"Take cover!" Beckendorf screamed.
Annabeth flipped the table nearest to her, sending papers flying. She ducked behind it and dragged a startled Silena Beauregard down beside her. Beckendorf dove over their heads and landed with a muffled grunt.
There were a few seconds of tense silence, punctuated only by Silena's panicked breathing and an ominous ticking noise coming from Beckendorf's malfunctioning birthday present. Annabeth's heart was pounding so hard she was sure it would bruise her ribs.
A few seconds passed. Annabeth exchanged a perplexed glance with Beckendorf.
"Wait," Silena whispered, her perfectly shaped eyebrows drawn together. "What's happening?"
Beckendorf got up on one knee and peeked over the rough wooden edge of the table, Annabeth and Silena curiously following suit. "Well," he said, a blush rising to his cheeks. "You see, I thought it was going to explode because I may have accidentally spilled some of my coffee on the circuit board, which is connected to the chem—"
"Charlie," Silena groaned, lightly smacking his leg.
"Well, I'm sorry I tried to do something nice for you," he said defensively. "I guess I shouldn't even try."
"What was it supposed to be?" Silena interrupted, trying to divert him from his present course of self-pity.
Beckendorf launched into a long-winded explanation of how it was going to be an extremely impressive display of fireworks that created pictures and words in the sky in honor of Silena's birthday. She tried to stop him, get any word in edgewise, but they just talked over each other, louder and louder.
The ticking noise stopped.
Annabeth's eyes widened. She hit the floor, again reaching up and yanking both of them with her. As soon as their heads cleared the table, the contraption on the other side exploded with a muffled whump.
The table shook a little. A fine mist shot out over them and swirled through the air.
After a few moments, three heads crept above the table. Blonde hair pulled into a neat ponytail slowly surfaced first, above calculating gray eyes that scanned the room quickly. A second head of gorgeous, slightly ruffled dark hair followed, bright blue eyes wide with shock beneath it.
Beckendorf's dark hair, however, was blown back and sticking up in every direction. Colorful powder was caked on his hair and dusted his eyelashes. His head evidently had not cleared the table before the explosion.
Beckendorf glared at Silena as laughter bubbled out of her at the sight. "What?" Powder trickled down onto his shoulders and chest.
She gestured vaguely at his head, then clutched her stomach and bent double, shoulders heaving as she gasped for air.
Beckendorf reached up a hand and touched his hair lightly. He looked at his fingers and sighed defeatedly when he found them dusted in rainbow powder. "Not again," he groaned.
Annabeth's lips quirked upward. "Well, that was exciting," she deadpanned. Silena exploded into new gales of laughter and rolled backwards on the floor, wiping her eyes. Somehow her makeup remained completely unaffected, and Annabeth quashed the wave of friendly jealousy she felt at the sight.
"Charlie, what was supposed to happen?" Silena asked between gasps.
He stood and helped her up from the floor. "Well, it was supposed to wait to explode until we got outside," he said with a spiteful look at the object in question.
"User error?" Annabeth suggested dryly.
Beckendorf waved away her explanation. "Nah, it probably went off early because it was too impatient to see Silena's smile." He gave Silena a dopey smile of his own. "Not as excited as I was, though."
Silena let out a bell-like laugh of joy and went to kiss him, but paused to figure out how to do so without touching the powder that coated him. She frowned, apparently stumped.
Beckendorf rolled his eyes and wrapped her up in a giant bear hug, making sure to rub his rainbow hair against the side of her face. She shrieked and tried to wriggle away, but he tightened his grip, then hefted her up onto his shoulder easily and paraded around the room, making sure to lightly bump her into as much powdered furniture as possible.
Annabeth watched all of this with a grudging smile, feeling acutely single. "You two are absolutely disgusting."
Beckendorf spun around to look at her. Silena shrieked again. "You're just jealous," he said with a wry grin. "You know you want some of this action." He swayed his hips suggestively and Silena smacked the back of his head.
"Put me down, you maniac," she ordered, and he set her down gently. She took a second to look at herself and check how thoroughly she had been covered, then tried to give him a withering look. A few locks of her hair were rebelling against her careful styling and her cheeks were flushed. "Really, Charlie?" she asked, voice trembling with laughter.
"Relax," he told her. "You still look beautiful, like always."
Silena finally kissed him, practically jumping him right there so hard that he stumbled back a few steps before responding enthusiastically.
Annabeth felt like she had to put one more word in before they were lost to the world entirely. "I hate both of you," she informed them. Predictably, they ignored her.
She sighed and turned when someone opened the door behind her. He was tall, skinny, and red-faced from exertion. Annabeth recognized him vaguely as one of the Hephaestus kids. She'd never really held a conversation with him before, but he seemed nice.
"Hey, Beckendorf," he started. "Have you seen—" He stumbled to a halt when he realized he had walked into a rainbow warzone. "Dude, not again," he complained, mildly annoyed.
Beckendorf pulled away from Silena, who made a small whimpering noise and wrapped her arms around his midsection. "Oh, hey, Aaron. Sorry," he said, sounding in no way apologetic.
Aaron's eyes widened as a thought occurred to him. "The Aphrodite cabin has inspection today! We're gonna get KP for months!"
Blood drained from Beckendorf's face. They were infamous for their strict inspection standards. Not even the Aphrodite cabin itself got a perfect score sometimes.
He nudged his girlfriend. "Hey, babe," he said hopefully. "Could you maybe, you know, cut us some slack this time? Since this was for you and all..." He trailed off.
Silena slowly looked at him. "Well, rainbow is a very nice color on you," she mused.
Beckendorf threw his head back. "Oh, thank the—"
She put a finger on his lips. "But, I really do prefer it on you. And not on me, who is going to have to go take a shower and put together a whole new birthday outfit, which could take all of the next two hours, so…" She ran a hand through her long, heavy hair and stepped away from him lightly.
His jaw dropped. "What? Silena, come on."
She shrugged and danced away from his outstretched hands. "I'm gonna go inform my cabin that we're starting inspection today with the Hephaestus cabin. Maybe a little early? Who knows, right?" She pecked Annabeth's cheek, leaving a colorful smudge, and gracefully slipped out the door. "Good luck!"
Aaron was giving the gobsmacked Beckendorf a death glare. "How on earth are we supposed to clean all of this up by noon?"
Beckendorf shrugged helplessly, then his head whipped to the side. "Annabeth!" He rushed over, vaulted the overturned table, and took her hands. "You're smart, right?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Please tell me you can think of some way to clean all of this? Some magical vacuum or something?"
Annabeth considered his plea, then took a long, good look around the Hephaestus cabin. The bunks were all shoved against the walls, leaving as much room as possible for the tables of blueprints and metal scraps in the center. Normally, the room was spotted with grease stains and dirty clothes, but it had been painstakingly scoured clean in preparation for the Aphrodite cabin's inspection. There were plans for projects rolled up in the corners neatly and posters plastered at exact ninety degree angles on the walls. The bathroom door in the back was shut, probably hiding unclaimed clothes and unfinished projects.
And now, of course, nearly every surface was covered in a new coat of rainbow powder and… was that slime?
She met Beckendorf's eyes. "I don't know. Maybe the Aphrodite kids will like the new direction you've taken with the indoor decorating," she said, poking at a pile of dust on the ground with her toe. "You might want to take care of that, though," she said, pointing at the fan above them that was stirring up clouds of colorful silt in the air. "If you get permission to leave camp, you could go buy some comforters that would match the color scheme."
She stopped at the look of utter betrayal on Beckendorf's face and brushed some of the stuff off his shoulders. "I'd probably start with a broom," she advised him. Then she turned with a parting, "You might want to get started!" and left the two half-brothers to frantically start yelling at each other. ("What were you even doing, giving birth to a unicorn?" "It was for Silena's birthday!" "This will never come out!")
Annabeth stepped across the threshold with a small smile gracing her lips. She normally didn't enjoy other people's pain, but they had known each other for years, and Beckendorf had caused her too much trouble in years past to let this go without letting him feel a little heat for it.
Speaking of heat, Annabeth thought, dismayed. She felt sweat already trickling down her back. Leaving the air conditioned building was like being slapped with a wet, steaming towel. They were having a painfully hot summer, a far cry from last year's balmy weather. Even the strawberry field was struggling, despite the campers' desperate irrigation efforts to combat the drought. The air tried to make up for the lack of water with extreme humidity, but that just made everything worse. Dust got kicked up anywhere there was constant foot traffic and stuck to exposed skin. The arenas were especially bad, shrouded in a miasma of dirt and sweat.
The Aphrodite kids were probably the most upset about it, claiming that the dust ruined their makeup and got into their hair (and everywhere else). Annabeth didn't complain much, however, since one of the consequences of the dust and heat was that practically everyone was taking one or two showers a day, thus negating the effects of those few campers who just didn't really get hygiene.
So Annabeth tried to think of the weather as a blessing in disguise, even when most of the boys decided it was an excuse to run around with their shirts off.
(The Aphrodite kids didn't mind that quite as much.)
Annabeth comfortably strolled away from the Hephaestus cabin, heading toward the sword fighting arena and smiling to herself as she imagined Beckendorf trying to fix the room with a tiny little broom held in his large, callused hands. She had known him for years, and they used to spend a lot of time together until he met Silena. They still tried, but his time was soon monopolized by his forge and his girlfriend. Annabeth loved them both, of course, but it was a little frustrating. She was still miffed that he let only Silena use his first name, despite the seniority of years of friendship on Annabeth's part.
She was brought out of her thoughts by a loud roar coming from the arena. She liked to spend time there, honing her knife skills, but she preferred that time to be spent alone, and judging by the crowd noise, that wouldn't be happening today. She did stop in to see what the crowd was there for, however. Annabeth enjoyed a good sparring match as much as the next half-Greek, weapon-wielding teenager.
The roar of what sounded like half the camp quickly made sense. Two easily recognizable figures were circling each other in the center of the arena, already sweating heavily and panting. Dust hovered around them, making the entire arena look surreal.
One was a girl, heavyset with muscle and what looked like a permanent snarl pulling at her lips. Her mousy brown hair was forced into a sloppy ponytail that pulled on her scalp. "You're gonna regret that, Jackson," she growled, loud enough for the crowd to hear.
Her opponent, the aforementioned Jackson, responded with an easy, breathtaking grin. "Oh, come on, Clarisse," he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He appeared to be breathing much easier than she was, probably because he was wearing almost no armor at all. "You gotta lighten up a little. Not everything is life and death, you know."
Annabeth rolled her eyes. From what she had gathered (via completely normal conversations and random gossip, definitely not by any stalking and/or investigation), Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, was an idiot. She had heard legendary tales of his badly timed snark and various bathroom mishaps, so she had quickly coined a nickname for him: Seaweed Brain. A bit on the nose maybe, but it didn't matter, seeing as she never had the chance to use it anyway.
Clarisse charged forward and her sword came flying in, angled toward Percy's leg, but he deflected the blow. She cursed when she lost her balance slightly, and Percy leapt forward to take advantage of her momentary lapse, quipping between breaths, "You… kiss your mother… with that mouth?"
He almost nicked her arm, but she slammed his blade back. "Shut up!" she snarled, and redoubled her efforts. Percy's smart mouth was silenced as he worked to keep up with her strikes, their blades blurring between them.
Annabeth caught herself intently watching Percy's biceps flex and tense with each movement and forced her eyes up to his face. But that turned out to be even worse, because she instead became mesmerized by his dark hair falling into his eyes or his lips when he licked them in the heat.
Let's get one thing straight. She did not like Perseus Jackson. His name was pretentious, his hair was honestly downright shaggy, and she barely knew the guy. It didn't matter that he had a swimmer's body or eyes the color of the ocean or teeth brighter than the sun.
It didn't matter, she told herself. But she was still fighting a losing battle, so she shifted her eyes over to Clarisse anyway. No worries of indecent attraction there.
Or anywhere else, she reminded herself with a start.
The crowd cheered again as the fight intensified, the clashing of weapons reverberating loudly. Percy and Clarisse were two of the best fighters at camp, no question. To see them straight out dueling was rare. Annabeth was surprised they didn't charge tickets for admission.
To keep her mind appropriately focused on the fight itself and not on either of the participants in particular, Annabeth began to catalog differences in their styles. As the daughter of Ares, Clarisse had immense natural skill coupled with years of intense, focused training. But as Clarisse, she wasn't very… elegant. As in everything else, her attacks were blunt, straightforward, and powerful. She relied on brute strength and thick armor to overwhelm her opponent.
Percy, on the other hand, played defensively, light-footed, with no shield and barely enough armor to cover his torso. He preferred to dodge where Clarisse would parry. He used his feet to avoid the brunt of Clarisse's force and then used her momentum to his advantage. He would let her strike first, then redirected or came out of a dodge swinging. It was incredible to watch, since Percy had spent almost six years perfecting it. Annabeth was reminded of the tide, ebbing and flowing with ease.
Except the ocean couldn't swiftly disarm a now beet red and fuming Clarisse in the time it took Annabeth to blink.
The crowd erupted into cheers. A section on the far end started booing and calling for a rematch, but Clarisse's cabin mates went largely ignored in the general surge to congratulate Percy. He grinned at them and said something to Clarisse, who rolled her eyes, picked up her sword, and pushed past him. He let her go, still smiling, and looked around.
For a split-second, his green eyes locked onto Annabeth across the arena before Percy was engulfed in the crowd of campers, but it felt far longer.
There was a strange little twinge in her gut.
Okay. Annabeth might have had a small crush on Perseus Jackson, despite his pretentious name and windswept…no, shaggy hair. But honestly, it was so small it was practically nonexistent. She wasn't even comfortable calling it a "crush," per say. Annabeth Chase doesn't do "crushes," like some obnoxious boy-crazy preteen girl. Besides, she didn't know him beyond shallow interactions in passing.
Although there was that one time when they were fifteen and they somehow got lost in the woods during a round of Capture the Flag. They ended up wandering around for hours in areas they never knew existed, and Annabeth had a surprisingly good time until Chiron and Grover finally found them and she realized they had caused some serious panic with their absence. She had been open to the idea of maybe talking to Percy more often until she started hearing whispers about some redhead named Rachel and forced herself to back off.
She'd never even figured out who that girl was. She wasn't a demigod, that was for sure, because she'd never entered camp. But Percy talked about her and posted on social media about her (which Annabeth had only been told and definitely never saw for herself), and the Aphrodite kids had shipped them, so as far as camp was concerned they were already married.
But that was a long time ago. Basically ancient history.
Why was Annabeth thinking about this again?
Oh yeah. She didn't have a crush on Percy.
Seriously.