One winter morning at Camp Half Blood, Nico di Angelo looked out the window of the Hades Cabin and cursed in Italian. The entire camp was covered in at least a foot of snow. Cold, white, wet, sparkly, annoying snow! Grumbling to himself he pulled on his clothes, grabbed his sword, and went to get some breakfast.
As soon as he stepped outside something cold and wet slammed into his face. Nico wiped the remains of the snowball out of his eyes and looked for his attacker.
Wham! Another blob of slush hit him squarely in the chest, soaking his aviator jacket. This time he caught a flash of curly hair turning the corner of the Hades Cabin. Only one person at Camp was stupid enough to attack him twice. "Valdez!" Nico yelled.
Nico caught up with the son of Hephaestus outside the Demeter Cabin. Leo was laughing hysterically. "Man, that was so awesome! You should have seen your face!" he yelled.
Nico grinned evilly. "Oh, you're not going to like attack me or anything, are you?" said Leo, nervously realizing the possible consequence of his actions.
"No," Nico was still grinning evilly. "As long as I get to attack Percy!"
Less than a minute later the two boys were waiting outside the door of the Poseidon Cabin and Leo was showing Nico his extremely awesome new snowball-making machine. The contraption was about the size of a loaf of bread and made of several confusing Celestial Bronze levers, buttons, and gears.
A few moments later the door opened and Percy stepped out. Bam! Bam! Startled, Percy drew Riptide and lunged about wildly. Leo and Nico erupted into laughter. Fast as lightening he scooped up handfuls of snow and flung them at the other demigods. "Snowball fight!" someone yelled. They were all laughing when Annabeth came over in the midst of their epic battle.
"Wham!" A snowball hit her in the face. She stood perfectly still and wiped the slush out of her eyes. Then, she began throwing snowballs back at the boys. Within minutes Piper and Clarisse had joined the battle and it had dissolved into a girls vs. boys snowball fight.
"What in Zeus's name is going on here!" The teenagers had not noticed Chiron approach. He stamped his hoof against the snowy ground.
"That is enough!" he said, his voice ringing clearly through the freezing January air. "You are trained warriors not squabbling siblings! A snowball fight, boys versus girls will take place on the cabin commons. I will referee. You have fifteen minutes to prepare strategies, forts, and snowballs. Begin."
The teenagers were stunned but delighted. The two teams immediately raced to opposite sides of the commons and began to work.
On the girls side Annabeth immediately began to give orders. Clarisse dragged bronze shields from the supply shed and leaned them against each other making a tunnel shaped sort of like a triangular prism, but with circular panels. They then proceeded to bank snow along the sides and on top of it creating a high, thick wall in the shape of a semicircle with a convenient hiding place for snowballs.
On the boys side Leo was the one in charge. Percy used his powers over water to shift massive amounts of snow and then cover the wall in ice. Nico set up the complicated machine Leo had created and started making ammunition. When the time was up there were two walls roughly 30 yards apart. Both were vaguely semicircular in shape and about three and a half feet high.
Chiron stamped his hoof against the now firmly packed snow of no man's land. "If you are hit you are out! Last demigod standing wins for their team. Begin!" he shouted.
The boys primed the catapult and launched the first snowball. The girls flattened themselves against the wall of their fort. Clarisse clenched her fist around a snowball and readied herself to leap up and throw it, but Annabeth stopped her.
"Wait a second," she whispered. Another snowball flew over the wall and exploded. Then two more came flying the second narrowly missing Piper. Annabeth seemed to be doing calculations in her head. After a moment she began to speak.
"Alright it takes 2.7 seconds two prime and reload the catapult which gives us very little time to get up, aim, and throw the snowball while still getting down in time to not get hit."
"So what's the plan wise girl?" said Clarisse gruffly.
"Actually, I have an idea," Piper offered.
After a few return volleys that clearly missed their mark the snowballs from the girls' side began to fly harder and faster. From a well-concealed peephole in the wall Percy noticed odd, almost imperceptible marks being inexplicably created in the snow. Well, inexplicable if you didn't know Annabeth had an invisibility hat. He whispered to Leo who changed the direction of the catapult's aim and launched. The snowball hit its target perfectly, knocking the hat off Piper's head and hitting her squarely in the eye. To his shock, Percy could already see a purple bruise forming.
"Ow," Piper groaned, "ow, ow, ow."
"She's pretty… I mean she's hurt," said Nico, who had the least experience with Piper's unique abilities. Without further ado he swung himself over the wall and went over to help her.
"Nico, no!" shouted both of the guys at once but it was two late. Both Annabeth and Clarisse were already over the wall launching snowballs at the enemy. Within seconds all three of the boys were out.
"The girls are the victors!" shouted Chiron as Piper got up, completely unharmed.
"You should remember next time that Annabeth can manipulate the Mist," she said.
"And that Piper can charmspeak," said her friend.
"You know Annabeth you're pretty good at building stuff." Leo had a maniacal grin on his face. We should work together some time." His eyes lit up and his hands started smoking. "I have an idea! But, I need to borrow your phone." Once Annabeth had responded to his odd request Leo punched in a number.
"Hey Jason," he said over the phone. "Get Hazel and Frank over here now! Greek vs. Roman snowball fight!"