𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖 ༄ ᴘercy ᴊᴀᴄᴋꜱᴏɴ

kai and i stalk a ping pong table

Their meeting room, it turns out, was around a ping pong table in a rec room. Not very impressive, and I was expecting much more. But who was I to judge? Maybe this was how they liked it.

Me and Kai were crouching outside a window, peeking in. I knew he wanted to tell me stuff, maybe bring me back down to earth but I wouldn't let him try.

Mr. D and Chiron (in wheelchair form) sat at one end of the table. Zoë and Bianca di Angelo (who had kind of become Zoë's personal assistant) took the other end.

Thalia, Lee, Grover and Percy sat along the right, and the other head councilors - Beckendorf, Silena, and the Stoll brothers - sat on the left. The Ares kids were supposed to have a representative, too, but all of them had broken some bone or another during capture the flag, courtesy of the Hunters. They were in the infirmary.

Zoë started the meeting off. "This is pointless."

"Cheez Whiz!" Grover gasped. He began scooping up crackers and Ping-Pong balls and spraying them with topping. Kai snorted quietly beside me.

"There is no time for talk," Zoë continued, as if Grover wasn't even there. "Our goddess needs us. The Hunters must leave immediately."

"And go where?" Chiron asked.

"West!" Bianca said. I took a moment to admire how different she looked after just a few days with the Hunters. Her dark hair was braided like Zoë's now, so you could actually see her face. She had a splash of freckles across her nose, and her dark eyes seemed to shine. She looked like she'd been working out too, and her skin glowed faintly, like the other Hunters, as if she'd been taking showers in liquid moonlight. Suddenly, the hunters seemed a much better prospect. Artemis never told me that you'd get a free glow up.

"You heard the prophecy. Six shall go west to the goddess in chains. We can get six hunters and go."

"Yes," Zoë agreed. "Artemis is being held hostage! We must find her and free her."

"You're missing something, as usual," Thalia said. "Campers and Hunters combined prevail. We're supposed to do this together."

"No!" Zoë said. "The Hunters do not need thy help."

"Your" Thalia grumbled. "Nobody has said thy in, like, three hundred years, Zoe. Get with the times."

Zoë hesitated, like she was trying to form the word correctly. " Yerrr. We do not need yerrr help."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Forget it."

"I fear the prophecy says you do need our help," Chiron said. "Campers and Hunters must cooperate."

"Or do they?" Mr. D mused, swirling his Diet Coke under his nose like it had a fine bouquet. "One shall be lost. One shall perish. One has enemies. That sounds rather nasty, doesn't it? What if you fail because you try to cooperate?"

"Mr. D," Chiron sighed, "with all due respect, whose side are you on?"

Dionysus raised his eyebrows. "Sorry, my dear centaur. Just trying to be helpful."

"We're supposed to work together," Thalia said stubbornly. "I don't like it either, Zoë, but you know prophecies. You want to fight against one?"

Zoë grimaced, but anyone could tell Thalia had scored a point.

"We must not delay," Chiron warned. "Today is Sunday. This very Friday, December twenty-first, is the winter solstice."

"Oh, joy," Dionysus muttered. "Another dull annual meeting."

"Artemis must be present at the solstice," Zoë said. "She has been one of the most vocal on the council arguing for action against Kronos's minions. If she is absent, the gods will decide nothing. We will lose another year of war preparations."