2008, North Carolina, Some Random Forest (Thalia Hates Being Like Seven Years Out Of Date)

Thalia couldn't believe it. Her High and Mightyness Princess Nightshade only brought one tent. Obviously either Grover and Percy would have to sleep outside while the girls (including her, ughh) were cosy in the tent, or she could use…

Screw it, she thought to herself

"Hey guys." she called out to the groups walking in front of her.

That grabbed their attention, but despite walking in front of everyone, neither Zoe or Bianca turned around. She was really beginning to actually hate the Hunters. Thalia was 'taking the rear guard', Percy and Grover were in the centre, and Zoe and Bianca led the way. Zoe probably wanted to be as far away from her as possible. Which she was fine with, thank you very much, but that didn't mean Zoe could ignore her like that.

Percy and Grover turned around. Well Grover turned his head and carried on moving but Percy just stopped dead right there.

How the hell is he not dead yet, NEVER stop in enemy territory like that?!

Thalia shook her head, this wasn't the time to get annoyed at the lack of survival skills of a stupid Kelp-Head. Grover noticed after a few steps that Percy wasn't walking by his side, and stopped. Bianca and Zoe were oblivious. Thalia was still walking and motioned both of them to carry on walking when she got to them.

""hen we set up camp. I've got our tent." Percy looked relieved at that but Grover squawked

"B-but ...you-err." The satyr couldn't say any more, just turned red and waved his hands vaguely at Thalia. She knew what he meant, and after a second, so did Percy, going from nodding to actually flinching away. Thalia resisted smirking – all boys were the same really, monsters, ehh easy, but put anything remotely girly in front of them, and suddenly they turned into babies.

"Er-yeah Thalia, maybe it'll be fine with me and G-man. Camper solidarity is cool and all but-"

That was it, Thalia finally had enough of his stupid macho bull.

"Trust me Kelp Head, this tent is big enough for three at least." Looking directly at him, Grover eventually caught on to what her plan was when he saw the girl's face, but Thalia carried on. "Hey Grover, keep this a secret until we set up camp, I want to see the look on Zoe's face."

Ignoring Percy's complaints and pleading to Grover to tell him the secret, Thalia jogged forward to at least keep the Hunters in sight. Two thousand years or however long she lived, Thalia bet that Zoe hadn't seen anything like one of Harry's tents before.

"Here makes for a pleasant camp-ground." Zoe declared once they reached a secluded patch of trees in the middle of nowhere. Thalia had no idea what made it so pleasant, it could have been that the great Princess Nightshade was getting tired and wanted a nap. That was probably it.

Bianca, taking to the life of a Huntress surprisingly well, began immediately unpacking their tent and setting it up. Percy groaned and slumped on the floor, Grover looked like he wanted to join in, but his lovesick satyr-ness stopped him. Thalia didn't curl up out of habit – her best friends weren't with her, and she hadn't set up camp, of course she couldn't let herself relax just yet. Four years of being on the run instilled some survival instincts in her.

"Hey Kelp-head, Grover, I'll need your help setting up our tent." Ha, now that made Nightshade look over at them. That may have been her confused face, or maybe she just smelt some manure. Whatever it was, Thalia was going to remember that sight for a while from Miss-I-Don't-Get-Surprised.

"What is this foolishness, thy sleeping quarters are being set up in our tent Grace, there is little need to trouble thyself with a boy. " The way she looked at Percy then, well Thalia was almost glad Zoe wasn't a daughter of Zeus, otherwise there would have been only four on the quest.

"Wai- what?!" Percy just realised what Zoe had said, and looked like he was getting ready to do something stupid. Again .

" Percy ." Thalia called out like she was talking to a badly behaved dog. Well she may as well try and keep the group imploding from ego. She sympathised slightly with her dad on this, and tried to explain "Our original quest was four girls and Grover, and satyrs are more comfortable in the wild than anywhere else, so we only had one tent." Percy looked shocked at this. Well how did he expect four girls and a satyr to camp exactly? She wondered

"Hey, don't worry man, it's like Thalia said, I sleep better outside anyway." Grover smiled wanly at Percy's confused face. 'I usually need to take sleeping pills whenever I sleep in a bed just to grab some shut-eye.' Okay, that maybe wasn't going to help with keeping Percy calm, going by how shocked he was looking now.

Just before he could explode or something, Zoe stepped in it, again.

"She is correct, boy our initial tent was set up with four girls in mind, and no special facilities for boys like thyself. Unless thou wish me to blind thyself, there is no way thou are getting in our tent."

Grover looked worried at that, Zoe was just being smug, and while Percy visibly reigned himself in from actually exploding. Thalia was glad they weren't near the sea right now, she looked over to Bianca – huh, the silver tent was already set up, and the other Hunter was trying to get a fire going. Well good luck to her in a damp forest.

Thalia put her hand into the pouch stitched into the lining of her coat and began digging around.