A week had passed since for the first time in my entire life, I, the thief, had been thefted from. It was the one of the easiest tricks in the book, no work on her part, just wait until I had distracted myself and forgot. Easiest trick and yet I fell for it.

"Hey,Travis, are you alright?" Connor stared at me," You seem pretty out of it."

"Connor, do you know what happens when a pair loses a partner crime?"

Connor sighed,"Travis, please not this bullshit again."

"But really, do you know what happens? The other person starts losing their touch,Connor!"

Connor shook his head,"Travis what the are you talking about?"

"I-I got pickedpocket last week," I muttered, slumping backwards onto my bed.

At that point the entire cabin turned to look at me,"You what?!"

Connor stared at me, eyes wide,"You? You of all people on this planet? Got pickpocketed? Someone got away with stealing from you?"

I squeezed my eyes shut, " It's even worst...she got away without paying me and then she stole everything I made that day."

"Are you kidding me, Travis?"

"Hey! Don't start coming at me, Mr. I like going on picnics. At least I'm still trying to do business, still pranking people. You're just lying around, getting old! Going on those damn picnics."

"No, Travis. I'm looking towards the future. We can't just con people forever. That was the only thing for us. We never did anything else, never had proper interactions. The war made me think, we have to have something else to care about, Travis. So no, I might not be as great of a con artist and prankster I was before but now I'm a loving boyfriend."

" Loving boyfriend..." I scoffed,"whatever Connor, go ahead and have fun playing house with the Demeter cabin. Just don't get mad if you get paint bombed."

He rolled his eyes,"Grow the hell up,Travis. We're eighteen, not ten." And then he left.

I sighed, I don't think Connor had ever scolded me so much in our lives than he had in the last two weeks.

"You know he has a point," My sister Candace mumbled.

I shook my head," No Candace, he doesn't. He's talking out of his love sick ass."

"That may be true but either way he really is right. You can't live off of conning people forever and you really only talk to us. Maybe, I dunno, maybe you should get a girlfriend too? Or a boyfriend,up to you."

"I don't need to get anything..."

"Whatever you say, Travis. Now who is this girl you say stole from you?"

I shivered. I hated just thinking that someone had actually beat me at my own game," Her name's Alyssa...Apollo kid. The one with the sun shaved into the side of her head...She got me cause I wasn't paying attention. This whole Connor thing has me pretty messed up."

Before Candace could reply, a loud whirring started going off in the cabin.

"What is that?"

"I'm not really sure, it sounds like a- out of the cabin now! It's a paint bomb!"I shouted

With that my entire cabin poured out the front door... and was met with balloons full of bright yellow paint.

"Holy shit!" I tried to duck to avoid being hit but paint was exploding everywhere.

I could hear all of my half siblings yelling and trying to avoid the colorful mess.

"Hey Travis!" I heard someone call me from the cabin.

Standing on the roof of my cabin was four kids that I immediately recognized from the Apollo cabin, perched at the front of them was the little shit herself,Alyssa.

"Did you do this?!" I yelled

"Oh, I haven't done anything yet. You might want to look up!"

As I did, my eyes grew. Partially in amazement and partially in fear. Hanging over us and anchored to the Apollo cabin was a giant yellow balloon. I could just barely see the paint spilling out the top.

"How did you-" I didn't even get the question put before I heard the whizzing of an arrow through the air, the bursting of a balloon and gallons upon gallons of paint raining down on me and my siblings.

I could hear gasps from other cabins but I could really only see bright yellow from the paint. Im gonna be sneezing paint for years, I just know it.

"What the hell happened?" Connor;s voice came through the noise of the crowd,"Travis did you accidentally set off 500 paint bombs?" Then I felt my eyes being wiped off so I could see him.

"Me?! This one was not on me. The Apollo kids did this!"

Connor stared at me before breaking out into laughter," The Apollo kids? Did this to you guys? Okay but no really what happened?"

"What is funny, Connor! We're gonna be shitting paint!"

"Wait you're serious? The Apollo kids got you guys this bad? How?"

" Oh gods, Connor it was amazing. Somehow s-she rigged a giant balloon over our heads and it was held by rope or something attached to their cabin. A single arrow to the surface and we were drowning in it."

"She? Who's she Travis?"

"Alyssa."

"Is that the same girl who got out of paying and stole from you?"

I nodded," I just want to know how they set that up so easily...That balloon was huge, heavy..."

" That's the second time she's gotten you. Do you think she's targeting Hermes kids? A prank war or something?"

" I have no clue what it is she wants but I think it's time for payback."

"I dunno man, they got you real bad. What are you gonna do?"

I sighed,"I-I don't know yet but it's gonna be big. Bigger than this mess! All she did was stain the grass yellow-"

"Stained us yellow too..."One of my siblings snickered behind me.

"Shut up! We've got to get them back! Hermes kids, hit the showers and round up! We've got work to do..."

"I guess I can help you with this one,"Connor offered.

I smiled," Good to have you back."

*** Two Days Later***

"Alright Candace, you're gonna hit here,"I said pointing to one of the windows on our map of the Apollo cabin.

"Got it."

"Andrew, you're gonna make sure the hose is in place"

"Check."

"Now, this prank is extremely important however! Whatever you do, make sure the Apollo offering bowl does not get knocked down. This prank won't matter if Apollo roasts us after. Okay Hermes kids! We have been washing paint out of our ears for TWO DAYS! Who's ready for some revenge!"

Their yells echoed through the cabin.

"At sun down, we move! Break!"

Our cabin meeting disbanded and we continued our individual preparations for our prank. Everything had to run smoothly or we'd be in a whole lot of trouble.

After dinner finished and everyone went back to their cabins, we put our plan into action.

"Alright guys lets do this..."

Tiptoeing around the Apollo cabin, Connor and I strung up 5 massive bags of feathers.

"Alright Andrew, pull in the hose," Candace whispered kneeling under the open cabin window. Once Andrew brought it to her, she quietly propped it up against the sill.

"Everyone ready?"

Daniel gave me the thumbs up and showed me his bag of water balloons filled with syrup.

"On 1, 3...2...1!"

Andrew turned the knob on the faucet, pumping gallons of maple syrup through the hose and into the Apollo cabin. Immediately we heard screams.

"Yes!" Connor and I high fived.

"Is he fucking insane! We have to get her out!"

My eyebrows furrowed. That wasn't the response I was expecting, I was expecting more of them trying to leave.

The first person out of the cabin was Will Solace who was immediately pelted with syrup balloons. But instead of being disgusted like expected, he started shouting,"Where are they!" All of our siblings pointed to me and Connor.

Will, dripping syrup stomped over to us and lifted me off the ground. I struggled and tried to get him to go but his syrupy grip on my shirt was solid.

"She's allergic to maple you idiot! You're gonna kill her!" Then he threw me on the ground.

"Wait what?" I stuttered.

"Was I mumbling?! Alyssa's allergic to maple!"

My eyes widened,"Shit!"

My pranks were always meant to be harmless. Were people mad? Of course! But I didn't want to kill anyone!

"Guys! Stand down!...I have to fix this..."

I ran to the door of the cabin and stared at the mess inside. 4 inches worth of syrup covered the floor and there were Apollo kids desperately trying to keep off the ground. "Connor! Run and tell Andrew to turn off the hose!"

I started wading through sticky cabin. Looking at the top of the bunks, I searched for Alyssa. I found her by the sun symbol on the side of her head.. She was breathing heavy and glaring at me.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't know, I swear... But I'm gonna get you out of here okay? I promise."

"Why should she trust you? You could drop her in on purpose! We all know this was to get back at her!"

I shook my head,"I would never. My pranks aren't meant to hurt anyone. It was supposed to be harmless... Now I have to fix it. But if we don't hurry,there'll be too much to move through. I don't know how long it's gonna be before the hose turns off..."

Alyssa's glare softened,"O-okay... You have to catch me, alright?"

I nodded,"I will."

She began climbing down from the very top bunk and when I said go, she dropped into my arms.

"Alright now I'm just gonna walk through the cabin and take you outside."

She wrapped her arms around my neck and nodded. Trudging through the mess, I heard the hose finally turn off. Once outside, I gave Alyssa to Candace,"I don't think any of it touched her, but just take her to the infirmary just in case."

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. Then I heard a strange sound, like glass wobbling on a table. I then heard the rest of the Apollo kids start screaming.

I ran back up to the door and saw their offering bowl swirling around on the podium.

"Oh come on! I just saved her!"

"Yeah, after almost killing her in the first place."

I sighed,"It was an accident! But I know...gotta fix this too..." I trudged through the cabin again, trying to run as best I could and then I tripped and slid. It was almost like a movie. I slid, the bowl tipped off the podium and all I needed was for it to landed in my hands...

And then I heard the bowl shatter.

"Shit."