[3] 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐒 ― p.jackson, l.valdez

001.

「001. off to a great start」

NOBODY HAD been blown up yet. so suffice to say, valentino garcia (or val, as most people called him- unless you were annabeth. she had a strict 'nobody calls you tino but me' sort of thing) was pretty sure he was doing an okay job at being cabin councillor. in all honesty- it was downright stressful. dude didn't even get to paint his nails anymore! they just got chipped and it was a pain in the ass to repaint them. when he says he was doing an 'okay' job- he might be... overstretching a bit? sure- nobody had died. but he was pretty sure he'd gone deaf in his left ear due to nessa. the young girl had a set of lungs on her that she knew how to use. and seemed only to respond to excessive hugs and singing the song 'here comes the sun' to sleep.

on the other side of the crazy spectrum of being a cabin councillor, there was also drew. man had she mellowed out. after revealing to most of camp that she was dating nyssa, she was a lot better to be around. sure, she was still a class a bitch sometimes (although val would never expect less. aphrodite kids could be the pettiest assholes when they wanted to be), she was nice. and of course- she still judged peoples outfits, but val likes to think that was her thing. but she was a great help. she managed to get nessa to bed, and she and val sort of juggled between jobs together.

on the other other side of the crazy and slightly gruesome spectrum of being a cabin councillor, there was also the war council. with the imminent news that the romans (who val was pretty sure were meant to be on their side) coming closer and closer to camp, their tactic being to surround them from all sides and starve them out (well at least they could live on strawberries), camp half-blood once again prepared to war.

war. no offence, but he didn't like it. the ares cabin seemed spritely though- so perhaps that was an upside. clarrisse hadn't stopped grinning, and practically frolicked around- which val didn't know whether to classify as disturbing or humorous to watch. but war meant other terrible and bad things. potential deaths, the whole bad deal.

and the apollo cabin wasn't having fun either. will solace, a good friend of val's, was shouting up and down camp with the biggest scowl val had seen on his face since the whole kronos situation. he cussed out the 'egotistical chicken pontifex' for being a 'dickwad of a fucking prick' and laying seige to their camp. val didn't necessarily disagree with him, but wow was will solace mad.

and of course- things only got... well, sort of worse when he got an iris message from cherry adams.

"archery first," drew said casually the morning of the fateful iris message, "should i tell everybody to get ready? it's almost time for everybody to be awake."

"please," val said tiredly, yawning as he grabbed colourful pink t-shirt and jeans, stumbling to the bathroom, "tell them to wear the usual for archery? and please try not insulting them if it clashes."

"i can't promise the last thing," drew said, brushing her hair carefully before applying her usual pink eyeliner, "but i'll make sure they get dressed. now get your ass cleaned up- you look like you got run over."

"oh thanks," grumbled val as he shut the door to the bathroom. it didn't take him long to freshen up. quickly combing his hair and washing his face (perhaps he was using the good stuff barbie used. she'd never know) before getting dressed. the pink shirt (courtesy of barbie once more) was dotted with strawberries (she seemed to have a thing for them) and his jeans were the same as usual. grabbing his pink sneakers, he shoved them on and stepped out to find his siblings bustling around.