*Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Percy Jackson genius by Rick Riordan J *

Throughout her life, Annabeth had woken up to lots of things. There was the time that Thalia shoved her into their pool in the middle of a winter night. Or during her second year at camp, when one of the Ares kids thought it would be funny to sneak into her cabin and use one of those shock pens to jolt her awake every morning for a week. (After she found out who it was, no one dared to try anything like that ever again) The worst was probably the bird poop to the face while sleeping under the stars. That was a bad one.

But nothing compared to what occurred on that first morning back at camp.

Nothing.

It was like the world was literally shaking. Annabeth was brought out of her blissful sleep by the pounding of the beginning of her least favorite song. The music was louder than Annabeth ever thought possible. She had been to some crazy parties but nothing compared to this. Even with her hands over her ears and her pillow over her head, the music was everywhere. The whole cabin seemed to be shaking with every beat. She could hear books falling off of their shelves in the background and the clang of things falling off of walls. And then the lyrics started.

"Oppa Gangnam Style

Gangnam Style"

"Turn it off!" Annabeth screamed, but her command was lost in the music. She could almost handle the music. Barely. But then she smelled the smoke. And that was all it took to send her flying out of bed. When she bolted up, hands clasped tightly over her ears, the sight before her was something that made her wish for the bird poop any day.

In the middle of the cabin, someone had set up a bonfire pit. A fucking bonfire. It was contained in this metal container of some sort, but the smoke still was free to float around the room. Dancing around the bonfire, completely naked except for pink, glittery loincloths and oversized sunglasses of every color was a group of boys. Annabeth recognized Malcolm and John Reed as two of them.

It was a sight that would scar Annabeth for the rest of her life, one she would never be able to push from memory.

Her other brothers and sisters were sitting up in bed, looking outraged. One of the newbies, a boy with looks almost identical to their mother's, actually fell off of the top bunk in his shock.

Annabeth jumped down from her bunk to stop the chaos. She looked around for the source of the unholy music but couldn't find a thing. She swore then turned back to the group of dancing boys in the middle. Annabeth covered her eyes, shielding herself from seeing anymore than she already had and grabbed onto the nearest person.

"Are you on drugs?!" she shrieked, but it was clear he hadn't heard her by the way he simply shook her off and continued on.

Annabeth took her hands away from her face just as the chorus started. Big mistake.

"Oppa Gangnam Style"

The boys all stopped to strip off their loincloths. Everyone screamed, but before anyone could see anything, the cannons went off. Glitter cannons that is.

Annabeth couldn't see a thing through the glitter; it coated everything. Then the sprinklers started.

You see, Camp Half Blood had recently decided to install a sprinkler system into the cabins. Heaven forbid everyone got their own bathroom; instead it was a sprinkler system. And whenever it went off in one place, it went off everywhere.

Screams from every cabin sounded over the blaring music, which soon stopped, seeing as its source had probably just gotten soaked. The water raining down on them only made the glitter stick more.

Someone screamed, "the books!" People started rushing over to pick up the fallen books and get them out of the damaging effects of the water. Annabeth stood frozen, too pissed to know what to do, when all the boys started running out of the cabin. That snapped her out of her paralyzed state. They had somehow managed to get their loincloths back on and were shouting and laughing.

Not for long, Annabeth thought. She started to run after them but was thrown off course by a human wall. Again. She looked up, prepared to give this person all of her anger until she saw his eyes. Those damn sea green ones.

Percy smirked at her, his white teeth shining under all the glitter. Annabeth opened her mouth to start yelling but he stopped her by throwing something over her face and running off.

It was the sparkly pink loincloth.

An hour later and everyone was sitting at the dining pavilion, eating their breakfasts in wet, angry silence. Well most of them were silent. It wasn't hard to pick out who had been in the cabin that morning, you just had to look for the guys that were smiling and trying to contain their laughter.

The Athena cabin had gotten the worst end of the prank. In all the other cabins, they just got soaked. The Athena kids had glitter pasted to them. What made the whole situation worse was that everyone was on a strict shower schedule. And Annabeth didn't get to shower until late that night. It was a mess.

"When is your shower time?" Annabeth asked Thalia quietly while they were in line to get their food. She could tell that Thalia was having a hard time keeping a straight face. Of course, if Annabeth were Thalia she would probably have a hard time being serious too.

Annabeth's hair hung in a sparkly, limp ponytail. She had tried to clean off her body as much as she could, but her hair was simply impossible. Annabeth was sure she had blinded a couple of kids with it on her way to the pavilion. Her skin was free of the glitter in some places, but it was pink from the scrubbing she had had to do to get it off. She had made sure to use one of Malcolm's shirts for that though.

"You do realize showers aren't until after dinner, right?" Thalia said with a laugh. Annabeth's face fell. After this morning, she didn't think her day could've gotten any worse. She was almost tempted to make a run for it and jump in the Sound. A glance at Chiron's very pissy expression made her think otherwise. The last thing she needed was another lecture on washing off 'foreign materials' into 'New York's purest waters'. It was one time.

Breakfast passed without incident...almost. Annabeth ate silently while glaring daggers at any of the pranksters who even glanced her way. That wiped the idiotic grins off their faces. At one point Chiron made his rounds, not bothering to be discreet in his giving of directions to each and everyone of the boys involved. Annabeth would have been satisfied, were it not for Mr. D walking around after, patting the guys on the back. Of course the old bastard would enjoy some suffering, Annabeth thought bitterly.

Just as she was finishing off the last of her orange juice, Chiron finally spoke up.

"As you all know, today will begin your training. The usual procedures will be followed; I do hope your head counselors have taken the time to fill in the new campers…" Chiron said the last part with a tone that made it quite clear he more than hoped. Annabeth smiled a little at that. Chiron was one of her favorite people in the world. You couldn't let the fact that he was one of the US Army's highest ranking officer for nearly 15 years scare you.

After being discharged after an injury leaving him in a wheelchair, Chiron hadn't accepted his fate. He worked tirelessly for years to regain his strength, literally one step at a time. Eventually he went from shuffling to walking and then from walking to running. Looking at him now, one never could guess he would have once been confined to a wheelchair. Naturally, when the family had heard of his great accomplishments they approached him and asked if he would be their children's own personal defense trainer and oversee the whole camp. Chiron being Chiron simply couldn't give up the chance. With his kindness and wisdom working wonders in the camp and its campers, backed by his authoritative nature and his no-nonsense attitude, created the perfect little warriors. It was almost funny...if the family ever for any reason needed an army, they definitely had one.

Originally, the training at Camp Half-Blood was meant to be only self-defense, to help the A-List children keep themselves safe in a world where everyone was obsessed with them. But it evolved quickly. One of the men (Annabeth had her money on Uncle Ares) suggested that the kids also learn old Greek combat. It went along with their whole Greek obsession and inevitably ensured that everyone one their children would be, simply put, badass. But hey, Annabeth was complaining.

Her training had already helped her out in various real life situations, scaring off creeps and paparazzi alike. Not only was it helpful but it was a stress reliever for Annabeth. Maybe that's why she had quickly become one of the Camp's most skilled fighters. To her, there was nothing like a good battle to get your adrenaline pumping and your heart pounding. It was one of the only places she could feel in control. Any place she could take control, Annabeth did.

Now, in the midst of getting back into it, Annabeth wondered why on earth hadn't she kept up something after she left. It honestly would have made her feel so much better on top of the fact that now she wouldn't be facing an asskicking of a lifetime.

Annabeth thought about the night before and how she had brought down both John Reed and Percy. So what if she played a little dirty? She still kicked their butts. There was no better feeling than seeing those infuriating green eyes filled with surprise and pain as she showed what she could really do.

Speaking of green eyes...Annabeth turned her head a fraction of an inch to the left to find the same ones flashing back at her. Under the table, her fists clenched in annoyance. Why was he always there? Annabeth glared down at her lap, willing as much ice queen bitchiness into her eyes as possible. What? It was definitely a thing. Annabeth knew better than anyone; Aphrodite's girls sure could pull it off.

Annabeth slowly looked up, making sure to keep her bitch face on high as she faced Percy. The look was enough to make anyone else spill their drink nervously or cower in fear. Of course, Percy Jackson wasn't anyone. As he lifted his water to his mouth, he only winked and wiggled his free hand's fingers at her. Absentmindedly, Annabeth wondered how on earth he was clean when she was still covered in his work from the morning. Then she remembered his cabin. It had all sorts of water features that he could use to clean up. Her favorite was the small fountain...oh the things that had happ-

A sudden cold, wetness on her lap slapped Annabeth out of her thoughts. Someone had spilt their drink all over her lap. She whipped around to glare across the table to see who it was.

Taylor sat directly across from her, nervously mopping up her spilt water with some napkins. She raised her head to say sorry but stopped immediately upon seeing Annabeth's face and flinched. Annabeth softened, feeling bad for taking out her frustration on the poor girl.

"Sorry Taylor," she whispered, attempting to not interrupt Chiron's first day speech. She wondered how on earth it was still going on as Taylor smiled nervously back at her. Behind her, Annabeth heard a soft chuckle. She took a deep breath, and attempted to count to ten.

1...2...3…

The sound got louder and Annabeth couldn't ignore it. She whipped around again, her ponytail slapping her in the face. This of course only made the little bastard laugh harder. So Annabeth did the only thing she knew to do. She flipped him off.

As her middle finger stood proudly in the air, Percy mocked hurt. His annoyingly perfect features became sad and he raised both of his fingers to 'wipe tears' sending the gesture right back at her.

You want to get creative, oh we can get creative, Annabeth thought. Her eyes narrowed. She exaggeratedly reached down to pat her pockets before 'finding' what she needed and flipping him off once more. Percy only rolled his eyes. In response, he mimed biting off each of his fingers, starting with the index and ending with his thumb before blowing on his hand and letting his birdy fly.

Someone giggled behind Annabeth but she hardly heard them. She trust her index, middle and ring fingers into the air and expressively mouthing 'read between the lines'. She knew he understood by the way his mouth crooked up just the tiniest bit in the corners. She rolled her eyes, even more pissed off than she was 5 seconds ago.

In true nerd form, Percy Spiderman-ed his next comeback, letting only one finger loose.

He wanted nerd? Oh she could pull nerd. In Katniss style, Annabeth mimed a bow and arrow, except instead of an arrow, well, you get the idea.

At his table, there were a few of the guys from the incident this morning, and Percy used them to his full advantage. He slapped both of the guys on his sides, getting not only their attention but the whole table's. He leaned into both of them and a moment later they were all in train formation, middle fingering their ways down the tracks. Percy pulled the horn with his new best friend raised high. This send the whole table and a few surrounding ones into a fit of giggles. Annabeth scoffed. Boys.

She turned to her right where one of her new siblings sat, his undivided attention on Chiron. That was about to change. She tapped his shoulder, effectively getting him to turn to her, wide grey eyes a little annoyed. When he saw it was her, the annoyance faded from his eyes only to be replaced with fear. Gods, she thought, what is it with kids?

"I need you to open your mouth and stick your tongue out…"

"Wes?"

"Yeah, Wes. Please?" Wes obeyed, giving Annabeth full access. She turned and looked pointedly at Percy and the other guys as she slapped the finger down on his tongue, checkup style.

The guys put their heads together to come up with another idea for their little game, all smiles and laughs, but Annabeth wasn't amused. Oh no. Her anger was only rising with every second. How dare this little bitch come in here and torment her after all he had done and then drag everyone else into it? It was ridiculous! She was going to make sure they all felt exactly what it was like to be on Annabeth Chase's bad side if she ever-

"Percy Jackson! Annabeth Chase!" Percy's head shot up so fast, he whacked it against one of his friend's while Annabeth yanked her finger out of Wes's mouth, causing him to bite down hard on his tongue and yelp in pain. Annabeth looked up to see Chiron and the rest of the campers looking eagerly at her and Percy.

"You two will be our first example of the day, in front of everyone. I do hope you use actual weapons instead of your own crude gestures."

Dread filled Annabeth's stomach. Sure she had kicked his ass last night but Percy and Annabeth had been equals when she left. Last night was without weapons, in the dark and Percy had been improving for two years. The only workout Annabeth had done was working out how to stay as far away from camp as possible. Well look where that got her.

There was no way she would win and on top of that, she would be humiliated in front of everyone.

As Chiron dismissed the campers to prepare for training, Annabeth snuck a glance back at her new opponent. He was already there, waiting for her to look back, secretly flipping her off.

Red hot fury rushed through her, surely turning her face as pink the glitter in her hair.

She may go down but it sure as hell wouldn't be before blood was spilled.