Hark! How the bells, sweet silver bells. All seem to say, "Throw cares away!" Chritmas is here, bringing good cheer, to young and old, meek and the bold. "Ding, dong, ding, dong." That is their song. With joyful ring, all caroling. One seems to hear, words of good cheer, from everywhere, filling the air. Oh how they pound, raising their sound. O'er hill and dale, telling their tale. Gaily the ring while people sing, songs of good cheer, Christmas is here! Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas. Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas! On, on they send. On without end. Their joyful tone, to every home!

Oh, my, once i get that song in my head, i can't get it out! By the way, for those who don't know, that is Carol of the Bells! Yes, i have heard the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version, but i don't like it as much as the regular version! But still, this song is my favorite! Love it so much!

Quote of the day: No coffee, no workee!

Book of the day: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter (Gallagher Girls series 1). It's okay, but in my opinion, the series gets better each book. This one was okay, but my favorite is the forth, Only the Good Spy Young. The next book comes out next year and it will be called Out of Sight, Out of Time. The first book is about this girl named Cammie 'The Chameleon' Morgan, who goes to the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. The school may say that it is for genius', but it is actually a school for spies. Cammie goes out on a mission one day and meets a guy named Josh. She starts to like him, and decides to sneak out of school to see him. But a spy in training and a regular guy live completely different lives. How is Cammie supposed to survive her relationship with Josh? **** 4 stars! It is a mystery/romance! The author also writes a series called the Heist Society, and they are pretty good too!

Happy Reading!

Chapter 21

Jason

When Jason saw the spider falling from the sky, he knew something was up.

When they had all reached the beach and found towels, the mortals had started to come out. Leo kept eyeing one girl with light brown skin, dark hair, and shining black eyes. Finally, after ten minutes of their staring contest, Jason had convinced Leo to go talk to her. She sounded really nice from what Jason could hear, but had a crazed look in her eyes, like she could change on you in an instant and kill you with a toaster or something. And Jason knew that that was Leo's type.

The weird part about this was that Piper was avoiding Jason. He had no clue whatsoever about what he had done to her. It wasn't like he was dating her. Or Reyna.

That's when he realized that she was jealous. Jason didn't think Piper would ever be like that, but apparently, he had been wrong.

She ignored his invitation to sit next to him and walked down the beach a little ways. The guys started staring at her, and Jason was starting to think that he might have to kill a few of these dudes for looking at his girl. Then he remembered that Piper wasn't really his girl.

Not yet, anyway.

Percy and Annabeth were both in the water, and every time a waved crashed down on Annabeth, she started cursing at Percy, who just laughed. One time, after the wave had receded, Jason noticed that a bunch of crabs had gotten into her hair, and he was pretty sure that they would never come out. This caused Annabeth to get so angry that she tried to kick Percy in a bad place. But Percy easily dodged this and grabbed Annabeth's leg and twisted it. She fell into the surf. Even though she was underwater, Jason watched as her leg swept under Percy's, and he lost his footing and fell too. After that he only heard their laughs.

Jason decided to tan himself, which he never did. About five minutes after he closed his eyes, he started to hear the screams.

It was that girl that Leo was with. Jason looked over at her, and saw her swatting at… something. Then she got up and ran into the ocean. Leo just sat there, dumbfounded.

What was that? Jason mouthed.

A spider, Leo mouthed back. A tiny little spider!

That's when everyone else screamed. Jason saw a black creature falling from the sky. Right when he heard the sploosh, he knew that it had been a spider.

Annabeth screamed and ran out of the water, closely followed by Percy. But she wasn't the only one. Every living soul was scrambling onto the dry sand.

Then, impossible though it may seem, it started to rain spiders.

All different kinds; Black Widows, Recluses, Camel, Wolf, and Tarantula. Each varied in size, from microscopic to the size of Jason himself.

Annabeth was hysterical. She was running and shrieking and hiding under various umbrellas. Percy was running too. Leo had tried to find that girl, and Piper was back at Jason's side.

If only they had their weapons.

They had been so stupid not to take them. Now they wouldn't be able to defend themselves. And bathing suits weren't exactly fang-proof.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jason saw Percy reach into his pocket and pull out his pen. He took off the cap, and it turned into a celestial bronze sword. Then he ran off, slashing and hacking and cutting with it. He somersaulted over a row of beach chairs and killed ten giant tarantulas with one very clean hack.

"What are we supposed to do?" yelled Piper, kicking away a baby Camel spider.

"I don't know! Ask Annabeth."

That didn't really work out. Jason had never seen Annabeth so scared in the eight months he had known her. She was useless; she was under an umbrella in fetal position with a towel over her body.

"Come on Annabeth. We need you right now!"

"NO!"

"YES!" Jason yelled at her. He turned to Piper. "Help me."

Together, the hauled Annabeth to her feet and started walking back toward everyone else.

"We need to leave!" Jason yelled. "Come on, let's go to the trees."

"We can't leave these people like this!" screamed Percy over the noise.

Piper spoke up. "They want us. They are trying to kill us. If we leave, they will leave too!"

Just then, a voice laughed. Everyone shut up, even the little screaming kids.

A lady materialized. The spiders surrounded her.

"Yes, yes, I know," she murmured to them. "They are annoying."

Then she looked up from the creatures. "My spiders do not like you. They think you… mortals are not very fun to kill."

"Well, first of all," started Leo. "It's not like we like you to much either. Secondly, we absolutely not fun to kill! And we would appreciate it if you didn't!"

"And do I look like I care?" asked the lady.

"Sadly, not really," muttered Leo.

"Annabeth, sweetheart, where are you?" she asked. "Come on out. I won't bite. And I'll make sure my little children don't either."

Annabeth looked up, pure terror on her face. "No, it can't be you!"

The lady chuckled. "Well, at least someone finally knows who I am. Come on say it!"

Annabeth gulped then whispered, "Arachne. Mother of spiders."

"Yes child. You see, I struck a deal with Eurymedon. If I helped him capture these two" she gestured to Percy and Jason. "Then I could come back to life and take revenge on who made me this monster. Starting with you."

"So you work for Eurymedon?" asked Jason, trying to get more information.

"Yes. He has a plan. First he will rise from the ruins of Rome, with the help of a few dumb demigods, who, of course, will have no idea what they are doing. Then he will take revenge on Porphyrion for taking away his title as king. After that, well, help his mother gain full power. Oh, yeas, it will be quite fun to watch. Quite fun, indeed."

Jason's head was spinning. Eurymedon was going to use them to rise. And Arachne was going to kill his friend Annabeth. But it wasn't like they had any way to fight.

"And you should know that your little friends... Oh who were they? Oh yes, Frank and Hazel. Yes, they are a little too occupied right now to help you.

Then he heard multiple thuds behind him. When he turned around he saw Piper's dagger, Annabeth's knife and Yankees cap, Leo's tool belt, and, thankfully, Jason's gladius. But there was a rope too, and long rope that went up into the sky. But he just ignored that.

He grabbed the hilt of it and flipped it in the air. "And this will be quite fun too."

He ran forward and jabbed his blade straight at Arachne, who jumped back in surprise. Then she sneered and made a clicking sound.

All the spiders turned around to Jason, but before he could start fighting, he heard two more thuds. Everyone turned their attention back to the rope. At the end of it lay two demigods, and Jason was relieved to see them.

"Miss us?" asked Hazel and Frank, poised into fighting position.

Review! Awesome people do that!

Right now, I am reading four books! Eighth Grade Bites, The Mediator, Dark Secrets, and Illusions! I plan to read these because it is Christmas break and now I have more time to read!

Has anyone ever been addicted to something? I am currently addicted to Carol of the Bells and eating Peppermint Bark! I am also addicted to various apps, such as Fruit Ninja, Falldown!, Ovenbreak, and Angry Birds! And I'm addicted to Youtube! And Fanfiction!

Merry Christmas! What do you guys want?

By the way, the girl in this chapter that Leo was all Puppy-dog-eyed over was my friend! My friend looks like how i described her in the chapter (obviously) and acts the same (as in she probably would kill you with a toaster. She is super weird like that!) In real life her favorite character is Leo and she wants to marry him. I promised her i would do this!