I didn't remember getting any sleep the night of October thirtieth.
I slipped into Bunker 9, hoping Leo wouldn't see me. As soon as I stepped in, he was standing there with a pair of steam-punk themed goggles and a tool-belt.
"Who told you?" I asked. I actually didn't tell anyone where I was going, but I could tell Annabeth wasn't stupid. She probably knew where I was going with three blades.
"Ehem, do you agree to the terms and conditions?" Leo asked with an impish grin on his face.
"No one actually reads those!" I laughed. I grabbed the supplies from his grease covered hands and looked for tools I should've had.
"The pockets are magically reinforced, just like mine," he said. Of all of things he could've pulled out, he got a Hot Pocket. "Want one?" He asked with a mouthful of cheese and pepperoni.
"Whatever, Valdez. Help me get everything together will you?" The rest of the night was a blur. I woke up to see that Leo, curled in fetal position, was on the other side of the Bunker.
I let him lay there a little longer while I went to look at my "one-of-a-kind" dagger. The mixture of different metals made a spiraling design of black, gold, and bronze, while the hilt was a worn color pearl.
I went to grab my tool-belt and holster for my dagger, when I realized that both white leather materials had been melded together. On a rather large patch of leather a couple of words were burned into it: Copyright of Leo Valdez.
I smiled and figured that I would bring him back some hot chocolate from breakfast.
As soon as I opened the door, a giant spider web trapped me. Anyone could tell it wasn't real, it was just stick ropes, but I was still furious.
"Leo!" I shouted. Forget letting him sleep. My tool-belt had fallen out of my hand, so no use there. "Leo, get me out of this!"
Two teenage boys, dressed in camo, came from behind a tree laughing hysterically, yelling "Gotcha Valdez!"
"ARE YOU THE DOUCHES THAT SET THIS UP?" I screamed. If you have ever seen Zeus on his worst day, then you could probably imagine how pissed I was. They looked at me, smiles slowly melting from their faces.
"Connor, I don't think that's Leo," one twin said to the other.
Leo came walking slowly out of Bunker 9, just in time to stop and look at me tangled in the web.
"Stolls, I swear to the Gods, if you don't get her down I will fry you to a crisp," Leo said very calmly, but that was the scariest part.
"Cool down," Connor said, approaching the web to get me out. "Just a Halloween prank."
After walking into the cabin, the one I haven't been in yet, I met my siblings, but I didn't feel as close to them as I did Leo.
I changed into a white button-down shirt, a pair of black semi-skinny jeans, and my black combat boots. I clamped my tool-belt in place, being sure to show off that my wonderful brother had made it for me, and walked out of the cabin, bumping into Leo, Hazel, Annabeth, and a couple of other kids I didn't know.
"I gotcha you," a boy, blonde with sky blue eyes and a scar on his upper lip, caught me by my small elbows, making sure I didn't face-plant into the dark soil beneath me.
"Thanks," I said mildly embarrassed. I just then remembered Leo saying that we were going to meet his friends before afternoon capture the flag, and he gave very brief descriptions with names. "You must be… Jason," I guessed.
"And you must be correct," he said. "This is my girlfriend, Piper." Jason pointed to the girl next to him. She was gorgeous. No other way to describe her.
"Hi!" Hazel squealed as she rushed up to me, hand-in-hand with an Asian guy who looked as if he had just hit puberty.
"I'm Frank," he mumbled in a deep voice. Annabeth was talking hurriedly to a boy with dark hair and sea green eyes, who must've been her husband Percy.
"Alright then!" Nico shouted behind me, appearing out of thin air. "Let's go capture some flags!"
I had never used a weapon, let alone hold one with confidence, in my entire life, so capture the flag was going to be challenging for me. Leo said that he had usually set traps, decoy flags, to lure in the other team. In this way, he wouldn't have to fight, but still say he contributed. But unlike my brother, I had a lot of anger to vent out.
The rules were literally as follows: Don't kill anyone, although you have to use sheer force to get the other team's flag. Looking at Leo as I put my armor on, I could tell why he didn't play.
Jason and Nico walked up to me as we headed into the woods. Piper, Annabeth, and Frank were on the other team, while ours had children of the big three. I thought of it as an unfair advantage, but then I realized that the whole of Ares, Athena, and Apollo was on the other team. Not that much of an unfair advantage anymore.
"Hey," Nico whispered in my ear, his skin looking more olive than white. "You'll be fine. Just remember, stay in the trees." And with that bit of helpful information, he dashed off towards the river.
I wasn't paying attention when the first arrow was shot. It whizzed past my head with such force that I fell out of the tree I was hiding in.
"Alright!" I shouted. "Do your figuratively speaking worst!" Just then, an arrow landed between my feet. I rocketed backwards, my tool-belt cushioning my fall.
"I said figuratively peaking you douche-muffin!" I unsheathed my dagger, and reflected some light off of it, hitting the guy that was shooting at me in the eye. He tumbled out of the tree he was in, about forty yards away, covering his eye-place region.
Then, all Hades broke loose.
Kids from the Ares cabin, including Frank, charged from nearby bushes and rocks. Some of them were caught in Leo's traps, being hoisted into the air by invisible rope, but the others were dead-set on getting to me.
"Curl up!" I heard Frank scream. Then I noticed he was at the front of the pack. Then I noticed his armor was the same color as mine. Then I curled into a ball, my knees digging into my chest as Frank scooped me up without any effort.
"Thanks," I muttered, highly embarrassed that I had to be carried to safety.
"Don't worry about it," he replied, loosing speed as we lost the angry mob. About two minutes later he had dropped me off and told me that Jason was waiting for me at the juniper by the river.
"Alright, Beast Boy," I whispered, aware that someone could've heard us. I climbed the nearest tree, leaping from one empty one to the next, until I caught sight of the juniper.
"Jupiter's bolt, you gotta be kidding me!" He yelled as a pack of very burly teenagers surrounded him. I could see the flag hiding behind the tree, and I knew what was about to happen. As if a command was given, I leapt off of the tree onto a very unhappy red-head boy.
"Get off," he grunted, throwing me in the direction of the rock next to his feet.
"Jordan!" Jason yelled, his eyes full of alarm as his best friend's little sister was lying motionless on the ground. But that was the plan. As soon as the boy moved an inch closer I stabbed his leg with my dagger, blood dripping down his leg.
"Sorry! Sorry! Ooh, I'm sorry!" I yelped as I struck down on kid by another. Soon enough, all of the teens were limping off, bloodied or bruised.
Then I puked. I had never actually caused someone to bleed, and the smell was getting to my head.
"You'll be fine," Jason cooed as he held my hair out of my face. "Happens to everyone once in a while."
I stopped hurling all over the base of the juniper, and immediately it turned into a very pissed off Nymph.
"You little…"she cut herself off, storming of into the direction of the closest water source.
"Shit!" I groaned. "The flag!" it was all exposed, but Jason didn't seem to care.
"Don't worry about the flag," Nico chimed in, scaring the hell out of me. "I already got it." He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, probably noticing that I had barf breath.
It was pretty perfect. Pretty perfect indeed.
