The bulletin board was a pathetic sight to behold. Not a very large or well-maintained board to begin with, it had fallen into major disrepair. As more and more rules were being added to the board almost weekly, whoever was in charge of posting them had given up trying to arrange the never-ending sheets in any semblance of order or coherence and had instead just started stapling them haphazardly wherever they would stick. As a result, what stood beside the path to the cabins no longer resembled a bulletin board but what a bulletin board would look like if it was ambushed by a ruthless army of staples and paper.
It was difficult to tell which rules were new and which weren't, but through careful inspection of the layering of the papers, it was possible. For instance, this week's rules could be spotted because that sheet slightly overlapped the rest. It contained the following:
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149. Elsie and Tori are no longer allowed to recount dreams for longer than 10 minutes and certainly no longer than 75 minutes, as it delayed dinner and most other activities last week.
150. Planking is absolutely forbidden on any of the following surfaces and should be exercised with caution elsewhere: tables we eat on, centaurs, people, roofs, stacks of stolen books, and anything else that is living and holds objections to this.
151. Rubber cement is now banned on camp grounds (you gave me the idea for that, thepremaster22!)
152. Bribing the harpies to serve spaghetti and syrup at every meal is no longer acceptable and it should be noted that bribery of any sort will not be tolerated. (Elf reference, anyone?)
153. While there is nothing necessarily wrong with the mantra 'The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear', it should be treated with discretion and especially not acted on during unreasonable hours of the night. (Elf #2, hehe)
154. Following Nico around with a copy of Dante's Inferno, badgering him with questions, will no longer be permitted.
155. Giving the Ares cabin not so subtle hints about the fate of the Wrathful, as according to Dante's Inferno, is absolutely unacceptable. In addition, to clear up any more misunderstandings, Dante was simply an imaginative, if not highly judgmental and sadistic, mortal and the contents of the Inferno are false.
156. Giving pet rocks that "have been trained to kill" is not acceptable and very much not in the Christmas spirit.
157. And on that note, Christmas is a time for giving gifts from the heart, not a time to give inappropriate, rude, or unwanted items that cannot be given back due to the "thought that went into them", which is a lie.
158. Replacing words from beloved Christmas songs with dirty lyrics is highly inappropriate and absolutely banned.
159. Screaming "SANTA! I KNOW HIM!" at random intervals throughout the day is not only disruptive and annoying, but also no longer be tolerated. (Couldn't resist slipping that third reference in there)
160. It should now be noted that whatever ridiculous rumor about Mr. D and Santa being related or the same person is proven to be completely false.
161. Annabeth's Yankees cap is private property and should be left alone. Replacing it with an actual, completely mundane Yankees cap is uncalled for and completely unacceptable (thanks, thepremaster22!)
162. It is not permitted to film or record people without their knowledge, meaning the social experiment nicknamed 'The Day-to-Day Life of Mr. D' is to be discontinued. An additional note: the rooms of Dionysus and Chiron are private, and campers found hiding or sneaking around in them will be severely punished.
163. After several incidents with this specific food, it has been agreed that Camp Half-Blood will, for the time being, no longer be serving Jell-O.
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Elsie and Tori stared at the bulletin board in appreciation.
"You know," Tori mused, her eyes still fixed on the many sheets of paper attached to the mauled bulletin board, "these rules pretty much sum up our whole lives."
Elsie shrugged. "I'm okay with that, actually."
"Yeah, me too."
A quick chapter with some rules I literally just jotted down these last forty five minutes, so sorry if they're a little sub par! I usually don't rush, but I thought of this again the other day, came back just now, and thought to myself, "You know what? I'm going to write another chapter before Christmas!" Well, here it is, folks.
Another chapter will come...eventually...at some point in time. Until then, cheers!
And Merry Christmas ;)
