𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑, l. castellan 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴!

𝐢𝐯. capture the flag

"Take your pick." Said the boy who had been accompanying Elena for quite some time.

It was her fourth or fifth day at camp now. And the new boy she met in cabin 11 was one of the only friends she had made thus far. She was only a little embarrassed considering her brother was practically already on a first name basis with everyone at camp. But El was sorta shy at first, it took her a while to break out of her shell.

And now, here she was, standing next to Luke Castellan in front of a plethora of swords in the middle of the practice field.

"This one." Elena confidently picked up the first sword she saw and pretended like it wasn't extremely heavy.

She lifted it over her shoulder and gave Luke a 'no big deal' kind of look. He smiled.

"Ok maybe not that one." The boy stated.

"Why not?" She grew defensive over the sword she had held for a total of 25 seconds.

"Just trust me, if it's too heavy, your center of gravity will be off, balance is important." Luke explained in the least patronizing way possible.

Yet, Elena still found it so. "And how exactly, did you become the sword master?"

Luke chuckled. "I didn't,"

"Hmm," Elena stuck out her bottom lip. "Interesting."

"Do you want the lesson or not?" Luke tested the girl playfully.

"Yeah, yeah, alright." She grabbed hold of the sword Luke picked for her.

"You're gonna need it before capture the flag." He added quickly.

"Capture the what?" Elena blinked hard.

Luke, Elena, and Percy were walking together around the training fields, watching the campers practice drills for capture the flag.

"You're gonna love this. Camp-wide mock warfare. All glory to the victors." Luke told the kid. "Elena and Annabeth are head counselors of the Athena cabin."

"And we've lead the team to three straight wins." Elena held up all fingers but her thumb and pointer in-front of Percy's face.

"Even if you did fall out of a tree your first games." The older boy teased his girlfriend.

"Irrelevant statement," she brushed it off." The point is, it's been a long time since anyone has one a fourth."

"She was there in the bathroom, Annabeth, I mean." Percy was fixated elsewhere. "She said she'd been waiting for it to happen."

Obviously, Elena had already heard about the incident in the bathroom. In fact, immediately after it happened. She very awkwardly ran into Annabeth while returning back to cabin six at around 3 am, and usually she would've scolded Annabeth for being out this late, but it was kinda her doing. Either way, it didn't matter, because once the two got inside, Annabeth relayed the entire story to her, exploding toilets and all.

"Annabeth sees the world differently, always six steps ahead of everyone else." Luke acknowledged the young girls bright mind. "You should give her a break."

"Whose side are you on anyways?" Percy asked.

"Oh, hers, always. She's my little sister." Luke said without thinking twice.

Percy made a confused face and looked at El who was now laughing from his puzzled state.

"Maybe I should back up." He sighed, realizing Percy didn't have the full context.