Ariana
I woke up the next morning feeling happy. I got a tiny revenge on the Stolls for embarrassing me in front of my cru-FRIEND. Friend, friend, friend.
It's just weird to start crushing on someone you met a bit of a while ago. Sure, he was cute-NO. NO. No. Those thoughts stop right there. Nuh-uh.
Anyway, I woke up the next morning to find a note on my bedside table.
"Meet me at the arena. -C"
There was only one thing "C" could stand for, and I decided to take my chances for it. I pulled my boots on and I left a note for Nico, taking Cody's with me.
"At arena. See you later. -Ariana" I wrote, my tongue between my teeth, and I set it down on my brother's bedside table. I took my dagger from my table, and I walked quietly out the door, shutting it gently behind me.
I sprinted the rest of the way after that.
I arrived at the arena to see the smiling face of Cody.
"Great! You got my note," He said, gesturing to the piece of paper in my hand. "I wanted to talk to you while sparring."
I looked down at my dagger.
"Um, I might need to-"
"Different weapon? I got you." He interjected, winking and doing finger guns.
He is a lot like Leo, I thought.
"Give me two seconds." He ran out, heading for the armory.
He came back a minute later, with a Celestial Bronze dagger, and he threw it at me, which I gratefully caught.
"Alright. Death dagger strapped on, no chance of killing me, replacement weapon equipped... " He started murmuring, scanning me up and down. "We're all set!" He declared, whipping out his Imperial Gold sword.
"You'd better not injure me with that," I said, and we started fighting.
I thrust the dagger forward, and he knocks it out of my hands easily, still grinning.
"I'm going easy on you, Cody. You remember yesterday where I had mangled all those mannequins..." I reminded him.
He chuckled.
"That's probably true, but you don't have to worry about that now. I'm a moving target. Much harder to catch." He said. I chuckled. He was so sure of himself!
The only sounds we heard for the next 25 minutes was the clanging and grinding of our weapons together. I'd managed to knock his sword out of his grip twice, but he was probably going easy on me, too. After a while, we got tired. I leaned against a mannequin, breathing heavily.
"All...right. You win. I'm tired." I huffed, watching as he pumped a fist into the air.
"Yes! King Cody of Sparta rules!" He exclaimed, and I rolled my eyes.
"I wonder what Leo and Harley are doing..." Cody muttered. Right on cue, Leo walked up behind him.
"Um, Cody...?" I started.
"What? Is there something on my face?" I tried to warn him, but too late.
"BOO!" Leo grabbed Cody's shoulders, shaking him slightly, and he jumped.
"Holy Hephaestus, Leo, give a brother a warning when you're about to scare them out of their wits, will you?!" He grumbled, Leo and I laughing.
"That would ruin the effect, Codes," Leo chuckled, still winded from his laughing fit.
"Your nickname is 'Codes'?" I asked, raising an eyebrow, trying not to laugh at Cody's discomfort.
(Don't accuse me of being a hypocrite, here! The stunt the flea-brained twins pulled on me was more personal. This was just a little bit of fun.)
"Ugh. Yes.." He mumbled, folding his arms, his face red.
"Don't mind if I use it, do ya?" I asked jokingly. His eyes lit up, and he smirked mischievously.
"As long as I get to call you Ari." He said.
Wait a minute...Isn't Ari the name of the bird on JaidenAnimations or something?! You know what, fine, whatever. I can roll with this, I thought.
"Sure. I don't care." I said.
"Great!" Cody exclaimed, a mischevious light dancing in his bright brown eyes. Leo was now grinning.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing." He shrugged, which kind of annoyed me. If he was thinking what I thought he was thinking...Let's just say he was going to regret it.
"Let's go see what the others are doing," Cody suggested, and I nodded. We walked outside, and as soon as I stepped a few feet away from the arena, something barrelled into me.
"AGH! What the Hades?!" I screamed as Cody and Leo doubled over in laughter. A...skeleton dog?
"Language, Ariana." I heard a familiar voice say. My face turned red, and Nico chuckled.
"What were you at the arena for?"
"Traning," I replied. Nico glanced at Cody.
"Right. Training." Nico got down on his knees and patted his lap, and the dog romped over to him, giving me a chance to stand up.
"What'd ya name him?" Leo asked.
"Primo," Nico replied, now rubbing the dog's bony belly.
"It probably means something, doesn't it?" Leo asked.
"It means 'first' in Italian." Nico murmured. The dog was a large male Maremma Sheepdog.
"Primo is beautiful." I complimented, and Nico smiled.
"Thank you. Bringing back the dead isn't easy, y'know." He joked, and I smiled.
"I'm kind of bored. What should we do before Will finds out Nico brought a dog back from death?" Cody asked, and Nico whipped his head up at him.
"Will doesn't need to know anything." He said and put a finger to his lips. I snickered, and I made the gesture of zipping my lips. I got closer to Primo, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, and kneeled down to pat his head. I thought Primo would try to bite me, but he eyed me uneasily, letting me pet him anyway.
"So, what are we going to do?" I asked.
"Hmm. I'll be right back." Leo said, and he sprinted off to the Hephaestus cabin.
"Any idea what he's going to do?" I asked Cody. He shook his head no. There was a silence between us, besides the usual camper babble and Primo panting. Several minutes passed by.
"I'm back!" Leo called seven minutes later, a little machine with him.
"What does that do?" Cody, Nico, and I said in unison.
"Look!" Leo pressed a little bronze button on the side, and the machine expanded, a little microphone popping up at the corner, a bunch of buttons coming into better visibility, and a screen appearing.
"That hasn't answered our question." Nico pointed out.
"Well, it's pretty simple. You press this red button," he indicated a red button right underneath the screen. "And the machine will start recording you. You speak into the mic, make silly sounds and stuff, and it'll record you! When done, press the yellow button," he indicated a yellow button. "And playback your recording!"
"Cool!" I exclaimed. "What's it called?"
"Hmm. How about you name it?" He asked me.
"Oh! Okay. How about the Noisemaker?" I suggested.
"Not as good as the Valdezinator, but good enough," Leo said. I smirked, and we set it down on the ground.
"So, what should we do with it first?" I asked, turning around to the others.
"Hmm..." Nico turned on the Noisemaker, and Primo was startled by the screen lighting up, and he started barking. Nico quickly pressed the red button, and Primo was being recorded barking. We all started laughing, and then Primo piped down. I punched the yellow button, and the video played back.
What Leo hadn't told us was the fact that the machine distorts whatever sound it processes and makes it extremely...weird.
The barks were mixed into a song of some sort, and the laughs in the background were just ODD. I fell over in laughter, and Primo was just staring at me like I was a lunatic...I probably was and still am.
Leo was now wiping tears of laughter out of his eyes.
"Leo, you didn't tell us it would do that!" Nico exclaimed, but he was laughing anyway.
"It's a kink that I didn't bother fixing because it makes everything ten times funnier!" Leo said, still laughing.
"Hey, let's do another one!" Cody exclaimed.
We went on doing random sounds for the Noisemaker until lunch when the horn sounded.
"Well, Cody and I have to go. Nice making weird soundtracks with you guys!" Leo said, pressing the bronze button and heading off to the Hephaestus table, Cody scurrying after him.
