"Alright guys, good work today! You did alright. If you guys have any questions on what we went over, just let me know. See ya!" Christopher waves everyone out of the forges then goes back in to clean up the mess they made. "Hopeless. Most of them are hopeless."

"Sorry not all of us can be as good at working with machines as you are." Cecilia smirks, messing with the feathers in an arrow. Christopher jumps and drops the hammer he was holding.

"Damn it Cece! Just because you can stay silent and scare the crap out of me doesn't mean you should! This is why I like machines - they don't scare you unless you tell them to!" Christopher picks up the hammer and places it among the other tools on his work bench. "What do you want anyway?"

"Can't I just come by to say hello? Dang" cecilia taunts him, hoping down from the bench she was sitting on. "I was also wondering if you could sharpen υπέροχες μπουκιές for me?"

"Fine. I guess. Why on earth you named her"lovely bites" I'll never understand" rolling his eyes, Christopher takes the sword from her sheath and brings it over to be sharpened.

"It's none of your business why I named it that."

"A sword is a she, just like a hammer is a he" Christopher states, looking at the blade. "I want to know where you got this blade made. It's not bad work." He flips it and holds it out to her.

"I've already told you I had it made when I was with my aunt in Europe. Why do you need to know specifically where I got it made?"

"Because weapons are sort of my forte. Now can you get out of here please so I can get back to work?" Cecilia stands in front of his work bench, picking up random things off of it. "Don't touch that! That's for the chariot race! Give me that! I swear you're like a child." She sticks out her tongue at him, putting down some sort of contraption she had picked up off of the bench.

"Fine, I'll get out of your curls. Don't get your tool belt in a twist. Thanks for helping me out. I appreciate it!" Cecilia calls to him as she walks out and heads to the Hermes cabin. Her shirt had gotten torn during training and she wanted to get the leaves and dirt out of her hair before it was time for dinner. It had been a relatively easy day for her as she had just gone through her regular classes. She was afraid that Percy had found a way around her magic abilities but it was very unlikely.

Walking in, Cecilia is unsurprised to find the cabin covered in smoke and a mess. While Cecilia always kept her area clean, some of the other campers did not have the same concerns and did not care about the cabin being a mess. Sadly it was normally up to her to clean the bathroom and to try and keep the place relatively clean. Waving her hand in front of her face and coughing slightly, Cecilia walks to her bed and sits down, letting her hair down and grabbing her brush. Slowly, Cecilia brushes her hair out and then pulls it up again into a ponytail. She had no reason to look 'cute' and she certainly didn't care about looks as much as the other Aphrodite kids. Even if her mother did claim her, Cecilia was determined not to change and suddenly care about her appearance more than anything else.

"Hey Cecilia! Sorry about the smoke, minor accident!" Travis, a son of Hermes, sheepishly apologizes, running his right hand through his tousled brown hair.

"I'm kind of used to it by now but thanks anyway. I'm guessing you and Connor are trying to figure out a new kind of smoke bomb?"

"Yup. It's for a prank."

"Well I'll give you this. You may have gone off to college but you certainly haven't lost your fun side." Cecilia smiles and pulls a shirt out of her bag, "now if you will excuse me I must go and change my shirt before dinner tonight." She gives him a polite nod and walks to the bathrooms, changing her shirt there. Travis and Connor had always been kind to her and understanding of her not being chosen but she knew that, just like everyone else, they were waiting for her to be claimed. It wasn't her fault that her mother was behind on her duties. Still, the two sons of Hermes had made it clear to her that she was welcome to stay in their cabin for as long as she needed to. Looking in the mirror, Cecilia examines herself up and down. "As if you could be the daughter of the goddess of beauty" she scoffs at herself, walking out of the bathroom and out of the cabin. She did not need to think about it anymore. All she wanted to do now was forget that she had the conversation with Percy and Chiron and go on with her life.

But when do demigods ever get what they want?

The rest of the day passed by and soon it was the next day. It started out like any other and soon enough it was time for capture the flag. Cecilia, along with the rest of the residents of the Hermes cabin, dressed for battle. The Hermes cabin was paired up with the campers from Cabins 15 (Hypnos), 6 (Athena), 12 (Dionysus), 20 (Hecate), 14 (Iris), 16 (Nemesis), and 9 (Hephaestus). They were also technically paired with cabins 1 (Zeus) and 13 (Hades) but those cabins were not in use because Nico di Angelo did not stay there for very long and there weren't any children of Zeus currently living in Cabin One. They were up against the remaining cabins which consisted of the children of Demeter, Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares, Hebe, Tyche, Nike, Poseidon, and Hera (even though there were none, they still liked to include the cabin). Cecilia pulls on her armor and tightens it, putting her sword in its sheath and making sure her dagger is secure. With her armor on and her helmet under her arm, she and the rest of Cabin 11 walk to Zephyros Creek to begin the games.

"Alright young heros! Quiet please! Thank you!" Chiron calls from on top a small hill, the creek between him and the heros. "Percy, if you would explain the rules please." Percy nods and jumps down into the creek, creating a small stage for himself on the water.

"Alright, most of you know the rules. No maiming or killing. You can take prisoners but you may not gag them or chain them up, we have a prison for that. You know your teams, stay on them. No going behind your team's back and being a traitor. Each team gets a flag and a territory. No more than two guards, I repeat two guards and yes twins count as two seperate people" Connor and Travis both chuckle at this. "You get the other team's flag and you bring it across good old Zephyros to either Chiron or myself and your team wins. Any questions?"

"Just one - can I join?" Everyone turns as Nico di Angelo speaks from the back of the crowd. Percy smiles and walks on to shore, shaking his hand in welcome.

"Of course. You're with the blue team. Alright! Let's get this going. You each have twenty minutes to set up defenses. Oh and there are some extra traps set up in the woods today so be extra careful. Good luck and may the gods be with you." Percy smiles and goes back to his spot by Chiron.

"Excellent Percy. Blue team, you are by Zeus' Fist. Red you are opposite them. Good luck to all of you." Chiron gives them a kind smile and waves them off. Each team jogs off to their spot, the Athena cabin taking charge for the blue team and the Ares cabin taking charge for the red team. Cecilia puts on her helmet as they jog to their base of operations.

"Alright, I want Connor as a guard and I need another volunteer." Yasmine, the current leader of Cabin 6, instructs once they reach the fist. Penelope, a daughter of Iris, raises her hand and volunteers. Yasmine nods and then moves on, pulling out a map and explaining what they were going to do. The Hephaestus kids were already out setting up traps around their perimeter that would capture but not kill their opponents. Those that were remaining were to be the charging force. Cecilia, Christopher, and Nico were to try and sneak around to get to their flag while the rest were occupied. Christopher was slightly upset he didn't get to help set up the traps but understood.

The blue team listens as the horn is blown to begin the games. The charge heads out into the woods, ready to meet their opponents in battle, while the three took the long way around, following the creek. "So, decided to give us another shot or just hanging out for the day?" Cecilia asks Nico as they move along the creek side.

"Why do you ask? Did you miss me?"

"Pssh, as if!"

"Will you two be quiet before we get caught?" Christopher asks, pulling a small machine from his belt. It looked like a small bumble bee. "This is equipped with a camera, it'll tell me who we're going to be up against once we reach their flag." Christopher turns it on and sends it off ahead of them, looking at his watch as he does so. "Looks like they've set up some pretty dense plant coverage and have archers all around from Apollo's kids. We'll need to take care of them-" Chris is cut off as an animal leaps out from the woods, knocking him into the water. Cecilia recognizes it as a giant wolf and is shocked to find one out in the woods of Camp.

Regardless of her shock, Cecilia jumps into action to save her friend. Nico and her circle around, getting it's attention. The wolf looked up from trying to eat Christopher and snarls at them, watching both of them carefully. Cecilia takes a risk, sprinting toward the creature and stabbing at it. "Come on ugly! Come and get me!" Her main concern was getting Chris out from under the creature. She stabs it in its side once and immediately regrets it as it leaps at her. Rolling to the side, she barely escapes from it's paw. Nico grabs Chris out of the water as Cecilia jumps up and faces off with the dog. "A little help guys!"

"Yeah! Coming!" Chris calls, his voice full of pain as he digs through his bag "oh come on! Where is it!" Nico runs forward to help, getting the creature in its back leg. Cecilia slices its paw as it raises it to swipe at Nico. "Aha! Here it is! Cece! Catch!" Chris throws a green jar to Cece, holding his shoulder as he does. Cecilia barely catches the jar and sees what it is - Greek fire. Grinning, she runs in front of the wolf.

"Hey! Puppy! Chew on this!" As the animal opens its mouth to snack on her, she chucks the jar into it's open jaws. The jar immediately breaks and the animal gives one last whimper as its insides burn and it turns to a pile of ash. Cece doesn't wait around to celebrate, running to Chri. "Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah" Chris winces "I'll be fine. Just go on without me, I'll catch up if I can." Nico and Cece don't hang around to argue with him and take off toward the red team, both running hard as they had lost time. They weren't about to waste another second if they could help it.

"Alright, so we know they have archers set up. We need a distraction for them." Cecilia offers as they get closer.

"Do you think you can handle the two guards on your own?"

"I'm not letting you run off!" the two stop as they reach the edge of tall grass, grass that hadn't been there that morning.

"I can shadow travel and take out all of the archers while you handle the two guards. Can you do it?" Cecilia nods and sighs, "good. I can call Mrs O'Leary to shadow travel you across this grass. It's probably full of traps and other stuff, maybe even people." Without waiting for a response, Nico disappears into the shadows and then reappears a second later with Mrs. O'Leary, the only friendly hellhound in existence.

Cecilia climbs on top of Mrs. O'Leary and pets behind her ears, "alright girl. Take me into their fortress." Closing her eyes, Cecilia clings to Mrs. O'Leary as they run into the shadows and reappear across the new meadow. Cecilia jumps down off of the dog and pets her, dismissing her.

"This is so boring, we never get the fun jobs" Adam, a son of Aphrodite complains, as he sits on a rock and picks his nails.

"I know, right? Ugh, I swear. I am sooo done with this place!" Aystin, his twin sister, agrees as she admires hers in the sunlight. Cecilia rolls her eyes at their behavior, sneaking up behind them to grab the flag that sat in front of them. They'd left a wide, non grassy perimeter so it was easy to appear behind them. Cecilia also knew that they weren't paying attention to her and, even if they did, they wouldn't fight her.

"I'll write Dad and he might let us take the jet to Paris for the rest of the summer, wouldn't that be awesome?"

"It would be but not as awesome as this!" Cecilia couldn't help but gloat a little as she sprinted out and grabbed the flag, not giving them enough time to even stand up as she ran through the grass, her sword knocking it down in front of her.

"Hey! That's ours!" Adam yells, chasing behind her with his sword drawn.

"Not anymore pretty boy!" Cecilia yells behind her, willing her legs to go faster. The last thing she wanted was to be caught by Adam. Suddenly, the wind is knocked out of her as someone trips her, sending her tumbling out of the grassy coverage. She rolls and clings to the flag, jumping up and shoving it in her pocket.

"Hey there unclaimed. Ready to dance with me?" Ryan, a son of Ares, stands before her in red armor, a sadistic grin on his face. He fought with a spear and a shield but was just as terrifying with any other weapon.

"I would but I really have to be off!" Cecilia turns to run but comes face to face with another Ares camper. "Shit." Cecilia dodges as Ryan jabs, side stepping a blow from the other one's hammer. Cecilia keeps on her toes, dodging and blocking as she is moved by them. All she needed to do was get back to the Fist and across the river. Carefully, she takes her time and exams each of them. The one with the hammer was newer, very new. It appeared he'd only been there a few days at most. Timing his swings, she waits for the right moment before stepping forward and slicing his side, taking him out of the equation so to speak.

"You sneaky bitch!" Ryan keeps coming at her, keeping his shield up whenever she tries to strike him. Cecilia begins to panic as Ryan gets closer and closer to wounding her. Seeing this, Ryan's grin grows and he becomes more aggressive. "You really do suck! No wonder your mother doesn't want to claim you!"

Blood thundering in her ears, Cecilia blocks one of his jabs and yells "let me pass!" The effect of the magic is immediate, Ryan drops his weapons and steps to the side, letting her pass. Cecilia freezes for a second, completely stunned he listened, before she takes off in a sprint back to the Fist. On the way there she isn't interrupted by anyone or anything. She reaches the fist and sees Connor and Penelope taking on three people dressed in red. Without taking the time to announce herself, she sprints across the river and holds out the red flag to Percy. Percy smiles and takes it, holding it high for all to see as Chiron blows the horn to signal the end.

The blue team had won.