So here it is! Story 2/7!
This story has a lot of the same premise of my other story "The Test", so if you like this make you sure you check it out!
Story takes place after The Battle of the Labyrinth, but during that same summer.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything characters, themes, ideas, settings, etc... that appear in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. All rights to their respective owners
So You Think You're A Daughter of Aphrodite?
"Lacy Hall," Travis announced, nice and loud. The entire Hermes cabin turned to look at where he and Connor were standing.
"Lately," Connor continued. "You have been oddly sullen."
"As have us all," Travis added, putting his hand on his heart.
"So we have decided that it was time to cheer you up." Connor decided.
"It is your turn to play, So You Think You're A Daughter of-" Travis gestured at her to fill in the blank.
"Aphrodite," Lacy finished.
"As you know," Travis started. "This game is a Cabin 11 tradition that allows you, Lacy Hall, to show the world why you believe you are a daughter of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty."
"So yesterday," Connor continued. "The rest of us took a vote on what your challenge should be. We all agreed that your goal will be for a true love's kiss between camp's two biggest rivals - Aiofe Sparks and Malcolm Collins. Do you accept the challenge?"
"I do."
"You're putting me in charge?" Aoife demanded. "That's a horrible idea."
She was curled up on her book polishing her spare knife when Clarisse broke the horrible news - Chiron was instituting a second-in-command day, and Aoife was expected to carry out Clarisse's duties for an entire day.
"I'm only doing it because Chiron said to," Clarisse grumbled.
"What about Mark? I know the Stolls put him in the infirmary, but he can't be too injured."
"He's too much of a wimp. Chiron' working on some stupid intellectual thing for you to do anyways, and you know Mark's got no brain cells."
"And why are we doing this stupid thing anyways? Can't you just tell Chiron no?"
"Winning cabin gets no chores for a month. And I don't want to be doing any unnecessary chores. So if we don't win, you'll be doing all of our chores for the next month. Is that clear?"
The day started up simple enough.
Aoife woke up, showered during head counselor shower time when the water was still warm, and woke the rest of the cabin up with a trash can down the middle of the cabin.
Getting her perpetually hungry cabin to breakfast wasn't a problem either.
At breakfast, Chiron called all the second-in-commands up to the head table to discuss what the day would hold.
The other unfortunate campers were Miranda Gardiner, who led her cabin during the school year anyways; Malcolm Collins, who had been leading his cabin for most of the summer since Annabeth had been on a quest; Will Solace, still in shock from the recent battle; Jake Mason; Drew Tanaka, who was even more annoying than Malcolm; and Doug Heil, who usually ended up doing the Stoll brother's chores anyways. The Dionysus cabin had a sad lack of second-in-commands, but Chiron was giving Pollux - and Percy - a day off anyways.
For the first half of the day, it would be camp as usual. Aoife would have to either teach wrestling - Clarisse's usual class - or trade with one of her cabin mates. Apparently it was a requirement for head counselors to teach a class, which she thought was stupid. On top of that, she had to find a substitute for Mark's javelin throwing class.
After that, she had a pleasure of sorting through inventory in the camp armory, as well as the small armories in the Ares cabin, Athena cabin, and Hephaestus cabin. Inventory sounded awful, but then it was better than inspections or sorting through letters.
For the rest of the day the second-in-commands would do a scavenger hunt while Chiron did a camp-wide class.
"And the winner gets no chores for a month?" Doug asked.
"Yes," Chiron confirmed.
"For a stupid scavenger hunt?" Aoife questioned.
"You will be tested on other skills as well," Chiron answered. "In order to retrieve what you are looking for."
"But we're not hunting things on monsters again," Miranda clarified. "Are we?"
"No," Chiron replied. "That didn't work very well last time. But we will be working in pairs again."
"Why?" Doug asked.
"Because you should not be going in the forest alone," Chiron answered. "As you all well know. You will receive your pairings after lunch. Now, good luck!"
Aoife ended up giving Raj, the biggest of her brothers, the wrestling class and took over Mark's javelin throwing.
She had never taught anything before, but she was a daughter of Ares and refused to get nervous over something so stupid. So when the Hermes cabin came in, she was willing to pounce.
"Hall, have you never held a javelin before?" She demanded of one of the younger campers.
The girl - Lacy - was unclaimed, but everyone thought she was Aphrodite, which explained why she couldn't do simple combat tasks like throwing a weaponized stick. But Aoife had always thought that everyone should know simple defense skills.
"I never saw the point of this," Lacy replied. "Monsters never smell me anyways." Her blonde ponytails bounced as she gave another attempt.
"You never know when you have to kill something with a big stick." Aoife answered.
"Ooh, can I quote you on that?" One of the older sons of Hermes, Donovan, questioned.
"No," Aoife snapped at him. Donovan gave her his best pouting face. "Gods, are all you children of Hermes exactly alike."
"You sound like Malcolm," Lacy noted.
"What was that?" Aoife demanded.
"You sound like Malcolm - he said the other day that Doug and Connor all have the same exact excuses."
"That's not what I said."
"Actually what you said is exactly what he said. 'Gods, are all you children of Hermes exactly alike'."
"Yeah, well did he mention your javelin throwing skills."
"No. Well, he did say I couldn't hit something with a sword if it jumped on it. But nothing about javelins."
"What are you doing?"
Aoife whirled around to see Malcolm standing in the doorway.
"Inventory," Aoife snapped. "It's my chore for the day. Shouldn't you be doing yours?"
"I'm supposed to be inspecting weapons," Malcolm grunted. "Which means I need to be following you around."
"Great," Aoife answered. "Just stand over there and shut up."
"Actually, I should be giving you orders," Malcolm rebutted. "I've been here a lot longer."
"And the Stolls have been here longer than you, but you don't listen to them." Aoife picked up a sword, spun it around, put it back, and made a tally in the sword column on her sheet of paper.
"Well they're idiots." Malcolm picked up the sword and ran his fingers over the dull part of the blade.
"And you aren't?"
"I'm a son of Athena. I've had several teachers call me a genius."
"I thought you were a year rounder."
"I haven't always been."
"Why not?"
"That's none of your business."
"I thought a son of Athena would love to brag about his home life."
"It's none of your business," Malcolm snapped. Aoife turned towards him in surprise - she had always assumed him too much of a wimp to raise his voice.
"Sor-ry." Aoife picked up a dagger and flipped it. It didn't look like it had seen a day in battle.
"What's your problem?"
"You are."
"Seriously."
"I'm always serious."
"No, I mean I'm being serious."
"You're a son of Athena, I'm a daughter of Ares. Did you expect me to like you? Oh, and you broke my favorite weapon."
"Are you still upset about the spear? And what is it with your Ares girls and spears anyways?"
"They're good weapons." To prove her point, Aoife picked up a spear and twirled it around.
"Sure, whatever."
"Whatever you're doing doesn't seem to be working," Doug whispered in Lacy's ear.
"Just trust me," Lacy replied.
"What!" Aoife screamed. "You can't pair us up." Malcolm looked upset himself, but he didn't argue.
The second-in-commands were around the ping pong table in the big house. A satyr had brought some chips and dip, and in the center of tables were several thin strips of paper. All of that bounced when Aoife slammed the table with her fist.
"It is important that the cabins - all of the cabins - learn to work together," Chiron replied.
"Besides," Will added, "Clarisse and Annabeth learned to work together. Why can't you two?"
"Annabeth had to work with Clarisse," Malcolm retorted.
"And you have to work with Aoife," Chiron countered. "I promise you it won't be as bad as either of you think."
"Sure," Malcolm replied, crossing his arms.
"What's the challenge anyways?" Miranda questioned. She didn't look happy either - she had the unfortunate of being Doug's, the Stolls' second in command, and Drew's partner, since their numbers were uneven.
"There are five clues. One of them is the sheets of paper in front of you. The other four are spread around camp. You have the rest of the day to figure them out, but try your best to be at dinner. And good luck."
"Are you sure?" Aoife asked again. Malcolm shot her a glare over his shoulder.
"For the thousandth time, yes," he sighed.
"Then why aren't any of the other teams here?" Aoife demanded. Malcolm shrugged.
"Maybe they haven't figured it out yet," he answered. "Maybe we all got different clues. Doesn't matter - I'm sure the clue was about the climbing wall."
"Well then start climbing." Aoife pushed him towards the wall.
"Maybe you should do," Malcolm replied. "I'm not a good climber."
"Too bad. Your answer, your climb. Now GO."
Malcolm hesitated, so Aoife pushed him again. That seemed to be enough motivation, and soon he was scaling the wall.
Malcolm wasn't a good climber, and he had many near hits with the lava. But eventually he managed to reach the top and find a small piece of paper.
"About time," was all Aoife said when he landed with burn marks and holes in his shirt.
Aoife twirled her spear in her hand as they walked through the forest.
Malcolm trudged behind her, stoically holding his sword in his hand. Despite the heroic pose, the son of Athena was antsy and twitched at every sound.
"Don't tell me you've never been in the woods before," Aoife called back. She didn't look behind her, but she assumed Malcolm was rolling his eyes.
"I've had many bad experiences in here," he replied.
"We all have," Aoife scoffed. "Which is why it's so important to come back here. You know, beat your demons and all that."
"Wow, that almost sounded intelligent."
"We're not as dumb as you seem to think we are."
"We?"
"My cabin. Yours seems to treat us like idiots."
"Only cause you act like it."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well... you all are so aggressive. And you rush into situations without thinking about it. And, you're always so rude, and you shove people's heads into toilets, and you're always so loud, and-"
"And what about that implies idiot?"
"All of it. You're just a big group of a bunch of battle-hungry goons."
"Really? Because last I checked, some of your brothers are very loud. And Jackson rushes into situations all the time, and he gets along with you very well."
"Only cause Annabeth forces us to."
"And your other friend - is it Tommy? He's always going into things headfirst. And you are pretty rude yourself. So why are we so different?"
"Well why do you hate us so much?"
"That's not an answer."
"No, but it's a valid question. Yes, maybe we judge you a little too harshly, but you aren't much better. We are just as good fighters as you are."
"Maybe. But your always so cautious. Especially you. Don't you ever trust your instincts?"
"I trust my instincts on many things. For instance, my instincts tell me spiders are bad, so I avoid them." Malcolm went pale and pointed at something behind Aoife. "Like that, for instance."
Aoife turned and instantly cursed. On the tree behind her was a huge spider, about as wide as the tree's diameter and a little bit longer.
"Wasn't there something in the riddle about insects?" Aoife asked.
"Spiders aren't insects." Malcolm's voice was an octave higher.
"But it was supposed to be like a hive, right?" Aoife continued. "We're probably going the right way. Let's kill it."
"Let's not."
But Aoife wasn't listening anymore. With one quick strike, the spider turned into dust.
"That wasn't too bad now, was it?" That probably would've sounded tougher if Aoife had seen the giant moth coming towards her and screamed like a little girl immediately after saying it.
Even as startled (though definitely not scared) as Aoife was, her first instinct was to raise her spear in defense. The moth reached Malcolm quicker though, and with an impressive jump and a slash of his sword, it vanished into dust.
"Eww," Malcolm commented as he wiped the dust off of his armor. "Well, I think we're in the right place."
"Let's get going then."
"Heil?" Aoife demanded. "What are you doing in the middle of a giant insect infested part of the forest trapped in a bush."
Doug Heil was crouched in what looked like a cage made of a bush. He had his sword drawn, but the branches trapped his hand in the dirt. His other hand wasn't much freer.
"Miranda decided she was better off with Drew," Doug replied. "Help?"
Malcolm sighed in annoyance, and Aoife remembered what Lacy had said earlier about him disliking those annoying children of Hermes.
"What did you do?" Aoife questioned.
"Made a stupid joke about bees. Can you help me or not?" Aoife glanced at Malcolm. He didn't look overly thrilled at the idea of helping Doug.
"Why should we?" Aoife asked, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one side.
"Because I grabbed the rest of the riddles," Doug replied. "And you can't get them without me." He sort of raised his left hand up to show the group of small papers bunched up in his fist.
"Fine." Aoife snapped. She grabbed the spare knife she kept in her boot (just for the sake of the coolness of having a knife in her boot), and she and Malcolm started work on the bush.
When they were done, Aoife punched Doug in the face.
"Ow," he complained, stumbling.
"Now get lost." She ordered. He nodded and darted off.
"I hate them," Aoife growled.
"So do I," Malcolm agreed. "I can't imagine what it would be like to be unclaimed and stuck with those idiots."
"I think I would punch somebody."
"You just did." The corners of Malcolm's mouth turned up in a small smile, and Aoife couldn't help but give a short laugh.
"True. But I would punch a lot more people."
"And there's so many of them too. We can't go anywhere without bumping into them and their stupid tricks."
"It's so annoying. Anyways, what does the clue say?"
Malcolm cursed a string of words that Aoife was impressed that he knew.
"What?" Aoife asked.
"Will and Jake are already here," Malcolm explained. "They have the laurels. They won."
"Not yet."
"They have the laurels, Aoife. They won."
"Not if we get the laurels from them."
"Ahhhhhh!" Aoife screamed as she tackled Will from the top of the boulder. Jake, his partner, stumbled back and tripped into a small stream.
It wasn't long before she had Will's bow and his hands were in the air. Malcolm didn't even have to do anything but walk over to where Jake was stuck in the stream, and he almost seemed disappointed about that.
"Fine, fine," Will said. "You can get the laurels. Just give me my bow back."
Aoife held her hand out and Will reluctantly gave her the laurels. In return, she tossed his bow to the side so that it would be a moment before he could shoot at them.
"Let's go." She told Malcolm, and they ran for the pavilion.
"So how long do you think it'll take now?" Connor asked Lacy. He and Travis had just made it back from... wherever they were, and Lacy had debriefed them on the start of her plan. It was hard to focus, though, since Doug was glaring at her from behind an ice pack.
"A week," Lacy replied. "With meddling, before they're dating, and only a couple of dates after that they'll kiss."
"You sure?" Travis asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm sure." Lacy gestured to where Malcolm and Aoife were shaking hands professionally with goofing grins. "Trust me."