{1} Princess - P. Jackson 🔱

"Did she-? Alright, bring back the dragon."

🌊

After dinner, all the campers were hanging out at the dining pavilion. We were all excited because that evening Capture the Flag was going to be totally vicious.

The night before, Hephaestus's cabin had pulled off a huge upset. They'd captured the flag from Ares—with my help, thank you very much—which meant that the Ares cabin would be out for blood. Well... they're always out for blood, but this night especially.

On the blue team were Hephaestus's cabin, Apollo, Hermes, and me—the only demigod in Poseidon's cabin. The bad news was that for once, Athena and Ares—both war god cabins—were against us on the red team, along with Aphrodite, Dionysus, and Demeter. Athena's cabin held the other flag, and my friend Annabeth was their captain.

Annabeth is not somebody you want as an enemy. She gets this crazy as fuck strategies that it takes me a while to understand, but teaming up with Maria and Gabriel was low.

I was on my own against my friends, I have to win.

Right before the game, Maria strolled up to me. "Hey, Waterboy."

"Your variation of nicknames has gone low this summer, Princess."

"And yours has never changed for years, Kelp head." She smiled teasing me. "But have you seen me complaining?"

"It's because we know you love it," Her smile fell and she narrowed her eyes at me. I smirked seeing her reaction.

"Yeah, just like you love to be called Perseus." She bumped me with her shoulder, she was wearing full Greek armor, so it kind of hurt. Her brown eyes sparkled under her helmet. Her blond ponytail curled around one shoulder. It was hard for anyone to look cute in combat armor, but Maria pulled it off. She always pulled it off.

"Tell you what." She lowered her voice. "We're going to crush you tonight, but if you pick a safe position... like right flank, for instance... I'll make sure you don't get pulverized too much. Annabeth is going hard this time."

"Gee, thanks," I said, "but I'm playing to win."

She smiled. "If that's what you want. See you on the battlefield."

She jogged back to her teammates, who all laughed and gave her high fives. I'd never seen her so happy. She had been enjoying camp like I'd never seen before, even talking to the Ares kids she was.

But I'm not complaining, the smile that she shows, like the chance to beat me up was the best thing that had ever happened to her, makes things more interesting.

Beckendorf walked up with his helmet under his arm. "She likes you, man."

"Sure," I muttered. "She likes me for target practice. She literally used me as a training doll the other day to train her mist."

"And you accepted," Beckendorf mumbled but I only glared at him. "Look, they always do that. A girl starts trying to kill you, you know she's into you."

"Makes a lot of sense."

Beckendorf shrugged. "I know about these things. You ought to ask her to the fireworks."

I couldn't tell if he was serious. Beckendorf was lead counselor for Hephaestus. He was this huge dude with a permanent scowl, muscles like a pro ballplayer, and hands calloused from working in the forges. He'd just turned eighteen and was on his way to NYU in the fall. Since he was older, I usually listened to him about stuff, but the idea of asking Maria to the Fourth of July fireworks down at the beach—like, the biggest dating event of the summer—made my stomach do somersaults.

Then Silena Beauregard, the head counselor for Aphrodite, passed by. Beckendorf had had a not-so-secret crush on her for three years. She had long black hair and big brown eyes, and when she walked, the guys tended to watch. She said, "Good luck, Charlie." (Nobody ever calls Beckendorf by his first name.) She flashed him a brilliant smile and went to join Maria on the red team.