Hi! I have a couple of other stories for different books, such as The Mark of Athena (my best), Nevermore: A Maximum Ride Novel, Tiger's Destiney, and Harriet Dotter and the Magicians Gem: Year one. Please read them. This little book is going to have five chapters, each containing a different story for Vaelntine's Day. This one is Frazel; the others will be Thalico, Jasper, Leyna, and Percabeth. This one does not have that much action (nothing really), and it is kind of lie the Battle of the Labyrinth and The Demigod Files, rolled into one:) It has characters from both Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood. I am including most, excluding the dead ones (though I would love to make a sixth chapter about Silena/Beckendorf). Please ignore any typos! Anyway, review and Happy Valentine's Day:)
The Love Story of Frazel
As Frank brushed his exceptionally short hair, he couldn't help but think, Wow! I can't believe that I am finally at Camp Half-Blood.
Yes, Frank Zhang, son of Mars was at Camp Half-Blood. The Greeks had been much nicer than he had expected. Well, of course, Percy had always been nice to him, but all of these people were great. He was meeting new campers left and right.
Half of Camp Jupiter's population had journeyed over the United States to come to Long Island, New York, for Valentine's Day. Apparently, the she-wolf Lupa and the centaur Chiron had thought that it was a good idea for them to all interact together during a loving holiday. Well, of course, not too interactive.
He was the only person staying in Percy's cabin. Tyson, Percy's Cyclops half-brother, was working a short shift as General in the Cyclops army before Valentine's day. They were expecting him to arrive during dinner.
They had come in so late that Frank hadn't even had time to look at the architecture surrounding him. This was probably a crime in Annabeth's world.
He still didn't get why he was even bothering to brush his military-cut. He dropped the brush and stepped away from the mirror. The Poseidon cabin would have been pretty impressive, if it hadn't been an absolute wreck! A mound of socks and orange shirts were in one corner, and in another a vase of exotic flowers were wilting. Not to mention something gooey hanging from the ceiling. It was a beige color, and Frank was personally terrified to find out what it was. So he didn't ask.
Percy, the lazy bum, was still fast asleep. Frank caught some of the soft words he was whispering which included, "Hey!", "Ouch!", and, "Oh, Annabeth," with a sigh.
Frank wondered what he must say in his sleep.
He was completely worried about Valentine's Day. It was his first one to have while dating Hazel. He didn't want to disappoint her. He just wasn't good with all of this lovey-dovey stuff. He had never celebrated Valentine's Day. He had never had a reason to.
Frank heard a loud THUD! And turned to find Percy on the ground, his bed sheets tangled around him.
"Crap!" he muttered, while rubbing his head where Frank could already see a bruise forming. "Why does this always happen to me?"
"Maybe because it is time for you to actually get your fat butt out of bed?" tried Frank with an innocent shrug.
"Shut up!" snarled Percy.
"Oh, looks like someone is grumpy!"
"No," Percy sighed. "It's just Annabeth. I don't know what to get her…" he looked at Frank as if he might know.
"Hey, don't ask me. I know NOTHING about this kind of stuff!"
"Well, okay then." Percy threw his bed sheets on his bed, where they would stay exactly like that due to the fact that Percy was most likely too lazy to make his bed. He ran over to the pile of dirty clothes and pulled out a not-so-smelly shirt and threw it one. He grabbed a pair of dark blue jeans and put them on too.
"Percy, do I even want to know what that is?" asked Frank, pointing and the blob of whatever it was as Percy combed his hair with his fingers.
"What?" Percy glanced up at it. "Oh, that. Ha, that brings back memories." Percy smiled.
"Ooookay." Frank didn't really care to know more.
The sun was still low in the sky when they stepped out of the Poseidon cabin. Frank was finally getting a clear view at the cabins. It was a very… odd mixture to say the least. One was some type of black rock in the shape of a small house, with torches filled with a weird green fire. Another was old and dilapidated, while one was made of stacked boulders. The two biggest were at the end of the two rows. One was big than the other. They both had pillars in the front and were made out of white marble.
"Well, this certainly isn't Camp Jupiter," Frank stated.
"Yeah, we actually have fun here."
Frank rolled his eyes and started walking towards the Dining Pavilion. On the way there, two twins walked out of the dilapidated wooden cabin. They had salt and pepper hair and mischievous eyes, kind of like Leo. But Frank could tell that they were not related.
"That's Conner and Travis Stoll," said Percy. "Don't trust them."
Conner and Travis were wearing shirts covered in pink and red hearts of all different sizes.
"Nice shirts," Percy called to them.
They came up to them. "For your information," one of them said, "I am very proud to be wearing this. It is one-hundred percent cashmere and I stole it from one of those expensive stores on that shopping street in New York City."
"Um, okay, but shouldn't you wear that tomorrow Travis?"
"Why?" the other, probably Conner, asked. "Who wears Valentine's Day apparel after Valentine's Day?"
"WHAT?" yelled Frank and Percy simultaneously.
"Uh, it's Valentine's Day, duh! How do you forget something like that?" questioned Travis.
"Oh, Annabeth is not going to like this!" Conner laughed. But Annabeth was the farthest thing on Frank's mind. WHAT ABOUT HAZEL?
Conner and Travis cackled evilly as they walked away.
"What do I do?" Percy asked frantically as they continued their walk to have breakfast.
"I don't know," said Frank. "I think I have twenty bucks. Maybe I can buy something for Hazel." Frank dug around in his jean's pocket, but nothing was there. He checked the other.
Nothing.
"I know I had something!" Frank exclaimed, wondering where his money had gone.
"That's the Stoll Brothers for you," replied Percy. Frank still didn't get how in the name of Olympus those twins had managed to pickpocket him.
When they arrived, Frank saw Hazel sitting next to Nico. He quickly adverted his eyes, hoping that she hadn't noticed him.
How could it be Valentine's Day? How had he not known? Gods, he was stupid!
He piled his plate full of heart-shaped pancakes, which seemed to mock him.
After breakfast had ended, Chiron had started stomping his hooves, beckoning everyone to be quiet.
"Tonight," he announced, "there will be a game of Capture the Flag. Now, normally we would let Camp Jupiter be on one team and Camp Half-Blood be on the other. But since it is Valentine's Day, it will be boys versus girls!"
Half of the people there started laughing as they exchanged glances between Percy and Annabeth. Annabeth looked over from the Athena table and smiled mockingly at Percy, who smiled back. But Frank could tell that he was scared out of his mind.
Percy and Frank both had the same problem. If they won Capture the Flag, Hazel and Annabeth would get mad at them. If they didn't win, they'd be the laughing stock of both camps.
"Okay, now off with your activities and whatnot. Everyone from Camp Jupiter needs to find a buddy from Camp Half-Blood to show them around." Almost ever living soul groaned, including some of the dead Lars that had come from the Roman camp. "Now, now, don't act like that. If you honestly don't want to, then show yourself around. Just don't get killed." And with that, Chiron gave everyone a cheerful smiled and galloped off towards the Big House, which, go figure, was pretty big.
So everyone got up from their seats and tossed their excess food into some giant fire.
"And we do this why?" questioned Frank as Percy and him waited in line to do so.
"It's an offering to the Gods," replied Percy. He scraped left over barbecue (who had barbecue for breakfast?) in the fire and muttered some illegible words.
Frank tossed his pancakes in it. Automatically, he could smell every food he ever wanted, just coming from the smoke.
"To Venus," he breathed. "I never ask you for anything, but just let me have a good day today, alright?"
So he followed Percy around camp. All day they did different things, such as sword fighting, archery, and lava rock wall climbing. Frank and Percy had been trying to brainstorm ideas, but almost nothing came to mind. They had caught glimpses of their friends here and there, such as Jason and Reyna (who scared both of them), but thankfully, no sign of Annabeth or Hazel.
Dinner was short and simple. They ate for about thirty minutes, and Frank mostly poked his food with his fork. Percy seemed to be a stress eater, because he was stuffing his face full of pepperoni and bacon pizza.
Dinner was also weird. Nico had disappeared, but that was pretty normal, because no one ever knew where he was. But Annabeth and Hazel were also missing. Due to this, Chiron said that Piper and Clarisse, a very scary daughter of Ares (the scariest thought was the Frank was half related to her), would be leading the girl team. Jason and Percy would be leading the boy's team.
So afterwards, everyone gathered together in their teams. Everyone was required to play, even the Aphrodite and Venus kids. Not to mention the Hypnos and Somnus people, who didn't look that happy to have to walk. Frank didn't struggle with his armor, which wasn't that different from the Roman Legion armor. Percy and Jason gathered everyone in a giant circle.
"Okay, listen up!" yelled Jason, and the crowd quieted down. "I want the people from Dakota to Butch on my team."
"And on my team, I want the people from Grover to Chris!" called Percy. "All Apollo kids will be defenders. Hide and shoot, it's not that hard. The others need to defend the flag. We are going to attack from two different sides. Even though you're on mine and Jason's teams, does not mean that we are going to be with you the entire time. Sometimes we will let other people guide the groups. Spread out, but not so far out that you get killed by a stray person or murdered by a monster! If you see an opening to get the flag, get some people to go with you to get it."
"Do you understand?" asked Jason.
Everyone mumbled their agreement, except for Octavian, who Frank was shocked that had come to a Greek camp, considering how much he hated the Greeks.
Someone, probably Chiron, blew a horn. And so that game began.
Frank was on Jason's side, but near the back of the crowd. They all departed in opposite directions; Percy's team to the left, Jason's team to the right, and the other straight down the middle to defend. A few stayed to guard the flag.
Frank had an arrow ready (along with thirty more in his quiver), plus a knife in his belt, just in case.
He ran for a while. The sun had already set, and so he could barely see anything, let alone the other guys. He only knew they were there because he could hear their footfall. And Frank wasn't completely sure if it was his team.
Out of nowhere, Frank felt a cold sharp object against his throat. No blood had been drawn, but it didn't feel too great.
"Hey," said a girl's voice. Frank groaned. It was Hazel.
"Hey," he said. "Happy Valentine's Day!"
"Same to you. Thank you so much for my gift! You are so nice!"
Now Frank was confused. He just decided to go along with it. "Oh, you're welcome. I thought you would like it!"
"Well, I do!" She drew away her knife and stepped out from behind him.
"So where have you been all day?" asked Frank.
"Oh, you know, here, there, everywhere." She smiled mischievously. "Do you want to do something instead of this game?"
Anything to not get a knife to the neck again. "Sure."
"Well, follow me then," she said and walked off.
Soon they had reached a clearing in the woods. "And we are here why?"
"Oh I don't know," sighed Hazel. "I wanted to be alone with you. I went walking through the woods today, and found this clearing. I had a nice talk with some tree nymphs, who can successfully annoy you to death. There is this one that wouldn't shut up about that fawn named Grover."
"I heard that!" came a voice from a juniper on a boulder nearby. "And he is a satyr!"
"Well, excuse me!" replied Hazel sarcastically. She walked over and leaned on the boulder. Frank came and leaned on it next to her. They soon turned toward each other while leaning on the rock. And that's when they fell into darkness.
The fall lasted for all of five seconds. Frank's back came down hard on the floor and all of his breath left him. He gagged and coughed until he finally had air in his lungs once again. He looked up at Hazel who was already on her feet, observing their surroundings.
"Where are we?" she whispered, as if afraid to be over heard.
Frank glanced around the room. It was actually a corridor. There was a T at the end of it. It had obviously once been something incredible. But now, the rock ceiling looked like it was threatening to crumble, and buts of debris and blood covered the stone floor.
He racked his memory for any little bit of Greek Mythology he had in it. Then he remembered the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur.
"We are in the Labyrinth."
"But I thought Percy destroyed this place a couple of years ago?" Hazel said in a curious and scared tone. "Didn't he say something about that?"
"Yeah, the creator, Daedalus, died, and this thing was supposed to have died along with it!"
"Maybe just the magical parts have been destroyed, like time differences?"
"Maybe, but this place looks pretty trashed to me."
"Well, duh," Hazel said. "There had been a war here! But I thought this had been sealed up?"
"Seals break," Frank said.
"I guess." Hazel walked forward looking around the hallway. "I think this place is its actual size now!"
"That's got to be big!" Frank exclaimed. Then he remembered that Hazel was walking away. "Hey, shouldn't we, like, get out of here!"
"Let's explore! It'll be fun!" And he had no choice but to follow. He didn't want anything bad to happen to her.
But nothing did. They walked down intertwining corridors, and soon, Frank had NO idea which way was back to where they had started. But Hazel seemed to know where she was.
"Okay, I'm bored," she concluded. "Let's leave."
"But we're lost now!"
"Um, Frank. Remember, I am a daughter of Pluto. I have a little power!"
She looked upward and clapped her hands. The ground and ceiling began to rumble and shake. Frank was positive that Hazel was surely going to kill them. But instead, a tiny, person-sized hole appeared above them, and an earth-made ladder rose out of the ground.
"Wow," he breathed. "You are getting good at this!"
"Thanks," she returned. Then she leaned in and put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him. Frank kissed her back, and then they broke apart, both grinning.
"I had a great Valentine's Day. No matter what, I hope you know that." But before Frank could say anything, she climbed up the ladder and hopped on the ground. Frank followed but by the time he reached the top, he heard the cries of the defending guys. They were at the boy's base.
Then he noticed Hazel sprinting away from his teammates, holding their blue flag in one hand. Frank felt like a chump. He finally understood why you should never play along with things you don't get.
"Thanks again for my gift," she screamed, and then she was gone.
