"So, we're all agreed – no twerking."

Murmurs of affirmation circled around the group as Annabeth stood regally, eyes blazing with the kind of fire that must have burnt in the hearts of the great heroes of age; Ulysses himself wouldn't dare oppose the young demigod. A small gathering of 16 year old warriors huddled close to the warmth of the cosy campfire in the darkening twilight of a summer's day. Artemis seemed to smile down on them, and shone the moonlight to illuminate their teenage shenanigans – the tranquillity of the evening was so sweet, so soft and so boring that the demigods naturally sought something, anything to do. Of course, everyone turned to Percy (the unelected leader of the group), who then turned to Annabeth (the unelected leader of Percy), who then suggested reading up on architecture. A dense silence followed this suggestion, involving no eye contact whatsoever. Everyone became suddenly captivated with their shoes and shuffled their feet, while Annabeth scowled; there was no reason she could think of that meant people wouldn't want to read for 7 hours in a slightly mouldy library. Eventually, Connor and Travis came to the rescue with a mischievous glint in their eyes: "Anyone up for a game of truth and dare?"

They had then assembled like small avengers around the crackling hearth, smiles playing on their lips. Before anyone could say anything, however, Annabeth laid down the rules, which were as follows:

No murder attempts,

No Satanism,

No frying pans (not again),

No High School Musical re-enactments,

No alcohol for Malcolm,

No attempts to seduce Thalia's tree,

No inhaling chilli powder,

No inviting Dionysus to join,

No daring Dionysus to climb a tree,

No calling Chiron to help get Dionysus out of the tree,

No calling Zeus to help get Dionysus and Chiron out of the tree,

And, finally:

No twerking.

She gazed around the group fiercely, letting everyone know that if any of the rules were broken there will be blood. Katie swore under her breath – it looked like her plan for the twins would have to wait. "OKAY. NOW THAT WE KNOW ALL THE RULES, HOW ABOUT WE ACTUALLY PLAY?" someone cried. Confused heads swivelled around, looking for the source, until they glanced down and their gaze settled on Michael Yew.

"Michael, why…why are you shouting?"

"IT MAKES UP FOR MY INFERIOR HEIGHT AND CRIPPLING SELF-ESTEEM ISSUES."

"Oh." Silena blinked, and then went back to fixing her hair. A long moment passed. "Um, anyway, Percy…truth or dare?" Travis' unsteady voice asked. Percy swished his ebony hair out of his eyes and did his best to look hot because Annabeth was looking at him and she was so pretty tonight just look at her hair and it's curliness and oh my gods her eyes were just –

"Percy."

"Hm? Oh, right. Dare, I guess."

Travis glanced around himself for inspiration, his mind racing with all the things he could now force Percy to do. There was no way Percy could refuse; those were just the rules of adolescence. You respect the code of truth and dare. He paused, deep in thought, until he dramatically opened his mouth with the best possible dare he could muster – before he could say anything, however, Grover jumped up far too enthusiastically and yelled "I dare you to make out with that TREE!" pointing excitedly at what turned out, in fact, to be a tree. Travis was speechless. For once. Connor elbowed Grover in the ribs "but it's Annabeth's job to make out with Percy!" the Stoll brother theatrically cried, making everyone except Nico snicker. At least, they did until Annabeth drew her dagger.

Percy, meanwhile, just sighed. He stared at the tree. The tree stared at him. He was going to have to make out with the tree. Nico secretly envied the tree. That poor tree never knew what hit it.