This is just a silly one-shot I thought of the other day. I'm sorry if it sucks or if any of the characters are OOC.
Also, I'm not actually sure when this takes place. All of the HoO characters have been introduced, and the two camps know about each other. I don't really know. It's kind of an alternate universe thing. Sort of. I just don't know.
Review! Constructive criticism is appreciated! You can even flame if you want.
Anyway, enjoy!
Nico scraped a small portion of his breakfast into the into the brazier, before stomping over to the his table. He slammed his plate down on the table irritably. He stared menacingly at his plate of food as if he wanted to vaporize it with his eyes.
Nico was not happy.
"Hey, Nico." A familiar voice interrupted his brooding.
"Go away, Percy."
Percy frowned. "What's wrong?"
Nico took a bite of his toast and chewed angrily. "I'm just in a bad mood."
"Why?"
"Because," Nico glowered. "It's February." Nico managed to spit out the last word like it was some kind of terrible disease.
"So?"
"What do you mean 'so'?" Nico snapped indignantly. "It's the absolute worst month of the entire year!"
"Um, why?"
Percy might as well had asked what color the sky was with the look that Nico gave him. "Because theres so much pink." Nico shuddered. "And everyone gets all lovey-dovey. It's absolutely disgusting!"
Percy just stared at Nico.
"What are you staring at?" Nico asked grumpily.
Suddenly Percy burst out in an uncontrollable fit of laughter. "Thats why you're in such a bad mood?" Percy managed between laughs.
"Yes!" Nico exclaimed.
Percy had managed to stifle his laughter. "Wow. You are so-" Percy searched for the best word to describe his little cousin. "You're just so Nico!"
Nico raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means, strange little cousin, that there is no other word to describe the weirdness that is you."
"I'm not sure if that's an insult or not."
"Don't worry about it." said Percy. "See you later, Nico."
"Bye, Percy." Nico grumbled.
When Nico had finished his food he headed straight for the sword arena. He was ready to destroy some practice dummies.
When he got there there were some Aphrodite campers pinning up a flyer of some kind.
Two of the three girls looked like they might be twins. They both had blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. They also wore identical jean shorts and camp T-shirts. The third girl had dark hair that she wore in a perfect bun on the top of her head.
Nico strode over to them. "What are you doing?"
"We're pinning up flyers." said one of the blond girls.
"Duh." added her look-alike.
Nico groaned. "I meant to ask what the flyers are for."
All three of the girls eyes lit up. "Chiron is letting us host a Valentine's dance!" Said the dark haired girl, Ashley. He'd met her once before at archery practice.
"It's going to be so much fun!" Exclaimed one of the blondies.
"No." Nico was horrified. "This is not happening."
"You mean you're not excited?" Asked one of the girls. .
"No. No, I am not excited. This is a horrible idea!"
The girls looked hurt. "No it's not!" Ashley exclaimed. "Think of all the cute couples we can make!"
Nico scowled up at the sky.
"Why do the gods hate me!?" Nico shouted, waving his arms at the heavens. "What did I do to deserve this cruel fate?"
Nico stomped off, suddenly not in the mood to train.
Nico stormed straight toward his cabin, not wanting to risk running into more bad luck. That happened in February. Bad luck was everywhere. Along with pink things. So much pink stuff.
Nico shuddered.
And then there was the hearts. Hearts everywhere. Heart shaped cookies, heart shaped candy, heart shaped invitations to stupid Valentine dances with heart shaped decorations.
But worst of all were the pink hearts. Nico thought he was going to throw up.
Nico threw open the door to his cabin and slunked in. He took a few steps and then collapsed on his bed. It was only halfway through the day and already he was exhausted. Being awesome took a lot of energy.
Nico groaned and buried his head in his pillow. His pillow was black like all pillows should be. It was not pink and there were no hearts adorning it. His cabin was the one place the curse of February could not affect him.
Or so he thought.
Just as Nico was finally drifting off into a lazy afternoon nap the most annoying thing happened; There was a knock at the door.
"Go away!" Nico shouted before dropping his head back into his pillow.
There was another knock.
"Ugh! Did you not hear me? Go away!"
And then the knock came again. "What the Hades do you want!" Nico jumped up and bolted to the door. He flung it open. "Go away!" Nico practically screamed at a blue-eyed Aphrodite girl.
"Um, hi." The girl had a high pitched valley-girl voice, and she had a large blob of bubble gum in her mouth. "I was, like, wondering if I could, like, post this flyer on your cabin." The girl blew a large bubble and it popped in her face.
Nico looked at the flyer in her hands. It was the same as the one Ashley and the two blonde girls had. It seemed the whole Aphrodite cabin was in on the dance.
The flyer was pink and a white lace design was printed around the border. Ugh. Nico had forgot about the lace. The thing was covered in hearts of all sizes, and colors. Despite the diversity of the color one color was very prominent...pink. In the center of the page (the only place with no hearts) printed in loopy half-cursive writing that was enough to make any demigod's head hurt were these words:
Camp Half Blood's First Annual Valentines Day Ball
February 12, 7:00-10:00
"No. There is no way you're putting that- that thing on my cabin." Nico sputtered. "Now get that pink monstrosity away from me!"
The girl gave him a strange look. "But pink is, like, such a pretty color!"
"No, it is not!"
"Oh-kay." the girl rolled her eye's. "But your cabin really could use a little, like, brightening up. Here!" The girl reached into an expensive looking purse and pulled out a shiny bottle. Before Nico could say a word he and his cabin were covered in glitter. "Much better!" The girl said cheerily, before skipping off.
"What just happened?" Nico asked himself, before examining the damage. He realized that not only had he been doused with glitter, but the glitter was also pink. Not only that, but the girl had still managed to pin the pink flyer on his door before leaving.
Nico was really mad.
"This means war." Nico muttered to nobody in particular. But Nico knew that if he were to get revenge on those silly Aphrodite girls and their stupid dance he would need help.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Nico looked around to make sure that no one was watching before knocking on the Hermes cabin door. After a few moments, Travis Stoll opened the door.
"Hey, Nico." he greeted. "Woah, did you know you're sparkly? Seriously dude, glitter is not your thing."
"Yeah, I realize this," said Nico, "Thats why I need your help" Nico said darkly.
"Um, there is absolutely no way I'm helping you take a shower. Sorry, man."
Nico face-palmed. "I don't need you to help me take a shower. I need you to help me get revenge on the Aphrodite cabin."
Travis grinned. "That's my specialty." He turned and stuck his head back into his cabin and called for his brother, Connor . "You should come in."
Nico followed Travis into the Hermes cabin. The cabin had a lot less unclaimed campers, since the Titan war. The gods seemed to be keeping their promise for the most part. Travis led him to the back of the cabin where his brother sat on a bunk with a bucket full of random items that were probably stolen from other campers, Hermes being the god of thieves.
"Hey Connor ," Travis greeted his brother, "We have another customer."
Connor 's face lit up. "Nice. What does the Ghost King need?"
"He needs help pranking the Aphrodite cabin."
"Cool. I've been meaning to do that anyway." Connor pushed his bucket under the bed.
"So, what did the Aphrodite cabin do to deserve your wrath, Nico?" asked Travis.
"They are hosting a Valentines dance. And they glittered me."
"And you care because...?" asked Connor .
"Because I hate Valentines day. And glitter." said Nico moodily.
Connor shrugged. "Any excuse to prank the Aphrodite cabin is a good one."
"So, what did you have in mind?" asked Travis.
"I don't know; I'm not very good at this kind of thing." Nico said.
"We could put snakes in their beds." suggested Connor .
"Nah, we did that last week." Travis said.
"We could steal all of their makeup and replace it with vegetables." Nico put in.
The two brothers stared at Nico blankly until Connor said, "Um, I understand the stealing their makeup part, but why vegetables?"
"Because no one likes vegetables." Nico said.
"Uh, lets keep thinking." said Travis.
"Ooh! I've got it!" exclaimed Connor .
"What?" asked Nico.
"Okay, heres what were gonna do..."
"This is a brilliant idea!" chirped Travis as he hauled the buckets of black paint from the camp store.
"You don't have to remind me of my amazingness." Connor smiled deviously.
Nico was starting to have second thoughts. "You realize that Piper is going to kill us, right?"
"Hey, it was your idea to prank the Aphrodite cabin." said Connor nonchalantly.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Nico said doubtfully.
"Plus, I doubt Piper will actually care much. It's Drew we have to look out for." remarked Travis.
They snuck up to the Aphrodite cabin. Travis was still hauling the black paint while Nico and Connor carried the rest of the things they'd need in brown paper bags.
They had had to duck behind a bush to wait for all of the Aphrodite campers to leave for lunch. Naturally it took about fifteen minutes more than most cabins would take because they had to 'primp'. Nico actually had no idea what that meant.
After the last camper shuffled out the three boys approached the door cautiously, as if it might explode. Slowly, Nico turned the doorknob, and pushed open the door. Nico took one silent step into the cabin (Nico felt the need to be silent even though no one was there. It just felt like the right thing to do at the time).
Suddenly Nico was blasted with a torrent of liquid that smelled like roses and vanilla and made him dizzy. "Agggh!" Nico exclaimed. "Is this...perfume?"
"That's new." Connor pointed out helpfully. "There was no automatic perfume sprayer last time we pranked the Aphrodite cabin. They probably just installed it."
"Great. Just my luck,they install the automatic perfume dispenser the one time I've ever tried to get into the Aphrodite cabin. Now I smell like flowers and I sparkle." Nico grumbled. "I am not Edward Cullen!"
Connor chuckled as he turned off the Perfume Sprayer of Misery, as Nico had come to think of it as. "Travis, you take one bucket of paint outside and get to work while Nico and I take care of things in here."
"Okay." Travis said, handing Connor one of the two buckets and exiting the cabin.
Nico and Connor set to work. Conner dipped a paintbrush in his bucket of paint and began randomly flinging black paint everywhere. Nico went into the bathroom and quickly located several large containers of makeup. Nico opened them one by one and dumped them out in an empty bag. After all of the containers were empty he began filling them with dirt that was infested with all kinds of bugs and worms.
After all the makeup was gone Nico found all of the cabins CDs, and replaced the Justin Bieber and One Direction with Avenged Sevenfold and Black Veil Brides. He changed all the posters as well.
They finished with just enough time to sneak into the dining pavillion without anyone knowing where they had gone.
Nico shoved as much food as possible into his mouth. He was starving, and with any luck he would finish eating before the Aphrodite cabin so he had time to hide.
But Nico forgot one tiny detail; he was never lucky. He was too busy stuffing his face with sandwiches and potato chips. He didn't notice the last Aphrodite camper had left until he was on his fifth sub.
By then it was too late.
He heard an indignant scream coming from the direction of the cabins. "Oops." he muttered around a mouthful of sandwich. Nico jumped up from his seat and sprinted for his cabin with half a sandwich still in his hand.
Nico didn't stop running until he was safely in his cabin. Hopefully the Aphrodite campers would blame the Stolls. It's not like Nico had ever done anything like this before. Then it hit him: The CDs. He'd replaced the CDs with his own. The ones that said his name on them. Nico had really not thought this through.
There was an angry knock at the door, and Drew's voice flooded in. "Di Angelo, open the door right now!"
Nico felt compelled to do just that. He wanted to open the door and have a nice long chat with all the pretty Aphrodite campers...
Nico smacked himself in the face. He remembered Drew had charmspeak, and instantly clamped his hands over his ears. He walked up to the window and gazed at the nightmarish scene that was spread out before him. Lots of very attractive angry (mostly blonde) demigods, carrying weapons of all kinds.
Nico could not escape through the front door, but if he didn't leave the Aphrodite campers would surely break down the door. A rather large guy from the Aphrodite cabin carried a large spear at the front of the group. Nico had to think fast or he might get turned into a Nico-kebob.
Nico had an idea. He rushed to the bathroom and flung open the door. He spotted a small window about eight feet up. Nico jumped and grabbed onto the ledge. He then pulled himself up slowly.
When Nico finally hoisted himself onto the window ledge he realized there was one tiny flaw in his plan. The window was obviously far too small for any normal human being to fit through. "Dammit!" Nico muttered to himself. Nico decided he would have to try, because anything was better that having to face the wrath of the Aphrodite cabin.
Nico than found yet another flaw in his plan. The window didn't have a latch. "How the hell am I supposed to open this?" Nico asked himself.
So Nico did the only sensible thing; He punched a hole right through the window. His hand came back bloody with shards of glass in it. Nico cursed under his breath and shook out his hand. Nico pulled a knife out of a pocket in his aviator jacket (yes, he randomly carries those things with him) and began picking at the shards of glass that stuck in the window frame.
When he got the majority of the glass out of the frame he stuffed his knife back into his pocket. Nico took a deep breath and hung his feet out the window. He flipped onto his belly and attempted to lower himself down. Unfortunately, the window was too small for even Nico's thin frame. Nico tried to pull himself back into the room, but sadly he failed. Nico found himself to be stuck in the window.
Nico wriggled around, trying to find a way to dislodge himself from the window frame. "Really?" Nico sighed. "Why do the gods hate me?"
Nico figured there was no other option. He would have to shadow travel.
Nico concentrated on where he wanted to go. He felt the shadows close around him and then the familiar feeling of being on a high speed roller coaster.
Suddenly Nico slammed into the ground at Camp Jupiter. He hadn't meant to go all the way across the country.
Nico looked up to find his half sister looking down on him with a concerned look on her face. "Um, Nico?" she asked "What are you doing here?"
Nico sighed and stood up. "That's kind of a long story..."
"So explain." Hazel said.
Nico quickly recounted his day, with Hazel stopping him once or twice to ask questions. When he finished his story Hazel just stared, like Percy had done earlier that day.
"What?!" Nico asked. "Why are you staring at me?"
Hazel shook her head. "I know you are supposed to be my big brother, but sometimes I wonder about your age."
Nico shot a glare at Hazel, who just laughed. "Oh, Nico."