Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HOO.
***Morning of Valentine's Day***
***Dining Pavillion***
***Clarisse's POV***
Today is Valentine's day the sappiest most romantic day of the year or in short the worst day ever. I mean why is there a whole day dedicated to love? Plus we're greek we shouldn't even be celebrating but nooo due to the insesent whining of the Aphrodite brats there were decorations hanging all around camp luckily that seemed to be all that they were doing.
Just then Chiron stood up and announced, "All week we have allowed the boys to place in orders of stuffed toys and flowers for their girlfriends so without out further ado we will pass them out."
I wasn't worried though Chris knew I didn't like all that mushy stuff. Chiron said something about passing stuff out alphabetically. I was torn away from my thoughts by squealing girls I looked over following the noise with my head and saw a bunch of Aphrodite girls shrieking and hugging some of my brothers.
I got up to get them out of there before they let their hormonal minds embarass the entire Ares cabin. I was just about to drag them by the backs of their shirts to the table when I heard something hat made me stop dead in my tracks. A name. My name. I turned around slowly looking staight at the Hermes table. Chris was sitting there a smirk on his face looking directly at me. Damn it. I forgot that he's a Hermes kid at heart.
I walked over to the table, I could hear the camp hold its breath some in fear some in excitement. When I got there I unsheathed my sword quicker than mortal eyes could see and held it at his throat fully prepared to stab him for what he did to me. There sitting in the middle of the pavillion was the largest, fluffiest stuffed bear this side of the Mississippi surounded by bunches of red roses.
His smirk grew bigger as if he didn't believe I would stab him,"So Clary how do you like it?" the nerve of him,"I chose red 'cause I knew it was your favorite color."
"You do know you're not getting away from this conversation unhurt right?" I replied.
"Oh, I have a feeling I'll be seconds away from death by the end of today, and please not the face," he said his smirk growing even larger.
I narrowed my eyes,"And why is that?"
"Let the games begin," was all he said.
With that I punched him in the face, he fell off his seat and onto the ground groaning. I walked around the table slowly, leaning down so that I was level with him, I pulled him up by his shirt up so that my lips barely brushed his and whispered,"You better watch yourself Rodriguez," pulling back I could have sworn I heard him whimper whether from pain or something else I couldn't tell.
I stood up and started walking back to my table. When I got there Chiron was telling everyone to quiet down saying he had another anouncement.
"Instead of the campfire everyone over the age of 15 will be required to go to the camp hosted Valentines day party," this caught my attention, but he wasn't finished yet, "and err..." he looked hesitant almost scared, glancing in my direction,"Um... All the ladies will be required to wear a dress and the men a suit."
I choked on my water,"What!" I yelled.
"This matter is not up for discussion it has been ordered by the gods, Clarisse."
I stormed off at this point not caring what was being said. I mean a dress, a dress, on me at a Valentines day dance, and ordered by the gods, as if. I wonder who Aphrodite had to sleep with to get her way this time.
"Hey Clarisse! Wait up!"
I turned around looking for the source of the noise and found Annabeth all blonde and preppy.
"What do you want Chase?"
"Oh, nothing I'm just going to help you find a dress for tonight," she replied grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the Aphrodite cabin.
When I walked in a wave of emotion hit me. It wasn't like I was going to lay down and cry and tell these freaks my life story but I hadn't been in this cabin in a long time and the aura of Silena was overwhelming. I snapped out of my reverie and looked over at Annabeth.
Two Hours Later
"You want me to wear this?" I asked looking at myself in the mirror.
"Well, duh. You look great!" She replied.
"There is no way I am wearing this," I stated.
Annabeth looked at me. I could see the wheels turning in her head, trying to figure out a way to get me to wear the dress. Her face lit up the way the Athena kids' did when they found a solution to something, "Oh, come on what better way to get Chris back for what he did this morning?"
That caused me to reconsider, "Fine, you win this time Chase."
I finally left the cursed doll house called a cabin. I decided to go train because what else would you do if you were bored? I went to my cabin and changed into a sports bra and workout shorts and grabbed a sword that Ares had given me after I kicked that drakon's ass in the second Titan war.
When I walked into the arena I was surprised to see that there were actual people there, usually on holidays everyone took a break-everyone except for me that is, I don't care if it's Christmas and the weather wards have been taken down that is no excuse-it looks like the all the people there were guys. I was most surprised to see Prissy Jackson here, usually he was hanging off Annabeth's arm, especially on Valentines day of all days. When I walked in Percy looked relieved, probably because I was one of the only campers who could beat him or give him any real competition at all.
"Clarisse! Thank the gods, you wanna spar?" He asked upon my arrival.
"Sure, get ready to get your ass kicked though," I smirked. I knew I had an advantage, one, he had lost his invulnerability, two, the blessing of Ares had left me with some improvements on my swordsmanship. But he would still be hard to beat I knew that.
We went to the center of the arena while the other campers moved back allowing us room to fight. As we fought I heard bets being placed and then I heard something else. I heard the distinct voice of Chris Rodriguez saying things like, "That's my girlfriend," or, "Go Clarisse! Woo hoo, you got this!" It was very distracting, I grit my teeth and kept my focus solely on Percy.
Chris was getting more irritating as we fought on. I made the mistake of looking over at him, and saw that he was wearing a ridiculous outfit with a T-shirt that had my face on it and a pair of white shorts with red hearts all over them. Percy took advantage of my being dstracted and cut me on the upper arm. Ignoring Chris I refocus my attention on fighting, Percy thinks he has won after cutting me on my dominant sword arm but I can handle a scratch and I give him a deep cut on his left thigh. Percy loses balance and falls down, I hold my sword to hids throat and say, "Consider your ass officially destroyed, punk."
Walking over to Chris with a look of malice on my face, he doesn't even flinch, I then proceed to kick him in his balls. Now let me tell you I have been training for more than seven years I can kick pretty hard, so hard apparently that I can cause someone to pass out. Let's just say I kicked very, very hard.
I was almost out of the arena when I heard Chris groan, "Love you, boo."
Turning around I wordlessly flipped him off and walked out, heading towards my cabin to take a shower, silently cursing him in my head.
6 Hours Later
I have been avoiding Chris all day, now normally I wouldn't avoid anything, it's not in my nature, usually I face things head on and beat them to the pulp. However, Chris had been attempting to do mushy lovey dovey things all day, and I couldn't exactly punch the idea of romance in the face. I looked at my watch it was 7:30 p.m. that meant dinner had just ended and the dance would be starting soon.
Exiting my cabin I went over to the Aphrodite cabin to get ready. Walking in I saw that most of the actual children of Aphrodite were already dressed and exiting the cabin. I found it kind of ironic that I was willingly entering the goddess of love's cabin despite hating a holiday surrounding the idea of love.
I put on my dress and walked over to one of the many full length mirrors. I looked at myself in the mirror, by now there were only a few people left in the cabin, Annabeth was one of them she walked over to me and looked at me in the mirror. I took my bandana off and pulled my hair out of the ponytail it was in. Annabeth handed me a brush and I ran it through my hair.
"You have really long hair," Annabeth remarked. It was true, my hair reached my lower back, "Why?"
I just shrugged in response, I wasn't about to tell her it was because Silena had always told me I wold look good with long hair.
I looked at myself in the mirror again, I looked good in the strapless blood red dress that fell mid thigh and hugged my body. I didn't usually wear clothes that made me look good, I didn't have any reason to, but this was a different sort of revenge designed especially for Chris. I didn't put any make up or jewelry on, I never really understood what took some girls hours to get ready.
Annabeth, Piper and Hazel were just finishing up helping Reyna. I walked over to them and took a look at what they were wearing, Hazel was wearing a light purple cupcake dress with crystal beading on the bust, Annabeth was wearing a short fit and flare green dress that I, with disgust, realized matched Prissy's eyes, Piper was wearing a strapless evening gown made of a dark fabric that looked like oil, changing colors when she moved, Reyna was wearing a royal purple dress with cutouts at the sides, the cutouts being trimmed with gold.
I heard a knock at the door, "Do you want me to answer that?" I asked.
"Yes please," Piper replied.
Standing up I walked over to the door and opened it, standing there were all the girls' dates.
"Hey Clarisse, what's up?" Percy asked.
"The sky, but I'm sure you knew that," I replied with.
"Always a pleasure, anyway do you know if the girls are ready?" he responded.
Just then I heard footsteps, I turned around and saw Annabeth at the end of the hallway. I rolled my eyes realizing that they were going to come out one at a time like in a sorority chick flick. When they were halfway through I got bored.
"This is boring so I'm going to go, you know, to the boring dance."
I walked towards the pavilion, seeing lights and decorations along the way. The pavilion was decorated with pink hearts and other stupid decorations. I saw a bunch of frilly pink dresses as well as a group of Hermes kids trying to distract a harpy while one of their siblings spiked the punch bowl.
I walked over to Chiron who was making sure all the dancing that was happening was appropriate. "Ah Clarisse my dear you look lovely-"
"Cut the crap, how long do I have to be here?" I asked.
He sighed, "At least an hour, you should try to enjoy yourself though."
I rolled my eyes at this and was about to respond when I felt familiar arms wrap around me, arms that, if you ask me I will deny I ever admitted it, were comforting, despite this I elbowed Chris lightly and turned around to face him.
"You look good Clary, red really suits you," he stated matter-of-factly.
"No one would find your body," I threatened.
"But everyone would know it was you," he responded calmly.
"Without proof no one could do anything,"
He nodded his head and replied, "True, but you won't kill me."
"And why is that?" I asked.
"Oh, you know, becase you love me,"
I snorted at this, "Yeah, whatever."
He changed the subject, "I don't think I've ever seen you in public without a weapon."
"Well not that I couldn't totally beat the shit out of you with my fists, becase I could, but I do have a weapon with me, you just don't know where it is."
I looked at the clock it had only been 15 minutes. While I was looking at the clock Chris had dissapeared and reappeared holding two red cups filled with punch.
"Here," he said handing me a cup.
I looked at it a bit skeptically, "How much alcohal is in this?"
He shrugged, "A lot."
I looked back up at the clock then at the cup, "Good."
I finished the drink quickly and took Chris's. It had only been 30 minutes.
"Careful Clarisse we don't know what you do when your drunk yet."
"I can hold my alcohal Rodriguez."
"We'll have to put that to the test sometime but in the meantime I have to go light candles. Care to join me?"
"Promise you won't do anything romantic or cute?"
"On my honor," he stated lifting his right hand.
I scoffed, "Your honor is worth shit," but I went with him anyways.
When we finished I looked at the clock, 2 minutes left.
"Hey Chris?" I asked.
"Yeah?"
"Can I see those matches?"
He seemed to be debating whether or not to give them to me, "What will I get out of it?" He questioned.
"I'll kiss you?" I said, though it was more of a question.
"I can kiss you whenever I want though."
"I won't confirm or deny that."
"Whatever," he said and handed me the book of matches.
I started walking towards the exit, turning around I looked at Chris, "Are you coming?" I asked. He nodded and started walking next to me. When we reached the exit I pulled out a bunch of matches lighting them all at once and dropping them on the carpet that led to the dance floor, I pulled out one more and lit one of the hanging paper hearts on fire, just for good measure.
Chris and I walked out of there and into the woods. My guard was down so I wasn't prepared when Chris pushed me up against a tree and held my arms above my head.
"Chris what are you doing?" I asked not bothering to struggle.
"2 things, 1, enjoying the fact that you let your guard down around me and 2, how about that kiss?" He asked.
He didn't wait for an answer, he leaned down and captured my lips in a kiss, pushing me further against the tree. When he finally pulled back from lack of air I said, "I still haven't forgiven you for today."
"Oh, come on that dress is torture enough," he said and kissed me again.
"Whatever."
"No I'm serious, you're beautiful, don't ever change."
"You promised you wouldn't do anything romantic!"
"Hey can you really blame me, I mean my honor is worth shit."