"Perseus Jackson, they are going to murder you for doing this!"
"I believe you mean us for you're doing this too, remember?" Percy gently reminded Annabeth as he laid out what he was going to wear later that evening.
"Only because you're forcing me too!" she spat at him, sitting down on the bunk, huffing. Percy rolled his eyes.
"I'm not forcing you to do anything, Wise Girl. I'm just strongly suggesting that you come with us," Percy said, turning to face her. Annabeth's expression strongly told him that she didn't believe him.
"Come on, Annabeth," Willow said pleadingly as she shuffled through the trunk at the end of her bunk. "We need someone to be our Goddess of Wisdom. Will you please do it? If you don't, then we might have to get someone who's less qualified to do it instead of yourself."
"Yeah, Annabeth, someone less qualified to portray your mother could be selected if you don't step up," Percy teased. Annabeth crossed her arms across her chest, shooting glares at both of them.
"I will not be disgracing my mother like this!" she snapped.
"We're not disgracing them, Annabeth," Percy informed her. "We're just...using them as influences for our outing for tonight."
"Yeah, it'll be fun!" Willow chirped happily, throwing a few articles of clothing onto Percy's bunk. Percy nodded, smiling encouraging at Annabeth.
"Please? Will you do it?" they both begged. Annabeth couldn't withstand both Percy's puppy eyes and Willow's trembling lower lip. She caved faster than either of them could have expected.
"Alright, alright," Annabeth said, sighing in defeat. Percy whooped, grinning at his sister.
"We are amazing, aren't we?" Willow nodded, smiling.
"Now come on Annabeth, get your stuff and meet us at Aphrodite's Cabin in five, okay? And Perce, you're supposed to go over to Hermes' Cabin, mainly 'cause they can fit everyone." Percy chuckled, gathering up the clothes he'd found and headed out the door.
"I can't believe you two talked me into this..." Annabeth muttered, following him out. Willow laughed to herself, getting her own stuff, and heading out to Cabin Ten. Willow knocked on the door of Barbie Doll World-as she liked to call it. Usually she steered clear of the place, but Drew was out for the school year so she was in the clear.
"Hey Willow, ready for tonight?" Katie asked as she walked up next to her, a bag slung over her shoulder.
"If we don't die, this should be the best night of my life!" Willow replied smiling as the door was opened by Silena.
"Wonderful! Clarisse and Thalia are already here," she told them, ushering them in. "If you're missing something for your costumes, let me know. I'm sure we could find something lying around here."
"Awesome!" Willow said with a grin, walking in with Katie. Thaila was half-dressed in a puffy black dress with a dress coat laying on a bed near her. Clarisse was putting on armor and had a wickedly sharp sword strapped to her side.
"I don't think you look like 'civil disobedience' Clarisse," Willow said, looking at her questioning. Clarisse looked herself over in a full length mirror.
"What the hell does civil whatnot look like anyway?" she spat. Willow plopped down onto an empty bunk and started to undress.
"What Thalia usually looks like."
"Hey! I do not look like 'civil disobedience'!" Thalia growled, puffing up the ruffles in her dress.
"You usually look like you're either going to rob a mini-mart or steal pocket money from a ten year-old," Katie informed her matter-of-factly. Thalia's mouth dropped. Willow stifled her laughter in a pillow. Even Clarisse had to work hard on not laughing. Silena smiled, turning away from them.
"I do not rob mini-marts!" Thalia snapped. Katie rolled her eyes, dumping her bag out on a dresser.
"I never said you did," Katie replied. "I merely said that's what you look like on a regular basis." Clarisse snorted with laughter along with Willow.
"Hey Thalia, can I borrow your leather jacket so I can go mug a cop?" Clarisse snickered as Thalia chucked a can of hairspray at Clarisse. The door opened and Annabeth ducked just in time to miss being hit with the can.
"Geez, rough party."
"You're already ready? That why you're late?" Silena asked, rubbing bright red lipstick across her lips.
"Yeah, it was easy, so I thought I'd come wait in here." Annabeth was dressed up in a bright purple sweater vest over a long sleeve white shirt and a knee-length black skirt. She had a thick book tucked under her arm. Thick wool socks were pulled up to her knees; they clashed horribly with the Mary Janes she was wearing. Annabeth had an even brighter purple bow tie around her neck and thick black glasses with liberal amounts of tape on the bridge of her nose.
"Oh Annabeth, you look amazing!" Silena squealed. She walked over, pushing Annabeth into a chair and started putting her hair up into extremely high pigtails.
"Is this really necessary?" Annabeth asked uncertainly, eyeing Silena in the mirror.
"Of course! All nerds have their hair up in high pigtails!" Clarisse chuckled as she rooted through someone's trunk, looking for punk clothes to wear for the night.
"Hey guys?" Willow said questionly, looking around. "How many of us are going?"
"Twelve of us," Annabeth said at once. "Why do you ask?
"Well, if Nico's going to be Hades, who isn't an Olympian, then we're missing someone," Willow pointed out as she pulled up fishnet stockings. Everyone else stopped what they were doing and looked at each other, silently going over who was coming and what they were dressing up as.
"We're missing Hera," Katie announced to them. Annabeth groaned.
"Who in their right mind would want to be her?"
"Well we'll have to find someone or this whole thing will be pointless."
"We've got about forty minutes before we're supposed to meet the boys."
"Who would be willing to dress up as Hera and be ready in the next forty minutes?"
"I got nothing."
"Beats me."
"Maybe one of the Hermes kids?"
"I got it!" Willow cried, smiling widely. "Chrystal can do it!"
"Chrystal?" Thalia asked.
"Yeah, she's a friend of mine. She's in Cabin 9. I'm sure she'll do it."
"That's wonderful!" Silena said as she put the finishing touches on Annabeth's hair. According to Annabeth's face, the pigtails were very tight.
"You should go ask her," Thalia said as she started putting on black eye shadow.
"I'm half dressed," Willow reminded her. Thalia glanced back at her.
"Fine. Annabeth, go ask her."
"Why me?"
"Because you don't look like a stripper."
"Hey!" Silena and Willow cried indignantly.
"I wasn't talking about you two," Thalia said smoothly. "Besides, you're supposed to look like strippers." Silena huffed, crossing her arms. Willow muttered darkly under her breath. "So Annabeth, go get us a Hera!"
"Yeah, yeah," Annabeth said with a lazy arm wave and walked out the door. Willow looked herself over in a nearby mirror, then at Katie.
"Do I really look like a stripper?" she asked in an undertone. Katie shrugged.
"Kinda."
"Great."

*********/Page Break/**********

"They're late."
"Give 'em a minute. They are girls. They're never on time."
"So what? It's six fifteen. We're losing daylight!"
Percy, Grover, Connor, Travis, Beckendorf, and Nico stood at the top of Half-Blood Hill beneath Thalia's Pine waiting for the girls.
"This is ridiculous!" Travis groaned. "We'll never get there in time if they don't hurry up!"
"Cool it, Trav, here they come now," Beckendorf said, pointing to the bottom of the hill. Seven girls walked up the hill all decked out in their costumes. From this distance, it was hard to tell who was who. From here, they could see a black puff ball, a goth, two strippers, someone covered in what looked like wheat, a nerd, and someone who looked like they were a lawyer.
"Man, you guys look just as bad as us," the goth girl said as they drew level with the boys.
"Wasn't that the point?" Nico asked.
"Yep, it was," one of the strippers replied.
"Alright," the nerd said loudly, "roll call. Zeus, the God of Little Black Rain Clouds."
"Here," Thalia called, sitting down under her tree.
"Hera, Goddess of Divorce."
"Present," Chrystal replied, smoothing the wrinkles out of her snappy jacket.
"Poseidon, the God of Really Hot Lifeguards."
"Obviously here," Percy said with a winning smile, throwing his life saver into the air.
"Demeter, Goddess of Pesticides."
"Here," Katie said rather glumly. Travis gave her shoulders a light squeeze.
"Ares, the God of Civil Disobedience."
"Right here," Clarisse said carelessly. Connor snorted.
"That's what you think it looks like?"
"You wanna see what a knuckle sandwich tastes like, punk?" Clarisse demanded, raising her fist. Annabeth cut them off.
"I'm here, Goddess of Nerds. What about Apollo, God of Homosexuals?" Connor took a step away from Clarisse. "Yeah, I'm here."
"Not for long," Clarisse muttered.
"I'm here too, Annabeth," Willow called over to her. "Artemis, Goddess of Lesbianism. Also to speed this up, everyone else is here. Not that I don't enjoy role call, but it does get dull." Annabeth rolled her eyes, but nodded in agreement.
"Point taken. Does everyone have something to put candy in?" The whole crowd shouted 'yes' so they all moved down Half-Blood Hill and into the mortal world. The thirteen of them piled into the strawberry van with Annabeth behind the wheel. They drove into the city chattering happily and nervously to each other.
When they got into the heart of New York City, parking the van a few blocks from a string of apartments on the Upper East Side.
"If we get separated for any reason, we'll all meet up at my place at eight," Percy informed them.
"And what if something happens to one of us?" Chrystal asked, looking over at the older campers.
"Well first of all, nothing's going to happen, and secondly, if it does, you're rocking an awesome divorcée costume," Percy told her. Annabeth cuffed him on the back of his head.
"Nothing is going to happen to you," Annabeth told her firmly. Chrystal nodded, not exactly reassured.
"Alright everyone, let's go!" The thirteen demigods all poured out of the van, grabbing their bags and pillow cases they had brought along. They walked up to the nearest apartment building and trekked inside, knocking on the nearest door.
"Trick-or-treat!" they yelled together. The door opened. The woman looked them over, looking something just short of horror.
"Umm, aren't you all a little old for this?" she asked. Clarisse rolled her eyes.
"Listen lady," she snapped, grabbing Chrystal. "This little girl is eleven and wanted her older siblings to come with her. Would you want us to deny an eleven year-old the pleasure of trick-or-treating?" The woman actually took a step back. Without another word, she put a couple of pieces of candy into everyone's bag. Chyrstal got a whole handful. Clarisse smirked triumphantly once the door was closed. "I'm brilliant."
"Or stupid. Hard to tell sometimes," Connor muttered.
"One more crack like that, Stoll, and I'm killing you."
"You are not killing him!" Willow snapped. Connor hid his smirk from Clarisse.
"You're too soft on him, Falls."
"I wonder why," Travis murmured. Willow punched him in the arm.
"I might kill you though..."
Annabeth broke them up, sending the Stolls to the back and Willow to the front with Clarisse.
They trekked on for several hours, collecting candy, insulting each other, stealing candy from small children (mainly the Stolls) and much pelting of the lesser candies. Example: Percy chucking Now And Laters at Thalia halfway across a street; the candy missed Thalia's face and hit smack-dab in the middle of a sedan's windshield. The pack of Demigods ran for it.
No one really knew who they were and they never really explained either. It was fun that they knew who they were all that's all that mattered. Several of them were a little jumpy throughout the night, but none of them were more terrified until thunder rolled loudly around them and the twelve Olympians descended from the clouds.
"How dare you!" Zeus boomed. Chrystal actually fainted. Beckendorf caught her before she hit the ground.
"We're just having a little fun," Clarisse retorted. Thalia nodded.
"Besides, it's funny, and you know it!" The Olympians glanced at each other. The demigods secretly crossed their fingers, hoping the gods would see it the same way they did.
"I told you so," Annabeth mumbled in Percy's ear.
"Shut up, Wise Girl!"
"I'll kick you, Seaweed Brain."
"Shut it!" Nico hissed.
The gods looked their children over.
"Personally, I really like Percy's outfit," Poseidon announced, walking over and putting his arm around Percy's shoulders. "This is awesome! He's totally the God of Really, Really Hot Lifeguards." Percy beamed.
"Nailed it."
"And Annabeth is a successful Goddess of Nerds..." Athena admitted. Annabeth smiled to herself.
Soon enough, all of the Gods were going around, complimenting whoever had become the modern version of them. Hermes was especially pleased with Travis' portrayal of him as a drug dealer. Ares liked Clarisse's costume as well; though he stated she should have been carrying more weapons.
It was the most interesting thing on the world. The gods were actually pleased (for the most part) with what the group of demigods had done for Halloween. Before anyone could push their luck, they bowed to the gods and bolted with their sacks of candy, running several blocks back to the van.
"That was so close," Grover groaned, pulling a tin can from his bag, munching on it.
"Dude, you seriously brought those with you?" Percy asked. Grover nodded. Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"Boys..." she grumbled. Everyone climbed the stairs and into Percy's apartment to trade candy and relax for the night.
All and all, it was a very amusing Halloween. Connor and Travis stole quite a bit of candy from everyone without them noticing. Beckendorf got Silena to kiss him after giving her a homemade popcorn ball. The greatest achievement of the night though, was the fact that approximately seventy-five percent of Percy's candy was blue.
Though what happened later is another story for another time.