Chapter 14, Rose's POV, Capture the Flag,

I spent the rest of the day trying to train myself to be a better fighter. It was capture the flag that night, and I didn't want to get creamed. At my mortal school, we played no contact capture the flag, and I was pretty bad at that. I kept getting captured, or cornered in the safe zone. This was fully fledged fighting, and I wasn't a fighter.

During sword fighting lessons, I tried to perfect my skills with a sword. It wasn't very easy though. No matter how hard I tried, the sword kept feeling like one of my Dad's 25 pound weights on a metal pole. Whenever the instructor came at me all I could do was jab at him.

It reminded me of the time me and my sister played Wii fencing, and I would always swing my remote around wildly hitting everything in sight. My sister would always get mad at me and tell me that 'it wasn't proper technique' or 'I wouldn't learn anything that way' while I always wrote it off as her being jealous that I won. Now, learning how to sword fight, I believed her.

Archery, however, was easy enough to learn. All I had to do was build up my drawstring muscles and I was set. The bow was light weight in my hand, it shaped naturally to my fingers, and the arrows seemed to follow my every command.

I had always had a secret admiration for Archery (and not because of the hunger games). It came right after my admiration for horses and before my admiration for foxes. I always felt like a native using a bow. Quiet and swift, one with nature, a true warrior. It was my favorite thing to do on the Wii. I had asked my parents for Archery lessons, but we never could afford it.

That night at dinner, I tried mulling over some of the Stolls suggestions for Godly parents in my head, seeing which abilities would help me in the game. Considering they threw out the ideas willy-nilly I wasn't sure how much the ideas would help me. On the first day they said how I might be an Apollo kid. It was a possibility, I mean; I pretty good with a bow and arrow, me and my sister are pretty artsy, I did okay with that CPR class, and my sister constantly told me how she had ESP. My mom also fit as a suitor to Apollo, it could totally work!

Then, the Stolls said Hephaestus, which was laughable since I couldn't build something to save my life. They then said Hermes, which might work since I don't seem to be good at much of anything, and my sister and I have on some occasion been persuasive. Then they said Athena. Me and my sister were pretty brainy, and good planners (my sister was annoyed with my over planning sometimes). Plus, my dad was brainy and a planner, so it could work as well.

I was pretty much stumped. I couldn't think of any special abilities-besides Archery- that I could use. I might as well do whatever they told me to do tonight and pray I wouldn't get beat up too much.

That night at dinner, I pushed around my dinner half-heartedly. Tonight they were serving Pizza and wings, some of my favorites. I had sacrificed my wings, but couldn't bring myself to eat. Easy to say that I was hopelessly doomed, and therefore the pizza tasted like cardboard.

I was going to die tonight, and no one was going to miss me. My sister had abandoned me, my parents didn't know where I was, and the only friend I had made here was Greg! They would probably be happy if I died. They might even throw a party. Ding, dong, the spy is dead-the wicked spy, the wicked spy—ding, dong, the wicked spy is dead!

My imagination is cruel sometimes. I imagined a bunch of campers coming after me in the woods. I'd run away fearing for my life, until I run into a monster. It would be an absolutely horrible monster, a terrifying creature, and none of my fellow campers would help me fight the monster. Oh no, they'd be egging the creature on, chanting, eat her! Eat her! Eat her! Then after a vicious GULP, some cheering, and some dust flying we'd get to the munchkin song.

I shuddered; surely that wouldn't happen, would it? The camper next to me asked, "Are you going to finish that?" I sighed,

"No." I answered, before throwing it in the fire as another offering. Please, I prayed, don't let me die tonight. While everyone else was excited I was shaking in my boots, or shoes. I mind numbingly followed the crowd and strapped on my armor without realizing what was happening. If I did, I might have left.

I had to keep chanting to myself, "They're not going to kill me; they're too desperate for people. They're not going to kill me, they're not like that."

Unfortunately, Apollo's cabin got dibs on the bows and Arrows, and there were none left by the time I got mine. That left me getting a sword. I hoped for a light weight sword, but any weight sword was heavy weight. I played on Hermes team, of course. Plus, also on our team was Hephaestus, Apollo, and Poseidon. Meaning, Percy and the Stolls; Percy meant distraction, Stolls meant revenge.

Of course, the Stolls should've been grateful. Thanks to me they'll never be cold, at least until the curse wears off. Of course, it was summer, so was that necessarily a good thing?

The Hephaestus cabin gave the orders. Apollo cabin would have defence, meanwhile Percy and Beckendorf would be scouting ahead for the flag. Hermes cabin had the job of running right at them as a distraction. Great, I thought, I'm terrific at getting captured. Of course, maybe that wasn't so bad. That would mean I would be out of the action. Considering that by all the signs this would be the night of the Bronze dragon quest that might be a good thing.

As I slumped dragging my sword behind me to the border to start the game, I felt a presence following me. I turned to see...Percy?! Oh no... I didn't want to run because that meant he would chase me, but I didn't want to stay here either, because that meant I would be altering the effects of history. I just stared at him as he approached me, mimicking a deer in the headlights. I didn't want Percy to hate me too.

He came up to me and I started to shake again.

"Hey," he said, and I squeaked in reply.

"Listen, I know everyone is being hard on you, but you should know your going to be fine."

"Thanks..." I murmured,

"I think you'll be great tonight, and maybe-"

"Listen Percy," I said interrupting him; I needed to stop this conversation before history was permanently altered. "You don't need to reassure me. Who knows, tonight might be unexpected for the both of us."

"Huh?" he said, and then I realized I said too much.

"Umm... See you later!" and I ran over to start the game.

"Wait!" he called, but he couldn't follow, the game was about to start.

I tried to stay to the right side of the middle, because I knew Percy and Beckendorf would be taking the left side. I ran alongside the other Hermes cabin members, although my sword made me go kind of slow. I eventually had to drag it.

Running along the right side, I was caught rather quickly. Some Ares kids cornered me along the path I was running. They didn't do anything at first, because they were too busy laughing at me. "Look at her!" they shouted, "She can't even pick up a sword, and she's supposed to be a spy!" They then started to advance on me. In desperation, I ditched my sword and ran.

I was very good at sprinting. I was fast, for five seconds. Unfortunately, I wasn't very athletic, so my burst of energy ran out quickly. So, when I thought I actually had a chance of making it, they caught me. Without my weapon-or with it really- I was helpless. So, they marched me off to the jail.

Predictably so, no one came to free me from the jail. Whenever we played this in school no one ever came to free me. No one, that is, except my sister, but she was somewhere in Canada right now. So, I spent most of the game sitting around doing nothing. Fine by me, I wasn't very good at this game. I'd rather sit around than get tackled.

I thought I could talk to some naiads, maybe make some friends. Unfortunately, they didn't want to talk to me either. Apparently a spy might destroy their home. At this point, I was about ready to destroy their home! No one here was being very nice to me, except for Greg, and Percy and the Stolls tried to be nice to me, but I could tell they didn't trust me either.

Sometime into the game, Annabeth and Silena marched Percy and Beckendorf into the jail. I could hear their fight with the dragon, and Percy's bickering from farther off, but decided to stay quiet. As soon as the boys were in the jail, Annabeth said, "See you at the Fireworks." And winked at Percy, and-after giving me a nervous look-ran into the woods. In books and on the internet, their relationship was cute, but seeing it in front of me just made me jealous.

Percy turned to Beckendorf, "Did she...just ask me out?" he asked,

Beckendorf shrugged and gave a disgusted look, "Who knows with girls? Give me a haywire dragon anyday."

So they say down. I stayed quiet and hoped they didn't notice me. Unfortunately, with ADHD, your eyes tend to wander. Percy saw me.

"How long have you been here?" he asked,

"Half an hour, forty five minutes maybe." I told him

He looked to see I was weaponless, "What happened to your sword?"

"I ditched it."

"Oh?"

"It was slowing me down." I scowled at him, he seemed to be able to tell that I didn't like being locked up. The look on his face told me he wanted to talk to me about the way I knew things, but later when we were alone.

I was never going to give him that chance.

Ooh! Percy is suspicious! What's going to happen? Will Percy find out the truth? Stay tuned. P.S Do any of you have any guess to who these guys' parent is?