House of Cards.

vi. Red Team's Loss (And Sea God's Son)

And Genna's cabin was — despite being a hodgepodge of all sorts of minor gods' children — not very strong. They were pretty fractured with so many inhabitants, and so many newbies on top of that. But Luke was one of the greatest swordsmen in a long, long time. And he was good at rallying his cabin together, which would be one of the few times Cabin Eleven might just be united in a common goal — pummeling the Ares Cabin into the ground. (Cabin Five made a lot of enemies; that helped with the rallying and unifying, too, of course.) But Genna knew her brother — Luke didn't agree to anything without a bribe, and a bribe that helped him in some way, not just his cabin. He wanted to be the one to win the flag, he wanted to be the one to take the Ares flag over the boundary line, and Annabeth had promised him that — and if Genna knew her brother and Annabeth, that was the reason why he agreed so easily to fight with Cabin Six.

Genna was only pulled in because of a passing suggestion — only a joke, really — she made to Annabeth. She knew it wounded Annabeth's pride to let Luke be the one to take the flag, so she joked that they offered Percy up as bait. But Annabeth didn't take it as a joke. She formed a whole plan — that would probably work — around a tasteless joke that Genna made. But it made sense. Annabeth wanted glory for her cabin too, and if she let Luke take the flag, then only Cabin Eleven — Luke, really — would get the glory for the win. If this plan worked, then Annabeth could claim she was the one who made it work; she would get the glory for such a foolproof, perfect plan. (But Genna would tell everyone it was originally her idea, if the plan worked, that is.)

After what happened in the camp bathrooms, Clarisse had it out for Percy. She couldn't wait to get back at him, and she was surely looking for the perfect opportunity to. So all Annabeth had to do was give Clarisse that perfect opportunity — have Percy alone during the game, "guarding" the border. They all knew Clarisse would take the chance — everyone knew she wouldn't be able to resist the chance to humiliate the boy who humiliated her. So, Annabeth had Luke agree to put Percy on border patrol — alone, at that. And Clarisse would be drawn out to try and pulverize him — her words, not Genna's — and that would give Luke the perfect opening to grab the flag and go. And if everything worked perfectly, then Luke would get the flag, take it to the blue team's side, and they would be able to get to Percy before Clarisse could truly pulverize him.

(And if things don't go to plan, and Percy gets pulverized, Genna isn't claiming the plan. She'll lie and say the plan was entirely Annabeth's idea, and that she had no part in it.)

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. "Heroes!" he called, his voice ringing through the dining pavilion. "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. Genna grappled with Cecil to make sure she got the better shield between them. (She deserved it, she was the older one.)

"Snooze you lose, Cecil." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"That shield was in my hands!" He lunged for it, but Genna managed to dance out of his way as she grabbed a helmet. Cecil grabbed his hands on the rim of the shield, using his spindly fingers to latch on. They had some sort of odd tug-of-war until Luke rapped his knuckles against the rounded top of the shield.