Archive of Our Own

I ducked under a table right before the mother of all water balloons whizzed by where my head would have been. Being the son of Poseidon, I shouldn’t have been scared of getting hit by it, but…jeez…that thing was massive! The drenching part I didn’t mind since I wouldn’t have gotten wet. It was the impact I was worried about. I’m pretty sure it would have killed anyone, even me.

I came out of my panic attack and gathered enough sense to gain control and will the balloon away from me at the last minute. It veered off to the right and I heard it hit something—a stone column or another table, perhaps—and immediately a flood washed over the surrounding vicinity. I felt the spray from it under the table. Several kids screamed. Right then, I hoped it hadn’t come in contact with anyone I knew. That would have been an embarrassing way to go, and I would have been partly responsible for it.

When I felt it was safe to come out, I peeked over the table to see if there were anymore flying death balloons coming my way. I clutched a normal size water balloon in my hand, ready to toss it. On the other side of the pavilion, I just barely caught a glance of Jason trying to work his way through the mob, his blond hair wet and plastered to his face. He uttered one last cry before disappearing under the frenzy.

The sight scared me more than it should have.

My only thought? If they took out Jason that easily, it was a worse situation than I originally thought.

Meanwhile, Coach Hedge was having the time of his life. He jumped from table to table while swinging his baseball bat at anything that moved, which was basically the whole area since just about every camp member was crammed into the dining pavilion. He bounced around so fast I swear he must have had twenty cups of coffee before everything broke out. Mostly he missed whatever he swung at, but sometimes his bat came in contact with someone’s sword, spear, or helmeted head.

To my left, I saw Leo riding on a strange motorized vehicle with a cannon muzzle mounted on the front. He sat in a swiveling chair and aimed the gun in different directions. It reminded me of something from Star Wars. The cannon shot out an endless stream of water balloons into the angered crowd, bursting on impact as they landed in people’s faces, on heads, and on spear or sword ends. Leo looked wild and crazed, laughing hysterically and whooping and hollering in absolute bliss as he again pushed the button to release another volley of balloons over everyone’s heads. There was a new wave of screaming and shouting as all of the flying balloons made impact. Whatever had possessed the kid to build such a contraption I’ll never know. But I have to admit that it was pretty cool.

Chiron and Dionysus (also known as Mr. D) finally entered the scene, both perplexed at the amount of pandemonium going on around them. Chiron dodged a water balloon that flew in his direction. It was clear by the looks on their faces that they were having a hard time deciding what actions to take. Mr. D randomly threw a couple of cans of Diet Coke into the crowd as if they were tear gas or something. Maybe he was trying to hit one of the demigods?—I dunno. Whatever the reason was, it didn’t help. In fact, it didn’t even faze the mess. Coach Hedge succeeded in deflecting one can with his bat. A loud metallic crack sounded over the shouting the crowd was doing and the thing went soaring like a comet in the opposite direction, trailing a stream of fizzy liquid behind it. The satyr had a mean swing that would put any mortal ballplayer to shame, that was for sure. He screamed something at Mr. D, although I’m not sure what it was. The roar of the crowd and the clashing of weapons drowned it out before it reached my ears. In a way, I was glad. While I wasn’t an expert at reading lips, I could tell that, by the way Hedge’s mouth moved, whatever he said probably would have either gotten my mouth washed out with soap or earned me time in detention if I had said it in front of my former teachers. Mr. D screamed back with something equally worse. I’m not sure, but I think Hedge was contemplating whacking the wine god over the head with his bat. That surprised me because I remember Hedge saying once that he loved Bacchus…or Dionysus…or whatever you want to call him. Fortunately, Chiron stepped in and stopped them before things turned really ugly.

Okay, stop, stop. Hold on. Maybe I’d better back up and fill you in on what’s going on here. Regardless of what you’re probably thinking by now, I swear it wasn’t my fault. I actually tried stopping it. Jason and I both did. We never planned on getting sucked into it. Okay, maybe a little, just so we could teach the Stolls a lesson. But we never meant to get the entire camp involved, and we certainly never intended to start World War III in the mess hall. Knowing how things usually went at Camp Half-Blood and knowing my luck, I should have known better.

See, Travis and Connor Stoll started the whole thing early that morning. Remind me to thank Hermes for blessing the camp with demigod offspring that inherited his trickster qualities. Every camp or grouping of young people needs those unique individuals whose life goal is to see how many pencils they can stick up their buddy’s nostrils. The Stolls were a couple of real gems. When they weren’t busy trying to break into the camp store or trying to hot-wire the camp’s SUV, they could easily be found putting itching powder in people’s underwear or shaving cream down your shirt when you weren’t looking.

Any other time I probably would have eagerly gotten in on it, but not that early in the morning. I was still half asleep and all I had on my mind was that I had to pee, and after that, I wanted a shower and breakfast and a whole day ahead of me to spend with Annabeth. I was headed to the bathrooms when I heard the first explosion, which sent many campers scurrying off to find out what it was about. At first, I didn’t care. It was probably someone setting off a firecracker. Everyone running away from the bathrooms meant I wouldn’t have to stand in line. That was a relief to me because I had to go…bad…and was worried I wouldn’t make it through standing in line. Having the ability to control water you’d think I would be able to control…um…on second thought, never mind. Forget I even had that thought. At that moment, I literally didn’t care if the camp was under attack by an army of monsters and the place was burning down. This demigod was headed to the nearest toilet.

When the second explosion happened, I’ll admit that I started getting curious. The third and fourth explosions, though… That got my attention. I finished up with…what I had to do…and ran outside while buttoning my pajama pants. I saw that a majority of the crowd had gathered around Cabin Five—the Ares cabin. And there was a lot of shouting and noise going on, both from the crowd of campers outside and from the Ares kids inside.

“I’m gonna kill them!” I heard Clarisse angrily shout at the top of her voice as I approached. The entire cabin was in chaos, Ares kids scrambling everywhere. All of them looked either confused or angry like they weren’t quite sure what had happened. The door was standing wide open and the kids were busy tossing out shaving cream covered everything—bed sheets, pillows, clothes, shoes, throw rugs, blankets, stuffed animals, weapons. You name it. I think this was the first time I got a really good look at the junk the Ares kids collected.

A little boy, who looked about five or six, walked past the doorway while crying. His night clothes were covered in shaving cream and so was the pale green baby blanket he clutched in his hand. One of his older sisters picked him up and tried to console him while she cleaned him off. Both of them eventually disappeared into another part of the cabin, out of sight. The scene tugged at my heart and I fought back the urge to give him some encouragement like, Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, kid. You might as well get used to it. It’s gonna get worse.

Looking around, I realized that at least three other cabins had also been hit: the Apollo cabin, the Demeter cabin, and the Athena cabin. All of the campers inside had thrown their doors open and were in the process of cleaning up the mess while doing a fair amount of cursing and grumbling, all of it directed at the Stolls. I saw Annabeth stumble out of Cabin Six, architectural blueprints and other papers clutched securely in her arms as if she were protecting them with her very life. She had a small amount of shaving cream on her, but not much. She looked more shaken up and annoyed than anything else. Her blonde hair was all tangled and she still wore her pajamas and slippers. To me, she looked beautiful even in that state.

I quickly walked over to her.

“Are you all right?” I asked, putting a hand on her arm. She was shaking like a leaf.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she answered in annoyance, brushing some hair out of her face and straightening up. I could tell she was doing her best to keep her temper in check.

“What happened?” I asked.

“There was a box on the floor by the door, and when one of my brothers opened it…” She gestured at the opened doorway. Aside from the rest of Annabeth’s siblings bustling about, I could see shaving cream covering the floor and some of the walls. Malcolm slowly walked up to the doorway and looked out at us. He looked like he had caught the worst of the prank. He was covered in shaving cream, his blond hair sticking up in spikes.

“Shaving cream bomb,” I mumbled.

Annabeth silently nodded and sighed. “I told Oscar not to open the box, but he did anyway. He’s fairly new here so he doesn’t know the Stolls like we do. Malcolm tried to stop him, but it was too late. Now everything is probably ruined. All of those books and charts and notes and blueprints…” She sounded like she was on the verge of crying.

“It’s okay.” I pulled her into a hug. “We’ll get it cleaned up, and replaced if it needs to be replaced.”

For those who don’t know, the shaving cream bomb was one of the great prank inventions of the Hermes cabin, created solely for the purpose of making fellow campers’ lives miserable. On the outside, it had the appearance of being a harmless box. But the moment it was opened…BOOM! Jet propelled globs of shaving cream all over the place. And here you thought a fake snake hiding in a can of nuts was bad. Most of the old members at Camp Half-Blood were wise to this prank, so the Hermes cabin usually reserved it for new kids who were gullible enough to fall for it.

This prank was also a sure fire way of guaranteeing that the victims get a failing grade when it came to daily cabin inspections. Something told me that none of these cabins would be able to get everything cleaned up in time for that day’s inspection. The Stolls had just succeeded in giving four cabins a 0. And I could pretty much guess that the Hermes cabin was spotless right about now.

Although, the thing that worried me the most about all of this was that they had hit the Ares cabin.

Let’s just say that planting shaving cream bombs in Ares’ cabin was like throwing rocks at a hornets’ nest. It was stupid. You just don’t do it…ever…unless you were completely brainless. Only the Stoll brothers were insane enough to go through with doing it. I guess because they had a death wish or were in a hurry to see the Underworld or something like that. Or maybe they really were brainless.

The first Ares camper to appear in the doorway and step outside was the cabin’s counselor, Clarisse LaRue. She was holding her electric spear, Maimer, in her hands, and her hair was a mass of frizz and shaving cream globs. Shaving cream also covered her entire face with only her eyes being visible, making it look like she was wearing some sort of white mask. More shaving cream was smeared all down the front of her red pajamas. It looked like one of the bombs had exploded right in her face. Even though she was covered in shaving cream from head to toe, I could still tell that her face was twisted into a deathly, snarling expression that would have made even Medusa run and hide. Everyone that saw her knew the Stolls were dead. The Stolls themselves just didn’t know it yet.

“Where are they?” she seethed. The crowd murmured and everyone started talking at once. One kid shouted that she thought she saw them head one way, and another kid said he saw them go off in another. Clarisse became even angrier. She turned and stomped back into the cabin, shouting at anyone that came near her.

The Demeter and Apollo cabins were madly going about trying to get things cleaned up, as was the Athena cabin. Annabeth gave me a small smile, squeezed my hand, and turned to go help her siblings.

“I need to help with our cabin. Need to see if I can salvage everything. I’ll see you later, Seaweed Brain,” she said.

“Later,” I said.

When she disappeared back into the cabin, Jason, Piper, and Hazel walked up to stand beside me. Piper and Hazel looked like they had just been pulled from their beds the same as everyone else.

“What’s going on?” Jason asked. He looked like he had come from the shower and was busy running a towel over his wet hair.

“Shaving cream bombs with the Stolls’ names all over them,” I replied with a shrug of my shoulders. “They hit four cabins this time.”

Piper rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Those idiots.”

“Shaving cream bombs?” Hazel asked, not entirely understanding.

“I thought they had quit doing that.” Jason frowned.

“I guess they started back doing it again since we’ve been getting a lot of new campers.” I turned to Hazel. “And, Hazel, the shaving cream bomb is a prank the Stoll brothers enjoy pulling on the new demigods. They sneak boxes into cabins and wait for the new members to open them. When they do, you and everyone else and everything else around you get decorated in shaving cream.”

“Oh,” Hazel said. “That’s not nice.”

“No…it isn’t,” I agreed hesitantly, remembering all the times I had taken part in playing pranks on other campers in the past. “But the Stolls think it’s fun.”

“Hazel, you and Frank need to watch out for this,” Piper said. “I know you’re just visiting the camp, but you should still watch out. You being visitors might give them even more of a motive to pull this prank on you.”

“Um…Piper…” When I got Piper’s attention I pointed at the Ares cabin. Frank was standing outside, a sheepish look on his shaving cream covered face.

“Sorry,” he said meekly. “I didn’t know.”

“Oh, Frank,” Hazel groaned.

Piper shook her head and sighed.

“I guess that explains a lot,” said Jason.

After the morning’s excitement was over, I went back to my cabin to get a change of clothes so I could head to the shower. I just hoped that I wouldn’t be late for breakfast. As soon as I walked in, I found a sealed box on my bed with the words ‘Hermes Express’ along the side and an address label on top. Needless to say, I hesitated and cautiously approached it. My first thought was ‘shaving cream bomb’ because it hadn’t been there when I left. But shaving cream bombs didn’t normally have ‘Hermes Express’ on them, as well as seals and address labels. They were usually just plain boxes with no wording and no seals. Or if they did have wording they usually said something that told you the Stolls had stolen them from one of the camp’s storerooms, quite possibly the basement of the Big House.

I quickly glanced around the room, catching sight of the other bed that belonged to my Cyclops brother, Tyson. I wished he was there. Instead, he was off spending time with Ella the harpy. They were spending a couple of weeks out in the mortal part of New York since Ella wanted to see the Main Branch.

Forcing myself to look down, I read the box’s address label closely. It had my name as the recipient and the sender was…my dad! I let out a faint gasp. What would my dad, Poseidon, be sending me? It was still the middle of July and my birthday wasn’t until August.

Not thinking any more about it, I uncapped Riptide and used it to slice through the tape sealing the box and opened it.

That’s the last I remember of that.

I heard a very loud bang that sounded like a gunshot and the next thing I knew I was laying on my back on the floor, looking up at the ceiling. The whole front of me was covered in shaving cream, as was a good percent of the inside of my cabin. I groaned and struggled to get up, but it wasn’t easy. The shaving cream made the floor slick. My ears were still ringing, and I felt lightheaded.

I couldn’t believe the Stolls had tricked me that easily, and with an old prank at that. It was embarrassing. They must have been really desperate to see the Underworld if they were finding new ways to make this prank work on the older campers.

When I finally got to my feet, I somehow staggered toward the door and walked outside. I heard another loud bang that was immediately followed by a girl’s scream. It sounded like it might have come from the Iris cabin, but I wasn’t sure. It might have been Aphrodite’s cabin.

I wondered…

I turned and looked toward Zeus’s cabin. Sure enough, there was Jason headed toward me. He was also covered in shaving cream. And he looked mad. Sparks were dancing all over him to the point where I could have sworn that every hair on my body stood on end when he finally stopped in front of me.

“Let me guess… You got a package from Hermes too?” I said.

He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Yes, I did. More like a package from his delinquent children.”

“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘demented’.”

“That works, too.” He sighed again. “Did you see the Stolls?”

“No, but they must be around here close.” I wiped some cream off my face and flung it on the ground. “They had to have sneaked in and planted the boxes when we were over at the Ares cabin. Besides, part of the purpose of a prank is to stand by and watch the fun. They won’t be far away.”

Jason nodded in agreement. “Gah! If I ever get a hold of those two…” He jerked his hands and shaving cream flew in every direction. He tried wiping the stuff off his face, but the action just succeeded in smearing it around and made it worse.

“Suggestions?” I said.

“We could teach the little morons a lesson.”

“You’ve got ideas?”

“Other than summoning lightning down on their sorry backsides? No, but I know someone who does.”

At first, I didn’t quite follow what Jason meant. Then it hit me. We needed a prankster to prank a couple of pranksters.

“Leo,” I said.

Jason smiled deviously and nodded.

I returned the smile.

So while everyone else continued to sort out their messy cabins, we secretly headed off toward the woods. As usual, Leo could be found in one place: Bunker Nine. I was beginning to think that he preferred it to the Hephaestus cabin. The place reminded me of a huge garage and smelt and looked pretty much the same, except there were no cars. Piles of assorted building materials were neatly placed on the many shelves, various empty spaces, and in between the workbenches, while tools of every imaginable kind lined the walls. There were machines and other mechanical devices strewn all over the place, some were complete while others were in pieces or half finished. Since the bunker now belonged to Leo, he had added his own touches here and there and arranged it the way he liked. I’ll admit that the bunker had a cozy, homey feel to it. I wasn’t much on mechanical things so that part of it failed to grab me in the way that it did Leo. But this was his world, so I was okay with it and tried to understand it the best I could whenever he went off rambling about machine parts and technical stuff.

“You’re in luck!” Leo said, greeting us at the door. “I just got through putting the finishing touches on a couple of my latest creations. Would you like to see them?” And as usual, Leo was dressed in an orange camp shirt, jeans, and about six inches of grease and shop grime. His magical tool belt was fastened around his waist. His slightly pointed ears were covered by his messy curly brown hair. I always wondered about those ears, though I never felt it was right to ask him. Instead I just silently assumed it was part of him being a demigod. It matched his impish, elfish look.

“Not right now. Sorry,” I said, “We’ve got a bit of a problem at the campsite.”

“What sort of problem?” Leo looked from me to Jason and back. Buford the table nudged his leg like a dog wanting its ears scratched. Leo placed a hand on top of him to keep him calm.

“The Stolls are at it again,” Jason answered. “Shaving cream bombs placed in at least seven cabins, ours included.”

“What?! The Stolls creamed you guys?” Leo laughed, not believing his ears. “Dude, I never would have thought you’d fall for it.”

Jason and I glared at him.

“Ordinarily we wouldn’t have. They found a new way of getting us to fall for it,” said Jason.

“They made the boxes look like official packages from Hermes Express,” I added. “Mine had an actual address label that said the box was from my dad.”

Leo let out a long whistle, although I’m not sure if it was from amazement or appreciation. “So where do I fit in?”

“We need help teaching them a lesson so they’ll think twice about doing it again,” said Jason. “Something good that they won’t forget anytime soon.”

“But we don’t want to hurt them too bad,” I added. “And we definitely don’t want to kill them.”

Leo snapped his fingers, pointed a finger at us, and grinned. “I think I have the solution.” He clapped his hands together once and started looking around him at the various machines and machine parts. I could see the gears of his mind working.

“What is it?” I asked, curious.

“It’s a surprise,” he answered, that all too familiar mischievous smirk forming at the corner of his mouth. He finally turned to look at something he had covered up with a tarp. His smirk turned into a devilish grin. “All I need is for you and Jason to go back to the camp and stall the Stolls while I get things ready. I’ll meet you there.”

“Stall them?” said Jason. “We don’t even know where they are. They’ve been hiding all morning in between sneaking boxes into people’s cabins.”

“Find them first then,” said Leo. “I’ll need a little time to prepare their surprise. And believe me, it’s gonna be a good one. You know, I’m glad you came to me about this problem. I still need to get those two back for the time they took my underwear and hung them on the outside of the Big House.”

“I thought the nymphs did that,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh…that was a different time.”

Jason and I gave him a questioning look.

“Long story,” he said, waving us off and turning to walk toward the thing covered by the tarp.

We left it at that.

When we got back to the cabins we saw that the Stolls had been found. I’m not sure who found them, but someone had. They were racing across the grounds with most of the campers coming up behind them fast. It was somewhat confusing as everyone raced past us in a blur.

The Ares kids were in the lead, Clarisse taking point. The only way I knew that was because they had put their battle armor on over their shaving cream covered pajamas and were carrying their weapons. Clarisse held Maimer high over her head while shouting out a war cry like she was about to storm a giants’ camp. Hearing her made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and curl. I hoped that the Stolls could keep far enough ahead of her because she looked like she could skewer them in a heartbeat. I was okay with the Stolls needing to be taught a lesson and maybe needing to be hurt a little, but we didn’t have to kill them. But then again, that’s what you got when you stirred up the Ares cabin. Like I said…it was a hornets’ nest, and the Stolls were about to get stung.

The Apollo campers ran behind the Ares kids and somewhere in between them and the Demeter kids were the Athena campers. For some reason, the Hermes campers were in the midst of them. Apparently, the Stolls had succeeded in getting on their own brothers’ and sisters’ nerves. There were also some Iris kids and Aphrodite kids in there as well. And there were even some kids from the other cabins, too, because I saw some Hephaestus campers, Nike campers, Nemesis campers, and Hecate campers running in the crowd. Wow, a lot must have happened while we were at Bunker Nine.

Everyone but the Ares kids carried water balloons or cans of Silly String. Some of the Hephaestus kids were wielding tools. All of them looked like they could call down curses on the Stolls that even their grandkids would feel.

The Stolls were struggling to keep their distance from the rampaging mob, looking back occasionally to see how close the other campers were gaining on them. I noticed they were running at an odd angle like something was slowing them down. And they appeared to be arguing with each other about whatever it was. Looking closer I could see that they carried a box between them. It was probably a shaving cream bomb they had failed to deliver to a cabin. Apparently, they had been caught in the act and were trying to escape. They struggled to keep their grip on it while they ran. Travis shoved it into Connor’s arms only to have Connor shove it back at him.

I turned to look at Jason.

“You take Connor, and I’ll take Travis,” I said.

“Gladly,” Jason said with a grin. He balled his fists, sparks beginning to dance along them and up his arms.

“Hey, no lightning. We want to hurt them, but we don’t want to kill them,” I said.

Jason looked at me with a hint of disappointment in his blue eyes.

“Not yet anyway,” I said with a shrug and then a smirk.

Jason grinned.

We ran headlong into the crowd, trying our best to get up front where we could easily take down the Stolls first before Clarisse got the chance to make shish kebab out of them. That was my main goal. I didn’t think Chiron would appreciate the murder of two campers before breakfast. Clarisse was a bully and I knew she could get carried away sometimes. I like to think that she would never actually go so far as to kill a fellow camper, but…you never know. She was pretty stinking mad and I’m almost positive that all she was seeing at that moment was red. Once she got going, Clarisse’s buff build could easily mow down every camper in the place like a football player, if her spear didn’t electrocute or run them through first. I wanted to keep all of the above from happening before we had a chance to eat our pancakes.

I weaved in and out and in between campers. I got hit in the head a couple of times by something or other. I’m not sure what it was, but it hurt. I lost sight of Jason at one point but caught up to him again only to lose him again.

Some of the Demeter kids were throwing water balloons and screaming insults at the top of their lungs. Almost immediately I noticed they had very poor aim and couldn’t throw worth beans. They missed half the time, hitting the kids running in front of them in the back of the head instead. I almost wanted to tell them to stick with using plants because they were seriously giving my element a bad name. When I got close enough to them I took control of the situation. Being a son of Poseidon had its weird moments, I’ll say that. Katie Gardner threw another balloon and I quickly waved my hand to help it along. The water inside the balloon obeyed me and flew toward the Stolls, beaning Travis—or was it Connor?—smack-dab in the head. He looked back and shouted angrily at the crowd not really knowing who it was that had done it.

The Demeter cabin knew, though. A cheer erupted from them and Katie gave me a huge grin and a thumbs-up. I guess they expected me to help them out again because just about everyone from Cabin Four lifted water balloons and threw them at the same time. I had to act quickly before they landed in the middle of the Athena campers. I caught sight of Annabeth running in the midst of them. She turned and flashed me an encouraging smile before she raced on ahead. She reached inside a bag she was carrying and pulled out a water balloon to toss.

I waved my hands and took control of every balloon in the air. They jiggled to a halt right before they hit the Athena kids and made an abrupt turn in mid-air, soaring over everyone’s heads. Like a bunch of guided missiles, I willed them directly toward the Stolls. With one flick of my right hand, they pelted Travis and Connor, drenching them from head to toe. They lost their grip on the box. It hit the ground with a loud explosion, covering the brothers in shaving cream. Travis slid down and face-planted in a huge glob of cream. He struggled several times before he finally got back on his feet.

An extra loud cheer erupted from the entire crowd and everyone bolted forward to take advantage of the opening. I saw Jason coming up first. By now he was flying like Superman over the heads of the rest of the campers. He zipped by, took a quick dive, and tackled Connor to the ground in one swoop, like an enormous bird. I could tell that he probably knocked the wind out of the guy because it looked like he hit him hard. They slid a few feet, Connor having wet grass stuck to his face when he raised his head up.

Quickly I moved in on Travis and took him down. It didn’t take much to do it. The grass around us was soaked in water and shaving cream and made it impossible to keep a good foothold. And both brothers were barefoot, so that made things even easier. Travis kicked and squirmed, trying to get away, but I wrapped my arms around him and held him down while I moved to a sitting position on top of him. I grabbed his hands and pulled them around to the small of his back like I was going to handcuff him. I wanted to keep his hands where I could see them because I knew the Stolls hid things in their pants pockets. They were also masters at pick-pocketing too. Not that I had anything worth stealing in the pockets of my pajama pants, but still…

“Not so fast,” I said, dodging his elbow. “You two have a lot of explaining to do.”

“Dude, come on, Percy. You should be used to it by now. It was a bit of fun! A harmless prank! No harm was done to anyone,” he said, trying to suppress a laugh.

“Oh, yeah? Tell that to Annabeth and the blueprints and hard work you probably ruined. Tell it to the little boy in the Ares cabin—the one with the shaving cream covered blankie. He’ll probably need a year’s worth of therapy to recover from the shock of your little ‘harmless’ prank. You probably gave him a box phobia or something.”

Travis grunted, trying to buck me off him. Before I realized what had happened, he got his hands loose and pushed me so hard I fell backward into Jason, making him lose his grip on Connor. Both Stolls jumped up and continued running toward the dining pavilion, laughing hysterically as they went.

I shared a look with Jason.

He smiled.

“Alright, everyone,” I shouted to the crowd behind us. “Let’s go get some breakfast!” I pointed at the Stolls. Annabeth must have caught on what I was trying to say because she turned and motioned everyone forward.

Jason and I stumbled into the dining pavilion first and located the Stolls trying to hide behind one of the middle tables and the bronze brazier.

“Don’t you two move,” Jason warned, pointing a finger at them. He advanced slowly.

“Oh, yeah? And what are you gonna do to us if we do?” Connor grinned. “Call down lightning?”

“Don’t tempt me, Connor.” Jason’s nose flared. “You see this?” He gestured at the shaving cream on his shirt. “You’re gonna pay for planting that box in my cabin.”

“Oooo, I’m soooo scared,” Connor said, grinning.

“It was a joke.” Travis chuckled. “Where’s your sense of humor?”

“I’ll show you sense of humor.” Jason turned and glanced at me. I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was thinking: Where was Leo? We could only do so much to stall the Stolls. I was afraid they would catch on to what we were doing and run off somewhere before we got the chance to pay them back.

It wasn’t long before the other campers poured in behind us, quickly filling the pavilion to almost overflowing. Any other time I could handle being in there with that many people. But right at that moment, it was a crowded, cramped nightmare, kinda like being trapped in the middle of a small store on Black Friday. Only there were no specials on DVD players and it was ten times more dangerous since the Ares kids were brandishing lethal weapons. Any way you turned you either bumped into someone or took a chance on getting a spear end shoved up your nose. It also looked really weird—a bunch of angry kids and teenagers dressed in a mixture of Greek armor and assorted night clothes packed tightly into a pavilion along with tables. There’s an image for your mind. Actually, now that I think about it, that’s sort of how it looks on Black Friday, too…

Annabeth walked up beside me and nudged my arm.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

I gave her a quick review of our plan in whispers, stealing glances at the Stolls every now and again to make sure they weren’t trying to listen in. Jason was doing a good job of keeping their attention, even though I knew he was running out of things to say to keep them distracted.

Suddenly, one of the Stolls somehow managed to throw some firecrackers into the brazier when Jason wasn’t looking and a deafening POPPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOP sounded loud and clear through the whole pavilion. I couldn’t help wondering how the gods felt about firecrackers being thrown into the sacrificial fire.

Smoke and the choking smell of gunpowder filled the air. Kids screamed, and everyone started panicking and running in all directions at once. Some of the kids near me took cover behind the nearest table. One Demeter kid threw a water balloon and actually hit Connor in the face without my help.

After that, I really don’t know what happened. Honestly, I don’t. It’s a blur to me now. In the midst of the confusion and panic, I seem to remember that someone from the Demeter cabin hit a Hermes kid with a water balloon for whatever reason. Maybe it was poor aim, I don’t know. All I do know is the Hermes kid threw one back, the Demeter kid dodged, and the balloon went sailing right into Clarisse’s face.

And that’s when all chaos really broke loose and Jason and I lost control.

Our original plan was to find and stall the Stolls until Leo showed up with the surprise he had in store for them. I never meant for any of this to happen.

It didn’t take long for the whole place to erupt in one huge battle. The Ares kids flung themselves into the Hermes crowd, and the air turned into a dangerous mixture of Silly String, weapons, and water balloons. I took control of any water balloons that I could and sent them flying back at the crowd. A few stray ones managed to slip by and hit me when I wasn’t watching. One side of me became covered in Silly String. Somewhere I heard more firecrackers going off with deafening pops, followed by more terrified screaming. And something sparkly and smoky whizzed over us—a bottle rocket or some such firework, for all I knew.

I have no idea what happened to the Stolls at that point. They either slipped away when everyone else was distracted or they got trampled. I took some time out in between willing balloons away from me to quickly take notice of my surroundings, scanning the area for any sign of them. They were nowhere to be seen. I did catch sight of Hazel, Piper, and Frank standing outside, watching the whole spectacle like they weren’t sure what to think of it and whether or not they should get in on it. I guess Hazel thought we were a bunch of idiots. I briefly wondered if she ever participated in water balloon fights when she was alive the first time back in the 1930s. Or if they even had water balloon fights back then.

“Stop it, everyone!” I shouted, trying to regain some sort of order. “The Stolls are getting away!”

No one listened, however.

“Didn’t you hear what he said? STOP!” Jason shouted, grabbing hold of two campers by their shirts and shaking them. Still, no one listened, and the battle became worse. The two kids Jason had hold of started shoving each other until they finally broke loose of his grip, taking Jason with them into the crowd.

It was then that I realized that it was every demigod for himself or herself.

Finally, Leo rode up to the edge of the pavilion in his Celestial bronze plated water balloon tank, followed by Coach Hedge. Coach Hedge immediately jumped into the fight without hesitation. His eyes lit up like a kid at Christmastime and that was all it took.

“Now THIS is what I’m talking about!” he shouted loud enough for everyone to hear and then dove into the demigod mosh pit, baseball bat swinging. I heard yelps of pain from the campers that had been unfortunate enough to be in the path of him.

Leo, on the other hand, looked confused at first like he was thinking: Dude, you started the party without me? But when he saw that our previous plans had obviously backfired, he quickly got in on the action as it was. Seeing what he was riding on, I could tell that he was finding it hard to resist this golden opportunity to test out his new toy. He sent out his first volley of water balloons. He didn’t aim at any particular person or cabin. He just hit everyone. A few of the campers actually stopped what they were doing to look in his direction, shocked at the sudden feeling of being hit with a stinging water balloon cannonball. Leo shouted out insults and names, stirring the mob into an angrier frenzy. Thanks, Leo, we really needed that, I thought to myself.

The campers that had been hit by the balloon cannonballs turned their attention to Leo and began pelting him with their puny balloons, which I thought was really pointless. I mean, if someone had a bigger gun than me, I’d definitely think twice about provoking them.

That’s when the Hermes cabin brought out the big balloons. They were huge. Like…really huge. I don’t know where they found them (my guess is they stole them) but someone needed to take them away from everyone related to Hermes because both of those together literally spelled out ‘the end of the world’.

One of the Hermes kids launched the first one. Literally launched. They had built their own miniature catapult for the occasion. I watched as the balloon flew through the air and landed right on top of Leo’s tank. It burst and flooded him and the tank in one massive torrent of water, and I feared that was the end of him. But he survived. He shouted something like, “Your mother is as ugly as a giant!” and angrily shot out more balloons, trying to hit the person operating the catapult. It helped to slow him down, but he dodged most of them and reloaded the catapult with another large balloon. One of his brothers helped him in doing it.

I’ll admit that I sort of panicked at this point, not liking the thought of another balloon of that size flying through the air. When Leo let loose with another stream of balloons toward the kids with the catapult, I took control of them and willed them straight at them to ensure they hit their target. And they did. It momentarily hindered them reloading. But they regained their senses quicker than I anticipated.

That’s when I had a brilliant idea.

“Stop!” I shouted to Leo, waving my arms to get his attention. He looked toward me. “Stop firing. Let them launch it.”

“Are you crazy?” he shouted back. I shook my head and waited. I thought, if I could just gain control of that massive balloon I could will it toward the Hermes campers and flood them with their own arsenal.

They finally launched it: forty gallons of water in one ginormous balloon sailing over everyone’s heads. I quickly waved my hand and gained control of it. It stopped right before coming in contact with Leo. The poor guy scrunched up his face and ducked, expecting to be hit by it. When he saw that I had it, he let out a loud victory cry. The Hermes campers, however, were already panicking and diving for cover. Quickly I jerked my hand toward them and the balloon followed my gesture, sailing back through the air to burst open on the catapult. It drenched the entire area, almost washing the Hermes kids and several other campers that were nearby away in a wave.

In doing this, I made myself their next target. Naturally, anyone who has the power to control water is automatically a threat to the enemy side of a water balloon fight. Great…

But it’s also a stupid move for the enemy side to try and get rid of said person because there’s no way they’ll succeed.

The Hermes kids got up and repositioned their catapult to aim in my direction and set about reloading it with another large balloon that I could have sworn was a bit larger than the last one. Where were they getting these things??

They launched their balloon; I panicked and hid under the table.

I guess this brings us up to the point where I stopped off. Like I said, Chiron stepped in and stopped Mr. D and Coach Hedge from killing each other. Then he pounded his hoof on the pavilion floor to get everyone’s attention. But it proved to be a lot harder than he thought. The campers didn’t hear it. If they did, they didn’t show signs of it. The battle raged on, water balloons and magic Silly String flying in all directions. Some kids, by now, were completely covered in Silly String.

“Attention!” Chiron shouted, stamping both front hooves on the floor. There was still no reaction from the campers. I was tempted to try my hand at getting their attention again, but I had my hands full trying to keep from getting hit by wild balloons and also deflecting them away from Leo. I continued to help him out, too, by controlling the balloons he shot out. I have to say that we made a great team.

Chiron shook his head wearily and turned to Mr. D for help. I knew it was a hopeless move. Mr. D hates all of us and couldn’t even get our names right half the time. He was probably secretly hoping we’d kill each other, even if most of our weapons consisted of Silly String and water balloons. Could someone actually get killed by Silly String?

Just as I figured, Mr, D shrugged, took a sip of his Diet Coke, and turned and walked away like it was none of his business.

Chiron sighed and tried one more time to get the campers’ attention. They still failed to respond, except for Coach Hedge. He glanced at Chiron and back at the campers, his face scrunching into an annoyed scowl.

“SILENCE!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. Immediately everyone in the pavilion fell silent and turned toward the satyr. “Chiron here has been trying to get you cupcakes’ attention for the past several minutes. If anyone makes one more peep, you’re gonna get this bat over your head. Understand? Now pay attention to the centaur.” He waved his hand in Chiron’s direction. “You’ve got it, Chiron.”

Chiron gave Hedge an appreciative nod before clearing his throat and turning to the crowd. “May I ask what is going on here?”

Everyone exchanged looks, some lowering their weapons when they realized they still held them extended in the air.

“It’s just a harmless battle,” a Hermes kid answered innocently.

“Harmless?!” Katie Gardner shrieked. “The Ares campers have weapons! And I got hit in the head by a wrench.” She rubbed the back of her head and turned a scowl toward Shane from the Hephaestus cabin. Then out of the blue, she chucked a water balloon at the Hermes kid.

“HEY!” he shouted and threw one back.

One thing led to another and the crowd erupted in an uproar. It probably would have turned into another battle, but Chiron stomped his hoof three times to get order. Surprisingly everyone stopped and turned their attention back to him. Probably out of fear that Coach Hedge would start swinging his bat at whoever’s heads were unfortunate enough to be within reach. Not everyone was wearing helmets.

“The Stolls started it,” said Jason, stepping forward. I didn’t even realize he had regained his footing until he spoke. He looked like he had been trampled on by a herd of maddened buffalo. “They placed shaving cream bombs in some of the cabins so the new kids would open them.”

“Our cabin is a mess!” an Ares kid interrupted. “It’ll take all day to clean it up.”

“Jason and I were going to teach the Stolls a lesson,” I said, walking over to stand in front of Chiron.

“You mean you were going to get them back?” Chiron corrected, a hint of a smile forming at the corners of his lips.

“Well…yeah. We were going to get them back with Leo’s help.” I waved a hand at Leo, who was still sitting on his balloon tank. He grinned big and fist-pumped the air. “Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind their pranks, but they almost ruined Annabeth’s work and there was a little kid crying…and…and…it just…made me upset. Before I knew it, the whole camp joined in on it and things sort of got out-of-hand. Believe me, I never meant for any of this to happen.” I gestured around me.

Chiron simply nodded. “So where are the Stolls now?”

“Uh…I’m not sure,” I answered, scratching the back of my neck and glancing around at the other campers. “They disappeared when the battle started.”

“Travis threw some firecrackers into the brazier and everything turned crazy after that,” Jason said with an annoyed sigh. He brushed some dirt off his shirt.

“You want me to find them?” Coach Hedge asked excitedly. I noticed that his fingers tightened around his bat. “Just say the word, Chiron, and I’ll go find them and bring them back here.”

“Alive?” said Chiron, raising an eyebrow.

Hedge shrugged. “If you want.”

“That won’t be necessary, Hedge, thank you.”

“Hey! They’re over there! Behind that column,” Shane shouted.

Sure enough, the Stolls had been hiding behind one of the stone columns of the pavilion all that time. Both brothers stumbled over each other as they tried to get away, running as fast as they could toward the lake.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got them,” said Leo. He swung the cannon part of his tank around to aim at the retreating pranksters. Pressing a button, he fired a stream of water balloons and hit both Stolls on the first try, knocking them down on the ground. Chiron quickly galloped over to them, grabbed them by the arms, and pulled them to their feet. He dragged them back to the pavilion where he held them in their places for all of us to see.

“I’m not against everyone having fun, but what you two did to the other campers’ cabins is inexcusable,” Chiron said, turning his gaze to the Stolls as he spoke. “Since you were the ones responsible for starting all of this, you will help the other campers in cleaning up the cabins.”

The Stolls grumbled and groaned simultaneously.

“Do we have to?” Connor whined.

“Yes,” Chiron curtly replied. “And you will also help replace anything you might have damaged with your little prank.”

Another groan escaped the brothers.

“Now, let’s all get cleaned up and get ready for breakfast,” said Chiron, ushering everyone out of the pavilion. “Then we can address the cabin issue further.”

Leo wore a huge grin as he watched the Stolls slump their shoulders and make their way back to their cabin along with their brothers and sisters. He then turned to me and Jason.

“So what do you think of this baby?” He patted his tank.

“It’s…uh…different.” Jason studied the machine.

“I think it’s cool. A bit odd, but cool,” I answered. “At least it succeeded in beating the Hermes cabin’s pathetic catapult.”

We laughed.

“Does it shoot other things besides water balloons?” Jason asked.

“No.” Leo straightened up in his seat. “I built it to make and shoot water balloons only. Not sure why. The idea just hit me and I had to make it. I figured it would come in handy someday.”

“And it did.” I grinned. “Hey, we make a pretty good team.”

“I know, right?” Leo laughed, giving me a high-five. “We definitely need to do this again sometime. Who knows? We might be able to use this during a monster attack.”

“Seriously?” said Jason. “What monster is going to run away at seeing a water balloon tank?”

“It could happen,” said Leo. “At least it’ll be a good thing to cause a little bit of chaos and diversions.”

“See?” I turned to Jason. “Chaos, diversions—Leo’s right, it would be good for that.”

Jason shrugged and nodded. “True.”

“If you want, I can make sure the Stolls help you clean your cabins.” Leo grinned.

“No,” said Jason. “I think we’ve had enough excitement around here for one day.”

“Alright, if you say so,” Leo said, shrugging

“We’ll keep your offer in mind, Leo,” I said, starting toward the cabins. “Right now, let’s all do what Chiron suggested. Go clean up and eat breakfast. I’m starved.”

-End