Greetings my demigod friends. This series of one-shots are all about things that were mentioned in PJO or HoO, but never went into detail. I'm going "Behind the Scenes" of Percy Jackson, and writing about those things.

This first one is about one of Annabeth's early years at Camp Half-Blood and is about the bead that she got that summer, which was a centaur in a prom dress.

Disclaimers: I do not own anything Percy Jackson (which really sucks). None of these events were proven to actually take place in the series. All rights go to my absolute favorite author, Rick Riordan. Thank you, Mr. Riordan, for giving us these wonderful series.

Quote from book:

"I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress- now that was a weird summer…"

A Centaur in a Prom Dress

"It is impossible," Chiron exclaims. "Zoe is a hunter of Artemis, herself! She cannot be beaten in some simple archery contest!"

"But sir," Lee Fletcher presses. "I believe she can. After all, my dad is the god of archery."

"It is preposterous. I'm telling you, my boy, it cannot be done. She has had thousands of years of training."

We were at the campfire and Lee had brought up the idea of an archery contest the next day against the newly arrived leader of the hunters of Artemis, Zoe.

My name is Annabeth by the way, Annabeth Chase. I'm a 9-year-old daughter of Athena here at Camp Half- Blood, the only safe place for demigods like myself.

"But Chiron!" Lee insists.

"I'm sorry, child, I don't believe it can be done. Most likely if you lose, the hunters will never forget. They're immortal, so they will always find a way to bring it up for all eternity," Chiron explains.

"Wanna' bet?" yells a voice from the 3rd row. It's Travis Stoll, the son of Hermes.

"Yeah!" shouts his brother, Connor. "Let's make a bet!"

"Stolls," Luke, my friend, warns.

"Excuse me?" asks Chiron, taken aback by the sudden outbursts.

"Let's do the contest!" Travis shouts. "If Lee wins then we get something from you, and if Zoe wins, you get something from us."

"Shut up, Travis!" calls another voice. It's Katie Gardner, a daughter of Demeter who hated the Stolls from the start. She shrinks down onto the bench when everyone starts staring.

But Chiron's eyes get a glint in them. He's didn't like the Stoll brothers from the moment they took a picture of his tail in curlers. He's tried to live it down ever since, but every once in a while, you'll hear a, "Remember that time when-", or "That was so funny when-".

Anyway, Chiron has needed a way to get back at them ever since. If the Stolls lose this bet…

"Alright boys," Chiron says with a hint of a smile. "I agree to your terms. If you lose this bet, it's a month of dish duty for both of you plus no campfire for two weeks."

A month of dish duty? I'm absolutely positive that the Stolls will back down, but they must be the world's biggest idiots, because they just grin and nod.

"Make it two months," taunts Travis.

"Done," Chiron confirms, raising his eyebrows a bit.

"But, if we win, you just need to do one little dare," adds Connor.

This is when Chiron gets a little nervous. The Stoll's dares can get a little… elaborate. His tail flicks back and forth and I know that it's not because of any flies. After a moment's hesitation he agrees.

"I'm sorry, dear Lee," Chiron says, turning to the son of Apollo, "But I'm afraid that a few certain sons of Hermes will have to be getting some lava-proof gloves fitted soon."

(line break)

The Next Day:

I hurry along to the crowded archery range to get there in time for the contest. But I find a surprise there.

In front of the stationery archery targets, there has been a 20-ft. pole set up with a tiny little target strung up at the top.

I'm just in time because Zoe and Lee are just finishing warming up. They turn to Chiron and give him a nod of assent that they are ready.

"The contest is simple," Chiron's voice booms, somehow magically enhanced. "The first archer to hit a bull's-eye is the winner; the winner will receive custom made weapons from our own camper, Charles Beckendorf."

Beckendorf cringes at his first name.

After a moment of suspense, with Zoe and Lee getting ready to fire, Chiron shouts, "You may begin!"

Zoe fires first, and the commentating daughter of Demeter, Rosie Wells, calls it as a hit in the ring just outside of the bull's-eye.

I'm distracted from Lee's first shot, by the Stoll brothers taking something small out of a burlap sack and throwing it on the ground, next to Zoe. Nobody notices. Odd.

I can't see the thing very well, but it sure looks ugly. I'm about to shout at the brothers, when Rosie deems Lee's shot also a hit to the ring out side the bull's-eye.

By the time, I look back at Zoe's feet, the thing is gone, but something is happening.

Zoe, who was poised, aimed, and ready to fire, just a second ago, is making odd movements out on the range. She shakes her bow and starts screaming as the thing crawls up her legs. When it reaches her shoulder, sending Zoe in to a fit, I get a clear look at it. It's a one foot long centipede, an ugly brown color, with little antennae tickling Zoe's face, causing her to scream even louder. I realize, through all the books I've read, that it's a scolopendra, a giant bug native to South America.

Once Zoe comes to her senses, she flings the scolopendra off onto the ground and before it can even try to escape, she shoots it, pinning it to the ground with a silver arrow.

But as she aims again, she's interrupted by loud cheering coming from the campers. Rosie announced, through all the commotion, that Lee had hit a bull's-eye.

I'm about to celebrate when I notice Zoe's downright murderous expression.

"Phoebe," she yells, her voice dangerously calm, like Chiron's gets sometimes. "Arrows B5 please."

Phoebe releases her quiver from her shoulder, opens a panel in the side and punches in a number, furiously. Immediately the fletching on the arrows turn a fiery red color.

She gracefully tosses the quiver to Zoe, who calmly loads her bow takes aim at the Apollo cabin, and fires.

The cabin explodes into a giant fireball of heat.

Now, the cheering has stopped. The camp stands in shock, while a couple of Apollo campers trickle forward onto the range, with looks matching Zoe's exactly.

"Injustice!" Zoe proclaims. "There was a beast! A monster let loose on thy range, which targeted me!"

Travis pushes through the crowd, and picks up the dead scolopendra, tossing aside the arrow. He holds it up and shouts at Zoe, "Is this the mighty "beast" you're talking about? Such a monster! So frightening, this little bug!"

Then, with only a flash of silver and another explosion, the Hermes cabin is destroyed.

Travis's taunting expression turns into shock, than rage.

"Who do you think you are?" he shouts. Then the crowd surges forward and I get knocked over in the commotion.

With a blow of a conch horn and the arrival and departure of the Hunters' timber wolves and falcons, the Hunters of Artemis leave.

(linebreak)

3 Hours Later:

I confront the Stoll brothers by the Demeter cabin door.

At first, I watch them for a while. Connor whispers some thing in Travis's ear and pats his shoulder, in what seems to be reassurance. Then Travis takes a deep breath and puts his hand on the doorknob.

"I know your secret," I say.

He whips around, his hand flying from the doorknob. He sputters some random things at me before he finally stutters out, "How?"

"Somehow, you got it past everybody else, but not me."

Travis looks panicked.

"Gods, Annabeth!" he exclaims. "Please don't tell her!"

"Oh," I start. "I will- wait. Her?"

Now he looks confused.

"Katie," he says slowly.

"About the scolopendra?" I ask.

"What? No," he says. "About the-oh! That's the secret. Never mind." He sighs in relief.

After a moment of confusion, I compose myself.

"I'm going to report you," I say. "To Chiron."

Their eyes widened and they both started arguing.

"Please don't!" they cried.

"Why shouldn't I?" I asked skeptically.

"Don't you want to see what we have in store for Chiron?" Connor asks with a grin.

I hesitate. I admit, while some of their dares are awful, one on Chiron couldn't be that bad, could it?

They take my hesitation as a yes.

"We promise it won't be that bad," says Travis.

"Yeah. Nothing health risking," Connor chimes.

I think for a bit.

"On one condition," I say. "No more Spiderman."

Last October, the Stoll brothers decided it would be a great idea to both dress up as Spiderman and trick-or-treat at the Athena cabin. Let's just say that the incident resulted in general terror, several broken bones, and two charred Spiderman costumes.

They winced. "Done," they chorused.

"And," I add, while I still have some leverage. "10 drachmas… each."

They start to protest.

"Or," I cut them off. "I could just go to Chiron right now."

They give me the money.

"Thank you," I say, starting to skip away in a very devious little daughter of Athena way.

Then I stop abruptly and turn.

"What was the other secret?" I ask.

Travis turns as red as one of Apollo's sacred cows and glances back at the Demeter cabin, where you can hear laughter and talking.

"It's nothing," he mutters.

As I walk away, I try not to notice the flower he had in his hand… obviously for Katie Gardner.

(linebreak):

Campfire that night:

A murmur goes through the crowd as people crane there necks to see where Chiron is going to emerge in a few minutes.

Lee is being paraded around as a hero and I know that he hates it. Whether or not he knows that the Stoll brothers were behind it or not, he knows that he didn't win fair and square.

Finally, the Stoll brothers announce Chiron and he steps on to the temporary stage… in a bright pink, frilly prom dress.

The 10-foot hearty, bright yellow fire grows to 15 feet and turns a fiery shade of orange.

Then everyone bursts into gales of laughter.

(linebreak):

End of Summer:

As the crowd gathers at the amphitheater, excitement is in the air as well as sadness because of the end of the summer.

Beckendorf passes out the summer's beads and laughter rings out as people receive them.

I can't wait to get mine. I'm trying to look over people's shoulders, but I'm too short. I wait a while and finally receive it.

I can't hold down the laughter; it's a centaur in a prom dress.

Thanks for reading.

If you have any recommendations, please put them on a review or PM me.

If you're as totally pumped as me about the House of Hades coming out in 1 freaking day, I'd do a very fangirly (or fanboyish) happy dance. Whoo hoo!

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