Happy Thanksgiving to everyone (for those who celebrate it)! Personally, my family doesn't celebrate it, but oh well. This is just a oneshot done out of boredom. Characters may be OOC, but hey, it was just for fun. XD But I hope you like it anyway.
"Hey, Chiron," I said holding a pan covered with aluminum foil. "I thought we don't usually celebrate mortal holidays."
Chiron smiled. "Well, it is nice once in a while, my boy. We celebrated one minor Christmas while you were, you know, out of contact."
I winced as I tried not to think of that. A certain peacock goddess just happened to give me a very long nap last year, so I missed out of several months of camp and school. And usually, I didn't mind sleeping a lot, but several months? That was going a bit overboard. It made me feel like I was a hibernating bear.
"Well, I have a blue pumpkin pie from my mom with her blue chocolate chip cookies," I said.
"Great, just place it at the head table in the appropriate section. The Hecate kids were kind enough to place a warm and cold barrier around the table."
I nodded and took the food outside. Hestia's hearth was burning warmer than ever and casted a warm orange glow around camp. I put the pie on the warm section of the table and the cookies in the middle. I wasn't sure where to put it.
"Hey, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said running up to me.
"Hi, Wise Girl," I grinned. "What did you bring?"
She shrugged. "I was thinking of bringing some ghost chili peppers, but I thought not and brought some apple cider instead with a sprinkle of Demeter's Flavor Enhancing Powder."
I shook my head. "Where do you get all those crazy supplies?"
She smiled and took my hand. "I'm just special like that. Let's go take a walk around camp."
"So," I said, "I heard that you guys celebrated Christmas when I wasn't here?"
Annabeth's expression darkened. "I missed out most of it. I came when the sing-along was ending. If you were there, I would've given you a Christmas present."
I kissed her gently. "Its fine, we're together. That's a good enough gift for me."
"Hey, you two lovebirds!" Piper yelled from the canoe lake. "Come over here for a moment."
Annabeth rolled her eyes and headed there. "You shouldn't be talking with Jason and all."
Her face turned red. "Never mind I said that."
I laughed. "There are many lovebirds at camp. It's fine."
We heard Clarisse yelling at Chris and chasing him all over camp yelling, "Come back here, or else you're dead!"
"That have many different styles," Jason noticed.
"Very."
"I wonder if there'll be much to eat," Piper mused as she gazed at the head table. "I'm vegetarian."
"Hey, it's fine," Annabeth said. "I heard that Seaweed Brain over here brought some pumpkin pie, and Katie brought some really good salad made with vegetables grown from her dad's garden."
"Didn't she bring the turkey?" Jason said confused.
"Nope. Miranda brought that."
I looked across camp and noticed that the cabins were all decorated with torches and bulbs that gave it a glow similar to the one that Hestia's hearth was giving off. I turned to look at the sea which was turning orange in the sunset. Which reminded me…
"Oh yeah, I promised Tyson that I would go pick him up," I said. "He's visiting."
"Oh," Jason said. "Where are you picking him up?"
"At the beach," I grinned. "Race you all? Winner gets ten drachmas from the losers."
"You are so going to lose," Annabeth said.
We ran toward the beach with Annabeth in the lead. I wasn't really surprised.
"No flying Grace," I grinned. "Or having the wind push you."
"Oh, good idea."
He was about to pass Annabeth who had already planned things out. She got out her sword and pointed it straight across horizontally, and Jason had to stop if he didn't want to be cut in half.
"That's not fair!" he complained.
"Neither is pushing yourself with the wind," she countered.
It ended up with Annabeth winning, Jason and I tying (because he used a bit too much of his power of using the wind when he was trying to cheat again and Piper charmspoke him), and Piper panting and getting last.
"Well, that's thirty drachmas for me," Annabeth said.
"Here," I said and gave her ten drachmas that I was carrying around.
Piper stared at me. "Who the heck carries around drachmas?"
I shrugged. "They're good for quests."
We sat on a sand dune waiting for Tyson to arrive.
"So, where's Leo?" I asked.
"Making tacos," Jason said. "Because… you know, he's like a year rounder."
I nodded. "You think he'll be done soon? It'll be nice if we get together, though the Romans are probably having their own nice party as of now."
A jetstream of salt water showed up on the horizon. It came closer to the shore and I saw Tyson riding on Rainbow.
"Hey Tyson!" I yelled and ran up to the sea.
"Brother!" he cheered and gave me a huge hug that nearly crushed me.
"Nice to see you too, big guy," I said. "You too, Rainbow."
Rainbow neighed in appreciation.
"Daddy gave us peanut butter sandwiches!" Tyson said holding up a big box. "And cinnamon rolls for Ella!"
Tyson fed Rainbow an apple and Rainbow swam away.
"Oh yeah," I said. "What did you two bring?"
Piper shrugged. "My dad gave it to me. Probably some fancy schmancy stuff that I don't even know."
"I went to go visit Camp Jupiter and got some food," he said looking guilty.
"It's fine," I said. "Are they having a feast too?"
He shook his head. "No mortal holidays apparently, though some don't believe in that."
"Where's Ella?" Tyson said looking around.
"She's in the Athena cabin," Annabeth said. "Ask Malcolm to let you in."
Tyson bounded away before even listening to the complete sentence.
"I want to gather up a few more people before going back," I muttered. "I just need to find them."
"You guys can go first if you want," Annabeth said. "They're giving out small gifts to the heroes for their deeds."
"Yeah, after we get Leo," Piper quickly said covering whatever her boyfriend was trying to say.
A limo pulled up at Half-Blood Hill.
"We'll catch you later," Annabeth said and we ran to the top of the hill.
"Seems like we're doing a lot of running today," I panted.
"I can tell," Rachel laughed. She was dressed in her usual shirt with van Gogh and paint splattered jeans. "I just saw that you guys ran to the beach then to here."
She took out a big tray, maybe four feet, and we helped her take it to the table.
"But did you really see that?" I asked as we gently placed it down.
"No, I was just guessing."
"Looks like someone has good guessing skills," Annabeth smiled. "What's this huge thing anyway?"
Rachel shrugged. "I have no idea. Probably some fancy schmancy cake. My dad likes to buy big."
"Sounds like someone else we know," I said to Annabeth who laughed.
She got into a quick discussion with Rachel about school and I went to the arena to let Mrs. O'Leary out.
She saw me before I saw her again.
"AROOOF!" she barked.
"Hey, girl," I said and gave her a giant dog biscuit before letting her out.
She bounded out of the arena, probably upsetting some satyrs and nymphs. In the corner, I saw a figure in black leaning against the wall.
"Hey Nico," I said. "Come on, don't miss out."
"I'm fine," he mumbled.
The conch horn rang.
"Hey, it's Thanksgiving," I said. "You're not missing out. Just sit in my table. We're allowed to sit wherever we want today."
I grabbed his hand and dragged him out besides his protests.
"We usually don't celebrate mortal holidays," Chiron said, "but I think today can be one of the exceptions to give our thanks to our heroes. Have a great Thanksgiving!"
Everyone cheered and ran to get food. There were a lot of shoving and pushing around. Piper barely managed to get them settled by using her charmspeak (and placing herself in the front of the line).
"That's unfair!" Leo protested.
"Our whole lives are unfair," Nico said. "Get that into your head, Valdez."
"At least we're not last," Rachel said. "Actually, I kind of feel bad for the ones who are."
The line surprisingly went on quick (because the campers already had decided on what to eat) and I got one of everything, though it took me three plates.
I slid into an empty table and Annabeth, Grover, Juniper, Nico, Leo, Jason, Piper, and Rachel joined me.
"You're seriously going to eat all that?" Piper said staring at my plates.
I shrugged. "It looks good."
I saw Tyson and Ella eating their sandwiches and rolls together at an empty table for two. I smiled at the sight.
Campers started dropping in a portion of their food to the gods. I dropped in one of my mom's cookies, and prayed, Poseidon, thank you for being my father and claiming me. I saw Annabeth do the same, though she stayed for a bit longer.
"I still don't get this stuff," Leo mumbled. "Gods living off of smoke? Crazy."
Thunder rumbled.
"Better take that back Leo," Rachel warned. "I might be mortal, but I know what the gods can do. And I can see perfectly what they will do to you."
Leo gulped. "Sorry."
I took a bite out of my blue pie and smiled. "I just wanted to tell all of you guys thank you."
"For what?" Leo asked.
I shrugged. "Just everything in general. You guys saved my life at least once." I met eyes with Annabeth. "Or a hundred times, even if it wasn't direct."
"Hey, you're our friend," Grover said. "We'd do anything for you."
"And we're all thankful to you too," Annabeth smiled. "You saved us a lot of times too."
"Like when you tackled me real hard when I was possessed by the eidolon. It hurt a lot," Leo said and Piper kicked his shin under the table.
"It's true though. We're all thankful to you," Juniper said. "Without you, my tree would've gotten burnt."
We all laughed and had a good time.
"It reminds me of the old times," I said.
"You mean, when you were all scrawny and stupid?" Annabeth said.
"I wasn't stupid! Well, maybe a little bit," I blushed. "I mean, like when we used to sneak out on quests."
"I still remember our first quest," Grover said tearing off a piece of aluminum.
"Like six years ago," Annabeth said softly.
"Seems like you have a lot of history together," Piper said.
Rachel cut a piece of cake into bite-sized pieces. "I knew he would've bought some expensive weird cake," she sighed. "So much for having a rich dad."
Piper raised an eyebrow. "I know, right?"
They got into a conversation of rich dads and money. I never thought much of money, since it was one of the things we didn't have much of.
"Jason, you miss Camp Jupiter at all?" Leo asked.
"That's like asking if you miss your old home," Nico muttered.
"I can't say I don't," Jason said, "but I'm staying here, at least for a while."
"Hey, watch out!" Juniper yelled and she ducked along with Grover, Annabeth, and Nico.
The rest of us didn't see it coming. A bomb of whipped cream exploded right above our table covering our food and us with whipped cream.
"Thank the gods I didn't get hit with that," Nico said wiping the whipped cream away from his seat. "I hate the color white."
Leo tried to comb through the whipped cream. "Hey, at least you don't have curly hair."
Connor and Travis busted out laughing, and even Chiron managed a smile. Though we didn't plan on it, Connor came out and took a picture.
"Hey!" I protested, but laughter still came out of my mouth.
"Don't wash that off until the campfire," Annabeth said.
"The cream is going to melt on my head!"
"Stop complaining Seaweed Brain," she laughed and kissed me.
