Aye, guys! c:

This is a new multi-chapter story that TeamPiper and I came up with! (:
It's a Christmas themed spin-off of Calm Before The Storm, and therefore Stolen: The Rise of Chaos, technically! If you've not read those, please do! Now, on with the chapter!

AJ's POV—

I wake up covered in layer upon layers of cover, with the rest of the Poseidon cabin up and running around the cabin. A huge blue Christmas tree rests in the corner, seashells and coral ornaments adorned on it, blue and purple lights strung to the limbs. Everyone's in the festive Christmas spirit, putting up stockings on the walls, drinking hot chocolate, and all the Christmas-y stuff like that.

Mac sits on the bunk under me, slipping on a green and red Christmas sweater.

"You're awake, finally!" she scoffs, laughing lightly. "Heavy sleeper much?"

I rub the sleep out of my eyes. "I guess..."

"You need to get ready!" I say. "We're all meeting up in a bit."

"Who?" I ask tiredly.

"The gang!" she puts her index and middle finger on the bridge of her nose, squeezing tightly. "Gods, sometimes I wonder what your life would be without me."

I roll my eyes, then sit up on my bunk. The other Poseidon kids walk out the door, closing it. I walk into the bathroom and slip on a pair of jeans, my tennis shoes, a long-sleeved blue T-shirt, then pull on a thick jacket. I step out of the bathroom, and walk over to the door. Standing in the door frame talking is Mac, and then there's Hollie, standing next to the hearth, which burns at full height.

Her blonde hair is tucked tightly into a toboggan, her bangs the only thing hanging out, covering her face. She's wearing a jacket wrapped around her small body. She's tucked into a pair of tight blue jeans, and—despite the fact it's below freezing outside—she's bare-footed. But this isn't a problem for her, to be honest. See, she's blind, but she's a daughter of Demeter—the goddess of the Earth—so she can see with her feet, sorta.

"Mac!" she shouts, motioning towards her. "Short Straw! Hurry up!"

I laugh lightly, then start to jog over towards her, my breath turning to mist. Running up behind her is Will, his arms outstretched, as if to catch her. She tenses right before he gets to her, then turns around quickly, punching him in the gut.

"Nice try, Hot-Shot." she smirks. He just sighs.

We all walk over to the pavilion, a circular marble building, besides the fact it has no walls or roof—just columns propped up in certain places. Strung in-between the columns is garland with boughs of holly tied into them. Mistletoe dangles in random places, no doubt held up by spells from the Hecate cabin—or possibly the Aphrodite cabin, since that's sorta associated with love?

Everyone's dressed Christmas-y, and most of the Aphrodite girls wear Mrs. Claus' dresses which are way too short. Some of the guys wear Santa hats, which they actually can pull off. The only person I can see not really dressed up for Christmas is the Hades kids and then my friend Mason, the son of Hephaestus.

He's wearing a pair of black jeans, his combat boots, his dagger and a long sword strapped to his belt, and a sleeveless shirt, so I figured he must be freezing—but more unlikely not, because he seemed to be radiating a layer of heat. In fact, most of the pavilion floor is covered in a thin layer of snow, though there's a small circle of dry ground around where he stands. He's standing next to Cami, daughter of Athena, and they talk. He looks agitated, moving his hands as they're talking.

As we walk over to them, I hear, "—there can't be another quest—" then they notice us coming over and stop abruptly.

"What was that?" Mac asks.

"Oh, I was just explaining about how this is my first American Christmas," Cami lies, terribly.

"Nice!" Hollie says, obviously not paying attention—though, since she's blind, it's hard to tell if she's paying attention or not.

"Let's get some breakfast," Mason says, eyeing me warily.

We all walk over to the endless buffet table, and I pick up on my plate some fresh crunchy bacon, and pick up a few pancakes which are shaped like reindeer, with a nutmeg smell to them and berries stuffed inside of them. I drown them with maple syrup, then drop the juiciest slice of bacon in the brazier for the gods. Mac and I sit down at our table, and oddly enough, everyone's sitting at the wrong table—I guess Chiron was being generous for Christmas—so we walk over to the Hephaestus table, where Ray, Mason, a few Hephaestus campers, Hollie, and Bay are sitting.

"Well, hey there, guys." Ray says, laughing.

"Sup?" I say, slipping onto the bench on the other side. Will comes over and sits next to me, stealing one of my bacon slices.

"Not much, just planning for the annual cabin-decorating contest later today." Ray says, taking a bite of pancake.

"Wait. What's that?" Bay asks, looking up at the mistletoe above her head and the boys giggling at her. She lights her index finger like a birthday candle, then shoots a flame up at it, and it crumbles to ashes.

"Man, you dunno what that is?!" Mason exclaims. "Oh... you're a new camper, along with these guys!"

"Oh my gods! You have to know what this is!" Hollie exclaims.

"Well, see, on Christmas, all the cabins have this decorating contest. Whoever decorates their cabin the best wins golden laurels. Whoever loses has to clean the bathrooms until Valentines Day." Ray says.

"Harsh," Bay says, a hint of a smile on her face.

"Oh, well, it's gonna be harsh for you when the Poseidon cabin beats you all!" Mac says, throwing up her hands.

"You haven't seen what a Hecate kid can do with a spellbook, have you?" Bay asks, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, Hephaestus is the god of inventors." Mason says, smirking. "We've won for the past five years."

"That is a lie!" Hollie says. "Last year, the Demeter cabin won! It looked amazing!"

"Hollie, you couldn't even see it."

"No, Wolowitz, I couldn't see it." she says. "But I know it was better than yours. Why do you even care, anyways? You're Jewish."

Mason frowns. "I'm not Jewish..."

"And Demeter is just that awesome." she says smugly. "So you can all get stuffed."

It's not long before we're all throwing out threats of who's going to win and who's going to lose.

"Wait!" Mac says, nearly spilling her Mountain Dew. "Why don't we have a contest inside a contest?!"

"Uh... a what?" I ask stupidly.

"Whoever the losing cabin is out of us has to sleep outside tonight!"

"Sounds like a bet," Bay says, flashing up a Christmas light bracelet on her wrist. "Just so you know, I've been studying spells for conjuring stuff up. Ya'll better be getting your sleeping bags ready."

He he. c:
I'm going to really enjoy writing this.
So, I need a bit of help coming up with what'll happen later on. So...

Poll!

Make it twenty chapters, one for each cabin, and how they decorate their cabins;

OR;

Make it just a few chapters, one for each cabin participating in the contest-inside-a-contest, so it'd be like six chapters.

Please vote! This is sort of giving you your own option in the making of this story! c:

Until next time.