Ian Abernathy's POV

Why did it have to be her? After we handed our weapons, I still had my sword from our chicken-lady adventure, for Capture the Flag, unfortunately I still had honey in my hair, but I was not going to miss this. Especially now that I had the opportunity to stab Lydia. The downside was that we were on the same team. Bummer.

We gathered around Clarisse, Travis, and Conner. It was Hermes and Ares against pretty much everyone else. Apparently the rules to this Capture the Flag were still similar to the normal rules, except now there was a higher chance of getting maimed. This was going to be awesome. I'm a natural strategist, of course. My sister may be book smart, but there was a reason I helped all of my many sports coaches write the plays for our games. I was meant to go to WestPoint Military Academy. It was calling my name.

Clarisse began to call out pairs, which grabbed my attention, "Abernathy, Ivy, and Ben-Yosef, Rebekah, you'll both be defending the flag. Billows, Marie, and Valparaiso, Cameron, you'll both be scouts. Abernathy, Ian, and Dollen, Lydia, will be offense." She continued to name off pairs, but I fell into a deep, dark pit of despair when I heard my partner's name. Why? Why is it always her? I was forced to spend time with her, she's just as annoying unconscious as when she's awake, just so the rest of my group could have the time to prank me, and now this!

I glanced in Ivy's direction and found her smirking smugly at my situation. Rebekah looked outraged. I didn't even want to look at her. But I assumed her expression was similar to mine. At least we could agree on one thing. We preferred anyone but each other. Once Clarisse was finished, she motioned for all the offense players to follow her and another guy, Chris Rodriguez. She stationed us at different areas throughout the forest and gave us one instruction, stay where we are and if we see anyone, attack. I wanted to tell her those were technically two instructions, but I figured Clarisse wasn't the type of person who liked to be corrected. Once she and Chris left, I realized something. Not only was I partnered with her, but I was alone with her too.

We just stood there in silence for several moments. I don't know how long we stood there, but it felt like hours. My mind just kept repeating the same word over and over again, "Awkward, Awkward, Awkward." At one point, Lydia sneezed, but that was about as social as she got which was fine with me. I didn't even bless her. I was very proud of myself. Finally, something broke the silence. A high-pitched scream.

This caused Lydia to jump, but instead of laugh at her, which was very noble of me, we shared a look and ran off in the direction of the scream, while keeping as far apart from each other as we could. We stopped in front of a very large hill. What we found was the most amusing yet terrifying sight I'd ever seen.

Cameron, who was in the center, bound in one spot by a strange substance, was surrounded by something that made me want to scream. Ants. Freakishly large ants. They were all around the size of small cars. I'm not afraid of bugs, but when the bug is bigger than me, I'm not a huge fan of being in its company. Lydia looked like she was about ready to dart back into the woods. And even though it was really tempting to just leave Cameron with his new friends, I knew it was the right thing to intervene. Why did I have to have a conscience? Pink boy was going to owe me for this.

"How are we going to get him out of there?" Lydia wondered. I noticed Marie wasn't with him. I figured Cameron either ditched her or ants have a taste for prophesying red-heads, but I figured it was the first option. Cameron trusted his partner even less than I did and that's saying something.

"Clearly he traded out Marie for some new friends." I commented.

"Or Marie sacrificed him for the greater good." Lydia remarked. I actually cracked a smile.

"I like that theory."

It was in that moment when Cameron noticed our presence. And instead of being smart and keeping our location secret, he screams, "IAN! LYDIA! GET ME OUT OF HERE!" He was considerate that way. The ants turned in our direction. Lydia and I drew our weapons as I noted, "Looks like the tea party's over."

We charged the insects. Lydia's tactic was very, um, how do I put this? Head on. She immediately went for the ants' very armored hides and was having very little success. But I have to thank her, that was going to be my plan until I saw how it was working out for her. So, I adjusted my goal from killing to maiming. For this ant colony, I made having six legs a rarity. Don't mess with my mad skills.

Standing up after my most recent handicapping, I noticed Lydia's sword had a crack in the steel. She was putting way to much stress on it when she was trying to penetrate the ant armor. I called out to her,

"Lydia! Your sword-" CRACK! She had just brought down her sword onto another ant when the blade snapped in half. The last part of my crucial message was whispered to myself, "is breaking." Well. I tried. Just my luck though, now she was as defenseless as Cameron. Then, Lydia, like a true warrior, ducked the poisonous pincers and hid behind me. Wow. Such bravery in the face of complete defeat. I feel much safer now.

"I'll get Cameron and you keep these things busy." Lydia suggested against my will before running off to drag Cameron to safety. Did I mention that she's my least favorite person? Somehow she managed to get Cameron out of his bindings with one of her sword shards, and the two then ran behind a boulder. My heroes.

Something that happened next that did not ease my nerves was when Marie came out of the bushes. I was going to yell at her to go back into hiding, but then she raised her crossbow. Right at me! What I did next was not my finest moment. I may or may not of dropped my sword, raised both my hands in front of my face, and yelped, "Please spare me!" It may or may not have happened. I cannot disclose that information.

What? She has really good accuracy. I wouldn't be surprised if she had turned evil and decided to make my face a target. Thankfully, the arrow missed. Okay. That's a lie. It hit its actual target. The ant right behind me. Dang it! Now I owe my life to her. Well, at least it's not to Lydia. Her golden arrow had landed right in the ant's eye socket and its insides all evaporated except for its armored shell.

I sprinted towards Marie, Cameron, and Lydia, wanting to get away from the ant hill. I found Lydia hugging Marie saying, "Thanks. That was so cool, you killing that ant like that."

"What about the countless ants I maimed?" I retorted.

"I'm hearing maimed, but I'm not hearing killed. Sorry. Killing is more impressive. Maybe next time though." Lydia responded nonchalantly. My face must've been intimidating because both Marie and Cameron backed away. But Lydia just continued to stare me down. Then, Marie changed the subject,

"Cameron, why did you leave? I found the flag, but when I turned to tell you, you were gone."

"You did! Where is it?" I exclaimed, wanting to get this game over with.

"Follow me." Marie ordered. She darted into the woods and we had to sprint to catch up with her. She was a fast little girl. Soon, we saw the flag. It had an owl embroidered on it. There were no guards around it, which was strange. Lydia ran up to the flag and picked it up triumphantly. Next thing we knew, she was suspended in a golden net.

Grinning up at her, I snatched the flag from her hand and dashed off. I heard her shouting quite the creative cuss words at me as I ran. Huh. I thought Christians frowned upon that kind of language.

I almost made it across the border to my team's side, but that's when I saw the glint of an enemy archer's arrow in a tree. Fortunately, right on the other side of the border was my sister. In one instant, I bundled up the flag and threw it with all my might towards my sister. She caught it with ease, winning us the game. Twin power.

A horn blew in the distance and we were soon surrounded by our new fan club. The Ares cabin was gloating like never before to the Athena cabin. All the Athena children were visibly steaming. They obviously hadn't lost in a long time. But everyone's reactions changed when a glowing silver owl symbol appeared over me and Ivy's heads. Everyone looked at us like it made perfect sense. I noticed Marie, Cameron, and Lydia standing in the back of the crowd next to Rebekah. They all seemed to be the most confused over what was happening. Chiron stepped towards us and proclaimed loudly,

"All hail, Ian and Ivrene Abernathy, son and daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom and war strategy!"

Hopefully, this means I won't have to ever be on Lydia's team again...