CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: OPERATION SAVE COLLIE
Drew Tanaka never thought she'd see the day Connor Stoll cried.
He had never meant for the situation to get so out of hand, but it seemed like it wasn't in his hands at all.
The day had started perfectly. Connor and Ellie always had border patrol together in the morning. Everyone knew that, even Drew.
So when she saw a furious Ellie Dalton storming out of the woods, eyes gleaming with unfiltered anger, she knew something was wrong. But it was Drew, she knew better then to get involved in anything that had to do with Connor Stoll. Still, it was gossip and she craved to know what happened.
Ellie was stalking across camp, headed towards the beach.
"Hey, Ellie!" Drew called sweetly. Ellie barely slowed, gripping her sheathed golden sword at her side. Drew hesitated, wondering if it was worth it.
Who was she kidding, this was definitely worth it. What had happened in the woods?
Drew snuck away from the Aphrodite cabin, who, through the help of Jason and Piper, were learning hand on hand combat. She had no interest in that, so she saw no problem following the daughter of Harmonia.
"Ellie!" She called again. "Wait up?"
"What do you want, Tanaka?"
The anger in her eyes startled Drew. Ellie was definitely not a someone that allowed people to walk over her, but Drew never remembered seeing so much ferocity in her gaze. It didn't fit her.
"What happened?" Drew asked innocently.
Ellie kicked a pebble. "Nothing. I mean, why does everyone assume that I do something wrong? Maybe it was Connor for once, ever think of that?"
Drew bit her lip, furrowing her eyebrows. Ellie didn't seem like herself at all. It was like talking to a completely different person. Ellie might have hated Drew, but she certainly didn't hate Connor and it worried Drew.
Plus, the sentence itself didn't quite male sense. Connor and Travis were the infamous troublemakers of camp, they were pretty much blamed for everything. Thankfully, it was usually their fault anyway.
"Of course. What...what did Connor do?"
Ellie rolled her eyes. "Gods, does it matter? I just want to be alone."
And with nothing more to say, Ellie continued her stomping down to the beach.
Drew was thoroughly confused. Seeing the brown-hair boy stumble out of the woods where Ellie had come from previously, Drew decided this was the priority: figure out what happened. Nothing interesting had happened for a while in the stupid camp, anyway.
"Drew!" Piper's voice called, causing the girl's head to turn. Holding back a long, drawn out groan, Drew trudged over to the counselor of the Aphrodite cabin.
Piper was out of breath, sweat was beading at her forehead. Yet still, she looked beautiful. Her choppy hair fell perfectly, her bare face was spotless of any pimples.
Stupid Aphrodite, Drew thought. Always picking favorites.
"What are you doing?" Piper asked, hands on her hip. "We're in the middle of lesson."
"I, uh...I was making sure that Connor and Ellie were okay. They both seem shaken up."
Piper grew confused. "Wow, it's not like you to be sympathetic. Are you feeling okay?" She asked, putting her hand to Drew's forehead.
Drew bit her tongue. She smacked her hand away. Deep down, she knew Piper was right. She hadn't been too nice to...well, anyone. She had never been the caring type. So why did she care about Ellie and Connor? Gossip, she told herself. Yes, gossip.
She scratched the back of her neck. "I can be a decent person sometimes, McLean."
Piper shrugged. "After lessons, then?"
"Now." Drew said stubbornly.
"That means you have dish duty tonight." Piper told her, obviously trying to get her to come back so she could finish up. Unfortunately, Drew Tanaka was a stubborn girl, and there was no way she would be going back to wrestling lessons after knowing there was fresh drama in Camp Half Blood. Or perhaps she just wanted to defy Piper. Either way, it was on brand for the girl.
"See you then!" She told Piper, blowing a kiss before skipping off.
She found Connor rather quickly. He was wandering aimlessly around camp, a deep frown etched on his face.
"Connor!" She called, a bright smile painted onto her cheeks. Connor was not the biggest fan of Drew, especially after she had helped Richard cheat on Ellie. She wondered what had happened to him. He was cute.
Anyway, she figured he wasn't going to talk to her much. Still, she was now determined to figure this all out.
Connor turned when his name was called. A hopeful look fell when he was Drew, which he weakly tried to cover up.
"Hey Tanaka." He muttered. "Have someone you want me to mug?"
Drew frowned. Connor seemed really upset. "Are you alright?" She asked tentatively, going for an emotional approach.
Connor glanced to the beach, which he knew where Ellie sat. "I-I don't know! One moment it was fine, I was telling her how I pranked Annabeth with some spiders, and she-she freaked! She told me that I-" He froze, glaring at the daughter of Aphrodite. "Why am I even telling you this?"
Drew was too lost in thought to recognize the insult. "Ellie loved it when you told her about your pranks." She wondered out loud.
Connor rubbed the back of his neck. "That's what I thought, too!" Then he frowned. "Wait, how did you know that?"
It was Drew's turn to grow sheepish. "You told me when we dated."
"Oh." Connor was still restlessly pacing. "I've got to make it up to her somehow. I didn't know she didn't like my pranks."
Connor was a lot more hurt then he let on. Being the daughter of Aphrodite, Drew could tell the boy's heartbreak. His pranks were his pride and joy, he loved telling people them. Knowing now that his love didn't like them, he wondered what parts she did like.
"We'll figure it out, Connor." Drew promised, something she hadn't expected herself to say outloud.
"We?" Connor said angrily, glancing at the girl before shaking his head. "There is no "we". I'll figure it out by myself, thank you very much."
Drew sighed. "Connor, I know you don't like me very much, but I promise I'm just trying to help." She hesitated, considering swearing on the River Styx. Was she trying to help?
Connor glared yet again. "Very much? You made out with Richard on Zeus' Fist!"
Drew didn't deny it. She had been a bitch to a lot of people, Connor and Ellie had been no exceptions. Which was why she was so confused why she wanted to help the couple.
"I'm sorry, Connor," Drew tried. "This isn't about me! I'm a daughter of Aphrodite, I can fix this."
Connor considered this. "I could ask Piper."
"Piper's busy."
Connor swore under his breath, biting his lip. He looked back out to the beach. "Fine. What do I do?"
✩✩✩
Connor returned from the Harmonia cabin with stomped flowers and a stomped heart.
He joined Travis, Katie, and Drew at the pavilion. He handed the flowers back to Katie, who grimaced at the sight of her wounded flowers. Travis was counting a sack of fake drachmas.
"Dude," Travis said, shaking his head. "What did you say?"
"Nothing!" Connor exclaimed, throwing his arms up. "I don't know why this is happening!"
Travis gave him a doubtful look. "Ellie is crazy, but she's not this crazy. You must have said something to piss her off."
Connor shook his head. "I had been talking about the spider prank. That was hilarious, by the way. Sorry, off track. And then, she got all mad and said if there was anything else I talk about. And I said, me, as, like, a joke! And then she got all mad and left, and then I tried to apologize, and she stomped on my flowers."
"My flowers." Katie corrected, trying to flatten a footprint from one of the petals.
"Yes, your flowers. Not the point." Connor sighed. "Her eyes looked so green today in the sunlight."
"Focus, lover boy!" Travis snapped, shaking his brothers shoulders.
Drew swore she saw a tear slip down the younger Stoll brother's cheeks, but he quickly wiped it away, covering her face with his hands. His eyes were stormy, dark blue settled over his gaze.
"I think that something else is happening here."
"What?" Travis asked, sitting up. "You think she's pranking you?"
Connor shook his head. "She looks too angry to be joking. Drew, do you know any gods that would want to split us apart?"
Travis laughed. "Connor, that's a tad bit ridiculous. She's probably on her period or something."
Katie smacked him, hard. Then Drew smacked him. Then Katie smacked him again. "Sorry!" He protested. Drew rolled her eyes, turning to Connor.
"Think about it! After the whole Aphrodite situation, don't you think it's possible?"
Neither Katie nor Drew knew of the "Aphrodite situation", but stayed quiet as the boys thought.
"Maybe." Travis said, but cut Connor off before he spoke again. "But, highly unlikely. Who cares if you guys are together?" Connor looked a tad offended. "I mean as in, what god would be so bothered to tear you apart?"
Katie spoke up. "Well, I know who might know the answer to that one."
A few moments later, the group was knocking at the Athena door. Katie left to try to rebirth the dead flowers.
Malcolm swung the door open. "Yes?"
"Can we speak with Annabeth?" Drew said sweetly, trickling in a tiny bit of charmspeak. It couldn't hurt, right?
"Of course," Malcolm said, smiling absently.
Annabeth was found on her bed with none other then Percy. They were reading something, but they paused when they saw they had company.
"What do you guys want?" Annabeth asked, closing the book and crossing her arms.
"Hey Annabeth, my bestest friend in the whole world," Connor said sweetly, plastering a smile on his face. "I may or may not need your help with something."
"With what could I possibly help with?" Annabeth retaliated.
"Operation Save Collie!" Drew announced proudly. She had thought about it all the way to the Athena cabin.
"Operation save...what?" Percy asked, eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
"Save Collie." Drew stated the obvious. "Connor needs your help fixing his relationship."
"This is too sappy for me," Travis announced, grinning sheepishly. "I'm going to find Katie."
He exited the cabin, leaving Drew, Percy, Connor, and Annabeth. The unofficial Operation Save Collie.
"That's a stupid name." Connor grumbled. Drew kicked his shin.
"What happened?" Annabeth asked. Drew and Connor launched into explanation. Percy fell asleep twice, but Annabeth got the main idea.
"So, you think a god...cursed her?" Annabeth asked, confused.
"Yes!" Connor said. "That is exactly what happened."
"Again?" Annabeth said, disbelievingly.
"Again." He agreed solemnly.
Annabeth pulled out a thick book, scanning to near the end. "Okay, tell me if she seemed like any of the following."
Connor nodded in agreement.
"Irritability?"
"Check."
"Irrational anger?"
"Check."
"Green eyes?"
Connor stumbled back. "No way, I noticed her eyes were greener then usual! What does that mean, Annabeth?"
Annabeth grimaced. "Phthonos."
"Thanos? Like that Marvel movie?" Connor asked, scrunching his eyebrows up.
"No, Phthonos. God of jealously and envy. You probably just pissed him off by being happy. He's kind of sensitive."
Thunder rumbled in the distance. Annabeth paled momentarily.
"So, she doesn't actually hate me?" Connor asked hopefully.
"No." Annabeth said. "She's under his curse, the point is to break you two apart. He's doing a good job so far."
"How do we stop it?" Drew asked, surprising them, including herself.
Drew was not the type to care about other's problems, even deep down, she denied caring about anything not involving her. It was easier that away, to pretend she didn't care everyone hated her. She deserved it, anyway
Annabeth coughed, looking down at the book in her lap.
"It's a curse only broken by Aphrodite herself."
Connor's heart fell to the bottom of his chest. How the heck was he supposed to catch the attention of an Olympian?
Drew shifted. "I can try my best."
An idea rushed to Connor's head.
"I'll try to contact Hephaestus."
Annabeth questioned him silently, not sure how he expected to do that, but did not question to boy. Instead, she nodded. "Meet back after dinner."
Connor made his way to the newest line of cabins. Harmonia's cabin was welcoming from the outside, but he knew the girl inside would not be so kind. But Ellie was currently sparring with Sherman and Ellis, this was his moment to steal the sword, just for a moment.
Ellie never practiced with the special sword, she always kept it for battle or special occasions. Which meant, if Connor was lucky, the sword would be in the place it usually was, the back of her wardrobe.
He snuck into the cabin, she never locked it during the day. Creeping past the living room, he opened the closet and, luckily for him, pulled out Luminous.
"Thea." He hissed. He had never actually tried to communicate to the Titan by himself, Ellie had just told him about it or she had started the communication.
"Thea? Please, it's an emergency!" He hissed, watching her fight panicky.
Just as he was about to give up, the blade shimmered, and an image of Thea appeared. "Connor? Is that you?"
"Yes!" He hissed. "I need to talk to Hephaestus, it's important!"
Thea frowned. "Why?"
"Please, I don't have time to explain."
Thea thought for a moment, before hesitantly nodded. She left the reflection of the blade for a few moments before a new face reappeared, one that Connor had called ugly two summers ago.
"Hey Hephaestus," He said shakily, suddenly nervous for the plan. Aphrodite was not the biggest fan of Hephaestus, vise versa. "I need to ask a favor."
"What is it, boy? Have I not done enough by brining the girl back?"
Connor laughed awkwardly. "I was wondering if I could speak with Aphrodite."
"Aphrodite?" The blacksmith roared, causing Connor to grow nervous that the entire camp heard. "You dare call to ask about that woman?"
"I-I wouldn't if it wasn't dire important, sir." Connor tried, but Hephaestus was already mad.
"Goodbye, demigod. Good luck getting that brat to listen to you."
And with that, the image shimmered, and Hephaestus disappeared. He glanced out the window, to see Sherman and Ellis sparring. Ellie was approaching the cabin.
Connor swore Ancient Greek under his breath, throwing the sword back in the wardrobe and shutting the door. He threw the back window open, and skillfully leaped out. He had just managed to close it when she stepped into the cabin.
Mission: Failed.
✩✩✩
"No luck," Drew sighed at the campfire that night. She had not had a good night. Piper kept her promise, the girl had scrubbed dishes for what felt like ages and her arms felt like they were going to fall off. She worried about the premature wrinkles it would cause on her hands.
"Me neither." Connor said miserably.
Annabeth frowned. "Then we must find a way to prove your love to Aphrodite. Or catch her attention."
Connor scraped his brain for an idea, and landed on one. One that was pretty stupid, what was a Connor plan without a little stupid. Perhaps a lot of stupid, but he had a biased perspective.
He stood from his seat as the song ended, making his way to the center of the campfire. Luckily for him, some of the campers had already left for school. Still, it was a lot of people that were about to watch him be incredibly stupid.
"Please don't do something stupid." Annabeth told him, but he only winked. Stupid was his specialty.
"Sorry, Chiron," He interrupted. "I'll let you get back to that in a second. First, I have an announcement to make!"
The campers around him looked at him expectantly. He cleared his throat. If this didn't catch the attention of Aphrodite, he wasn't sure what would. If it didn't, he was in big, big trouble.
It would be quite funny even if it didn't work, he supposed. He lived to make people laugh, and he was certain people would get a laugh out of it.
"Ellie's pregnant!"
The entire camp froze, faces erupted in abrupt shock. Not even Chiron stopped him, his face contorted into disappointment and disgust. Ellie was too shocked to send him a death threat. Annabeth looked pissed, Percy was holding a frozen laugh.
It took a few seconds for Connor to realize that they were actually frozen, in a literal sense. His eyebrows furrowed, walking towards Clarisse, who was in the front row. He waved his hands in front of her face, with no response.
SHE'S WHAT?
The voice seemed to come from all around him, a feminine voice that made his legs sway under his weight.
"Aphrodite?" He called weakly. For a moment, there was no response, but there was a crack of pink thunder, and a woman stood at the edge of the campfire.
"Connor Stoll, you better not be fooling with me." Aphrodite said in a sickly-sweet voice. "I came from a date in Paris with Ares for this."
Connor held back a grimace at the image of Aphrodite feeding the God of War a piece of spaghetti.
"Um, well," Connor stuttered, giving the beautiful Olympian a shy smile. "Kind of."
Aprodite's short pink dress burnt away, replaced with gleaming battle armor, her bedazzled chest plate blinded the boy momentarily.
"We needed to get your attention!" He squeaked, scurrying back. "Thanos put a spell on her, she hates me!"
Aphrodite stopped in her tracks to murder the boy, thinking it over. "Thanos?"
"Um, Phthonos, I think it was." Connor said, trying not to choke on his own spit.
"Phthonos, that little twig!" Aphrodite screeched. "How dare he interfere in my favorites? That was against our peace treaty!"
Connor rubbed the back of his neck. "Can you fix her? Annabeth said you were the only one that can help."
The Olympian blushed. "Yes, I am the only one. I suppose that makes me special. I am so awesome. Oh, Annabeth, yes, I love that demigod. Smart and pretty, my favorite kind of girl."
Connor cleared his throat. "Aphrodite?"
Aphrodite shook her head, clearing her head. "Oh, of course." She approached the frozen girl, placing a hand on her shoulder. A green mist rose from her, twirling and twisting as it flew into the sky.
The green smoke growled and tried to fight against the Olympian.
"It's that easy?" Connor asked, frowning. Without a god, he probably would have to go on a week long quest, and most likely die in some field in Tennessee. No one deserved to die in Tennessee.
Aphrodite grinned. "Love will always beat all else."
Connor just nodded, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
Aphrodite clapped her hands. "Oh, how exciting that was! I'll put that one in my diary. Toodles!"
In a flash of light, the goddess vanished, and the crowd alll began talking at once.
"Gotcha!" Connor yelled, a familiar mischievous smile on his face. He sent a wink to Ellie.
His girlfriend rolled her eyes. "You're an asshole, Connor Stoll."
"Oh, but you love it." Connor responded.
Ellie blushed and looked away from the loud conversation of the crowd.
"Connor Stoll, we need to have a chat." Chiron said, arms crossed. Connor only grinned.
I wrote this chapter because I feel like Drew gets a lot of hate, most for good reason. But she's still just a teenage girl with feelings, and I tried to understand her point of view. Also, why not more minor gods and drama to keep you on your toes ;)