A.J

"What do you think we are?" I ask "Some sort of full fledged army?"

Jack clenches his fist tighter, his knuckles turning white. "We're better than you think AJ.You break in the door, I grab everything give it to Jamaal and he runs." He leans on the table," You know I'm just trying to help the group AJ, I trying to help John,"

Of course he brings my little brother into this. John is only four, and very small. My mom had him after dad left, so he's not a demigod.

"Let's not talk about John," I snarl, but Jack doesn't flinch. Most people would at least start to be more reasonable because most of the time I am very intimidating, being a big five foot six dark-skinned boy. But being as stubborn and self-righteous as Jack, my "scary face" as John calls it doesn't work.

I'll give him that he sometimes scares me too being a son of Ares. Jack can be described as a full on half-Mexican gangster, pure muscle and pretty much fully grown. He is also stronger than he looks, and he looks like a body builder. He always wears a tank top exposing his bulging biceps with his dirty jeans.

"We have to bring everyone into this AJ. Jamaal, Suzie, Stan and John. This is 'bout all of them." Jack says "You know I just want to help the group,"

"Wait what's going on?" Stan walks in the room. His blond head is buzzed and his leather jacket matches his dirty jeans. He has a sharp nose with rather chubbier cheeks.

Both Jack and I stare at him. He always comes in and tries to take control of the situation and make the decision himself. Tries, and epically fails. But don't get me wrong he's an alright guy.

"Never mind," He walks out.

"Wait" I call to him. "Where is Jamaal?"

"Probably at the public pool with his 'babe' again," His head pokes back in.

"Go get him." I say. Most of the time everyone listens to me... or Jack.

"Alright," Stan says and runs off. I walk out and look at his dust trail. I stand in our little abandoned storage garage camp, which we call the stead. Above the buildings around us I can see the mountains inthe distance. The ground is so dusty that the slightest breeze sends up a dustdevil, so our clothes always have a layer of dirt coating our rag-like clothes.

I do know Jack just wants the best for all of us, even though he can be a jerk and many other things. We aren't the strongest demigods or the most favored, but we all know how to get through.

"AJ we gotta do this man," Jack follows me out.

"Jack," I say. "You obviously don't see the risks you're running."

Jack frowns and spits, a ball of saliva hurtling into the dust. "And you know I'm a risk taker, "

"But I'm conservative." I say "And the only other sorta-kinda risk taker is Stan, so even if you convince me no one else will agree,"

Jack just shakes his head. "AJ what else are we going to do. We can't beg, we can't scavenge anymore the homeless shelter hates us, no money we can't do nothing else!"

I pause, listening to the wind blow around the garages. "Then I guess we'll do it." I tell how him, because this isn't coming out of nowhere, he is right there isn't any other way to get food. We have to stock up before we can get a shipment from Lance and the others, which is in a month. We won't survive a month, "But we have to be careful as heck. I do want us going anywhere near the store we rob again. Suzie and John aren't coming either. We'll go more down South into the other valley and do there, and then it will be not allowed to cross the prison."

Jack stays silent, thinking about my conditions. "Sounds good."

》》》

The sun glows orange and red as I call out "let's go!" I pick up my empty bag for the supplies and so does everyone else. "You sure you gonna be safe?" I say to Suzie.

"Me and John will make it AJ, don't worry," Her soft hazel eyes look at me, brwn and red hair framing her pretty dark face.

One of the best things about Suzie is that she is sweeter and more caring than anybody I've ever known. Gods praise her, I'm glad she's with us.

"K Suzie, see ya" I say, pulling her into a hug, and whenever I do, I know she's the perfect person to take care of John. "I trust you."

And then we leave.

I watch my own feet stepping on the pavement as we walk South. Shadows gloom over the mountain as the sky turns a dark purple, a little strip of red on the horizon. I think about what John and Suzie must be doing right now. Probably playing a game of tic tac toe in the dirt or playing memory, just like they were earlier.

That reminds me of Jamaal, who was gone most of the day.

"Jamaal," I say. "Where the heck were you today?"

"Uhh, nowhere," jamaal looks over at me, smiling.

"Found him at the swimming pool," Stan smiles.

"What, I wanted to go swimming," Jamaal says

"with a babe," Stan says

"Woah who is she dude?" Jack asks

"Woah wait," Jamaal said "Why do you believe Stan?"

Stan does lie a lot, but I would believe the dirtiest liar if he told me Jamaal was hanging out with girls. That's definitely something Jamaal would do, so I snicker, " Just because,"

"What?!" Jamaal yells, facepalming

his face. He pretends to be dissapointed in us, but I can see a hysterical smile behind his facepalm. "And why do you even care who she is?" He muffles through his hand.

"Who is she?" I say.

"Gah," Jamaal laughs " doesn't matter man"

"Wait say again I didn't hear you," Jack puts his hand to his ear and leans closer to Jamaal.

"fine, her name is Kate." he mutters.

"Oh" Jack grins. And finally Jamaal does too.

With the shade of night now covering us, I tell everyone to start keeping an eye out for a little convenience store or gas stops or any not-so public place where food is sold.

Within a half hour or so we spotted a lonely 7-11 being shut out for the night by a dude with very short hair and a black jacket. He pulls out the key on the door and gets in a car, and drives away.

"Let's go" Jack tries to shuffle up, but I block him with my arm.

" Dude, it's only like 10:30" I whisper "That's way too early we gotta wait till like three o' clock. That way unless this dude is crazy or something we know he's most likely asleep. The cops will be tired there are less people likely to witness this. We gotta play this safely if we want to get back to the stead sooner than later."

"But dude that's a long time from now. I can wait until maybe midnight but not until the freaking witching hour." Jack complains.

"Alright well then we keep walking until then." I suggest.

Everyone grunts. "No."

And so we wait for some hours...

》》》

By this time Jack and Stan fill our alleyway with their snores. Jamaal is shooting a crumpled peice of paper

In a garbage can he put up on a cat walk, making his own little basket court. He's been going at it since Jack and Stan fell asleep ( which was around 10:30, right after our talk.) Which was about 4 hours.

People have walked by us at first, probably scared and suspicious of us but then didn't really care after a while.

"jamaal" I mutter "if you're gonna have so much energy you best share it,"

"Hehe," he laughs "If I did that I would put 8-hour energy out of business in a day,"

I laugh too. I look at my watch, and even rhough it reads 2:28 I think that's good enough.

"Alright we should get going though now," I say, getting up and kick Jack and Stan. They still snore so I give them another one but they don't seem to care.

So I get some dripping water form a nearby pipe andit almost freezes my hand. I go up to them and let it fall right in their eyes.

"Gah!" Jack jumps up, wiping his eyes, and Stan gets on his knees, cursing under his breath and wiping of his eyes with his coat.

"Dude what the frack was that for?" Stan angrily says.

"You guys are gay. It's time to go," I state.

"Hmph," Jack grugs and gets up.

The streetlights provide a dim yellow light that makes everything look more dangerous and suspicious, something I don't really want.

It was actually pretty easy I punched through the door and glass shattered. No alarm went off (which I thought was awesome) and we immediately stated to pack our bags.

So far so good. I thought. "It good Stan?" I yell out. He was keeping watch while we did our thing.

"Ye," he yells.

"Goo" I start to say, but Stan quickly called back

"oh wait COP CAR TEN O'CLOCK!"