It was snowing outside the railway. Guys were laughing, girls screaming and Mr. D cursing. I was staring at the window, quite bored. Spend the day at the Olympus watching the Big Bosses arguing wasn't my idea of fun. Argos walked up and down, trying to control all of us. A little face reflected in the window.
"What do you want, princess?"
"We are really near. Mr. D wants all of us together." Annabeth was tall and athletic, but I could have easily kicked her, but I was in no mood. I hated cold with all my soul. It was unnatural for me.
"Hey girls! Hurry up!" Luke lowered my cap, momentarily blinding me. I turned and punched him in the kidneys.
"OK brats! Shut up! You three stop!" Said and done. Nobody wants to deal with an angry God. And right now, Dionysus was really angry "We will go up, I will go with the other Gods to talk, and you will stay quiet and still. If you behave Argos will tell me and I will punish you. Do you understand?" Nobody said a thing, so Mr. D smiled. "I want you in groups of three." With smile he looked at us Luke, Annabeth and I "You three, together."
"No!" It was the first time, Miss Princess and I agreed in something. Luke sighted.
"C'mon girls, this is going to be funny" I punched him again.
I would have taken a nap, if the screams weren't so high, and I wasn't so scared. I wasn't afraid of Zeus and Poseidon. Their fights were like a family tradition, I was scared of my father. I was his only child that spends all the year in the camp, and I could feel his burning eyes examining me.
Luke was behind me, making funny noises. I had clenched my fists and my knuckles were white. I was really tempted to turn and broke his nose, or give him a new scar; at least he would be symmetric again. But it was a really disrespectful action, especially when the goddesses were trying to stop the one between Zeus and Poseidon.
"Stop! We are going to relax, and take a break. The kids are watching you." Hera said the word kids as we were a really dangerous illness. She hated us, like I hated the Care Bears. "You should go down, to play and do kids thing, ok?"
"She just said 'kid things'? How old she thinks we are? Five?"
"Well, you are not really far from it. At least that what your attitude reflects" I got up following everybody else.
"Why are you always so mean?" Said Annabeth.
"Maybe because I'm a daughter of the God of War? I though you, bunch of bookworm, were intelligent" She tried to punch me. She was quite tall five foots maybe, but I was six, plus I was born and raised to win in physical battles. So after five seconds, she was on the floor. "Don't try to be better than me, because you aren't"
"Hey! The lift is full, see ya'" We both turned towards Luke's voice. I had forget about him. It was like he had disappear.
After a couple of minutes of waiting for the lift (Who would think that a godly lift had limit capacity) I was in that little place with Annabeth. Everything was quite normal until the lift started to shake like in an earthquake.
I grabbed Annabeth, and suddenly, we started to fall; I hit my head with the roof of the elevator and everything started to spin. Annabeth was screaming and I grabbed her with all my strength.
And, as fast as it had started, we stopped falling, hitting the floor, I felt quite dizzy and had problems focusing, Annabeth groaned and I saw that she had a little cut in his head. The door opened and the gods were there.
"WERE IS? WERE IS?" Zeus.
"Zeus! Stop" Lady Athena help us to lift. "It isn't there. They aren't the thief, feel it" He seemed to think about it.
"Apollo! Artemis! Hermes! Ares! Go and find it, you too Athena!" They all nodded and ran out of the building. "Dionysus, return the kids to the camp. The other come up, we need to talk about it."
The gods entered in the lift, with funeral's faces, then we started to ask Dionysus what have happened, but he didn't say a word. When we were out Argos came toward us running.
"A couple of monsters have appeared and I have lost some kids. Luke castellan, Drew Baltimore, Monique Aller and Connor Stoll.
"Bah! Hermes and Aphrodite kids know how to deal in a big city. Let's come back to the camp and if they haven't return tomorrow we will send somebody to find them. And you two" He looked at us, and I could tell that he was really, really angry, I was good telling if someone was angry or not, and right now, Dionysus have a neon sign were you could read 'Do something and I will turn you in a squirrel before you can say 'I'm sorry'' "You won't say a word about what you have seen, ok? You are going to act like nothing have happened" Annabeth opened her big mouth, but I kicked her.
I had the same nightmare that chased me since Christmas. In my dream I was flying over New York on a flying chariot, a guy was with me in, a huge latino boy in his twenties. On the ground there was a battle, children fought against monsters. And then I saw it, I saw myself dead.
But that didn't make any sense, who can somebody see his own death?
But before something started to make sense I woke up breathing hard and drenched in sweat. I was glad that I was alone in the cabin, my brothers would come this afternoon and I was in no mood to have to put up his jokes because I had a nightmare.
I went to the showers, it was six in the morning and there was no one up, so I quietly showered. After four years in the camp I knew that these moments of peace were as scarce as water in Arizona. Shit… focus on something, focus on something, focus on…
A small sound alerted me. I grabbed my towel and the thing I got nearest.
"Who is? Show yourself! I have... soap" Wow Clarisse, soap, a great weapon. A little laugh told me where to throw it. But Chris was faster. "Oh my…! You don't know you can't enter in girl's bathroom?"
"I just wanted to prank you, Rissie" I growled. He knew how much I hated that nickname. He gave me one of his croaked smiles "I missed you too, Clary" I growled again. He knew that I hated that nickname even more. "C'mon! Give me a hug" And before I realized he had thrown me to the floor with a hug-tackle.
"But what are you doing moron! Get off!" I scratched him and kicked him, but he couldn't stop laughing. After a minute of fighting we heard a bang, and there was Annabeth Chase looking at us in disbelief. In that moment I realized I was naked with just a tiny towel on the floor with the stupid of Rodriguez over me.
"Let me guess, you guys just "tripped" on top of each other, right? Yeah, I'll buy that." Her arms were crossed over her shaking chest; she was trying not to laugh. Oh gods… I hated her so much.
"Errrrrrr, I have to leave my thing on the cabins, see ya' later." And he ran away, the coward. I got up, quite slowly. Miss Princess was staring at me.
"Tell me a good reason why I shouldn't go and tell this to the Aphrodite cabin. I bet they are dying for a juicy gossip"
"Maybe because if you do it, I will kill you. In a very slowly and painfully way" I turned and started to dress thinking about a really horrible punishment for Chris.
"Clarisse, we need to talk" I turned and see that Annabeth face was really serious. "Remember what happened this winter? In New York?"
"And you remember that a God told us not to think about it?" For a moment she smiled.
"Something important has been stolen. I talked with Chiron, he didn't told me anything, but he said that my time is near, and yours too. Today new campers will come. We must find him"
"Slow down princess! First, a god told me not to think about it, and I'm going to do it. I don't want to be turned in a squirrel or something like that. Second why I should go on quest with you? Chiron never said we should go together. And third, you never got tired of this? You can spend all your life waiting for something that is never going to happen." I sighted. Annabeth eyes burned.
"We must prove that we are the best! We can spend all our life here! It's outside where we have to show what we worth!" I opened the door and exited before Annabeth could keep talking.
I knew how she felt. But I couldn't help but fear about Chiron words.
"In your quest you will figure out who are your friends, and that the ones you trusted, betrayed you."