Back in the Demeter cabin, we spent the hour coming up with stratagies. Chiron hadn't told us exactly what the challenges were but that didn't stop us. We came up with strengths and weaknesses of all our cabin mates. We all wanted to win this thing to prove that we wern't ONLY good with plants. The conch horn sounded and we all made our way to the christmas tree.
"Welcome back" Chiron told us in a kind of talk- show- host kind of voice. He was in full horse form except he wore a referees shirt over the top half of his body. "Are you guys all ready"
The campers all cheered in response.
"Okay, good. I see you all have your teams together." he told us "demeter cabin, your team color is yellow. Ares, yours is red. Athena, yours is blue. Apollo's is gold. Hephaestes, yours is gray. Aphrodite, pink. Hermes green. and Dionysus, yours is purple."
All of the teams got bandanas of their color for every member.
"The first task" Chiron went on "your team has to build a snowman"
some of the ares kids snickered
"No." chiron said "Not just any snowman. You have to make this snow man the best in the world. You can do anything to it. There is only one rule, you tourment any other teams' snowman. Me, Dionysus, and Argus will be the judges. Okay…..GO!"
All the campers rushed off with their teams to find good patches of snow to build their snowman. About an hour in to the competition, I thought my team was doing pretty well. We were running low on good snow so I decided to search in the woods for some more. I had just found a perfect patch of clear snow when I saw something a little bit away. It was the Hermes' cabin team and their snowman. Their snowman wasn't very good and it looked like they were running out of snow. Closer to where I was, I saw the Stoll brothers. They were kneeling in the snow with their backs facing me. They were digging up snow and throwing it in a pile behind them.
"Hmmmm" I thought "Maybe-wait no, Chiron said that was cheating, I couldnt"
But Travis was really smug about how he was going to beat our cabin so maybe it would wipe that smug look off his face if he lost. And nobody would know it was me so…
Finally I convinced myself. I crept quietly behind the Stolls and picked up the pile of snow they had worked so hard to find and ran. I ran as fast as I could behind a tree and peaked out from behind it. I looked just in time to see the two brothers turn around and see that they had no more snow. They groaned and fell on their backs, exhasted. I smirked to myself and ran back to my cabin's snowman.
Another hour passed and the conch shell sounded meaning that time was up. We all met back at the Christmas tree where Chiron, Dionysus, and Argus were waiting. They all wore referee shirts. Dionysus looked bored and Argus looked alert and keeping watch with all his eyes.
They judged all the snowmen in cabin order and the demeter cabin was first. Our Snowman was ten feet tall. Made out of only snow and plants. Pure white with roses all in his body. We got a 9/10! Next were the Ares, which sucked. It was lopsided and covered in red paint with a barbed-wire crown on top of his head-4/10. Athena's was pretty, but it was plain-6/10. Apollo got 8/10, hephaestes-8/10, also. Aphrodite looked more like a barbie doll than a snowman-5/10. Next was the hermes cabin. Theirs, thanks to me, was pewny because they didn't have enough snow. When I saw the thing I couldn't help but laugh. Travis glared at me and I swear my face got bright red. He looked very suspicious and angry. "Crap" I thought to myself "He knew it was me.
The first round ended. It was now about 2 in the afternoon and Chiron told us our next task would be a 6.
END OF ROUND 1 POINTS
1. Demeter= 9
2. Apollo & Hephaestes= 8
3. dionysus= 7
4. athena= 6
5. aphrodite=5
6. Ares= 5
7. hermes=2
When we were on our way back to the cabins i head a sharp voice that made me jump. "I know what you did Katie" Travis was standing right behind me "You broke the rules, and you'll pay" he walked off and I shuddered.
That was creepy. The whole was back to my cabin all that I could think of was "crap crap crap crap crap crap…."
