
“Oh, yes, ma’am!” I said. “My mother is—”
Jasmine hit my arm with her elbow to stop me, and I’m glad she did. I couldn’t just go around announcing that my mom was Athena, the goddess who invented the loom. Most people would lock me in a mental institution. Not that Jasmine would let that happen.
Our hostess just smiled. “You have good taste, my dear. I’m so glad you’ve come. My name is C.C.”
The animals in the corner cage started squealing. They must’ve been guinea pigs, from the sound of them. Jasmine was watching them. She didn’t seem to like seeing them stuck in the cage together, but even she knows that not all animals are as obedient like her family’s pets. Even guinea pigs.
We introduced ourselves to C.C. She seemed to look Percy and Will over with a twinge of disapproval, as if they’d failed some kind of test. Immediately, I felt bad for them. For some reason, I really wanted them to please this lady. Even Percy and Will seemed to feel the same way. But Jasmine, on the other hand, looked offended for their sakes.
“Oh, dear,” she sighed. “You do need my help.”
“Ma’am?” Percy asked.
C.C. called to the lady in the business suit. “Hylla, take Annabeth and Jasmine on a tour, will you? Show her what we have available. The clothing will need to change. And the hair, my goodness. We will do a full image consultation after I’ve spoken with this young gentleman.”
“But . . .” my voice sounded hurt. “What’s wrong with my hair?”
“Yeah?” Jasmine asked, running fingers through hers.
C.C. smiled benevolently. “My dears, you are lovely. Really! But you’re not showing off yourself or your talents at all. So much wasted potential!”
“Wasted?”
“Well, surely you’re not happy the way you are! My goodness, there’s not a single person who is. But don’t worry. We can improve anyone here at the spa. Hylla will show you what I mean. You, my dears, need to unlock your true self!”
I didn’t know what to say. Jasmine seemed confused. She looked at me with concern, waiting for me to give an answer, but she didn’t say anything herself.
“But . . . what about Percy and Will?” I asked.
“Oh, definitely,” C.C. said, giving them both a sad look. “Percy and Will require my personal attention. They need much more work than you girls.”
The boys looked sad that they had disappointed her. They wanted to do better, and so did I.
The guinea pigs squealed like they were hungry. Jasmine and Toothless looked at them with worry, then at me and the boys with the same look. She didn’t seem to care what C.C. thought like we did.
“Well . . .” I said. “I suppose . . .”
“Right this way, dears,” Hylla said. And Jasmine and I allowed ourselves to be led away into the waterfall-laced gardens of the spa.
----
The garden was beautiful. Every plant was luxurious and full of life. The waterfall behind it definitely gave it that oasis effect, causing it to appear more gorgeous.
Hylla led us through the resort to show us many different activities on the island. Some interested Jasmine more than me. I would say the one we agreed on the most was the library.
It was huge. Bigger than the library near our home. There were high ceilings with book shelves going all the way to the top and across, more all around the room, filled with all kinds of books that could keep us occupied for months, maybe even years, including areas to sit and enjoy a quiet reading. There were a few girls sitting on some of the sofas doing just that. But only females, no males. I have yet to see any males on this island.
Hylla took us into the spa and prepared us for our makeover. I still wasn’t too keen on the idea.
We entered a room that looked similar to a barber shop, with mirrors and a counter on one side of the room, sinks with chairs and a shower head on another, and those things used to dry your hair at the end of the walkway.
Sitting in one of the chairs at a counter was a slightly younger girl, possibly my age, twisting her hair in her fingers, looking bored. She turned her attention to us as soon as we entered the room. She stood up from her chair, brushed her hair behind her ear, and faced us, standing up straight, like she was a servant waiting for a command.
“New visitors?” she asked Hylla, referring to me, Jasmine, and Toothless.
“You guessed right,” Hylla responded. She turned toward us. “Annabeth, Jasmine, this is my sister Reyna. She will be assisting me with your makeovers.”
Reyna walked over to us and held out her hand. “Welcome to C.C.’s Spa and Resort.”
She definitely looked a lot like her sister, a younger version of her, with a sleeveless gown and the same perfect makeup and her hair all down on her right side. Huh. I wonder if I look anything like Cassandra did when she was my age . . .
Jasmine and I shook Reyna’s hand.
“Who’s that little guy?” she asked, gesturing to Toothless on Jasmine’s head.
“This is Toothless,” Jasmine introduced, having him jump down on her hand. “He’s very friendly. He’s actually a full-grown dragon, but I used my powers to make him his baby size so he can stay with me without needing to squeeze through everything.”
“Your powers . . . ?”
“Uh, yeah. They run in the family.” To prove it, she summoned fire to her hands, taking Reyna and Hylla both by surprise. “Long story short, my powers can pretty much do almost anything.”
“Including give you both makeovers?” Hylla asked.
“Well, yeah, they can.”
“Do you use it?” Hylla grabbed a few strands of Jasmine’s hair and checked them out, which Jasmine didn’t like.
“No.”
“Hmm.” She let go of the strands. “You should. Often. For both of you.”
She gave her a death glare, and so did Toothless. I didn’t like the comment either, but I saw it coming. I think Jasmine did too, but she still wanted to make it clear she didn’t like it.
“So, what are we giving them, exactly?” Reyna asked Hylla, getting back on subject.
She looked down at her clipboard. “Basically everything.”
“Fun. You going to give me some help?”
“Since there’s two of them, yes.”
“That would be most appreciated.”
Reyna grabbed a hair tie from one of the counters and started to put her hair up in a tight ponytail. Hylla put down her clipboard on a nearby table and washed her hands at a sink.
“You can take Annabeth and I’ll take care of Jasmine,” Hylla told Reyna.
Reyna turned toward us. “Do either of you two mind with that placement?”
“No,” I replied.
“Yes,” Jasmine said with a mad expression to prove it.
“Jasmine.”
“Annabeth, I don’t particularly like her.”
“That’s obvious enough, as you usually are.”
“Do you wish to switch for Reyna?” Hylla asked.
Jasmine looked at me. “Which one do you want?”
“I think for Hylla’s sake I should choose her, but I think I’m going to stick with Reyna,” I replied.
“Fine.”
“Come with me, Jasmine,” Hylla said.
“I’m assuming Toothless can come too?”
“Of course. Would he like a makeover as well?”
He vigorously shook his head.
“Agreed,” Jasmine said.
Hylla smiled. “Come with me.”
She took Jasmine and Toothless over to a counter and had her sat down in the chair in front of the mirror.
Reyna walked over to a basket full of towels. She grabbed one and nodded her head at me towards one of the sinks on the left side of the room with the wall separating it from the counters. She headed over to the sink second to the first one and I followed her.
She gestured for me to sit down on the chair in front with my back to the sink, so I did that. She grabbed all of my hair up in one of her hands—which was really weird having someone other than Jasmine touch my hair—and used her other hand to place the towel around my neck. She then gently pulled my shoulders back and laid me down on the chair, resting my neck on the edge of the sink and my hair in it. She turned on the water, using an extension like you’d see in some showers, and began rinsing my hair with warm water, then grabbed a bottle of shampoo next to the sink and squirted some on it.
The feeling, to generalize it, was really weird. No one, other than Jasmine, has ever touched, much less washed, my hair before. Honestly, it felt kind of nice having someone do it for me once.
“So I’m assuming she’s your friend and not your sister?” Reyna asked me, a clear way of trying to make the situation less uncomfortable, and probably a way to ease the silence.
“She’s my best friend, but former adopted sister as well,” I replied.
“Former adopted sister?”
“Yeah. Her parents adopted me when I was about eight, then I decided to patch things up with my father almost a year ago.”
“Did you and him not always get along?”
“Not really. Especially not when he married my step-mother, who disliked me even more.”
“Hmm. I can relate to that. The not-getting-along-with-father part, not the step-mom. He never married.”
“How bad did you and your father get along?”
Her expression hardened, guarded. She put a little bit too much pressure against my scalp as she continued to scrub my hair.
I recognized that look. Touchy subject. Alright, then.
“What made you think that Jasmine and I were sisters?” I asked. “We don’t really look anything alike.”
Reyna eased the pressure against my head. “I can see that. I didn’t really think you were, but you two kind of act like you are, like how me and my sister are to each other sometimes. You were adopted into her family, though, so I suppose you would act like sisters, and perhaps still do, even if you’re not really anymore.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
She finished scrubbing my hair with the shampoo and rinsed it off. She had me sit up, then grabbed the towel she placed around my neck to wrap it around my hair into a tight twist to soak up all of the water out it.
Reyna led me over to the hairdryers on the far wall and had me sit in one of the chairs and placed the hairdryer connected to the chair on my hair for about five minutes, letting it completely dry before leading me over to one of the counters with a mirror and having me sit down as she grabbed out a brush.
As she brushed the tangles out of my hair, I noticed she had some kind of jewelry on one of her fingers on her right hand. It was a silver ring with a torch and sword design.
“Is that a symbol for something?” I asked, gesturing to it.
She was confused by what I was asking until I pointed at her ring.
“Oh,” Reyna said, twisting it between her fingers for a moment. “Umm, yeah, it is.”
She didn’t say anything more than that, as it also seemed a bit personal to her, and I wasn’t going to push her. Instead, I let her finish the rest of my makeover.
She combed and braided my hair with gold. Next, to make it worst, even though I expected it since it was a makeover, she put makeup on me. I gotta admit, even when Jasmine would have me dress up with her, she never had me put on makeup. She doesn’t even put any on herself. In fact, most of the females in her family don’t wear makeup. They believe that you show your true beauty without it, but with it, you’re just covering it up.
“All done,” Reyna said. She put the makeup case away and stood up to turn my body in the chair to where it was facing the mirror. “Have a look.”
Staring at my reflection, I had to agree with Jasmine’s family on that assumption. I couldn’t quite recognize myself. I did think I looked pretty, but with the couple pimples I had on my face be covered up to make it look spotless like they were never there at all, I looked fake. But I guess there was nothing I could really do about it now.
“What do you think?” Reyna asked me.
I nodded, just to be polite as it wasn’t exactly a quick job for her since it had taken about thirty minutes nonstop.
“Are you ready to go put on your dress?”
“I don’t know,” I responded. “Am I?”
“I think so.”
“Let’s get this over with.”
Reyna laughed. “Come on.”
I stood up from my chair and followed Reyna toward the back end of the room, past the hairdryers, and through a door into the dressing room. It was designed like the kind of dressing room you’d expect for a place like this, with racks of clothes across one wall of the room, mostly, if not entirely, of dresses, with just as many shoes on the ground below them, and curtain-drawn changing rooms on the other side.
Reyna walked over to a rack of dresses and picked out a sleeveless silk dress like C.C.’s, only white. Then she bent down and picked up a pair of white short-heeled shoes to go with it. She hung the dress up in one of the changing rooms and placed the shoes on the ground below.
“Do you want me to help you get dressed?” Reyna asked me.
“I think I’m capable of doing that myself,” I replied.
She smiled. “I’m sure you are but have you ever tried getting dressed with your makeup and hair all done and not mess it up?”
“Well, no, but I think I can manage it on my own.”
“I hope so so I won’t have to fix it.”
“I promise I will be very careful.”
“Just make sure you unzip it, step into the dress, and pull it up. Do not put it on by lifting it over your head like you’re putting on a shirt.”
“I’ve put a dress on before.”
“Really? I would’ve bet this was your first time.”
“It might be if I didn’t have a best friend who just loves dresses.”
“Then I bet she can’t wait to put on her dress.”
“Me neither.”
I grabbed the curtain and closed it behind me. The changing room was spacious enough that I could move around it easily without feeling like I was suffocating.
I stared at the dress on its hanger for a minute. The fabric was pretty and soft to the touch. I peeled off my clothes, took the dress of its hanger and pulled the straps up to my shoulder. I reached my arms around to pull the zipper up my back as far as it would go and placed my feet inside the shoes to go with it.
The dress certainly fit comfortably and the shoes as well, but I still felt awkward wearing them. I pulled back the curtain to the changing room and walked out. Reyna was sitting on a chair in the seating area in the center of the room, but she stood up as soon as she saw me come out, and the edges of her mouth grew into a smile.
I didn’t let her say anything to me before I walked over to the large mirror at the end of the room to check my reflection.
Now that I had my full makeover, I could hardly recognize myself. I wasn’t going to offend Reyna with all the hard work she did, but it just wasn’t me at all. At least with Jasmine, she would let me do whatever I want with my hair and face as long as I wore a dress, which was just enough for me. But this . . . this was too much.
I heard a curtain of a changing room in the far back pull away and someone gasped, a gasp I recognized.
“Oh my God,” she said. “Annabeth, you look like a princess.”
I turned to find Jasmine in her full makeover, not noticing Hylla and Toothless sitting on the other side of the seating area from Reyna when I first walked out.
Jasmine looked exactly like me. Same dress, hair style, makeup, and shoes, except her dress was a light tan versus my white one.
I sighed. “Now I don’t like it so much.”
“Oh, come on.” Jasmine lifted her dress up a bit so she could easily stomp over to me in her tan shoes. “Would you much rather I tell you that you look like a whore? That your face looks like a rat’s nest and you’re so ugly-looking you should have a paper bag over your head with a frowny face on the front of it?”
“Well, of course not.”
“Then shut up and take the damn compliment without being such a bitch about it.”
I grinned. “Fine. Thank you. You look pretty too.”
“Why thank you. Now let’s see how cute we look.”
Jasmine looped her arm through mine and we stared into the mirror at our reflections together. I suppose we did look like a couple of matching princesses.
“I should summon us some tiaras,” Jasmine said.
“Real ones?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“Please don’t.”
She pouted. “Fine.”
The sisters, Reyna and Hylla as well as Toothless, laughed behind us.
We turned back around to face the sisters.
“Thank you both for these makeovers,” I told them.
“Yeah, they’re awesome,” Jasmine agreed.
“I’m sure our lady will agree as well,” Hylla said. “Speaking of whom, she should be awaiting for your return now.”
“But first . . .” Jasmine went over to her clothes and grabbed out her phone from her jeans pocket. “Let’s take a picture.”
Even the sisters didn’t seem to like that idea.
“Just go with it,” I told them. “She’s not going to let us leave until we do.”
Toothless shook his head in agreement.
“She’s right. I won’t,” Jasmine confirmed.
The sisters laughed.
“I guess that’ll be ok,” Reyna said.
We huddled up together, Jasmine and I in between the two sisters with Toothless on our shoulders. Jasmine held her phone out and took a selfie of the five of us.
“I hope you both wish to stay with us,” Reyna said. “I’ve enjoyed the time we spent getting you two fixed up, including you, Annabeth.”
Jasmine and I both raised our eyebrows.
“Why would we be staying with you?” Jasmine asked.
Reyna was about to respond, but Hylla answered instead.
“You two should go find Miss C.C. now,” she said. “Do you remember the way?”
“I think so,” I replied.
“I figured you would. You’re both seem very bright. I’m glad to have met you.”
“Yeah,” Jasmine said, not seeming to agree anymore. “Me too.”
We gathered up our clothes and stuffed them in our backpacks. We walked out of the makeover area and went back through the garden. Jasmine insisted we check the library one last time, and I had to agree as it was marvelous. She tried to have me take a couple books, promising to return them—which I had no doubt she would, as she’s excellent at keeping to a schedule—but I had a feeling we wouldn’t be returning to this island. Something just didn’t feel right about this place, and the comments Reyna and Hylla said made me even more positive about that.
----
 Jasmine’s POV
We made it back to the main building and headed towards the big room where we left C.C. and the boys.
The comment Reyna made about me and Annabeth staying still bothered me: I hope you both wish to stay with us.
Exactly why would we stay? I mean, I loved the makeover they gave us, but as much as I love to wear dresses I don’t love to wear them all the time, especially not gowns. You can’t move in them at all without worrying about tripping, much less, dance. Seriously, who the hell would like gowns? There’s nothing to like about them besides how beautiful they can look on you, which I suppose was the point of a makeover. Give me jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers any day. Then watch me kick your ass in them.
Something just wasn’t right about this place. I’ve suspected it since we first arrived here, especially with the way Annabeth and the boys all of sudden cared how they looked in front of C.C. (Annabeth did look so pretty now, but she was just fine before.) I sensed a strong kind of power from her and I didn’t like it.
We reached the big room where we had left the boys with C.C.
“Miss C.C.?” Annabeth called.
I heard some cursing, shuffling, and squealing up ahead. That made me even more suspicious as we entered the room.
We found C.C. standing in front of the pet cage in the corner, but there was no sign of the boys.
We looked around the room and frowned.
“Where’s Percy and Will?” Annabeth asked.
The animals in the pet cage behind her started to squeal like crazy.
C.C. smiled. “They’re having one of our treatments, my dear. Not to worry. You both look wonderful! What did you think of your tour?”
Annabeth’s eyes brightened. “Your library is amazing!”
“It really is!” I agreed with the same amount of enthusiasm.
“Yes, indeed,” C.C. said. “The best knowledge of the past three millennia. Anything you want to study, anything you want to be, my dears.”
“An architect?” Annabeth suggested.
“A professional dancer?” I suggested.
“Pah!” C.C. said. “You, my dears, have the markings of a sorceress. Like me.”
Annabeth took a step back. “A sorceress?”
I narrowed my eyes. That’s the power I was feeling from her.
“Yes, my dear.” C.C. held up a hand. A flame appeared in her palm and danced across her fingertips. “My mother is Hecate, the goddess of magic. I know a daughter of Athena when I see one. We are not so different, you and I. We both seek knowledge. We both admire greatness. Neither of us needs to stand in the shadow of men.”
“I—I don’t understand,” Annabeth said.
Toothless bumped his head against mine and made a noise to get my attention. The animals in the cage started squealed again. I turned my attention towards them and realized they were guinea pigs . . . and not just any guinea pigs: Don’t listen to her!
My eyes widened. I recognized their voices. What the hell did she do to them?!
“Stay with me,” C.C. was telling us. “Study with me. You can join our staff, become a sorceress, learn to bend others to your will. You will become immortal!”
“But—” Annabeth started.
“You are too intelligent, my dear,” C.C. said. “You know better than to trust that silly camp for heroes. How many great female half-blood heroes can you name?”
“Um, Atalanta, Amelia Earhart—”
“Bah! Men get all the glory.” C.C. closed her fist and extinguished the magic flame. “The only way to power for women is sorcery. Medea, Calypso, now there were powerful women! And me, or course. The greatest of all.”
“You . . . C.C. . . .”
“Circe,” I finished.
“Yes, my dear,” she confirmed.
Annabeth backed up, and Circe laughed. “You need not worry. I mean you no harm.”
“Bullshit,” I argued.
“What have you done to Percy and Will?” Annabeth asked.
“Only helped them realize their true form.”
Annabeth scanned the room.
I hit her shoulder with my elbow and nodded my head over to the pet cage. The boys were scratching at the bars, all the other guinea pigs crowding around them. Annabeth’s eyes went wide.
“Forget them,” Circe said. “Join me and learn the ways of sorcery.”
“But—”
“Your friends will be well cared for. They’ll be shipped to a wonderful new home on the mainland. The kindergartners will adore them. Meanwhile, you two will be wise and powerful. You will have all you ever wanted.”
Annabeth was still staring at the boys, but she had a dreamy expression on her face.
I had never seen her like this before. This wasn’t her thinking like this. It was Circe’s sorcery influencing her. The boys squealed and scratched, trying to warn her to snap out of it, but they were absolutely powerless. I, however, was not. The only reason it wasn’t affecting me was because of my powers, which were much more powerful than hers and keeping me in control of myself.
“Let me think about it,” Annabeth murmured. “Just . . . give us a minute alone. To say good-bye.”
I stared at her. What was this doing to her?!
“Of course, my dear,” Circe cooed. “One minute. Oh . . . and so you have absolute privacy . . .” She waved her hand and iron bars slammed down over the windows. She swept out of the room and I heard the locks on the door click shut behind her.
I turned on Annabeth and slapped her flat across her face that you could hear it from the other side of the room, knocking the dreamy look off of her face.
“Ow!” she screamed, rubbing the red spot on her cheek. “What was that for?”
“Snap out of it!” I yelled.
“I am! I have been the entire time! I was just playing along!”
“Oh . . . My bad. I’ll get some ice for that later.”
She shook her head while still rubbing her cheek. “Let’s just get the boys and get out of here.”
“Right.”
We rushed over to the pet cage.
“All right, which ones are you two?” Annabeth asked.
There were about five guinea pigs in the cage, including the boys, and they all squealed at us. Annabeth looked desperate, but it wasn’t a problem for me.
I opened the cage and picked up one with white and orange fur. “This is Percy.” I handed him to Annabeth and she took him in her arms. I put my hands back in and grabbed one with white and black fur. “And this is Will.”
I held him up with my hands around his tiny belly. “This reminds me that guinea pig from Bedtime Stories. Bugsy’s eyes were so big and creepy. At least the boys’ aren’t.” I said all that while squeezing Will’s tummy to see how big his eyes would bulge out.
“Are you trying to squeeze his eyes out?” Annabeth asked.
“Not on purpose.” I released my fingers from around Will and he gasped out and panted. “Sorry, Will.”
“How are we going to change them back?”
I rubbed my hand against Will’s fur. Now I know what it’s like holding the person you’re in a relationship with as an animal and petting them. “I might be able to turn them back with my powers.”
Annabeth scanned the room and spotted the cuff of one of the boy’s jeans sticking out from under the loom in the corner across from us. She handed me Percy and rushed over to rummage through the pockets.
“What are you looking for?” I asked.
To answer my question, she pulled out the bottle of Hermes multivitamins, which meant that the jeans she grabbed them out of were Percy’s, and started struggling with the cap.
I wasn’t sure what those vitamins were, and I doubt she did either, but I guess now was as good a time as any to figure it out.
She popped a lemon chewable in her mouth and threw me a grape to me on which Toothless caught and brought to my awaiting open mouth just as the door flew open and Circe came back in, flanked by two of her business-suited attendants.
“Well,” Circe sighed, “how fast a minute passes. What is your answer, my dears?”
“This,” Annabeth said, and she drew her bronze knife.
I leveled my feet and stood in a strong pose, looking as threatening as I could while holding two-boys-turned-into-guinea-pigs-no-thanks-to-this-bitch.
Circe stepped back, but her surprise quickly passed. She sneered. “Really, little girl, a knife against my magic? Is that wise?”
Circe looked back at her attendants, who smiled. They raised their hands as if preparing to cast a spell.
I hope she knew what she was doing. It was difficult for me to be able to defend us both while holding both Percy and Will. Toothless appeared ready to spring into action on my head at my command, as he always was.
“What will Annabeth and Jasmine’s makeover be?” Circe mused. “Something small and ill-tempered. I know . . . a shrew!”
Blue fire coiled from her fingers curling like serpents around us both.
I braced myself, feeling my powers prepare to fight against it, but they didn’t need to. Nothing happened. I was still me and Annabeth was still Annabeth, only angrier. She leaped forward and stuck the point of her knife against Circe’s neck. “How about turning me into a panther instead? One that has her claws at your throat!”
“How!” Circe yelped.
Annabeth held up Percy’s bottle of vitamins for the sorceress to see.
Circe howled in frustration. “Curse Hermes and his multivitamins! Those are such a fad! They do nothing for you.”
“Turn Percy and Will back to humans or else!” Annabeth said.
“I can’t!”
“Then you asked for it.”
Circe’s attendants stepped forward, but their mistress said, “Get back! They’re immune to magic until that cursed vitamin wears off.”
Annabeth dragged Circe over to the guinea pig cage with the top still off and poured the rest of the vitamins inside.
“No!” Circe screamed.
All the other guinea pigs scuttled out and checked out this new food. I grabbed a couple vitamins and put Percy and Will on the floor to feed them both their vitamins.
They gnawed at them until they started growing. The guinea pigs in the cage as well and then suddenly, bang! The cage exploded. Percy and Will were sitting on the floor, a human again—somehow back in their regular clothes, thank God—with six other guys who all looked disoriented, blinking and shaking wood shavings out of their hair.
“No!” Circe screamed. “You don’t understand! Those are the worst!”
One of the men stood up—a huge guy with a long tangled pitch-black beard and teeth the same color. He wore mismatched clothes of wool and leather, knee-length boots, and a floppy felt hat. The other men were dressed more simply—in breeches and stained white shirts. All of them were barefoot.
“Argggh!” bellowed the big man. “What’s the witch done t’me!”
“No!” Circe moaned.
Annabeth gasped. “I recognize you! Edward Teach, son of Ares?”
“Or, more famously known as—” I started.
“Aye, lass,” the big man growled. “Though most call me Blackbeard! And there’s the sorceress what captured us, lads. Run her through, and then I mean to find me a big bowl of celery! Arggggh!”
Circe screamed. She and her attendants ran from the room, chased by the pirates.
Annabeth sheathed her knife and glared at the boys.
“Thanks, girls,” Will told us.
“Yeah, uh, we’re really sorry—” 
Before Percy could apologize for them both being such idiots, Annabeth and I both tackled them both with a hug, but Annabeth pulled away just as quickly.
“I’m glad you’re not a guinea pig,” she said.
“Me, too,” Percy said, his face turning red.
“Yeah, thanks, but did you have to squeeze me?” Will asked.
I smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. I couldn’t help it. You reminded me of Bugsy who, despite his big eyes, was really cute.”
“I’d much rather be your cute human boyfriend than your cute guinea pig boyfriend.”
“Me too.” I gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Annabeth undid the golden braids in her hair and I did in mine as well.
“Come on, Seaweed Brain,” she said. “We have to get away while Circe’s distracted.”
We ran down the hillside through the terraces, past screaming spa workers and pirates ransacking the resort. Blackbeard’s men broke the tiki torches for the luau, threw herbal wraps into the swimming pool, and kicked over tables of sauna towels.
I almost felt bad letting the unruly pirates out, but I guessed they deserved something more entertaining than the exercise wheel after being cooped up in that stupid cage for three thousand centuries.
“Which ship?” Annabeth said as we reached the docks.
We looked around desperately. We couldn’t very well take our rowboat. We had to get off the island fast, but what else could we use? A sub? A fighter jet? I could totally pilot any of those things, but with a son of Poseidon traveling with us flying in Zeus’s domain while in the Sea of Monsters was probably not a good idea, and I was so not about to abandon Percy for no reason.
“There,” Percy said.
“Uh . . .” Will said
Annabeth blinked and I could see why. “But—”
“I can make it work,” Percy assured us.
“How?”
I could tell by the look on his face that he knew an old sailing vessel was the best bet for us but wasn’t sure how to explain it. Percy grabbed Annabeth’s hand (Oh my God! Fan girl moment!) and pulled her toward the three-mast ship. Will, Toothless, and I followed closely behind them. Painted on its prow was the name: Queen Anne’s Revenge.
“Argggh!” Blackbeard yelled somewhere behind us. “Those scalawags are a-boarding me vessel! Get ‘em, lads!”
Of course: Out of all the other boats in port Percy just had to choose Blackbeard’s ship. What are the odds? Oh! I know! Demigod unfortunateness. Though considering we just released him and his crew from three thousand years of guinea pig captivity, he owes us one.
“I’ve always wanted to be a scalawag,” I muttered. “But not like this!”
“We’re never get going in time!” Annabeth yelled as we climbed aboard.
I looked around at the hopeless maze of sail and ropes. The ship was in great condition for a three-hundred-year-old vessel, but it would still take a crew of fifty several hours to get underway. We didn’t have several hours. I could see the pirates running down the stairs, waving tiki torches and sticks of celery.
Percy closed his eyes and concentrated. “Mizzenmast!” he yelled.
The rest of us looked at him like he was nuts, but in the next second, the air was filled with whistling sounds of ropes being snapped taut, canvases unfurling, and wooden pulleys creaking.
Annabeth and I ducked as a cable flew over our heads and wrapped itself around the bowsprit.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“Percy, how . . .”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t even seem like he had an answer. But it appeared the ship responding to him as if it were part of his body. He willed the sails to rise as easily as if he were flexing his arm. He willed the rudder to turn.
The Queen Anne’s Revenge lurched away from the dock, and by the time the pirates arrived at the water’s edge, we were already underway, sailing into the Sea of Monsters.
----
I also almost forgot this chapter, and this one was my favorite to write during the Sea of Monsters era. And why? Because of Reyna, of course! I loved writing these scenes with her. I can't wait until she comes back, which I still haven't gotten to writing wise. And I think this may also be the longest of this story so far.
Please review here.
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==Character Appearances==
===Main Characters===
*Annabeth Chase
*Jasmine Saturday
*Percy Jackson
*Will Solace
===Minor Characters===
*Reyna
*Hylla
*Blackbeard
===Pets===
*Toothless
===Enemies===
*Circe
==Trivia==
Category:Chapters
Category:The Gift of a Best Friend chapters
Category:Chapters based on a chapter in the book series
Category:Chapters in Annabeth's POV
Category:Chapters in Jasmine's POV