We were all standing below what Annabeth had called Zeus's Fist. Lexie and Malcolm were next to me along with Matthew and Amanda. We were all clad in armor. Our allied cabins were around us as well. Annabeth had been able to talk Poseidon, Hephaestus, Demeter, and the Hermes cabins into allying with us. We only had two of the minor god cabins allied with us though, the Tyche and Nike cabins. We were at a great disadvantage when it came to numbers.

I saw Ellie standing with two other kids, I assumed them to be her brothers. I waved to her and she smiled, her brothers both rolled their eyes.

"Okay, team, the Ares cabin has been preparing for a week to win this!" Annabeth yelled from the top of the rock where she stood next to a tall boy with messy black hair. "We're going to leave them disappointed." She looked over at the Hephaestus campers. "Go set gas traps by the river, its the quickest way here." They nodded and ran off carrying their large packs of mettle and gas cylinders. Then she ordered the Hermes campers to split up, half of them would go with her and some boy named Percy while the other half stayed behind to protect the flag. "Demeter campers, you are going to be on patrol squad, if you see them, I want you to slow them down enough for us to get the flag and come back." They all nodded but didn't move. She didn't give orders to the minor god kids, they must have already known what to do.

Malcolm stopped me and Lexie from following the rest of our siblings that were part of the Assault squads. "You two are going to stay back and make sure everything goes well here." he ordered.

"Why do I have to stay, I know what I'm doing. He's the newbie!" Lexie argued pointing at me.

"Because, if they get past us we need somebody with some actual brains to stay back here." Retaliated Malcolm. "Get to your positions, the game's about to blow." then he walked away from us and towards Annabeth.

Lexie kicked the dirt angrily as we walked into the bushes to set our ambush. "Stupid Malcolm... Doesn't think I can handle myself. This is all because of what happened to Kim." She kicked a rock into a bush and I heard one of the campers scream obscenities from inside the bush. "Whatever, lets just get this over with." Me and her ducked into one of the thick bushes that surrounded our flag.

My mind started to drift during the short amount of time we were there. I could hear two of the Hermes campers talking a few feet over. "You hear that Apollo guy still hasn't come back?" Said one of them.

Lexie pushed me over so she could hear better. "That's a little weird, usually Austin is careful to avoid being caught, I wonder what's taking him so long." Lexie froze immediately. Austin... Austin, where had I heard that name before?

Everyone was silent as four kids wearing helmets with bright red plumes approached. The lead one was a tall girl whose long hair was cut in random places and appeared to have been cut by a hedge trimmer.

"Clarisse, this has to be a trap." A boy next to her said. He looked to be about half her size. He looked around but didn't appear to spot us.

"That's obvious Mark!" She threw her spear into the bush with the two Hermes campers. They bolted out of the bush to avoid being skewered by the spear. "Well, thats two of them."

Lexie whistled softly and all the Hermes campers along with me, my sister and the Nike campers lept out of our cover and charged towards them. We could have easily taken just the four of them, but after the first ten Hermes campers reached Clarisse and the other three boys another ten came out from behind where we had all been hiding.

Eventually Lexie and I were back to back trying to fend off two of the Ares campers - and I say Ares because these guys looked like they were going to tear my head off. I was obviously losing my fight, the guy was just a better swordsman than I was.

He stomped down on my ankle and I clattered to the ground leaving Lexie's backside exposed. He stepped over me and grabbed Lexie by the arms and threw her on top of me.

"Your elbow is in my face!" I yelled. She just used her elbow to roll back onto her feet. The Ares boys kept on pressing us, waiting for us to make a mistake. We kept on fighting as hard as we could.

Now before I continue I just want to say, I don't remember exactly what happened next. All I know is that somehow ended up hanging in a tree. I must have been up there for about two hours when I finally heard a voice below me.

"Whatcha up to?" I looked down to see Lexie smirking up at me.

"Oh... Just hanging around." I groaned. I had spent the past hour thinking of that one. "Will you help me get down." Both of my legs were caught between the tree's branches.

"Sure, but first I've gotta ask. How did you manage to get stuck nearly five feet off the ground in a tree?" She paced the ground around me, grinning menacingly.

"Just get me down." I complained. "I'm starting to get a headache"

She laughed, "Okay, okay." She reached up to grab my arms, "On three okay? One-"

"NO! NO! NO!" I tried to stop her.

"Two." She said grinning evilly.

"NO, wait!"

"Three!" She pulled down on my arms as hard as she could, she was stronger than she looked. I could hear The tree limb starting to crack.

"Well crap." I told myself as I went plummeting face first to the ground. My face landed right in a large pile of mud. "God damn it Lex!"

"Hope you weren't too lonely up there. Did the tree nymphs keep you company?"

I glared at her angrily. "Did we at least win?" I said as I spat the mud out of my mouth.

"No so expect an angry speech from Annabeth tonight. And a lot of pre-planning for next week's game." She handed me my sword that had fallen on the ground while I was hanging from the tree. "Oh and you've got something right there." She smirked gesturing to my entire face.

Again I glared at her, but I ignored the comment. "Ahh great, she basically forced the plan down my throat this morning during Greek!"

"Be grateful that you don't have to be in the process of planning yet."

"Think I'd like that better, atleast then I can have input on the plan."

She passed me a towel the had been holding and told me to wipe the mud off before we went into the cabin.

"Well duh all Athena kids do- though I still have my doubts on you being one- it can just get a little... hectic at times. I think Annabeth's general rule is that you have to participate in two or three games before you can help with the planning, she wants you to at least know the basics before she lets you start planning."

"How many games do you think I'm going to have to participate in before I can help?"

"I'd personally say around a hundred, realistically though I'd say three maybe four because of how poorly you performed this time. Thanks for that by the way." She said sarcastically, while narrowing her eyes at me.

"Glad I could be your pillow." I answered. "I've only been here three days, what do you expect!" We were where now at the steps to the Athena cabin, I could hear the sounds of trunks slamming shut.

"I expect you not to trip and leave my back open." She answered. I was going to respond, but she walked into the cabin effectively ending the conversation. "Hey guys look who I found getting familiar with the forestry."

They all gave her a questioning look. "He was stuck in a tree." She explained. They all just rolled their eyes and continued putting away their equipment.

"I cleaned out your trunk Sean." Annabeth said as she slammed her trunk closed and slid it back under her bed.

"Thanks Annabeth, what happened out there?" My sibling all shook their heads frantically trying to warn me. I'd made a tactical error asking that question.

"It all went to Hades when the Ares campers ambushed our defences, we weren't expecting that many of them to be on the offensive team. Our defence didn't stand a chance. Which is why next week we need to ensure that we-" She stopped when she heard a knock on the door. It was the guy Annabeth was standing next to on Zeus' Fist.

"Um sorry to interrupt your post-game speech Annabeth-"

"No it's fine! Thank you!" One of my siblings called from behind me, Annabeth turned and glared in the direction of the voice and then turned back to the boy.

"It's fine Percy, is everything okay?"

"Actually you and Malcolm need to come to the Big House; Chiron called an emergency counselors' meeting."

"Oh okay," she turned to look at Malcolm and motioned for him to follow. She looked around the room again and stopped at Lexie, "You know when curfew is right?"

"Duh."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but I could see her smiling slightly. "Just make sure everyone is in bed by then if we aren't back by then." Lexie just nodded and with that Annabeth left with Malcolm and the guy named Percy.

We were all silent, Lexie went over to her bunk and started stripping off her armor. After several minutes everyone else was sitting in their bunks reading something, while I was getting my remaining armor off still.

"You know, Annabeth forgot to mention the fact that the two leaders of our offensive team snuck off sometime during the game." I looked over to see that it was Amanda who spoke.

"Oh I know!" Lexie said sitting up and closing her book, she got up and sat next to Amanda. "I knew as soon as she put him on offensive that something was up. She knows he's best on border patrol, it's his natural element for gods sake!"

I went over to stand by Matthew's bunk and gave him a questioning look, he just shrugged his shoulders. "Girls." He said before returning to his book.

I looked over at my two sisters, "Wait so Annabeth snuck off during the game?"

They both looked up at me. "Oh that's right you don't know any of this yet." Amanda said, she gestured for me to sit on the floor in front of her bed. "So Annabeth snuck off with her boyfriend for some quality time together."

"So in other words she and Percy snuck off to go make out in the woods." Lexie answered.

"Don't act like you and Austin don't do that ever." Amanda said giving Lexie a slight shove.

Lexie just shrugged, though her cheeks were slightly pink, "What can I say it's the perfect opportunity, and you know the rules: boys and girls can't be alone in the same room. And I am not a rule breaker." She said innocently.

"You are so full of it." Amanda said shoving her pillow in Lexie's face.

Lexie shoved the pillow back and laughed, "Okay, yes I am full of it, but you'll understand one day and I will tease you to no end when it happens."

"Ahem," I coughed trying to get their attention again, "As entertaining as this is," I said gesturing to the two of them, "Who exactly is Annabeth's boyfriend?"

"Percy... the son of Poseidon, hero of Olympus, the prophecy child..." I shook my head showing I had know idea who that was, "You just saw him a few minutes ago!"

"The guy with the messy black hair?" They both nodded their heads slowly and gave me weird looks. "What does she see in him!?"

They both turned to look at each other simultaneously and rolled their eyes, before saying "Boys..."

I sighed and got up as I walked past Matthew's bed, without even looking up from his book, "I tried to tell you."