𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐲 ❥ 𝒸𝓁𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓈𝓈ℯ 𝓁𝒶 𝓇𝓊ℯ

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 - 𝑔𝒾𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝒹ℯ𝓂ℴ𝓃 𝓅𝒾𝑔ℯℴ𝓃𝓈

By the time chariot races rolled around, Pip had asked nearly half the camp to partner with her during the chariot races. The entire Aphrodite cabin refused and everyone else was already paired. Percy was paired with Tyson and Annabeth was with one of the other Athena kids.

Pip sat silently in the stands of the arena. She fiddled with her ring as she stared at her shoes. She never liked to admit the severe FOMO she felt all the time but it seemed to consume her at that moment. She was missing out on the only chance she had to prove herself. She almost didn't even go but she decided it might be fun to watch and even cheer on everyone else.

At first it was fun to watch them zip around the track. The look on their faces when they hit someone or when they got hit was just hilarious. But something felt wrong. She stared above the trees at the horizon. In the distance there were swarms of birds. At first, they looked like the size of normal birds but as they flew closer, Pip noticed at they were, in fact, not normal. They began swarming around the stands, diving down and pecking people in their faces. The Aphrodite kids stampeded out of the stands with their hands covering their perfect little faces. Pip laughed to herself, but deep down she couldn't just stand there and do nothing about it.

She fiddled with her ring until her fingers held onto a bronze dagger. She felt herself running into the track as the chariots came to a terrified halt. The gorgeous girl with brown curly hair jumped out of her chariot with such smoothness it was almost graceful. Her bronze sword was in her stands and she started aggressively slashing at the birds. Pip followed, slashing their red eyes, avoiding their bronze beaks. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Percy and Annabeth riding towards the Big House. Huh, she thought, they didn't seem like they would run from a fight.

Pip grabbed her head as pain shot through her body. She felt a fresh slash behind her right ear and blood dripping down her skull. She had never felt pain like that before. It didn't stop at that though, the birds kept pecking at her skin, cutting deep holes every few pecks. But she kept fighting and when Pip's blade made one of the birds burst into golden dust, she felt a grin form on her face.

"Huh, nice hit newbie," The pretty girl grunted as she made five birds burst into golden dust at once. Pip smiled at the compliment but the look on the girl's face seemed to change from after that moment. Somehow she looked even angrier than before. Her tanned skin turned a shade only rage could create. Pip's smile faded after that.

As Pip sliced another bird into golden sparkles of death, her ears became filled with horrid sounds coming from all around. Birds were screeching and flying away left and right as bells rang in the background. Pip stared at the sky as the birds swarmed back over the horizon and away from camp. Baffled at what was going on, Pip turned to find the source of the bells only to find Percy and Annabeth waving around as many golden bells as they could find.

Pip hopped over the stands and jogged towards Annabeth's chariot. "Stymphalian birds, they don't like loud noises," the young girl said. Pip didn't know what Stymphalian birds were, but she sure as hell didn't want another encounter with them.

Percy seemed to storm over to Mr. D and Tantalus, his normal sea-green eyes turning into hurricanes, "We need a quest. Annabeth and I. We know how to save the camp."

"And how is that?" Tantalus snarled.

"The golden fleece," Annabeth cut in.

"And how do you expect us to find the golden fleece, silly girl?"

Annabeth's stormy eyes seemed the turn an even darker tone of silver and her eyebrows furrowed at Tantalus' remark, "It's in the sea of monsters, Percy saw it in a dream."

"Dreams are just dreams, little girl," The activities director chuckled.

"Oh would you shut the hell up Tantalus! Every single one of us here know that dreams are not just dreams," Percy's blonde curls danced in the wind and Pip found herself wondering how the hell this kid was only 13, "And this definitely wasn't just a dream."

Percy turned to face Mr. D who was sipping on a Diet Coke, "You know my friend Grover."

"Do I?" He asked with a smirk on his face that clearly revealed he did.

"I am not playing this game," Percy seemed to be getting so fed up with the adults that his entire body was nearly shaking, "He set up an empathy link. He's stuck in the sea of monsters, and he's on the island with the fleece!"

"Well in that case... Peter Johnson, was it? We must go on a quest," Tantalus announced. A small, barely noticeable smile formed on both Percy's and Annabeth's faces, "In fact I think we know who our leader should be."

Tantalus formed a smirk on his face, "Clarisse is the only choice, she is our champion after all."

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Dude why tf did this take so long to write. i'm so sorry about that. I only have two more weeks of colorguard so I'll have more time once that ends but once summer comes I'll be working two jobs (hopefully 2) so we'll see how that goes.

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love ya!

originally published: april 23 • 886 words