Disclaimer: I don't own anything! That's the simplest way to put it.

Summary: Annabeth goes back to Camp Half-Blood to escape the spider filled mayhem of Halloween, but her plan backfires when a spider torments her all weekend.

A/N: This is just a fluffy little Halloween fic, probably set in some universe where Heroes of Olympus doesn't exist yet. No wars, no unbearable cliffhangers, just fluff (and spiders).

It was a well known fact at Camp Half-Blood that children of Athena were not the biggest fans of spiders. It wasn't because they were less tough than the other kids or even because they didn't like looking at their hairy, spindly legs or beady little eyes. It wasn't necessarily because they were creeped out by the way arachnids scurried across the cabin floor and up walls, or how the things could spin a web and drop down from the ceiling when you were least expecting it. Those were all definitely contributing factors, as they were with most people, but the main reason children of Athena couldn't stand spiders was because they were, quite literally, out to get them.

Whenever a spider came too close to a child of Athena, something seemed to resonate with it – a spidey sense, if you will. One would think that, being so small and having equally small brains and eyes, spiders wouldn't be able to tell one lumbering human from the next, let alone who their parents were. Unfortunately for all the blonde-haired, grey-eyed brainiacs in the Athena cabin, something their dear mother had done a long time ago had landed them all in a very unpleasant situation. For the most part, they had all learned to keep the creepy crawlies at bay, but let one too close and you were doomed. At least, if the wisdom goddess was your bio mom.

So really, it wasn't the spiders themselves that were so terrifying to them. Most of the Athena kids probably would have been just fine stomping on a spider if the spider in question wasn't also trying to jump on them, and if they hadn't already been dealing with it for most of their lives.

Annabeth Chase was particularly inclined to hate the things. She had run away from home and spent far too long sleeping outside, where spiders tended to flock to her. She could distinctly remember many times when she'd woken up to one crawling on her, at which point she would scream and cause a huge fuss until Luke or Thalia got rid of it. There was no more sleep for anyone else on those nights; after such a big ruckus was made, they had no choice but to move lest any monsters or other such threats had been alerted to their presence.

Now, well, she had bigger things to worry about than spiders, but they still weren't her favorite things in the world.

The first time that year she had to deal with a spider prank was October seventeenth – a little early for that kind of childishness, in her opinion, considering Halloween was still two weeks away. It was well known by her roommates by now that she was terrified of spiders, and they often ribbed her about it. However, Halloween was a completely different beast. The availability of fake arachnids suddenly shot up, making it far to easy for her classmates to get their hands on them. Plus, the season seemed to provide them with endless inspiration for their pranks.

She woke up in the middle of that night with a giant rubber spider dangling over her head. This wouldn't have fooled her when she was fully awake and could see properly, but of course her roommates knew that. She screamed, sending the security guard running and her roommates into fits of laughter.

It was all downhill from there. The initial reaction – perhaps overreaction – only encouraged them, no matter how many dirty looks she shot their way. Since her knife didn't work on mortals and since she considered herself too mature to retaliate, there was nothing she could do but take the first opportunity to escape.

At the end of the month the students got an informal fall break, which basically meant they got a four day weekend. Those who lived in New York or surrounding areas got to go home for a few days, and those who lived farther away got to enjoy time to catch up on work or just relax. Annabeth couldn't walk through the damn city without attracting a few Dumpster- or sewer-dwelling spiders, not to mention be bombarded with all sorts of unpleasant Halloween imagery, so she decided to go back to camp for the weekend. There, at least, she would be safe.

Or so she thought.

The taxi dropped her off at the bottom of the hill, as usual. She paid the driver, declining his offer to carry her bag up for her, and headed into camp.

Even though she had always yearned for a normal life, Camp Half-Blood felt like home to her. It was practically where she had grown up, and continued to provide a safe haven from the outside world – most of the time, anyway. There would always be a special place in her heart for the place.

She greeted several people on her way in, but went straight to the Athena cabin to deposit her bag on the bed which would always be hers. As soon as it hit the sheets, something scurried out from underneath the pillow, disturbed by the movement. Annabeth let out a shriek, stumbling backwards onto the bed next to hers. The enormous spider raised its front legs, waving them grotesquely in the air. She scrambled backwards, nearly falling off the other side of the bed and onto the floor before the door opened.

Sensing the presence of someone else – presumably someone who was not going to be so intimidated by it – the spider put down its legs, paused to set its beady eyes upon Annabeth one last time, and scurried out of sight. Still shaky, Annabeth looked up to see who had saved her.

"Percy!" she exclaimed, thoroughly relieved that the person who'd witnessed the spectacle was not someone who would cruelly use it against her. At least, if he were to use it against her, it wouldn't be out of spite, and she had plenty of ammo to shoot back at him, too. It was all about balance.

"What was that all about?" he asked, looking as if he was holding back a grin. She was going to chalk it up to him being happy to see her so she wouldn't have to smack him. This was, after all, a chance for them to hang out for nearly four whole days before school got in the way again. It made sense.

"Just a s-spider," Annabeth replied, making quite the effort to keep her voice steady as she said it. Then she continued, in a more authoritative tone, "And you're not supposed to be in here!"

Percy raised an eyebrow at her. "Okay," he said, "I'll just leave and see if it comes back."

"No!" she exclaimed, a bit too quickly, "I mean, I'll come with you. I was just dropping off my things."

"What if it comes back later?" Percy went on, still looking more amused than concerned.

She scowled at him, "You think I'm going to go looking for that thing? Uh-uh. You're the big strong son of Poseidon – you do it," she challenged.

"Fine," he replied, in an equally challenging tone, dropping to the ground to look under the bed. Meanwhile, Annabeth stood against the next bed over, trying not to think about that spider and how it was probably going to get all of its little eight-legged friends.

"See anything?" she asked after a few moments, trying to act casual. Her eyes were constantly scanning the floor for any sign of the beast.

"Nope," he replied, voice muffled. As he began to stand up, he hit his head on the bed frame, cursing in Greek. At this, Annabeth couldn't help but laugh, temporarily forgetting about her earlier scare.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain," she said, grabbing his arm to pull him up, "Let's just get out of here."

The next scare came later that night, the only difference being that this time all of the year round campers, plus Annabeth and a few other visitors, were occupying the cabin, so that when the spider appeared again there was a lot more commotion about it.

"Spider!" someone screeched in the pitch-black cabin, effectively waking up all of their siblings. It was never really clear who it was that raised the alarm, which was probably a good thing – the rest of the camp would doubtless want to kill them for interrupting their sleep. And in a camp where weapons were a dime a dozen, it wouldn't be too hard, either.

Understandably, the cry raised much commotion, and definitely more than it would have if the spider had appeared in any other cabin. Then again, there was really no cabin a spider would appear in but Athena's.

Someone flicked the lights on, revealing the chaotic scene before them. Everyone had scrambled out from under their covers at once, as if afraid there were more bugs crawling in their sheets. A few people had hopped out of bed all together and were standing in the middle of the floor on their toes, frantically searching for the offending pest. As if any of them would have the guts to step on it if it came near.

"Enough!" Annabeth shouted, though she too was standing on her bed holding a pillow like a weapon. It was easier to talk steadily when you were bossing someone around, though, "It's gone now. Everyone go back to sleep. Just because tomorrow's Halloween doesn't mean we don't have things to get done."

Despite the fact that she was no longer a year-round camper, her cabin mates obeyed, climbing back into bed. The lights flicked off again, and silence fell in the cabin – but even then, no one slept much that night.

The next morning she met up with Percy on the way to breakfast, dragging her feet. She estimated that she'd slept for less than three hours last night – and that was all added up together. The longest she'd slept at a stretch was probably forty minutes.

"Are you okay?" Percy asked, peering at the dark circles under her eyes.

"Someone saw a spider," Annabeth yawned, "No big deal."

"Was it the same one?" he continued.

Annabeth shrugged her shoulders, "Who knows? It was dark, and it hid when we turned the lights on."

"Weird," Percy commented. Annabeth gave him a strange look, "Because they usually stick around to freak you guys out, right?" he explained.

"I guess," she answered, giving another small shrug. She was honestly too tired to contemplate this.

"Well, maybe after breakfast we can go spider hunting," Percy said, nudging her in the ribs. She grinned and pushed him playfully.

"You're not allowed in there," she scolded.

"I'm... aiding in extermination," he said seriously, causing her to laugh again, "No, we'll get Grover to play it a song and then we'll... well, he won't want to kill it. We'll dump it in the woods."

"We'll see," Annabeth responded. The thought of actually picking a spider up, even in a container, and carrying it somewhere made her skin crawl.

The children of Athena were practically dozing off over their breakfasts, but they were certainly woken up when something scurried under the feet of everyone on the left side of the table. Even after so many years of being targeted by every spider in the vicinity, they were not used to it, and the previous night had left them wired. There was much shrieking and a few instances of falling backwards from the table, this time in the sight of everyone at camp. The Hermes cabin found this particularly amusing; their laughter almost drowned out the racket the Athena kids were making.

Annabeth huffed, as if personally offended by this undignified display, even though she too had scrambled away from the table. Everyone seemed to have lost their appetites and were now getting up to resume their daily routines. Perhaps watching the spectacle was sustenance enough for the morning.

"That spider really needs to go," Percy said, putting a comforting arm around her. Annabeth nodded her head in agreement, although her arms were still crossed defensively. She couldn't agree more.

Annabeth felt dead on her feet for the rest of the day, but she was still jumpy and couldn't stop looking around for that damn spider whenever she went somewhere new. From the rock wall to the arena and back to the cabin, she couldn't help but feel like that thing was going to pop up and jump on her.

After beating her for the fourth time in sparring practice, Percy capped Riptide and walked over to her, apparently completely unconcerned that she was still holding her knife. She blinked, as if surprised that he had gotten over there so quickly (she must have been really tired), then sheathed her weapon and leaned forward onto his shoulder, shutting her eyes. He put his arm around her again.

"Come on, it's vacation," he said after a moment, apparently realizing more quickly than her that they were in the way of other people's practicing, "We don't need to be doing this."

"We always need to be doing this," Annabeth grumbled, but Percy shook his head and began to lead her out of the arena. She could have easily resisted, but she didn't. Three hours of sleep didn't leave you much energy to fight your boyfriend.

They ended up in the strawberry fields. It was a place they seldom went, since you weren't really supposed to be there and satyrs didn't really like you trampling on their plants, but it was deserted today.

"I'd like to see that spider find us all the way out here," Percy said, sounding extremely satisfied with himself.

"Maybe it's off terrorizing other children of Athena," Annabeth quipped, leaning on him again.

"Let's hope so," Percy replied.

Indeed, the spider seemed to have grown bored with Annabeth and left them alone all afternoon. Or perhaps it was just trying to lure them into a false sense of security. Either way, everyone felt much better by the time the campfire rolled around. And surely, thought Annabeth, a spider would avoid fire at all costs.

Much to everyone's surprise, Nico di Angelo paid them all a visit, although he mostly lurked in the shadows and tried not to draw attention to himself. Someone commented that it was appropriate for the creepiest demigod to show up to the Halloween camp fire. Percy and Annabeth were sure to shoot them dirty looks periodically.

Even though the Greeks didn't really recognize Halloween, most of the kids were familiar with the concept and had participated in some Western ritual for it before. Tonight they enjoyed singing improvised Halloween versions of all of their favorite songs – lyrics people came up with were quite hilarious – and some of the more creative campers offered to tell scary stories.

"The steps creaked under his feet as he climbed up to the attic – "

"Spider!"

"Oh, not again!"

But it was. The spider, bigger than any Annabeth had encountered and looking extra spooky in the flickering firelight, had scurried out from a log and to their side of the camp fire. With a small gasp, Annabeth lifted her feet up from the ground and tucked them underneath her.

"Someone just kill the stupid thing!" shouted an exasperated sounding daughter of Aphrodite.

"No argument there," muttered Percy, standing up.

"You know," said Nico, interrupting Percy mid-step, "Some people say that when you see a spider on Halloween, it's really the ghost of a loved one coming to visit you."

In the firelight Annabeth could see that same daughter of Aphrodite rolling her eyes. One of her brothers muttered, "He would know that."

"Is it true?" Percy asked, putting his foot down without stepping on the spider, which had come to a halt and was waving its legs around menacingly again.

"Nope," Nico responded, and before Percy could do anything more, he stepped on it himself. The campers had all fallen silent, and the crunch was audible all around the fire.

"Eww!" shrieked the daughter of Aphrodite.

But it wasn't the shell of a living spider that had made the noise – when Nico lifted his foot up, what remained under it was a small pile of tiny gears and bolts, on top of which were some pieces of cracked casing.

"It wasn't real?" Annabeth demanded, jumping up herself now that the threat was gone, "No wonder it's just been scurrying around all day."

The Hermes cabin was snickering by now, but it was a group of Hephaestus campers who looked truly pleased with themselves. Annabeth inhaled, preparing for a thorough scolding, but Percy interrupted her before she could even begin.

"Hey – a little Halloween fun never hurt anybody," he said lightly.

"Oh, no – except for the people who fell off of beds, and the people who tripped in the dark, and the people who couldn't focus because they didn't sleep, and – "

But before she could go on, he leaned forward and silenced her with a kiss, right there in front of everyone. There were a few whistles from the surrounding campers, and everyone now seemed quite distracted from the spider situation.

Okay, thought Annabeth grudgingly, a little Halloween fun never hurt anyone.