Chapter Three:
Mara watched the patch for at least an hour. Her muscles were sore and her mind bored from walking back and forth. She caught sight of Annabeth limping back to their side. She had been hurt on the second attempt to catch the flag.
The other side still failed to get their flag.
Mara saw an opening. Catching her breath and glancing around to make sure her own team didn't see her, she crept on to the other side. She ducked through bushes, hiding around trees.
It took a good fifteen minutes to find the flag. There were three guards around it.
Mara sat there, frowning thoughtfully. She wasn't good at strategy, but she was quiet and sneaky.
Quietly, she crept between the two smallest guards, hoping they wouldn't skewer her. She shot forward, catching the large red flag.
Immediately though, she was on the ground, on her back, three swords pointed down at her.
"You alone?" growled the boy.
"Let me up," Mara growled.
"No. Are you alone?" he asked again.
Mara felt herself smile sweetly. She normally didn't pull a line like this, right before swords could slice her in half. "Come on, now. Let me up. Let me up like a good boy."
They frowned at each other. Mara felt herself tire a little. "Come on, boys. Let me up now."
Their swords reluctantly left her and pointed at a more peaceful angle.
Hardly believing it worked, Mara smiled again. "Now, stay here."
She picked up the flag, and started retracing her steps to the border. When she thundered out in to the open, she started sprinting. She could practically feel an Ares kid on her heels, she could hear an Apollo boy pull back an arrow. A trap shot out of nowhere. Mara threw the flag. An arrow hit her shoulder, causing her to groan with pain.
Percy caught it, sprinting across the border.
Mara felt weak. The trap had caught her ankle. It was probably bruised or sprained. She hauled herself out and limped over to Percy, who grinned and patted her back.
Annabeth frowned at her. "What is your issue?" she said, snappishly. "I told you to stay there, and you...you could've let through some of them!"
"It worked," Mara said weakly, brushing her hair out of her face.
The guard who had been guarding the flag, raced up. "I don't know how she did it!" he exclaimed, a look of wonder across his face. "She just...spoke, and everyone froze!"
"Charm speaker," said Chiron. "I think we know who she belongs to-"
Everyone gasped; with pleasure and excitement.
Mara frowned at them. "What?" Somehow, her injuries started to feel a bit better. She felt herself straighten a little and stop slouching.
They were all staring at her. She looked down, and inhaled sharply. Instead of her armor, she was dressed in a beautiful, light pink dress. It was a strapless dress that fell neatly to her ankles. She twirled, making the dress swirl beautifully.
"Wow," she whispered to herself, fascinated. "What happened?"
"You were just claimed by Aphrodite," stated Chiron.
A round of stunned clapping. Mara didn't know what to think. Aphrodite? She glanced up doubtfully, shocked. Aphrodite? The perfect kids? The beautiful ones who couldn't stand work. This was a disaster.
"I'll help you move in!" exclaimed Will eagerly, touching her hair lightly. "You look beautiful."
Chris nodded his agreement. They being the first people to talk to her, took her elbows and walked with her to the Hermes cabin.
"I can't believe it," Mara whispered to them.
"I know. Aphrodite! No wonder everyone didn't know what to think of you when you first got here!" exclaimed Chris. "Except, they didn't notice your beauty so much. They noticed how kind you are."
Mara chose not to comment. Everyone was just full of compliments right now, she just decided not to push issues.
It didn't take long to move her stuff in to the Aphrodite cabin. Each of them fell silent when she walked in. She cast nervous glances around the cabin.
"Hello," she said. "I am Mara."
There were three boys and four girls. The first person to greet her was the youngest boy, obviously a first or second year. He extended a hand of greeting. "Stephen. Pleasure."
"Demetrius," said the oldest boy, with a calm nod. He sat down on his bunk and started reading a book.
"Thomas," greeted the last boy, the one in the middle age of the two others. "It's nice to meet you, Mara. You are a beautiful sister."
"Thank you, Thomas. Nice to meet you three." Mara turned to the girls, who had more distasteful and hateful looks on their faces.
The oldest introduced herself first, with a friendly, yet obviously fake, smile. She was obviously the leader of them; she just commanded attention with the way she stood. "I'm Alice, this girl here is Mia." Alice was a tall, skinny girl with a pretty face and long, curly blonde hair. Mia was short and petite with waist length red hair.
Alice continued to introduce the rest of the girls. A raven-black haired girl and a girl with very light, caramel brown, almost dark blonde hair. Both of them were tall and thin. "Helen," to the caramel brown haired girl, and, "Katherine." to the black haired girl.
Mara offered a shy smile to each of them. "It's nice to meet you," she said cautiously. Then, a more childish, more excited question, "Did you all get a beautiful dress like this?"
"Yes," Alice replied. "They only stay for a couple days, unless you're like me...which I doubt. I had mine for a week and a day. Mia had hers for four days, Helen three, and Katherine three and a half."
"Can any of you speak...like what Chiron said...well, charm...charm speak?" asked Mara.
Alice laughed. It wasn't warm and friendly; to the contrary, it was cold and discriminating. "Oh, Mara, dear. Did you think you were the only one to speak like our oh-so-great mother?" She laughed again. "You're not that special, my dear!"
Mara felt ashamed, and sad, disappointed. She desperately wanted to please this girl for some reason. Then, she realized. This girl, the leader, had the ability to charm speak. And if used wrongly, this is how it felt to be put down by a charm speaker.
Alice told her, "Come on, Mara. Let's take a walk. We'll discuss the rules of my cabin, and we'll talk about how to make you a better charm speaker."