Chapter 13, Rose's POV, The Curse

Despite being soaking wet, Conner and Travis went on their usual counsellor duties without complaint. They weren't the kind of people to let others know when they were uncomfortable, (you know, unless they were saying what everyone else was thinking).

They lead everyone to all the events, and tried very-hard-but-not-hard-at-all to help me find my parentage at each event. They even managed to train me...a little. What could I say; I wasn't good at much of anything, beside Archery. I was, however, doing well with the ancient Greek lessons. My teacher had once said that me and my sister were girls of many tongues.

Whenever I could, I managed to see that Conner and Travis were still sopping wet, and trying their hardest to get dry. Then, whenever they caught anyone looking they went back to acting normal. It boggled everyone how they managed to stay wet all this time, probably even them.

The fact that they were still wet scared me a little. Whatever sicko splashed them with that magic sticky water was on the loose, and he might get me next. Funny thing was, where in the world would he have even found the magic sticky water?

At the end of the day, I started to feel like it was my fault. I didn't know why I would feel that, considering I didn't splash them, in fact they splashed me! If anyone should feel bad it should be them; but I knew the stools, they hardly felt bad about anything (you know, unless someone dies). Yet I still felt guilty.

I thought what I was feeling was silly, so I went to bed pushing the thought away. That night, I had the same dream as the night before. Amanda was being chased by monsters, except in this dream, she looked a lot more tired and beat up, and she had fewer weapons. I could feel myself frown, and tried to change the dream to something better, remembering that demigods could do that, but it didn't work.

Either I was no good at dream changing, or this was real and I was only observing. I wanted to think it was the first reason, because this couldn't be real! It was exactly as I feared! Deep down, I knew it was real. Demigods usually can change their dreams before they even know they are demigods. I willed myself to stop myself from following her, and watched as she-and the monsters chasing her-passed me and kept running. My dream-self looked to the sky, and shouted, "Why are you showing me this!?"

Then I woke up, sweating and heart beating fast. Weird, I wasn't the one being chased. Must be a twin thing, I thought, and went on with my day. When I noticed that the magic water on Travis and Conner hadn't worn off yet, my guilt returned.

I tried to prove it to myself that I was innocent, by going over what happened that day. Travis and Conner snuck into my side of my cabin and splashed water on me, I woke up, really mad, muttered a silly comeback at them, then I dried off, and they were splashed on their side of the cabin. No blame there. So I tried to go on with my day.

I went to sword-fighting lessons, and was totally clobbered. In my defense, the swords were pretty heavy. On the plus side, I didn't come in dead last; that would be tied up with the Stoll brothers, whose swords kept slipping out of their hands.

I never did too well at the physical challenges, just like back at school. Luckily, I was able to find solace at the intellectual activities, also like at school. In fact, this ending up a lot like school. If it did, I was afraid I was going to have a worse time here than there. These were demigods, everything was at an extreme.

During arts and crafts, I overheard some of the other campers talking about the event I was trying to forget. "Did you see the Stolls?"

"Finally got what was coming to them."

"Wonder who was brave enough or cruel enough to curse them?"

As I tuned them out, that got me thinking. Cursed? Were they really? Who would've cursed them? Again, I told myself it couldn't be me. Remember, they splashed me, I woke up, muttered something, then...they...got...splashed. What did I mutter again? Something about me being rubber and them being glue.

Did I curse them? How is that even possible? I was stuttering, and it wasn't in Greek or Latin, and I didn't even think it was a curse. I mean, back at school I heard kids say it to each other all the time. I didn't even do it on purpose. It was an accident. I mean, the Stolls are cool guys, not curse worthy, even if I was mad at them.

I worked the rest of the day, working on ways to remove the curse. I figured that it would wear off, but after a few hours I got tired of waiting, I couldn't stand to see them suffer (ok, it was a little funny). I tried saying the curse backwards,

"How did it go? Um... you...to...sticks...to...wait, no um...and...Me...Off...bounces...me, ugh, no. Do I have to start over?"

So I gave up on that. Instead, I tried saying something like an anti-curse.

"The rubber hardened, the glue dried, so now kiss the curse goodbye. Maybe, I need to be more specific. 'The rubber hardened, the glue dried, so now kiss the Stolls curse goodbye.' Maybe I need to be more specific. 'The rubber hardened, the glue dried, so now the Stolls curse is compromised.' Maybe I got it backwards. 'the glue hardened, the rubber dried..." wait, that makes no sense."

So that didn't work. It got to the point where I was just yelling.

"REVERSE, YOU STUPID CURSE! When I said the curse, I WAS SPEAKING METAPHORICALLY, NOT LITERALLY!"

So then I just gave up and went back to square one: waiting it out. I went to bed that night feeling defeated. That night I had the same dream, where Amanda was being chased by monsters. Instead of feeling sad however, I just got angry. I looked to the sky and shouted, "DO YOU HAVE TO RUB IT IN! I KNOW I CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO HELP ANYONE!" Then I dropped to my knees, and awoke that morning crying.

That morning at breakfast, I made an offering to the gods (my parent, namely) to help Amanda on her way. It was the best I could do, considering I was pretty useless. "Maybe I'm an Aphrodite kid," I said mocking Travis and Conner, "Since I can't do anything." Then as I was praying for that not to be true, I thought of something. Aphrodite...that's when I came up with a plan; if I couldn't reverse the curse on the Stolls, I could at least change it.

Step one: wait until free time. Step two, head towards Aphrodite cabin. Step three, arrive at Aphrodite cabin. Step four, enter Aphrodite cabin. I was glad I wasn't in Harry Potter where each different sector required a password. When I entered I discovered that fortunately-and-unfortunately-for-me, there were people inside. Time for step five A, negotiate.

"Hi." I said, good enough start.

"What are you doing here?" they asked, "Here to spy on us."

I ignored their comment and continued on with the plan.

"As you might, or maybe not, know, the Stolls pranked me this morning..." I fibbed about the time.

"So?" the retorted, but I ignored them.

"...They tossed a bucket of water on me, and I was wondering..."

"Why should we care?" they said. I rolled my eyes and let out a groan. These people reminded me of the popular kids at my school way too much. I tried to think air head.

"They messed up my hair!" I whined. They all let out a gasp.

"Yeah, so I was wondering if I could borrow a hair dryer-" I was interrupted by several hairdryers being shoved forward.

"I'll just take these two," I said grabbing two, "I'll give them right back." I said as I left.

I ran across the grounds trying to complete step six, find the Stolls. I eventually did find them, walking across the grounds, still soaked. I ran over to them.

"Hey guys," I said,

"Hey," they looked at the hairdryers, "What's with those?"

"Just stole them from the Aphrodite cabin." I told them frantically,

"Hey, maybe you're a Hermes kid."

"Yeah, anyways, I'm giving these to you two, because I trust you two completely. Plus, I don't want any hot air to be blown on me, because, you know, it's hot out."

I turned to go, before turning back and saying. "Remember, I don't want hot air blown on me, really hot out." I walked away as slow as I possibly could, and my plan went into action. The hot air blown on me bounced off and went onto the Stolls. I turned around to see the hot air blowing in their face.

"What the-?" they said at their new state, "We're dry."

"And hot." I finished, (And I didn't mean attractive, although the wind blowing in their faces made them look like models ready for a photo op.) "I'll take those back, now that my plan worked."

"Hey, maybe you're an Athena kid."

"Give it a rest guys, I know you're not really trying." I said as I ran off to return the hairdryers to the Aphrodite cabin.

That's it for now, sorry for the delay, just hard to think of what to say. Hey, who do you think her parent is? Leave your answer in the comments.