Ariadne was still in camp, and, just like Annabeth had predicted, the Stolls took the advantage of Chiron and Dionysus being distracted by other important things. Chiron was talking to the campers, asking them if they could go to Olympus (He could just point to them, but it was Chiron and he didn't want to do that), and Dionysus tried to spend as much time with his wife as possible. Therefore, the Stolls decided to try some ideas they had had for a while now.
They were now standing in the Poseidon-cabin, behind the bunk-bed. Percy had just gotten a new cupboard, and it was still completely empty. Of course, that meant he asked to be stuffed into it, preferably with somebody else (That's logical, right?). As soon as Percy had stepped out of his cabin to get some stuff that he had stored in the Athena cabin, the Stolls had taken their place. Now, Percy was heading back to his cabin, with his stuff.
Of course, Percy being Percy, he dropped all of his stuff on the floor as soon as he stepped in. After that, Piper came running in. 'Percy! Annabeth has to talk to Chiron and Mr. D! I'm helping you!' She proclaimed. Percy stared at her. 'Cool. So, um, I guess we hang the shirts on the coat-hangers, and the comic books on the planks.' Piper started to collect Percy's collection of comics from the books on the floor, while Percy picked up his shirts.
The Stolls took their chance. Connor pushed Piper into the closet, and Travis pushed Percy right next to her. Before they noticed what was going on, they locked the closet and ran away before Piper could charm speak them into letting them out.
Percy let out a deep sigh (sighing is the activity demigods indulge in the most, just before seeking food). 'So... I guess we have to get out. On our own,' Piper whispered. Percy nodded.
'Yup. And I guess Annabeth was right when she said the Stolls would pull some kind of stunt.'
Piper banged on the door. 'HEY! Anybody! Let us out!' Percy stared at her.
'Piper, I don't think that is going to work.' Piper turned her head to him and rolled her eyes (because they slowly changed colour it looked pretty psychedelic). 'Do you mean that, Jackson?' she said (Sarcastically, of course, because 85% of things Piper say are sarcastic). Percy gave her the most confused look he could, and reached out his hands for emphasis. Yet, he did that so quickly, that he accidently hit the closet door.
'Ouch!' He yelled. Suddenly, he heard muffled sounds from outside the closet.
'Percy? Are you in there?' He heard Leo's voice ask. He sounded like he was waiting to laugh like crazy and tell the entire camp that Percy was stuck in the closet. Percy sighed, and opened his mouth to ask Leo to just get a crowbar or something and get him out, but for some reason, Piper yelled: 'LEO! Percy and I are stuck in here! Do something!'
Percy counted down the three seconds Leo was silent, waiting for the eruption of laughter which was going to inevitably come out of his mouth. When it was still silent on the fourth seconds, Percy turned to Piper. On the sixth second, he wanted to open his mouth to ask something, but then he heard a weird sound and a thud. After that, Leo started laughing so loud that Percy wondered if Leo was still alright. 'Leo? Are you dying of some horrific disease or just laughing because me and Piper are stuck in this closet together?' The answer was just even louder laughter.
From inside the closet, Percy heard the door of his cabin open. He heard Annabeth's voice ask: 'Leo, why are you laughing like somebody stepped into one of the Stolls' traps on the floor of Percy's cabin?' Leo hiccupped a few times before he stopped laughing. 'Piper... the closet... locked... Percy...' he said in between laughs. Percy heard footsteps coming over to the closet. 'Is somewhere in there? Percy?' She asked. Percy looked Piper straight in her (currently brown-gold) eyes as she said. 'Yes! And I am here to! The Stolls pushed us in!'
Percy recognised that Annabeth was trying to hold back her own laughter as she answered: 'I'll get Chiron to get you out. Leo is laughing like a madman and probably is not going to be able to get you out, and I don't think the Stolls will be helpful either. But, Percy...' Percy growled.
'Yes, Annabeth, you were right. The Stolls would take advantage of Princess Ariadne being here.' Annabeth knocked on the closet, said 'thanks,' and walked away. It was a good thing Percy couldn't see her smug face.
Piper said down. 'Guess we have some time to talk. So, Percy, what's your favorite colour?' Piper asked. Percy nodded and sat down next to her. 'Blue, of course. What's yours?' Piper blushed.
'Do you swear not to tell anybody?' Percy nodded (knowing full well he probably would not be able to keep quiet about something like that). 'It's pink.' Percy laughed.
'Really? It is like that one time we went to the mall! And you wanted to go to Sephora! Your inner Aph-ro-di-te is s-h-o-w-i-n-g!' Percy said. Piper gave him her dark expression, while playing with her sleeve. 'Never say that again, because I'll throw you in front of Drew and her make-up kit.'
Percy tried to stop laughing, because the idea of being thrown in front of Drew and her Make-up kit was scary. He let out one more giggle, and then took a deep breath, while thinking of sad seal pups. 'Okay. Well, um...' Percy's mind went blank for a few seconds. 'So, the sun is going to give up one day, you know? How will that happen, if Apollo, Ra and whoever drive the sun? Also, will the gods still be immortal? Will they persist?' Piper's mouth hung over, as she tried to get comfortable in the small closet. 'I have never thought of that. I mean, their areas of expertise will fade and so will they, right? I think?' Percy twirled a streak of still slightly blue hair (a result of a prior prank of the Stolls).
'Well, I think...'
Annabeth walked over to the Big House, and burst through the door. 'Chiron! The St...' Chiron waved his hands.
'Please, Annabeth, we are busy.' Annabeth looked around. Chiron was in wheelchair-form, sitting at a table with an immense amount of documents and notes in front of him. Dionysus was sitting in front of him, reading through another document. He had slight bags under his eyes. Next to both of them, Ariadne was leaning on the table, with a cup of coffee. She looked pretty tired as well, but she looked less stressed than Chiron and Dionysus. Chiron had the deepest bags under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in the two days Ariadne had been in camp. 'The gods want us to choose someone by twelve 'O clock, tonight, and by these orders.' He gestured at the tower of papers.
'I know, but the camp has been...' Chiron silenced her again.
'Annabeth, the camp is doing fine! I'll clear it up once I am done.' Annabeth looked at him. The last time Chiron hadn't had time for her, was when she was nine, and Zeus had decided that Chiron was somehow responsible for his throne missing. It must be pretty serious, she thought. Her eyes drifted over to Dionysus, but he didn't seem to notice. He had picked up a new document, but was seemingly not reading what was written on there and had reached the end of the universe, that's how deep in thought in seemed to be. He wasn't going to help get Piper and Percy out of a closet.
Then, Ariadne stood up. 'I'll see what's going on.' She grabbed Annabeth's hand, and walked her out of the Big House. Annabeth didn't even notice the last bit - she was kind of confused. She pulled her hand out of hers. 'Alright. So, eh, the pranksters of camp have locked Percy Jackson and Piper Mclean into s closet, and I wanted to get Chiron to help get them out, because the campers are to busy laughing.' Annabeth frowned, as she decided how stupid that must sound to a goddess. Yet, she had done weirder things.
Ariadne bit her lip, trying not to laugh. She remembered that she and her sisters had once done something like that, by locking two of her brothers in a small room together. She was pretty sure the reasoning behind it had been that they had tried to steal something incredibly minor from them. Her mother Pasiphae had made sure they got of with it without much problems, Minos had been angry from the center of his soul. She had talked to a few campers over the past few days, and she thought they were sweet.
Annabeth stopped in front of the Poseidon cabin. 'I don't know if my friend Leo is still laughing like an idiot inside, or of has somehow made it over to his cabin to tell all of his siblings and everyone else in camp about what went on in the Poseidon cabin. Annabeth opened the door, took a deep breath and stepped inside. Leo was leaning against the bunk bed, reading a comic book. When Annabeth and Ariadne stepped inside, he said, without looking up: Percy and Piper have been having a talk about existentialism in that closet. I started reading these things to get my mind of that, because it was weird.'
Ariadne stroke three fingers through her hair (a nervous habit. Annabeth was sure she had seen Sheila doing it too). 'So there are two campers stuck inside this closet? Does no-one own a master key?' Annabeth looked at her, and felt her cheeks turning red. She hadn't thought of that. Why hadn't she thought of something so obvious? Her mouth fell slightly open, while Leo looked like that might be a good idea. 'Nyssa has one. I'll be back. Don't let Piper and Percy's depressing thoughts get to you.'
Annabeth bit her nail. 'I didn't think of that...' she muttered. Ariadne put a hand on her shoulder. 'Are you missing Chiron?' She asked. 'He told me he usually asks you how you are doing every day, but that he forgot yesterday.' Annabeth nodded slowly. 'Yes,' she whispered. Ariadne squeezed her shoulder.
'He'll be done with the work tonight, Annabeth. He felt really bad when he forgot yesterday.' Annabeth smiled at her, but the moment was ruïned when Percy yelled: 'Chiron does that? That's so sweet! Man, Annabeth, you are lucky!' (Wait, did I say it ruïned the moment? Forgive me, I meant it made the moment a million times better).
Leo came back with a master key. He shot Ariadne a look with puppy-dog eyes. 'Please don't say anything about this master key to Chiron or Dionysus. They are kind of forbidden inside this camp.' Ariadne nodded reassuringly.
'I'll keep quiet.' Leo gave her a thumbs up, then opened the closet door. Percy and Piper came tumbling out, already cheering.
Piper jumped up. 'We're free! We're free!' She grabbed Percy's arms, and twirled him around. Percy tried to do a fortnite-dance, and Annabeth acted like she didn't see that. 'Well, knowing our track record, we should be hearing the horn for dinner right about... now.' She was right, and the horn went off just as the demigods and the goddess stepped out of the Poseidon cabin (Annabeth neglected to mention that she had quickly checked the time on her watch, while everyone was being surprised about her great feeling for time).
The campers were all inside the pavilion, but Chiron and Mr. D where nowhere to be seen. After seven minutes of waiting, Argus decided that he was hungry and he gestured that the campers could start eating. His eyeballs kept bouncing around, seemingly to find the two people on charge. The campers, who didn't really care if they didn't show up, started eating.
Half-way through dinner, Annabeth got up from her seat at the Athena table and sat down at Poseidon's table, next to Percy. 'Chiron told me they have to have the demigods picked out by midnight. I think they'll tell us during the campfire.' Percy nodded slowly. He was tired, and his muscles ached from behind stuffed in a too small space for to long. 'It doesn't really matter. They'll want to show me off to the other Pantheons anyway.' Annabeth didn't nod, but she knew that he was probably in the right about being dragged to Olympus.
When dinner was almost done, Chiron and Dionysus finally entered the pavilion. Chiron was carrying a small piece of paper, and looked around to get attention. Dionysus walked over to the head table. The campers turned to Chiron, and he started talking: So, I have picked a few campers, who'll have to stay on Olympus while the gods of the other Pantheons are there as well.' He yawned. 'If looked at scores during training, amount of quests, what those quests meant, how you behave with other people and go...'
'Chiron, you are clearly very tired, so just get to the point!' An Apollo-camper yelled. Chiron nodded slowly.
'So, Meg Mccaffrey, who I was subtly told to send over by lord Apollo (Apollo had send a letter saying that Meg should come four times a day. He wanted to tell everyone how he helped her through her quest, even though deep down he knew Meg would turn it in such a way that he would look like a total idiot), Piper Mclean and Jason Grace, who will represent the seven (Piper and Jason groaned. They had a romantic trip to Mcdonalds planned that saturday, and that was not going to go through), Will Solace, because of the medical field (Nico clung to his boyfriends' arm, and Will decided that be should ask Chiron if he was allowed to bring a plus one, so that Nico wouldn't eat nothing but potato chips all day long), Annabeth Chase, the architect (Annabeth pursed her lips), and Clarisse la Rue, who is our best warrior ('no!' The daughter of Ares yelled).'
Chiron went silent, but kept staring at his piece of paper. Percy, meanwhile, jumped up, ran over to Chiron and hugged him. 'Chiron, thank you so much that I don't have to waste all my free time on that mountain!' He yelled. Chiron patted him on the head. 'Its alright, Percy. I also thought that the other pantheons already knew, to be honest...' percy walked back to his table, doing something that looked vaguely like the Chicken dance. Annabeth, meanwhile, wasn't very happy, but what can you do (against the gods)?
That evening, Ariadne had to leave to bring the list of demigods over to Olympus. She knew full well that Zeus would whine about at least three of the demigods mentioned, but again, what can you do? She finished packing everything back into her backpack, and walked downstairs, to the main room of the Big House. She wanted to walk out, but felt that her husband grabbed her hand. She turned around and hugged him. 'See you again during the summer solstice. I don't think there will be time to see you during the event I was here for...' Dionysus pressed a kiss on her forehead.
'I'll make time,' he muttered, before she stepped out of the door.