Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Yvette. (I think Riordan mentioned an Arts and Crafts pavilion somewhere, so I don't own that, either.)

.

ANNABETH

III

I had never seen anybody handle the Stolls so perfectly.

Okay, back up. When Yvette came up the hill, I thought, Cool demigod. She was a figure I would have liked to be friends with.

When Yvette stared back at me instead of glancing away as I studied her, I thought, Brave girl. And stubborn. I would have liked to know more about her. In fact, I instantly tried to figure her out.

With most demigods, this wasn't a problem. They had distinctive marks to them, either physically or mentally that showed within half an hour of conversation. If nothing came, they weren't a demigod.

But here it was different. Yvette had features of almost every god: Instant dominance from Zeus, Cynicism from Hermes and Hades and Nemesis, Wit from Athena and Apollo. I couldn't figure out who her father was, try as I might.

I have to admit, I was jealous of her. She seemed to see this as a game, an episode in her life like a child going through a phase where they became attached to everything pink. Or unicorn. Or barbie. Or other crap like that.

I sighed and kicked a few stones out of the way. I walked out of the cabin circle and into the woods, coming to a stop by the creek. I sat down, brooding over Yvette's godly parent in the peace and quiet of the woods.

"Guess who?" somebody's laughing voice asked, hands clamped around my eyes. I batted them away. "Seaweed brain, stop it."

Percy sat down next to me, an arm around my shoulders. "Actually, it's Percy. Though I would like to meet this Seaweed brain." I elbowed him playfully.

"So, what's Yvette like?" he asked, then shook his head. "Yvette. Weirdest name I've ever heard."

"She has the Stolls wrapped around her fingers. Seriously, no contest. The girl is way more experienced in comebacks. Her name is French for yew or archer," I replied. Percy snorted. "Fits her. Do you have any idea who her godly parent is?

I sighed and lowered my head, letting my hair fall over my face. "That's the part where I have to pass."

"Hey," he said. "Why so sad all of a sudden?"

I groaned. "Yvette. I just can't read her. She's got traits, physically and mentally, of all the gods. She's sassy, good with comebacks, has a bow and isn't that bad with it, she's smart and witty and she uses that wit and then, of course, she's pretty thick-headed. Which reminds me of a person I happen to know…" I trailed off and glanced at him.

Percy laughed. "I don't think so. But we'll find out at Capture-the-flag, if not sooner."

I sighed. "I just… I'm a daughter of Athena. I should know stuff like this."

"Come on," Percy said. "You found out your knife was the cursed blade before I did. You didn't give up when I was gone. You sent Connor a note on a napkin from Tartarus. You can do and have done more than anybody else in this entire universe. And tonight, you are going to show it by owning the other team."

I smiled. "You think so?"

He smiled. "Oh, this is going to sound totally cliche, but I know so."

"You're right," I said. "It did sound totally cliche. Now, about Capture-the-Flag… I think we'll take the flanks this time. Not frontal assault like we usually do. We get the bulk of our warriors to go through the middle, create a distraction. Then the two of us sneak around the border like this…" I drew a map in the dirt.

Percy leaned over. "See, this is what I mean. You always have a plan."

I smiled, brushing my finger lightly over the wet river soil. "And then we rendezvous at the nearest possible point to the flag, like so… And voila! We have the flag and get it out of the territory as quickly as possible."

Percy nodded. "Makes sense. See, my plan would have been the frontal assault again, but you've got them all tripping around in the dark."

"Why, thank you," I smiled. "Athena always has a plan, right?"

"So do you," he said and kissed me.

I carefully drew my pencil over the white texture of the construction paper, finishing the design. It was a new idea for a fountain I wanted to build on Olympus, much like the ones in New Rome.

I elbowed my younger sibling, Malcolm. He was the second oldest and my closest confidant next to Percy. "What do you think?"

"Ingenious," he said. "I would ask you how you keep coming up with all these ideas, but I am guessing that's top secret, right?"

"Not at all," I said, straight-faced. "The secret is to eat a lot of butter popcorn. You'll get major brain waves after about five years."

Malcolm shook his head. "Too long and too much a risk of getting fat. I think I'll stay healthy and eat low-fat yoghurt instead." He turned back to his design, a new, improved design for canoes. My brother insisted it was genius, wait until we tried them out. I did think it was rather weird, but Malcolm's ideas usually worked, so I had decided to trust him.

I rolled up the large paper to present at the big house. From there, it would go through Hermes' air transport to the official Olympian architects, who would then approve my work and make it a physical thing.

Glancing over to the other group inside the Arts and Crafts workshop, I realized that it was the Hermes cabin and with them, Yvette.

Curious, I walked over to her table. The kids were all laughing hysterically and Yvette was grinning from ear to ear. My daughter-of-Athena side whispered, Look at all this mess and the chaos. There's no work getting done here. I shook my head and took a peek at Yvette's construction paper. Everybody is allowed to have fun sometimes.

The blonde girl had drawn a scene in the woods, that much I could recognize. There might have been a creek flowing through the middle and there might have not. Yvette wasn't really much of an artist, and the paper was a little smudged, but she smiled and drew with passion, adding colors to the scenery.

The kids ran around her, teasing each other and stealing her pens. She laughed and slapped one of them on the hand before reclaiming her blue pencil from another. I found out that, yes, there was indeed a river - or a creek? - when she dragged the color across the afore-perfect construction paper. Brown and orange dashes covered the trees and olive and teal and lime was brushed into the leaves. Then, there were a few sparrows, maybe, and a squirrel on a branch.

Yvette signed the paper and gave it to a six-year-old, who immediately folded it into an expert paper plane.

I smiled as I watched her run over to save her masterpiece, the kid giggling and holding it out of her reach. Just before she reached him, he threw it into the air. The plane sailed past my face and through the air, doing several loops.

I was impressed by how long it stayed in the air, though I suspected there was a little Hermes magic involved. The small, white aircraft sank down gently on the Stoll table.

My smile was erased when I saw Connor's expression. Travis was joking with the others, building something that looked suspiciously like an exploding apple from glitter glue, food coloring, stencils and elastic bands, but Connor was sitting alone, looking gloomy.

He brought up a little smile on his face whenever his companions cracked a joke, but mostly he watched his brother's hands whirring around his project and occasionally sneaking glances in Yvette's direction.

It hit me then. Oh gods, Connor likes Yvette! Maybe it was a simple crush, but maybe it was more. And if Yvette was a Hermes child, they wouldn't be able to date. Simple DNA science.

I felt sorry for them as I watched a disheartened Connor carefully pick up the plane and present it to Yvette. The blonde was still laughing with the little kid, but her face turned a little superior when Connor came over. "Thanks. I was wondering where David hid my forest." She poked the offending David's belly.

Connor smiled as the kid squealed. "Hey, we steal things. It's a Hermes thing."

Yvette smiled. "It's also kind of illegal. That's why I don't steal. Or borrow without giving back." She put tiny quotation marks into the air.

Connor perked up a little. "You don't, uh… borrow stuff?"

"Never have, won't anytime soon." She waved and turned to find a very guilty David holding the two ripped pieces of her forest. "Oh… give me a break. Come here!" She ran after him, laughing.

Connor stood there, alone, scratching his head, probably trying to find out if this was a good thing or a bad thing. I turned and walked out of the Arts and Crafts building with my blueprint under my arm and mixed emotions in my brain.

So if Yvette has never stolen anything in her life, this means it's very unlikely that she's a child of Hermes. I'm so happy for Connor! Although it doesn't seem as if she likes him right now… On the other hand, I still don't know who her godly parent is. Come on, Annabeth! Think! You should know who it is…

I hope you liked it!

Are Annabeth and Connor IC enough? Next up is Percy's POV!

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