Final disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, only Lily Ryder and the plot.

Author note: Chapter seven is here, bringing up to you the GLORIOUS end of the fanfiction "Lily, daughter of Hermes". No need for applause, silent admiration is all I ask for. Anyways, thanks for making time to read my little piece of awesomeness...no, kidding. For real. You're great. Leave a review if you enjoyed it, it really makes one certain author's day. Enjoy. - Tuesday13

Chapter 7 – The Party

Ok. So it's hard to describe how angry Zeus was as two vanilla pies slammed him in the face (thrown by Hermes and Ares) and a dozen of cookie projectiles attacked him (thrown by Artemis). So I won't try. I'll just say, he was very, very, destructively, madly, terribly angry.

Travis, Connor, dad and I managed to sneak out the kitchen before lightings started flying around, but the others weren't as lucky. Right now, I'm in Aphrodite's house, who is trying to give the others a makeover.

"Oh, your poor, beautiful hair", the goddess of beauty sighs stroking Clarisse's hair, which is slightly burned. Clarisse is making faces and gagging sounds, but where Aphrodite touches her hair, it turns back to normal, all fluffy and shiny and blow-dried.

She already took care of most of us, and now we're all looking through the racks of clothes she got us. Good old auntie Aphrodite.

Anyway, the party is finally about to begin. After the kitchen…um, incident, we all sheepishly returned to the Throne room and finished the preparations. Each metal flower is at her place, each vibrant-colored wreathe hangs perfectly in place against the golden walls. Doves courtesy of Aphrodite fly through the air, statues of marble Cornucopias decorate the mahogany table full of delicious food and in a corner there's a large fish tank full of colorful fish, courtesy of Poseidon. My father helped with the decoration too, bringing in a big poker table, full with cards and tokens.

I can't wait. My first Olympian party.

Twenty minutes later…

No. This is all wrong. It's not how it was supposed to be.

I expected everybody having fun together, not like that. Travis, Connor and Dad are playing poker in a corner, Ares and Clarisse are playing arm wrestling, Annabeth and Athena are designing some sort of new amazing future building, Nico and Thalia are debating over whether Evanescence or GreenDay is better and Aphrodite is playing dress-up with some nymphs. Apollo and Artemis are playing darts with their bows, arrows and a vampire movieposter, Percy and Poseidon are sitting next to the fish tank, talking, Leo and Hephaestus are playing with their tools and everyone is doing something different.

Noticing me sitting in a corner, Apollo came up to me.

"What's wrong, Lily? Why aren't you kicking your dad's ass at poker? I thought you were good at it".

"I am good at poker, but I'm too angry to play. This is not how it was supposed to be. They're not even paying attention to each other! Look, the Hermes family, the Ares family…I expected all to do something together!"

Apollo hands me a can of Coke and tells me wisely:

"Lily, there's absolutely nothing all the gods could do together, without fighting and enjoying it to the fullest. Each of us is different. That's how it's been for millennias and that's how it's going to be forever. But to me, they all seem pretty happy. Look, Clarisse won the hand wrestling game. And I think Hermes is getting his but whooped by your brothers. You'd better join the game too, I say. You can't do anything to change the gods, nor the demigods. So you should try to enjoy the party".

He stops and looks around, with a satisfied smile, then gets his lyre and a bottle of nectar that resembled amazingly a bottle of beer and left, not before adding:

"I'm going to write a haiku about the Midsummer Festival. It's gonna be a work of art".

"Doubtlessly", I grin and get up to join the poker game.

Another twenty minutes later…

"Again, I didn't lose! I deliberately chose not to win!" Hermes exclaimed, raising his hands in exasperation, while Travis and Connor were laughing their asses off.

My poor father, I think he still didn't figure out the two jerks cheated the whole game.