The next morning, I woke up before everyone else. It was still dark out so it must have been like 5 am. My fingers, still clumsy from sleep, stumbled to turn on the lamp on my bedside table. I had a restless sleep. My dreams were filled with images of tunnels lined with bones. I had felt a terror that I knew wasn't mine and I had a feeling that I knew who they belonged to. I had woken up in a cold sweat.

To clear my head, I decided to take a run. With any luck, some stupid monster will attack me and I can take out my confusion on it. As I got out of bed to change and put on some shoes, I looked around my bedroom. It wasn't anything fancy or well-decorated. I liked things plain and simple. It helped with my ADHD.

There was a bed, with the same bedding from 5 years ago. Try sleeping in that, punk. The smell alone made me want to sleep outside. There was a bedside table, a dresser, and some faded pictures of me and my mom, most of which had lost their stickiness and were lying on the ground pathetically. I made a mental note to put them back on my wall later. I had to move quietly so that I wouldn't wake up my mom or Hedge. With my luck, he would sense my emotions and wake up despite how silently I moved. Not that I was feeling any real emotion at the moment.

Even in the early morning, the night's cold still lingered. Instantly I regretted not being a jacket or at least a windbreaker. Eh, I'll warm up while running. There was nothing out there except me and the desert. It was always eerily quiet out here as if there were no other living creatures. After living in the Ares Cabin for years where there was always shouting and rock music playing, the silence was a surprisingly welcome change. That's why it was such a shock when I heard the voices.

A few feet away from me were 3 people, complaining loudly to each other about some girl named Rose and finding a secret passage and a missing person. They were so distracted by themselves that they hadn't noticed me. I would have thought that they were just annoying mortals and moved on except they were wearing Greek armor. Just like the one Chris was wearing when I found him. They were rebel demigods. I don't know what made me angrier, the fact that they were fine while Chris suffered or that they had the actual nerve to be here looking for him. That made my blood boil. They did this to him. They drove him insane and now they wanted him back.

"This is stupid. You would think that with her 'partnership' with that witch, she wouldn't send us to find this guy but here we are." One of them complained. The only girl with them frowned.

"I dare you to say that anywhere near her. She would have your throat within seconds. Come on, he's probably near the entrance of the maze if we can find it. And it's Luke who wants Chris, not Rose." I clenched my fists and imagined myself punching her pretty face. The thought pleased me. You're not taking him to that bdelyrós ever again.

Their last companion laughed.

"I can't imagine what for. That guy was always weird. I wouldn't be surprised if he was insane already." I saw red. Without thinking, I leaped up from behind the boulder and lunged for him. We flew into the sand creating a dust cloud that temporarily blinded my vision. Instantly he began to flail under me.

"What the Hades! Ruby, Zane!" I punched him across the face.

"Shut up!" I shouted. I was about to punch him again when I felt hands on my arms forcing him off of him.

I ripped my arms out of their grasps and turned towards them, my arms already slinging to hit them as well. Both of them narrowly dodged.

"Who are you?" The girl, Ruby, demanded. Idly, I noted that they had me surrounded.

"I'm the person who is going to knock your lights out, punk." The other guy's eyes widened.

"Wait, I recognize you. You're Clarisse!" He turned to his friends. "She's the daughter of Ares."

The idiot whom I tackled growled from behind me.

"Then it is my lucky day. I've always wanted to beat a child of Ares." Without turning, I smirked. They weren't monsters, but they would do.

"Come and try then." The words were barely out of my mouth before he lunged. Quickly I step-sided, spun, and brought up my leg to kick him. He fell back into the sand, groaning.

I grinned. Beating a child of Ares, didn't exactly work out for you, huh punk? I turned to face his friends, both of whom had their weapons drawn while I hadn't thought to bring anything. Styx.

"You idiot," The girl hissed at her friend on the ground. "She's unarmed! But you wanted to show off your 'Kratos strength' didn't you Ben?" Zane's level stare was fixed on me.

"I'm sure that Luke will let us stop looking for Chris if we bring back your dead body instead." With one last shared look, they both charged towards me.

They were good. The only thing that kept me alive was my fast reflexes. As they slashed towards my chest and arms, I ducked and twirled, occasionally hitting or kicking them to force them back. I got caught up in the thrill, the addicting adrenaline, that came with fighting, the easy naturalness of combat after my hectic days in Arizona. The Fates, freaking old crones, didn't share my sentiments. I could hear Ben trying to get up. Inwardly I cursed.

My body went into auto-pilot dodging and fighting while my mind grasped for something that resembled a plan. These two, Zane and Ruby, were hard enough on their own but I could probably beat them. But if Ben joined them, they would probably overpower me. I needed to end this. I could feel myself tiring and blood from my cuts dripping down my skin. I reached out my mind to their weapons, willing the metal to become something different. Something softer, I smirked. When Ruby tried to give me another cut, her dagger harmlessly touched my skin. They both froze and glanced at their blades. Instead of a gleam of bronze, they were greeted with the sight of snowy-white styrofoam.

"What the Hades!" Zane yelled, staring at his sword as if it had grown legs. "What did you do?" I grinned evilly and knocked them both to the ground, their weapons skittering into the sand. I was feeling rather proud of myself until someone tackled me from behind. I had forgotten about Ben.

Before I could lift my hands to fight him, he punched me, leaving me dazed for a moment. I was already tired after the struggle with his friends.

"You know, Kratos is the god of strength but he never gets any attention because of your big shot father -" I used my hips to buck him off before he could even finish that sentence.

"You're going to eat your words, punk," I growled. We struggled in the sand together, both trying to incapacitate the other. I could hear Zane and Rose struggling to their feet. I can just never finish a fight in peace. I knew I needed to end this. It was 3 against 1 and I was tired and unarmed. When Zane and Ruby jumped towards me, I rolled out of the way so that they would hit Ben. The three of them crashed back onto the ground. For good measure, and because they were annoying, I flung more sand on their eyes and raced back to my house.

The sun had risen and the morning chill was gone. Nothing like a good smackdown in the desert to cheer someone up. I ran home fast enough that those three punks wouldn't be able to see where I went and follow me. Luckily, I had run through the desert enough times as a child to know my way home.

"Clarisse!" I was sitting on the couch as Coach tended to my cuts to stop the bleeding and berated me simultaneously. "How could you sneak out of the house in the early morning and get into a fight!" I waited while he rummaged through his bag - he always liked to remind me how efficient packers satyrs were - to find some nectar for my cuts. "WITHOUT ME!" He exclaimed, turning back to me. There it was.

"Coach, it was supposed to just be a local run, not a fight," I smirked. "I just got lucky." Hedge snorted but looked content with my answer. Then he grinned like a little boy on Christmas.

"Think they are still out there?" I shrugged.

"If they are, you can finish them off." His smile became wider and he tossed me some ambrosia.

"I'm going out! Maybe those traps I've been working on…" His voice trailed off as he left the house. I rolled my eyes and took a bite of the ambrosia to dispel the lingering pain. As usual, it tasted like green tea, my least favorite drink that my mom always made to calm me down.

Speaking of my mom, Coach had said that she was out, doing what. He wasn't sure so I was left alone in the house. Well, almost alone but I don't exactly count whimpering messes of demigods and I don't want to think about him. My mom didn't own a tv and I didn't watch shows, so to pass the time I thought about my scuffle with those scamps in the desert. Something about what they had said was bothering me. With a start, I remembered my dream of the tunnels.

"Come on, he's probably near the entrance of the maze if we can find it." Not tunnels, but maze corridors. So the idiots were investigating tunnels. Why was that so important? I remembered the terror that I had felt in the dream and repressed a shudder. You know what, screw it. I'm calling Chiron. I am a warrior, not a thinker.

I used the kitchen sink to create a rainbow and tossed a dramacha into it. Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Chiron at Camp Half-Blood. The old centaur was sitting in his office, looking over some papers.

"Chiron. Chiron!" I called to get his attention. He looked up and sighed.

"Clarisse, have you given up on that boy - I noticed that he didn't say his name either - already? You need -"

"He's fine," I said tersely. "I found some of his friends in the desert. They were perfectly sane and they said something about Luke exploring a maze?" I swear Chiron's face went 3 shades lighter.

"A maze?" He asked shakily. I narrowed my eyes and nodded.

"What is the vlacas planning now? What do you know?" I demanded. Chiron cleared his throat and looked back down at his papers.

"I will come down there to help investigate this matter more thoroughly but in the meantime, keep this to yourself, Clarisse." I glared at him.

"Meantime! You aren't coming now?" I pressed. He didn't even look at me.

"There is a situation at camp right now, Clarisse." Are you kidding me?

"What situation! Why am I here then?" I yelled. He still wouldn't look up.

"It's being handled, Clarisse." He said calmly.

"By Prissy and his friends, I bet," I muttered. Chiron's face showed he was unimpressed. Who cares?

"Yes, and the hunters are here." He cut off the Iris Message. I stared at the spot where he had been for a moment like an idiot. I'm going to be making centaur soup when I get back.

Leaving an ADHD demigod alone in a house with nothing to do is never a smart move. I took a shower and changed into some clean clothes. I put my dagger and sword in sheaths, as I wasn't going to be caught unarmed again, and aimlessly wandered around the house. I was tempted to do some training then I found multiple notes from my mother forbidding the drawing of blades in her house. Wonderful. So somehow I found myself in Chris' room.

He was sleeping peacefully for the first time since I got here. Memories of last night immediately came to my mind but I pushed them back. I was not about to dwell on something so stupid. I sat down in the chair next to him and began cleaning my spear.

"Lamer."

I jumped up and looked at him. I couldn't stop my rising hope. Was he, did he? Because life seemed to hate me, no. He was muttering in his sleep. I went back to sharpening my electric spear. I thought about stabbing him but I would probably have to clean the mess. There, of course, was no other reason I didn't want to stab him.

"Clary."

I froze. Was he thinking about me? The thought filled me with an unexplainable feeling of joy. I put Maimer, and if you call it Lamer, I'll remind you why its name is Maimer, on the floor next to the bed.

Without really knowing what I was doing, I began talking.

"Chris." I paused. There was so much that I wanted to say and at the same time, I wanted to say nothing at all. "I want to hate and kill you. I should hate and kill you but I can't. I won't, and that makes me a pretty bad child of Ares, huh?" He made no response except for some whimpering. I glowered at him. Aphrodite is messing with me. I'm not being myself.

"Clarisse!" I could hear my mom from the living room. With one last glance at Chris, I headed down the hall. "Where have you-". The living room was usually a very spacious area with sparse furniture. Now it was overflowing with boxes full of green and red decorations and rainbow ornaments. I would have thought that Katie Gardner was here if any of the plants were alive.

My mom looked at me very seriously for a woman covered in pines.

"We are days behind in decorating and we have 5 years of Christmas to make up." She paused in her speech to yell out the door for Hedge to get his furry behind in here. Mom tossed me a broom which I caught easily.

"Start sweeping. Hedge you get to dusting. This house will be spotless before it is Christmasized."