All's Fair In Love And War

I Hate People

"All contestants please meet in the foyer in an hour. This will be a formal occasion, so there is a dress code. Stylists will come in to help you each with your look." Venus' sickly sweet voice reverberated through the house.

All of us girls were on one floor in our giant room while the boys were one up from us. The band lived on the top floor.

I slammed two more solid punches into the sand-bag in front of me before heading up the stairs to the showers. I left it cold and wrapped myself in a towel when I was done.

"You're Reyna?" A girl asked when I walked into the room. She was the only one there, so I assumed that the other girls had left with their stylists and this was mine.

"Yeah."

"Alright, get dressed and then we can go begin."

I moved to my bunk, where there was a white shirt and a pair of white gym shorts. It was obvious my stylist was not going to give me some privacy, so I simply dropped the towel and ignored her while I got dressed.

"My name's Juniper, by the way." The girl said quietly as she led me through the halls and down a floor to a bunch of rooms that all looked identical. Inside one, I could hear Annabeth screeching about how blue suited her much better than red.

"Okay." Juniper stopped at the door to a room and reached out, opening it wide and motioning for me to go inside.

Glancing at her hands I could see the green veins that were characteristic of a nymph.

"Alright, sit in the chair for a moment please." Juniper said quietly, moving to a rack of clothing off to the side. As I inspected it, I realized that there were no pants on the rack.

"I have to wear a dress?" Sure I wore one every day on Circe's Island, but I never really enjoyed it.

"Yes. It's required." I scowled at her answer and prepared to retort that she was not getting me in a dress, no way in Pluto, but something caught my eye.

"Fine... I'll wear a dress..." I stood and grabbed a hanger off the rack. "But you have to work this into the outfit."

Juniper looked critically at the leather jacket. "I don't know if-"

"I can promise you now, if you turn this jacket down, you will never, NEVER get me into a dress."

She took the jacket from me. "I think I can work with that. Now please sit back down."

--------------------

"Done!" Juniper put her makeup brush down and let me stand. "Go check the mirror."

I walked up to the full length mirror in the corner and inspected my appearance. Juniper had curled my hair, trailing a waterfall braid down the side. My dark eyes popped slightly with the black eyeliner and dark brown eyeshadows that had been applied to my lids. I had to give the girl credit, she'd kept to natural colors and kept the design plain. Thankfully she hadn't brought up lipstick.

The one shoulder dress actually looked pretty good with the black leather jacket. It was purple, the underskirt ending at the bottoms of my thighs and the overskirt flowing down past my knees. I had argued Juniper out of a pair of heels and into some sensible flats.

Keeping with the leather, which exuded a bit of a dangerous aura, Juniper had raided the jewelry room and given me a necklace shaped like a black sword that she small silver sai earrings.

"Alright, head up to the foyer, Reyna. You're ready." I nodded to her and opened the door. Changing my mind suddenly, I turned to face her again.

"Hey, Juniper?" She had moved away, reorganizing the clothes rack.

"Yeah?"

I took a deep breath. "Thank you."

Juniper turned slowly. "I'm just doing my job..." She said quietly.

"Yeah. Thanks for that. You're pretty good at what you do." I said awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.

Juniper's face split into a wide grin and I realized somehow I'd gotten this right.

"Thank you, Reyna. Now, you should go before you're late."

I nodded and walked out of the room.

Annabeth slunk out of her dressing room as I passed, probably wanting to be the last there and make an impression. She sneered at my outfit, probably thinking she looked better.

In truth, her bright blue dress and overly tall heels looked gaudy. If you had put all her jewelry on a scale, it probably would have weighed more than she did. Even I could tell that her makeup was too thick, and her hair looked like it had been attacked with a straightening iron. She even had these fake, blue tipped eyelashes that were probably supposed to 'enhance the outfit,' but really just made me want to puke.

"Four minutes, contestants." Cupid warned over the intercom.

This should be fun.

Not.

[A/N the outfit is Reyna's obviously. Also obviously, her eyes are dark! I just liked the makeup on that one.]