Sophie could say she got a good amount of sleep.

She wasn't one of these people that no matter how hard they try only get four or five hours. People who have to take pills to sleep.

She just simply chooses not to.

Why sleep when she could be up doing something? She needs a maximum of four hours to function properly the next day. Meaning if she goes to bed at three, she wakes up at seven refreshed and full of energy.

Normally she went to bed around one. (In summer) It annoyed her any later because the light would seep in from behind the curtains, then she'd never be able to get to sleep. She hated sleeping in light, it needed to be pitch black. Or the one exception was the orange glow of a candle or fire.

Needless to say, she got a decent amount of sleep last night.

Because it was Capture the Flag day. And she needed energy if she was ready to kick some ass.

The last few days, and Percy her pretty much tried every activity. Some had gone better than others.

They started with reading ancient greek with Annabeth. And for once in his life, Percy felt like a genius when it came to reading. He couldn't read it very well, not well at all actually, but he could certainly read the greek characters better than Sophie. Well she could read them, (probably) She just kept getting distracted, Annabeth had decided to teach them at a table across camp from cabin nine, which had a small forge outside. Sophie kept getting distracted watching them use the fire to make weapons. The spears looked rather sharp. They were planning on making human kebabs.

Next was archery. Sophie was alright at it. She managed to hit the target close to the center, after a few times of Will showing her how to do it she hit the target almost every time. However, she couldn't say the same for Percy.

Only thing Percy managed to hit was Chiron's tail.

Foot-racing was not something she was excited for. She hated running, a lot. Her least favorite thing to do in gym was run laps. She was fast, but she had a small amount of stamina. In a short race, she could come maybe second. But if she had to run for a mile or something. She couldn't do that.

Percy kicked Sophie's ass in canoeing though. She thought she'd have to hear him brag about it, but even he seemed to think that canoeing was kinda not the most useful skill ever.

The two of them were sitting in a canoe together Percy was holding the ore while Sophie was watching the fishes swim by.

"Two drachmas you can't stand up." Percy said.

Sophie looked down at him skeptically "Deal."

She shakily stood up, for a moment she was standing, perfectly still, until something (cough Percy) pushed her into the water.

Sophie tried to regain her balance but failed- tumbling into the lake. She squeezed her eyes shut and waved her hands around until she grabbed the side of the boat.

When she pulled out of the water her golden hair drenched and in her face, Percy was laughing hysterically. He reached his hand out for Sophie to grab. So she did.

She pulled him in.

Percy gasped falling in as the canoe tipped over.

The two of them poked their heads out of the water staring at the tipped over canoe laughing.

"Great." Percy snickered "Now we have to tip it back over."

On Thursday, they had their first sword-fighting lesson. Sophie was excited to pick a sword, until she realized she could barely hold most of them. And any sword Percy managed to hold felt awkward and wrong in his hands. Everyone split off into pairs. Luke claimed Percy as a partner. So Sophie just stood there awkwardly, until another boy approached her. He was on tall and gangly and had an air of mischief about him.

"Hi! I'm Travis Stoll. Wanna be partners?"

"Sophie Jones. And sure."

The two lined up, facing eachother. Travis smiled knowingly at her. "You've never held a sword before, have you?"

"If those little wooden ones you use in school plays count, then yes." Sophie said.

Travis showed her how to properly hold the blade, before backing up again. "Ready?" he called, and didn't wait for a response because a second later the clang of their metal swords rang out through the air.

Sophie thought she was doing alright. She didn't really have many openings for attack, she was too busy defending. Eventually Luke called out for everyone to take a break. Sophie's opponent looked out of breath.

"You're good," Travis complimented. "We don't really know what to make of you."

"What?" Sophie asked.

"You're godly parent," another boy, who looked strikingly similar to Travis said. "We like to take bets."

"Oh." She said "Do you know who mine is?"

"Oh, Uhm. Not sure yet," the boy mumbled. "I'm Connor by the way. Travis's brother."

The three walked to the water station. "Any idea who Percy's dad is, then?" she asked.

"Few theories. Why? you wanna place a bet?" Travis said.

"I don't have anything to bet."

"No drachmas?"

Sophie shook her head.

"Why don't you bet and you can be in dept?"

Sophie thought for a moment "I don't like the idea of being in debt."

"Then just guess." Connor shrugged "No reward."

"Oizys"

Friday afternoon, Percy, Grover and Sophie were sitting by the lake.

"How'd your conversation with Mr. D go?" Sophie asked the satyr.

Grover turned a sickly shade of yellow. "Fine. Just great. He did say I hadn't necessarily failed yet. If either of you got a quest, and I went along to protect you, and we all came back alive, he said he'd maybe consider the job complete."

"Well, that's not so bad, right?" Percy said.

"It is," Grover said, sounding miserable. "He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest are...and even if you did, you wouldn't want me to come along."

"Of course we would!" Percy said, and Sophie nodded in agreement.

Grover heaved another sad sigh and Percy went to change the subject. "What's with the four empty cabins?"

"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis. She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is kinda honorary? Guess she would be mad if she just didn't have one."

"Ok. What about the other three?"

"Number two is Hera. Again, an honorary thing. And then one is Zeus. Three is Poseidon."

"What about Hades?" Sophie asked.

"Doesn't have one," Grover said. "He doesn't have a throne on Olympus either."

Sophie looked towards him "Well that's unfair. Hades is the best god."

Thunder rumbled above them.

Sophie wanted to talk about it more, but Percy interrupted with another question. "But in the myths, Zeus and Poseidon had like, a bazillion kids. So why are their cabins empty?"

Grover shifter his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. They were just too powerful. So the three of them swore on the River Styx."

Thunder boomed.

"Did they keep their word?" Sophie asked.

Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo. Zeus just couldn't help himself I guess. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia... Zeus got off easy cause he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

"But that isn't fair!" Percy said.

Grover proceeded to recount the sad story. Of this girl, named Thalia, who sacrificed herself for her friends. And how Zeus took pity on her, and turned her into the pine tree that sits atop Half-Blood Hill.

"Grover," Percy said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"

"Sometimes. Orpheus. Heracles."

"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"

"...Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"

"No," Percy lied. "Just wondering..."

Sophie knew he was lying.

At last, it was time for capture the flag.

When the plates were cleared away after dinner, the conch horn sounded and everyone stood at their tables. Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

Percy turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"

"Yeah."

"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"Not always," he said. "But often."

"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"

He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."

"Whose side are we on?" Sophie asked.

He gave them a sly look, one Sophie didn't really like on him, as if he knew something they didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you two are going to help."

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. "Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

"Whoa," Percy said. "We're really supposed to use these?"

Luke looked at him as if he were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. And this one's for you Sophie. You'll both be on border patrol."

The shields were the size of an NBA backboards and weighed about a million pounds each. Athena's team wore blue feathered helmets while Ares wore red. Sophie's helmet kept sliding down over her eyes.

Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!" Everyone cheered and shook their swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts to blue as they headed off toward the north.

Sophie and Percy managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over their equipment.

"Hey," Sophie said.

Annabeth kept marching.

"So what's the plan?" Percy asked. "Got any magic items you could loan us?"

Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid Percy had stolen something.

"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"

"Border patrol, whatever that means."

"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."

She pushed ahead, leaving the other two in the dust.

"I thought she wanted me on her team," Percy complained and Sophie just shrugged.

It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. They were stationed next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, completely seperate from the rest of the team.

It was hard not to feel stupid, standing there with their big blue-feathered helmets and huge shields. Sophie resorted to burning leaves (safely of course).

Far away, the conch horn blew. There were whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Percy was just about to suggest that they head towards the action, when he heard a low canine growl that sent a chill up his spine.

"Soph, you hear that?" Percy asked, instinctively raising his shield. Sophie nodded her head and copied Percy. But the growling had stopped.

Suddenly, on the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Seven Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.

"Cream the punks!" Clarisse screamed.

Her eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight.

The two friends jumped apart to avoid the first kid's sword swing. But instantly they were surrounded, and now sperated. Sophie heaved up her shield to block Clarisse's spear, but when it hit her shield, her whole body twitched painfully, and she fell back in surprise.

Percy heard the electric shock of Clarisse's weapon and mentally cursed. Her stupid spear was electric. He was then hit in the chest by the butt of a sword, and fell back into the dirt.

"Give 'em a haircut," Clarisse said.

Not trusting the Ares kids' barber skills, Sophie sprung to her feet. She ducked one of her incoming opponents and darted forward. She clashed her sword with another kid who had been looking Percy's way instead. The Ares kid's sword flew out of his hands and landed a few feet away.

Percy took this opportunity to get to his feet. He raised his sword to block Clarisse's spear. The two weapons hit eachother, leaving his arm tingly and numb.

"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."

"The flag is that way," Percy told her, trying to sound angry, but it didn't exactly come out that way.

"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about the guy who made our cabin look stupid."

"You do that without my help," Percy answered. He never knew when to shut up.

An Ares kid covered himself behind his shield and ran full force at Sophie, knocking her to the rocky ground. Someone kicked her in the side while she was down making her body curl up. At the same time, Clarisse struck Percy in the ribs with her spear, zapping his breastplate. Another one of her cabin mates slashed his arm, leaving a good sized cut.

"No maiming," Percy managed to say.

"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."

He pushed Percy into the creek and he landed with a splash. They all laughed. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up Percy's senses, as if he'd just had a bag of his mom's double-espresso jelly beans.

Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek, but Percy stood to meet them. He swung the flat of his sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off.

Sophie , who was still sprawled out on the ground, swung her sword out at her opponent's feet. They hopped to evade it, but she used this moment to roll under them, taking their legs out. The kid fell to the ground next to her with a grunt. She quickly got to her feet and faced another boy with a red helmet. Throwing away all caution, she took her giant shield and threw it as if it were frisbee. It hit the boy square in the chest and he stumbled back. Sophie turned to glance at Percy in the creek.

"Ah!" Clarisse screamed, after Percy just broke her spear. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"

Percy cut off her insult by smacking her between the eyes with the hilt of his sword.

Then they heard yelling, elated screams, and saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. The blue team exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. They'd won.

Sophie met Percy at the edge of the creek. "Thank god for the armor," she muttered, pointing to the singed spot of metal in the center of her chest, that came from Clarisse's electric weapon.

"Thank gods," Percy corrected.

Sophie laughed punching him on the shoulder.

"Where did you guys learn to fight like that?" Came a voice from near the tree line. The air shimmered, and Annabeth materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.

Percy narrowed his eyes. "You set us up," he said. "You put us here because you knew Clarisse would come after us, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"A plan to get us pulverized."

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but you didn't need help." She then glanced at Percy's arm. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut," Percy said. "What do you think?"

"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it now."

Percy looked. The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading.

"I—I don't get it," Percy said.

Annabeth was thinking hard. She looked down at his feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."

Percy stepped out of the water and immediately felt his adrenaline wear thin. He almost fell over, but Sophie reached out to steady him.

"Oh, Styx," Annabeth cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want...I assumed it would be Zeus..."

Before Percy could ask what she meant, the sound of a canine growl rang through the air again, but this time, much closer than before.

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek.

There, on the rocks, was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

It was looking straight at Percy.

"Percy, run!" Annabeth said.

Confirming the dog had its eyes set on Percy, Sophie stepped in front of him "Down!" She yelled. The dog just growled getting ready to jump. "Bad dog!" Sophie noticed the millisecond of hesitation. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth. Its razor sharp claws ripped through Percy's armor. Dozens of arrows were shot at the dog's neck, and it fell dead at Percy's feet.

Chiron trotted up next to Percy and Sophie, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't...they're not supposed to..."

Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

"Would you shut up!?" Sophie yelled, not looking away from Percy's shredded armor. Next to them, the body of the hellhound melted into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.

She looked over at her best friend and noticed the blood seeping slowly through his red t-shirt "Perce, your wounded." She said.

Annabeth told Percy. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."

"I'm okay."

"No your not." Sophie said.

At the same time Annabeth said, "Chiron, watch this."

Percy was too tired to argue with either of them. He stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around.

Instantly, he felt better. He could feel the cuts on his chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.

"Look, I—I don't know why," Percy said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."

But Sophie, like most, was gasping at the thing that had appeared above Percy's head. "Percy," She said, pointing above him. "Look..."

By the time he looked up, the sign was already fading, but he could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around Percy, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.

"Do I have to kneel?" Sophie whispered.

"Please don't," Percy begged.

Sophie smiled "Good, I wasn't planning on anyway."

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

Percy looked around, completely bewildered. 

GO CHECK OUT MY OTHER BOOK!!!! Hunger games x Percy Jackson (The Olympian Games)

Idk when the next update will be. Also, who liked the spaghetti monster? 🍝

Not much more to say

Blake 🫡