Hey, guys!

This is my story that I intertwined with The Son of Neptune, thought you wanted some back story here. Set in The Battle of the Labyrinth and maybe I'll make a series out of it—a three book series, ending with The Son of Neptune.

This is called The Fight of Our Lives, and I owe so much of this story to Friend. I started this on a road trip and Friend helped over come legions of writer's block.

There's an asterisk (*) next to Friend's ideas, and a continual "Ode to Friend" will be posted up here.

But here comes Chapter One!

Chapter 1—KATHRYN—The Philamancer's Task

It all started during Quintus's "training activity," I guess.

I am Kathryn Hart, daughter of Eros, god of love and son of Aphrodite. I know Eros, more commonly known as Cupid (his Roman form), is my father because he accompanied me from my home to Camp Half-Blood, and he told Chiron.

Anyway, split into teams of two, I was with my best friend, Annika Kent, daughter of Demeter.

Annika is the most crushed on girl in all of Camp Half-Blood. She loves that stat (she won't let me forget it), but none of the guys here interest her (she's told me a million times). She has a strawberry blond bob*, framing her face, and her eyes were a mesmerizing green. She usually wears a low-cut orange t-shirt and booty shorts.

I think that Annika and I had an identity change at birth. I mean, other than our powers, respective to our god parents', but our personalities are so different it's not funny. She was totally guy crazy and loved to gossip about who-liked-who, but I could care less. I wasn't surprised when Percy grinned like a fool when he learned that he was on a team with Annabeth, but I knew it was going to happen someday. So why did Annika obsess over it?

We were playing for forty-five minutes when two Athena kids confronted us. They were concerned, along with their own personal emotion.

One of them was blond, his hair kind of short. He had gray eyes, like all the other Athena kids, and his face turned beet red when he saw Annika. He was Malcolm Shaw.

The other one, Alex Daniels, had been my friend for years. He had a shaggy black mane* of hair, and his gray eyes glittered with silent laughter at Malcolm. He said, "Have you guys seen Annabeth or Percy?"

"No," I said. "Why?"

"We haven't seen 'em," he replied.

I sighed. "I thought your mother was the goddess of wisdom," I said. "It's a game in the woods. Of course we're not going to see everybody."

"They're together, most like," Annika added. "They probably want to be alone, if you catch my drift."

I sniggered, but Alex rolled his eyes. "The game's already over, and there are two teams not accounted for: Jackson and Chase; Hart and Kent."

"You found us," I said. "Okay, fine."

We looked for another fifteen minutes until a shout rang out across the valley: "Zeus's Thumb!" Everybody dashed to the rock formation known as Zeus's Thumb.

I got to the front of the crowd in time to hear Annabeth say something to Percy about the Labyrinth. Chiron shooed most of us off, asking the heads of cabins to remain behind.

I followed Connor Stoll to the Hermes Cabin. He was usually the leader when his brother Travis went to meetings. I found my spot on the floor—I had been sleeping there for quite some time now, five years, maybe—sat down, and started to draw.

I drew a picture of Thalia, daughter of Zeus, hugging a boy with blond hair. A brunette studied the scene, smiling, while a Hispanic kid and a stubby satyr supported her, oblivious to the scene—or maybe just pretending to be.

But there comes a time, as sad as it may seem, when drawing isn't enough to conquer your boredom. Which is why I went out into the commons area to have some fun on the people wandering around.

Being the daughter of Eros, I can make anyone fall in love with the first thing they see. I've earned a nickname for this: The Philamancer. Because in Greek, "phil" means love and "mance" means magic. So basically my nickname meant…love magic.

Eventually, Alex came out of cabin six to laugh with me.

"Hey," he said. "Is the Philamancer at work?"

"Yep." I added a little popping noise at the end, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, watch Shrek 2. It's what Donkey does when they're on their way to Far Far Away.

He flinched and glared at me. I love making him squirm.

But soon I had to laugh at the look on his face.

And they say that laughter is contagious.

I wish we could have stayed there, laughing like that. It would've saved a lot of heartbreak.

But then the heads of cabins came back—all but Percy, Annabeth, and Clarisse. Castor Greene, head of Dionysus, called me from the doorway of his cabin.

I ran over.

"Hey, Kathryn," he said. He knew my name! He knew it! I had a major crush on Castor. "Chiron wants you in the Big House."

"Why?" I asked.

"Like I'd know," he replied. I started to walk away, disappointed that something hadn't happened, when Castor put his hand gently on my shoulder. "He seems kind of agitated. Be careful."

I grinned, not trusting myself to speak.