{1} Princess - P. Jackson 🔱

"Wanna sprite?"

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The next day I was bombarded with questions from the little ones about what we were going to do, and what was actually happening. Being the big sister I was, my answers were always something like; "Look is that Connor asking for a lip balm?" Or "I think Julia from Apollo cabin was trying to find the perfect girl boss playlist, go help her."

I didn't know what to tell them, but after a while they gave up and we went on with our activities.

Seated on a circle on the ground, Travis and Connor Stoll—who kept twirling a chapstick in between his fingers—were in their duty of border patrol in the night. It was approaching three in the morning and the head counselors were planning new strategies on how to increase our strength.

"The kids are feeling scared," I said. "Jessica keeps asking me if we'll be alright."

"We need to increase our training, I didn't want to get to this point, but even some of the kids will need to help." Annabeth said, hitting her pen on the notebook she had resting on her lap.

"I don't think it's a good idea, maybe we should let them safe somewhere..." Katie Gardner said, playing with the flower in front of her.

"We need everyone we can take," Travis sighed. "We are outnumbered, maybe we could take the eleven years old and up to help and leave the youngest."

"Let's train them all and see how things go." Gabriel rested his head on Annabeth's shoulder. "Increase the sword fight, maybe two hours a day instead of one. Archery could increase too, two cabins at once." He yawned.

"Apollo's cabin can try to teach some techniques while Chiron helps with others." Michael said and we nodded, Annabeth writing down on the notebook.

Connor passed around cans of sprite, each one of us opening and drinking some to keep awake. "Clarisse is still not changing her mind..." He tapped the tip of his finger on the can. "Do you think she could be the spy? Maybe she's using the chariot as an excuse to not get involved with the war..."

"It could... it could make sense but," Jake passed a hand through his face. "I don't think Clarisse would do that. She brought the fleece to save Thalia's tree, she got into the labyrinth trying to find a way to stop Luke—"

"Kronos," Annabeth shifted uncomfortably.

"Right." Jake nodded slowly. "And if she wanted information to pass to them, she would be here."

"I'm not very close when it comes to friendship but I trust Clarisse to not be the spy... it's just, it doesn't make sense in my mind who it would be." I said, hugging my legs as I took another sip of sprite.

"I don't know... I think everyone here wants to protect the camp. It's our home, our safe place." Annabeth said, sighing softly. We all stayed silent for a while, drinking our soda and enjoying the sound of the forest.

"Does anyone know where Percy is?" Gabriel mumbled, twisting his empty can on the ground.

"Probably enjoying his vacation with his little girlfriend." I mumbled to myself while the rest said no. Connor pushed me lightly, raising an eyebrow playfully but I only pouted.

I was angry and sad about what he said to me yesterday. His words stuck into my heart like a knife, and the way he threw at my face that I left hurt more than anything. Percy knew I didn't want to leave but he still used it against me.

"It's best if we start to wake up early to train." Annabeth tapped her pen against the notebook once again. Travis and Connor started to whine, saying that waking up before eight a.m. for breakfast was bad enough, imagine having to wake up before seven a.m.

"You should use that hate on the climbing wall." Katie said, being pushed lightly by Travis.

"I think we should also put everyone that has powers to train. Get used to using them a lot so it won't be that draining." Michael pointed with his chin to Katie's flower.

"Yeah, you're right." I nodded. "It's exhausting using your powers when you're used to it, imagine when you're not."

"More weapons should be made, have a good stock to make sure we're not out of it for a while, you know..." Connor itched his head and we agreed, turning to face Jake and see his opinion.

"Jake?" Gabriel sat up, poking the boy's arm. Jake was seated with his arms crossed resting on his knees, his head buried between his arms. "He fell asleep."

"I think we should go... get a good rest of the night and get into work tomorrow." Katie stood up, cleaning the back of her jeans.

With Katie's arm hanging around my shoulders while I hug her waist, we walked back to the cabins yawing and laughing at Michael almost falling after tripping and cursing the tree.

The next morning we started to divide everyone, the cabins mixing up and learning new ways of combat, training until they couldn't stand anymore. The Hephaestus cabin was divided into making new weapons or equipment and training. The Apollo cabin helped with archery and gave classes on how to take care of a wound while the Athena cabin was building strategies with many possibilities of what could happen.

I was in the middle of explaining how Mitchell could take advantage of his good hearing while fighting when Will Solace entered the training room out of breath.

"Percy called," I didn't know what to expect from that, but everyone in the room tensed fearing the worst. "It's time."

Dum dum duuummm