Annabeth and I wadded through the heavy snow settled on the ground. My boots were practically dripping water, since they were meant for hiking and the soles had been worn through. Leave it to me to be the one camper here caught unprepared for the first snow of the season.
The woods seemed to sparkle as we walked through them, and I could feel Annabeth's heart racing through her warm woolen mittens (I didn't own any of those either). She looked so beautiful in her red winter scarf and white ski jacket. Underneath was her camp tee, I'm sure, but she had long ago traded out the short-shorts for some jeans. Her hair was pulled back as normal, but she seemed even more warm and alive in the white surroundings. Her eyes were like happy smoke from a fireplace, and her lips shimmered a muted pink with Chap Stick.
My ears and nose burned with cold. I had my usual jeans and camp shirt, with a thin navy blue hoodie and the practically useless boots. I had tried for a while to get the water out of my socks, but even I couldn't get them all the way dry, and eventually, I gave up. I had been getting ready to use my bed's top blanket to fasten a hat and makeshift scarf when Annabeth had knocked on the cabin door. I suppose that the camp would have to hold out on the latest fashion trend for now.
We were on our way to Rachel's cave (although she insisted we refer to it as a lair) to get some illegal refreshments (as well as an actual movie) for tonight's secret movie night in my cabin. Thanks to Tyson's handy work while he was here over the summer, we had a brand new knock-off Sony flat screen hidden behind the remains of the fountain. I still wasn't sure what we were watching yet because it all depended on what the most easily accessed movie in the nearest Redbox machine was when Rachel made her short trips out of camp. Technically she wasn't supposed to leave, but she had a habit of acquiring various snacks, pens, bobby pins, and DVDs in the middle of the week.
"Snow is just so weird, ya know? Like 'look at this pretty rock- AAH! Cold!" I said.
"You can't be serious." She replied
"What?"
"Snow is just little bits of rain that went through a cloud too many times and froze, then fell to earth when they collected enough layers of water to let gravity do the rest. Gosh seaweed brain, didn't you pay attention to anything in science class besides Calvin & Hobbs comics?"
"uuuhhhh…" I retorted gracefully. She giggled, then scooped up a bit of snow and threw it at me playfully. I guess the shocking sensation of cold spreading through my shirt gave me a pretty funny look because she laughed even harder.
"Fine. You want a snowball fight? You've got one!" I remarked, then quickly shaped myself a nice chunk of ammunition and flung it at her head. She ducked, and it was wasted on a tree. "no fair. You had the element of surprise!" I complained.
"All's fair in love and snowball fights!" she threw another round, which grazed my ear and froze my hair as I sidestepped. Gods, that girl had some good aim. I bent down to pick up another, but when I came up to throw she was gone. I looked farther down the invisible path and barely caught a glimpse of her red scarf disappearing around a corner. I perused, collecting more snowballs as I went. When I rounded the bend Annabeth had taken, the only thing there was a clearing with rows of footsteps leading up to a white roadblock at the end. She was nowhere in sight and something felt incredibly wrong. I wearily eyed my surroundings and noticed a flash of red surfacing in a tree. Too late. A dozen snowballs hit from every direction. I stumbled back and tripped, falling bitt-first into a pile of semi-melted sludge.
I could feel my face turning red with a mixture of surprise and embarrassment. I sprang to my feet as a group of nymphs appeared around me, locked and loaded for another round of freeze the camper. Annabeth swung down from a lower branch of the tree nearest the blockade and marched forward triumphantly, her own snowball in hand.
"Ready to admit I win?" she sneered, smirking as some of the nymphs giggled.
"Not a chance." I spat.
My options were limited. At least a dozen tree nymphs had me surrounded. Any sudden moves and I'm sure that I'd be another white pile in seconds. I wasn't going to fight the nymphs, and I especially wasn't crazy enough to take on Annabeth. But what had she been telling me earlier on about snow?
She must have seen it coming, because her face went from pride to horror in about the time it takes for Tyson to finish off a peanut butter sandwich (which is exactly 4.76 seconds. We timed it.). Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth in awe as she turned to run.
"RETRE-" she was cut off by a ten foot tall wave of snow washing over both her and her small army. They tried to scatter, but were washed away in the sea of cold.
Green faces popped up angrily from the snow drift. I'm not sure how bad 'son of a woodpecker' is to a nymph, but it sure gave me a laugh. A mound of white rose slowly in the back. At first I didn't notice it, but then I saw two furious grey eyes, a white powdered face, and a now pink scarf above the frosted carnage. Annabeth stood up, cursing in ancient Greek, and tried to brush herself off the best that she could. I was trying so hard not to burst out laughing I could feel my face turning red, but unfortunately, it didn't work. I exploded in a fit of laughter. Then she gave me that look. That I'm going to kill you and use your bones to write out more attack plans' look.
"What's so funny seaweed brain?" she mumbled angrily at me. "Got icicles in your head?"
"Nope, just a soggy girlfriend!" I stuttered between fits of giggles. She took a clump of snow off of her head and threw it at me. It hit square in my gut, and the impact knocked me over. I only laughed harder.
"Ugh! You're impossible!" she roared, then marched down the road, shivering slightly under her winter attire. I stood and jogged to catch up.
She was muttering curses under her breath and swatting frozen patches off of her jeans when I saw the cave entrance. An aroma of buttered popcorn and warm cookies filled the air, making my stomach leap. Annabeth was already ringing the bell by the entrance when I got an amazing idea. I lagged behind, gathering up all the snow from the surrounding areas that I could. I willed it to climb up my body, encasing me in an icy sarcophagus. I found some rocks, and put them above my eyes on the outside of the covering. Next, I blindly formed a somewhat mouth from bits of branches scattered around. I crept up behind my cranky girlfriend, gaining height from more snow as I went. I was practically breathing down her neck when the door flew open.
"oh hey! Come on…" Rachel stopped mid-sentence and focused her eyes frightfully upon me. I went to put a finger to my lips to shush her, but it was all too late. She screamed bloody murder, alerting everything within a 50 mile radius. Annabeth whirled around to see what the matter was. Being met with a seven foot tall mass of snow, her instincts easily took over.
Her leg was up in a flash, knocking the breath out of me as her warm winter boot struck me hard in the stomach. I was down on the ground with a knife to my throat in moments. The snow melted away to reveal me lying there cold and defenseless.
"Annie-" I choked out "could you..let me…up?" she sheathed the knife and stood up. She turned in disgust and kicked me a bit as she brought her foot up to stomp away. She marched right past a traumatized Rachel and through the rainbow-beaded entryway. I sat up and rubbed my throat. okay. Not my best idea. I thought. Rachel still stood by the open door, her mouth still hanging open as she stared into the distance in shock.
"Do you think it would be a good idea if I asked her if she wants to build a snowman?" I stated. She closed her mouth and then blinked rapidly. She let out a large sigh before looking down at me.
"You know, on a scale of bad decisions ranging from insult Zeus and making the winning move in capture the flag, that was probably somewhere just barely above bathe in the river Lethe." She said in a monotone before turning to join Annabeth. I got up and dried myself off, then stifled the last of my giggles and jogged inside of the multi-colored door.