Everybody loves jello!

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It's only as I sprint faster than a group of Ares guys running around campus in training gear do I finally realize I'm running without a single purpose.

As I come to a stop to take in a couple deep breaths, I realize two things.
The most important, is that prophecies have a strong tendency to come true.
Sometimes the prophecies can get confused or looked at differently than they should, but mostly they're pretty accurate.

The second thing I realized, is I really don't like running..


Sighing, I walk over to sit myself underneath a giant oak tree.
Funny enough,I found myself hating the tree I was leaning against.

Not because I wasn't uncomfortable....But because the large oak tree reminded me of trees in general.
Pine trees brought my thoughts to Thalia....And when thinking about her, I'm brought back to Luke being apart of Apollo's prophecy.

Taking in a deep breath, I think back on Apollo's words.
Luke Castellans child is apart of the prophecy to save the sun...


 Meanwhile, my prophecy said a child of lightning is apart of helping save the sun......Since Thalia hasn't paid attention to ANY guys other than Luke, her child has to be Luke's.
The prophecy is talking about their kid.

"Stupid evil prophecies." I growl, shaking my head in dismay.


"Well hello to you too, my little relative." A familiar voice greets cheerily.

Turning to my right, I find Darryl walking with his guitar strapped to him. His glossy dark hair is messy in a I-just-woke-up kinda style, with his dark eyes highlighted with black eyeliner.


"Hi, Darryl." I mutter in response.


He snorts.
"Well that doesn't even sound like you mean it."



As I look at Darryl, I remember a couple months ago where he gave me the impression he could be the one who possibly stole Cupids golden bow...
Is it possible....
Could I be right, and the golden bow thief is right in front of me?


It's impossible to tell. He doesn't seem to have any ugly vendetta's against the Olympians....But then again, Luke didn't exactly wear a bright neon shirt exclaiming Death to Olympus!


 "Just having a bad day." I reply dryly.



"Yikes...Love trouble, huh?"


As my eyes flicker to him, he looks sympathetic.
"Even though I'm Apollo's son, I still have some Cupid abilities inherited from my mother. Right now, you're drowning in the scent of romantic turmoil."


I sigh, standing up to fix my hair that a sudden gust of wind has caused to fall into my eyes.
"Yeah...It's nothing.."


Out of nowhere, my brother Ej suddenly comes up to us brandishing a very large cooler.
"GUYS! Are you not psyched for the BIGGEST party of the whole school year?!" He yells,  throwing a fist bump for Darryl.

Darryl smirks, returning the hit. "Well, I am. Carys here seems a little down in the dumps."


Ej frowns.
"Ah...That's right..You were dating Luke Castellan for a while...There was a lot of drama behind that." He nods sympathetically.

"You have know no idea." I mutter, still trying to wrap my head around the stupid prophecies.

Darryl proceeds to pull out a cell phone to start texting someone, while Ej throws an arm around my shoulder.
"Well, being your big brother I'm not gonna let you skip this party. Everyone will be there. Demigods, satyrs....Hell, even the monsters are making an appearance. Gods and Goddesses who enjoy a good party are even coming!"

I grimace.
Great...I'll be able to see everyone I don't really care to see.
My luck, Luke and Thalia will both be there gushing over each other, and Apollo will be floating around the area to remind me of his stupid prophecy.

Seeing him, I'll just be right back to being miserable thinking about how Luke and Thalia are going to have a magical baby that'll save the Earth from ending.

Yeah, that's just what I need.
Not..

"Yeah, no..." I shake my head.
"I don't want to see a few people, I think I'm just gonna call it a night.."

This was apparently the wrong thing to say, for Ej and Darryl stare at me as if I suddenly declared I wanted to become a leprechaun.

"You can't NOT come!!" Ej protests, as Darryl shakes his head.

"He's right. This is the biggest party of the whole damn school year." Darryl nods.


"Uh...It's not even spring break or the end of the year...Why would it be the biggest?" I ask, feeling confused.

Ej shrugs while Darryl sighs.
"We don't make the rules, we just read the fliers."

As my eyebrows narrow in confusion, Ej pulls a folded piece of paper out of his pocket to hand it to me.

A black piece of paper with bright neon writing reads:

Biggest party of the school year!!!
Music dancing, crazy individuals...
TONIGHT IN THE COURTYARD, EVERYONE, EVERY MONSTER IS INVITED!!!!!!!!

Rules are, there are NO rules!!!!!!!!!!



"Uh...What dorm is this party hosted by?" I ask, not being able to find any additional information.

The last party I went to, there was an added description explaining who the party was hosted by.
But even as I flip the black page over, there's nothing else written on it.

"Dunno." Darryl shrugs.
"These fliers have been posted everywhere since this morning...Since the entire campus is talking about it..."

"It's gonna be BIG!" Ej grins, finishing his sentence.

"Does Godlike university usually hold a giant party like this?"
It seems too strange.
Everyone always makes such a big deal about demigods and monsters being separated so no fighting occurs........So if there's an annual party where everyone's together, how come I've never heard of it?

"Hell no!" Darryl shakes his head. "This is a definite first for everyone. I've never seen so many people hyped for a single event around here."

After a pinging on his phone indicating a new text, Darryl sighs.
"That's my band. First act is in twenty...Later!"

With that, he takes off.



"His guy-liner is kinda cool in a weird way." Ej muses, as we watch Darryl hurry across campus.


"Yeah.....Well, I'll see you later." I respond casually, beginning to walk away.

"Oh no you don't!" Ej corrects, hurrying in front of me.

"Carys...It's the biggest party of the year. Everyone's gonna be there!" He exclaims, as if saying it yet again is going to make me reconsider.

I sigh.
"There's just too many people I don't really want to run into."

Too many, meaning three people.
 Luke, Thalia, and Apollo...

Ej waves my protest off.
"C'mon....Aimee will be there, Clover......Your friends from Half-blood. You can't not come. Then you'll just be sitting alone in your dorm....Ya know, since you blew us cool Cupid kids off to live out in a dead mans lair."

Before I have a second to retort to his comment of the Hades dorm, Ej tosses me a wink.
"C'mon....It'll be fuuuuun!"


"Yeah Carys, were in for a great time!" A new voice exclaims enthusiastically.

I blink a few times to register Grover suddenly being here.
I hadn't even noticed when he walked up!

"No way!" I gush, accepting a hug from him.
"You're going tonight!?"

Grover nods. "Of course...Got an Iris message from Percy this morning. Gives me an excuse to visit my dad as well."  He grins.


From Grover bringing up his dad, I just now remember I accidentally hit Mr. Underwood instead of Thalia earlier today with my anti-Luke arrow.
I wonder if that's going to possibly come back to bite me...

"Well that's awesome." I smile.

Grover frowns. "What do you mean you're not comin'? Tyson's coming, too!"

My eyes grow wide.
"Seriously, Tyson is..."

"CARYS!" A jubilant voice exclaims before I"m lifted into a mighty bear hug.

I knew it was Tyson the very second I was lifted into the air.
I'm not sure if it was from how hard his hug was, or if it was that I could recognize the child-like excitement in his voice.
Either way, I knew it was him before I even saw him.

"Tyson?!" I giggle, as he drops me.
Grinning, I return his hug, but not nearly with the same amount of power he had previously shown.

I double-take between him and Grover for an explanation.
"No way! You're actually going tonight!? Aren't you some big time cyclops general now?!"

Tyson spares me a goofy grin.
"Yep, yep! But I have time to see my friends and my siblings!"

As if on cue, Tyson's head whips around as he spots a passing mermaid as she's walking in her human form.
"HI SISTER!" He bellows, causing the woman to frown and then  pick up the pace of her walk.

The mermaid throws one last fearful glance behind her to watch Tyson jump up and down waving, before she scurries off.
Tyson's furious waving is now causing people to stare at us curiously.



"I'LL TALK TO YOU LATER!" He shouts at the woman excitedly, making Grover to chuckle.

"Good Gods, I've missed you guys." I remark, not being able to help myself by releasing a genuine laugh.
I've been so miserable lately, who knew laughter could feel so good!


"So you're both going to this party?" I ask, wondering if I should reconsider my decision to go back to the Hades dorm and sulk.
I even have the movie He's just not that into you taped and ready to watch.
I think I may even have a massive amount of leftover double cheddar popcorn, too...

After Ej shakes hands with Grover and Tyson, he looks to me expectantly.
"Well that settles it. If you're friends are going, you gotta come."

"Why wouldn't Carys come?!" Tyson pouts.

Grover winces.
"It's because she was dating Luke who was pretending to be someone else, and now that he's out and actually Luke everything turned awkward so now she doesn't feel she can spend time with anyone who knows Luke anymore........Am-I-right?" He asks coyly, cocking an eyebrow.

I stare at him. "Wh...How..You're not even here! How would you know this?"

Grover shrugs. "My man Percy. He mentioned through Iris message the other day that he hasn't seen you around. When I asked why..." He trails off nodding. "He sort of explained everything I've been missing."


I wince.
"Are you mad at me too that I didn't tell anyone he was Luke?"
I forget that I brought along Luke to my aunt and uncles house, and Grover had met him while he was "Asclepious."
Thinking back on Annabeth's anger, and Thalia attacking me, I couldn't really judge if Grover was ticked off at me as well.

But to my surprise, Grover shakes his head.
"No. You had your reasons, and I can respect that......Plus, it's not like I haven't told my share of lies in the past...Heck, I watch over demigod children in schools without telling them my actual identity all the time."

I nod, understanding this.
"Thanks Grover." I reply quietly.

"Caaaaryyys and Luke sittin in a treeeee..." Tyson begins, before chuckling.
"He used to be a bully, but Percy told me he's really nice nowadays." Tyson exclaims, clapping his hands together.


As he glances around and notices Ej slapping his head while Grover grimaces, he stops singing.
"What'd I say?"


"We broke up." I say quietly, the memory of why I was miserable earlier today coming back to me.

Grover picks up on my defeated expression, because he throws an arm around my shoulder. "Well, all the more reason to party like you're single and ready to mingle." He grins.

"Yeahhhh...It's going to be a blast! There's going to be snacks, and siblings, lots of my siblings, and candy...and....IS THAT TRITON!?" He shouts excitedly, pointing far away from us.

Before we have the chance to answer him, Tyson's taken off to greet Triton in the distance.

"That was.....Yeah." Ej frowns, while Grover chuckles.

"You get used to him man." Grover starts leading me to the directions of where everyone is gathering in front of the massive set-up stage in the center of the courtyard.

It seems everyone truly was attending.
Even older demigods who had small children were attending. I notice as a couple hand off their kid to a nymph to babysit, they grab a large cooler similar to what Ej's carrying.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


An hour into the party, I figured out what the vast majority of coolers were holding.
Alcohol.

Different colors, different brands, but alcohol nonetheless.

None of the fruity liquors or strong ales caught my interest.
Mostly, because I couldn't help but notice that people became much louder the more they drank. Louder, and a bit more clumsy with their movements.

Especially Mr. D's kids.
After watching three brothers hit back a bottle of wine apiece, I feel more than certain none of them are going to remember anything about tonight  tomorrow morning.

As the sun started to set and the music grew louder, more and more people began to show up.
Once I spotted Luke and Thalia grabbing a cup of punch, I tried fluttering around the place so I could constantly have someone new to talk to keep my mind off of them.

When I finally found Percy and Annabeth, I found Percy laughing maniaclly while Annabeth sighed beside him.
When Annabeth spots me, she waves me over.

"Could you charm-touch him for me?" She yells, trying to be heard over both the noise of the crowd and the band playing onstage.

"Why?" I ask, scrutinizing Percy.

Other than his strange laughing and his ridiculous attempt to dance, he didn't seem to be bothering anyone.

"What was that?!" Annabeth yells as the music grows louder.

"WHY?" I shout, causing Annabeth to nod in understanding.

"Sea-weed brain had a small competition with Jason on who could toss back the most shots. Guess who won?!"

"PERCY JACKSON!" Percy crows, spinning Annabeth in a twirl before planting a kiss on her surprised mouth.

"He could be worse." I laugh, causing Annabeth to grin.


Finally, the blaring rock song of Darryl's band comes to an end, giving everyone the ability to hear again.

"On second thought, never mind...I kind of like a drunk Percy." Ananbeth grins mischievously, as Percy starts trying to grab her again for a kiss.


"Hey Carys! How are you doing?" A familiar voice asks from beside me.

As Annabeth's eyes grow wide, I turn to find the God of the sun himself standing beside me.

I frown.
It's not that I don't like Apollo for the short time I've known him,  but the very last thing I want is to remember the guy I love is apart of Apollo's prophecy where his magical baby with Thalia saves the sun.

"What do you want?" I ask dryly, causing Annabeth's mouth to drop open.

She's probably wondering why I'm dumb enough to be disrespectful to a God.
Apollo however, is indifferent to my attitude.

"You took off so quickly when we were chatting, I assumed you must have something further regarding my prophecy." He shrugs.

I notice Annabeth stares at us both questioningly, before Percy takes off away from her.

"Oh no...Not again." She sighs, taking off after him.
As Percy runs toward a group of teachers who have come to the party, I see one of them is holding a pen in hand...

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH RIPTIDE!?!" Percy bellows, running towards them before he trips and lands in a sprawl on the grass.

It takes great restraint not to burst into a fit of giggles.
Apollo, shakes his head in wonder.
"Some people can't hold their liquor."

I sigh. "No, I didn't have anything about your prophecy, I was just taken by surprise that..."

"Hello, Lord Apollo." Thalia's voice greets from behind us.

Whirling around, I find Thalia giving Apollo a friendly wave, with Luke in tow.

He looks handsome in the dim twilight.
Enough that I feel the familiar ache in me from missing him. He's dressed in jeans, with his familiar green jacket covering his blue shirt. His sandy-blonde hair is messy, and he has a five-o-clock shadow going on.
The guy is too attractive for his own good...

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