Day 1 – Afternoon

Hazel tapped her chin, ‘Decorations, decorations. Where do we get decorations?’

She and Jason stood in the center of the cabins area, hopelessly searching for something – anything – to provide them the slightest spark of inspiration. So far, a few sweaty Ares kids fighting over a basketball, a group of giggling Aphrodite girls and an a satyr chasing a much faster wood nymph hadn’t cut it.

‘In New York?’ Jason suggested.

Hazel shook her head, ‘We can’t leave camp. That’d make the Mercury cabin think that they could too.’

‘Hermes,’ Jason corrected instinctively.

‘I wish I knew where we could get spider webs and other Halloween stuff,’ Hazel sighed, resting her cheek against her hand.

Jason shrugged,, ‘Maybe we just have to make them. Feeling creative?’

‘Not particularly.’

‘Good. So am I. Now let’s go find something.’

Jason set off across the cabins area, Hazel jogging to catch up. Both kept their eyes peeled for anything they could use to decorate the Mess Hall in spooky ornaments.

‘What about,’ Hazel began slowly, ‘we see Leo? I’m sure he’ll have something in Bunker 9. I mean, that place is absolutely endless.’

‘And we can check up on Frank’s end while we’re there,’ Jason agreed. ‘Good idea. Let’s go.’

Frank stared at the piece of paper. The piece of paper stared back at him. Resisting the urge to transform into a bear and rip it to shreds, Frank tapped his pencil against the wooden desk and sighed, frustrated.

‘How’re the posters coming, mi amigo?’ Leo asked cheerfully as he walked in, arms piled high with all sorts of scraps which he dumped on a bench across the room.

‘They’re aren’t,’ Frank complained miserably. ‘Why was I made to do this?’

‘What are you stuck on?’ Calypso wondered, waltzing into the room with an armful of cloth.

Frank groaned, ‘Everything.’

‘Come on, it can’t be that bad, I’ll help,’ she offered.

Leo stiffened. Frank saw him and chuckled.

‘Aw, is Repair Boy a little jealous?’ Calypso laughed.

Leo sulked, ‘I'm not. And where did you hear that name?’

Calypso winked, ‘Your friend Piper is very informative.’

Leo grumbled, grabbing what he needed and leaving the room, ‘Whatever. Just help Mr Chinese Canadian Baby Man.’

Frank scowled, ‘I'm going to kill Percy when I see him next.’

‘Now, now,’ Calypso said, diffusing the situations with just her sweet voice. ‘Let’s focus on one task at a time. What are you thinking on the designs?’

‘Well,’ Frank started, ‘scary, obviously. For Halloween. Maybe skeletons, spider webs, a ghost. Maybe a vampire?’

‘Hmm,’ Calypso tapped her chin. ‘I’m not very knowledgeable about these things, and I don’t know much about Halloween. Leo’s tried telling me, but it is very confusing. But what about-’

‘Leo!’ Hazel called, waving him over as they jogged through the open door of Bunker 9.

‘Hazel, Jason,’ Leo acknowledged, his grease stained face making his grin that much more creepy.

Jason grimaced, ‘Need your help, man. We don’t have a clue what to do for the decorations.’

Leo wiped his hands off on an already filthy towel, doing nothing to clean his hands but dirtying them further. He strode over with a thoughtful look on his face, the kind of expression that would let even the dumbest of people know to take a very large step back and be prepared to dive behind cover.

‘Well, I’m not so good with pretty things,’ he admitted. ‘I just make them functional. But I’m happy to let you use anything you find. As long as it’s not part of a project.’

‘Thanks, man,’ Jason clapped him on the shoulder.

As he and Hazel wandered off into the maze of rooms and constructions, Leo called after them, ‘Don’t take anything before you ask me! If you touch the wrong thing, it might explode!’

‘Wasn’t planning on it!’ Jason shouted back.

Hazel peeked into the rooms as she passed, but all of them seemed so full of junk it was impossible to tell what could be useful, what was part of a machine and what she didn’t even want to know about.

‘Hazel!’ Jason beckoned her over from the other side of the hall. ‘Frank’s in here.’

Hazel was by the door in a few short steps and peering inside. Frank sat at a desk against the opposite wall, Calypso leaning over him as they worked on a poster design.

‘Hey, Hazel,’ Frank’s expression soften as soon as she entered the room, her presence visibly relaxing him.

‘How’s it going?’ she asked gently.

‘Not too bad, Frank answered honestly. ‘I was stuck for a while, but Calypso helped me figure it out.’

‘What are you two here for?’ Calypso asked.

‘Looking for something useful to use as decorations,’ Jason replied. ‘Maybe cobwebs. Or pumpkin lanterns.’

Calypso brightened, ‘I can help you with that!’

‘You can?’ Hazel exclaimed with excitement.

The immortal gardener girl nodded, ‘I have some cotton that would look like a spider web if it was stretched out. And as for the lanterns, I recently learnt how to make Chinese lanterns.’

‘Always Chinese,’ Frank mumbled under his breath.

‘I can teach you,’ Calypso offered. ‘You could make them look like pumpkins to hang up.’

‘And we could put pumpkin carvings on the tables,’ Hazel suggested. ‘With candles inside.’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ Jason agreed. ‘Thanks, Calypso.’

She laughed, ‘Happy to help. This will be my first party.’

‘You’ll have to go see Piper in the Aphrodite cabin for a costume,’ Hazel told her.

Calypso waved it off, ‘Annabeth said that the girls were going in the morning before Halloween, and the boys that afternoon.

Frank sighed, ‘Thinks of everything, that girl.’

‘And yet,’ Jason started, ‘where would we all be without her?’

Hazel shrugged, ‘Probably dead.’

Frank waved his pencil at her, ‘Right you are Miss Levesque. Right you are.’