Chapter Sixteen: Sam Gets Even

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this one.

Freddie's POV

Carly had been up there for almost a half hour now. We were starting to get worried. Melanie was standing there all smiles, which according to Sam, could mean absolutely anything, and Sam kept pacing, which was never a good sign. Although, I really though the way she walked was cute. I mean, not important, back to Carly. Ok, so when the red headed girl came out, we all mobbed her.

"Where's Carly!?" Sam demanded. She sounded as if she would kill the girl if she didn't talk, which I would never put pass Sam. Melanie was the one that intervened.

"Sam, relax! This is Rachel. She's the Oracle." Sam and I looked from Melanie to the girl.

"You mean she's the one who belts out prophecies?" I asked. Melanie nodded.

"Um, I'm right here! Stop talking like I'm some artifact in a museum!" Rachel said. Melanie smiled.

"Sorry about that. Are you on your lunch break already?" Melanie asked. Rachel nodded.

"Yeah, and Carly should be down any second now. In fact, there she is right now." We all turned to where she was motioning. Carly was just coming out of the main building.

"CARLS!" Sam raced to Carly and damn near knocked her over. "You were up there so long we were all worried about you!" Carly managed a smile, though I could tell she was forcing it.

"I'm fine, Sam. Really." Sam didn't seem convinced, but she let go. We were Carly's best friends. She couldn't lie to us, even if she wanted to.

"Carly, what's wrong? I know that face," I said.

"Yeah Carls, you can tell us anything. What happened up there?" Sam said. Carly sighed.

"The quest…it wasn't a prophecy…it was…" Carly sounded sad and scared at the same time.

"What was it, Carly? Tell us." I said.

"Zeus took over Rachel's body. He personally gave me the quest. It was weird."

"What do you mean 'Zeus took over Rachel's body'? Was she like—"

"Possessed." Carly finished Sam's sentence.

"That's never happened before Carly. What did Zeus say?" Melanie asked. Rachel had disappeared.

"He said that the gods question my existence. That I shouldn't be alive and that he has personally created a quest to prove that I am worthy of living or something like that."

Carly began to cry. Sam and Melanie hugged her, but that seemed to make her cry harder. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"It's gonna be alright, Carls," I said, "you're not going to do this alone. Sam and I will go with you, right Sam?"

"Of course I'll go! Carly, we've been best friends since like forever and we're not going to let you do this all on your own."

"What else did he say, Carly?" Melanie asked. Carly wiped her eyes.

"He said that the quest will feature three challenges, each one worse than the last. The first challenge is in Brooklyn."

"Well, we have to tell Chiron. He'll know what to do." So with that, we all walked towards the dining pavilion. Chiron was still at the head table as many campers were still eating. I noticed Rachel sitting next to him. She was chatting with him as she ate. She grinned when she saw us.

"Don't worry I already told Chiron what you said happened and he says it can't be good." She smiled as she said that.

"Yes, happy news, isn't it?" Sam said sarcastically. Something told me that she didn't really like this Rachel chick and honestly, I couldn't really blame her. She seemed to be always too happy. Not even Carly, the queen of happy, was like that. You could clearly see that by looking at how Carly was now.

"Miss Dare is right, Carly. As you may know, the gods are not the world's nicest people. If Zeus personally organized this quest, he may just be setting you up to fail," said Chiron. He stroked his scruffy great beard as he said all of this.

"So does that mean that Carly won't succeed?" asked Melanie.

"No, Miss Puckett. This wouldn't be the first time a god has personally assigned a quest, although it may be the first through direct possession of the Oracle. Carly's chances of succeeding might just be a little less than any other quest is all." Chiron got up, his immense horse-half rising behind him. "You're allowed two companions on this quest. I'm sure you'll be taking—"

"No! I want Sam, Freddie and Melanie on this quest with me. All three of them," Carly said. Sam, Melanie, and I all looked at Carly strangely. She had said those words with so much power that it was hard to believe she had been crying just minutes earlier. Chiron seemed taken aback.

"Are you sure? There are reasons for this. Three is a sacred number amongst the gods."

"I'm sure. I need all three of them."

"Very well then. I will make all the necessary arrangements. You will leave in the morning. Be sure to pack everything you may need." With that, Chiron exited the pavilion, leaving the four us and Rachel.

"Carly, thank you for making me a part of your quest. I won't let you down," Melanie said.

"Neither will we," Sam said, pulling me closer to her side. I could feel myself blushing, but I ignored it.

"Yeah, Carls. We've got your back," I said. Carly wiped the remaining tears out of her eyes and smiled.

"Aww, you guys," she said, embracing all three of us in a hug. I was feeling real brave at the moment, but something told me that my euphoria wouldn't last very long. I just smiled and hugged Carly back, trying push that thought out of my mind.

Sam's POV

We spent most of that afternoon packing. Melanie and I went into our cabin first and stocked up on clothes and we even sneaked some snacks from the other campers. These past few days at camp, I've gotten to know a side of my sister that I never even knew existed. She was more like me than I thought, with a much happier side added. I couldn't believe I had grown up practically hating the girl. It was just that how everybody preferred her to me and her manners—all that just made me sick. Upon my arrival at camp, I realized that were better people to hate. Like our cabin's counselor for example, Clarisse La Rue.

It was Clarisse who "greeted" me into the Ares cabin. Apparently, greeting to her, meant a sword battle almost to the death. She ordered the rest of the Ares kids to push all the beds to the side, creating a makeshift arena in the center of the cabin. Melanie tried to stop her and when she couldn't, she tried to get me to back out.

"Clarisse has been here for years, Sam. You're going to get hurt!" She said. I just sat there and polished my nail clipper sword. There was no way I was going to back out. The other campers—were between the ages of six and fourteen—kept looking at me with sorry expressions as if the battle had already been decided. Well, I was gonna prove them all wrong. Momma never lost a fight.

Once the bunks had been pushed away, Clarisse and I entered the center of the room. She was tall and muscular with brown hair, brown eyes, and long arms. She had a shield engraved with the red boar of Ares in one hand and a spear in the other.

"You still have time to back off, punk," she said, sneering. Her sneering just made her look like a pig.

"I never back down," I said, holding my ground. She shrugged as if to say, "Oh well, I tried." This just succeeded in making me angrier.

"Whenever you're ready, newbie. I'll show you why I'm Ares's favorite daughter." That was it. I charged at her as fast as I could, sword raised. She merely side stepped and put her leg out and tripped me. The other campers laughed. I just got up and charged again, only this time she parried my sword and made it skip across the room. She then pointed her spear into my chest.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, punk." Her smile made me hate her forever.

So now as I was packing my stuff, I knew I couldn't leave without leaving Clarisse a little something to remember me by. The only problem was I had nothing. I knew where she slept, I mean, how could I not? She had the messiest bunk in the cabin. I mean seriously, her bunk made my place look like it wasn't a total dump, which, I'll admit openly, it was. Clarisse's bunk looked like a pig sty and trust me, if you ever saw Clarisse make her 'angry face', you know just how much like a pig she really looks like.

"Sam, are you done?" Melanie asked. She had packed her bag already. Her bag, a black Northface Hot-shot, was embedded with many patches; a New York Yankees logo patch, a New York Giants logo patch and a New York Rangers logo patch, just to name a few. I was about to ask her since when she was such a big New York sports fan, but she seemed to know what was coming.

"I've been here for nine years, Sam. You get attached after a while," she said. I nodded. Then she asked, "Why haven't you finished packing?" I was about to tell her about my plans to prank Clarisse, but again, she seemed to read my thoughts. "You want to prank Clarisse, don't you?"

"How do you keep doing that?" I snapped.

"We're twins. Ever heard of twin telepathy?"

"Yeah, but that junk isn't real…is it?"

"Of course it's real, Sam, you've just got to learn to use it. Now do you want my help getting Clarisse or not?"

We spent about twenty minutes setting up our prank. Apparently, Melanie had learned a few tricks from Freddie's half-brother, Connor.

"We sort of dated a while back," she said as she tied together the laces of another pair of Clarisse's shoes.

"Was that before or after you kissed Freddie?" I asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible. She tilted her head like if she really had to think hard about it.

"After," she said finally.

We had already tied up her other three pairs and while Melanie was working on the last pair, I was working on the most interesting part of our prank—hollowing out her mattress. Our plan? Well it was simple. We figured Clarisse wasn't entirely stupid. She'd know that I wouldn't leave without trying to get even. So we tied together all her shoes, so that she'd think that that was the prank. Once she'd realized that all her shoes had been tied together she'd smile and think that I was an amateur when it came to pranking, and she'd be wrong because, in fact, the real prank was hollowing out her mattress and filling it with a couple of wasp's nests. That'll show her.

"Now for the final step—the wasps," Melanie said, standing. She walked over to the table in which we had placed the two jars with the wasp nests. It had taken us about ten minutes just to find them. "Would you like to do the honors, little sister?" I hated when Melanie mentioned the fact that she was the older twin, but at that moment, revenge was way more important.

"With pleasure." I picked up one of the jars and carefully emptied the nest into the gash I had made with my sword. Luckily, all the wasps were inside the nest. I did the same with the other wasp nest and carefully turned the mattress over, concealing the gash. I smiled and slapped my sister a high five.

"I gotta admit, I didn't think you hated anyone," I said. She rolled her eyes.

"Trust me, Clarisse isn't just anybody," she said.

We then exited the cabin with Melanie giggling like a little girl. It was at times like this when I wondered who real the older twin was.

A/N: Did you guys like it? Please review. And oh, if you're a fan of next gen Harry Potter fan fics, be sure to check out my new story, The Heir of Potter. Thanks for reading!