The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

two

CLARISSE IS BEING PETTY

After breakfast, Annabeth, Ariana and Percy walked down to inspect the cabins. Actually, it was Annabeth's turn for inspection.

Percy's morning chore was to sort through reports for Chiron and Ariana had been excused from hers.

But they decided to do them together so it wouldn't be so heinous.

They started at the Poseidon cabin, which was basically just Percy. He'd made his bunk bed that morning (well, sort of) and straightened the Minotaur horn on the wall, so he gave himself a four out of five.

Annabeth made a face. "You're being generous." She used the end of her pencil to pick up an old pair of running shorts.

He snatched them away. "Hey, give me a break. I don't have Tyson cleaning up after me this summer."

"Three out of five," Annabeth said.

Percy knew better than to argue, so they moved along.

Percy tried to skim through Chiron's stack of reports as they walked. There were messages from demigods, nature spirits, and satyrs all around the country, writing about the latest monster activity.

They were pretty depressing, and her ADHD brain did not like concentrating on depressing stuff.

Little battles were raging everywhere. Camp recruitment was down to zero. Satyrs were having trouble finding new demigods and bringing them to Half-Blood Hill because so many monsters were roaming the country.

Their friend Thalia, who led the Hunters of Artemis, hadn't been heard from in months, and if Artemis knew what had happened to them, she wasn't sharing information.

They visited the Aphrodite cabin, which of course got a five out of five. The beds were perfectly made.

The clothes in everyone's footlockers were color coordinated. Fresh flowers bloomed on the windowsills.

Percy wanted to dock a point because the whole place reeked of designer perfume, but Annabeth ignored him.

"Great job as usual, Silena." Annabeth said.

Silena nodded listlessly. The wall behind her bed was decorated with pictures of Beckendorf.

She sat on her bunk with a box of chocolates on her lap, and she remembered that her dad owned a chocolate store in the Village, which was how he'd caught the attention of Aphrodite.

Ariana had spent the night with Silena, although they didn't speak she was happy to sit with her just for company.

"You want a bonbon?" Silena asked. "My dad sent them. He thought he thought they might cheer
me up."

"Are they any good?" Percy asked.

She shook her head. "They taste like cardboard."

Percy didn't have anything against cardboard, so he tried one. Annabeth and Ariana passed. They promised to see Silena later and kept going.

As they crossed the commons area, a fight broke out between the Ares and Apollo cabins. Some Apollo campers armed with firebombs flew over the Ares cabin in a chariot pulled by two pegasi.

She had never seen the chariot before, but it looked like a pretty sweet ride. Soon, the roof of the Ares cabin was burning, and naiads from the canoe lake rushed over to blow water on it.

Then the Ares campers called down a curse, and all the Apollo kids' arrows turned to rubber. The Apollo kids kept shooting at the Ares kids, but the arrows bounced off.