[Josie Totah as Andrea Star]
I 018. I
𝑾𝒂𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑽𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔
❝ good night ❞
ARIADNE HAD DRAGGED TYSON AND ANNABETH AWAY. She fiddled with her rings as they gave her a confused look.
"Ari?" Annabeth said. "What's up?"
She pursed her lips. "Um... well, I only just realized it's Percy's birthday today. And I was going to make something for him in the kitchens, but I don't know how to bake. I thought you two could help me somehow."
Tyson clapped his hands. "Yes! Baking with pretty girl and blondie for my big brother!"
Annabeth raised an eyebrow and a teasing smile crossed her face. "Baking for your..." she trialed off. "What do I call him? How many times have you guys kissed? Five, six, ten—"
Ariadne punched her shoulder. "Shut up!" She blushed heavily. "Let's go. I want to at least have enough time to make sure that we don't burn down the kitchen."
***
THE REST OF THE DAY WAS AS STRANGE AS THE BEGINNING. Campers trickled in from New York by car, pegasus, and chariot. The wounded were cared for. The dead were given proper funeral rites at the campfire.
Silena's shroud was hot pink, but embroidered with an electric spear. The Ares and Aphrodite cabins both claimed her as a hero, and lit the shroud together. No one mentioned the word spy. The secret burned to ashes as the designer perfume smoke drifted into the sky.
Even Ethan Nakamura was given a shroud—black silk with a logo of swords crossed under a set of scales. As his shroud went up in flames, Ariadne hoped Ethan knew he made a difference in the end. He'd paid a lot more than an eye, but the minor gods would finally get the respect they deserved.
Dinner at the pavilion was low-key. The only highlight was Juniper the tree nymph, who screamed, "GROVER!" and gave her boyfriend a flying tackle hug, making everybody cheer. They went down to the beach to take a moonlight walk, and Ariadne was happy for them, though the scene reminded her of Silena and Beckendorf, which made her sad.
Mrs. O'Leary romped around happily, eating everybody's table scraps. Nico sat at the main table with Chiron and Mr. D, and nobody seemed to think this was out of place. Everybody was toying Nico on the back, complimenting him in his fighting. Even the Ares kids seemed to think he was pretty cool.
Slowly, the dinner trickled away. Some went to the campfire for a sing-along. Others went to bed. Percy sat at the Poseidon table by himself and watched the moonlight on Long Island Sound. He could see Grover and Juniper at the beach, holding hands and talking. It was peaceful.
"Hey." Ariadne slid next to him in the bench. "Happy birthday."
She held a huge misshapen cupcake with blue icing.
Percy stared at her. "What?"
"It's August eighteenth," she said. "Your birthday, right?"
Percy was stunned.
Ariadne cracked a smile. "Make a wish," she said.
"Did you bake this yourself?" Percy asked.
"Tyson helped. So did Annabeth. But, uh, she was mainly just laughing at me while I tried to not get frosting in my hair. I did hit her with a good aim of flour, but that ended in us almost burning it."
"That explains why it looks like a chocolate brick," Percy said. "With said extra blue cement."
Ariadne laughed.
Percy thought for a second, then blew out the candle.
They cut it in half and shared, eating with their fingers. Ariadne sat next to him, and they watched the ocean. Crickets and monsters were making noise in the woods, but otherwise it was quiet.
"You saved the world," she said.
"We saved the world."
"And Rachel is the new Oracle, which means she won't be dating anybody."
"You don't sound disappointed," Percy noticed.
Ariadne shrugged and smiled at her hands. "Oh, I don't care."
"Uh-huh."
She raised an eyebrow. "You got something to say to me, Kelp Head?"
"You'd probably kick my butt."
"You know I'd kick your butt."
Percy brushed the cake off his hands. "When u was at the River Styx, turning invulnerable... Nico said I had to concentrate on one thing that kept me anchored to the world, that made me want to stay mortal."
Ariadne kept her eyes on the horizon. "Yeah?"
"Then up on Olympus," Percy said, "when they wanted to make me a god and stuff, I kept thinking—"
"Oh, you so wanted to."
"Well, maybe a little. But I didn't, because I thought—I didn't want things to stay the same for eternity, because things could always get better. And I didn't want to leave you alone. And I was thinking..." His throat felt really dry.
"Anyone in particular?" Ariadne asked, her voice soft.
Percy looked over and saw that she was suppressing a large smile.
"You're laughing at me," Percy complained.
"I am not!"
"You are so not making this easy."
Then she laughed for real.
Percy admired her in the moonlight. Ever since Aphrodite granted her a blessing, he couldn't stop staring. Every move, every step, every smile or blink, he was seeing new sparkles of light and freckles on her face.
Ariadne's curly hair was stuck in a loose ponytail, pieces framing her face perfectly. She seemed to be some otherworldly being that sat in next to him. But he was lucky he could see her.
She glanced over at the boy. Ariadne smiled slyly, sliding her hands around his neck, twirling a piece of hair around her finger. "I am never, ever going to make things easy for you, Kelp Head. Get used to it. I'm a handful."
Her lips met his, and he had the feeling that his brain was melting right through his body.
Percy leaned into her. His hands slid around toward her back, holding her tightly as their lips moved. The boy felt perfect in that moment.
They could've stayed that way forever, except a voice behind them growled, "Well, it's about time!"
Suddenly the pavilion was filled with torchlight and campers. Clarisse led the way with Annabeth and Pollux as the eavesdroppers charged and hoisted them both onto their shoulders.
"Oh, come on!" Percy complained. "Is there no privacy?"
"The lovebirds need to cool off!" Clarisse said with glee.
"The canoe lake!" Connor Stoll shouted.
With a huge cheer, they carried them down the hill, but they kept them close enough to hold hands. Ariadne was laughing, and Percy couldn't help laughing too, even though his face was completely red.
They held hands right up to the moment they dumped them in the water.
Afterward, Percy had the last laugh. He made an air bubble at the bottom of the lake. Their friends kept waiting for them to come up, but hey—when you had a son of Poseidon, you don't have to hurry.
Percy brought a hand out and pulled Ariadne by her waist. She let out a laugh, and even underwater he found it beautiful. The boy brought a hand up to her hair and ran it through before kissing her.
Ariadne clung to him tightly. Her tan hands held onto the back of his shirt and his hair, pulling him closer and closer as they sank to the bottom of canoe lake.
They held each other as their lips moved. And they only separated when a school of fish ran into the side of the air bubble before swimming away. A dolphin even brought them a small sea-green shell, dropping it near Ariadne, who gave it to Percy to put on his necklace.
"A keepsake," she told him. "You gave me the pearl, and you can have this."
Percy stared at her for a few seconds. Then, he surprised her by kissing her again as she laughed against his lips. They smiled at each other, holding the other underwater.
And it was pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time.
***
CAMP WENT LATE THAT SUMMER. It lasted two more weeks, right up to the start of a new school year, and Ariadne had to admit they were some of the best weeks of her life.
Grover had taken over the satyr seekers and was sending them out across the world to find unclaimed half-bloods. So far, the gods had kept their promise. New demigods were popping up all over the place—not just in America, but in a lot of their countries as well.
Pollux and Sydney had headed back a day before everyone was meant to leave. They were catching a ride to get back to their dorms at Yale, spending their sophomore year together. Ariadne had squeezed them extremely tight when they left.
Hailee was gone. She was accepted into the Hunters of Artemis. The goddess looked pleased, and Athena seemed a bit happy that one of her daughters was remaining a maiden like her.
There was a new line of cabins under construction. The U-shape would soon be a complete rectangle, and the demigods had really taken to the new task with gusto.
Nico had some undead builders working on the Hades cabin. Even though he was still the only kid in it, it was going to look pretty cool: solid obsidian walls with a skull over the door and torched that burned with green fire twenty-four hours a day. Next to that were the cabins of Iris, Nemesis, Hecate, and several others.
They kept adding new ones to the blue prints everyday. It was going so well, Annabeth and Chiron were talking about adding an entirely new wing of cabins just so they could have enough room.
The Hermes cabin was a lot less crowded now, because most of the unclaimed kids had received signs from their godly parents. It happened almost every night, and every night more demigods straggled over the property line with the satyr guides, usually with some nasty monsters pursuing them, but almost all of them made it through.
Two new campers had arrived right after Percy made the gods promise to claim all their kids. Their own parents led them there, and they were surprisingly in good shape considering that they ran away from Mississippi.
The youngest was Andrew Barker, a son of Aphrodite. He was wickedly good at making clothes and tailoring anything, so he warmed up to anyone that asked him for help. He was ten years old, and Ariadne felt a bit sad that his father left him at a bus station.
Andrea Star was a daughter of Demeter. She was disowned by her adoptive parents and her whole family for coming out as transgender and lesbian. Of course, everyone was extremely accepting at camp, especially the kids of Dionysus. Seeing as their father is the god of most of the LGBTQ community.
Ariadne almost grabbed Blackjack and went to kick her parent's asses when she found out that the girl was always picked on because she has only one arm, the other having been gone since she was born. But luckily Annabeth and Percy had calmed her down.
Annabeth had immediately taken a shining to Andrea when they first met. The Demeter girl had complimented the blonde's eyes and her sketches of the new cabins, which caused the blonde to blush.
Ariadne began teasing her friend ever since.
After that, the new girl and Annabeth were inseparable.
The brunette walked toward canoe lake where she knew Grover and Percy were. She was going to ask Grover if he wanted to help her with the strawberry fields, but she slowed down as she heard them talking.
She watched as Tyson led a group of Cyclops builders. They were hoisting huge stones in place for the Hecate cabin, and she knew it was a delicate job. Each stone was engraved with magical writing, and if they dropped one, it would either explode or turn everyone within half a mile into a tree.
"I'll be traveling a lot," Grover warned, "between protecting nature and finding half-bloods. I may not see you as much."
"Won't change a thing," Percy said. "You're still my best friend."
Grover grinned. "Except for Ari."
"That's different."
"Yeah," he agreed. "It sure is."
Ariadne ended up scaring the poor satyr. She launched at him, resulting a tin can colliding with her forehead. He had jumped high into the air and almost landed in the lake.
Percy was laughing his butt off.
The two friends shared a look and nodded.
"Hey, Perc," Ariadne called.
He eyed them before they grabbed him and tossed him into the lake. But once again, he just landed in the water, completely dry. They groaned.
Percy waved. "Sorry!"
In the end, both Grover and Ariadne were soaked, and thy were tacking Percy once he was back on land.
That evening was the last night of camp—the Beas ceremony. The Hephaestus cabin had designed the bead that year. It showed the Empire State Building, and etched in tiny Greek letters, spiraling around the image, were the names of all the heroes who had died defending Olympus. There were too many names but Ariadne was proud to wear the beads
She put it in her camp necklace—eleven beads now, the most out of any camper. Newcomers has asked her the stories behind them all and she gladly told them, even the most painful ones.
Percy interlocked their fingers while they say next to each other. He was reminded of when she talked to him at his first campfire, opening up about her mom. He felt like an old timer.
Ariadne smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder. He moved closer to her.
"Never forget this summer!" Chiron told them. He had healed remarkably well, but he still trotted into front of the fire with a slight limp. "We have discovered bravery and friendship and courage this summer. We have upheld the honor of the camp."
He smiled at them, and everybody cheered.
"And how," Chiron said, "early to bed! Remember, you must vacate your cabins by noon tomorrow unless you've made arrangements to stay the year with us. The cleaning harpies will eat any stragglers, and I'd hate to end the summer on a sour note!"
Percy had decided to walk her back to her cabin. She only shook her head while they swing their hands, which her held together.
The boy stopped while she climbed onto her front porch. Ariadne rubbed her thumb over his knuckles.
"Chiron will be mad if you stay out any longer," Ariadne said. "The harpies won't be fun either."
Percy grinned. "I just fought a war, I can deal with a few harpies and a raging centaur."
She raised an eyebrow and hummed. The girl was about to let him go, but he held her tighter.
"Don't I get a good night kiss?" he asked cheekily. A smirk grew on his face.
Ariadne pretended to think. The girl pulled him up the stairs, kissing him lightly. Percy gripped her waist. "I guess," she murmured.
While he was trying to shake himself from his daze, she slipped back inside her cabin. The girl was tackled by Zoe, Fang, and Leo, who all wanted to sleep with her.
Ariadne fell asleep on one of the dark purple couches with the three cats. All three purring.
The next morning, Ariadne and Percy stood at the top of the top of Half-Blood Hill. They watched the buses and vans pull away, taking most of the campers back to the real world. A few old timers would be staying behind, and a few of the newcomers, but Percy was heading back to Goode High School for his sophomore year.
Annabeth had been given permission from her parents to attend a boarding school in the city so she could be close to Olympus and oversee the rebuilding efforts. Demeter had also offered to let Andrea go with the blonde, and both were on their way to their new school.
Luckily the goddess had worked some magic and Andrea was not to be asked about her gender unless he opened up. So from what everyone else knew, she was a girl.
"Goodbye," Rachel said to Ariadne and Percy as she shouldered her bag. She looked pretty nervous.
"You'll do great." Ariadne hugged her. They seemed to finally get along most days.
Rachel but her lip. "I hope you're right. I'm a little worried. What if somebody asks what's on the next math test and I start spouting a prophecy in the middle of geometry class? The Pythagorean theorem shall be problem two... gods, that would be embarrassing."
Ariadne laughed, it made Rachel smile.
"Well," Rachel said, "you two be good to each other." Rachel wished them well and ran down the hill to catch her die.
Ariadne was going to be attending Goode High. Sally and Ari had talked, saying the couple would be fine together. She would be heading back into the city with her boyfriend and then living in the apartment across from his. But she had to pretend that she was going to another school in New York.
"You're gonna be close to me," Percy said.
"We're going to be living across from each other," she said. She laced her fingers through his.
The guard dragon Peleus curled contentedly around the pine tree underneath the Golden Fleece and began to snore, blowing steam with every breath.
"You've been thinking about Rachel's prophecy?" Percy asked Ariadne.
She frowned. "How did you know?"
"Because I know you."
The girl sighed. "Okay, maybe I have. Eight half-bloods shall answer the call. I wonder who they'll be. There's going to be so many new faces next summer."
"Yep," he agreed. "And all that stuff about the world falling in storm it fire."
"And foes at the Doors of Death. And some daughter of mind does something to the earth. I don't like it. I thought we would have some peace for a change."
"Wouldn't be Camp Half-Blood if it was peaceful," Percy said.
"I guess you're right... or maybe the prophecy won't happen for years."
"Could be a problem for another generation of demigods," Percy agreed. "Then we can kick back and enjoy."
She nodded.
"Race you to the road?" Percy said.
"You are so going to lose." She took off down Half-Blood Hill and he sprinted after her.
For once, Percy didn't look back.
Sally and Paul grinned when they saw Ariadne laugh at Percy who had gripped while running down the hill. The girl taunted him before he grabbed her and spun around, causing her to help.
As they climbed in the car, and told the parents how their camp weeks were, Aphrodite stoked the dove's feathers. It sat on her throne, eyeing the picture as it cooed softly, and the goddess only smiled.
Her prophecy was the strongest of them all.
END OF ACT I.
authors note:
I'm sorry this is so late!
This is the last part of act I. Act II will be Perciaden shenanigans. I'm hoping to make it at least fifteen chaps or ten idk.
But yeah.
You met Andrea who is now good friends with Annabeth 😉
We will see more of Bea next act and we will meet their girlfriend.
Tell me what your favorite part of this book, any of my other books, or this chapter was.
Love you guys!