(Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympian series. I only own Nathan, Michael, Clayton, and Jennifer.)

December 15-16

Annabeth's POV

When I'd reached the Athena cabin after helping Percy to his cabin, I opened the door and Silena suddenly flew past me and stomped towards the Aphrodite cabin. I ignored her and saw Malcolm blocking the doorway, watching Silena. Then he finally noticed I was here.

"Oh hey, Annabeth," he greeted, "Silena was arguing with Jennifer."

I sighed and walked in, "What did she do this time?"

"She has been one of millions of needles in a hay stack," Jennifer grimly said. She was sitting up on the top bunk above mine.

Malcolm took a seat at the study desk, "No offense to her, but she's very preposterous these days. More gossipy than ever."

"Say," I said, "you needed help with the Rubik's cube?"

"Oh, yeah! Thanks for reminding me!" then Jennifer took out a six by six Rubik's cube. The colors seemed to be scrambled. She handed it to me as I slumped down on my bunk and leaned on my pillow. I've had bad experiences with Rubik's cubes, but as I practiced, I finally became a master at these frustrating little toys. I remember when I when I got my first Rubik's cube and it didn't end very well.

I studied the sides of the cube. After several minutes, I started flipping and rotating the sides faster than a regular mortal expert could. Finally, I made sure the sides were correct: all yellow, blue, orange, green, silver, and red were in their right positions.

"Hey, Jennifer?" I asked.

"Yeah?" she groggily asked. I held up the Rubik's cube to her bunk and heard shuffling among the sheets above me.

"Hey! You fixed it!" she grabbed it from me, "I'm going to totally take your horse flying class tomorrow!"

I chuckled, "Its okay."

"I swear, Annabeth, can't you accept offers for once?"

"Once in every few days."

"Well I'm up for another hour and a half for horses."

"Okay, fine!" she was all into horses anyway so I gave up, "Yes, you can have my horse flying class tomorrow!"

The next sound I heard was breathing coming from the bunk above me. Jennifer was finally asleep along with the rest of the Athena cabin. I dressed into my silver pajamas and curled into the soft covers of my bunk, instantly falling into a dreamless sleep.

Percy's POV

My dream started out like this: The same guy from my last dream was pulling me into the forest by the hand, the sleeting rain stinging my skin.

"What's wrong with you?!" I asked.

"He's almost done!" he said.

"With what?"

He stopped to look at me, "The Equestrian Anathema!" then he started hauling me again.

"Equestrian? You mean horse?"

"I bet you don't even know the half of it! No wonder Annabeth calls you a—DUCK!"

Then I saw what was coming at me from below the trees, a black metal cylinder held by ropes.

"I'm not a duck! Wait, what's tha—" before I could say anything else, the bar whacked me in the head. I woke up with a throbbing headache like the bar actually hit me. What is it with dreams and getting whacks to the head? Anyway, my hair was bedridden like a mop just came back from getting blow-dried. The sun was peaking above the horizon and created a pink tint to the winter sky. I honestly think that I should take a picture of it, but I don't have a camera with me.

Pushing the covers off, I groggily got dressed in a blue striped t-shirt and jeans. I tried combing my hair but it wouldn't stay down and already tried dabbing it with water, which really didn't help. Suddenly the conch horn sounded and I left my hair as it is.

When I'd reached the pavilion, I took my seat at the Poseidon table as the rest of the campers did to theirs. Mr. D was already sitting at the head table, looking bored as he always is. Chiron rolled in next to him and tapped his goblet once everyone was in the pavilion.

"As you all know," he said, "the dance was unexpectedly called off due to some... ah misconceptions with the Hermes bunch. But I have renounced my decisions and moved the date to Christmas Eve. Now, about that water jug. That's your job Mr. Jackson. When you were gone, the campers voted if you could um... what do they call it?"

"Chugging," Mr. D said.

My face turned confused, "Um... okay."

"Hakuna matata, Percy!" Jennifer yelled from the Athena cabin. Some of the Apollo kids started snickering.

"We don't speak Swahili, Jennifer!" Malcolm said.

"Well at least you know what it means," she muttered.

Chiron took out a boom box, "Since it's the holidays, I'd thought that you all might like Christmas music while you eat," he raised his goblet, "To the gods!"

We repeated the blessing and he pressed the Play button on the CD player while satyrs came in from all directions with cereal boxes. Trix, Cocoa Rice Crispies, Lucky Charms, the works. The air was filled with techno music. I didn't know techno was the new Yule, but then I realized that it was Winter Wonderland just by the rhythm.

I scrapped a few Fruit Loops into the brazier and out came a sea-breeze, so Poseidon must've liked it. Still, I don't know how gods live off of smoke.

Sword practice quickly past by and the same goes for canoeing and arts/crafts. Nothing ever gets boring around here. A few months ago, Clarisse gave up her bullying position to Michael and he's been wreaking havoc more than what Phobos and Deimos had tried to do to me one time. Right now, he'd joined forces with Jason and another Ares kid. Clayton and Jennifer, however, are like anti-Nazi's compared to Jason.

Speaking of Clayton, he tucked away the Ouija board under his bunk and some of the Hermes kids (coughJasoncough) tried sneaking it out to play it one more time. Then Annabeth and Jennifer caught them asking a question that dealt with stuff in the Aphrodite department. Jason started acting like Jason Bourne from the Bourne Conspiracy and the sequels, with tampering with DNA evidence and knocking people out for no reason. Too bad that Michael had to get involved.

I saw Nathan Boone walk out of the Hermes cabin with a ribbon tied to his hair and I immediately knew that he'd been pranked.

He walked up to me and said, "Is there anything in my hair?"

I bit my lip to keep from laughing, "Yeah."

He ripped the ribbon from his hair and then squished it on the ground with his foot, "Next time Jason does that I'm going to kill him."

"How about we do that now?"

"Jennifer promised to meet me at the horse stables so I'll play a prank on them later. I'll ask Travis and Conner."

Nathan's POV

My muscles relaxed once Percy walked off towards the archery field. I had a feeling that I wouldn't be able to take my revenge back on Jason after what he did to my hair. I'm funny that way. Even if I did, then people would suspect I'm a son of Nemesis when I'm not even claimed yet. I kept my head down on the way to the stables and immediately caught sight of Jennifer, daughter of Athena. By her attitude, I always thought she was a daughter of Aphrodite, but she's all into books about horses and those other geeky subjects.

She was already herding one of the white pegasi from a stable when she saw me.

"Hey, Nathan!" she called. I didn't answer back, keeping my hands tucked in the pockets of my black winter coat.

"What did Jason do this time?"

I told her the entire story about Jason taping a ribbon to my hair when I wasn't looking and held up a mirror for me to look. I almost punched him in the face for that.

Jennifer's grey eyes focused on the ground, "You could always ask the Stoll brothers to help you out."

"I'm fine," I glumly said.

She hopped up on her pegasi, "How old are you?"

I lifted my head to see hers, "Turned fourteen last September."

"I'm same age as you. Are you afraid of heights?"

"No, why?"

Then she held out her hand for me but all I did was stare at it. My chest started feeling funny. Relunctantly, I grasped her hand and she helped me up. Jennifer told me to hang on tight. Before I could ask what, the wings of the pegasus expanded as it flew into the air. Without realizing it, I had my hands clinging to Jennifer like it was the last thing I would do it life before I could fall a hundred feet to my death.

Jennifer laughed, "I thought you said you weren't afraid of heights!"

"I guess I lied," I said, too scared to be embarrassed by clinging to a girl I hardly know. Jennifer steered the pegasus towards the Big House and circled the strawberry fields a couple times. My stomach wasn't too happy about it either.

"Get me down from here!" I cried.

"You're almost as bad as Thalia," Jennifer said.

I updated this chapter to make it longer. (Duh)