I grinned madly. Thalia burst into fits of laughter, snorting. I handed her a cheese sandwich, which she ate hurriedly. I stared at the grey sky as she licked the crumbs off her flakes fell from the sky, and one fell into my eye. Wiping it, I stood up and grabbed a handful snow. I hurled it at Thalia. She stopped trying to get a miniscule fleck of emmental off her coat and glared at me. The next thing I knew was being knocked over flat by a giant snowball. Wiping it out of my eyes, I saw her standing over me clutching her side. At first I thought she was in pain, but then I scooped the snow out of my ears and heard laughing. She held a hand out for me. I took it.
Boys, I giggled at them (they were sitting further down the hill), Snowball fight? They both leapt up and came over.
Boys vs Girls? Percy cried hopefully.
No fair! You ve got Tyson! Thalia exclaimed.
Fine, Percy grumbled, I ll go with Thalia, Annabeth, you go with Tyson. I clapped my hands gleefully. They re so gonna die!
Ten minutes preparation time? I proposed. Everyone agreed. I drew a line in the snow with a stick exactly halfway on the hill. TYson and I spent our ten minutes making pyramids of snowballs worthy of the Ancient Egyptians. Percy and Thalia spent their ten minutes thinking of a team name. They ended up with The Wasabi Peas. Very stylish. When a random stranger, who we d asked to help out, said we could start all hell broke loose. I think we turned a winter wonderland into a mess of brown sludge. I threw a snowball at a lady with a handbag dog when Percy ducked. We had to flee for our lives. We were dripping, cold, muddy, and all grinning maniacally. Everything was going perfectly. Was.