Framing Nico.

Percy had decided that his last prank was going to end soon. He couldn't keep the pranks up forever. It took him a while to set up his next prank, but eventually he was able to set it up. Percy had to find so much paint and paint a cabin while also dodging Annabeth who was still raging over the shark prank.

Percy's final target happened to be Thalia Grace, the only offspring of Zeus in all of Camp Half-Blood. He knew his dad would appreciate this prank.

Evening was starting to set in over camp. Campers went back to their cabins to get ready for dinner. All of them, except one. Percy was busy observing his prank go down in real time. He wanted to see Thalia's reaction to his prank.

No one noticed Percy hidden behind a bush, peering out every once and a while at cabin one. The outside of the cabin was perfectly fine. It was that same marble white color that everyone was used to seeing.

No, Percy's prank had to do with the inside of the cabin. He had decided to do what he did to Nico's cabin, but with a few changes. Instead of pink, Percy had brought in some black paint. Thalia didn't mind the color black but her dad definitely wouldn't appreciate the sudden new paint job.

Percy had seen Thalia walk into her cabin, so he knew for sure that she had seen what he had done. The only thing that was stressing Percy out was the fact that she literally wasn't coming out of her cabin. He'd hate to be one of the campers who failed in their prank.

Finally, the door opened to cabin one and a confused Thalia stepped out. She was looking around her cabin, probably trying to find who had painted her cabin while she was gone. She didn't have her spear out, so maybe she wasn't as mad as Percy would've liked.

Then Thalia started walking towards the Hades cabin. Percy grinned. This was part of his plan. He was hoping that he could frame Nico for the prank. That's why he chose the color black. Black happened to be Nico's favorite color. Percy's plan was going to plan.

Nico stepped out of his cabin, his sword strapped to his side. Percy snickered from behind a tree. Thalia walked up to Nico and stopped him from walking away.

"Hey!" She said while walking up the stairs towards him, "Why'd you prank me? I thought that we weren't going to prank each other."

Percy never knew about that. He was vaguely aware of a 'no alliances' rule in the prank war, but he assumed that rule was mainly about cabins working together to prank someone instead of a ceasefire type thing.

"I didn't prank you." Nico said.

"Come on, Nico, don't lie." Thalia chided, "You're a horrible liar."

"I'm not lying!" Nico said, "I swear I didn't prank you."

"Tell the truth, I'm not even mad." Thalia pressed, "I'll give you a kiss if you do."

"I am telling the truth, Thalia!" Nico said, clearly getting agitated by now, "I don't even know what you're talking about. I was napping!"

"You painted my cabin black." Thalia said.

"Oh, so now when anything gets painted black, it's instantly my fault right?" Nico said.

"It's your favorite color!"

"So?!"

"Alright, who else would've done it?" Thalia asked.

Nico looked back at his cabin, which was back to its original color. Chiron was helpful enough to give Nico some help by getting the naiads to help him out. Then he looked back at Thalia, "It has to be Percy, he did it to me."

"Percy would never do the same prank twice." Thalia said.

Percy almost burst out laughing. She was right, for the most part. He was usually original with his pranks, but he didn't feel like sitting back in his cabin so he could come up with a new prank. There were only two days left, so time was not on his side.

"Would he?" Nico asked, "He might've done it because we wouldn't expect it."

"That's too big brain for Percy. Maybe if you said Annabeth or one of her siblings were doing something like this, I'd believe you." Thalia said.

"I still think he did it. In fact, I'll swear on the Styx that I didn't prank you."

That brought Thalia up short. If Nico was willing to go that far to prove his innocence, then he had to be innocent.

Seeing Thalia's confused face and Nico's desperation to be innocent was too much for Percy. He broke down laughing behind the tree, his laughs howling through the trees. Thalia and Nico looked over. Percy was clutching his sides while he laughed.

"I told you!" Nico yelled.

"Kelp Head did not just prank me. There's no way!" Thalia said while stomping towards Percy.

Percy took off into the forest. He knew better than to try to fight Thalia and Nico at the same time. They were still very powerful half-bloods. Percy could take them one at a time but two at the same time was going to be difficult, if not impossible.

A small log on the ground was what Percy could use to hide. He jumped over it and tried to make his body flat as possible. He could hear the sound of Thalia and Nico charging through the woods, no doubt following where they thought he went.

Holding his hand over his mouth, Percy steadied his breath. He wasn't planning to fight at all. He needed to sneak away. Thalia and Nico wouldn't attack him at dinner, Chiron had declared it a safe zone. If he could hold out for maybe fifteen more minutes, Percy would be home free.

"I know you're out there, Percy, and I will find you!" Thalia shouted.

Percy snuck off deeper into the forest. They wouldn't be able to find him as long as he didn't do anything stupid.

Percy didn't do anything stupid. No, his luck was just horrible. The sound of a roar nearly deafened Percy. He looked over to see a Hellhound, about the size of a small sedan, charging towards him.

"Oh shit." Percy muttered, drawing Riptide and knocking the Hellhound aside as it dove towards him. He wasn't worried about the Hellhound itself, but more so the fact that its roar probably gave him away to Thalia and Nico who were still in the forest somewhere.

The Hellhound wasn't too tough. Percy cut the hound down quick, not even worrying about the attack. His Achilles spot was way too hard to hit for a Hellhound. The monster exploded into yellow dust while Percy started to cap Riptide.

"I found him!" Nico shouted.

Percy turned to see Nico standing in between two trees. Percy didn't stare for long; he took off towards camp. He heard Nico shouting from behind him, along with Thalia screaming. He needed to get away from them.

Just as Percy reached the tree line, he heard the conch horn for dinner ring through camp. Evidently, Nico and Thalia heard it too because he could hear their screeching get even louder and closer. Percy didn't see them, so he ran towards the dining pavilion. A few campers were walking out of their cabins in single file lines and were neatly walking to dinner. Percy meanwhile was sprinting to the pavilion like Kronos was after him.

"He's right there!" Thalia shrieked.

Percy looked over his shoulder to see Nico just five feet away from him. His arms were outstretched as he reached for him. Percy dove into the dining pavilion, just barely making it. Nico tripped over him and slammed onto the ground.

Thalia stalked into the pavilion, glaring at Percy. She looked like a tiger who just missed their prey. She walked over to her table while Nico got to his feet.

"You're lucky." Nico growled.

Percy let out a sigh of relief. He was safe for now.