The Lightning Thief

sharpshooters. He was about thirteen, I guess, but his clothes were weird. I thought he was some Elvis impersonator’s son. He wore bell-bottom jeans and a red T-shirt with black piping, and his hair was permed and gelled like a New Jersey girl’s on homecoming night.
    We played a game of sharpshooters together and he said, “Groovy, man. Been here two weeks, and the games keep getting better and better.”
    Groovy?
    Later, while we were talking, I said something was “sick,” and he looked at me kind of startled, as if he’d never heard the word used that way before.
    He said his name was Darrin, but as soon as I started asking him questions he got bored with me and started to go back to the computer screen.
    I said, “Hey, Darrin?”
    “What?”
    “What year is it?”
    He frowned at me. “In the game?”
    “No. In real life.”
    He had to think about it. “1977.”
    “No,” I said, getting a little scared. “Really.”
    “Hey, man. Bad vibes. I got a game happening.”
    After that he totally ignored me.
    I started talking to people, and I found it wasn’t easy. They were glued to the TV screen, or the video game, or their food, or whatever. I found a guy who told me it was 1985. Another guy told me it was 1993. They all claimed they hadn’t been in here very long, a few days, a few weeks at most. They didn’t really know and they didn’t care.
    Then it occurred to me: how long had I been here? It seemed like only a couple of hours, but was it?
    I tried to remember why we were here. We were going to Los Angeles. We were supposed to find the entrance to the Underworld. My mother . . . for a scary second, I had trouble remembering her name. Sally. Sally Jackson. I had to find her. I had to stop Hades from causing World War III.
    I found Annabeth still building her city.
    “Come on,” I told her. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
    No response.
    I shook her. “Annabeth?”
    She looked up, annoyed. “What?”
    “We need to leave.”
    “Leave? What are you talking about? I’ve just got the towers—”
    “This place is a trap.”
    She didn’t respond until I shook her again. “What?”
    “Listen. The Underworld. Our quest!”
    “Oh, come on, Percy. Just a few more minutes.”
    “Annabeth, there are people here from 1977. Kids who have never aged. You check in, and you stay forever.”
    “So?” she asked. “Can you imagine a better place?”
    I grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from the game.
    “Hey!” She screamed and hit me, but nobody else even bothered looking at us. They were too busy.
    I made her look directly in my eyes. I said, “Spiders. Large, hairy spiders.”
    That jarred her. Her vision cleared. “Oh my gods,” she said. “How long have we—”
    “I don’t know, but we’ve got to find Grover.”
    We went searching, and found him still playing Virtual Deer Hunter.
    “Grover!” we both shouted.
    He said, “Die, human! Die, silly polluting nasty person!”
    “Grover!”
    He turned the plastic gun on me and started clicking, as if I were just another image from the screen.
    I looked at Annabeth, and together we took Grover by the arms and dragged him away. His flying shoes sprang to life and started tugging his legs in the other direction as he shouted, “No! I just got to a new level! No!”
    The Lotus bellhop hurried up to us. “Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?”
    “We’re leaving,” I told him.
    “Such a shame,” he said, and I got the feeling that he really meant it, that we’d be breaking his heart if we went. “We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members.”
    He held out the cards, and I wanted one. I knew that if I took one, I’d never leave. I’d stay here, happy forever, playing games forever, and soon I’d forget my mom, and my quest, and maybe even my own name. I’d be playing virtual rifleman with groovy Disco Darrin forever.
    Grover reached for the card, but Annabeth yanked back his arm and said, “No, thanks.”
    We walked toward the door, and as we did, the smell of the food and the sounds of the games seemed to get more and more inviting. I thought about our room upstairs. We could just stay the night, sleep in a real bed for once. . . .
    Then we burst through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk. It felt like afternoon, about the same time of day we’d gone into the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had completely changed. It was stormy, with heat