warrior ( RACHEL ELIZABETH DARE. )

xii. BIRTHDAY

   "Sherman, you're going to be the main rower. You're the strongest and I know you could hold up well if there's any disturbances in the water." Ingrid said and Sherman nodded.

   "Travis, you'll play offense. Any tricks up your sleeve, I want you to throw them right towards Casey. And I'm sure that you have literal tricks in there."

   "Obviously." Travis said with a grin.

   "I'll be the defense. If we happen to get close to them, I'll be the one who fights, got it?" Ingrid said and the boys opposite of her nodded. "Alright, let's get ready in the boat."

   The three loaded into their boat, Ingrid making sure her machete was strapped to her side. Sherman was stretching out his arms, ensuring that he'll have enough strength to win the race. Travis was taking account of everything in his side pack, surely filled with tricks to sidetrack the other team. With her team on lock, Ingrid glanced over at Casey's team, who was seemingly doing the same thing.

   It seemed like Casey was going to be the rower, with Clarisse and Piper hovering on each end of their canoe. Piper smiled at Ingrid, in which Ingrid just gave a small nod back. Knowing Casey, he surely had a plan including the girl, and Ingrid didn't want to succumb to it.

   Before she knew it, Chiron was calling for the race to begin. Annabeth and him took their places at the starting spot, and with the stomp of his hoove 3 times, the annual canoe race began.

   Sherman got the head start, pushing off the shore quickly and efficiently. Right off the bat, Travis threw an expanding net in front of the other boat, in which it caught onto one of Casey's oars in the process. While Piper quickly slashed it away with her sword, it still gave Ingrid's team the great start she was hoping for.

But the race didn't stop there. With a fire igniting his determination, Casey steered his canoe as close as possible to Ingrid's, leaving them neck and neck in the middle of the lake. Clarisse was his designated defense, meaning she would be up against what seemed to be Ingrid.

Clarisse immediately jabbed her spear toward Ingrid in attempt to make her lose balance, but Ingrid was steady. She swerved away, and slashed her machete towards Clarisse, who did the same. Their weapons clashed against each other, both in a battle of strengths to see who would falter. Ingrid did, but quickly recovered by swiping at Clarisse's arm, who winced and dropped her spear. Clarisse's now free hand flew to her injury, and picked up her spear with her other hand. With the advantage, Travis threw sticky tack at the hand on her shoulder, in which Clarisse yelled out a curse.

Piper stood idly at the side, wracking her brain for something that would help out her team. She began talking in hopes that something would affect the other team and give them the lead.

"Why don't I know you Travis? You are sooo different than your brother. How does he have girls after him and not you? You're clearly the better brother. You have such a great bag of tricks! Do you think I could get a look?" She said, her charmspeak kicking in.

Travis began to take his side pack off of his belt, but Sherman caught on and stopped him. He smacked one of his oars toward the other boy, who luckily got him out of his trance before he could hand over the pack to Piper. But that also made half of its contents fall into the lake.

"Sherman, what the hell?" Travis yelled, quickly snapping his side pack shut before anything else could fall out.

"Dude what you mean? You almost gave it all over!" Sherman said, continuing to row, this time shifting farther away from Casey's boat.