"Are you guys sure she's not here?" Percy said, looking around. Nico rolled his eyes at him.
"Yeah,Percy. Dear Annie is not around. Thalia's coming with the co- Oh, there she is!"
Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, showed up next to her cousins with a plate of blue chocolate-chip cookies baked especially by Miss Jackson. The only think that all demigods at Camp Half-Blood and Jupiter alike loved and completely drooled over were the cookies she would send every Fourth of July. Today, Percy made a special request for three dozens of cookies.
Thalia threw herself down on the grass.
"Watch out!" Percy said. "Or you'll impale yourself on your arrows!"
Thalia rolled her electric eyes. "You could say the same for Nico. I think he sleeps with that sword of his under his pillow."
Nico blushed. "Whatever, Pinecone Face." he responded. "Last time we were here," he said, looking at the arrows that were still stuck in the grass. "It was your turn. So by all means, let's get on with it."
"Alright," Thalia agreed, taking a cookie as she thought. "What if...what if Piper and Clarisse exchanged bodies?" She cracked up at her own joke, closely followed by Percy and Nico.
"That's so crude I can't even imagine how it'll end." Percy said, catching his breath. He took a cookie. Nico took two.
"I'll go next," Nico said, smirking.
"Uh oh," Percy said. Nico turned to him.
"What?" he asked innocently.
"You ideas tend to be quite creepy," Thalia said, shuddering.
"Yeah," Percy agreed. "Most of them include Annabeth avenging me after Thalia tortures me to death or something.
"Thalia started that fiesta!" Nico demanded, groaning. He seemed to finally find a suitable question. "What if Annabeth was dumb? There, that's better?" He looked hopefully at his cousins.
Percy and Thalia looked at Nico. Then at each other. They broke into a fit of laughter that had to be controlled.
"She-she," Thalia gasped for breath. "Oh gods, Nico, that's not a possibility! If Annie were dumb, we'd have died a thousand times already!"
"Ten-fold." Percy added helpfully, after managing to gain control over his laughter.
"My turn," Percy said, taking three cookies and stuffing them in his mouth. After about twenty seconds of world-record quick chewing, Percy swallowed and grinned goofily at his companions. "What if Blackjack had started dating Scipio?"
Thalia and Nico immediately recoiled.
"Percy!" Thalia half-scolded. "That's just so...so..."
"disturbingly weird." Nico completed. He grinned with new found interest. "I like that!" Thalia shook her head at them, scooped up some cookies, and raised her hand threateningly.
"Don't throw them!" Percy yelled. "You know how much persuasion I needed to use to get those! Mom's cookies are too precious to be thrown, Thalia Grace! These are not cheesy- wait, that's not the right turn, HA, these are not corny- wait, that's not right either...okay, these are not phony nachos! Nachos? Hold on," Percy looked at his cousins in confusion. "What were we talking about again?"
Thalia and Nico shared a look, then shook their heads. "He's hopeless," Nico said sadly.
"My turn," Thalia said, slowly putting down the cookies and chewing on one. "If Batman was a demigod, whose son will he be?"
Nico and Percy stared at Thalia. "Seriously?" Percy said, chuckling. "A...son of Nemesis? I mean, he wants revenge and all, huh?"
"I resent that!" Nico said. "The guy's cool enough to be a Son Of Hades."
Percy snorted. "Yeah, right. That would be like me saying Superman could be a son of Zeus."
"Actually," Thalia remarked, glaring at Percy. "That's a possibility."
Nico smirked triumphantly at Percy. "Oh, shut up!" Percy groaned.
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face says it all, man."
"Since when do you read body-language?"
"..."
"Percy?"
"..."
"Never mind, it's my turn. What do you think would happen if someone dyed Festus pink?"
Thalia snorted. "Trust me, you don't want to do that."
Percy nodded seriously. "I think Jason avoided Leo for a week after that incident."
"Do I even want to know?" Nico inquired.
"Nope."
"Me next!" Percy said. "What if Leo dated Thalia! Thaleo! I like the sound of that!"
-About an hour later-
"Percy this is entirely your fault, you know?" Annabeth said, rubbing some cream on Percy's back. Percy groaned. "I didn't know it was going to turn into a wresting match! We had cookies, Annabeth. COOKIES! I thought that would keep us from fighting." His chin fell into the pillow. "Apparently, I was wrong.
"I got the worst of it!" Nico demanded. "Only for saying that Thalia joined the Hunters because she knew no one would be insane enough to date her. Was there anything wrong with that?"
Annabeth shook her head, sighing. "No, Nico." she said softly. "There was absolutely nothing offending and hurtful about that statement."
"See, even Annabeth agrees!"
"Shut up!" Thalia said.
"Calm down, Thals." Annabeth soothed. "You still have a severed zombie hand stuck to your foot, and yelling at Nico won't pull it off."
The daughter of Athena sighed. Why me, she thought.
-On Olympus-
"And again," Zeus cheered. "My daughter made your two excuses for off-springs look like deplorable losers!"
"Ha!" Poseidon protested. "You call them deplorable losers while your own daughter is scared of a few boys."
"Thalia is not scared!"
"You should have seen her face! Redder than Alecto's whip!" Hades added helpfully.
"Thank you, brother." Poseidon said. "Sometimes I just forget that I enjoy your company when you're not being a Death-Head."
Hades glared. "On the other hand, blowfish-for-brains, I seem to remember Nico dealing with Zeus' brat better than your son."
"Oh, you two are just jealous my daughter was able to beat the Styx out of our children."
"Not a chance, Thunder-face!" Poseidon yelled.
Zeus opened his mouth to respond to that insult when Lady Athena walked in.
She frowned. "Not again! Do I have to keep telling you to stop spying on your children and, I don't know, go make some natural disasters or so? I take pity on Annabeth now! She is burdened with keeping your foolish off-springs from killing each other accidentally."
Athena looked at the ceiling. Why her?