A/N: I haven't updated in six months . . . I feel really really guilty.

Arrow of the Fallen - Chapter Nine: Bath Party

"What's this?"

"What's what?"

Shoots held up a flyer that was stuck on our windshield. Someone must have put it there while we were shopping for groceries at Wal-Mart.

"'Join us in our fifth annual Bath Party!

'Bring your swimsuits and bathrobes!

'Towels and refreshments will be provided!

'Thirteen to nineteen year olds only!'" Shoots read out loud.

"What exactly is a bath party?" Cres asked.

"It seems like it's a pool party – but with bathtubs."

"Sounds dangerous," James decided. "We are not going."

Everyone looked at him.

"What?" he snapped.

"We're going. The address is along the way, anyway. But the Ninn rule applies, and it really applies this time," I said, putting the Cheez-its we bought into the trunk.

"The Ninn rule?" Cres said, confused.

"It's when you act like a ninny," I explained. Roxy rolled her eyes.

"Really?"

"Oh my gods, the word 'gullible' is written in the sky!"

Dear Cres punched me for the umpteenth time, and it was on the bruise formed from the last time she punched me. Freakin' painful.

"The Ninn rule stands for Normal Is Not Normal, or N.I.N.N., but we just call it Ninn, which sort of sounds like 'ninny'," Roxy explained, looking at me like I was a retard.

"The point is that half-bloods have to pay extra attention whenever they enter any public area. Monsters are evolving and getting smarter, and when they do, they learn new techniques to trick us. Before, we got suspicious when all around us were beautiful people. Nowhere in this world has all beautiful people. And then we can assume that a monster is involved. But then monsters tried to make a place look 'normal', with a healthy mix of all types of people. Girls, guys, pretty, ugly, tall, short, fat, skinny, and even multi racial people. Then again, Nowhere in this world has a perfect mix of people! So 'normal' is not normal,and that's what the Ninn rule is about," James rambled.

"Basically, be on guard," Van said, shortening it up nicely.

"I think Cres gets it," Vickie said pointedly. "If we stand here any longer, we're gonna be late for the party."

We were there in ten minutes. The sky was turning pink and growing darker as the sun disappeared below the horizon. The first day of our road trip was nearly over and we didn't really achieve anything yet except for almost getting killed in a Pizza Hut.

The address on the flyer led us to a farm off of Lancaster with a giant white mansion at the middle. It looked like the White House, but somehow it was classier and had gold and purple paint embellishments. There was a huge verandah and two girls wearing bathrobes were standing at the top of the steps.

"Hey, you guys, what's up?" called the taller, younger looking girl. I'd say she looked fourteen or fifteen. She was naturally pretty but she had applied too much makeup and that ruined her.

"Hey," Van said, flirtation mode turned on. Or something. "We came for a bath party?"

"Yup, it's over by the backyard! I'm Bindy, by the way, and this is my older sister, Haley."

So they were sisters. You could tell by the strong jawline, cheekbones, and noses, but other than that, they were completely different.

"Uh, Bindy, is it okay if we used the bathroom? We've been on the road all day and didn't have a chance to change into our swimsuits," said Cres, hefting a rather large tote full of clothes and other girl things like that. "The guys changed in the van, freakin' scarring my eyes forever," she added in an undertone.

The girls had the option of getting out while we changed, but guess what? They didn't! Which meant they stayed just to peek at us.

"Of course!" Bindy chirped. "Just follow me, and Haley will lead the guys to the backyard."

It's not like we'll get lost trying to find the backyard ourselves, right? But whatever, Haley was pretty cute and it would be cool getting to know her better.

Roxy glared at me as if she knew what I was thinking. She looked at me, eyed Cres, put two thumbs up, and flashed a huge smile.

Dude. Really?

Lay off with the matchmaking!

Meanwhile, Haley had guided us around the verandah out to a ginormous yard filled with lots and lots of bathtubs.

"Where'd you get all these bathtubs anyway?" asked James. "There's tons."

"We're sponsored by Lancaster's local bathtub and bathroom company because they like how we're sort of advertising them," said Haley. Her voice was quiet compared to her sister's but somehow it had this powerful undertone.

They had so many bathtubs of all sorts and sizes that the whole town could probably fit in them, and it seemed like the whole town wasthere! There were so many teenagers sitting in the tubs; it was pretty surreal. In one of the larger bathtubs, someone had set up a disco ball and strobe lights and there was a mini underwater dance party. In another section, mood lighting cast the area with a romantic glow and some jazz singer was on the stereo. Couples were making out and I could tell that Van was interested. Disgusting pig. Each tub had a stand loaded with canned drinks, pitchers of water and punch, and universal party snack foods like pretzels and chips. The whole thing seemed like a combination of the coolest club in NYC and a plain old pool party.

Van, Shoots, and James left for a huge bathtub that could fit twenty people and then I was alone with Haley.

"Do you want to get into a tub?" Haley offered. "My shift at the main entrance is over."

"Yeah, sure."

She took off her bathrobe to reveal a curvy body clad in a cute black polka dotted bikini. I wondered how old she was.

"So, what brings you guys to Lancaster?" Haley said, sliding into the nearest small bathtub.

"We're doing a road trip from New York City to Las Vegas."

Man, the water was refreshing.

She raised her eyebrows. "Long trip! And how old are you guys? Fifteen, sixteen?"

"We're all fifteen except for Shoots, the tall blonde guy with all the piercings. He's sixteen, so he drives. But Roxy and James drive sometimes, but keep that a secret?"

Smiling, she took a drink from the refreshments stand next to our tub and sipped it. "Of course. What did you say your name was?"

"Oh, I'm Nico."

"Well, Nico, since you told me a secret, I should tell you some of mine," Haley said, still smiling.

Hmm, okay.

"I've lived in Lancaster for about a year."

I raised an eyebrow. "That's your secret? Somehow, I was expecting something more secretive, if you know what I mean," I smirked.

"I wasn't even done talking before you rudely interrupted me," Haley said flatly.

"Okay, carry on, carry on," I said, still grinning.

"And would you stop smiling! It's a depressing horror story, and it's really hard to tell when you're laughing at me like that!"

"I'm not laughing at you!" I protested, but dropped the smile.

Haley sighed, and continued again. "So, my secret. It's hard keeping it bottled up and ever since I moved here, I've wanted to tell somebody, but I couldn't tell any of my new close friends that I met in Lancaster," she paused, closing her eyes slowly.

"That bad?" I asked skeptically. I hardly doubted that any mortal girl out here could have a secret that horrible. Compared to the life half-bloods have to live, mortals' problems are so trivial and hardly ever life threatening.

"Like you wouldn't believe," she said. "I want to get it off my chest but the only person I can tell it to is someone who is a total stranger. Then I'd never have to see that random stranger again. Someone who couldn't look at me later on and go like, 'that's the crazy girl.' I didn't want anyone to give me a face of disgust or pity, or something worse. A total stranger I would never have to see again, and who would never have the chance to look down on me. Or even fear me."

She glanced at me. "It seems like you're the right person, Nico. So," she took a breath, "Can you handle it?"

That kind of hurt, because it would be cool knowing Haley later when we were in the same retirement home or something. I guess then I could be like, "Oh hey, aren't you the girl who told me her secrets sixty years ago?" And she'd answer, "That's right, we were sitting in a bath tub!"

"Yeah, I think I can," I replied, and she smiled for a split second before starting her story.

"I used to live in Chicago a year ago," she said. "One day, I saw my boyfriend's ex-girlfriend being mobbed by these really buff guys – and one of them was holding a gun. They were harassing her for her money, and worse shit like that. I barely knew her but I wanted to help her. Plus I was really pissed off with what the guys were doing to her. So I kinda punched the guy with the gun, caught him off guard, and grabbed his weapon."

She was staring off into the distance, electric green eyes glittering. I could tell she was still tense about this whole experience, but she was telling the story calmly in her quiet, measured voice.

"Racing with adrenaline, I shot all the guys somehow. But then I realized what I had done and I went kind of crazy with grief – so I shot the main guy – until all the bullets ran out – and – he was dead before I knew it.

"So my secret is that I killed someone."

Whoa.

The way she said it; it was like she was the best storyteller in the world.

I didn't really believe her. How could she actually have killed someone? Did she even ever live in Chicago? If it was all a giant story, damn she was good at keeping a poker face. Haley continued, and somehow, with the next words, I knew she was telling the truth.

"That girl I saved, my boyfriend's old ex, her name was Katrina."

Oh, shit.

"She was really gorgeous, and she told me later when we were both sent to see the shrink that she got mobbed all the time. She told me she'd lost loads of money and a lot of her innocence too."

Haley closed her eyes and downed her drink.

"Haley?"

"Yeah?"

"Was her name, by any chance, was her name Katrina Fallen?"

Haley's beautiful green eyes widened. "How did you know? Do you know her?"

"We're kind of looking for her," I confessed, skipping the fact that Katrina was Cres's aunt since that would be majorly confusing for a mortal like Haley, "but wasn't she supposed to be in Vegas?"

"She did mention that she was from Vegas, originally," said Haley suspiciously. "And after the whole Chicago incident she told me she was moving back to either Vegas or Los Angeles with her brother. Bindy and I were shipped off to our grandparents here in Lancaster. But why would you want to find Katrina? Why would you do a road trip to do it?"

Time for some spontaneous lies!

"Shoots' older brother died in a plane crash over the Pacific Ocean. He's deathly afraid of planes and flying. And Katrina is Cres's long lost cousin and she's been trying to find her for ages. After a Google search, we found something like an address in Vegas under the name of Katrina Fallen," I explained quickly, and was rewarded by an understanding look in Haley's eyes.

"Is Cres that girl with the auburn, reddish brownish hair?"

I nodded.

Haley relaxed. "I noticed when you first arrived here that she looked extremely similar to Kat. I just thought she was a lookalike, but apparently they're related! But what are the chances that we would somehow meet together in a bath party in Lancaster?"

"It's a small world," I said cryptically, making her smile. Which made me feel good.

"Can you make a promise to me though? When you find Katrina, can you promise to protect her no matter what happens? She gets into trouble a lot, and I don't like the way she said she was mobbed practically every other day."

"Alright, sure." It was the least I could do to help Haley. She was a really great girl and I felt like I owed her a favor.

"Okay, what's the most serious swear you know? I only know the 'cross your heart' one."

"Well, there's this Greek one I know," I said with a smile. "I swear by the River Styx that I will protect Katrina Fallen no matter what happens."

She ducked her head fast like she was embarrassed. "That's great, Nico. I feel a lot better."

It only occurred to me when we were miles away from the bath party that I had swore an oath.

An oath to keep with final breath.

"Shit."

"What is it, Nico?" asked Roxy, wet and shining from the party. I think she met a guy who was 'super freakin' cool and hot'.

"I swore an oath. At the party. An oath of the River Styx kind."

Silence in the van.

Not even Van could think of anything to say.

Finally James spoke up. "I should never have gone off and left you alone!"

"I think I'm going to be sick," I moaned, banging my head against a window.

I was such an idiot.

A/N: So anyone read Rick Riordan's newest book, the Red Pyramid? Because Anubis is the hottest guy Rick has ever created. Just sayin'. Thanks to my friend's cousin for coming up with the term "bath party", and my other friend for editing this chapter - 'cuz I messed up, a lot. REVIEW PLEASE :)