For The Hottest

Sure, those diabolical Stoll brothers have been pranking all their lives with only minor consequences, but have they finally pushed it too far? Did they cross the line? Travis and Connor never thought that three simple words on a little piece of fruit would end with so much trouble. There's some Tratie if you squint real hard.

Don't really know where this will go. I just got bored one afternoon and this was the result. It's probably between the Titan's Curse and The Battle of the Labyrinth.

The Pranksters

"That was awesome, man," I said, high-fiving my brother. We were hiding behind a rose bush next to Cabin 10 after having pulled the 35th prank of the day. I've got to say, it was the best yet. We took this mango and spray painted it gold, right. Then we wrote: 'For the Hottest' on it and left it in the Aphrodite cabin while they were at Archery class. When they came back and found it they started fighting over it. It was so funny. Gucci shoes were flying out the windows. All the girls and guys were ripping at each other's hair.

After a while though, the noise died down and we heard one of the girls, probably Silena, talking to all of them. Connor and I turned to each other and by the look on my brother's face, I could tell that he was just as confused as me.

And suddenly: 'TRAVIIISSSS! CONNOOORRR!'

Oh. So that's why they became so quiet. We both ran as fast as we could towards our cabin, not even daring to look back.

Most of you would assume that the Aphrodite campers are just make-up freaks, obsessed with hair and clothes, that dodn't do any exercise. Well, you'd be right. But that day, we discovered that when they wanted to, those kids could run very fast.

As soon as we made it in our cabin we slammed the door and slid to the ground, panting really heavily. By the time we had got our breath back we checked the situation outside through the window. Fortunately for us, the Aphrodite kids had dispersed, giggling, and went their own ways. Thank the gods. Once we thought it was safe, we slowly stood up.

And I heard a large RRRIIIPPP. I looked over at Connor to see what the sound was, but instead I was face to face with his Spider Man boxers. Not a pleasant sight. But at least I'd figured out the source of the sound, and I was pretty happy it wasn't me.

"Connor, what did you have for breakfast? You must be getting a bit fat," I teased. He looked a little embarrassed. That is, until he looked at my face. At first he looked like he was constipated, his face starting to go red, then he started to crack up laughing and roll around on the ground.

Straight away I knew something was wrong. I felt my face, but nothing seemed different. I quickly ran to the bathroom to see what the matter was. When I looked in the reflection, what I saw was worse than my worst nightmare. And do you know how scary demigod nightmares can get? I heard a deafening high-pitched scream, sounding like a five year old girl being tortured, which may or may not have been me. I turned the tap on full blast and tried to scrub the ridiculous make-up off.

No matter how hard I tried, as soon as I smudged it the tiniest bit it looked perfect again almost immediately. Those Aphrodite kids were unbelievable.

After washing my face countless times I gave up and walked out to find Connor in no better position. He had our clothes thrown all over the room. It looked like he had tried all of those clothes on but the pair of shorts he had on still looked three sizes too small.

We had been in our room all afternoon trying to find a solution to our problems, but to no avail. After hours and hours of no result, we decided to do the walk of shame.

The horn for dinner blew just after we walked out of our cabins, so we slowly walked over to the pavilion, for the first time in our lives trying not to be noticed. But of course the Aphrodite kids had to tell the whole camp, because as soon as we stepped into the pavilion, as if rehearsed, everyone started to take pictures and laugh at us. Especially Katie Gardner. She was enjoying our humiliation a little too much.

There was no way we could keep up our reputation this way. Revenge was in order.

~~~ One Week Later~~~

Thank the gods, this morning we both woke up with no make-up and the right sized clothes on. I thought I'd never be able to see my gorgeous face again. As for Connor, I think there are enough photos of him to fill a few countries' load of galleries. I still think I was worse off though.

Today we were getting revenge. We are pulling the greatest prank ever. Well, except for the time we put grass seeds in the Ares cabin carpet so there were snails and lizards covering the room. They weren't scared or anything, but they were thoroughly pissed off. Or that time we stuck prawns through Demeter's cabin mattresses. Their reactions when they noticed the smell of rotten seafood that had embedded itself in their beds were priceless. Especially Katie's.

Well, okay, it would be nowhere near as good as those ones, but it will be close. That is, once we think of it. We had been brainstorming all throughout that humiliating week and even tried to get the rest of our cabin involved. But we just couldn't come up with the right prank, and I think our half siblings enjoyed our pain.

Today was the last straw. Instead of sitting and thinking we went out to get some inspiration. Pranking time…

After a few stink bombs in various rooms, spiders set loose in the Athena cabin and several small pranks we headed off to lunch. Lunch went by quickly but we still didn't have the right prank.

As we were walking along the path to the strawberry field, ready to turn the strawberries gold, Connor disappeared from my side. When I turned around he was head down in the grass. "So not cool man, we need to find a good prank."

"You think I chose to trip over this pipe?" he grumbled, spitting out some grass.

We both turned around to look at the pipe that had seemingly just appeared there. It was the pipes that led to the showers in the Aphrodite cabin. Now, don't go thinking I'm a perv or anything. Knowledge of the camp's sewerage system was essential for navigational and pranking purposes. "Hey, it's the Aphrodite cabin's pipes," exclaimed Connor beside me.

"Good one, Sherlock!" I said sarcastically. Connor can be a bit slow at times. He's nowhere near as smart or talented or handsome or amazing as me.

Somewhere during this train of thought, my idiot brother's face lit up. "I've got the best idea, Travis. We should put blue dye in the pipe and they'll have blue hair for the rest of the week!" I take back all of that I thought before, I thought, well except for the talented, handsome and amazing bit . It was an admittedly brilliant idea, even if I didn't think of it.

But by now I was having doubts. What if it didn't lead to the Aphrodite cabin's pipes? It was definitely a cabin starting with 'A', but we'd made mistakes like this before. What if it was the Ares or Apolle cabin? They were infinitely more diabolical than the Aphrodite cabin. Having permanent make-up on wouldn't be that bad compared to what they would do.

"Uhh, Connor? I'm not sure about this. What if-"

"What if what? What's gonna happen? Half a snail has more brains than the entire Aphrodite cabin put together. They'll never think of a good enough revenge."

"So what was last week, then? Did I decide to wear permanent make-up for a week? Besides, I'm not sure if this pipe actually leads to Cabin 10-"

Connor shushed me with a wave of his hand. "Of course it does. And since when have you ever not wanted to do a prank? I think you're hanging out with Katie too much. Her maturity is rubbing off on you."

Before I could even think about blushing, Connor dragged me along to our cabin. For us to go undetected we decided to go when it became dark. And that's exactly what we did.

Connor had explained our plan to the rest of the Hermes cabin and they helped us carry the dye when it was time.

While we were pouring the dye buckets in the pipe, Connor beside me asked 'Don't you think it's enough now we don't want a permanent transformation they'll kill us.'

He had a point, but when I counted how many bottles were left I realised I had the last bottle which was now empty. So after pouring all six dye buckets in, we re-sealed the pipe and went back to bed. But me and Connor knowing very well we will be roasted alive tomorrow hardly got anysleep.

~~~ Next Morning~~~

By the time our cabin got to breakfast everybody was seated and chatting waiting for breakfast to be served. All except the Aphrodite, Ares and Athena cabins. I had already bitten all of my nails off from nervousness. What if it was the wrong pipe? Would we go to Elysium after we died horribly painful deaths?

After a few minutes the Aphrodite cabin walked in… perfectly normal. Our whole cabin glanced at each other with questioning looks. We all started to whisper to each other. 'What happened?', 'Didn't it work?', 'Why aren't they blue?' etc, but the one that scared me the most was: 'If it wasn't Aphrodite's cabin, then whose was it?'

A little while after that the Ares cabin walked in… all in the right colours. Thank the gods for that. But that still left one…

After a few minutes, Chiron stamped his hooves on the floor, "Who's seen the Athena children?" Everyone looked around with questioning looks. Sweet mother Rhea, I thought miserably. Whatever they have planned, it will make fighting an army of monsters with nothing but a pair of old socks look like a walk through the Isles of the Blessed.

Before anyone could answer, footsteps echoed on the marble floor. We all turned and saw what looked like a group of smurfs with their arms crossed, giving me and Connor ultimate death glares. I'm telling you, those looks could make Haydes jump into the pit of Tartarus willingly. They didn't say a word, just sat down and began eating, all the while glaring in our direction.

Connor and I let out a collective gulp. We might have gone a bit overboard with this, cause not only was their hair grey-blue but their skin was a light tinge of blue too.

Holy mother of Hades, I thought, and I'm pretty sure Connor was thinking the same thing. We're dead.

DUN,

Dun,

Dunnnnnnnnnnnnn!

Hope you enjoyed it, and let me know what you thought.

I've decided next chapters will be an all-out prank war but I need ideas, please.

Oh, and sorry I forgot to say before that, sadly the characters and the first prank all belong to Rick Riordan.