It was gone. But no one had a clue about what It was.
Like the last piece to the puzzle. The campers had put together bits and pieces of information but no one knew what the answer was.
They knew that something had happened during the Solstice. Something that put all the gods on edge. Something big. Through rumors, and the Hermes cabins talent for sneaking into the Big House and listening to Chiron and Mr. D talk, the demigods knew that something was taken. But, what? They heard rumors of war starting. And that the gods were angry. But, why? They had heard talk that a child of the Big Three had been involved. But, who? After hearing the rumors, some of the demigods wanted to face Chiron and demand that he tell them what was happening (it was mostly the Ares Cabin, they wanted to be part of anything if it involved war and fighting). But they never saw him.
Mr. D never cared for the campers, when they asked him where their teacher was he would laugh, or tell them to mind their own business, or come up with some ridiculous excuse like he's getting his tail done. The demigods had assumed for some time that he had been summoned to Olympus, to discuss this war that they had heard about. After two days, they thought maybe he had a Party Ponies emergency. Some of his brethren were known to be wild. After two months, slowly the demigods became less and less worried. Not that they didn't care for their teacher, no. He had grown to be a father-like figure to most of them. But Chiron was capable of taking care of himself. And if he wanted the campers to know what was going on he would have told them. After those two months the rumors had died down as well. Of course, when you hear about an impending war it will stick in the back of your mind until that rumor was cleared. But after a while the campers began to get on with their lives.
On March 31st, Katie would be turning twelve. They only people who knew about her birthday were Jaz and Will, and Katie planned to keep it that way. She never had parties to celebrate her birthday or did anything extravagant. Now was not the time to start new traditions.
The date was now, March 21st. Katie was working on fixing up the Demeter cabin. She and Jaz had put all the ground and hanging planters in the back room for the winter. Now that it was warm enough to be outside in jeans and a sweater, Katie thought she'd better make good use of herself and clean up the cabin. Katie also though that it might lighten up Jaz's mood when she returned from organizing the tool shed in the Strawberry Field.
With fresh dirt, and bulbs planted in the pots she started to place them around the cabin. In front of the porch, Katie stood on the old ladder that she had got from behind the cabin. She held on to the top stair and tried to reach the hook to hang her plant, but was too short. She stepped up another stair and reached. Again, she was too far away to hang up the plant. Katie was stuck. She could not step up any more stairs without tipping the entire ladder over. But she could not reach the hook without letting go of the ladder anyway.
C'mon, Katie, she told herself. Don't be a coward. You're what? Three, four feet from the ground? If you fall, so what? A few bruises never hurt anyone.
She let go of the ladder and reached over. Still too far she extended her arm as far as she could. For more reach her right leg came up. For a second, she thought she was going to fall. Then someone came.
"You need someone to steady that ladder," the voice said. She felt the ladder touch back down on solid ground as the person talked.
"I almost have it," whether she was talking to herself or the mysterious person behind her, Katie was unsure of. With a last reach she got the hook to latch and the pot was secure. She turned around to see who her helper was. She saw the smiling scarred face of Luke Castellan. It used to be, Katie couldn't help but smile when she saw him. He reminded her of Olivia, and how giddy and love struck she used to get around him. Now she couldn't help but try to see the changes in him that Olivia had seen. Katie had not known Luke before his quest so she had nothing to compare him to and quickly gave up.
"Oh, hey, Luke," she told him. "Thanks for the help. " Katie worked her way down the ladder and continued to speak. "That could have been a nasty fall. My flowers would've been ruined."
"Of course, doesn't want to hurt the flowers but when it comes to me, she will beat me to a pulp." A sarcastic Travis Stoll walked out from behind his older brother, causing Katie to groan.
"Gods! What do you want?" she asked him.
"Son of the God of Messengers, remember?" Travis told her. A tone of bitterness dripped from his voice. "I have your mail, 'Kates'."
'Kates', it was her father's nickname for her again. Part of Katie thought that Travis was giving her some sort of warning about the letter by calling her that. The other part, the rational part, knew he was doing it to bug her. She decided to tease back. She reached out for the letter that was in his extended arm.
"What, are you on probation or something? Why do you have a chaperone? " Katie smiled.
Travis opened his mouth and looked as though he had a snippy answer. But to Katie's surprise Luke answered.
"It seems as though our Travis here, along with his brother, has been less than courteous to those who are receiving our deliveries. So I am accompanying them on the deliveries for the next few days until I am sure they can handle it."
Katie laughed.
"Well, I agree with the less than courteous part though he is like that to me all the time. But where is Connor?" she asked the boys.
"Oh, Connor is sick; he came down with a cold of some sort." Luke informed her.
Katie looked at Travis who was shaking his head and mumbling something like, "Lying sack of hellhound dung". Katie laughed.
"I'm sure he is," she responded sarcastically. She put the letter into her jacket pocket. "I guess I will see you guys later, then."
"Aren't you going to open the letter?" Luke asked.
"Nah, it's just a birthday card from my dad. He doesn't even have the right date."
"Whoa, wait a sec. When's your birthday?" Travis smiled like this news changed his entire outlook for the day.
How could she have let that slip? Travis was exactly the person she did not want to know it was her birthday. Knowing him, she knew he would plan some ridiculous prank on her.
"That's none of your concern," she told him shortly. Walking into the cabin she left the sons of Hermes standing at the bottom of the porch.
"Don't worry I will figure it out."
Starting the next morning, Katie knew just how much trouble she was in. She woke up the next day to Jaz's screaming. The entire Demeter cabin was covered in feathers and balloons.
"STOLL!" she screamed.
Katie didn't even bother to get dressed. She put her hiking boots on and stormed out of Cabin Four. It was both a blessing and a curse that the Hermes Cabin, Cabin Eleven, was on the completely opposite side of the courtyard. Not even caring about the cold or the stares that the other campers were throwing at her, Katie walked into the Hermes Cabin. Never having been in any cabin other than her own, the Hermes Cabin was a surprise. Even in the regular year the cabin was full of Demigods. Unlike the Demeter Cabin, where every camper could have their own bed and they still had extras, here bunks lined the walls so close it was a miracle someone could walk between them. Belongings of the different campers were scattered all over the floor it was no wonder why they always failed cabin inspection.
She could have spent an hour looking for the Stoll's in that place, luckily, Travis made the job easy.
"Happy Birthday, Gardner!" he shouted from the bottom bunk of a bed in the middle of the room. Katie made her way over to him. He was in a lounging position on his bed when she found him. "Did you enjoy your surprise this morning?"
"It's not my Birthday, you moron."
"Really? Are you sure about that?"
"I think I know when my Birthday is."
"Did you hear that Connor? Today is not Gardner's Birthday," he said sarcastically.
From behind Katie, Connor spoke. She was unsure of when he snuck up behind her.
"Well, you know what that means, brother?"
"Yep! I guess we have to will just have to try again tomorrow." The most evil smile crossed his face. It was the most infuriating thing Katie had ever seen. It caused her to act on impulse.
She threw the blankets off of Travis's bed. Katie reached over and grabbed him by the tip of his ear. Pinching on the cartilage in his ear, she dragged him out of his bed.
"Jeez, Katie, you just can't keep your hands off of me can you?" everyone laughed but she just pinched tighter.
Connor stood next to Katie laughing. Not wanting him to get away either, she grabbed his ear as well. The entire Hermes Cabin laughed as the boys were pulled out of the cabin. Their embarrassment heightened when they were pulled through the courtyard by the daughter of Demeter, then into her cabin.
"Clean it up."
"But it's such a lovely birthday surprise. Why would you want to get rid of it?"
"Now," Katie flashed them the famous "don't mess with me" look and they began cleaning up instantly.
The Stoll brothers finished cleaning the Demeter Cabin before breakfast started, but as they promised this was not the last of their pranks. Every day that week they managed to give Katie a new "birthday present", every day up to the thirtieth. As if somehow those boys knew, probably by sneaking into the big house and checking the records, Katie woke up to a perfectly calm cabin. However, it was obvious that they had been there. Taped to her headboard she found a balloon and two slips of paper.
They were the fake coupons; they looked like the kind that kids usually gave to their parents for Mother's or Father's Day. The first one read, "one free slap Connor in the face coupon," someone, most likely Connor, crossed out the his name and wrote Travis in its place. The second one read, "One free slap Travis in the face coupon". Like the first, someone had edited this coupon as well. Instead of "slap" someone had written "kiss".
As stupid as the slips of paper were, Katie laughed. They might actually come in handy one day, she thought to herself. The slaps, not the kiss, she shuddered at the thought. Those Stoll boys had actually managed to do something kinda-ish sweet in a really messed up way for once.
Katie's day only got better from there on. March thirtieth landed on a Friday this year, so it was the last day of classes for the week which only added to her happiness for that day. No one made a big deal out of the day just as she wanted it to be. If she was being honest with herself, the campers weren't ignoring her birthday for Katie's benefit. Chiron had been MIA a total of three months now. His absence had put everybody on edge. Even if they didn't admit it, some of them missed him. Though it was a sad reality, the distraction helped Katie. Her day had been just as normal as always, minus the marauding brothers.
The next day went just as well as its preceding.
Calm.
It was nice. Not normal, and kind of odd for Camp to be an eerie calm like this, but still nice. The Stoll's were missing yet another day. Katie looked over from the Demeter Table in the dining Pavilion to the overcrowded Hermes Table. Just as she expected they were still gone. Have the Gods finally got my message, Katie laughed to herself. No, they aren't that nice.
"Missing the crazy twins, are we?" the voice brought Katie out of her train of thought. She realized that she was still staring at the Hermes campers searching for the boy with the blue eyes.
"No, no," she replied. Katie looked across the table to find Jaz staring at her with a all-knowing smile. "I am curious though. So you know where they've been for the past two days?"
"No, but shouldn't you?" she asked.
"Why would I know?"
"I saw that kissing note. You two have that cute little crush thing going on."
"What!" Katie was unsure whether to laugh at her half-sister or throw something at her. "Eww! Me and Travis Stoll? That's disgusting. I hate him and he hates me."
"One day you will see how alike the two of you are."
"Not in this lifetime."
"Hm-mm, we'll see."
The next morning Katie woke up to the sound of screaming. Surprisingly, it was not her own. She looked to Jaz who had also heard the yells and had gotten up. Both of them stood up and walked out of their cabin onto the front porch to survey the damage. Their jaws dropped when they saw the destruction.
The Ares Cabin was completely covered in pink bows and missing the boar's head that usually hung above the door frame. The head had been moved from its spot on the Ares Cabin and now held the place of honor on the Aphrodite Cabin (which explained the girlish shrieks). The Athena Cabin was trying to save the battle plans and blueprints that had been hung up like Himalayan flags around the outside of the building. From where Katie stood she could see Annabeth running around like a crazy girl to save the precious papers. But that was just the beginning. Something had occurred during the night that affected every cabin. Each seemed to have been a victim of a personal prank.
Prank. That was it. That is where the boys have been for the past two days. Those Stoll's had been planning this. But why? And if they had done something terrible to everyone why did the Demeter Cabin look perfectly fine?
Katie and Jaz stepped down the stairs to investigate the extent of the damage to their home. The roof grass was still green, the building still a fading brown, the weathered porch still creaked, the vines all in place, the flowers… The flowers were all still there but they looked odd. Katie walked forward and bent down to inspect. She did not need to be within three feet to know what she would find. She could not smell the sweetness of the plants anymore and even from a distance she could see the small threads. The flowers had been replaced with fakes. Her flowers were missing. They had been taken and replaced with fakes! Travis Stoll had stolen her flowers. And Travis Stoll was going to pay.
Two months later and Katie was finally fishing her punishment. Kitchen duty for two months seemed kind of ridiculous for a punishment. The Stoll brothers had replaced her flowers with fakes. In defense and anger she may have attacked them. But she was sure that the Ares cabin would have done worse. So what that she threatened him with Dunamis. So what if she may have cut Travis' hair with her blade. He really needed a haircut anyways! And it was growing back now. Two months later it looked exactly as it did before she cut it. And he seemed completely okay with it anyway. The whole time he was laughing at Katie and saying "Happy April Fool's Day." That's all it was to him. Just an April fool's Day joke. But still, Katie was punished.
Now it was the beginning of June. The beginning of the summer. But surely once Campers were trickling in slowly but surely once their school years were done. Even Chiron came back.
He officially announced his return at dinner one night. He apologized to all the campers for his unexpected absence. When someone shouted out a question asking him where he went, he simply waved his hand and told them he was doing business for Mt. Olympus. Knowing they were not going to get a straight answer the questions stopped. Chiron announced plans for the new summer session and then started to procession down to the amphitheatre for the bonfire.
The Apollo Cabin lead the sing-a-long as usual. There was a ceremony to announce the official start to the summer camp training season. Cabin head counselors were announced along with some of the new teachers. Everyone sang along and gossiped for the hour-long party. The summer-only demigods were surprised to hear the stories from the winter solstice. They were clued into the fact that something was missing. No one knew what it was yet. They needed to find out soon though. Another bonfire similar to this would happen again in a few weeks for the summer solstice. If what was gone was not found nothing good would happen this summer.
The night ended with the campers all in high spirits. They were together with their families and ready to work hard.
The boundary lines of Camp Half-Blood are magical and do not allow the weather to affect what happens inside unless it is necessary. That night there was an unusual rainless thunderstorm. Thunder boomed like freight trucks crashing on a highway. It reminded those year-rounder's of what had happened after their night in Manhattan but different. It was an ominous noise that only meant something bad was happening somewhere nearby. And none of them were prepared to just how difficult their lives were about to get.
In the morning news spread like wildfire, mostly because the Apollo and Aphrodite Cabins like to do joint sunrise yoga, and both of them are the biggest gossips of the entire camp. They heard to news from nymphs and dryads who had but the first witnesses to the attack last night. The satyrs knew, of course, because one of their own had been involved. A little satyr named Grover. Katie had never meet Grover but knew him well enough from reputation. He was the one who had brought Annabeth and Luke to camp a few years back. He had also led another girl by the name of Thalia. At the top of Half-Blood Hill the group had been attacked and Zeus, Thalia's father, had turned her into the tall pine tree. It was hard to believe she was now a pine tree but when Jaz (who had taught her about all sorts of different plants over the winter) told her the story they went to the tree itself and Katie's "Demeter senses" for plants proved that the story was in fact true. Thalia was a surprise to everyone. She was never supposed to have been born. The Big Three: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, were not supposed to have kids anymore. They made a pact. And Zeus had broken it by being Thalia's father. This story was legend around Camp. It was like Olympus' own soap opera.
Michael had come over to share the news of last night's discovery with Katie, Jaz, and the newly returned Riley before breakfast.
"There was an attack just outside of Camp last night," he said.
"Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don't know," Jaz returned.
"I'm getting there, hold your centaurs. Grover apparently lost the kid he was assigned to protect. The boy ran off with his mom or something like that. And then when Grover went to get this kid and his mom and bring him to camp they were attacked, by the Minotaur."
"The Minotaur? Like from the Labyrinth?" Katie questioned. Sometimes this new lifestyle that she had chosen still shocked her.
"Yeah, rumor is he has the horn to prove it."
"Whoa! He's still alive?!" they looked at each other in amazement.
"Yeah, he is in the infirmary now. Annabeth Chase is with him. You know her; she thinks everyone to cross the border is her ticket out on a quest. The thing is everybody seems to think that he might have something to do with the mess that is happening from up on Olympus."
"Do you?" Katie asked her protector, "Do you think he's part of it?"
"I just he's lucky. But sometimes the best hero's are nothing special and just really, really lucky. We will have to wait until he wakes up and gets out of Chiron's protection in the Big House. Then we'll know what he's made of. "
This chapter took way too long and i have no excuses for you. I know I rambled on for a bit there in the middle and I was extremely tempted to make Katie's birthday a side- shot but i kept it in anyway. So we are finally getting into the good parts. hopefully a little more action too. i have all the parts from the books that Katie was in or could have potentially been in marked up and ready to be written. Im going to try and stick to the books as much as possible. Hopefully i will have a new chapter up for you guys soon.
review please even if you usually don't here are some things you could say.
1. I still am looking for new title names.
2. Do you have a favorite part of the PJatO series you want me to write in
3. Are you liking the story so far?.
4. Is the Tratie suspense killing you yet?