Chapter 3 - The Ultimate Prank, Part 1

A/N: Hey all!

Thank you to all who favorited and followed this story, it really means a lot!

I hope you enjoy this new chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or anything you've seen before.

"Alright," said Demeter. "Who would like to start?"

All the Olympians except Hermes were meeting in the throne room. They didn't invite him, because they were discussing last week's movie night. The gods weren't able to hold a meeting without him until now. Zeus had eventually sent him to the mortal world, where he was visiting a prank store.

Athena raised her hand. "I do."

Demeter nodded at her, and the wisdom goddess straightened up. "Hermes's popcorn prank caused a roach infestation in the kitchen."

The gods groaned as they remembered that. A few days after the movie night, Aphrodite had gone into the kitchen to get a drink of nectar. She had pulled a glass out of the cabinet when a roach scurried across the counter. The end result was a broken glass and a disgusted Aphrodite. Hephaestus had disposed of the roach outside, but more and more kept appearing. Eventually, Hestia gave up and called an exterminator.

Apart from that, over the course of the week, Hermes had also placed whoopee cushions on all the gods' thrones, switched the salt out for the sugar, and placed fake plastic barf on Hera's pillow.

"The whoopee cushion incident was extremely embarrassing," added Athena.

"Yeah!" said Aphrodite. "And when I made those cookies, they came out salty!"

All the gods glowered. They had tried said cookies and when they did, they had immediately gagged.

Ares pounded his throne to get the gods' attention. "We need to get back at him."

Cue nodding and shouts of agreement.

"But what do you think we should do? None of us are good at trickery like he is. We gotta come up with something he won't see right through," said Apollo.

All the gods rubbed their faces and said "Hmmmm" as they thought.

They were like that for at least ten minutes.

After that really long moment of silence, Athena suddenly said, "Wait! I got it!"

The Olympians turned to her. "What do you have in mind?" asked Zeus.

"We steal his winged hat," Athena said proudly.

Artemis rolled her eyes. "How do you expect us to get our hands on that thing?"

"Well," said Athena, her grey eyes lighting up as they usually do when she's making a plan, "when he's sleeping, Poseidon can sneak in—"

"Why me?" Poseidon interrupted.

Athena glared at him. "Because I don't like you. Now as I was saying, Poseidon can sneak in—"

Poseidon cut her off again. "I'm not very sneaky. I think Apollo should do it."

Apollo leaned back on his throne. "Nah, I'm gonna practice my ukulele. That wouldn't be sneaky, because everyone knows it's me, because I sound so awesome—"

"Alright!" Athena shouted over top of Apollo. "For Pete's sake, I'll do it myself!"

Poseidon smiled.

"Where should we hide his hat?" Aphrodite asked.

Hephaestus glanced over at Ares. "Where is somewhere Hermes would never, ever go in a million years?"

"In my fortress," Ares answered proudly.

"I was thinking the same thing," said Athena. "I hate Ares's fortress, too."

"Hey!" protested Ares. "I think it's cool!"

The other Olympians grunted.

"I'll steal it tonight," said Athena. "Man, he's going to be in for a big surprise when he wakes up tomorrow."

Meanwhile, Hermes was dreaming up his next trick. Who hasn't he pranked in a long time?

That was a hard question for him, seeing as a lot of his pranks targeted all the gods instead of just a specific one.

Like the classic whoopee cushions on thrones. Hermes snickered to himself as he remembered that. All the gods had jumped up and said, "It wasn't me!" before they realized Hermes had a video camera. Hera had tried to snatch it away from him, but he had already ran off to hide it.

Now, what was the question? Who hasn't been pranked for a while?

Oh, that's right! Athena!

Hermes smiled. And what was one of his favorite domains?

Thievery, of course!

He decided to steal Athena's war helmet that night. Man, that would be sure to annoy her!

Athena glanced at the clock: it was midnight, and time to go. She snuck out of her room and tiptoed down the hallway.

At that same time, Hermes's phone alarm went off. Midnight! He slipped out of bed, fed George a rat, and cracked open the door, silently scampering towards his older sister's armory.

Athena was almost to her brother's room when she bumped into him. She widened her eyes. "Hermes! What are you doing?" She hoped that she didn't sound to nervous—of course she didn't! She was the goddess or war! …But she wasn't used to playing pranks.

Hermes stared back at her. "I could ask the same of you. I was just going to get a drink of water," he said sweetly. He was used to coming up with alibis on the spot, unlike his older sister.

Athena shrugged, trying to come up with a believable fib. "I was…going to the library!"

"At this hour?" Hermes asked, crossing his arms.

Athena rolled her eyes. "Well, I just finished a book, and I wanted to go grab the next in the series." She was surprised at how natural that sounded.

Hermes walked away. "Good luck."

Athena grinned. He was gone! She ran all the way to his room.

When she got there, she was appalled at how unwise her brother was. He had left his winged hat lying right on top of his dresser! She always kept her stuff under lock and key. She never knew what to expect of the other Olympians, especially with a thief god in the family.

She snatched his hat, turned it into a cellphone and slipped it into the pocket of her pajama pants before going to Ares's fortress.

Hermes was searching Athena's armory, trying to find her war helmet. It wasn't anywhere!

He tried the big closet. It was locked, of course.

Multiple spears and shields were hung on the walls, but he didn't see her helmet.

He tried looking in one of the several wooden armor chests. Not unlike the closet, it was locked.

He jumped when he heard footsteps. Someone was coming! He could only think of one thing to do.

He opened up the window, and slipped out.

He snapped his fingers, closing it from the outside, before wrapping his hands around the drainpipe and sliding down.

Darn, he thought after a few seconds. Why did I do this? They were probably just walking by, and if they came in, I could have hid or something!

But there was no time to focus on his past decisions, as one of his hands slipped and he almost fell.

He gripped the drainpipe tighter before feeling his feet touch the ground. He sighed in relief.

He ran around to the front door. He really hoped Zeus wasn't in the throne room watching TV.

Luckily, he wasn't, and Hermes was able to make his way back to his room undetected.

But he was very disappointed. "I'll bet her helmet was locked in that closet," he muttered.

A/N: And there we go! Next chapter will be Hermes's reaction when he realizes his winged hat is missing.

Also, please, please drop a review! (pretty please with a cherry on top?) I would love to hear your comments/story suggestions. :)