When I woke up I knew something was wrong.

I wasn't in the forest anymore, I was in the infirmary. Again. Seriously, I've been here for two days and already I've been in the infirmary twice. That must be a new record.

I stood up in the simple white bed, grateful that I finally had a dreamless sleep for once. I have to admit that the dreams were part of the reasons I've been having trouble sleeping at night. Another reason is because of Danny and Clora. As mad as I am the two of them, I miss them. Sure, Percy and Annabeth had been great friends, but there not real friends. Well, not yet anyway.

I rubbed my eyes, urging myself to wake up. Someone had changed my cloths (hopefully Annabeth) so that I was dressed in a new CAMP HALF-BLOOD t-shirt and shorts, just like I had two days ago. I tried to remember why I was here, and what had happened last night. I only had pieces of that night in my brain, like how I woke up in the Poseidon cabin and how we were going to play a game… capture the flag, I think….

That was when it came back to me. The forest, walking with Keith, actually being called by someone that I looked cute, (Me, cute?) getting ambushed and then causing us to lose the game. It was all my fault, I knew it. If I just hadn't jumped from that stupid tree and twisted my ankle, then maybe I could have chased down Clarisse.

My ankle! I forgot all about it. I quickly removed the covers to see that it looked absolutely fine. I tested it by moving my ankle a little, but besides the fact that it was a bit stiff my ankle felt perfectly fine. I let out a sigh of relief, through of the sheets and got out of bed, ready to leave the big house. I was a bit dizzy when I got up, but it was nothing serious.

Slowly I made my way out of the house. It took a while, since the house had so many hallways and doors. One time I ran into a door that looked just like the exit to the big house, so I opened it. Turns out it wasn't a door to go outside, but an emergency door to China. Go figure.

After finally finding my way outside (which took about thirty minutes) I took in a deep breath of fresh air. I don't know how long I was out, but the sun was up way high in the sky, so it must have been at least ten hours. I laughed at the thought of me staying inside for ten hours straight, it never happened back at home. I woke up early and went to bed late every single day, so I never got more sleep that six hours.

I started to walk off the patio when I realized I didn't have any shoes. Would it be weird it I walked barefoot? However, just as I was going to leave, I noticed the there was a pair of word out blue flip flops right beside Dionysus's chair. They looked like someone had set them up there. Gratefully, I put the flip flops of my feet and walked towards the Athena Cabin.

I walked over there thinking of talking to Annabeth, but then I remembered Keith. I felt guilty about not thinking about him first, since he got hurt. I should have at least thought about checking up on him, but the thought had never crossed my mind.

Finally I saw the grey cabin come up in the distance. In the sunlight the carved owls seemed to glow. Silently I sneaked my way up to the door and knocked, secretly hoping that no one would be there. I didn't really know what I would say to Keith or Annabeth. As much as I wanted to make sure the two of them were okay, I didn't want to actually see them. Maybe because I knew that losing was all my fault and they didn't.

Suddenly, Annabeth's blond head popped out of the cabin and she smiled at me.

"Nicole! Thank the gods your all right," she said, and I felt my heart fall down into my chest.

"Hey, Annabeth," I said half-heartedly, "is Keith around?"

"Oh, of course you'd want to talk to him. He's fine, thanks to you. It could have been a lot worst."

"All I did was untie him," I said.

"Well, he seems to think you did a lot more. And taking out those Ares kids? Priceless!" I felt myself blush.

"So is Keith here?" I asked, peeking into the cabin. Surprisingly, there were no boys at all, only the Athena girls and a couple Hermes girls.

"Oh no. All the boys are going to the Hermes cabin to get ready for the dance. All the girls are getting ready in their original cabins."

"Why?"

"Well, its sort of Greek tradition. We all go to the dance separate and then we meet up. We don't usually have dances- most demi-gods don't like dressing up."

That was an understatement. I had never even worn a dress in my entire life time and I couldn't stand to make up. One time Clora tried to put make up on me in my sleep and I just about broke her arm. Or rather… her stem? I really don't know what to call it. Anyway, I wasn't exactly trained in the way of the skirt.

"Then why is there a dance now?" I asked.

"Oh, it's in honor of the romans. They were the ones who insisted on wearing dresses- but I honestly think it was just so that they could disagree with us. They hate dresses as much as we do."

"I don't have any dresses," I said, embarrassed. Actually, I didn't have any cloths at all. All I have are the clothes on my back. I hadn't been around enough to buy some clothes from the gift shop yet. Come to think of it, I hadn't even been awake long enough to buy cloths yet.

"Oh don't worry," Annabeth said, a smile on her face way less than reassuring, "I have thought of everything."

'Everything' turned out to be an emergency dress up room, literally. Annabeth led me to a huge room (a room that was so big it couldn't have fit into the Athena cabin, but somehow it did) with pale pink walls and grey trimming. But it wasn't the room that amazed me- it was the girlyness.

There were about two hundred dresses, all of different colours shapes and sizes, spread out on racks all around the room. There were seven silver make up tables- so big that they took up a whole wall- filled with makeup of all brands and colours. In the one corner there was a hair styling station, complete with automatic hair-colour changer, straighteners, curlers, and a crimper. In another corner was a whole spa, along with hundreds of different nail polishes and thirty different types of face masks. In short, the room could be a couture department store.

I tried my hardest not to puke.

"We have a backup room for everything," Annabeth said, beaming with pride, "For every situation. Athena sure is smart."

"I can't disagree with that," I said, still gapping at the room, "But Annabeth, I have no idea how to-"

"Don't worry about it," she said so confidentially that I almost believed her, almost, "just sit back and let me do everything."

When Annabeth says she's going to help someone, she means it. I don't think I got to say a word the entire time she was dressing me up like a Barbie doll. Every time I tried to speak she would always interrupt me by accidentally pulling on my hair, or started to dab my mouth with lip stick, or it was time for another facial. After a while I was beginning to think it was on purpose. Finally, with my hair in curlers and my face mask still on, she dragged me towards the dresses. For a girl who hated to dress up, she sure looked like she knew what she was doing. I guess it was another factor about being an Athena kid. Annabeth choose about twenty different dresses, all of different colours, each incredibly beautiful, and each one not my style.

Then Annabeth pulled out a beautiful blue dress the colour of the night sky. It was strapless, with a heart shaped neckline. It fell to just above my knee and flowed outwards, and a blue ribbon that wrapped around the dress and came into a bow in the back. It could have been a princess's dress, except shorter. Annabeth, noticing my reaction, stopped at the dress and started to take a better look at it.

"This is perfect," she finally said, "You have good taste."

In spite of myself, I blushed. I never really got those types of complements. The only complements I got were 'you hit like a guy' and 'you run real nice'. Oh, and the occasional, 'you smile looks better, since you got your braces off.'

Finally, Annabeth took out my curls and my face mask, started my make up, and then told me to put on the blue dress. She told me to not to look in any mirrors until she was done, and I can tell you it was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, and I've battled a mythological creature.

After Annabeth finished up on my makeup, and chose some accessories (my deer necklace and a simple charm bracelet along with silver flats)

"Mirror, please," she said to the room, and almost immediately a huge mirror came falling down from the middle of the room. The Athena girls and the Hermes girls, who were also in the room, didn't even turn their heads to see the big mirror. They were too busy looking at the dresses.

Finally I saw myself in the mirror, and I'm not going to lie, I had to take a double take just to make sure it was myself. My chocolate brown hair was completely transformed, lying down free along my shoulders in waves that turned halfway into loose curls. My dress somehow made my waist line look a lot skinnier that it actually was, and it made my skin practically glow. Or maybe that was the makeup. Annabeth hadn't done much with my makeup, which I liked. She put on brown eye liner along with blue eye shadow, making my green eyes stand out. Along with a thin line of foundation, peach lip stick, and French nails, I looked like a whole new person.

A new person, but still me. That I liked.

"Annabeth, I-"

"No time to thank me," Annabeth said, interrupting me, "I need you to help me now."

That was when I realized: Annabeth hadn't dressed up at all. She was still in her camp half-blood shirt along with white capris. I was about to apologize about making her wait- we only had an hour until the dance- but before I could even do anything she shoved me towards the dresses and told me to choose one. I was a bit surprised at Annabeth's commands. She made me feel like I was her dog or something. But I also knew her heart was in the right places, so I started to go through the dresses.

Once I got to the racks, I started to look through the dresses. I think I saw about ever dress known to mankind. I saw ball room dresses, really really short slim fitting dresses, and dresses that should have been meant for my grandmother. There was even a dress that was bright orange with green stars printed on it. I was so tempted to choose it for Annabeth, but something told me I wouldn't get the reaction I wanted.

Finally I found pretty metallic emerald dress. It had a halter neck line and a poofy skirt that was a little shorter than mine. Before I could decide if the dress was good or not Annabeth some over and ripped the dress out of my hands and ran into the change room. Okay, that was a bit rude.

Finally Annabeth some out of the change room, and I gasped. She looked absolutely stunning. The green dress was perfect for her, making her grey eyes light up her entire face. Her blond hair was piled up in a high pony tail, hanging down loosely down to her back. She was holding a golden clutch and a gold owl hair clip. She smiled weakly at me.

"You look amazing," I said, still admiring how she could do all that in one hour.

"You think?" she asked nervously, "I was thinking about a blue dress, you know, since Percy's favorite colour is blue…"

Annabeth called down the mirror again and started dabbing at her lip gloss. So she was just nervous, she wasn't trying to be rude. She wanted to impress Percy- and something told me she was going to succeed.

Finally, we made our way outside the cabin and towards the dining hall. I was only expecting the tables to be pushed to the sides and a play list of music, but I was beginning to understand that nothing at Camp Half-blood was going to be what I expected.

And I was completely fine with that.