Author Notes: Hey guys! Okay so my laptop got confiscated for a WEEK. yeah, i don't even know how i made it. okay, anyway. here's the new chapter! please review!

11

Athena Always Has A Strategy.

It was Friday.

I loved Fridays. Fridays were amazing. It was the start of the weekend. And hell, I loved weekends.

But now that it was summer, Friday's didn't really matter. It was just another day that you do nothing. Well, that was what a regular person would think. To me, it wasn't just another day.

It was the day we play Capture the Flag.

It was exactly my seventh day at Camp Half Blood. It surprised me, actually. I had actually survived a whole week at camp. I was still alive. But, anyway, back to tonight. 8:30 P.M. We had just eaten dinner and were now armored up. We were all in the same Greek armor an in the forest, a place I had never been to yet. I was w1aring a helmet with a blue plume on top. My team had taken the side of the biggest cabins: Athena, Apollo, Hermes, and under one of the Athena camper's requests, Poseidon. I thought that the Athena cabin was going to lead us because of their strategies, but everyone picked this Poseidon kid to lead instead. Everyone said it was because he had "experience."

The other team wore red plumes on their helmets. On that side were the rest of the cabins; Ares would lead, then there was Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Demeter, and Zeus. Sadly, that meant I would have to go against the twins: Jack and Alex.

Will handed me a bow and arrow, and two small celestial bronze knives.

"No thanks." I pushed away the knives.

"You'll need them." Will said.

"But I don't even know how to use one."

"Oh come on, it's a knife."

"What do you want me to do? Pretend to be Psycho?"

"No…but it will come in handy when you run out of those arrows."

I took them from hi and sheathed them, making sure not to stab myself in the process.

"Fine. But I'd definitely rather have a sword."

"You'll have to practice sword fighting for that." Will said, continuing to give out weapons to the other camper on our team.

I stared at the two knives in my sheath. Obviously, I didn't know how to use them. The scene of psycho stabbing that girl in the shower played over and over again in my head. I should have been horrified, but I seemed to be incapable of it. The effects were so bad, I couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay." A black-haired boy clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. He had jet-black hair and sparkling green eyes. He looked like Will's age. Probably nineteen. We all gathered in a circle around him. On one side of the circle, I spotted Dean holding a long sword.

"You all know the drill. Hermes, take the Fireworks Beach. Athena, do I really have to explain this again? Apollo, defense. I'll take the creek. Oh and Annabeth,"

"Hmm?" a blonde girl said.

"Good luck."

A conch shell sounded and everyone scattered.

"Who was that?" I asked one of the Hermes campers.

"Who's who?"

"That guy. Why does everyone listen to him?"

"Not everyone."

"Who is he then?"

"Percy. Duh."

"Who?"

"He's like…the only son of Poseidon. Hello? Weren't you at the war? He like, saved the world."

"What war?"

"The Titan War. I mean you're at least fifteen. I'm sure you were there."

"N-No…Not really."

The camper took off towards the Fireworks beach and I ran behind a tree, a few feet away from the flag.

I was suddenly left with the flag. I got up, stared at it and circled around it. I sat down in front of it. I honestly didn't know what I was supposed to do. I puffed out a breath and gripped at the body of the flag. It seemed sturdy enough to support my weight.

Stupid ADHD made me do what I did next.

"I wanna be a part of it…New York! New York!"

I was breaking into my song-and-dance. I was hanging from the flagpole swinging around. No one seemed to notice. Man, this felt good.

"New…Yooooooooork!"

Suddenly, there was a loud yelling from the other side. Well, it wasn't exactly a yell. It was more of a shriek. Either way, it caught me off guard and sent me stumbling down. There was a thin, brown-haired girl trying to hide behind the bushes. She was in a white dress and a red plume. It was Bianca. I wanted to laugh. She may have thought that she was hidden, but she was in plain sight to me.

She was trying to steal the flag.

I was about to sneak up behind her but crashed into someone instead. We landed face down on the grass.

"Ow!" the girl struggled over me.

"Shh!" I cupped a hand over her mouth. "Don't say anything."

She started mumbling against my palm. Finally, I let go. She was in a blue plume just like me but I wasn't sure what cabin she was from. I guessed she was Hermes.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Fireworks Beach?" I asked in a hushed tone.

"I'm Athena's. We have a strategy…or at least, Annabeth does."

"Oh. Well, what are you doing here?"

"Didn't you see Bianca? She's right there." She pointed behind the bushes.

"I was just gonna go after her." I said. "I'm Nikki."

"Meghan." She shook my hand and smiled.

This was no time to make friends.

"CHAAAAAAAAAARGE!"

Our heads jerked up. A huge crowd of Apollo campers was sprinting towards us.

"Run!" the girl cried, jumping to the side and pulling me down with her. We ducked behind a big rock.

"Bianca Armstrong." One of the campers said, stepping forward. "Don't even think about it."

Suddenly, all the campers were stepping forward, readying their weapons.

"Now, now." Bianca said. "Let's all work this out in an orderly fashion."

She spoke in a shaky voice. She was nervous. She wasn't going to steal it. She couldn't. She wouldn't. She had no chance against us.

Apollo campers took another step forward. Their bows were ready to shoot. Bianca turned pale.

"Alright, alright." She calmed them down. "I'll just back away and—

SO LONG SUCKAH'S!" she grabbed the flag and sprinted off. Everyone was staring at what they had just done. Let your guard down, you lose. We watched Bianca run away with our flag. We lost. It was over. Everyone took their helmets off.

"Who wants some donuts?" a camper offered.

Numerous hands rose. Donuts sound good.

Suddenly, Bianca fell.

I wasn't sure what I saw. One second she was running, the next, she was on the floor. It was odd because it seemed like she just rammed into an invisible wall or something.

Then, a girl with blonde curls appeared. She was holding a Yankees cap in her hand and had a smug smirk on her face.

"Athena always has a strategy." She said. "Drop it."

Bianca quickly struggled to her feet then ran. We all stared at the silver flag on the ground. It was emblazoned with a dark blue owl.

"Nice one." The blonde girl said, satisfied. She picked up the flag gingerly and balanced it in her grip. She threw it like a javelin, letting Will catch it. "Return it, okay?"

"Sure thing, Annabeth."

And just like that, she slapped on her Yankees cap and disappeared.

"WE GOT IT!" someone on the far side was yelling. "WE GOT ARES' FLAG!"

My eyes widened. We won. He just had to get over to this side and we'd win. The only thing separating the territories was the little stream. The kid looked young. He was probably eleven, with brown curls and blue eyes. I really thought he was going to make it. Really. He was almost there when sudden electricity surged through him. He just turned white then dropped to the water along with the red Ares flag. I blinked.

Behind him, a big, bulky girl stood tall behind him. I couldn't see her face because of her helmet but I knew she was at least 5"9. She was holding a long, spear-like javelin that glowed with electricity. It was taped in the center as if it had broken in the past.

"Clarisse La Rue." Meghan hissed behind me. "We are so dead."

Everyone started backing up slowly. Clarisse stepped forward into the stream. She took another step towards us. Everyone backed up again. Why was everyone so afraid of her? I mean, sure, she was tall. Yeah, she looked pretty strong, but why was everyone acting like she was Godzilla?

Clarisse made her way casually to our flag. No one bothered to stop her until I did about the stupidest thing in my life. I stepped right in front of her.

"Move it, punk." She spat.

"No thanks." I replied calmly. I wondered how I did that since I was scared to the bone.

"You want a piece of me?" She stepped even closer to me. My heart pounded.

"No way. I want the whole thing." I said.

She struck her javelin and cut me in the arm. The second her spear made contact with my skin, electricity rushed through my body and made me feel weak all of a sudden. I bolted back but stood my ground. I felt the blood ooze out of my wound.

"Clarisse," a voice beside me said. "No maiming."

"We may be friends, but you're still a punk." Clarisse said.

She was talking to the black-haired boy that had organized the plan a while ago. What did that Hermes boy say his name was? Percy?

He was coming up behind me with balled his fists and a ball pen. Oh God. A pen? Quickly, he uncapped it and a celestial bronze sword was in his hands. I gasped.

By now, everyone had gathered around the little stream between Clarisse and Percy. All the campers on the red side formed a semi-circle around them, the same thing happening on the blue side.

Clarisse and him stood in front of each other, knee-deep in water with the Ares flag right at their feet. All someone had to do was run in front of Clarisse, take the flag and run back over the creek to the Athena territory. I gulped. A stupid idea popped in my head.

It was easy.

I would run and take that flag and bring it to our territory.

I stepped forward. No one noticed. I took another step. No one noticed. I looked up. Logan was watching my every move. His electric blue eyes couldn't be hidden through his helmet. Even his red plume didn't distract me from them.

"Don't even think about it." He mouthed.

He shook his head. I smiled and raised my eyebrows.

One…Two…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Nate jumped forward and grabbed the flag off the ground. I glanced up at Logan. He was giving Nate the wide-eyed, "what-the-hell" look; the same one everyone else was giving him. Even Clarisse was distracted.

But then, she caught on quickly and pounced on Nate. Lucky for him, he was quick and Clarisse landed on the ground. He got to his feet and jumped over the small creek. Everyone was silent for a moment. My jaw literally dropped.

"You fools!" Clarisse yelled, stomping her foot angrily at the ground. She screamed ancient Greek curses at her team.

Then, cheers erupted.

"THAT WAS AMAZING!" People were screaming.

"Oh my God! We won!" I screamed out-of-nowhere.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

"WHAT IN HADES' NAME JUST HAPPENED?"

"IS ANYONE STILL UP FOR THOSE DONUTS?"

Campers from Hermes, Apollo and Athena gathered around Nate and lifted him up and carried him away, cheering and celebrating. The feeling hadn't quite settled in because, well, in most of the parts, I sat behind a rock with Meghan, watching Bianca crash into Annabeth and Nate sneak up in front of Clarisse. The campers wearing the red plumes grumbled and groaned about losing.

Logan came up to me, his helmet tucked under his arm. He had that half-smile, half-smirk on his face.

"Good game." he said.

"Yeah, well, Clarisse doesn't seem to think so."

"Nothing's a good game to Clarisse if she doesn't win."

I smiled, nodding. I've met millions of people like her. Playing just to win, never thinking that there was a possibility of losing. Logan rested his elbow on my shoulder as Meghan approached. It was my first time to see her without her helmet. I think the only reason I recognized her was her voice and her big-framed glasses. She had long, straightened brown hair and braces.

"Hey, Owens." She said, nodding at Logan.

"Hello, Solstice." Logan nodded back.

"Well, that was fun." Meghan said. "Sort of…I mean, all that trouble with Bianca wouldn't have happened if we hadn't crashed into each other.

"You guys crashed into each other." Logan repeated flatly.

"In attempt to stop Bianca." I defended, hoping not to sound stupid. The way Logan said how we just clashed into each other just made us sound like total klutzes.

"We won!" Dean's singsong voice was suddenly filling the air. The trees rustled around us and I realized we were standing smack in the middle of the forest. Dean hung on to Meghan's shoulder as he stuck a tongue out at Logan. Meghan looked away for a few seconds but turned back quickly.

"Whatever," Logan rolled his eyes. "You guys get to take a shower first. No big deal."

"Don't forget: we get first in line too." Dean added. That was when I remembered. We had bet on our shower and food schedule.

"Oh, come on." Dean said, punching Logan lightly on the shoulder. "Cheer up. We still have the chariot races."

"Chariot races?" I asked. "What's that?"

"The name says it all." Logan said. "Chariots race. Personalized chariots, of course."

"You mean you have to build them?"

"You didn't expect Mr. D to build them for us, did you?"

"No but…Oh never mind."

Logan shifted.

I liked the way we talked. All of us. It was only my first week here and I already felt at home. Sure, it was no San Francisco. It didn't rain at all. And when it did, the rain never seemed to enter the camp. I wasn't sure if I liked that. I mean, I loved the rain just not when it wet all my stuff.

"Nikki. Hello? Are you awake?" Dean was waving a hand in front of my face.

I blinked. "What?"

"You spaced out for a while there." Logan filled me in.

Meghan was still there, watching me cautiously. Before I could ask how long I was out, Bianca turned up.

"Hey Meg," she said, smiling slightly.

"Oh hey Bee."

"I have to go." Dean said quickly. "Catch you guys later, 'kay?"

"Sure thing." Logan replied as Dean jogged up the path and out the forest.

"So…" Bianca said shyly, "I made a pretty big scene there, didn't I?"

She had her eyes fixed on Logan, constantly glancing at his arm on my shoulder. I noticed quickly and jerked him off. He gave me an awkward look then crossed his arms instead.

"Yeah." Meghan said. "That was pretty big. I mean, you crashing into Annabeth and stuff."

"You did good trying though." Logan said. I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but was Bianca blushing?

"Thanks." She murmured.

"It was fun." I said finally. "But I think I'm getting sleepy."

Logan yawned and stretched his arms. "Yeah. Me too. Let's head up?"

W

We exited the forest and made our way around the lake and over to the cabins. Logan went in the first one, which left me with Bianca and Meghan.

"He said you were good." Meghan elbowed Bianca.

Bianca laughed and blushed. "I know. I…I heard."

"Do you like Logan?" I asked suddenly. I barely knew these two girls. One I had met two days ago, another half and hour ago. But I knew I wasn't the type to just go along with something without knowing what was going on.

"Um…Yeah…" Bianca replied. She blushed, obviously shocked that I had just asked such a personal question. "He's just so…I don't know. Logan's amazing. He just…is."

I smiled. "Yeah. I know that feeling when like, you don't know why you like someone…you just do."

"Exactly…" Bianca said wistfully.

"She's been totally in love with him since she arrived at camp." Meghan put in.

"When was that?" I asked.

"Two? Two years ago?" Meghan said. "I don't know. It's been a while."

"Wow…that's…"

I realized that instead of going into our separate cabins, we had walked even farther than I thought we would. In fact, we were at the end of the land of Camp Half-Blood. We were in Fireworks Beach, the waves crashing over our feet. We had settled into a spot behind a huge boulder.

"I never caught your name." Bianca said, wiping some dirt off her white dress. "What was it again? Beth?"

"Nikki." I said, laughing at how distant her guess was from the real thing.

"Nikki…" she said, trying it out. "You're always with them. How'd you get that close?"

"With who?"

"Dean and Logan. They're like, inseparable. Best friends."

"Oh. We're not that close."

"Did he say anything about me? Logan, I mean." Bianca asked. Her eyes had a little bit of a desperate edge to them.

"Uhm…" I tried to recall that conversation I had with the two of them in the infirmary a few days ago. That was when I remembered. "He called you pretty?"

Bianca's eyes beamed and sparkled. She really was pretty, even with her braces.

"Yeah." I said. "The prettiest, actually."

Bianca gasped. "Are you kidding me?"

"I'm not." I said, grinning. "Really. He said that."

"What were his exact words?" she asked, quickly. Wow, she really liked him.

"Um…I was like, 'who's that?' then Logan went, 'She's Bianca.' And Dean went—"

"Skip Dean's part!"

"Uh…then he said something about you being the prettiest in the whole Aphrodite cabin."

Bianca's eyes went from wide to bulging. She sat frozen there for a whole ten minutes. By the time she started moving again, Meghan and I had started a conversation about turtles and cheese sticks.

I felt like some kind of matchmaker. Logan and Bianca were cute together. They just had to realize how much they liked each other to get the courage to actually say it out loud. I mean, it was pretty obvious Logan liked her. And I already knew that Bianca was into him. Wow, I felt all cool on the inside. I needed a name for myself. Maybe I would rip it off from that old Will Smith movie called Hitch. I could be called The Love Doctor. Ohh yeahh…

Bianca smiled, standing up.

"I'll see you guys again tomorrow." She said.

Meghan and I stood up as if on cue.

"Good night."

PLEASE REVIEW! Okay, I know this chapter really sucked. I promise I'll post soon, okay?